The trio of talented women instantly spun at the heels, bringing forth all sorts of talismanic objects and conjuring their Astral Wards. The two disciples of the Ninestar Sainthall's echelon of Ascended beings both subtly grew closer to Ma Luling in a practiced, easily familiar motion, and the Ma Clan's youngest talent in recent years was in the middle of forming a few hand-seals, her expression utterly solemn.
The terrifying aura that washed over them was like a gargantuan tsunami as their Astral Wards rippled defiantly on the verge of collapse. Their response provoked an amused exclamation from the new arrival as a middle-aged man with a willow beard and loose, coarse sanguine robes could be seen walking towards them with barefooted steps.
He exuded a bloody scent. His graying hair and signs of developing wrinkles seemed to tell the tale of experiencing the vicissitudes of life, but his eyes of unbearably bright exuberance showcased a youthful vigor full of life that matched Ma Luling with ease.
Each step he took was like the pounding of a hammer on the trio's heart. "What a delicious trio of women." His words were exceedingly grating to the ears but hard to resist, forcing them to listen to each syllable as if mesmerized.
"Disgusting." The Soul Saint King's disciple spat coldly. She had seen the Evil Sentinels of the Everworld and knew this person's identity instantly. They wafted with the practice of Evil Methods, especially the disjointed lively characteristics between skin and eyes, a telltale story of absorbing and refining external lifeforce excessively while one's soulspan kept decreasing.
"Oh?" Her single-worded response obtained the grey-robed Evil Sentinel's attention. The glint in his eyes foretold the desire to ravage her in ways that typical mortals could never understand. The vile intent bore into her Sea of Consciousness as flashes of potential events slammed her, causing her complexion to grow ashen pale and splash with fear.
Subconsciously, she grew closer to Ma Luling as she readied to fight or flee.
Yue Songli's disciple was the most calm of the trio, but Ma Luling was certainly the most focused.
"Saintess Xue!" Ma Luling called out.
"Another?" A wicked smile formed on the grey-robed Evil Sentinel's expression as the word 'Saintess' tugged at his mind. Those given such a name were often great beauties with the most delectable form of resistance, bringing the greatest sense of satisfaction in conquering them. He had already enjoyed one so-called Saintess of a Mortal a few days ago. "Where is this Saintess? I'd love to meet her." By this point, he was only a hundred feet away from the trio.
With his Demi-Mortal Lord cultivation, this distance wasn't even a thousandth of a step for him. At this point, he was simply playing with them. He enjoyed the fear developing in their eyes. He wanted them to try running, fleeing for their lives. How fun will their expressions be after finding it all useless? How glorious!
A ripple resounded in front of the trio as Xue Yifei dispelled her integrated state, startling the trio briefly before delight flashed across the Soul Saint King's disciple's eyes. "Dragonborn Saintess!" Her ecstatic look was easily seen through.
When Xue Yifei showed up, the Evil Sentinel's expression changed drastically. "You?!" His steps instantly stopped as he eyed the little azure-scaled dragon in her arms, his heart quivering intensely as flashes of recent memory overtook his Sea of Consciousness. The sight of her fighting and devastating the landscape was extremely fresh in his mind. After all, it was less than an hour ago!
That dragon...
...a Horned Firmament Dragon! They were classified as a descendant lineage of Spatial Dragons!
As for the woman herself, despite having a mortal's aura, she exerted a strength that exceeded his own with that kick before, shaking the very foundations of the Evercrown Ceremony's vast lands.
He thoughtfully looked at the new arrivals and revealed a brilliant smile of slightly crooked yet shockingly white teeth. "It's the legendary Dragonborn Saintess! I didn't know they were under your protection. If that's the case, I'll depart." The grey-robed Evil Sentinel withdrew his malevolent aura and began to back up, cautiously keeping his Mystic Aura in a position to unfurl at a moment's notice.
Fortunately, as he stepped back, Xue Yifei simply calmly watched him retreat. When he reached two hundred feet away, he hurriedly flew into the skies with his Mystic Power, vanishing in the blink of an eye with a Minor Ascension Art!
The sweat accumulating on the Soul Saint King's disciple's back finally stopped as she breathed a faint sigh of relief. She turned to Xue Yifei who scared away a Highlord with her presence, and she was extremely relieved. She brightly smiled with a wisp of reverence and worship despite her status.
She saw Xue Yufei's expression was rather flat as she stared at the location where the grey-robed Evil Sentinel took off.
"Thank you, Dragonborn Saintess!" Just as she was about to launch into a tirade of words to display her thankfulness-
"AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" A soul-piercing shriek of horror and agony resounded! The trio instantly grew vigilant as they turned their gazes in the direction the grey-robed Evil Sentinel had fled in, ready to face any threat. A bloody, acidic scent wafted through the air, stinging the nose and watering the eyes.
It was brief-the scream. It ended almost as soon as it arrived in their ears, eerily creeping into their hearts and sinking into a subconscious feeling of fear.
