Faced with this sudden, formidable sword strike, Jiang Huai’s eyes narrowed slightly.
He did not meet it head-on. His footwork shifted, and his figure drifted backward like a ghost.
At the same time, he formed his fingers into a sword, sending out a condensed Sword Qi that struck out later but arrived first.
“Clang!”
With a soft sound, Chihuang felt a numbness in her wrist.
Her sword’s momentum skewed slightly, and she was inwardly startled: What keen eyes! What swift reflexes!’
Jiang Huai steadied himself, his gaze calm as he looked at the “arrogant attendant” before him, then glanced at the Saintess behind her, whose air was gentle and her robes luxurious.
The Saintess is so mild-mannered, so why is her attendant so hot-tempered?
“Please wait. I’ve come here after passing the Red Dragon Clan Leader’s trial.” Jiang Huai cupped his hands toward Chi Lian behind Chihuang.
“I only wish to see the Saintess.”
Chi Lian glanced at Jiang Huai and gently waved her hand, saying nothing more.
She didn’t know what else to say, since she wasn’t the true Saintess after all.
“Hmph, you lascivious disciple of Jiutian Palace, do you even know what kind of person our Saintess is? Yet you dare show up to propose marriage?!”
The Red Dragon Patterned Sword in Chihuang’s hand flickered with a faint glow. Flames shaped like a dragon churned around her, and even the dragon horns on her head began to burn.
Her simple red dress could not hide her beauty. Unlike the mature charm of Chi Hong, Chihuang’s curvaceous figure carried a fierce and proud spirit, bold and unrestrained.
Just from her appearance and bearing, Jiang Huai could tell this woman had a fiery temper and pride as vast as the sky.
No wonder just proposing to her family’s Saintess would make this attendant so angry.
“Miss, please stay your hand. Might I say a few words to the Saintess?” Jiang Huai’s mind tensed as he placed his hand on the sword at his waist.
This attendant’s cultivation is so high? She must be a Golden Core, and likely already at the mid-stage.
If even her attendant is so strong, what must the Saintess herself be like?
When Chihuang sensed Jiang Huai’s cultivation was only late-stage Foundation Establishment, a faint smile appeared at the corner of her mouth, and the flames around her grew even more arrogant.
“You want to speak to my family’s Saintess? Get past me first.”
“You say you want to discuss the Dao with our Saintess? Surely you can’t even defeat her attendant?” “Such a trivial late-stage Foundation Establishment lecher.”
I thought he’d be impressive, but he’s only late Foundation Establishment after all.
Hearing this, Jiang Huai’s expression turned serious.
He slowly drew the longsword at his waist, its sharpness gleaming, and said to Chi Lian behind Chihuang:
“Honored Saintess, in that case, I have no choice but to pass your attendant’s test first.”
Such an arrogant attendant must have the Saintess’s permission to act so boldly.
Chi Lian was momentarily stunned, but still nodded, saying nothing.
“Hmph! Watch my sword!”
Chihuang shouted, and the Red Dragon Patterned Sword in her hand burst forth with dazzling red light. Fire Dragon Qi surged around her like the arrival of a fire god.
She struck in anger, holding nothing back.
The boundless power of a mid-stage Golden Core poured forth, and the blazing Fiery Sword Gang transformed into a roaring fire dragon that charged at Jiang Huai.
Outside the secret realm, Chi Hong, who had been closely watching the fight, was so nervous her heart pounded wildly.
She couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat for Jiang Huai.
“This child, she never knows how to hold back!” she worried silently.
If Jiang Huai really got hurt, that wicked dragon Qin Qingyue would turn the entire South Sea Dragon Palace upside down!
Yet at this moment, Chihuang felt nothing but delight, certain that a fierce beating was exactly what this arrogant fool deserved!
She even thought, if word of this spread, that she, Chihuang, had given the “lecher” who came to propose a good thrashing, there wouldn’t be so much trouble after all.
At least it would keep those twin sisters from the Yellow Dragon Clan—especially Cang Ling—from pestering her all the time.
The thought of Cang Ling’s nagging face made Chihuang even angrier, and her sword strikes became three parts more ruthless.
Faced with the overwhelming fiery sword Qi, Jiang Huai dared not be careless in the slightest.
Beneath his robes, the Black Dragon Mark at his lower abdomen and the White Dragon Mark at his hip simultaneously grew warm.
Dragon Yuan flowed through his body, and a set of Black and White Dragon Scale Battle Armor wove and spread over his form.
His gaze sharpened. Rather than retreat, he advanced.
