"Yaoyue! If you do not release me, then when they find me with you, you won't just be facing your brother, but those two Sacred Fairies as well!" Zhi Xuan growled, his voice now containing a vibration that forced its way out of his body.

  Feng Yaoyue bit her lip until it turned crimson. She knew she was trapped in a corner. If she released Zhi Xuan, she would lose her trump card for obtaining the Heavenly Ascension Fruit. But if she kept him bound, she would become an enemy to the Sacred Fairies who were already beginning to move their fleets down toward the pier.

  "Fine! Senior, I will release you," Feng Yaoyue decided abruptly, calming herself and offering a thin smile. "But do not hope to escape me; I am returning to the Ancient Feng Clan. And you... you will surely meet us again."

  Feng Yaoyue waved her arm in a motion that sliced through the air, and instantly, the pink threads stitching Zhi Xuan’s Divine Wheel snapped with a chiming sound audible only to the soul. The cold sensation that had long shackled his meridians vanished, replaced by an explosion of essence that surged like a dragon newly freed from its cage.

  "Ugh—!" Zhi Xuan let out a short groan, his body trembling as his Weaver Transformation power refilled every inch of his meridians. A sharp, cold gray aura exploded from his frame, sweeping across the silver sand of the pier and creating a stinging mini-vortex.

  Yaoyue looked at Zhi Xuan one last time with a gaze full of conflicting emotions—longing, ambition, and a hint of loss buried behind her peach-blossom eyelids. "Remember this, Senior Zhi... Yaoyue is not letting you go because she has given up. Yaoyue is releasing you so that you may run further, so that when I catch you again, the victory will taste even sweeter."

  Without waiting for a reply, Yaoyue spun around, her body fading into thousands of heavenly flower petals carried by the sea breeze, streaking toward the sky toward her brother’s Phoenix Fire Carriage. Her disguise as Xu Han had ended completely; she was now once again the Holy Maiden reclaiming her throne among the gods.

  Zhi Xuan stood tall, his breath heavy. He did not waste time lamenting Yaoyue’s departure. He looked up, where the massive ships were now beginning to drop their energy anchors toward East Ocean City. The pressure from the Divine Transformation practitioners above began to feel suffocating, scouring every corner of the pier like a giant brush searching for a stain.

  "Damn it, they've truly sensed me," Zhi Xuan growled. He immediately moved his hands, fading into a creeping shadow. "I must go as far as possible."

  Zhi Xuan dashed like a black bolt of lightning through the dimness of the lower pier. He pushed his Heavenly Shadow Movement Technique to its absolute limit, merging his body with the shadows cast between the coral buildings. However, the tremors in his fate were not so easily suppressed. The karmic threads connecting him to Zhu Qinglan and Ye Xishui throbbed violently, emitting a soul resonance that pierced through the layers of clouds.

  WUUUNNGG—!

  The sky above the pier was suddenly split by a freezing silver light. A massive giant ice sword manifested from the void, plunging down directly in front of Zhi Xuan’s escape path. The impact created a blast of frigid air that instantly turned the seawater around the pier into eternal ice crystals.

  Zhi Xuan paid it no mind; he faded back into a shadow that shifted hundreds of zhang with every step—the shadow of the nine heavens, an insight derived from a fragment of the Supreme Law of Darkness belonging to the Great Saint, Ruo Xianxue. Zhi Xuan blurred the distance between his body and the shadow until he appeared as an untraceable eclipse.

  Zhi Xuan’s footsteps no longer touched the earth; he was moving nothingness. Within his sea of consciousness, Ruo Xianxue opened her eyes, her hands forming a secret seal that resonated with Zhi Xuan’s heartbeat. "Use the darkness as a cloak, and non-existence as a vessel," the cold voice of the Great Saint whispered in his mind.

  Zhi Xuan snorted softly, his shadow-body weaving to avoid the slashes of ice intent raining from the sky. Above, the Ice Phoenix Warship and the Heavenly Leaf Vessel had lowered their positions. Two extraordinarily majestic presences manifested at the edges of their respective ships.

