THE BLUE WHISPER 驭鲛记

Chapter 84: Just Passing Through

        The ice underneath Aji cracked open.

        The sound pulled her back into reality.

        Danger! She should not stay here.

        Aji pushed her hands against the ice before it fully broke apart, stomped her feet and leapt into the air. She had to get out of this weird icy flat with its strange sleeping man. But before she went up far, the ice and snow around her formed a chain and wrapped onto her wrist. She knew just from the contact that three tails were not enough to deal with this person...   

        The chain tugged on her wrist and pulled her down.

        Aji had no room to struggle. She crashed hard onto the icy ground, stirring up a giant puff of powdered snow and creating a fog around them.

        The cold air and fine powder choked her and made her cough. She fell into the broken ice and they scraped against her skin, leaving numerous scratches.

        "Aji!" Ji Ning shouted in distress.

        Aji, however, did not bother responding to him. She slowly stood up in the snow and fog and eyed her surroundings...

        The layer of solid ice was now completely shattered, and the person underneath had disappeared. She cautiously looked around for any signs of him. He was very powerful... Just a most ordinary blow was enough to cause her this much damage, and she did not even get to see his face...

        The powdered snow in the air was slowly falling back down. A black shadow suddenly flashed on her right side. The moment she turned her gaze to look, several chains of ice jumped out from her left side. Aji flew into the air and dodged a couple of them, but the speed of the chains far exceeded her perception. Before she was even aware, a chain had wrapped around her waist.

        Aji was startled and tried to burn the chain with fox fire, but it was already too late.

        The chain pulled her straight out of the snowy fog and threw her against a frozen tree, then wrapped around her body multiple times like a snake.

        The force of the contact was so great that she felt a pain inside her chest and spat out a mouthful of blood. 

        Aji was now securely tied onto the tree, the sweat on her face almost turning into ice from the chilling wind.

        She watched the fog in front of her gradually dissipate. The black robe started to come into view, and Aji could now see where he was. She bit her lip and released a drop of blood, took a deep breath, and blew a giant black fireball at him. 

        The fox fire was extremely hot. It melted their surroundings, and turned the snow lingering in the air into rain. Like a spring shower in the middle of the bitter cold lands.

        The ice chain was also melted into water, and Aji fell to the ground. She clutched at her achy chest and looked up. With the sound of a waving sleeve, the fox fire was extinguished and a man with silver hair walked through the drizzle.

        The blue pupils of his eyes were as deep and clear as the sea, but they looked colder than the temperature around them.

        Aji forgot she had just fought with him.

        She stared at him. His features were now clearly displayed in front of her, and every step he took stirred up a wave of tsunami inside her mind. Countless images were pushed up then destroyed before she had a chance to make sense of them, leaving her with nothing to cling to...

        Who was he?

        No one needed to answer her. With trembling lips not at all under her control, she called out his name...

        "Chang... Changyi..."

        He paused.

        Changyi walked up and looked at her with some suspicion. She had been defeated and was now covered in blood.

        "Who are you?" he asked her.

        So arrogant and aloof.

        Aji closed her eyes, suppressed all the unexplainable emotions, and calmed her mind.

        Northlands, silver hair and blue eyes, powerful. The dark pattern on his black robe symbolized the prestige of his identity... The above features all pointed to the one high up in the sky...

        The venerable Lord of the North, the jiaoren, Changyi.

        Everyone knew his name, but no one called him that. People preferred to call him jiaoren. After all, he was the one and only world famous jiaoren in existence.

        Aji opened her eyes and felt like laughing. In the prison, the snake demon had joked about her killing the jiaoren and becoming lord herself. Now it was clear how crazy and far fetched that would be.

        Although she only used the power of three tails, this man only casually pinched out a chain from ice. Likely he did not use even ten percent of his power…

        "Shoot..." Aji mumbled to herself, "Fell head first into a coffin..." Then she smiled at Changyi. "Your Highness, my lord, I was just passing through. I didn't know you were napping here. So sorry for the disturbance..."

        She now only hoped that he did not know her, so he could treat her as a passerby and let her go... He had been sleeping here for a while, no one should have told him yet that four prisoners had escaped...

        The jiaoren narrowed his eyes and sized her up.

        Then they heard the sound of wings flapping in the air. Aji lifted her head and saw a snow eagle slowly descending, then transforming into a man. He knelt down before the jiaoren and bowed, "Your Highness, reporting from the dungeon, Lu Jinyan, the snake demon, the disciple of the Grand Master's house and the fox demon injured several guards and escaped."

        Aji opened her mouth, looked at the snow eagle demon, and sprouted a Lu Jinyan inside her heart. She cursed silently for a thousand times...

        The jiaoren glanced at her, then looked to the side.

        Ji Ning seemed to have been tied to a tree at the very start of their fight. He was a little worse off as his mouth had also been wrapped by chains, keeping him from making any sound...

        Oh... Aji suddenly understood. So when he called her earlier, it was not out of concern for her safety, but a cry for help…

        And now, the jiaoren's gaze was sweeping over Ji Ning's body. Although he was tied up and his clothes were dirty, a closer look could still distinguish that it was the Grand Master's uniform.

        The jiaoren's eyes landed back on Aji.

        His look announced both of their identities -- the fox demon and the disciple of the Grand Master's house.

        There was a brief moment of silence in the chilly air. Aji pushed aside her feelings of embarrassment and stubbornly persisted, "I was really just passing through..."

        She was indeed just passing through.

        The snow eagle demon who came to report the news finally looked at them and responded in surprise, "Huh…?"

        Aji lowered her head and sighed. No need to "huh"... It was them...

        "Take them back," the jiaoren coldly issued an order.

        The snow eagle demon immediately nodded, and at the end did not forget to kiss up a little, "Your Highness is mighty and wise."

        Aji did not know what more she could do except to sigh and resign herself to her fate.