You Cannot Be This Shameless

Steve, who had been frolicking with the two children in the outer room, heard Du Chen's shout and his expression subtly shifted. The playboy demeanor vanished instantly, replaced entirely by the cold-blooded, aloof Flaying. He scooped up the two children and rushed into the inner room, “Third Brother, where are they?! Who are the opponents?!”

A layer of mist suddenly enveloped Du Chen, carrying Steve and the children out the window with such speed that Liana could barely glimpse them, feeling as if Du Chen had vanished into thin air! It was none other than the Wind and Thunder Dual Wings, possessing the swiftness of Green Cloud and the aid of Wind Source!

However, though the Wind and Thunder Dual Wings were swift, Battle God Isle was still one hundred and fifty nautical miles from Tiger Shark Reef. In the brief time before Du Chen could arrive, many things were destined to unfold upon Tiger Shark Reef!

After delivering his message, Andy, abandoning Dud—whom he considered ‘incompetent’—dove from the sky. Mid-descent, he let out a dragon's roar, his entire body transforming into a colossal silver dragon, plunging downwards amidst a fierce, icy gale: the Frigid Dragon Hurricane Array!

Merlinta, still annoyed by Phil’s constraints, suddenly felt killing intent emerge above her. She looked up and couldn't help but exclaim, “Oh? When did the Dragon Clan acquire a Thirteenth-rank expert?!” The Old Matriarch casually waved her hand, and the waves of the sea coalesced into the form of a trident, surging up to meet Andy in the sky!

Andy cried out in his heart, “Heavens, this Old Matriarch is probably even mightier than Margaret!” He dared not directly confront the trident’s sharp edge. His dragon wings unfurled lightly, and he landed obliquely upon Tiger Shark Reef. Immediately, the giant dragon’s feet touched ground, and he charged towards Merlinta!

Merlinta paused, confused. What was the meaning of this? A giant dragon actually running to charge her? This, this should be the fighting style of the Tiger-Wolf Clan! But the Old Matriarch instantly understood. Andy had only run a few steps before his body transformed again. The massive silver dragon gradually shrank, morphing into a golden-fanged, bristly-backed tiger that pounced towards her. A golden blade light, faster than the beast itself, preceded it—it was the Tiger Emperor’s Roaring Slash!

Merlinta waved her hand again, summoning another trident, this one even swifter than before. Andy had no time to change his tactics. With a resounding crash, the trident pierced through the blade light, its momentum unchecked, heading straight for Andy’s face!

Andy blinked, then suddenly chuckled, “Can’t beat you, see ya!” With that, the Snow Wolf plopped into the sea!

Merlinta no longer pursued Xue Ji and the others. Instead, her gaze fixed on the sea. This shape-shifting, ‘decently’ strong Aberrant Beast had piqued her interest. Yet, Merlinta’s Divine Sense swept across the vast ocean… and found no trace of Andy’s aura, only the familiar scent of the Sea Clan in the water.

As she pondered, with a thunderous splash, a hundred-zhang tall, colossal Thorny Merfolk erupted from the water. Its enormous palm, like a dark cloud, covered Merlinta’s head, with flickering lightning within its grasp—a Composite Aberrant Beast, the Mutated Merfolk King, possessing Electric Eel traits!

This technique, suited for sea battles, was rarely used by Andy, yet it was Du Chen’s favorite. For this ability originated from the Merfolk King whom he and Deboning had vanquished during their travels, though it had since been greatly mutated and enhanced!

Merlinta scoffed coldly. In a sea battle, Andy was truly a mere child compared to her. She raised her hand to meet Andy’s giant palm…

However, while Andy was undergoing his three transformations in quick succession, the others were not idle. Phil, seeing the sudden appearance of a transformed Aberrant Beast, paused for a moment, then smilingly watched the spectacle unfold. She didn’t recognize Andy, but she had heard Steve mention her third son possessed a Composite Aberrant Beast, so by Andy’s second transformation, she already knew who had arrived. Thus, she was in no hurry, wishing to observe what capabilities her son’s Divine Pet possessed!

