Chapter 461: A Wide Net In Waiting, Zhuo Xiao
After crossing the lofty mountain back, there was a vast expanse of mountain ridges. In between the mountain ridges was a visible deep blue water belt. This water belt snaked its way over from the mountain range far away. After passing through two different topographies, there were two swelling mountain forests in between which was a valley that flowed all the way to an unknown part of the mountain range.
Chu Mu and Princess Jin Rou followed this expansive river valley, heading against the direction of the current.
Their final location was the Chen Lake Waterfall. The two of them had reached a mutual agreement to reach this final location and split the highest honor reward between them evenly.
Although Chu Mu very much wanted to monopolize it, the experts in the seventh realm were like clouds, and Chu Mu didn’t think that he would be able to actually obtain the seventh realm’s highest honor by himself.
Princess Jin Rou’s strength was definitely still above his, and she had further already investigated the majority of people in the second grade who were a threat. Chu Mu was thus able to obtain rather accurate information from her.
Of course, this wasn’t the main reason why Chu Mu and Princess Jin Rou were moving together. Instead, it was because Princess Jin Rou had mentioned Xia Guanghan’s plot. In Jia City, Chu Mu was sure that Princess Jin Rou and Xia Guanghan weren’t conspiring together. Therefore, he felt that the truthfulness of what she had said about Xia Guanghan was rather high.
In the time leading up to now, Chu Mu had constantly been secretly worried about the matter regarding Xia Guanghan.
Since Xia Guanghan had already used a Nine Tailed Inferno Fox Heart as bait, then it meant that he could be certain he was in Tianxia City. Chu Mu had originally felt that as long as he didn’t summon Mo Xie to fight, Xia Guanghan probably wouldn’t be able to see through his identity.
However, Chu Mu had evidently underestimated Xia Guanghan’s ability, because Xia Guanghan had targeted him in the fourth realm!
Princess Jin Rou expounded that Soul Palace Chu Chen had been too high profile recently, as well as adding on his animosity with Shen Yicheng didn’t help. Thus, during the Battle of the Realm, they had already seen through Chu Mu’s identity. At this point, Princess Jin Rou mentioned one person who happened to be Underground Palace’s Zhuo Xiao.
The subordinates Zhuo Xiao possessed were essentially scattered all over the land, and it meant that Zhuo Xiao had invited Zhuo Xiao to deal with Chu Mu in the Battle of the Realm.
In the past, Zhuo Xiao had been suspicious about Chu Mu’s identity. However, when Chu Mu killed Jiang Zhi in the fourth realm and exposed his strength, Zhuo Xiao was able, to a certain extent, be sure that Soul Palace Chu Chen was Chu Mu.
Both Zhuo Xiao and Xia Guanghan were very smart. They knew that Chu Mu was presently under the protection of Soul Palace’s experts. Therefore, even if they had guessed Chu Mu’s identity, they had yet to actually make a move.
As such, they put all their plans into the Battle of the Realm, meaning that Zhuo Xiao had already undetectedly laid a trap for Chu Mu in the Battle of the Realm. The moment Chu Mu appeared, he would be like a turtle in the jar.
When Princess Jin Rou revealed this, Chu Mu was inwardly shocked.
What made him shocked wasn’t Zhuo Xiao’s trap, but rather how Xia Guanghan and Zhuo Xiao had seen through his identity.
The soul pets Chu Mu had used in the previous few realms to fight were all mainstream soul pets that many people possessed. There was no way they could use just this to expose him.
“Young master, I think it could be the thing in Li City. Yu Jia and Shen Yicheng were colluding together, and it also came to light that Yu Jia could have had relation with Underground Palace people. If Underground Palace’s Zhuo Xiao had been in Li City then, he would definitely have known about your appearance there. Xia Guanghan is among the very few people who know you can transform into a half-devil. Both Soul Palace Chu Chen and the half devil had appeared in Li City, so if you draw a small connection between these two, it will be easy to suspect you. Furthermore, it is also possible to do a comparison with your recent performance in the past few realms.” said Old Li.
Chu Mu furrowed his brows. Until now, he had believed that he had hidden himself well. He never expected Xia Guanghan to have seen through him.
However, even if he had been seen through, Chu Mu felt there wasn’t a need to overly fret.
There was no way Xia Guanghan could interfere with the Battle of the Realm, so the person who would deal with him could only be Zhuo Xiao.
Zhuo Xiao was an assassin, while Chu Mu was someone who had experienced numerous massacres. There were an innumerable amount of unknown factors in the Battle of the Realm, and who would ultimately emerge as the victor was hard to say.
Princess Jin Rou telling this to Chu Mu was doing a large favor to him. As an exchange, Chu Mu would naturally help her succeed in breaking through the seventh realm.
Princess Jin Rou’s strength was unmeasurable, and Chu Mu would never and had never underestimated this woman.
However, the facts proved that she really wasn’t a soul pet trainer very suited with the wilderness.
En route, Princess Jin Rou had already tread very carefully, yet still managed to make some wilderness common-sense mistakes.
“So it turns out there’s a lot you don’t understand. Then why do you pretend that you know everything?” Chu Mu sat on a rock as he rested. He turned around and looked at Princess Jin Rou whose leg had been scratched.
