Chapter 180: Chapter 180: The Arrival of Poisonous Insect Granny

"You big bully, stop picking on the boss lady!"

A three-or-four-year-old cub in the crowd mustered his courage, picked up a rock, and threw it at Ao Yin.

He wasn’t very strong and missed Ao Yin, but it was enough to enrage him.

Seeing his displeased expression, the surrounding Beastmen quickly hid the cub behind them. Ao Yin saw this, gritted his teeth, shot Yu An one last glance, and left with his men.

Yu An, committed to her act, made a show of relaxing and gestured for the others to get back in line.

After turning a corner, Ao Yin stopped and took a long, hard look at the cart that was about to disappear from view.

From behind, someone ran over hurriedly. "Alliance Hierarch, the men sent to the Mist Forest have returned."

Ao Yin withdrew his gaze. "What’s the report?"

The subordinate reported, "The wooden cabin has been destroyed. That lord has already left with the surviving cubs and the human face flowers. He says he wants the Alliance Hierarch to find him another quiet place."

Ao Yin felt a wave of irritation, but since he needed a favor from the man, he had no choice but to swallow his pride and help. "Pass down the order. Find a place that meets his requirements."

"Yes."

The subordinate hesitated for a moment before adding, "Alliance Hierarch, that lord also said... he wants more cubs. Preferably... preferably cubs who are blood-related to Lord Huang."

The previous request was manageable; it would just take some effort. But after hearing this, Ao Yin’s expression turned completely grim.

"Aren’t those the children born to that bastard?"

But he still hadn’t found out where those children were, let alone captured them.

The subordinate lowered his head. "The lord said that if you can capture those cubs for him, he will agree to one of your conditions."

Ao Yin paused. "Go back and tell him I’ll consider it."

’It’s not just a matter of considering it; I also have to figure out how to find those cubs.’

Over the next few days, Yu An could sense that someone was secretly watching them. But these people never made a move; it seemed they were only there to observe.

Ao Yin didn’t show up again when she set up her stall. Yu An later added ice jelly, chilled sweet dumplings, and the like, successfully completing her current mission.

After teaching the residents of Sand City her method for Ice Making, she planned to go to Coral Maze City.

Coral Maze City was where the Merfolk Clan had lived on the Beast God Continent many years ago. Ao Er said that he and his two brothers had each been taken to the Death Abyss, the Underground Mine, and Coral Maze City.

Based on her experiences the last two times, Yu An figured that Lan Yin was very likely in Coral Maze City.

Ao Er also remarked on the coincidence. "Perhaps my third brother will run into your Merfolk Beast Husband. If they help each other, they shouldn’t have to suffer too much."

They didn’t know what the situation in Coral Maze City was like; they assumed people were just trapped inside Coral City and forced to do things.

Little did they know that the place was fraught with mortal danger.

Ao Yin didn’t stop them from leaving, merely ordering his men to follow them from a distance. He was currently worried about Ao Er and Feng Xuan—oh, and the overseer with the surname Lin.

"Still haven’t found them? Are you all a bunch of useless fools?!"

It wasn’t that he hadn’t suspected Yu An of rescuing Ao Er, but on second thought, he felt it was impossible.

’Yu An doesn’t even know her own background. How could she have recognized Ao Er as her uncle?’

’Besides, if Yu An had rescued him, my men, who have been watching her and her Beast Husbands day and night, should have seen them meet with Ao Er.’

"Alliance Hierarch, please calm your anger..."

The subordinates quickly begged for forgiveness, but before Ao Yin could have them taken away for punishment, an aged voice came from outside the door.

"Alliance Hierarch."

It was Poisonous Insect Granny.

Ao Yin was overjoyed and quickly invited Poisonous Insect Granny inside. "Granny, you’ve finally come."

Poisonous Insect Granny had barely escaped with her life, and her body hadn’t yet recovered when Ao Yin summoned her. At this moment, her face was etched with exhaustion.