The sword in his hand let out a clear hum as he unleashed a Sword Qi of utmost concentration, embodying the Dao of Yin and Yang, and slashed out with pinpoint precision!
“Hiss!”
There was no earth-shaking explosion.
The rampaging fire dragon sword Qi, as if encountering its nemesis, was split in two by the seemingly simple Yin-Yang Sword Qi.
The blazing fire spiritual energy was as though dissipated and devoured by an invisible force, its power greatly diminished.
Chihuang was shocked. Her lithe body twisted as her sword techniques shifted again.
In an instant, the sky was filled with crimson sword shadows, engulfing Jiang Huai like a meteor shower of fire.
But Jiang Huai’s footwork was mysterious and his swordplay even more so—sometimes as fierce as the blazing sun, sometimes as gentle as flowing water, the transformation between Yin and Yang smooth and natural.
Again and again, he neutralized Chihuang’s killing moves at the last possible moment.
Sometimes, his Yin-Yang Sword Qi even turned her force back against her, leaving Chihuang’s blood and Qi churning.
Their figures crisscrossed and danced within the fiery secret realm, sword light slashing and flames surging, locked in a fierce, unresolved battle.
But anyone with sharp eyes could see that Jiang Huai, despite his much lower cultivation, was faintly gaining the upper hand thanks to his profound understanding of power and the mysteries of the Yin-Yang Body.
He could always find a flaw in Chihuang’s offense, dissolving it at minimal cost and counterattacking with relentless sharpness.
The more Chihuang fought, the more alarmed and aggrieved she became.
A mid-stage, ninth-turn Golden Core prodigy of the dragon clan’s future, being suppressed by a mere late-stage Foundation Establishment? How could her proud heart tolerate this? Her frustration and agitation grew crazier by the second.
“How can this be?!”
She gritted her silver teeth and pushed her dragon clan bloodline to its limit.
The flames around her nearly turned pure white, the heat soaring to a terrifying degree.
“Stop fighting, please stop, both of you.”
Chi Lian quickly said in a low voice, worried.
At this rate, one side was bound to be seriously injured, which would surely harm the future of the Red Dragon Clan.
“Our Saintess is telling you both to stop!” Jiang Huai heard this and slightly slowed his sword.
“What nonsense?! Take this!” Chihuang roared, slashing with a sword.
Her crimson dragon tail flicked lightly, her generous chest trembling nonstop.
Having inherited part of the previous generation’s insights on the Yin-Yang Body, Jiang Huai’s understanding of the Dao of Yin and Yang far exceeded his current realm.
Seeing her aura rising once more, Jiang Huai’s eyes grew sharp, the two energies of Yin and Yang within his body circulating at an unprecedented speed. The sword in his hand drew a perfect arc.
A streak of half-black, half-white sword light, seeming to embody the truth of heaven and earth, tore forth soundlessly toward Chihuang.
Outside the secret realm, Chi Hong’s heart pounded violently.
She had expected Jiang Huai to be strong, but never imagined her own Saintess would be forced to such a degree—perhaps even facing defeat.
That strand of supremely pure Yin-Yang Sword Qi seemed to stir the secret realm itself.
As the sword light brushed the edge of the secret realm’s void, the entire “Red Flame Heart-Refining Secret Realm” reacted as if it gained a mind of its own.
It suddenly shook violently.
The earth cracked open, magma surged upward, and the laws of fire in the sky became wild and chaotic.
Jiang Huai and Chihuang’s faces changed at the same time.
They stopped their battle and retreated quickly, stabilizing themselves on the ground as they looked around in alarm and confusion.
“What’s going on?” “Why did the secret realm suddenly…”
Outside the secret realm, Chi Hong grew even more anxious.
Whether it was Chihuang or Jiang Huai who was harmed, it would be a loss she could not bear.
One was her carefully cultivated successor, given a pureblood red dragon attendant. The other was Qin Qingyue’s husband and Wu Zhaohua’s beloved.
Moreover, this secret realm had been used by the Red Dragon Clan since ancient times to temper core disciples.
Chi Hong was thoroughly familiar with it.
How could an accident occur now?
Not daring to delay, she instantly circulated her magic power, attempting to forcibly open the secret realm and pull the three within out.
But the moment her divine sense and power touched the secret realm—
Buzz.
The secret realm, like an invisible barrier, instantly cut off all her connection.
Thinking of Qin Qingyue waiting in the guest palace, Chi Hong’s face turned ashen.
How am I going to explain this to Qin Qingyue?