"We need to run..." Yue Songli's disciple solemnly said, her voice quivering as her heart was pounding so violently that she could hear her heartbeat. She already tried to escape, and while her mind was fleeing, her body remained on the spot unmoving with shaking legs. The other two felt a similar experience and without warning, the Soul Saint King's disciple felt a wetness between her legs.
Xue Yifei took a single step forward; an aura of a true dragon flashed from her body, suppressing the invisible aura that permeated, infecting the world as if everything was its prey, meant to be slaughtered and ravaged in its entirety. It originated from a pendant she wore underneath her clothing. The aura caused the trio to feel a sense of safety as if entering a sanctuary from all the potential horrors of the world.
From a distance, with soft, heart-throbbing steps, a barefooted grey-robed, silver-haired figure approached. In his hand, palmed at the top, was a head with a distorted expression of obscene fear with crooked yet pearly white teeth. The blood from the severed neck dripped incessantly across the ground, tainting the leaves and grass in the surroundings. The plantlife devoured the essence blood leaking from the severed head ravenously as if they had all turned into predators.
"..." The silver-haired Zuhei halted his steps after feeling the presence of Xue Yifei's pendant. He seemed about to speak, but Xue Yifei interrupted.
"I'm well aware of what my husband stated," Xue Yifei calmly answered the unsaid question. Wei Wuyin wouldn't like it if she used his name to gain an advantage in this fair competition between Ascendants. After a brief period of silence, Xue Yifei added: "Can't you wait for me to recover?"
Zuhei didn't directly reply. He brought out a fragment of metal. It exuded a strange, miraculous color. A fragment of the Evercrown!
Xue Yifei looked at the fragment solemnly. She had perfectly hidden herself earlier as Spiritual Senses of all types tried to locate her, but because of these three women, she had...
Xue Yifei wasn't a saint, but she knew Ma Luling's mother-Ma Ru. The woman had tried her best to take care of her when she was brought away by Ma Zheng. A large reason why Ma Luling was chosen to receive the Neo-Dawn Eclipse Pill during the Golden Auction was due to Xue Yifei taking a liking to her mother and Ma Zheng being tactful in that regard. The young girl, in a private setting, would often call her Auntie!
Xue Yifei had even met the young Chosen on many occasions after, giving her some guidance in her cultivation, and enjoying some of the sights in the Endless Prosperity Realm on trips. Why else would Ma Luling have means of finding her in the Chosen King Competition? She had given her a way to locate her!
While it was mostly meant for the Everworld, it didn't change the fact that she had given her a way to find her.
Xue Yifei had expended a large amount of her Starforce while fighting Yao Houyi, and her Starforce was far more difficult to recover than the average Soul of Mysticism Phase cultivator due to its inherent quality and properties. Even with Wei Wuyin's products, she still needed a few days to fully recover. Fighting Zuhei here was not the best move.
Zuhei's scarlet eyes reflected Xue Yifei's image. There was a slaughter unfolding within his gaze, brutal and violent, bloody and horrifying, all were spiritual manifestations of a primal, savage instinct. He was readying himself to fight.
"Fine!" Xue Yifei flatly shouted, her gaze rife with reluctance. She tossed her fragment toward Zuhei, prompting the beastman to grab it. Without another word, he turned around and proceeded to walk away. His steps were slow yet he disappeared in a blink of an eye, as if he was a mere passerby.
The trio finally felt as if a predator had ignored them, all breathing simultaneous breaths of deep relief. The Soul Saint King's disciple even dropped to the ground, her pants still soiled, and her eyes containing a lingering fear that she would never forget.
If the Evil Sentinel was terrifying, then Zuhei was the embodiment of terror and carnage. She felt as if her life and death were a breath away from being decided, where not even a chip of bone or a drop of blood would remain.
Xue Yifei turned to Ma Luling, her gaze softening as she gently smiled. "Little Ling, let's go," she beckoned. Ernu growled softly as her control over space was exerted, enveloping the four, integrating seamlessly into the surrounding space.
In the cubical container, Wei Wuyin's gaze was distant, a little distracted while Wen Mingna was enveloped in a golden aura of fate energy. She was in a state of deep cultivation as she was making advancements of leaps and bounds after receiving his expounding of cultivation and a wisp of his understanding of the Heavenly Daos.
Her new Cultivation Method was slowly forming as she used her old one as the foundation, gradually taking shape into something far more profound and glorious, something more attuned to the Heavenly Daos.
"What a plan. Made on the spot too, conforming to circumstances. But will it work?" Wei Wuyin smiled with a tinge of pride and anticipation.
His gaze turned away as he swept across the world.
A young half-elf, half-human man had begun his Temporal Eye Astral Tribulation within an isolated sub-realm tool, an item from before the Sealed Region's creation.
A woman of pure yin siphoned the blessings of a particular ground, experiencing a great leap of strength.
A charcoal-skinned man devoured young Chosen with a single breath, recovering his strength bit by bit.
Once again, a valiant woman was being chased by a group of Chosen, all fighting amongst each other and her to seize her fragment and the fortune it held.
It's only been ten days yet the Evercrown Ceremony was just getting started.