Xue Ji, on the other hand, understood Andy perfectly. She urgently cried, “It’s Andy, Sixth Brother-in-law, let’s aid him with moonlight!” With that, Xue Ji traced an enchanting arc in the air, her Moon Wheel Dance Secret Technique emitting a pure and gentle moonlight… Although Charlemagne was known as an Astral Battle God, skilled in starlight, was moonlight not also a form of starlight?! He immediately radiated moonlight towards Andy! Combined with the dark, full moon night, three beams of moonlight simultaneously shone upon Andy!

And then, look again!

The enormous Merfolk, mid-strike, suddenly let out a long wolf howl. Its body abruptly shrank, transforming into a lean, muscular Wolf-man, and its speed suddenly increased more than tenfold. Merlinta was just raising her hand to deal with the Merfolk’s giant palm, but in a flash, the Merfolk vanished without a trace, and a silver figure flickered. A wolf claw slashed viciously from her right ear to the corner of her left mouth…

*I, I was hit!? I, Merlinta, an Imperial Divine Beast, was actually struck by a junior Aberrant Beast!?*

Merlinta sustained no heavy injuries; only five faint scratches remained on her cheek. But… after Andy’s successful strike, he abruptly widened the distance, crouched on the reef, and lightly sniffed a tuft of white hair from his claw. The Silver Moon Roaring Wolf, howling into the wind, was thousands of times more uninhibited and carefree than the disfigured Merlinta…

Merlinta’s pride had suffered an unprecedented blow!

“Sea’s Dominion…” Merlinta stared fixedly at Andy, almost grinding the words through her teeth. Simultaneously, she held her hands flat, her entire being resembling a cruciform judgment!

Phil’s expression changed. A Secret Technique message: “Andy, this Old Matriarch is getting serious, run!”

At this moment, Du Chen and Steve had arrived above Tiger Shark Reef. Seeing Madam Xerxes, Du Chen instantly grasped the general situation. What more was there to say? It must have been his great-aunt’s “classical” temper flaring up, intending to severely punish Xue Ji on the spot! Du Chen was enraged with a rare ferocity. True, Merlinta was Francis’s unquestionable blood relative, but even among relatives, there were degrees of closeness and distance. What’s more, Du Chen was not Francis, so did he still need to respect Merlinta?

On one side was the woman Du Chen recognized, his fiancée! On the other was Francis’s great-aunt whom he had never met, a Stubborn Old Coot! Du Chen’s attitude was self-evident!

Calmly observing the situation, and seeing that Andy could at least hold on for a bit longer, Du Chen said coldly, “Eldest Brother, you and the two children hide in my Precious Lotus Scripture for now. I’ll handle things here alone!”

Steve frowned, “What do you intend to do?”

Du Chen looked at Xue Ji with a pang of heartache, then grinned sinisterly, “No one gets to bully my woman for free! Mother is right here; after today’s battle, she’ll probably have a showdown with us anyway. So, before the formal meeting…” He quickly gave a few instructions, then grinned slyly, “Hmph, I’m a gangster. This kind of business isn’t suitable for you nobles!”

Steve mused for a moment, then chuckled, “Third Brother, remember to get some old scores back for me! That Old Matriarch beat me badly that day!!”

Du Chen nodded slightly. The invisible Wind and Thunder Dual Wings slowly unfurled behind him. At that instant, it seemed Du Chen merged with the sky, remarkably similar to Merlinta’s earlier merging with the sea! Even more, the clouds across the entire sky slowly converged, and for a moment, wind and thunder obeyed his command… Gifted by Master Grape, wielding the power of heaven and earth’s wind and thunder!

On the sea, Merlinta, with hands held flat in a large cross, was about to execute Andy on the spot. Suddenly, she sharply looked up at the sky, “Such pure lightning!” Du Chen’s lightning, like his Lotus Holy Light, while not as powerful as Margaret’s Water’s Embrace Holy Radiance, was fundamentally the most sacred light. The thunderclouds were the same; their power might not catch Merlinta’s eye, but their essence was unparalleled!

