Forty years ago, the entire Song Dynasty was shaken.
Jin Prince Zhao Heng was deposed.
He lost his abilities for life.
And the instigator turned out to be none other than Shen Qingqing, one of the Heavenly Fragrance Three Beauties of the Heavenly Fragrance Sect, itself one of the Eight Great Sects.
At that moment, the whole Court fell into a strange silence.
No minister dared to speak out indignantly, not even those civil and military officials who belonged to the Jin Prince’s own faction.
Even the Emperor himself had no reason to hold the alliance accountable.
Because it was Zhao Heng who was at fault first, forcibly taking a disciple of the Heavenly Fragrance Sect as a concubine.
At the same time, the Emperor investigated and discovered a truth that infuriated him.
When had the courtesan been a disciple of Heavenly Fragrance?
The Emperor clenched the secret report tightly, his face ashen.
But what could he do?
Complain to the alliance?
At that time, the Emperor knew full well the status of the Heavenly Fragrance Sect among the Eight Great Sects.
If he went to report them in the morning, by the afternoon he’d be carried out horizontally.
There was simply no solution.
Unless mortals had the power to fight immortals, there was nothing to do but swallow this bitter pill.
Besides, the demon invasion was imminent.
He could not, for the sake of one son, destroy the entire alliance of humanity.
After all, the ferocious beasts from the East Sea still needed the sects to suppress them.
In the end, the case of the Jin Prince’s deposition ended as the Song Dynasty chose compromise.
Deprived of his manhood, Jin Prince soon sank into depression and died in the palace within months.
As for whether it was natural death or murder, no one could say.
After the Jin Prince’s death, the Song Court underwent great upheaval.
With his greatest rival gone, the present Emperor Zhao Zong ascended the throne.
The very first thing Zhao Zong did upon taking the throne was to issue a strict order throughout Song: no matter civil or military, none were to provoke disciples of the sects.
Fortunately, aside from some rural minor sects, all Eight Great Sects imposed strict discipline on their disciples, causing no trouble for the Song Dynasty.
For decades since, relations had remained relatively harmonious.
The first thing Zhao Zong did after ascending was not to grant amnesty to the world, but to personally ascend Tianxin Mountain on behalf of the Royal Family to apologize and make amends to Yan Xiaoyu.
He did not know whether the Jin Prince’s strange death had anything to do with her.
As long as he, as the reigning Emperor, went in person to apologize and make amends.
Then there would be no reason for her to keep troubling the Royal Family.
Yet what Zhao Zong did not know was that his gesture was ultimately pointless.
Yan Xiaoyu never hated the Royal Family of Song; from beginning to end, the one she hated was Jin Prince Zhao Heng alone.
After the Jin Prince died, she devoted herself wholly to a long and dull cultivation.
Shen Qingqing.
She was the only light in Yan Xiaoyu’s dark life; Yan Xiaoyu had long regarded Shen Qingqing as her Master.
Because of Zhao Heng, she had lost all interest in romantic feelings between men and women.
Yan Xiaoyu only wished to cultivate diligently, to catch up to her benefactor and Master as soon as possible, and to always stay by her side, at her command.
But now, you’re telling me there’s someone else by Shen Qingqing’s side?
And it’s a brand new disciple who just joined?
Yan Xiaoyu felt indignant, but after her investigation, she discovered—
This new disciple’s talent was actually so monstrous.
Breaking through to Mortal Transcendence in just one month?
Yan Xiaoyu was startled.
She considered her own Untainted Body to be at the very peak of talent—even if she lost her Yuan Yin and was thus a bit less effective, she was still a one-in-ten-thousand prodigy.
Even so, it took her a year to reach Mortal Transcendence.
Not only that, the little junior sister who always followed Chen Xiaoyan also reached Mortal Transcendence in a month.
And another, Yunyun Doesn’t Want to Heal, had just entered Mortal Transcendence as well.
Three people in a row all broke through to Mortal Transcendence in about a month—this left Yan Xiaoyu feeling thoroughly emo.
Didn’t Sect Leader Shen say that the Untainted Body was the most suited for cultivating the Fragrant Intent Art?
Didn’t she say that cultivating it would yield twice the results with half the effort?
Then why was it like this?
Yan Xiaoyu gazed at the ten new disciples on the Guangchang, feeling a little listless.
***
At the center of the Guangchang.
The ten each chose a sect puppet at will.
Chongchong obediently picked Shushan, Xianyun Zhenwu.
Yilian Youmeng, a recently joined girl, accepted Chen Xiaoyan’s invitation and chose the Divine Strategy Mansion.
As for Chen Xiaoyan herself, she also chose the Divine Strategy Mansion.
With her healing capacity, any choice was the same.
So why pick a tank?
Ahem, mainly to annoy a certain someone.
Yunyun Doesn’t Want to Heal and Youyou Won’t Heal—these IDs clearly showed they were iron sisters… cough, besties.
