At that moment, the white light of Master Yunxia’s Inner Strength rapidly contracted, flowing back into her body. The shattered white dragon of Inner Strength also melded swiftly back into her form.

Her Inner Strength, once pure white, gradually began to reveal flecks of gold.

In mid-air, her body elongated and swelled. Two more indistinct, white-gold heads sprouted from behind her, along with two additional pairs of arms growing from her back.

Three heads and six arms!

Her two new pairs of hands clutched longswords of white light, condensed from white-gold True Power.

"Old Dream Divine Decision."

A golden light flared in all six of Master Yunxia’s hands. The colorful glow between the brows of her three heads grew more substantial.

"Supreme Yin Hundred Dragon Slash!!!"

A colossal BOOM echoed.

A massive amount of white-gold Inner Strength erupted from Master Yunxia’s body. From within it, a continuous stream of countless white dragons charged forth.

The densely packed white dragons shot into the sky like a waterfall, weaving and roaring, their breath blasting as they charged toward Lin Hui above.

At this very moment, all the fog within a several-kilometer radius was driven away, and the abyss below the cliff was instantly filled with an endless white-gold radiance.

Countless white dragons burst forth from the white-gold light, a torrent of power surging toward Lin Hui, who stood on the broken cliff.

A single strike of this magnitude would have utterly annihilated Xinyu Town.

"Quite the display," Lin Hui said, raising Ruyi. His long hair whipped about in the fierce winds.

"Then I suppose I’ll have to get a little serious."

He raised his longsword, holding it horizontally.

’Special Effects: Feathering.’

’True Body Seal, activate.’

’Zhengde Seal, activate.’

’True Heart Seal, activate.’

In an instant, Lin Hui’s figure rapidly expanded, growing taller and larger. In the blink of an eye, he stood four meters tall.

His muscles swelled and his veins bulged, yet his face, strangely, remained unchanged. His gaze was fixed on the distance, seemingly suffused with a faint, inexplicable pity.

That divine aura caused the image of Lin Hui to slowly merge with the figure Master Yunxia had always feared in her heart.

"KILL!!" At that moment, the last failsafe in her mind shattered.

The effects of the Time-Sense Divine Decision, which she had been suppressing, were finally unleashed without reservation.

HISS...

Lin Hui had just raised his hand, preparing to meet the tide of white dragons with his sword.

But as soon as he moved, he realized something was wrong.

His speed was frighteningly slow, while the pouncing speed of the white dragons below had suddenly accelerated dramatically.

At such a speed, even he, in his current state, could not possibly react in time.

BOOM!!!!

The next instant, he was completely engulfed by the pounce of countless white dragons.

’Wait, this is bad!!’ It was only then that Master Yunxia came to her senses, realizing she had lost control again. She had struck too hard, inadvertently unleashing her full power!

’My Martial Arts!!’ She scrambled to pull back her power, but it was too late.

The horde of dragons soared into the sky, pulverizing the remaining dozens of meters of the cliff and carrying the debris upward.

From a distance, it looked like a pillar of white-gold light erupting from the abyss, shooting a hundred meters into the air in a single blast.

"No!!" Master Yunxia shot into the air, chasing after the blast.

But in the next moment, she sensed something was wrong.

She whirled around.

She found herself face-to-face with a pair of beautiful, crystal-clear, light-blue pupils.

"You!?" Yunxia stammered in disbelief. "When!?"

"You should be feeling the pain."

Lin Hui said calmly. His long, blue hair glowed faintly. Blue markings covered his entire body, and three complex, golden characters floated behind him.

TCH!

In the next instant, a line of blood abruptly split open down the center of Master Yunxia’s body, running from her throat to her abdomen.

Blood gushed out as if it were free.

She plummeted in disbelief. Her body, fifteen times stronger than a Bright Extreme Grandmaster’s, her boundless True Power defenses, her steel-like constitution on par with a replica Divine Weapon, and even the protective relic she carried...

...at this moment, it had all been torn apart as if made of paper, effortlessly shattered by that single sword strike.

Quickly.

SHING!!

While still in mid-air, the two of them vanished in the blink of an eye.

The surrounding white light dissipated. The gale persisted, swiftly blowing away all traces of their presence as the fog rolled back in, shrouding everything.

「A few seconds later.」

Several figures abruptly appeared on the edge of the ruined cliff.

But they found nothing. All that remained was the devastated battlefield and, from the abyss below, a vast, faintly stirring fluctuation of power.

"Damn, there’s a disturbance below! Let’s suppress it together!"

The figures dove into the abyss and vanished.

However, one figure abruptly returned to the surface. She bent down and picked up a single black hair from a fissure in the rock.

’Interesting...’

The figure lifted her head, revealing a bewitching and lovely face.

It was none other than the mother of Hong Ling and Hong Lingxiang.

*

*

*

「Qingfeng Temple, Rear Courtyard Manor.」

Lin Hui tossed Master Yunxia to the ground.

She performed a backflip, landing lightly on her feet. Her wounds were already completely healed.

"Isn’t this the part where you’re supposed to take advantage of the unconscious beauty and do something... fun?" Master Yunxia said with a sigh.

’Where did all those aphrodisiacs he took go? How is he showing no reaction at all?’

"Am I not beautiful enough?" she asked, puzzled.

