Free Web NovelChapter 429: Chapter 425: The Good-for-Nothing Turtle Egg
Heaven-Stepping Sect, on the God-Proving Stage.
Other than Lin Hao and the tortoise, the vast God-Proving Stage was empty.
Lin Hao stood to the side, watching the tortoise bustle about.
"This time should be about right," the tortoise said, suddenly stopping its work and looking ahead.
Hearing this, Lin Hao’s face darkened. He desperately wanted to throw the tortoise off the God-Proving Stage.
When they had emerged from the Saha World, the tortoise had smugly told Lin Hao of a quick way to get back to the Saint Institute in the Imperial City.
Just as Lin Hao had guessed, the tortoise claimed to be a master of the Array Pattern Skill. It said that with the right materials, it could inscribe divine runes, cross the void, and return to the Saint Institute in an instant.
The materials it needed were mostly rare and precious Crystal Stones, which the Heaven-Stepping Sect happened to have.
Given the tortoise’s performance against the will of the Celestial Dao and in the Saha World, Lin Hao had naturally believed it.
But after Lin Hao and the tortoise arrived at the God-Proving Stage, Lin Hao realized he had been wrong.
The creature was as unreliable as ever.
After Lin Hao waited for an hour, the tortoise declared its work a success. The two of them stepped into the divine runes it had painstakingly inscribed and vanished from the God-Proving Stage in an instant.
But when Lin Hao saw where they had been teleported, he was dumbfounded.
He and the tortoise had appeared on the summit of Forbidden God Mountain!
Lin Hao was so frustrated that he gave the tortoise a savage beating.
After the tortoise’s repeated assurances, they returned to the God-Proving Stage once more.
The second attempt was even more absurd—they were teleported into a pool of water on Mount Tian-Duan.
Even with the tortoise’s extreme speed, it still took them several hours to get back to the God-Proving Stage.
This time, hearing the words, "This time should be about right," made Lin Hao’s heart tremble.
"Are. You. Sure!" Lin Hao bit out each word.
"I should be sure," the tortoise replied. It had been full of confidence at the start, but now its spirit was broken.
"’Should’ my ass! I need your one-hundred-percent guarantee! One hundred percent, you hear me?!" Lin Hao was going insane.
The tortoise flinched, pulling its neck back. It stared at the divine runes it had inscribed, looking them over and over, before finally saying in a firm tone, "Alright, this time I one-hundred-percent guarantee we will absolutely reach the Saint Institute today."
Finally, it silently added in its heart, ’Even if there’s a small deviation, it won’t be too outrageous.’
Unfortunately, Lin Hao didn’t have the Mind Reading Skill and had no idea what the tortoise was thinking.
Because he didn’t know, Lin Hao boarded the pirate ship once again. No, he stepped into the divine runes carved by the tortoise.
The divine runes flickered, the void twisted, and in the next moment, Lin Hao and the tortoise disappeared from the God-Proving Stage...
Several hundred li from the Cangnan Capital of Imperial City, there was a tall, unremarkable mountain named West Mountain.
However, anyone with a bit of power knew that West Mountain was a forbidden land, because the Monarch of Cangnan Kingdom visited it every year.
Halfway up West Mountain, a massive imperial lodge was hidden within a dense forest.
At this moment, West Mountain was silent, as was the imperial lodge.
In a huge room deep within the lodge, the antique-style furniture was exceptionally exquisite. In the very center of the room was an enormous bed.
The bed was carved with patterns of a dragon and phoenix in harmony. Peeking through a light gauze veil, one could vaguely see the graceful figure of a woman lying down.
Suddenly, the void distorted, and a human figure and a tortoise appeared in the room.
A gentle breeze blew, and the gauze veil stirred slightly.
"Who’s... ah... Mmph!" The woman on the bed was startled. She threw back the veil with a scream, her face pale with fright as her shriek rang out.
The next moment, a hand clamped over the woman’s mouth.
Lin Hao felt like dying. He’d been screwed over by that damned tortoise again.
