The Sea-Calming Alliance!
Xie Kun's expression changed. Then he met a pair of eyes that seemed to smile without quite smiling, and his heart lurched. This was trouble.
Had some ordinary wanderer or lesser faction intercepted the Alligator Dragon, he could have invoked the Jiangling Xie Family's reputation and crushed them beneath its influence.
He could even have ordered his men to seize it outright, killing anyone who resisted.
But instead, he had run into Hong Yuan-the Sea-Calming Dragon King, the Divine Prison Spear Lord, whose meteoric rise had made his name resound throughout Ming Province in so little time!
Why had he appeared in Xingqing Prefecture?
And why had he captured the Abyssal Alligator Dragon they had struggled so desperately to hunt down?
Xie Kun's expression shifted wildly, flickering between light and shadow.
The Xie Family guards behind him also recognized Hong Yuan. Their aggressive charge faltered, and they instinctively tightened their reins, sending sand and dust flying.
Xie Kun glanced over and saw the Sea-Calming Alliance's sailors and guards hauling the Alligator Dragon toward the deck. They were almost done.
Panic gripped him. Taking it by force was out of the question. That would be pure suicide.
Hong Yuan was a peerless figure who had killed two Subtlety grandmasters with effortless gestures and broken an army single-handedly. Before such a ferocious god, his few dozen men were no different from clay chickens and pottery dogs.
Yet Xie Kun could not stomach standing by while the other man took the Abyssal Alligator Dragon away.
Drawing a deep breath, he urged his horse forward until it stood in the shallow river water. He called out, "So it is Alliance Leader Hong of the Sea-Calming Alliance! I have long heard of your great name. Seeing you today, you truly are extraordinary."