Chapter 953: Bait to Switch

"I’m sorry...you want us to what?"

"Oh come on, nephew. I figured my request would be right in your wheelhouse."

"If it was any other aether beast I know about!," Patriarch Zhen Shi argued. "I have no idea what an [Abyssal Beast] even is!"

"Oh. They’re beasts native to the [Abyssal Lands]. Duh," Zhen Xun Tian replied with about as much clarity as bucket full of mud.

"Oh, that certainly narrows it...," Zhen Shi said with a sarcastic tone.

A few days after Zhen Liu and Zhen Xun Tian had their discussion in regards to the expedition of the [Abyssal Lands], the latter finally had finally decided it was a good idea to visit Stampeding Bison, unannounced.

Zhen Xun Tian did make sure to bring plenty of gifts with her for the branch clan, as a means to not only mollified everyone about her sudden visit, but to also possibly encourage Zhen Shi to not refuse her request.

While she could’ve just used her authority as the clan’s matriarch to force him to do what she wanted, she felt that it was unnecessary. That and it was known fact that people tend to work better and harder when given the choice to do a task...usually.

"Oh come on, Xiao Shi. It can’t be that hard to tame an [Abyssal Beast] to act like our transport through the [Abyssal Lands],"she asked while not really knowing what her request actually entailed in terms of prep.

She was about to find out though.

"Okay, taming a beast isn’t the hard part, finding an appropriate one, capturing it and maintaining the facilities to actually do so is the problem," Zhen Shi began to explain to his aunt.

"From what you described of these ’Abyssal Beasts’, we’d need an aquatic based facility to for it to live in and we don’t exactly have any of those type of facilities here," Zhen Shi began to explain while vaguely gesturing to his home.

As a reminder, the branch clan and their home city of Stone Claw, were situated in the middle of a literal desert wasteland, with a couple underground caves for variety.

That stated, Zhen Xun Tian actually had an answer for that.

"Not a problem, we can host the beast back at Willow Scale. Plenty of water there, and we do have this underwater chamber we haven’t been using for years."

"I...okay...why do you have an underwater chamber back home?"

"It used to be a torture chamber."

"Ah."

The fact that Zhen Xun Tian was willing and able to provide the appropriate facility for rearing aquatic beasts was useful, to say the least, but that didn’t change the main issue

Namely, that they didn’t have an Abyssal Beasts...yet.

"Alright, even if we have the proper facility, it’ll take time to prepare it...anyways, what about the beast in question? What are we working with here?"

"That’s the fun part," Zhen Xun Tian replied with a semi-manical smile that Zhen Shi recognized as being a sign she was about to suggest something borderline absurd.

Shortly after making this statement, Zhen Xun Tian stood up from her seat and produced from her person...a pair of fishing rods.

She didn’t have to say a word for Zhen Shi to understand her meaning...but she said so anyways.

"We’re gonna go fishing for one ourselves!"

"Of course..."

Knowing full well there was no arguing against, Zhen Shi eventually acquiesced.

"Oh come on, dear nephew. Think of it as a chance for us to catch up on lost time. Plus, we can bring...wait... actually strike bringing along the Raijin Hippo, that might not end well due to her lack of Luxarii aether...innate or otherwise."

"Ah...understandable," Zhen Shi agreed, knowing full well the dangers of [Shadow Water]. "Besides, Tiny isn’t here right now."

"Oh?"

"Xiao Liu had to borrow her for exploration reasons."

"By himself?"

"Not by himself, he brought along company."

"Ah...who’d he bring?"

"Well..."

________________________________________

Meanwhile, somewhere in Roaring Tide...

<On the road again, on the road again, gonna go dig up some dead motherfucker’s remains.~>

=Well, you seem excited for some reason.=

<I should be excited. It’s been ages since we’ve been on an adventure sans the family or people we have to keep secrets from.>

=We’re not even physically there.=

<Doesn’t matter.>

=I guess...that stated, I think the family is wising up to our lord and the kaijin. Especially since we’ve been a bit fast and loose on their sentience and abilities.=

<That may be the case, but we can’t say shit until our lord deems it so.>

=How long until that happens?=

<Hopefully soon. I mean...he told the girls before them.>

=Speaking of...you think they’ll use their presents soon?=

<Hopefully.>

=Me too. How are the kaijin by the way?=

<Lemme check...>

...

