Chapter 306

Chapter 306: A Leopard Stands By His Own Actions
Since there was no way to escape, Hua Tu decided he might as well stop trying to run.

He turned around, lifted his head and puffed out his chest as he faced the Vine King, who was waving several long vines: “Boss Vine, can we talk this out? I really did not mean any harm…”

Crack!

A green branch tore through the air like a long whip and lashed straight at Hua Tu’s face.

Hua Tu jolted in fright. He pushed off with all four limbs and barely dodged the vine that sliced through the air like a blade.

Broken petals and fallen leaves flew everywhere.

He instinctively raised his front paw and rubbed the torn, bleeding wound. The pain made him bare his teeth: “Hey! I did not even do anything to you, did you have to hit so hard?!”

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Three more thick vines split off from the Vine King’s body.

Cursing under his breath, Hua Tu dodged for his life inside the ring of vines.

“Xixi.”

A childish giggle sounded next to Hua Tu’s ear.

He split off a bit of attention and looked toward the sound. The little vine whose barbs he had snapped off earlier was hanging proudly at the Vine King’s waist, shaking with joy like a water snake.

Hua Tu’s teeth itched with anger.

If this little vine had not tried to sneak attack him first, he would not have thought about snapping off its barbs.

It was clearly both their fault, so why was he, this one leopard, the only one getting beaten up? They were obviously bullying him because his guardian was not here!

So hateful!

At first, Hua Tu could still spare the effort to think about other things. But as more and more vines joined the battle, he started to feel the strain and slowly fell into disadvantage.

Crack!

“Aw!”

At some unknown point, the injured little vine had quietly joined the fight under cover of its companions. Taking advantage of the moment when Hua Tu was too busy to defend himself, it lashed across his round leopard butt with a sharp swish.

Hua Tu recognized it at once and his anger shot up.

The crack between his brows suddenly split open without a word.

A beam of black light shot out, and in the blink of an eye it reached the little vine.

Sensing the danger, the little vine shook like a sieve and let out a terrified cry for help.

Boom!

A deafening bang rang out.

Under Hua Tu’s shocked gaze, the black light slammed straight into a gigantic body.

Bark exploded in all directions.

The Vine King’s body did not move at all. Only the square foot of damaged bark showed any trace of the battle.

Hua Tu could not help sinking into despair.

His so-called killing blow had done almost no damage to the Vine King.

Escaping from this monster’s hands was basically impossible.

He thought that if Yu Zhao were here and they could work together, he would still have a tiny bit of hope.

But compared to Yu Zhao keeping her life, those two parts of hope were not worth mentioning at all.

Hua Tu lowered his front half. A rare look of resolve flashed in his pale gold leopard eyes.

Even if he had to die, he, Hua Tu – the most handsome Three-Eyed Leopard and a hot candidate to inherit the Beast King’s position – would die in a blaze of glory.

He gathered all his strength and opened his mouth: “Awo… mmm!”

His tragic roar had just begun when someone clamped a hand over his mouth and cut it off.

Then he felt a cool aura come close to him.

Yu Zhao held Hua Tu’s mouth shut with one hand and turned to look back at the wildly dancing vines, pain in her eyes: “Stop howling and run!”

Yu Zhao had crushed her last Icefire Nether Blossom and mixed it with Incense Blend to put the Vine King into a dazed state.

But the Vine King was huge, so the Icefire Nether Blossom would not last long on him.

That meant they did not have much time to escape.

After speaking, Yu Zhao saw Hua Tu still staring blankly, not reacting at all. She frowned, flipped herself onto his back, braced her legs, and gave him a fierce kick.

“Mm!”

Hua Tu’s eyes went wide at once. The confusion in them vanished. Driven by the pain, he pushed off with all four limbs. In an instant, he turned into a bolt of lightning, racing like thunder.

The fierce Gang Wind whipped across Yu Zhao’s face. She did not blink. Her hands kept forming seals, leaving one Illusion Array after another behind them.

Hua Tu had been stunned when Yu Zhao came back again. Only after she smacked him twice did he regain his senses and pull himself together.

Thinking of how Yu Zhao had given up her chance to flee and turned back to save him, the fire in his heart spread through all four limbs and across his whole body. Even his eyes took on a faint red tint.

Since Yu Zhao trusted him so much, he would never let anything happen to her!

He gritted his teeth and pushed his demon qi to the limit. A stream of pale blue air swirled soundlessly under his paws. His running speed kept climbing, until even Yu Zhao could tell something was off.

Her gaze flickered, then smoothed out again.

But the downside of demon qi running too fast soon showed itself. A sharp stabbing pain came from Hua Tu’s four limbs.

As he kept running, the pain grew stronger and stronger, and it slowly went beyond what he could bear.

“Huff, huff…”

Rough gasps and sharp ringing filled his ears, trading places again and again.

His vision started to blur, and another voice appeared in his heart.

[Do not be afraid. Just stop and rest for a bit.]

[If you keep running, you will die.]

[Your body cannot take this, Hua Tu. Stop now!]

Should he stop?

Hua Tu’s resolve wavered.

He was really tired.

More tired than he had ever been.

If he was going to die anyway, he would rather die fast and clean than in this cowardly way.

Maybe he should just stop…

The moment this thought flashed through his mind, he snapped awake.

He was not alone right now. Someone else was running side by side with him.

As his thoughts cleared, a warm current rose from deep inside his body and slightly eased the ache in his limbs.

Hua Tu froze.

He was actually breaking through at a time like this?

He lifted his head.

Up ahead was already the edge of Myriad Flowers Island.

In just a few breaths, they could escape Myriad Flowers Island!

Hua Tu did not even have time to be happy before an astonishing pressure fell from the sky.

It felt like someone stomped down on his head. His body fell out of the air without control and slammed into the ground, sending flower petals flying everywhere.

Rumble!

Wrapped in killing intent from head to toe, the Vine King dragged its huge body toward Yu Zhao and Hua Tu. The whole island shook.

Hua Tu struggled to stand, but his body had just gone through a burst of overloading speed and then taken a heavy blow. He really could not support himself.

Yu Zhao’s expression was grave. Her arms hung in front of her and trembled slightly.

It was not fear. It was the injury she had taken when she blocked that pressure just now.

That brief clash, which did not even count as a true head-on fight, made her clearly understand the gap between her and the Vine King once again.

Even if she and Hua Tu escaped Myriad Flowers Island, with the Vine King’s countless Clone Techniques, catching them and dragging them back would not be hard at all.

Yu Zhao finally understood why almost all the cultivators who came to explore the secret places on Myriad Flowers Island died and never returned.

They did not die in the natural spell formations formed by the countless flowers. They died at the hands of the island’s true king, who absorbed and dissolved them as nourishment.

Would she and Hua Tu end up the same way?

Yu Zhao’s eyes darkened as her thoughts spun quickly.

Hua Tu lifted his neck with difficulty and spoke in broken phrases: “Yu Zhao, y-you go first. I was the one who provoked that vine. I will deal with it…”

A leopard should take responsibility for his own actions.

He did not want to drag Yu Zhao down with him.

Yu Zhao cut him off: “Shut up.”

“…Oh.”