Zhou Fan continued walking on until he stumbled upon a river. The river was dark blue and it would be hard for an average person to see through it. Too bad Zhou Fan wasn't an average person. His gaze passed through the river and he saw that it was 100 feet deep. It also looked around 20 feet wide.
Since he had gotten quite dirty, Zhou Fan chose to take a bath here. He took off his clothes and jumped into the fresh river. When his skin touched the river water, he realized that it was the cleanest and nicest he had ever seen. He even took a couple of drinks. It tasted incredible!
Xiaolong jumped in the pool and played around with Zhou Fan. The dragon was amazingly smooth in the water. He flowed around as if he was a part of it himself. Even though Zhou Fan had superior strength, Xiaolong was easily able to lap him. Of course, if he used his full abilities, Xiaolong wouldn't be his match.
Zhou Fan and Xiaolong swam around for about an hour before they heard a loud rumbling underneath them. The water started churning and the sound of a collision occurred. Looking below, Zhou Fan was astonished to see a giant snake and a giant turtle fighting it out below the water. The turtle was black as night and the snake was as white as a piece of paper.
Zhou Fan and Xiaolong hopped out of the water and looked down upon the battle. The snake would squeeze and bite at the turtle while the turtle would chomp at and barge into the snake. Neither had the upper hand and after a while, Zhou Fan decided to intervene.
Raising his hand, Zhou Fan commanded the earth around the rivers edges to form a barrier. The barrier would assure that neither the snake, nor the turtle could escape. Then, he and Xiaolong jumped into the water after the two. Zhou Fan headed for the tortoise, while Xiaolong headed for the snake. With their time together, Zhou Fan and Xiaolong had formed an unspoken bond. Therefore, they both worked together to get these two animals.
When the two noticed them, they stopped fighting immediately. The tortoise let out a roar while the snake let out a hiss.
ROOAARR!!
HHIIIISSS!
They speedily headed towards the newcomers and attacked with their full strength. The snake attempted to bite Xiaolong while the turtle chomped at Zhou Fan. Xiaolong met with the snakes attack head on and bit at it with its full strength.
RROAAARR!!
Xiaolong let out a roar many times louder than the snake and bit at its face. The snake instantly lost the head on clash and received a large injury. Xiaolong coiled around it and squeezed the air out of it.
The snake quickly lost consciousness and Xiaolong started dragging it above the water. When the turtle saw this, it sped past Zhou Fan and rammed into Xiaolong. Xiaolong dropped the snake and started to battle the turtle. The turtle was a much stronger opponent than the snake and even after a minute, Xiaolong was unable to defeat it. After 2 minutes had passed, the snake regained consciousness and started to assist the turtle. With their combined strength, Xiaolong had his hands tied. Although he had the upper hand, it would take a while for him to defeat them. Even then, he wouldn't be able to stop them from escaping.
Realizing its predicament, the dragon shot a glance at Zhou Fan. Zhou Fan shook his head at Xiaolong and hinted at him to go on. If Zhou Fan wanted to end the battle, the turtle and snake would be powerless to resist. Luckily, he wanted to see the limit of Xiaolong's strength before he stepped in.
As the battle continued on, Zhou Fan was able to gain a better understanding of both Xiaolong and the turtle-snake duo. Xiaolong was ferocious and strong, lacking tactics and wasting opportunities. The turtle-snake duo used sneaky tactics and grasped opportunities. Even then, they were limited by their strength.
The battle continued on for an hour and Xiaolong had finally gotten the upperhand. Both sides were laden with injuries, but Xiaolong was still going strong. The duo noticed that they were about to lose and were getting desperate. They were making riskier moves and starting to make mistakes.
All of a sudden, the duo looked at if they had an epiphany. The snake and turtle rushed over to each other at full speed. They didn't slow down as they reached each other and when they collided, they had somewhat merged. Zhou Fan was astonished at this sight and so was Xiaolong. Now, it looked like the snake was the turtle's tail and they were looking a lot more ferocious.
The combined duo once again engaged in battle with Xiaolong. However, instead of slowly being pushed back, they were completely even with Xiaolong. With the snake being able to focus on offense and the turtle being able to focus on defense, their strength was much higher than before. Although Xiaolong wasn't being pushed back, he wasn't able to gain ground.
Zhou Fan watched on as they continued in this stalemate for an hour. By that time, both sides were starting to become exhausted. At that point, Zhou Fan decided to stop watching from the sidelines. As they were about to clash, he appeared in between them and pushed out a blast of Qi at both of them. The Qi sent both sides flying back and they only stopped when they ran into the walls of earth Zhou Fan made earlier.
Both the turtle and the snake looked at Zhou Fan with fear. Xiaolong on the other hand, was looking annoyed that he had moved against him. Zhou Fan wrapped the stunned turtle and snake in Qi before flying out of the water and throwing them on land. He had decided to make these two things his pets. Once again, he had never heard of these things before. Both of them were around the same size as Xiaolong and he would have surely heard of them if they were discovered.