[Gods above and below! I almost forgot how good the sunlight feels against my undisguised flesh!,] Hurricroak shouted with glee as she spread her arms wide open.

Off to the side, Nepherage and Frosttusk were watching their electrical frog friend act like a fool.

[Quit being dramatic,] Nepherage chided. [You’ll fall off the barge if you keep that up.]

[Pfft! I’m a frog, remember? That ain’t no issue.]

[Besides...we...can...just...grab...her...]

[True.]

"Grunt."

[And Tiny agrees.]

...

[So... y’all think we’ll have a chance to fight as well?,] Screamira asked Razorstella and Spring Brawler.

[With our luck, more than likely.]

[Cool.]

...

Several dozen miles away from Willow Scale City, a strange cart was leisurely floating down a river.

This cart was being pulled by Tiny, the Raijin Hippo of the Zhen Clan, while the kaijin, Nepherage, Hurricroak and Frosttusk were relaxing on her back. As for the cart itself, Razorstella, Screamira and Spring Brawler had opted to take up shop there to minimize their exposure to both moisture and sun.

As for the leader of these monstrous weirdos, Zhen Liu, he was sitting near the front near Tiny’s head. But he wasn’t alone.

"Kuu!"

"Hey, whoa! No running off on your own yet, little one. Not while we’re moving."

"Kuu..."

In Zhen Liu’s lap was the baby Raijin Hippo known as Mini.

Despite knowing the dangers of exploring unknown rivers, Tiny insisted the baby’s presence so that she could grow and learn.

Aside from her though, there were actually two other guests by Zhen Liu’s side.

"So this is Roaring Tide, huh? It’s a beautiful place...although, I do have one complaint."

"The humidity?"

"Yup. I’m pretty sure it’s making my already curly hair even curlier."

"If it helps, I got hair ribbons for this exact purpose."

"Oh, yes please."

To be more specific, they were his fiancees from Stampeding Bison, Bellona Ecaredies and Alicia Goldshire.

At this moment in time, the two had situated themselves on either side of Zhen Liu with their arms wrapped around his.

Was this the safest place for them to be seated?

No, because they could very easily fall into the water or be targeted by unsavory malefactors due to the exposed position they were in. Granted, the two of them had become peak Aether Masters since the last he saw them so his worries were a little unjustified.

Did they insist to do so, much to Zhen Liu’s worry for their safety?

Yes, because now was as good a time as any other to actively flirt with him.

That sounded like a shallow and banal reason to be hanging around him right now, but it had been a little over two months since they had last interacted with each other in a meaningful capacity. The coincidental party where they learned Zhen Liu had somehow became the future bridegroom to a literal dragon princess, didn’t count for obvious reasons.

So, when the two of them caught Zhen Liu in the middle of preparing for yet another independent galavant for Kaijin Lord related shenanigans, they insisted on coming along.

Not only because they wanted to deepen their relationship, but because the last few times Zhen Liu went off and did own things unsupervised, he came back with Rianna.

There was a non-zero chance that he would come back with more girls around his arms, and frankly speaking, they wanted to wait until after they had officially tied the knot before he had a chance to accidentally charm more girls.

That stated, the likelihood of Zhen Liu finding and charming yet another girl to fall in love with him was...less than likely.

After all, they were headed to one of the most dangerous areas in all of Roaring Tide.

"So, Xiao Liu, where exactly are we headed to?," Bellona asked. "All the kaijin said was that we were headed towards the burial of a prior lord. By the way, why haven’t you used the core you got from me to make a kaijin yet? Is it so you can keep a part of me close to you at all times?"

"We’re-wait, what?"

Evidently, Zhen Liu’s ability to answer was compromised by the sheer boldness of Bellona’s words.

It took him a few seconds to reboot and answer.