Ao Yin had only suspected that Yu An was Ao Jin’s daughter and hadn’t confirmed it yet. He was anxious for her to make the identification, so he failed to notice her condition. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

After listening to his account and hearing Yu An’s name, Poisonous Insect Granny nodded. "Alliance Hierarch, she is indeed the daughter of Ao Jin and Yu Huang."

"Good," Ao Yin’s expression turned frigid. "I’ll have my men capture her immediately and draw her blood."

’Even though Ao Er escaped, there’s still Ao Shan in Coral Maze City. The priority is to extract the Phoenix Blood and transfer it to someone else.’

Then, Poisonous Insect Granny noticed the people kneeling on the floor. "Alliance Hierarch, what’s this about...?"

"They’re incompetent. It was a simple matter of finding someone, and they haven’t succeeded after several days."

Ao Yin said irritably, "Ao Yi and a group of Beastmen from the Death Abyss have all disappeared. From the Underground Mine, that Ao Er escaped with someone named Feng Xuan and an overseer with the surname Lin. Otherwise, I’d have at least three people I could use."

When Poisonous Insect Granny heard Feng Xuan’s name and thought of Yu An, she quickly asked for Feng Xuan’s physical description.

Ao Yin gave a brief description, and she understood at once.

"It was Yu An who rescued them," Poisonous Insect Granny said with certainty. "Feng Xuan is Yu An’s Beast Husband, and she has appeared in Sand City before. It’s definitely connected to her."

"So that’s how it is!"

Ao Yin slammed his fist against the wall. "Men! Go and capture Yu An! Bring her back, now! Immediately!"

While he was seething with impotent rage, Chu Feng, who had been standing silently behind Poisonous Insect Granny, quietly slipped away.

Making an excuse to leave the City Lord Mansion, he found a remote corner and released two pigeons, one flying south, the other north.

Only after the pigeons had flown far away did he breathe a sigh of relief.

Ao Yin had sent people back to the Invincible Alliance to bring Poisonous Insect Granny and Yu Huang over. Yu Huang had used the excuse of recuperating from her injuries to stay behind, sending him to be at Ao Yin’s disposal instead.

’I can’t believe I overheard something like this. Although I don’t know what blood they want to draw, judging by Ao Yin’s hatred for that child, Yu An, it can’t be anything good.’

One pigeon was to warn Yu An to flee at once. The other flew to the Invincible Alliance to tell Yu Huang what he had heard today.

The pigeon was swift, arriving just before the people from the Invincible Alliance caught up with Yu An and her group. After reading the letter’s contents, a strange sense of calm, as if the dust had finally settled, washed over Yu An.

’Poisonous Insect Granny isn’t dead, and Ao Yin now knows I’m the child of Yu Huang and Ao Jin. From now on, he’s sure to be merciless with me.’

’In that case, I’m done pretending.’

She didn’t take Chu Feng’s advice to flee to the Dragon Clan as quickly as possible. Instead, she chose to face the pursuers from the Invincible Alliance head-on.

Anyone who’s had to deal with a psychotic enemy knows that some things can’t be solved by backing down or hiding. Only when you beat them and kill them into submission will they finally behave and stop causing trouble.

Ao Wu transformed into his beast form and flew into the air to scout the enemy’s position. He quickly flew back down. "An’an, there are a lot of them. I’d estimate one or two hundred people."

The corner of Yu An’s mouth twitched. "Does he really hate me that much? He’s really willing to send out so many people."

"Of course," Ao Er joked. "He won’t even spare the children we Female Mothers and Beast Fathers adopted together, let alone you, his own flesh and blood."

"If he hadn’t been unable to mobilize more people on short notice, the Invincible Alliance probably would have sent everyone they have."

"Then I must be quite the big shot," Yu An chuckled. "In that case, to make sure these annoying pests don’t bother us later, let’s just beat them into submission!"