One picked Zhenwu, one picked Divine Strategy.
“Trying to play it safe?”
Seeing their chosen puppets, Chen Xiaoyan’s lips curled up as she hatched a plan.
Before long, Shen Qingqing began randomizing the groups.
Chen Xiaoyan was matched with a girl named Heal With a Hammer, with Tangmen as her puppet.
The cute girl before her looked timidly at her.
That frightened look, as if she were facing some terrifying monster.
“Xiaoyan Da Luo, please… go easy on me.”
“We’ll see.”
Chen Xiaoyan grinned, sizing up the girl.
She really didn’t match her ID at all, the gap was huge.
“Go, Xiaoyan-jie, beat her up!” someone in the audience suddenly shouted, drawing many looks.
Chen Xiaoyan twitched her mouth.
That brat was getting jealous again.
Heal With a Hammer didn’t say much, immediately commanding her puppet to attack.
The next second, the Tangmen puppet vanished from sight.
“Drizzle Envelops the Light.”
Chen Xiaoyan immediately attached a dog leash to the Divine Strategy Mansion puppet.
The Divine Strategy puppet activated its super armor, standing tall with its spear, unmoving.
“Swish swish”—several sharp sounds echoed.
Silver flashes shot from all directions toward the Divine Strategy puppet.
“Sweep the Eight Directions.”
The Divine Strategy puppet used a skill to knock away the hidden weapons in front.
But it couldn’t do anything about the ones behind and could only take the hits head-on.
The silver lights struck its back, dropping its health by one-seventh.
Those silver lights were hidden weapons shaped like iron nails.
“The hidden weapons are poisoned,” at this time, the Divine Strategy puppet reported its status to Chen Xiaoyan.
Puppets weren’t lifeless; their setting in the game was similar to intelligent robots.
However, they weren’t nearly as smart and lacked the ability to learn.
Chen Xiaoyan was a little surprised, looking at Heal With a Hammer and smiling: “Little sister, you ask me to go easy, but you don’t hold back at all—you even use poison.”
“Hehe, if I went easy on a Da Luo like you, wouldn’t I just be asking for trouble? Anyway, Da Luo, don’t blame this newbie—I didn’t tell it to use poison!”
“All right, then let’s continue.”
Chen Xiaoyan spread her hands, signaling the Divine Strategy puppet to give up defense and go on the offensive.
As a tank, Divine Strategy didn’t care about movement speed, not like Shushan’s glass cannons.
Once Tangmen’s stealth ended.
The Divine Strategy puppet struck with Dragon Break, launching Tangmen into the air.
Immediately after, it brandished its spear for normal attacks.
The Tangmen puppet’s health slowly dropped.
Divine Strategy’s damage wasn’t high; in a few seconds, it only shaved off a quarter of Tangmen’s health—also a squishy class.
Heal With a Hammer instantly cast Spring Breeze Guide.
Chen Xiaoyan stood still, unmoving.
She even looked a little bored.
Hurry up, I want to go challenge Yunyun Doesn’t Want to Heal next.
“When it stabs at you, make sure to dodge!”
Heal With a Hammer nervously reminded her Tangmen puppet.
The puppet nodded back in understanding.
The two played for half an hour without a winner.
Divine Strategy had high defense but was too clunky—its only charge skill was Dragon Break. If dodged, it was easily kited.
Tangmen was agile, with both stealth and charge skills, but just couldn’t break through.
After half an hour, she managed to scratch away two-thirds of Divine Strategy’s health, only for Chen Xiaoyan to heal it right back to full with Spring Breeze Guide and Drizzle Envelops the Light.
“Why did Xiaoyan-jie pick Divine Strategy? If she picked Shushan, the fight would’ve been over ages ago,” Chongchong thought to herself.
As she wondered in vain, Yunyun Doesn’t Want to Heal and Youyou Won’t Heal were off to the side, heatedly discussing Chen Xiaoyan.
If she faced off with Chen Xiaoyan—Zhenwu versus Divine Strategy—one a semi-tank, the other a full tank, both sides with main healers.
That scene wouldn’t be a sect tournament but a torture contest.
Whoever emptied their Fragrant Intent first would lose.
“I admit defeat,” Heal With a Hammer raised her hand and called out to the stage.
“Out of Fragrant Intent?”
Chen Xiaoyan grinned mischievously, a trace of schadenfreude in her expression.
Heal With a Hammer gave her a resentful glance, then silently walked to the side.
Indeed.
Half an hour was enough to exhaust her Fragrant Intent.
If she sat down to meditate and recover it now, she’d just become a target for the Divine Strategy puppet’s Dragon Break.
And with Tangmen being pure DPS, it couldn’t protect the fragile healer—a single spear could pound her as much as it wanted.
The damage wasn’t high, but the pain was real.