“Now, now, now, isn’t this better?” Yggdrasil says with a light giggle as she sits on the deck of a boat.

Zao is currently sitting on the deck of the boat, face and body bound but a brightly shining rope. His eyes burn with pure fury as he can’t seem to calm himself down. Yggdrasil’s three companions stare in shock as to what just happened.

The group witnessed Zao break out of his stony prison and instantly chomp down on the head of Yggdrasil. They all went to react to protect their leader but instead Ygg just put up a hand, telling them to back down.

In a muffled tone, Ygg spoke to Zao Ning.

“Awww, isn’t this cute. You’re already trying to kiss me, being away from me for so long must have been torture my poor little Zao.” Ygg says with a sultry voice.

Zao does not respond with words, but the accumulation of black lightning in his mouth speaks plenty for how he feels about that statement. However, before he gets the chance to truly create a beam attack, a bright rope comes out of nowhere and wraps itself around Zao Ning.

The light slipping out of the rope becomes brighter and brighter while Zao Ning’s Lightning Ki fades more and more.

Zao Ning’s teeth cannot pierce Ygg’s skin, nor can he use his Ki to attack anymore so he resorts to spitting her out. The other thing is that he spits her out with the most force he can muster.

He expects to see the satisfying sight of Ygg flying through the air, but her body simply snaps backwards as if she was rooted to the ground, which she is.

Looking down, Zao sees roots have sprouted from Ygg’s feet and firmly implanted themselves into the ground. She then hugs Zao Ning who is currently being bound by the magical rope.

“Oh my can you just fuck off already! Just seeing you makes my blood burn in anger!” Zao Ning yells in protest. Ygg looks up at Zao since she is comparatively smaller and gives him an intense pout.

“You don’t miss me at all do you?” Ygg says with a sad voice. Zao’s arms flex as he holds his anger and if he could slap the woman off of him, he would have done so ages ago.

“I told you if I ever saw you again I’d rip out your lung and eat your heart, what makes you think I’d miss you? Are you just that psycho?”

“I thought you were just using playful banter, kind of like ‘I don’t want you’ on the outside, but a ‘Let’s make sweet love’ on the inside.”

If the group of people surrounding them weren’t speechless from Zao Ning breaking out of his statue, they sure were now at the awkwardness of the two. Zao Ning sighs at Ygg’s remark and his face turns solemn.

“Though I really, really, really want to end your pitiful existence right now, I have bigger things at hand than fighting you for another 100 years.” Zao Ning says with a serious tone.

“You mean your mother Wei Nin-?”

Ygg’s question is cut off short by the sound of Zao Ning’s binds stretching to their limits, which is not supposed to be possible by anyone under the Star Realm, however Zao was only in the Void Realm.

“Keep. Her. Name. Out. Of. Her. Mouth.”

Though Ygg loves to tease Zao to his limits, she knows her boundaries and if Zao Ning is able to break his binds, then he might actually have a chance at harming Ygg.

“Now, let me go.” Zao demands.

“Are you planning on leaving?” Ygg asks.

“None of your business.” Zao responds with a monotone voice, trying to keep a poker face so as to not give away his plans.

“That means yes.”

Zao keeps his mouth shut and does not respond to Ygg calling him out so quickly. She then sighs as Ygg tries to mentally prepare herself as to the argument with Zao that is upcoming.

“You can’t leave, in fact we need you right now. Latias needs you even.” Ygg tries to use Latias’s name to try and convince Zao to stay in the party, but he doesn’t seem to be convinced.

“I actually couldn’t care less, to be honest with you, now let me go.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

…

…

…

“Woman, I said let me go.”

Ygg proceeds to put a finger inside of each ear, effectively ignoring Zao Ning’s commands.

“I said-.”

“I can’t hear you!”

Zao is a very vulgar dragon, and also has an extremely thin patience, so he doesn’t respond well to being ignored.

“Hey! Let me go already!”

…

“Do it already!”

…

…

“Argghhh! Fine, what do you need my help with? You’re obviously here for something!”

Ygg smiles as she knows that giving Zao the silent treatment still works on making him try to compromise with you. She takes her fingers out of her ears and continues her conversation.