  Zhu Qinglan stood at the bow, her pearl veil fluttering gently in the freezing sea wind. Her usually calm eyes flashed with deeply suppressed anxiety. On the other side, several hundred zhang away, Ye Xishui stood atop her heavenly leaf, her slender fingers holding a green leaf that emitted a sharp glow of the law of life.

  The two Sacred Fairies glanced at each other for a brief second. There were no words, no greetings. However, through the secret information networks of their respective factions, both were aware: the woman across from them held a bond with the same man who had just triggered their soul resonance. An invisible tension formed—a competition of inner territory sharper than any clash of swords.

  "So, you are the woman who also shares karma with him," Zhu Qinglan thought, her eyes narrowing as she stared at Ye Xishui.

  On the other side, Ye Xishui tightened her grip on her heavenly leaf. "Sacred Fairy of the Zhu Clan... you are truly persistent in chasing my Dao Protector."

  Zhi Xuan felt the pull from both directions growing stronger. If he continued to flee physically, the Divine Transformation cultivation of the clan elders accompanying the two Sacred Fairies would soon lock onto his coordinates. There was only one way.

  "Nine Heavens Bead... Swallow my existence!" Zhi Xuan hissed in the midst of his flight.

  Instantly, a pitch-black bead hidden deep within the core of his soul vibrated violently. The bead released a black mist that completely engulfed Zhi Xuan’s body. In the blink of an eye, Zhi Xuan’s existence vanished from the surface of the Nine Plains. He was no longer at the pier; he was no longer in Cang Hai; he had entered an entirely separate dimension of space-time law outside the world.

  WUUUUSH—!

  Silence. The soul resonance that had been deafening to the spiritual ears of Zhu Qinglan and Ye Xishui suddenly snapped, as if a harp string had been pulled until it shattered. The silver light and green glow scouring the lower pier faded as they lost their target.

  Aboard the Ice Phoenix Warship, Zhu Qinglan was stunned. Her hand, hidden beneath the wide sleeve of her robe, clenched tightly. Her eyes stared sharply at the lower market, now devoid of Zhi Xuan’s aura. Behind her veil, her lips were pressed thin. As a Holy Maiden, she could not show unnecessary emotion in front of the clan elders.

  But within her mind, she screamed in frustration. "Running again? You truly wish to test my patience, Zhi Xuan!"

  Ye Xishui was in the same boat. Her face, as soft as morning dew, remained expressionless, as if her search had been nothing more than a passing breeze. She slowly lowered her hand, letting her heavenly leaf settle.

  Outwardly, she appeared like a goddess observing the misfortunes of the mortal world, but in the deepest depths of her heart, she had marked the exact spot where Zhi Xuan’s aura had vanished. "Senior, you will not hide from Xishui for long."

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Zhu Qinglan remained standing tall at the bow of the Ice Phoenix Warship. The sea wind carrying ice crystals swept past her sky-blue robes, yet the Holy Maiden’s body did not move an inch. Outwardly, she looked like an untouchable snowy peak—cold, majestic, and flawless. The Zhu Clan elders standing behind her watched closely, trying to read the princess’s face, but they found only absolute tranquility.

  Across from her, Ye Xishui floated on the Heavenly Leaf with equal elegance. She withdrew her divine intent that had earlier reached deep into the ocean floor. Her clear, sorrowful eyes—like mountain lakes—stared straight at Zhu Qinglan. Although this was the first time they had faced each other directly, through the information web of the Heavenly Leaf Sacred Pavilion, Ye Xishui knew exactly who the pearl-veiled woman was.

  "The Holy Maiden of the Great Emperor Zhu's bloodline," Ye Xishui thought, her fingers stroking the edge of her divine leaf while sending out a spiritual warning. "Just because you possess an exalted lineage does not mean you can stitch your fate to the same man as me."

  Zhu Qinglan returned the gaze with one just as sharp, even with half her face covered by the thin veil. In her mind, she countered. "Sacred Fairy Ye... the Heavenly Leaf truly has long hands to reach for another's Dao Protector. However, do not think you can dominate the nest."

