“Junior Sister Ye?”
“Junior Sister Ye!”
Ye Luqing was in a daze for a moment, then realized the referee on the arena was shaking her body.
“Junior Sister Ye, are you alright?”
Hearing this, Ye Luqing blinked.
“Thank you, I’m fine.”
The female Steward nodded, preparing to announce the result of the third match.
With the Heavenly Dream Gu broken, Li Yongxing was unable to fight, and was carried off after losing consciousness.
No one knew why Ye Luqing had also frozen on the arena, but thankfully, she had woken up unharmed.
“Singles Match, Round 3! Winner, Ye Luqing!”
The disciples from the various peaks in the stands let out bursts of cheers. Even though no Nascent Soul cultivators had competed in this match, its brilliance was in no way inferior to a battle between True Monarchs.
First, there was Ye Luqing. She completely controlled the rhythm of the first half. Her follow-up Six Desires Triggering Array and Profound Yellow Mountain-Suppressing Art were absolute killing blows.
Of course, Li Yongxing’s performance had also far surpassed the Golden Core Stage. Used in a controllable way, the powerful Heavenly Dream Gu was enough to make even Peak Nascent Soul Stage experts wary.
Beyond that, Li Yongxing’s success in forcing his way into her dream surprised everyone. Even some Elders were curious how he had done it, but they would have to wait for him to wake up to find out.
Cheers surrounded her, but Ye Luqing’s heart grew increasingly heavy.
She had seen it clearly. Before Li Yongxing fell, the purple light surrounding the Heavenly Dream Gu had flown into her body.
She had thought it was Li Yongxing’s final attempt to drag her down with him, but she felt no effects; it just felt like she’d been dazed for an instant.
Even though she felt no discomfort, a faint unease lingered in her heart.
“System, what was the purple light that flew into my body at the end?”
She summoned the System, wanting to figure out exactly what had entered her.
[Scanning Host Body]
[Abnormality detected within the Spirit Palace]
Ye Luqing followed the voice, using her inner vision to look at her Spirit Palace, and indeed found an almost imperceptible wisp of purple thread.
“This is…”
Ye Luqing spread her Spiritual Power towards it, trying to envelop the thread.
But the moment her Spiritual Power approached that purple thread, she suddenly felt a wave of dizziness and nausea. She hurriedly pulled her Spiritual Power back, narrowly avoiding being invaded by that power.
Even so, she still stumbled on her feet.
Over at Azure Sky Peak’s side, a Junior Sister assumed Ye Luqing was overly exhausted and quickly came over to support her.
Ye Luqing shook her head. Although she felt groggy, in the instant she had been close to the purple thread, she had sensed a familiar aura.
“This is…”
There was no mistake. This was Ming Mengmeng’s aura, the exact same feeling as when she had been pulled into the Illusion Realm that day!
“System, get rid of this thing for me!” She gritted her teeth. Something from the Dao Integration Stage was somewhat beyond her, so she had to rely on the System to clear it.
Although she hadn’t been affected by this thing yet, the thought of it being from Ming Mengmeng made her deeply uncomfortable.
[Apologies. Host’s current cultivation level is too low. Forcibly removing it could damage the Host’s Spirit Palace.]
Ye Luqing: ?
This thing got into her Spirit Palace without a reaction, and now even removing it is impossible?
Useless cat-system.
[This abnormality has no effect on or intent to invade the Host. Should it exhibit aggressive behavior, this System will respond.]
Hearing this, the corner of Ye Luqing’s mouth twitched. This System really was an artificial idiot.
The first time, Ming Mengmeng had tried to invade her Spirit Palace, so the System could block it.
Though the first attempt failed, Ming Mengmeng must have sensed something and left this back-up inside her Spirit Palace using a harmless method.
“Just what you’d expect from an inherently wicked little brat from the Illusion God Sect…”
Ye Luqing was so angry her teeth itched. She looked inside her Spirit Palace again and found that the purple thread wasn’t simply inside it, but seemed to have merged with it, making it truly difficult to remove.
