More than 150 kilometers away from the Imperial City of Phoenix Empire, Lan Jingyi and Lan Ju were standing in front of each other, displaying clear hostility on their faces. It looked like the fight is almost going to break up at any moment.
But, before that, an exchange of dialogues is necessary, thought Lan Jingyi as she confronted the scarlet leopard about its appearance within the city, and that too, near her son.
"What were you doing at the Imperial City, Lan Ju?"
As Lan Jingyi tried to interrogate the zheng, the latter scowled in response, "What's it to you, traitor?"
"I told you not to call me that, Lan Ju." Lan Jingyi clenched her fist, trying her best to not launch an attack. Unlike Lan Jing, this scarlet leopard is in the same realm as her, clearly stronger than her regarding the magic power.
Lan Ju then replied, "You, who abandoned your father's legacy despite inheriting his power, are nothing more than a traitor in my eyes."
"We have gone through that conversation already and I'm tired of listening to your unreasonable allegations." Lan Jingyi wasn't interested in talking about the past and stressed the present situation once again, "Anyway, you haven't answered my question yet. What are you doing at the Imperial City?"
Lan Ju hit back with the same response, "Then, I will reply the same thing. What is it to you?"
"Okay, let me rephrase my question. What are you doing at the Genesis Weapon store?" asked Lan Jingyi before adding, "I don't see you being tied to any relations apart from my late father for the past three decades."
Lan Ju immediately caught on to her intention and said directly, "I don't know what sort of complex relationship you had with Lu Zhen but I acknowledge his strength, valor, and bloodline. He will achieve something that you had thrown away. The revival of the Lan Sect will become a reality."
"That's never going to happen," snarled the Queen Consort as the ether energy rushed out of her body, forming a layer over her skin. "I will not let you drag my son into that messy business. Stay away from Shang Zen and return to where you have come from, the undying lands."
"Your son, Shang Zen, huh! No wonder…"
All this while, Lan Ju has theories about Mark. Of them, two are the most logical ones.
The first is that Lan Gengxin had an illicit relationship with some other woman and secretly had a child with her. And Mark was the son of that child.
The second theory is that Lan Jingyi herself had an affair with a man other than Emperor Shang and raised him in secret.
This way, Mark could possess the bloodline of Blizzard Pegasus without a problem.
It was only now he finally realized that Mark was an Imperial Prince born to Lan Jingyi and Shang Fu. Then, why the surname Lu? Is there a need to raise him in secret? Or maybe, he was being separated from his parents somehow and grew up in a household with the surname Lu? Lan Ju has a new theory but he wasn't that curious to find out the truth.
Anyways, without bothering to explain in detail about his meeting with Mark, Lan Ju replied to her warning, "I have accepted him as my sect master and he has requested me to be the guardian of the sect. So, whether you like it or not, we will revive the Lan Sect once again. Now, if you excuse me, I will have to return. It is already midnight."
After saying what he wants to say, the scarlet leopard turned out to walk away, but before he made even one step, Lan Jingyi teleported to the space before him and pushed forth her hand, releasing a tremendous volume of ice from her palm.
Lan Ju leaped back and breathed out a sea of flames in mid-air to counter the ice. The zheng not only nullified her attack but also forced her to dodge it and flew into the sky.
The zheng was about to land on the ground, but seeing that Lan Jingyi intends to have an aerial battle, he used the wind attribute and float in the air. This is the difference between Spirit beasts and Spirit Warriors.
The spirit beasts cannot fly if they don't have wings no matter what realm they are in. However, if they have wind attribute, they can float.
On the other hand, the Spirit Warriors can fly regardless of their attribute after reaching the Supreme Realm.
While it appeared that Lan Jingyi was in an advantageous position, one cannot forget that Zheng is a beast emperor. Lan Ju's attack power or speed isn't something that the Queen Consort can match it. So, in order to defeat him, she has to use several tricks.
And since winning against the zheng is more important, Lan Jingyi didn't want to hold back. She unleashed her second bloodline skill, the ice bolt.
Conjuring ten spears of ice, Lan Jingyi caught one of them and flew toward the zheng at her peak speed.
Lan Ju narrowed his eyes and enlarged its tails, using them as a fan to generate a gust of wind.
The wind covered a wide range and rushed toward her at a speed of 510 kmph. It was really a violent wind.
"Damn." Lan Jingyi realized that she can't evade it. But, if she blocks it head-on, that will create an opening for the zheng to ambush her.
Hence, she spun around and horizontally cut the wind with the spear, spinning around one more time before throwing it at the target. After releasing the ice spear, she caught the second ice spear and then threw it again.
As someone extremely familiar with Lan Gengxin, this beast emperor knew all the characteristics of the bloodline skills of the Blizzard Pegasus. He cannot let the ice spear touch him and get frozen for a couple of moments. As those spears have a target lock function, the dodging option is also useless here.
Hence, the zheng spat out a fireball in order to counter the ice spear, which covered more than a hundred meters distance between them in just a fraction of a second.
Without any surprise, the ice spear was completely melted by the fireball.
Perhaps, Lan Jingyi already anticipated that her first attack would fail. That's why she followed it with a second attack, which is considerably slower. However, Lan Ju didn't have the time to spat another fireball.
Therefore, the zheng stopped wind ability, letting himself freefall to gain the distance, and then let out a loud roar, creating a sonic boom through its mouth.
Covering a wide range, the sonic boom first destroyed the ice spear into thousands of pieces and then continued to go toward the Queen Consort. She doesn't have a way to counter sound technique and was forced to halt her movements, creating a layer of ether barrier over her body.
The ripples of power sound wave, enough to destroy the eardrums of even an Exalt realm expert, were successfully blocked by her defensive technique, although cracking the barrier in the process. Of course, she was also got pushed back a couple of dozen meters away.
Stabilizing herself, she motioned her arms with an angry expression, "I have enough of your tricks. Merge…"