Merlinta slowly lowered her hands, then shouted, “Ruilong, are you not dead yet?! Why has your Celestial Dominion Lightning lost its Golden Holy Breath and regressed to Thirteenth-rank peak strength?!”

The Old Matriarch secretly thought, *Only the strongest of the Imperial Divine Beasts, the supreme Ruilong, could unleash lightning of such pure essence!*

Alas, she guessed wrong! With a thunderous boom, a streak of blue-purple lightning struck from the sky!

Merlinta was utterly furious, “Ruilong, after a thousand years, do you wish to test if my Sea’s Dominion Curtain is still mighty?!”

Her answer came in hundreds of lightning bolts, streaks of electricity like a torrential downpour in a gale. But as all the lightning reached the skies above Tiger Shark Reef, it abruptly twisted its direction, converging onto Merlinta’s head alone!

The Sixth Trigram Thunder Wing had but one purpose: “Those who defy, be struck by lightning!”

Merlinta snorted heavily, and a circle of black halo suddenly appeared above her head. Perhaps this was the Sea’s Dominion Curtain she spoke of. The black halo seemed to possess an devouring ability, silently eroding all the lightning away. But just then… Du Chen, concealed, Wind Source accelerating, Fire Lotus Lantern bursting for another speed boost, Qian Trigram Lotus Platform hiding his aura, Water Veil Shield protecting his entire body, and Sands of the Hourglass forming a powerful punch—at a speed far beyond what the eye could perceive, bypassing all of Merlinta’s senses, he arrived directly before her!

“Old woman, some people aren’t for you to casually bully!” By the time his voice reached Merlinta’s ears, Du Chen had already leaped high, using his favorite and most practiced street fighting move: he grabbed Merlinta’s hair, drove his knee into her face, and with a muffled thud, landed a brutal knee strike squarely on Merlinta’s visage!

Merlinta was caught off guard, instantly dazed. Her head was pulled down by Du Chen’s grip on her hair, and Du Chen seized the opportunity to flip over, wielding a Precious Lotus Scripture like a brick. With a “whoosh,” he slammed it onto the back of Merlinta’s head, immediately knocking her to the ground with a groan, utterly disheveled and miserable!

At this moment, Du Chen sneered inwardly, *“The first strike was for Xue Ji, this ‘brick’ is to settle Eldest Brother’s score, next…”*

Before the Old Matriarch could react, Du Chen unfurled his Wind and Thunder Dual Wings, sweeping Xue Ji, Charlemagne, Roland, and Andy far away. He then revealed himself, protecting Xue Ji, and with a righteous, angry expression, declared, “Your Excellency Merlinta, do you wish for this vast ocean and the starry night sky to jointly bear witness to your shamelessness?!”

Merlinta was absolutely furious, but Du Chen’s insult stunned her for a moment. “Me, shameless? What right do you, rebellious beast, have to scold me? Die!”

“If you have any shred of shame, stop right there!” Du Chen shouted, then “helplessly” struck a combat pose, sneering, “Hmph, never mind! If you wish to fight, I shall oblige! You don’t seem like the type to reason!”

Merlinta abruptly halted her pursuit, raging, “When have I ever been unreasonable?!”

Du Chen rubbed his nose, thinking, *Phew! As long as this Old Matriarch is willing to stop and talk, otherwise… I really don’t have the confidence to deal with her!*

Merlinta was indeed formidable. Andy’s claw, Du Chen’s knee strike, and his ‘brick’ had all landed squarely and forcefully on her head! Yet Merlinta only had a slightly bruised nose and disheveled hair… It seemed that if not for Andy’s sudden transformation and Du Chen’s advantage of artifact concealment, in a head-on confrontation, Merlinta would undoubtedly have had more than a slight edge over them!

Du Chen’s tone softened, “Good, since you’re so reasonable, then tell me, what grievance does my fiancée have with you that you would try to kill her?!”