Meanwhile, the tortoise was already cowering in a corner, facing the wall in shame.
Lin Hao felt her soft body tremble against him. He instinctively glanced down, and his face instantly turned beet red.
The woman was clad only in the light gauze, and his glance had taken in everything it shouldn’t have.
"Miss, I didn’t do it on purpose. I’ll let you go in a second..." Lin Hao said, turning his head away, but he trailed off before he could finish.
Because a voice sounded from outside: "Your Highness the Imperial Consort, are you alright?"
The words startled Lin Hao. ’My luck is terrible,’ he thought grimly.
"I’ll let you go. Don’t scream," Lin Hao whispered.
The imperial consort immediately nodded.
"You may withdraw. This one is fine," she called out to the people outside after Lin Hao released her.
At the same time, she retreated to the edge of the bed, deftly slipped off the gauze, and quickly changed into proper clothes.
Lin Hao watched, dumbfounded.
The next moment...
"Seize the assassin!" she bellowed.
The moment she shouted, Lin Hao knew he was in for it.
Sure enough, someone burst through the door with astonishing speed and attacked Lin Hao.
"Time to go!" Lin Hao didn’t dare get entangled. With a flicker of his body, he was already rushing out.
"And where do you think you’re going!" This was the Monarch’s imperial lodge, heavily guarded and filled with countless experts. Lin Hao had barely reached the doorway when another powerful figure arrived.
At this time, Lin Hao’s cultivation was at the peak of the Fourth Layer of Soul Gathering Realm. His Heaven-Stepping Step had reached a new level, and his speed was unpredictable as a ghost. He once again dodged the attack and charged out.
After that, the area outside the imperial lodge erupted into chaos.
"Capture him alive! To think he would try to assassinate the Monarch! This one will make him wish for death but be unable to die!" The imperial consort’s figure appeared at the door, her eyes swirling with hatred.
"Yes, Your Highness!" A chorus of grim, murderous voices responded to her.
But ten minutes later, a General returned alone to report, his cloak stained with blood.
"You killed him?!"
The General didn’t answer, merely knelt.
"He escaped? The Monarch brought countless experts this time, and you couldn’t even stop a single assassin? Useless! What are you doing just standing there? Go and give chase!"
"Your Highness, the Imperial Guard are all dead."
"Thirty-six members of the Imperial Guard, each with a cultivation at or above the Soul Gathering Realm First Layer, and you’re telling me they’re all dead?!" The imperial consort couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
It had only been ten minutes.
"I must ask Your Highness to hide well. This humble servant must inform the Monarch immediately."
Although the Monarch had dozens of masters protecting him in secret while he hunted, the General couldn’t help but feel a chill crawl up his spine when he thought of the assassin’s methods.
"The Monarch is a Soul Gathering Realm Peak expert, and he has dozens of people with him. Nothing will happen to him." Hearing this, the consort’s eyes flashed with panic, terrified that the General would actually abandon her.
"Your Highness is correct, but we should not linger here."
"It’s fine. The Monarch will surely rush back as soon as he hears the commotion."
Her words had barely faded when someone crossed the void and arrived, their voice calling out at the same time: "Yuhe..."
Hearing this voice, the General once again knelt respectfully.
"I, Mei Yuhe, swear that I will have you torn to pieces and your nine generations exterminated!" The consort first breathed a sigh of relief at the voice, then stared into the distance, her fists clenched and her eyes filled with murderous intent.
Meanwhile, Lin Hao, the object of Mei Yuhe’s bone-deep hatred, was venting his unbridled fury upon the tortoise’s shell.
"You scammer! So this is your one-hundred-percent guarantee!"
"I guaranteed we would reach the Saint Institute today, and I delivered. Look ahead. Besides, if it weren’t for me, you would never have enjoyed such a ’beautiful blessing’."
Lin Hao looked up and saw Imperial City right before his eyes. As for the tortoise’s last sentence, he completely ignored it.