[When the Host reaches the Nascent Soul Stage, during the expansion and condensation of the Nascent Soul and Spirit Palace, it can be removed.]
Only upon hearing the System’s explanation did Ye Luqing’s expression soften slightly.
The Nascent Soul Stage wasn’t too difficult for her; it would even be very easy.
After absorbing the Original Host’s memories, she could fuse with the Water-Wood Infant in about a quarter of an hour and become a Half-Step Nascent Soul existence.
This stage simply meant more Spiritual Power compared to the Golden Core Peak Stage, without a qualitative change.
As for after merging with the Form Infant, the next step of releasing and absorbing the Qi of Heaven and Earth couldn’t be rushed; it was a pure grinding effort.
A conservative estimate placed the time needed to complete this process at at least a day.
A lack of deep understanding of Heaven and Earth could even negatively impact the subsequent breakthrough to the Spirit Transformation Stage.
Although she didn’t really want to absorb the Water-Wood Infant immediately, it seemed she had no other choice.
The next moment, as if remembering something, Ye Luqing turned to the Junior Sister supporting her.
“When Li Yongxing fell, did you see a purple light?”
The Junior Sister was slightly stunned, then shook her head.
“No…”
She was just an ordinary inner disciple at the Golden Core Stage. Watching the match through the Marrow Mist Array had already been a strain; she couldn’t have noticed a detail like that.
Ye Luqing sighed and looked towards the high platform where the Elders watched.
If Ming Mengmeng had dared to act, she must have been confident. That meant no one else present, besides herself, was at the Dao Integration Stage.
However, the very next moment, Xiao Qingxuan suddenly descended from the sky.
Xiao Qingxuan merely glanced at the female disciple supporting Ye Luqing. As if remembering something, the latter’s face instantly paled. She immediately let go of Ye Luqing and scurried back to the Azure Sky Peak stands as if fleeing for her life.
Xiao Qingxuan nodded with satisfaction. This was how other disciples should behave after being warned by her, not acting without a shred of shame like that Cheating Cat Ying Qianqian.
She looked at Ye Luqing, and in an instant, her gaze shifted from cold and detached to soft and tenderly affectionate.
“A-Qing, how badly are you hurt?”
“It’s not too bad.”
Ye Luqing wiped the blood from her nose and, following the Original Host’s mannerisms from memory, gave a smile.
Seeing this, Xiao Qingxuan’s expression became even gentler.
She took Ye Luqing’s hand, channeling the Power of Heaven and Earth to heal her, and at the same time, began walking towards the stands reserved for Heavenly Sword Peak.
“Come on, A-Qing. Let’s watch the matches together.”
In previous years, Ye Luqing would watch Xiao Qingxuan’s Singles Matches from the Heavenly Sword Peak stands, waiting for her there.
When it wasn’t Xiao Qingxuan’s turn to compete, the two of them would watch the matches together.
Xiao Qingxuan still remembered the first time she watched a match with Ye Luqing.
Back then, she hadn’t even reached the Golden Core Stage, but they would guess the outcomes of every match together, commenting on the battles of the Senior Brothers and Sisters on stage. They were often wrong, but enjoyed it immensely.
Now, with Xiao Qingxuan’s vision and battle intuition, she could predict the winner of a duel on the arena within ten moves, but it had lost all its appeal.
Arriving at the stands, the Heavenly Sword Peak disciples very tactfully gave up the best, most central viewing spots, and then all stood, waiting for Xiao Qingxuan to be seated first.
Xiao Qingxuan pulled Ye Luqing down to sit beside her, then spoke lightly.
“Everyone, sit.”
“Yes!”
The Heavenly Sword Peak disciples responded in unison, then sat down in perfect sync, yet kept a certain distance from the two women.
It was as if they had rehearsed this, or were long familiar with the routine.
Xiao Qingxuan nodded slightly. It felt like she was back in the past year, watching the matches with A-Qing once more.
