The First Venerable of the Prosperous Age

Large beads of sweat rolled down the forehead of the strange man, his face flushed purple, and his rapid breathing, coming from the iron mask around his mouth, sounded even more magnetic.

Seeing how angry he was, Lu Xiaosan couldn't help but ask, "So, brother, you're not planning to forgive him?"

Upon hearing this, Guai Badao punched Pink Old Mountain beside him with a loud "boom". The powerful impact caused the surrounding water to ripple, but Pink Old Mountain remained motionless as if nothing had happened.

All I heard was the eccentric bastard huffing, "If I ever see him again, I'll beat that shameless bastard to a pulp!"

"What if you can't shake them off?" Lu Xiaosan asked with a smile.

"Then I'll make him spin three and a half times in one go!" the strange eight-knife roared.

As soon as he finished speaking, an excited voice came from outside the cell door: "Really...really? Big brother..."

Everyone was startled and hurriedly looked towards the prison gate, where they saw a fish-headed general in white armor and black cloak standing outside the prison.

At this moment, half of his face was hidden in the shadows, while the other half was bathed in light.

Upon seeing this, Lu Xiaosan's eyes widened suddenly, and he angrily exclaimed, "It's this guy! He ambushed me and got me killed!"

"Second brother!" Fen Laoshan called out.

Lu Xiaosan and Wen Ying were both stunned and speechless. "It's...it's him? He's Wolf Rhinoceros."

Then the shadow on the man's face faded, and sure enough, his left eye was closed; it was indeed the one-eyed wolf-rhinoceros.

"Big brother... was what you just said true?" the wolf rhinoceros asked in a trembling voice.

"Hmph, how could that be fake? If you dare let me run into you, I'll definitely beat you to a pulp!!" Strange Eight Blades shouted.

The wolf-rhinoceros lowered its head and stammered, "Brother, actually... I..."

Lu Xiaosan suddenly roared, "Hey! You shameless bastard! Why did you ambush me just now? If it weren't for you, I would have already...!!"

The wolf-rhinoceros then noticed him, looked at him and said, "It's you! They actually locked you all up here too!"

Lu Xiaosan stepped forward, pressing him for an answer: "Why did you attack me?"

The wolf-rhinoceros said calmly, "To prevent the many creatures at the bottom of the lake from being blasted to dust by Father, I'll have to trouble you for now..."

Lu Xiaosan gritted his teeth and roared, "Do you think I can't beat that stupid fish who calls himself an evil dragon?!"

The wolf-rhinoceros's cold, single eye glared at him, and a sense of oppressive power immediately spread out.

But his eyes quickly dimmed. He fell into deep thought again, his previous fierceness gone.

Lu Xiaosan, however, had no intention of indulging him. Holding his Buddhist prayer beads, he was about to go up and take away this so-called second brother, completely disregarding the sworn brotherhood they had just formed.

Wen Ying quickly pulled him back from behind, and deliberately smiled at the wolf rhinoceros, "Then, you made the water shields on our heads too, right? Thank you."

These words did indeed slow Lu Xiaosan down. In any case, this guy had indeed saved him and Wen Ying.

He was confident he could defeat the dragon, but he had no idea what the consequences would be.

In other words, many people may lose their lives because of his recklessness, including Wen Ying.

In this way, Lu Xiaosan's anger subsided considerably. He realized that a foolproof plan was indeed needed to deal with that evil dragon.

Lu Xiaosan then asked, "Hey, how's that stupid fish doing now?"

"You are not allowed to insult my father!" the wolf rhinoceros said angrily.

Lu Xiaosan was startled. "Oh right, that guy is his father."

“Ta Ye, that’s right, the giant fish we first met also mentioned that it was Ta Ye who held the Dragon Ceremony…” Wen Ying murmured.

Guai Ba Dao snorted and sneered, "To gather enough stones to build the dragon sculpture, they turned the once prosperous underwater city into ruins. And to obtain dragon scales, they plucked all the fish scales from the bodies of their own people. Who else but Ta Ye, the master of the East Lake Underground Palace, could mobilize the entire nation's resources to do such an absurd thing?"

Wolf Rhino lowered his eyes, his expression solemn, and remained noncommittal about Strange Eight Knives' words.

The assassin's face, covered in fish-like markings, was filled with sorrow. He sighed and said, "This matter... is Father's fault. I've come here today to ask for your help, elder brother... to stop Father. He... can't continue making these mistakes..."

"Of course, your elder brother will help you," said Fen Laoshan.

"Hmph! Shouldn't you have explained before that?" After saying that, the eccentric octopus stomped on the dungeon beneath his feet.

With a thud, the wolf-rhinoceros knelt down outside the dungeon...

Upon seeing this, Guai Ba Dao and Fen Lao Shan knelt down involuntarily, as if they had been electrocuted, leaving Lu Xiao San and Wen Ying standing there with puzzled expressions.

"Brother Xi, there were a lot of people outside just now, I, Guai Ba Dao, am begging you on my knees." Guai Ba Dao suddenly admitted defeat.

“That’s how it is, there’s nothing we can do about it…” Pink Mountain added from the side.

The wolf-rhinoceros, kneeling on the ground, said with a look of shame, "It is indeed my responsibility that my two elder brothers have fallen to this state, but all of this is only to obey Father's arrangements..."

