I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense

Chapter 625: Chapter 626: Starting with the Death Penalty, No Upper Limit
This Merspider, with only the upper half visible, was definitely a peerless beauty, but the ten compound eyes on the lower half of her body, along with those eight fuzzy, ferocious legs, were unneringly creepy no matter how one looked at them.

However, for shrimp soldiers, a species that inherently didn’t care about the human form, the other was a knockout.

“Madam Hua Dan, I’ve brought a prisoner for you,”

“This one is no small fry, guess who sent him here—it’s a prisoner personally handed to me by the king!”

“You know what’s at stake here, so after you go in, make sure you treat him well. In a couple of days when Young Master Li is released, he won’t forget the favor you’ve done.”

The shrimp soldier said with a wink and a nudge.

But to no avail, for the merspider’s face remained an iceberg, utterly unaffected by the mention of the king.

“I’ve got it. Leave the person behind, you may go,”

Madam Hua Dan said.

“Ahem, by the way, Madam, do you have any free time lately to share a cup of tea?”

the shrimp soldier asked.

“What kind of tea?”

Madam Hua Dan asked.

“Dragon Palace’s special tribute, Dragon Well tea. The king gave me a pot as a year-end reward, and I’ve been too reluctant to drink it. Maybe I was waiting for Madam all along!”

The shrimp soldier said with a smug smile, his whiskers quivering uncontrollably with excitement. It seemed that she was indeed considering joining him for tea!

“What will we use for cups?”

Madam Hua Dan continued to ask.

“Transcendance Tribulation Stage Spiritual Artifact, bronze cups!”

“Where do the cups come from?”

“They’re naturally cast in the courts of the Dragon Palace of the Eastern Sea.”

“Where is the most important checkpoint of the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace located?”

“Naturally, it’s at the city gates.”

“And who is needed there to guard the gate?”

“Of course, it requires the services of shrimp someone like me!”

“Then shouldn’t you be going there now?”

Madam Hua Dan’s eyes narrowed slightly as she said coolly.

“Ah, right… Yes, yes, I’m on my way!”

The shrimp soldier hurriedly responded, scuttling away on his short little legs at a breakneck pace.

Li Xiaobai felt bemused. This shrimp soldier’s brains really weren’t the best, as seen from when he was playing rock-paper-scissors at the city gates earlier.

However, this merspider called Madam Hua Dan seemed not so easily fooled and required careful handling. Offering Spirit Stones as a bribe likely wouldn’t work.

Moreover, having spent a billion previously, his pockets were now embarrassingly thin. He needed to save his Spirit Stones for unforeseen circumstances and couldn’t afford to waste them recklessly.

“What’s your name?”

Madam Hua Dan’s gaze shifted to Li Xiaobai, asking with interest. A cultivator apprehended by the Old Dragon King personally certainly wasn’t ordinary. Logically, being placed in the Celestial Prison wouldn’t be surprising, yet here he was only confined within a common dungeon.

Did this imply some secret message that couldn’t be revealed to outsiders? Even she had to carefully consider the story behind it.

What’s more, as a Great Crossing Realm Cultivator, she currently found it astonishing that she couldn’t discern the cultivation level of this human youth. This was unprecedented; usually, even if she couldn’t sense someone’s cultivation level, she could detect a hint of their formidable presence.

But this Li Xiaobai before her had nothing special about him, appearing just like an ordinary person, which was puzzling.

Could it be that his cultivation level was so powerful that it exceeded those so-called great figures, having reached the stage of returning to simplicity and hence concealing his presence to the point of being undetectable?

Impossible, absolutely impossible, this young man was just in his twenties, how could he have reached that stage? There must be something extraordinary about him.

“I’m Li Xiaobai,”

Li Xiaobai grinned, showing a smile he deemed quite friendly.

“Hmm, Li Xiaobai, a human race cultivator—what did you do to end up here?”

Madam Hua Dan suppressed the doubts in her heart, pulled out a notebook, and started writing and sketching in it while asking Li Xiaobai for his basic information.

“It’s nothing much, just that the Old Dragon King of the Eastern Sea insists on making me his future son-in-law, and I was unwilling, so I was caught and brought here.”

“Sir, in my case, what kind of crime should I be convicted of, and is it serious?”

Li Xiaobai looked around, then leaned closer and whispered mysteriously.

“The king wants you as his son-in-law?”

“And you refused?”

Madam Hua Dan’s face showed a strange expression; she couldn’t believe that this Li Xiaobai, despite his young age, was so bold. Just an ordinary human cultivator, what virtues and abilities did he have that the Old Dragon King would fancy him?

Moreover, you refused to be his son-in-law, isn’t that just ludicrous?

Being able to marry Long Xue, the pearl of the Eastern Sea, is something countless young talents dream of, and you damn well refused. The lie could not be more obvious.

“Yes, I was in Aolai Country when a huge Azure Dragon claw suddenly descended from the sky, and with a slap, just like that, I was swiftly grabbed and brought to the bottom of the sea.”

Li Xiaobai nodded, speaking earnestly.

“Pfft…”

Madam Hua Dan could not help but laugh, her body shaking with mirth.

“What are you laughing at, sir? Don’t tell me you don’t believe me?”

“It’s nothing, just remembered something amusing. Anyway, what is your cultivation level?”

“Invincible!”

Li Xiaobai stood with his hands behind his back, chest puffed out, and declared proudly.

“Could Young Master elaborate on how he is invincible?”

Madam Hua Dan frowned; she felt that the person before her was a bit off, even more so than the shrimp soldiers and crab generals who guarded the gates.

“Dominating the world!”

“A high-level expert like me is bound to live as long as the heavens, to play the ancient game of power against the prehistoric terrors of endless years, to possess the heart of a pure child and understand the natural world, ‘invincible’ is sufficient to describe me.”

Li Xiaobai said this with a serious face.

“Pfft hahaha…”

Madam Hua Dan laughed so hard that her whole body trembled, and had she not been concerned about maintaining her image, she might have even rolled on the floor with laughter.

“Is the sir mocking me?”

Li Xiaobai narrowed his eyes, asking with displeasure.

“No, it’s just that I haven’t met someone as amusing as Young Master in a long time.”

“Rest assured, young master, I have undergone strict professional training; no matter how funny something is, I won’t laugh out loud, unless I can’t help it.”

Madam Hua Dan asked with a forcibly straight face.

“I see, so in sir’s opinion, how serious is my situation?”

Li Xiaobai inquired tentatively.

“Death penalty at minimum, with no upper limit.”

Madam Hua Dan, with the intention of teasing the person before her, said coldly and even noted down ‘death row convict’ in big characters in the notebook in front of Li Xiaobai.

“I… bloody hell…”

Li Xiaobai was startled; this was not quite what the shrimp soldiers had said. Wasn’t it mentioned that he would be released in a couple of days?

Why was it that once in the hands of this jail warden, a death sentence was immediately passed onto him?

He vaguely felt that something was amiss, but couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

Didn’t the Old Dragon King say he wanted to test me?

Could it be that this death penalty was the test meant for me?

“Yes, that’s how it is, so enjoy your last days here. Your shrimp lord has already given orders; no one in this prison will make life difficult for you, live in peace here.”

“Old Tortoise, take him to change into prison clothes, assign him a room, and give him a number plate!”