“You!”
Qin Xuange’s face suddenly darkened, as if covered by a layer of frost.
Although the tip of the spear in her hand still pointed directly at Jiang Huai, her throat felt as if it were blocked by something, and she was unable to speak for a long time.
She hadn’t expected that this man who had suddenly appeared was actually the man of the legendary senior, Qin Qingyue.
This caused her to set aside some of her contempt.
If one strictly followed Qin Qingyue’s seniority, this person could even be considered her elder.
After a standoff lasting several breaths, Qin Xuange’s heroic eyebrows furrowed tightly, as if she had undergone a difficult internal struggle before finally squeezing out a sentence: “You are not Senior Qin Qingyue’s Husband Lord.”
“Hmm?!” Jiang Huai’s tone suddenly rose, and the long Sword in his hand, circulating with the Two Energies of Yin and Yang, let out a hum, its cold light suddenly intensifying.
What did she mean? What did the Black Dragon Clan mean? Was his identity being revoked?
“You are her Husband,” Qin Xuange corrected word by word, her expression serious.
In this woman-dominated world, Husband Lord was mostly the address used by concubines for their men, while Husband was the proper title used by a wife.
Jiang Huai shook his head, his tone returning to being flat: “The matters between Qingyue and me have nothing to do with the Black Dragon Clan. You need not trouble yourself over it.”
Qin Xuange stared fixedly at Jiang Huai, her tall body standing on the ice, her expression shifting complexly several times.
She bit her lower lip and lowered her voice slightly: “I…”
The other party was, after all, Qin Qingyue’s Dao Companion, and the person she admired most was Qin Qingyue.
He might simply be used to being indulged by the senior, which had fostered such an arrogant air that he dared to challenge others while only in the Golden Core Stage.
“In consideration of you being the senior’s Dao Companion, I am unwilling to make things difficult for you,” Qin Xuange took a deep breath, maintaining her pride and poise as she declared loudly. “If you insist on fighting, consider it my forfeit.”
After saying that, she actually retracted her Spear momentum.
That pitch-black long spear was placed behind her back with a reverse grip, and her tall figure in Profound Armor bowed slightly, performing an Etiquette.
“Boo!”
A chorus of jeers immediately erupted from below the stage.
The young disciples of various Dragon Race clans whispered among themselves, and many began to hoot.
Cang Ling, who had just caught her breath, shouted the loudest and most cheerfully.
She was already feeling stifled due to her defeat, and now, not wanting to miss out on the excitement, she strained her voice and yelled: “Qin Xuange! You couldn’t be afraid, could you? You don’t even dare to fight a male cultivator?”
The waves of feminine jeering rushed toward her, causing Qin Xuange, who had her back to the crowd, to suddenly halt her steps.
How could her proud Black Dragon temperament endure such ridicule? A faint red color crept up her fair neck, and the tips of her ears felt hot.
She turned around abruptly, her spear tip sweeping horizontally to point at the few people hooting the loudest below the stage, and snapped:
“Shut up! If you have the ability, don’t just use your tongues down there! If you’re not satisfied, feel free to come up on the stage! I, Qin Xuange, will take you all on!”
Her gaze was particularly sharp as it pierced toward Cang Ling, her tone disdainful: “And you, Cang Ling! You were just defeated by my spear with almost no power to fight back. What face do you have to fan the flames here? A defeated general, a dog with a broken back—how are you fit to be so noisy?!”
As soon as these words came out, it was like cold water being splashed down; the area below the stage instantly became much quieter.
Especially Cang Ling, who had been named; her face turned bright red, her fists clenched until they creaked, and her chest heaved violently.
Yet, she could not find any words to rebut and could only glare at the stage through gritted teeth.
“Humph!” Qin Xuange snorted coldly again, as if brushing off annoying flies. This time she did not stay, lifting her foot to truly depart.
High above the distant Ice Crystal Main Palace, five figures with vast auras floated quietly.
White, yellow, cyan, red, and black.
Without exception, all their eyes were focused on the martial arts field.
“A pity, they didn’t really start fighting,” Cang Wei, the new Clan Leader of the Yellow Dragon Clan, said with a regretful tone.
“I still wanted to see how this legendary Yin-Yang Body performs in actual combat.”
The Black Dragon Clan Leader, Qin Qingran, smiled faintly upon hearing this, her tone carrying a hint of pride: “Clan Leader Cang Wei is joking. It was just a clash of tempers between juniors. My Xuange knows Etiquette and is unwilling to use the older to bully the younger, using the Nascent Soul peak to pressure a Golden Core.”
“Since he is a Yin-Yang Body, his potential must be limitless. It will be fine to spar another day once he advances to the Nascent Soul stage.”
