Hou Niao was inside a pitch-black space, with large fish constantly swimming around him. He could feel how cramped it was, but he was safe here.
From the very start of the battle, he had sensed something amiss, from the killer whales' special attention to the slight oddness of his two companions. So even though he didn't know where the danger was coming from, that didn't mean he was unprepared.
Just as Bai Qingqian had thought, how could someone like him leave his life behind for a few meager resources? It wasn't worth it.
His backup plan was simple: the Red Ru Family.
Just as Senior Brother Duanmu had said before leaving, don't pin your hopes on someone else helping you in a crisis. If you don't speak up, how will anyone know what you need? This wasn't a Tale of the Strange, where some Good Person would always come to save I, the Emperor.
So, at the very start of the battle, he had opened his mouth and used Divine Sense to ask the Red Ru to wait underwater. That was also one reason he had circled around the three killer whales at the beginning of the fight.
The Red Ru hadn't answered, but he knew it had heard him.
The space he was in now was inside the Red Ru's mouth, together with the Little Red Ru. It was a little cramped. These little fellows no longer seemed so little to him; every one of them was twice his size, and they were quite restless. He figured that in less than a year, their mother would no longer be able to carry them in her mouth on long journeys.
His physical condition was terrible-not just a little terrible. He'd had two wounds, and now he had three. The