Several more days passed in a blur.
That afternoon, Lu Chen was practicing swordsmanship in the sea when Huang Rong suddenly came running over, shouting from afar:
"Brother Lu Chen, Brother Lu Chen... Western Venom is here!"
Hearing this, Lu Chen burst from the sea like a dragon emerging from the waters. With a boom, he surged out amid a massive column of water, crossed more than thirty feet in a flash, and landed atop a reef. Wiping the water from his face, he asked:
"Has Western Venom already come ashore?"
"Not yet."
Huang Rong ran up to Lu Chen, her little face slightly flushed and her expression tense.
"His messenger came ashore first in a small boat to announce that Western Venom's ship would reach Peach Blossom Island in two quarters of an hour at the earliest, or half an hour at the latest."
"Since there's still time, there's no need to hurry."
Lu Chen smiled faintly.
"I'll take a shower and change first, then go see what Western Venom is capable of."
Seeing how calm and unhurried he was, Huang Rong's tension and worry gradually faded as well. Smiling, she followed him toward Finger Flicking Peak and asked:
"Brother Lu Chen, how confident are you that you can defeat Western Venom?"
"He is, after all, one of the Five Greats Grandmasters. Even if I believe my trump card counters his, I can't speak too confidently. So, forty-five percent?"
"Forty-five percent? That's already incredible! Father says that if he fought Western Venom, he would only have a fifty percent chance of winning. The other fifty percent would belong to Western Venom."
"Yet if I faced Senior Huang, my odds would be less than forty percent. Senior Huang's abilities restrain mine somewhat."
"You're not just being modest for my sake,