She was currently in an excellent mood.
Today, Qin Xuange had successively defeated Chihuang and Cang Ling, greatly dampening the spirits of the Red Dragon and Yellow Dragon clans, which could be said to have won back a lot of face for the Black Dragon Clan, which had been in a slight decline in recent years.
Cang Wei glanced at her and let out an almost inaudible snort.
Chi Hong, on the other hand, had been observing Jiang Huai below with great interest. Her charming eyes flickered as if she were calculating something, a thought-provoking smile playing on her lips.
White Dew, who had remained silent throughout, had her white dress fluttering in the piercing cold wind of the high altitude.
Her ice-blue eyes calmly watched the scene below.
Suddenly, she spoke, her voice like cracking ice: “They will fight.”
“Hmm?” The other four dragons were all startled, their gazes involuntarily converging on the ice rink once more.
They saw Jiang Huai looking at Qin Xuange’s retreating back, then turning his head to look below the stage.
Chihuang was currently leaning in Chi Lian’s arms, her face still somewhat pale, yet she struggled to keep her back straight.
Her crimson eyes watched Jiang Huai on the stage with a bit of a young woman’s stubborn refusal to give in, but then, she seemed to sigh softly, turned her head away, and said in a weak voice: “Forget it, just come down. There’s no need to argue with her over this pointless pride.”
Jiang Huai, however, gave her a smile.
In the next moment, a flash of light appeared in his palm, and a miniature palace only the size of a palm emerged out of thin air.
“Qin Xuange. I won’t fight you for nothing. Let’s use this as a stake and have a gamble, how about it?”
Qin Xuange’s footsteps froze. Feeling somewhat impatient, she turned her head to look, and her pupils instantly contracted as she stood stunned on the spot.
“Palace of Tidal Tranquility!” High in the sky, the Black Dragon Clan Leader Qin Qingran cried out in loss of composure.
The calm smile on her face vanished instantly, and her voice even changed pitch.
“That is one of the main palaces of my Eastern Sea Dragon Palace! There is no mistake!”
That Eastern Sea Dragon Palace, which had been forcibly seized by Qin Qingyue and was regarded as a great humiliation by the entire Black Dragon Clan, had actually not been taken away by Qin Qingyue but was instead in the hands of this man.
The Eastern Sea Dragon Palace was not just a symbol; it was itself an extraordinary spatial treasure.
Qin Qingran’s chest heaved violently, and an irrepressible excitement erupted in her eyes.
Her internal Lingli began to surge almost uncontrollably.
Get it back! She must get it back!
At the very moment this thought arose, a terrifying pressure—vastly more immense and colder than her own—crashed down like a ten-thousand-foot ice mountain, pressing down hard on her head.
Qin Qingran let out a muffled groan.
The rushing Lingli within her body froze, its circulation becoming difficult and obscure.
Her bones made faint “clacking” sounds under that invisible heavy pressure, and cold sweat instantly broke out on her forehead.
She turned her neck with difficulty, following the source of that suffocating pressure.
She saw White Dew still floating there quietly, her white dress fluttering, appearing like a peerless immortal.
Those ice-blue eyes were currently glancing over sideways, her gaze calm and rippleless, as if staring at an ant.
She didn’t say a single word, but the meaning in her gaze was self-evident.
*If you dare touch him, I will kill you.*
If the Clan Leader of the Black Dragon Clan needed replacing, any other dragon would do; regardless, none of them were in the Great Ascension Stage anyway.
Qin Qingran shuddered violently.
She didn’t doubt for a second that White Dew had the ability to do so.
She exerted all her effort to restrain all her Lingli and greed, but her Dragon Eyes remained fixed on the miniature palace in Jiang Huai’s hand, filled with resentment.
On the ice rink, Qin Xuange had barely recovered from her initial extreme shock.
She slowly turned back around to face Jiang Zhun directly.
The previous hesitation and tolerance born of seniority vanished without a trace, and her eyes became as cold and sharp as the tip of her spear.
“That is a palace of my Black Dragon Clan,” Qin Xuange said word by word.
“Where are the other halls?” she pressed.
Jiang Huai flipped his wrist, and the model of the Palace of Tidal Tranquility in his palm quietly disappeared.
His expression was flat: “What Eastern Sea Dragon Palace? I don’t understand. This is the Nine Heavens Palace that my Madam entrusted to my care before she departed.”
Below the stage, Chihuang, who had originally been advising Jiang Huai to come down, was now completely stunned.
She stared blankly at Jiang Huai, then turned to look at Chi Lian who was supporting her, as if she couldn’t believe her own eyes and ears.
She even instinctively rubbed her eyes.