  The mental battle between the two Sacred Fairies created ripples of aura that made the practitioners at the pier below feel as if the sky was about to collapse upon them. Sharp coldness clashed with pure life laws, creating strange natural phenomena: snow fell over boiling seawater, while green sprouts suddenly grew in the cracks of freezing ice crystals.

  However, in the midst of this frozen tension, a light laugh containing the vibration of Phoenix fire sliced through the silence from the south. "Oh dear... it seems Yaoyue has arrived at the wrong time."

  From the direction of the burning red clouds, Feng Yaoyue’s silhouette descended with a new grace. She was no longer wearing the simple pink silk robes, but the ceremonial robes of the Feng Clan, adorned with fire phoenix feathers.

  The arrival of the Feng Clan entourage created a three-way balance in the sky above East Ocean City. Feng Yaoyue glanced toward the point where Zhi Xuan had vanished, her lips curling into a faint smile, as if she were laughing at the fact that she had just released a dragon into the darkness before the other two hunters arrived.

  "Holy Maiden Feng," Zhu Qinglan spoke, her voice sounding like the cracking of ice. "I did not expect you to appear in this grimy lower district. Does the Feng Clan not usually prefer to reign above the clouds?"

  "Yaoyue only wished to breathe the sea air, Holy Maiden Zhu," Yaoyue replied in a playful tone now mixed with the authority of an ancient clan princess. She glanced at Ye Xishui for a moment before looking back at the empty pier. "But it seems the Sacred Fairy and the Holy Maiden are searching for something. Is it a treasure beneath the ocean?"

  "Yaoyue," Feng Haoyue hissed from behind her. The young man shook his head slowly and gave her a sharp look. "Do not be disrespectful."

  Ye Xishui turned slowly, her eyes sorrowful like flowing water. Yet their depth was immeasurable. "Holy Maiden Feng, it is truly an honor to meet you. I heard rumors that you were... a bit too spirited and flew away from the cage."

  Feng Yaoyue laughed softly, the sound resembling the chime of golden bells blown by mountain winds. She covered her lips with the fold of her wide sleeve, hiding a meaningful smile behind a seemingly shy gesture.

  "Sacred Fairy Ye is truly fond of joking," Yaoyue remarked, her peach-blossom eyes flashing mischievously. "A wanderer like Yaoyue only wishes to see how vast the fabric of this universe is before truly settling in a cold clan pavilion. However, seeing you two descend so hastily to the pier, Yaoyue wonders... is there a pearl so precious that it caused two such majestic figures to lose their composure?"

  Zhu Qinglan allowed the Bu Yao in her hair to glow softly, emitting a cheerful clinking that sounded like a heavenly song. "Pearls in the Cang Hai Ocean are indeed many, Holy Maiden Feng. However, there is a wild pearl that is difficult to tame, which, though appearing rough on the outside, possesses a pure core. Unfortunately, it seems that pearl attracts too many shells."

  Ye Xishui tilted her head slightly, letting a strand of hair fall perfectly over her bare shoulder. Her smile was thin, almost invisible, yet the radiance of her clear eyes seemed capable of dissecting every secret hidden behind Zhu Qinglan’s words.

  "A wild pearl?" Ye Xishui spoke, her voice as soft as the rustle of leaves in the dawn wind. "Holy Maiden Zhu truly has a unique taste. To us at the Heavenly Leaf Sacred Pavilion, something rough and difficult to tame is usually just an unpolished stone. However, if that stone indeed has value, then it is natural for it to be sought by many parties, is it not?"

  She shifted her gaze toward Feng Yaoyue, her eyes sweeping over the princess’s phoenix feather robes searchingly. "Especially a shell that might have washed up in the ocean, which perhaps accidentally... managed to keep that pearl inside its casing for a time."

  Feng Yaoyue went silent for a moment, feeling the edge of Ye Xishui’s sentence, which was as sharp as a rose thorn yet wrapped in the silk of gentleness. She knew that the two women before her were no ordinary practitioners who could be deceived by trivial nonsense. They were the pinnacles of grace and power, every movement calculated by the laws of fate.