“That little slut has three…” Merlinta intended to repeat Xue Ji’s three aforementioned ‘crimes,’ but the words caught in her throat, and she froze, unsure what to say!

Du Chen secretly curled his lip and chuckled, *Speak up, why don’t you speak up! Let’s see what you can possibly say. Damn it, do you think those two blows of mine were just an impulsive outburst!?*

Bunny-grandpa Snoopy once said, “The stronger the Aberrant Beast, the stronger its pride!” Merlinta, relying on her superior martial strength, had unhesitatingly moved to punish Xue Ji, yet had been repeatedly humiliated by Andy and Du Chen. How could she voice those words? Was the highly prideful Old Matriarch supposed to say, “I, Great Aunt, was going to cleanse the family, but I didn’t expect that in the end, the ‘family’ ended up cleansing me…”

Merlinta would absolutely never utter such a humiliating truth herself! And Du Chen seized precisely this point, satisfying his craving to beat an Imperial Divine Beast, venting his frustrations, and at the same time, sealing Merlinta’s mouth—*Old Matriarch, if you’re not afraid of me revealing the utterly disgraceful events of tonight, then by all means, come trouble me with your ‘classical’ notions!*

Merlinta was speechless, but Du Chen continued to press on the half-finished sentence stuck in her throat, pointing at Merlinta and raging, “You hadn’t even finished speaking, and you opened your mouth to call her ‘little slut’… Good! Good! Good! I understand! This is how you ‘reason’! Today, I, Francis, have truly had my eyes opened and my horizons broadened, to know that there’s someone like you in this world!”

Merlinta could neither fight nor speak. Her face was ashen, and in a fit of rage, she stomped, shattering the reef beneath her feet!

At this, Xue Ji whispered from behind Du Chen, “This person just said she was your family elder, and she wanted to ‘cleanse the family’… Don’t you know her?”

Du Chen deliberately feigned surprise, looked at Merlinta in astonishment, then indignantly shouted, “Old Matriarch, you cannot be so shameless!”

“I, I… how am I shameless again?!”

“Your Excellency Merlinta, are you still playing dumb with me? Fine! If you won’t reason with me, then I, Francis, will reason with you – I’ve told you before, haven’t I? I, Francis, have already been expelled from the family register, even my surname taken back! So now my only family elder is Du Chen, the Divine, and my only external elder is Teacher Zigurd! You claim to be my elder, clearly just making excuses to wantonly harm Xue Ji…” Du Chen trailed off, shaking his head repeatedly, looking like he was casting pearls before swine, wronged and unable to explain himself!

Yet, these words garnered immense sympathy from Xue Ji and Charlemagne. They thought, *Yes, it was a life-and-death situation just now, we didn’t have time to think carefully. But now, it’s almost common knowledge who Francis’s elders are! Even Xue Ji had never heard of this Old Matriarch who suddenly appeared. So… this Old Matriarch truly is as Francis said, shamelessly impersonating an elder just to find an excuse to hurt someone!*

Everyone collectively stared at Merlinta with disdain…

The Old Matriarch finally couldn’t take it anymore and turned to Phil, casting a pleading look!

Phil sighed softly, *I knew bringing this Stubborn Old Coot wouldn’t lead to anything productive! Never mind, Aunt, you’ve already exposed our identities by beating Steve. What’s the harm in exposing them to one more son?* With a helpless smile, Phil’s form dissolved into mist. When the mist cleared, her appearance and attire had completely changed.

Golden hair, blue eyes, a white gown, her countenance bore a seven-tenths resemblance to Francis, yet lacked his masculine aura, instead exuding a vibrant feminine charm. “Francis, look at our faces. Need I say more?”

“You, you are…” Du Chen and everyone else were stunned. After a long moment, Du Chen suddenly turned to Merlinta and said, “Oh dear, so you really *are* my elder!”

A polite remark, yet to Merlinta, it was infuriating!