Just now, Chu Mu and Princess Jin Rou hda passed through a thorny forest. Chu Mu had originally thought that Princess Jin Rou would know that the dangerous thing about these areas wasn’t the plant world soul pets, but the dangers hidden in the thorny environment.
Ultimately, this noble princess ended up wounded and the toxins entered into her blood. Despite Princess Jin Rou immediately taking detoxifying medicine, her leg was still poisoned until it reached an azure color.
“I can see from your face that you’re taking pleasure in my misfortune. At the beginning of this I told you that I wasn’t familiar with the bewildering world environment and needed someone to take me. I had thought that someone who’d expressed admiration towards me in the past would have generously helped me pass through this environment. However, it seems that I was being too naive.” said Princess Jin Rou.
Every person would change. Just like two years ago when they were in the Great Chu Family, Princess Jin Rou had personally heard Chu Mu express his admiration for her.
However, two years had passed and Princess Jin Rou sensed that this man had a different attitude now. Perhaps it had something to do with this man already having someone else in his heart.
Princess Jin Rou was actually pissed off right now. She felt that Chu Mu had no understanding of what a ‘gentlemanly demeanor’ was. Furthermore, he was extremely selfish and snobbish, and if it wasn’t because she had told him about Xia Guanghan, there was no way Chu Mu would have helped her.
Princess Jin Rou sensed that the vigilance Chu Mu had towards her wasn’t only because of Mo Xie, but instead was from a mistrust and defensive mechanism that accidentally leaked out.
Regarding the matters of Chu Mu’s defector soul pet, Princess Jin Rou had no idea about this. Thus, she naturally wouldn’t realize that it was due to her looks and temperament that constantly reminded Chu Mu, in a bad way, of the defector soul pet. This was especially the case since Chu Mu learned that even if he was face to face with his defector soul pet, he still wouldn’t even be able to recognize it.
“It could be because you’ve constantly been putting on your princess aura that I’ve subconsciously come to believe that you’re omnipotent. Though it shouldn’t just be purely because of my belief. I guess I still prefer the first time I saw you; that feeling I got of you not putting on a constructed facade is a better one.” Chu Mu didn’t enjoy hiding things when he spoke and rather bluntly expressed his opinion.
As he spoke, Chu Mu opened his spatial ring and gave a rather highly effective detoxifying medicine Ye Qingzi had concocted for him to Princess Jin Rou. He told her to use it.
“I’m very sorry, but I’ve passed those naive years already.” Princess Jin Rou calmly said.
Chu Mu was stunned, and he seemed to understand something, but didn’t say anything.
The rock Chu Mu was sitting on the edge of a geological fault, and in front of him was a basin filled with lush vegetation.
Many years of experience in the wilderness told Chu Mu that this basin was rather dangerous. It was far from being as tranquil as it looked.
“The basin in front is very dangerous. There are two choices: go around or go through. If we go around, I don’t know how many days we’ll have to spend doing so. With our current pace, it may be a bit hard to be able to pass through this entire bewildering world in fifteen days.” Chu Mu explained the scenario to Princess Jin Rou.
“Let’s go through. At least I’ll be able to show some value that you can exploit in fights.” Princess Jin Rou had a noble and arrogant mannerism and really didn’t bother hiding her anger that stemmed from Chu Mu’s words.
Princess Jin Rou remembered that it had been Chu Mu who had disrespected her in Jia City. That debt still hadn’t been cleared yet, and now Chu Mu was criticizing her for being too shrewd and her overthinking mannerism.
She could admit that she was growing more and more shrewd, but she didn’t like Chu Mu’s lack of respect, so she didn’t have a reason to stay calm. If she could find someone else who she could even slightly trust in this seventh realm, she would gladly not travel with this man.
“From the topography, it looks like this basin should have many unavoidable locations with competitors who have entered this bewildering world. Keep your guard up at all times. There are probably numerous vicious and merciless people in the second grade.” said Chu Mu.
Princess Jin Rou nodded her head. After controlling the injury on her leg, she slowly chanted an incantation, summoning an ice colored small fox.
This small ice fox was one of Princess Jin Rou’s main pets, the Towering Ice Curse Demon Fox.
This was an existence that was on the same level as the Nine Tailed Inferno Fox, and a perfect soul pet in the commander rank. Even in the monarch realm, the Towering Ice Curse Demon Fox’s majesty was in no way inferior.
The Towering Ice Curse Demon Fox also possessed the Pitiful Appearance species technique. Once this ice fox that had the same cold haughtiness as the princess appeared, it proceeded to silently lie in Princess Jin Rou’s soft embrace. Its two spirited pupils that emitted a cold light stared at Mo Xie who was on Chu Mu’s shoulder.
The small Mo Xie merely yawned, and ignored this Towering Ice Curse Demon Fox’s gaze. She continued to lie on Chu Mu’s shoulder as she slept.
Chu Mu stood up form the rock and slowly began heading down along this inclined path full of plants.
Princess Jin Rou followed right behind. She also didn’t summon any other soul pets as she continued down the inclined path like Chu Mu.
“Princess, you just spoke a lot with me. Are you also lowering that person’s guard?”
Suddenly, Chu Mu’s soul remembrance entered Princess Jin Rou’s mind.
“Yes, so it turns out you also detected him.” Princess Jin rou’s two spirited and beautiful eyes flashed with a wise radiance!