Douluo 2: This Dragon God has too much martial virtue

Chapter 585 Critical Survival

"Bitch...you..." Dai Huabin gritted his teeth and hissed out a broken curse, but he could no longer utter a complete sentence.

Zhu Lu's gaze finally fell back on him, lingering on his face for a long time. His eyes were red, and he gasped and cursed non-stop, as if this could ease the excruciating pain from the new wound and vent the resentment that had nowhere to go.

"I'm sorry." Zhu Lu lowered her eyes. This was the family's order. She was just a Soul Sect member, how could she disobey? And what reason did she have to disobey?

"What's the point of apologizing? I treated you well, but you..."

The words sounded familiar. Juzi couldn't help but recall that the eunuch had said something similar when she'd backstabbed Xu Tianran. Perhaps eunuchs all had their own set of loser rhetoric?
Orange's thoughts drifted away, so she didn't notice Zhu Lu bending down to pick up the blood-stained dagger. But her soldiers noticed something was amiss. However, Zhu Lu, possessing the Netherworld Cat spirit, was incredibly fast. Before anyone could react, Dai Huabin's curses abruptly ceased. Blood gushed from his mouth, and a bright red tongue fell to the ground, still trembling slightly.

Dai Hao, whose eyes had been gouged out, heard his son's curses suddenly stop, and a sense of despair welled up in his heart. Could it be... But his own tongue had long been cut off by the orange, and he couldn't even shout his son's name.

Ju Zi looked at Zhu Lu with a hint of surprise. The girl's body trembled slightly, but her hand holding the dagger remained remarkably steady. She pointed the tip of the knife at Dai Huabin, who was glaring at her, and whispered, "Sorry, Huabin. Don't look at me like that. You have beautiful eyes... I don't want to hurt you again."

Facing Zhu Lu, who had always obeyed him, Dai Huabin felt as if he were truly meeting her for the first time. The anger in his eyes gradually gave way to fear. He suddenly remembered that long ago, after he lost the finals of the Shrek Academy freshman assessment, a pariah had threatened to gouge out his eyes for a collection.

Although a series of events later made him realize that he was an existence he could not afford to provoke, the pride of the White Tiger clan made him unwilling to give in. After all, he possessed a greater talent than the first generation White Tiger Douluo, and perhaps he would achieve godhood in the future. At that time, he would be able to do whatever he wanted and kill whomever he wanted!
However, he had recently heard that the one who now held the power over life and death was Huo Yuxing, the very person he had once disdainfully called a "pariah." Even the power and authority wielded by the Sun-Moon Empire's Grand Marshal was granted by her. Perhaps not only now, but even in the past, the one who truly had the power to decide life and death had always been that woman.

She was just a woman, how could she hold such power? The White Tiger lineage's deeply ingrained beliefs had convinced Dai Huabin that women were ultimately subordinate to men. Even the Zhu family, the spirit cats, were merely passive partners in a spirit fusion technique. Even if he were defeated by a man, perhaps that would be easier for him to accept than being manipulated so swiftly by a woman.

No, perhaps she shouldn't be called a woman at all. She wasn't even human, but a dragon that fell from the divine realm over four thousand years ago! Dai Mubai's ancestor, now a god of war, had issued an oracle demanding that all believers in the sea god join the battle to slay the dragon. Dai Huabin had grown up listening to these legends and had imagined himself becoming a dragon slayer, achieving deification in one fell swoop.

However, the reality is that four thousand years have passed, and not only have Shrek Academy and the major forces from the original generation of Shrek Seven Devils failed to catch even a dragon scale, let alone slay the dragon. Instead, they were pressed step by step, surrounded and hunted down by the dragon, and almost slaughtered.

Just as Dai Huabin was being tormented by resentment and excruciating pain, he heard Ju Zi say to Dai Hao, who could only whimper, "Don't panic, Duke. Your young master isn't dead yet. It's just that the girl from the Zhu family couldn't stand the foul language and cut out his tongue, just like you are now."

Her tone was gentle, but to Dai Huabin it sounded like a devil's whisper, "Someone, stop Dai Shao's bleeding. Don't let him die like this. The people of Xingluo City are still waiting to exchange his flesh for citizenship of the Sun Moon Empire." Ju Zi watched the pained and contorted expressions on the father and son's faces, a surge of indescribable pleasure rising within her. To deliver the most thorough blow to their enemy in their most prized territory—it brought such intense satisfaction.

"You are very fast and your moves are clean and neat." Orange looked at Zhu Lu who was staring down at the dagger. She stood still and spotless, in stark contrast to Dai Huabin who was covered in blood, showing the advantages of agile attacking soul masters to the fullest.

"Would you like to be my personal guard?" Ju Zi paused, then added, "The soul masters originally from the Three Douluo Kingdoms are indeed much stronger than those from the Sun-Moon Empire. If not, we wouldn't have to rely on drugs and soul guides to make up for the gap."

Zhu Lu raised her head, tilted it slightly, and blinked her heterochromatic eyes, like a cat that had just finished hunting but was suddenly stopped, with a bit of alertness and temptation.

"I will help your family move to a higher level, and even let you become the sole person in charge of your family," Orange continued.

Under Dai Huabin's piercing glare, Zhu Lu nodded without hesitation. Ever since breaking off her engagement with Dai Huabin, she had been retrained as an assassin by the family. After all, the entire Lingmao Zhu family was convinced that the White Tiger Duke's residence, no matter how hard it fought, would be no match for the Dragon Pavilion. Furthermore, with the Duchess assassinated and the Duke's youngest son mysteriously missing, as long as the Dragon Pavilion remained, the White Tiger lineage would never recover.

What assassins are best at is seizing opportunities. Faced with Orange's invitation, Zhu Lu had no choice.

There wouldn't be a better choice right now, she thought. After all, the entire Zhu family had already decided to abandon the Xingluo Empire and turn to the Sun-Moon Empire.

At this point in the war, everything was a foregone conclusion. From now on, for everyone in Xingluo City, from the emperor to the common people, all they could do was wait for the end.

Inside the Xingluo Palace, Xu Jiawei slowly lowered his head, his hands clenched into fists. He whispered to Xu Jiujiu and Xu Yun, "If you don't want to die for your country... then run away. But where can you escape to?"

Xu Jiujiu raised his head in shock: "Brother Emperor, are you... I would rather die in battle than..."

"Are we going to let the entire city's people be buried with us because of our own selfishness, thus making the Xingguan Xu family infamous for eternity?" Xu Jiawei knew very well that he had no choice at this moment. For the millions of soldiers and civilians in Xingluo City, he had to die within three days.

Hey, how come there are still people with an overly self-centered attitude giving me advice on writing? Saying that female-centric stories lack relatability and male readers won't like them? What kind of idiot is this? What gives you the right to speak for all male readers?