Phil glanced towards Battle God Isle, giving no one a chance to speak. “First thunder, then a tsunami! The experts from Battle God Isle are likely already investigating! Francis, and you, the one who uses starlight among the Requiem Death Knights, both of you come with me. Everyone else, disperse!”

Now, almost all influential figures among humanity had gathered at Battle God Isle. The defensive strength on that island was considerable—two points suffice: outside the island, three hundred thousand Papal Curia troops were stationed! Inside the island, the Pontiff brought two Thunder Cannons, which, combined with Battle God Isle’s original one, totaled three weapons capable of incinerating anyone with their Fiery Thunder blasts!

Sure enough, Papal Curia experts with investigative capabilities arrived at Tiger Shark Reef moments later. However, by then everyone had long dispersed. Du Chen and Charlemagne followed Phil south for about a hundred li, entering the vast ocean and arriving at a secluded deep-sea cave. Merlinta, meanwhile… was left outside to seethe alone!

Phil sat casually inside the cave, first signaling Du Chen not to rush, then smilingly asked Charlemagne, “Requiem Death Knights! I understand your rules, so I shall forgo the impropriety of asking your former name. But how did you know Battle God Isle would face great trouble? Was it truly Xue Ji’s astrology?”

Charlemagne glanced at Du Chen, then smiled, “Xue Ji is pure-hearted by nature and never lies. It was indeed calculated by our astrologer!”

Phil nodded slightly, then asked, “Astrology has seven realms. Your astrologer… should have cultivated to the Fifth Realm, ‘Indirect Inquiry,’ right?”

Charlemagne’s heart sank. He thought, *Francis’s mother is truly divine! Before today, Phil didn’t even know who Bovin was or what he looked like, so how could she accurately state Saint Bovin’s astrological realm now?*

Phil glanced at Charlemagne’s expression, “There’s a fundamental rule in astrology—the more powerful the person involved, the harder they are to divine! If your astrologer had reached the Seventh Realm, ‘Divine Scrying,’ you wouldn’t be probing Tiger Shark Reef tonight; you’d directly attack the enemy’s lair! Similarly, if your astrologer had mastered the Sixth Realm, ‘Fate Divination,’ you could limit your search to a small area, rather than casting a wide net as you did tonight… So that astrologer could only use ‘Indirect Inquiry’ to predict trouble for Battle God Isle, but couldn’t pinpoint when or where the disaster would occur!”

Charlemagne praised her from the heart, “Madam is wise!” So Madam Philia’s astonishing abilities stemmed from her incredibly vast knowledge!

Phil fell silent for a moment, then suddenly frowned, “I have some words that might be very harsh for you… do you wish to hear them?”

“Please speak, Madam!”

Phil waved her hand, “Go! Leave Battle God Isle! This Battle God Isle disaster is not something you are qualified to interfere with! If you stay here, you will only be a burden to Merlinta and me!”

Those words were truly harsh! Charlemagne’s expression instantly turned unpleasant, “Madam, what do you think of my strength?”

“Thirteenth-rank peak, almost equal to my son Francis!”

“But there are seven others stronger than me among the Requiem Death Knights, and our current leader Jamis is only slightly inferior to Margaret!” Charlemagne smiled proudly. “So, do you think we are qualified to save Battle God Isle?”

Phil smiled faintly, shaking her finger, “No!”

Charlemagne’s face darkened further, “If even we aren’t qualified to save Battle God Isle, then perhaps only the Divine Emperor’s resurrection would be!”

Phil stated very calmly, “Even Prince isn’t qualified… I’ll tell you plainly, this time, nine monsters are going to destroy Battle God Isle. Any one of these nine monsters has the strength to kill Prince, and… Prince was killed by them back then!”

*Could it be the Scarlet Army!?*

Du Chen sprang up. There were many things he didn’t understand while Phil and Charlemagne talked, but he had held back. This time he truly couldn’t, “Mother, have you returned to the world of mortals just to save Battle God Isle from the Scarlet Army?!”