At that moment, in a remote courtyard within the Tianmo Sect.
A Lin was squatting on the ground, bored out of her mind, drawing circles with a tree branch.
Beside her, Murong Xi sat cross-legged, circulating the demonic cultivation technique bestowed upon her by Lu Ning, trying to re-condense her cultivation.
“Ah…”
A Lin let out a heavy sigh.
“When exactly is Lu Ning sister going to stop punishing that bad woman?”
“Why hasn’t she come to find me yet…”
She pouted, her face a picture of unhappiness.
Meanwhile, on a plaza within the Tianmo Sect.
Gu Qinghuan blocked Jing Linglong’s path.
“Your Highness the Eldest Princess, arriving uninvited like this, isn’t that a bit against the rules?”
Jing Linglong was dressed in a magnificent golden phoenix robe.
Behind her followed a woman in white clothes, her expression somewhat numb.
That woman possessed peerless beauty and an ethereal aura; she was precisely that Central Region powerhouse whose cultivation had been sealed by Liu Ningshuang earlier, Bai Su.
However, the current her had long lost that lofty, superior demeanor she once had.
Her eyes were empty, her movements stiff, as she followed step-by-step behind Jing Linglong, fulfilling her duty as a maidservant.
Hearing Gu Qinghuan’s words, a proud smile graced Jing Linglong’s stunningly beautiful face.
Her narrow, phoenix-like eyes swept over Gu Qinghuan once before finally settling on the tightly closed doors of the Sovereign Hall.
“What’s this?”
“This princess has come in person, and this is how you treat a guest?”
Right at that moment.
Creak….
The doors of the Sovereign Hall slowly opened.
Lu Ning walked out from within the hall.
She had already changed into a clean black robe, and her face had regained its usual calm, though her somewhat pale complexion still betrayed her current state.
When Jing Linglong’s gaze fell upon Lu Ning, a flash of intense heat first appeared in those phoenix eyes.
Immediately after, upon seeing Lu Ning’s slightly disheveled appearance, that heat instantly transformed into boundless fury.
“Gu Qinghuan!”
“You have some nerve!”
“You actually dared to do such a thing to someone belonging to this princess!”
Jing Linglong could naturally tell what Lu Ning had just experienced.
That unique post-event aura was all too familiar to her.
Gu Qinghuan had actually taken advantage of her absence to make the first move!
How could she possibly tolerate this?
“Your Highness the Eldest Princess, your words are mistaken.”
“Master is the Sect Master of my Tianmo Sect. When did she become your person?”
“If anything, it is Your Highness the Eldest Princess who arrived uninvited and is now shouting and making a scene within our mountain gates. Doesn’t that show far too little regard for my Tianmo Sect?”
Her words were sharp and direct, yielding not an inch.
For a moment, the atmosphere on the plaza instantly became tense and hostile.
Two peerlessly beautiful women, equally powerful and similarly obsessive and domineering, stood confronting each other from a distance.
The surrounding elders and disciples had long since taken cover far away.
In a high-stakes situation like this, looking too much could be explosive.
In contrast, after Lu Ning arrived on the scene and found herself sandwiched in the middle, she just felt a massive headache.
‘Here it comes, here it comes, it’s finally here!’
‘An epic-level battlefield of love, live on site!’
‘If I pretend to faint right now, is there still time?’
She was internally screaming, but on her face, she forced out a “friendly” smile.
“Ahem…”
“Linglong sister, Qinghuan, we’re all on the same side. Let’s talk things out properly, don’t harm our harmo—”
However, before she could finish her sentence, she was cut off simultaneously by the two women.
“You shut up!”
Lu Ning: “…Fine.”
Forget she said anything.
She silently took a step back, deciding to completely hand over this stage to these two women who were already fully engaged.
If they fought each other to a standstill, then perhaps she could regain control of the initiative.
“Gu Qinghuan, do you think breaking through to the Tribulation Crossing stage allows you to act arrogantly before this princess?”
Jing Linglong sneered, her phoenix eyes filled with disdain.
“This princess tells you, you are not the only one at the Tribulation Crossing stage.”
As her words fell, an aura erupted from within her body that was not the slightest bit weaker than Gu Qinghuan’s, and was even more refined!
In the short span of just over two months, Jing Linglong’s cultivation had also advanced by leaps and bounds, reaching a terrifyingly high level.
Originally, the appearance of a single Tribulation Crossing powerhouse in a remote, insignificant place like the Northern Region was a once-in-a-millennium event.
Yet now, there were a full two.
The instant Gu Qinghuan sensed this aura, her expression also changed slightly.
She hadn’t expected Jing Linglong to have reached this step as well.
However, she quickly regained her composure.
“Is that so?”
The corner of Gu Qinghuan’s mouth lifted in a mocking arc.
“Then I’d like to see for myself just how much substance there is to Your Highness’s so-called Tribulation Crossing.”
As her words fell, the Primordial Yin power around her instantly surged.
The temperature across the entire plaza plummeted once more.
A heaven-shaking, earth-shattering battle seemed imminent.
And right at this critical juncture.
A voice filled with anger rang out from not far away.
“You two bad women! Don’t you dare bully my Lu Ning… sister!”
It was A Lin, who had somehow appeared on the other side of the plaza.
Beside her stood a stunned Murong Xi.
A Lin puffed out her cheeks, like a kitten that had been provoked, glaring furiously at Gu Qinghuan and Jing Linglong.
She let out a sharp cry, and a Tribulation Crossing stage pressure instantly erupted from her petite body, directly crushing towards Gu Qinghuan and Jing Linglong.
On the plaza, the atmosphere instantly became even more chaotic and bizarre.
Three top-tier Tribulation Crossing stage powerhouses surrounded Lu Ning in the middle.
Each one’s eyes were filled with possessiveness, hostility, and obsession.
Looking at this scene that could be called a depiction of hell, Lu Ning felt her vision go dark.
And right then, Bai Su, who had been following behind Jing Linglong like a puppet, suddenly had a barely perceptible glint flash through her empty eyes.
Her gaze fell upon Lu Ning, who was surrounded by the three women in the middle, looking utterly done with life.
Then, it swept over the three women whose auras blotted out the sky, as if they were about to destroy heaven and earth.
A strange, undetectable arc slowly curled at the corner of her mouth.
An opportunity… seemed to have arrived.
On the plaza, three terrifying auras collided and intertwined, causing the surrounding space to begin twisting, emitting groans of strain.
Gu Qinghuan’s Primordial Yin power seemed intent on freezing all things.
Jing Linglong’s Phoenix Divine Fire was domineering and peerless, capable of incinerating the heavens.
A Lin’s Kirin Demonic Flames were violent and uncontrollable, destroying everything.
Three completely different auras, yet all containing the same obsessive will.
Murong Xi stood in the distance, staring dumbfounded at the scene before her, her brain having completely stopped functioning.
She felt her worldview had been shattered again and again today.
First, her arch-rival Gu Qinghuan had inexplicably broken through to the legendary Tribulation Crossing stage.
Then, the lofty Eldest Princess of the Dahuang Dynasty had also reached the terrifying realm of Tribulation Crossing.
Most inconceivable of all to her was that these three women standing at the pinnacle of the Northern Region’s pyramid were now, like common market shrews, about to come to blows here over fighting for her master.
Just what kind of person… was her new master?
Murong Xi’s heart was filled with unprecedented confusion and shock.
As for Lu Ning, the center of the storm, her current mood could no longer be described with a simple word like “meltdown.”
‘Since I can’t stop it, then fight! When the time comes, I can just sit back and reap the rewards!’