  "A shell that accidentally kept a pearl?" Yaoyue repeated the words while adjusting her fire sash with a fluid motion. "Ah, Sacred Fairy Ye is truly poetic. However, is it not true that even the sturdiest shell will open if the contents within have the will to leave? This Cang Hai Ocean is too vast to imprison something destined to pierce the heavens."

  Zhu Qinglan snorted softly, a sound so faint yet capable of vibrating the ice crystals around her ship's bow. She took a single step forward, making the pearl light on her veil even more dazzling, as if to assert her territory.

  "The will to leave is indeed important, Holy Maiden Feng," Zhu Qinglan interjected, her voice as cold as frozen dew on a blade. "However, often something newly released from a cage will feel confused and instead get lost in a deeper darkness. As fellow practitioners, we certainly do not wish to see something with the potential to become the Sky drown because it chose the wrong harbor, do we?"

  Ye Xishui folded her hands in front of her chest, letting her long green robes hang over the heavenly leaf like a stream of sacred water. "Being lost is part of the tempering. However, I agree with Holy Maiden Zhu. It is just that sometimes a stone weighs too heavily until it forgets that the strongest leaf is the one allowed to fly in the storm, not the one constantly showered with cold air to make it stay."

  Feng Yaoyue laughed softly, covering her mouth with her slender fingers while her eyes flashed with guile. "How wonderful. You two seem so concerned with the balance in Cang Hai. Yaoyue feels embarrassed just thinking about the scent of peaches and the comfort of the journey. However, if there truly is an 'unpolished stone' or a 'wild pearl' down there, wouldn't it be fairer to let destiny decide who is worthy to be its polisher?"

  She glanced toward the bottom of the pier, which was now completely silent, the place where the remnants of Zhi Xuan’s gray aura were slowly evaporating.

  "Besides," Yaoyue continued, turning her body gracefully, "the Ocean Chaos Secret Realm will soon open. Why should we waste spiritual energy here just to talk about wild pearls, when we can meet again at the bottom of the dragon trench later? Who knows, perhaps there we will find the answers to all our searches."

  Zhu Qinglan stared at Yaoyue with a deep gaze, as if trying to pierce the layers of secrets kept by the Phoenix Princess. "Holy Maiden Feng is always direct. In the face of the Heavenly Ascension Fruit, all theatrics will collapse on their own. I hope, when that time comes, no shell feels disappointed because its pearl chose its own path."

  Ye Xishui only offered a thin smile, an expression that appeared so pure yet held an unshakable authority. "Destiny never errs in stitching its threads, Holy Maiden Zhu. We only need to see which among us has a hand steady enough to hold the end of that thread without breaking it."

  The atmosphere in the sky of East Ocean City, which had been tense due to Zhi Xuan’s soul resonance, had now turned into a cold war coated in heavenly grace. The three majestic women maintained their images as flawless goddesses, throwing barbs at one another that could only be understood by those with an equal level of law comprehension.

  Feng Haoyue, who had been observing from atop the Phoenix Fire Carriage, cleared his throat loudly enough to break the tension. "Sister, the elders are waiting. Let us prepare for the opening of the gate."

  Zhu Yanghai on the Ice Phoenix Warship also signaled to his sister, Zhu Qinglan. "Qinglan, let us return. Let this ocean calm its ripples for a moment."

  One by one, the majestic fleets began to withdraw from the lower district, returning to their strategic positions above the Cang Hai clouds. However, even as their bodies moved away, the final gazes of the three Sacred Fairies remained fixed on the same spot on the pier—a silence that for them was louder than any thunderous explosion.

  Inside the dark dimension of the Nine Heavens Bead, surrounded by pillars imprisoning ancient creatures, Zhi Xuan sat cross-legged in the center of the altar, his chest heaving rapidly. He could still feel the remnants of their gazes, which felt as if they were still burning his skin.

  "These women..." Zhi Xuan hissed while wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, calming himself. "They are more terrifying than the entire Ancient Clan army combined."