"Of course not," Lin Hui said, waving a hand.

An invisible wind blew the courtyard gate shut.

"I’m just not interested in you," he stated plainly. "And now, you’ve lost." He had already returned to his normal state: waist-length black hair, a well-proportioned figure. Aside from his robes, which were torn from being stretched, there was no outward sign that he had just unleashed such terrifying power.

"..." Master Yunxia was silent.

She had considered many possibilities; after all, she had hidden a great deal of her own strength. But she had never, ever imagined that she would lose.

To lose to the master of a martial arts hall from the Outer City...

After a full few minutes of silence, she finally spoke.

"I will honor my promise. Five years!"

She looked up, her gaze fixed on Lin Hui.

"Can you tell me what that was you used at the end!? What Divine Decision was it!? I’ve never seen that kind of Martial Arts before. You definitely haven’t reached the Mingji realm, I can sense that clearly. So... what kind of Martial Arts could possibly elevate you to that level of power in an instant!?"

Even now, she felt as if she were trapped in a hallucination.

It was as if everything that had just happened was nothing but a dream.

"Yunxia, in this world, reaching the Mingji realm and using Summoning are not the only ways to become strong," Lin Hui replied.

THUD.

Master Yunxia earnestly dropped to one knee.

"Please, teach me true Martial Arts!"

"Are you ready now?" Lin Hui asked.

"I believe so," Master Yunxia said, nodding with her eyes closed. "To become stronger, I will give anything."

"Whatever you’ve experienced, whatever your reasons, you must understand one thing," Lin Hui warned. "If the day comes when you lose your loyalty to this school, everything you have gained will be taken from you."

"I understand!" Master Yunxia dispelled the concealing aura around her and knelt before Lin Hui, completely defenseless.

At this moment, if Lin Hui had the slightest inclination, he could kill her instantly and without effort.

The next moment, a point of white light gently imprinted itself on the center of her forehead.

The sigil of the Righteous Body was, at that moment, truly engraved deep within her soul.

In the next instant, her body shot up in height. Her already tattered dress, unable to withstand the change, exploded completely.

She stood stark naked before Lin Hui.

But she paid it no mind. Her veins bulged and her muscles swelled.

WHOOSH!

A violent gale erupted from her body, causing all the surrounding furnishings to tremble.

"Such... such immense power! It’s amplified every aspect of my body by fifty percent in an instant!" Even though Master Yunxia had been prepared for something, she was still stunned by the effects of the True Body Seal.

She was a Bright Extreme Grandmaster!

’Half of my power... just how terrifying a figure is that!?’

’And if the power he bestows upon others is this terrifying, just how strong is Lin Hui himself when he enters that bizarre, powerful blue state?’

"I will uphold my promise." Master Yunxia controlled her body, rapidly shrinking it back to normal. She used her Inner Strength to barely pull the scraps of her dress together to cover herself.

"With this enhancement, the trip to Tianchong City should be much easier. And it will be much smoother to go steal... I mean, *buy* Treasure Medicine!"

"..." Lin Hui was speechless. He had long suspected that Master Yunxia stole those Treasure Medicines; it seemed his guess was right on the money.

"All right, all right, just go back and get used to your new strength. Let me know when you’re ready to set out," Lin Hui said, waving his hand dismissively, not even bothering to look at her.

"Yes, Observatory Master!" Master Yunxia said earnestly.

Ever since she joined the temple, this title, when she spoke it, now carried a new weight and seriousness.

Lin Hui heard the change in her tone. He turned to admire the camellias in the corner.

Only to see that the powerful gust from earlier had knocked all the blossoms to the ground.

"You...!" Lin Hui was suddenly enraged.

As Master Yunxia stepped out of the courtyard, she happened to see Han Xiaoyue coming through the gate.

’No, it couldn’t be a coincidence.’

Experts of their caliber didn’t just stroll in and out; they used Body Techniques to save as much time as possible.

This was why ordinary people so rarely caught a glimpse of true top-tier experts.

They wouldn’t waste time on something as meaningless as travel.

At the speed their Body Techniques allowed, a normal person wouldn’t even be able to see a blur.

"You’re..." Han Xiaoyue trailed off, staring at the nearly naked Master Yunxia.

Master Yunxia was still in her Mingxia form. Her figure was exquisite, her skin fair and smooth—utterly alluring.

Han Xiaoyue glanced back at Lin Hui’s courtyard, then looked at Master Yunxia again.

"You two..."

"I... I’m sorry..." Master Yunxia said, her eyes darting around. She subconsciously adopted a pose of covering her stomach, a flash of panic on her face.

"Even so... I don’t like this," Han Xiaoyue said calmly.

She only said half of what she was thinking, but Master Yunxia guessed the rest.

"I’m..." Master Yunxia was about to jokingly claim she was pregnant when a silent chill washed over her from behind.

She shivered slightly and immediately stood up straight.

"Just kidding. Relax, I’m not going to steal your husband."

"I know. It might be possible for someone else, but never for you, Master Yunxia," Han Xiaoyue said, nodding seriously.

She had clearly recognized Master Yunxia’s identity long ago.

"But to be honest, even if it were true, I could accept it," she added as an afterthought.

Words like those should have sounded like she was just putting up a brave front.

And yet, both Master Yunxia and the distant Lin Hui could strangely sense the utter sincerity in her words.