Seeing that the wolf rhinoceros had yielded, the strange eight-knife pounded the floor beneath his knees again and shouted sharply, "Your father? What does your father want to do? Why is he trying to harm us?"

"The matter Father planned required retrieving the precious pearl, which is... the left eye I gave to my two elder brothers..."

"So he wanted me to cooperate with the man in black to capture my two elder brothers... I... couldn't disobey my father's orders, and I couldn't bear to harm my two elder brothers, so I imprisoned them here..."

Upon hearing this, Guai Badao couldn't help but retort angrily, "If you want that...bead, we, as your elder brothers, will give it to you. Why bother with such a scheme?!"

Wolf Rhino lowered his head and said, "This... this second brother doesn't know either. He only heard that the man in black insisted on doing so..."

"This man in black is definitely suspicious! Things aren't that simple!"

“He sent you away to capture that blue fox and eagle,” Wen Ying said from the side.

"What?!" Old Man Fen fell into deep thought.

When Fen Laoshan came to his senses, he said, "By the way, you just mentioned that the matter your father was planning, could it be his wish to become a dragon?"

The wolf-rhinoceros knelt on the ground and said, "That's right. Father has been preparing for many years, all for the sake of transforming into a powerful dragon in today's ceremony, so that he will have the strength to break free from the control of the Three Palaces..."

Lu Xiaosan and Wen Ying were both shocked at the same time, "Sanzun Palace! So your East Lake Underground Palace is also part of Sanzun Palace!"

“That’s right. The Three Venerables Palace has branches all over the Tang Dynasty, and even the Imperial Palace has people from the Three Venerables Palace.”

“Almost all the martial arts forces are under the control of the Three Venerable Palaces, and the Three Venerable Palaces forces in Jiangcheng are the Yellow Crane Sect and this East Lake Underground Palace…” Fen Laoshan explained.

Lu Xiaosan nodded, then pondered, "So that's how it is. That Immortal Pavilion is the one that the Three Venerable Palace planted in Luo City..."

Lu Xiaosan glanced sideways at Wen Ying beside him, thinking, "The Three Venerable Palace has such a vast sphere of influence, yet this girl possesses its token. She must be someone of considerable importance..."

The strange man continued, "Why did your father suddenly want to leave the Three Venerable Palace? Hasn't the Three Venerable Palace treated you well?"

Wolf Rhino shook his head and sighed helplessly, "This matter has nothing to do with the Three Venerable Palace... The reason Father wanted to leave the Three Venerable Palace was simply to become the fifth guardian dragon of Ghost Sea Goddess!"

The four people in the prison exclaimed in unison, "Ghost Sea Witch!"

Lu Wen and the other two were more curious, while the two weird fans were mainly driven by fear.

Upon hearing the name "Ghost Sea Witch," the wolf-rhinoceros trembled involuntarily. Fear quickly spread across his face as he slowly said, "That's right, the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons—Ghost Sea Witch, rumored to be the strongest among the ten Venerables of the Great Tang!"

Strange Eight Knives and Pink Old Mountain were so shocked that their mouths remained agape for a long time. "This...is she living in the Ghost Sea? How could your father, Ta Ye, be...connected with her??"

"What kind of demon is this, what kind of master is this? Is this Ghost Sea Goddess really that powerful? Look how scared you all are," Lu Xiaosan said arrogantly, hands on his hips.

Seeing his arrogant expression, Wen Ying couldn't help but smile and say, "Brother Lu has really met his match this time."

Fen Laoshan hesitated for a moment, then said to Lu Xiaosan, "Old man, I'm not afraid to tell you this, but we've heard about this Ghost Sea Witch since we were little. Whenever we don't sleep well, Master always uses the Ghost Sea Witch to scare us..."

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiaosan burst into laughter, "Hahahaha, a scary story scared you all like this? You're so lame, hahahaha!"

"No! The Ghost Sea Witch is real!" Wolf Rhino suddenly interrupted sharply, then continued, "The Ghost Sea shrouded in black mist is located in the southernmost sea area of ​​the Tang Dynasty, and all those who tried to enter the black mist never returned..."

Hearing this, Lu Xiaosan's interest was piqued, and his strong desire for combat and exploration made him quickly ask, "And then? And then?"

Wolf-Rhinoceros continued, "It is rumored that the sorceress has been living in seclusion in the Ghost Sea for thousands of years, only appearing in the Central Plains a few hundred years ago during the Five Barbarian Invasions... The specifics are indeed unknown..."

"Legend has it that the sorceress is extremely ugly and terrifying, preferring peace and quiet to disturbance. Therefore, she is guarded by four true dragons in the Ghost Sea, and only by passing their trials can one possibly meet her. If one accidentally displeases her, she will cause the sea to flood the entire Tang Dynasty..."

Wen Ying shook her head, thinking, "That sorceress must have done something terrible when she came to the Central Plains, otherwise she wouldn't have been portrayed like this by later generations..."

Lu Xiaosan scoffed, "In the end, it's just another scary story to frighten people."

Wolf Rhino chuckled self-deprecatingly, “Brother, I wish more than anyone that the legend of the Ghost Sea Witch is false… but she is not false, otherwise Father wouldn’t be the way he is today.”

Lu Xiaosan tilted his head and glanced at him sideways, saying, "What did that Ghost Sea Witch do to your father?"