“He… he is doing this…” Chihuang muttered to herself. “Is it to vent anger on my behalf? Then why didn’t you choose me back then when you knew I was the Saintess?”
Chi Lian, who was carefully supporting her, felt a pang of bitterness and stifling in her heart upon hearing Chihuang’s mutterings, as if she had been lightly pricked by a fine needle.
She suppressed the emotions churning in her heart and tried to make the smile on her face look natural, saying softly: “Husband has always been like this toward people, always like this…”
Despite saying that, a small voice in her heart was grumbling: *I really, really want to go back and pinch him for a while.*
Qin Xuange’s gaze met Jiang Huai’s in the air, no longer containing the slightest bit of negligence.
Her high-bound ponytail danced wildly in the cold wind, and the aura around her body was no longer suppressed, beginning to rise level by level.
A sharp spear intent mixed with Black Dragon Might.
“Fine! I will gamble with you!” Qin Xuange’s voice was decisive, carrying a sense of resolve.
“However, I, Qin Xuange, do not possess anything on my person that can compare in value to the palace in your hand.”
She paused, met Jiang Huai’s calm gaze, raised her head, and said loudly: “I will wager all my net worth, as well as myself, Qin Xuange! I bet against that palace in your hand! If I win, the palace is returned to the Black Dragon Clan. If I lose—” She bit her teeth. “I, Qin Xuange, will be at your disposal! To be a slave or a maid, I will have no complaints!”
Her voice shook the surrounding fields, sounding solemn and awe-inspiring.
A massive uproar broke out below the stage.
To be able to say such things in front of so many dragons was clearly no joke.
“Playing for such high stakes? Open the bets, open the bets!”
“Does she want to play with a pretty boy?”
“She definitely does… this type of dragon is the shrewdest…” A few dragons below the stage whispered.
Qin Xuange’s ability to say such things was partly because she was unwilling to take advantage of Jiang Huai, but more importantly, after repeated confirmation, the opponent truly only possessed the Lingli of a Golden Core peak.
She, Qin Xuange, was not merely a simple Nascent Soul peak on the surface, but a Half-step Soul Transformation expert with a deep foundation and unplayed trump cards.
How could she truly fear a Golden Core?
How could the chasm between realms be so easily crossed?
The thought of reclaiming the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace, a symbol of glory, was like a scorching flame burning through her logic and pride.
In the distance, Qin Qingran’s face changed drastically upon hearing this, and she blurted out: “You must not! Xuange, do not behave so recklessly!”
She anxiously wanted to use Soul Transmission to stop her.
The stake was too high; Qin Xuange was the future hope of the Black Dragon Clan, so how could she stake herself so easily?
Cang Wei of the Yellow Dragon Clan, however, released a wisp of Qi at just the right moment to interfere with the Soul Transmission.
She crossed her arms, trying hard to suppress a gloating smile while feigning a serious expression: “Clan Leader Qin, since the juniors have such courage and responsibility, it is better for us as elders not to interfere too much. Anyway…”
She drew out her tone and glanced below. “It is a Half-step Soul Transformation against a Golden Core peak; surely it won’t result in a loss?”
On the stage, Jiang Zhun was clearly stunned for a moment when he heard Qin Xuange’s stake.
He immediately waved his hands repeatedly, his tone carrying a bit of helplessness: “No, there’s really no need. I don’t want you; you aren’t of much use to me.”
She wasn’t some special Physique, and Jiang Huai wasn’t lacking for women, so what would he want her for?
Below the stage, Chihuang curled her lip upon hearing this and snorted softly to Chi Lian: “Truly shameless, actually betting herself. As if anyone would treasure her. Don’t you agree?”
Hearing Chihuang’s words, Chi Lian only felt that sense of bitterness grow heavier.
She barely managed to twitch the corners of her mouth and gave a muffled “Mm” in response.
“I, Qin Xuange, have always done things in an upright and open manner! I do not take advantage of others!” she snapped.
The long spear in her hand erupted with a piercing black light, and Dragon Marks faintly emerged on the shaft.
“Since Young Lord Jiang has already brought out a stake, why bother with the pretense of refusing? If you want to fight, then fight! If you still won’t strike…”
The muscles in her calves tightened instantly.
Her Profound Armor-clad toes slammed against the ice, and like a bolt of black lightning, carrying the rolling Evil Dragon’s Roar and spear momentum, she stabbed directly toward Jiang Huai’s face.
“Then I shall strike first!”
Jiang Huai sighed softly, appearing somewhat helpless.
He flicked his wrist, and atop the blade, the black and white Qi Stream suddenly accelerated its rotation as a neutral and peaceful Sword Intent slowly rose.
“I really don’t want you.”
“Really.”