“All we need is for you to come along with my companions and I, and hunt some people down.”

“Simple enough, who are these people?”

“We will talk more about it when we get there, now, let us leave this desolate little village and be on our way. Lu, summon the ship!” Yggdrasil says as she goes to pick up Zao Ning.

Lu takes out a bag, and with a quick whip of his hand, a ship is pulled out and thrown into the sky.

The ship is small at first, but soon it starts growing and growing as it feeds off of the Ki of the surrounding area. Zao’s eyes went wide as he recognized the ship and his face turned into a frown.

“I’m not getting on that thing-.” As Zao goes to speak, the rope that binds his body expands and wraps himself around his snout, making it so he can’t speak.

“I knew you’d say that, but there is no time for your petty hatred for the man I had a small fling with to impede on our mission. Come along quietly please my dear little Zao.” Ygg says as she fully picks up the dragon.

That is how we are led to where we are now, Zao tied up, Yggdrasil smug, and the rest of her companions confused. Zao has figured out who the other companions were just by looking at their auras since they are all legendary figures.

Starting from the one with a spear, that is Lu Bu, the best spearman and strongest human to exist end the Nether Realm. He is known as being very fickle and not willing to listen to command, yet here he is listening to commands from a walking tree.

The one next to Lu Bu with the deep blue hair is Mazu. She is known as having the best powers with anything involving Water Ki under the Nether Realm. She is known as being very indepedent and hard to find as she spends most of her time within deep and vast bodies of water.

The one with black hair is Chang'e, wife of Hou Yi and an excelent user of the Moon Ki and Darkness Ki. Zao can't understand as to why she is hear as she should be stuck on some moon in the middle of nowhere, yet if she is released, then she should be with Hou Yi.

Finally, Yggdrasil, the seemingly rag tag leader of the group, a which would never be formed under normal circumstances. Yggdrasil has a long history, and it isn't a pleasent one within the eyes of Zao Ning. In fact, some of his worst memories is due to this woman and he might not have died the first time if it wasn't for her.

Zao Ning is full of questions as he notices that everyone elses auras are around his level, when everyone here should be nearly max rank Fiend Realm, not Void and Star Realm.

The boat speeds away from the city with the group of people and quickly picks up speed, flying into space and starting to level this Mortal Tier Realm. In the trip of space, the group is unaffected by their desolate surroundings and seem rather comfortable now.

Lu Bu was the first to break the silence as he lets out a sigh of relief followed by a short dialogue with the other.

"Being on such a Ki insuffecient Realm is really tiring, I am ready to head back to our base. Luckily we can start on our main mission now that we have our final piece."

"Speaking of which, I didn't realize you had such a relationship before." Lu Bu says as he looks towards Ygg. She chuckles at this and her eyes drift into the endless void around them as she walks over to the railing, seemingly remembering happy memores.

"Believe it or not, we were once married."

Everyone on the boat goes silent, except for Zao Ning who lets out a low growl when being reminded of this. It takes the group a few minutes before they snap out of their shock. Mazu is the first to speak out.

"WHAT! You were once married to Zao Ning? How? What? When? I don't..."

Mazu trails off as she tries to understand what had happened between the Strongest Dragon in exsistence and the World Tree herself. Ygg giggles at their surprise and saunters her way over to Zao Ning. Zao Ning growls louder as she gets closer.

"Alas, Little Zao broke my heart when we were both still in the Star Realm, and he went and found a new wife." Ygg says as she caresses Zao Ning's scaly face. Zao rolls his eyes and slowly manages to open his maw, to defend himself.

"Don't forget, you were the one who cheated on me with a human! The very same human who made this boat no less!" Zao Ning says out in a low and frustrated tone, dissatisfied he is still on the boat.

"Well, I guess there was that. You didn't have to go and rip out his heart and feed it down his throat though, he was a very good man and not his fault."

Zao Ning rolls his eyes as he definitely felt that human had it coming. Dragons are prideful creatures, and being cheated on by his wife by a creature that Zao sees lesser than himself is the most humilating thing he has ever experienced in his life.

"It seems these two have some interesting history." Chang'e says with a slight chuckle.

"Quite." Lu Bu says with an eyebrow raised, wondering how well this team will truly work out.