1559 The Queen’s Secret
The bolt of lightning was clearly aimed at the queen’s guards. Blue light imbued with divine power dyed the entire sky blue, and there was a great boom like the wrath of the heavens falling. The earth quaked, and countless birds hiding in the swamp took to the air in flight, cawing as they fled the strife.
Whoos.h.!.+
Xia Fan saw one of Queen Meryl’s guards fall from the sky, the beautiful white Cathead Eagle scorched black, its skin and feathers fused together and giving off black smoke. In the end, they fell into a turbid pool of water.
A sinister spotted alligator, its entire body hidden in the water so that only its golden eyes were showing, quickly swam over to the eagle’s body, and the waters of the pool began to roil. The alligator twisted its body to tear apart the eagle and the guard, blood mixing in with the black waters as a stench began to spread throughout the swamp.
!!
The remaining five Lightning Cathead Eagles descended swiftly. If they continued flying, they would be nothing more than living targets. Meanwhile, the complicated terrain of the swamp might give them a chance to escape.
A man wearing an alligator skin stood up from a black pool of water. He had done up his hair into a strange braid, and his golden beard had also been braided, his thick arms bearing the symbol of ocean waves. He was like a barbarian who had walked straight out of a video game!
Three more men walked out from the shadows next to the pool. They were dressed similarly, one braid on the top and one braid on the bottom. The tallest of them had a scar on his chin and a hammer weighing nearly one thousand kilograms in his hand. His arm bore a lightning symbol.
These barbarians approached Xia Di and the queen’s location. From the odor, Xia Fan could tell that there were still four ambushers in the area. They were very smart, not showing their entire force.
“Accursed Sunesians! Your Majesty, hurry and run!” the guards roared, and charged forward. The Cathead Eagles were also extremely intelligent, flapping their wings and attacking from the sky with their sharp claws.
Clack!
The scarred man raised his right arm, holding high his hammer. In a flash, blue light gathered on the head of the hammer, turning into several bolts of lightning that crackled down at the guards and Cathead Eagles. Although they were heroic, in the end, all they ended up doing was adding a few more scorched corpses to this bleak swamp.
The warrior wielded a mystical hammer that could unleash lightning. In an eerie tone, he said, “Your Majesty, what a coincidence. We just went to the White City to find you, but you delivered yourself to our door. I advise you to obediently accept your fate and come with us to see the King of the Black Marsh. It will save you some unnecessary pain.”
These warriors were the vanguard the Black Marsh Kingdom had sent against the White City. A war was imminent between the two kingdoms, and Queen Meryl, understanding how grim the situation was, had decided to send Xia Di back as quickly as possible.
“Let me go! I can protect you!” Xia Di shouted. His hands were bound with a rope made of light, preventing him from moving. As for why Xia Di suddenly wanted to protect the queen, he himself probably didn’t understand.
“Hahaha!” the barbarians laughed. Xia Di was just a seven-year-old boy. In their eyes, he didn’t even have the strength to truss a chicken. Moreover, the Skywings had always had rather thin bodies, so the barbarians felt like Xia Di was rather malnourished.
“Where did this brat come from? Go back and get some milk from your mother!” the barbarians mocked and jeered at Xia Di, while Queen Meryl instinctively put Xia Di behind her.
Raising the hand with that mysterious red jeweled ring, she cut the ropes binding Xia Di’s hand and whispered, “Forget about me and go! Hurry back to where you came from!”
Queen Meryl seemed to want to take the ring from her hand and give it to Xia Di, as if it was a mystical item that could connect the two worlds. The kingdom’s most loyal warrior, Armstrong, frowned coldly, and his hand reached for the whip made of white bone on his back.
Upon seeing that, Xia Fan understood everything. He stopped hiding and stood up, walking toward Xia Di and Queen Meryl.
“Big Brother Xia Fan!” Xia Di saw Xia Fan appearing, his usual smile on his face, and he shouted out Xia Fan’s name in shock. It was the first time Xia Fan had ever heard him sounding so friendly.
“Anyone who mocks a Skywing has to leave behind their hand. Choose, your left or your right?” Xia Fan said indifferently. He had heard many interesting stories from his clan brothers. In the clan, there was a man called Xia Laos.h.i.+ who liked to use this tone to threaten others.
As for mocking the Skywings and demanding an arm be cut off, there was actually no such rule. That was because the greatest rule of the Skywings was that there were no rules. Cutting off a hand or cutting off a leg was completely up to his mood!.
“What did you say!?” The barbarians were furious, letting out strange shouts as their eyes went round.
The scarred warrior brought up his hammer and pointed it at Xia Fan, the blue light gathering at its tip and beginning to crackle.
Whoos.h.!.+
Xia Fan struck before the lightning could be released. A distance of around a hundred meters was something Xia Fan could cross in 0.0001 seconds, faster than one could blink. Enemies who didn’t understand Speed would find it hard to not be caught off guard.
With an easy lift of his arm, he used the Underworld River golden combat blade to cut off his opponent’s head. It was so fast that blood didn’t even have time to spurt out.
At the same time, Xia Di stepped forward, appearing in front of the closest enemy. He had no weapon, so he jumped into the air, locked his legs around his enemy, and then grabbed his enemy’s head with his hands and twisted.
Clack!
“Leave this place to me!”
“Understood!”
Xia Fan and Xia Di spoke alternately. The seven-year-old Xia Di would deal with the enemies here while Xia Fan headed into the swamp. The screams of enemies could soon be heard coming from the black swamp.
In the blink of an eye, Xia Fan and Xia Di returned to Queen Meryl and Armstrong’s side. They had killed eight warriors of the swamp, but their hands weren’t stained with even a drop of blood.
Only then did the slain enemies finally collapse, blood gus.h.i.+ng from their wounds. Xia Fan and Xia Di silently collected the spoils into their spatial rings, even taking the rings and necklaces of the dead men.
Armstrong was dumbfounded. The most famous warrior of the White City felt like he was looking at two monsters, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets and falling to the ground. How could anybody in the world be that fast?
As for Queen Meryl, there was a complicated look in her eyes. As the memories of the past poured out, her eyes reddened. Seven years ago, she had once fallen in love with that man’s speed, so she was just as shocked as Armstrong.
Xia Fan furrowed his brow slightly and whispered to her,”Xia Geng is also here.”
Queen Meryl shuddered at those words, her face turning as white as snow. She swayed, and Armstrong hastily moved to support her.
Xia Di was baffled. Why had the queen had such an intense reaction to hearing his father’s name? He had no idea that this queen dressed as a man was actually his mother!
Nothing could escape Xia Fan’s sharp sense of smell, ten thousand times better than a dog’s. For countless nights, Xia Geng had gripped a handkerchief while mourning silently in the darkness, and the scent on that handkerchief had been Queen Meryl’s!
That was why Xia Fan had quickly realized that Queen Meryl was actually Xia Geng’s lost love, the mysterious woman who had given birth to Xia Di, Mei Mei!
Looking around warily, Xia Fan sniffed and whispered, “What a guy! He must have sent more than ten thousand people. They’re starting to pick up speed and head this way!”