Chi Hong sat behind a wide desk, which was piled high with various documents and jade slips.
She looked focused, her fingertips occasionally brushing across the surface of a jade slip to leave brief Spirit Sense annotations.
Her manner in handling official business was steady and graceful, as if the scene back in the White Dragon Secret Realm’s meditation room had never happened.
She remained the noble and mature Red Dragon Clan Leader.
On her elegantly curved shoulder, a miniature crimson dragon was curled up listlessly.
Chi Huang rested her dragon head near Chi Hong’s collarbone, her crimson Dragon Eyes dim.
From time to time, she unconsciously brushed her Dragon Tail against her master’s neck.
“Honored Master…” Chi Huang’s voice was muffled. “Are we really not going to go look for him?”
Chi Hong’s brush did not stop, as if she hadn’t heard a word.
Unable to get a response, Chi Huang continued to mutter to herself, “Do you think he’s angry with us? Does he think we were being unreasonable by forcing Chi Lian away?”
“If I had taken the initiative to step down and give my spot to Chi Lian, would things have been better?”
The more she thought about it, the more she felt that was the case.
Her dragon head hung even lower.
“After all, he didn’t even say more than a few words to me after he woke up. Even Su Yingman was looking at us strangely.”
She recalled Su Yingman’s smile—which had seemed warm but was actually distant—and became even more certain of her judgment.
It must be because they had “bullied” Chi Lian, who belonged to Jiang Huai’s inner circle, so his official wives and concubines were displeased with them.
“Honored Master!” Chi Huang suddenly perked up and leaned toward Chi Hong’s ear. “I’ve figured it out! Jiang Huai is avoiding us definitely because of Chi Lian!”
“How about we go and apologize to him? We’ll be very sincere and bring gifts. I’ll prepare one, and you should prepare a heavy Token of Sincerity, Honored Master. Then we…”
“I’m going too?” Chi Hong, who had been silently handling business, finally stopped her work.
She arched a delicate eyebrow and turned her head, looking at her naive disciple on her shoulder with a surprised gaze.
“Yes!” Seeing her finally react, Chi Huang nodded hurriedly.
Her Dragon Eyes sparkled with the light of someone who thought they had a brilliant idea.
“If we both go to apologize, it will show more sincerity! Jiang Huai is soft-hearted; he will definitely forgive us! Then we can…”
Before she could finish, Chi Hong curled her index finger and unceremoniously rapped her knuckles hard against the small dragon’s forehead.
Thump!
A crisp sound echoed.
“Ow!” Chi Huang cried out in pain.
She let out an Evil Dragon’s Roar and instantly bounced off Chi Hong’s shoulder, flying in erratic circles in the air while clutching her aching dragon head.
It seemed her master was truly angry this time.
“Look at you! What kind of behavior is this?” Chi Hong put down her jade slip.
Her Dragon Eyes narrowed slightly, carrying the severity of someone disappointed by a pupil’s lack of potential.
“Do you still have even a shred of the dignity and pride expected of the Holy Maiden of the Crimson Dragon? Hmm?”
She stood up, her plump figure appearing even more mature and charming in her crimson palace dress. Her aura carried the majesty of a Clan Leader.
“So what if we were rejected?”
“On the path of cultivation and in the journey of love, why should everything go your way?”
She stepped toward the aggrieved Chi Huang, who was hovering in mid-air while clutching her head, and pointed a finger at her.
“Learn from your master! Even if things don’t go as planned for a moment, the worst you have to do is adjust your strategy and start over!”
“But the grace, the distance, and the dignity you should maintain… none of those can be discarded! Do you understand? Pestering someone and acting low just to beg for forgiveness is self-degrading. It will only make people look down on you even more!”
Chi Hong spoke these words with great confidence, and they weren’t entirely empty lessons.
In her interactions involving Jiang Huai, this was indeed not the first time her advances had been thwarted, but she could always quickly adjust her mindset and maintain her outward composure and status as a Clan Leader.
In short, she would never be a desperate, pining dragon.
Chi Huang shrank back at the scolding and muttered softly, “Then what are we supposed to do now? You don’t seem worried at all, Honored Master…”
Seeing her like this, Chi Hong’s anger dissipated slightly.
She sat back down in her warm jade chair, her posture returning to its usual lazy composure.
A meaningful curve tilted the corners of her lips.
“Why the rush?” She calmly picked up another jade slip, her tone leisurely.
“In my view, it won’t be long before Jiang Huai takes the initiative to come looking for us.”
“Huh?” Hearing this, Chi Huang immediately forgot the pain in her head.
She swooped back down and transformed into her smaller form to curl up on the desk in front of Chi Hong, looking up at her.
“Really? Jiang Huai will actually come looking for us? You’re not lying to me, are you, Honored Master?”
In private with her master, Chi Huang lost the arrogant and aggressive edge she showed to outsiders.
She was more like a somewhat well-behaved daughter who couldn’t hide her thoughts.
Chi Hong glanced at her, intentionally playing coy. “What? You don’t believe me?”
“I don’t!” Chi Huang shook her head. “Why would he come for us? He can’t get away from us fast enough.”
“Then how about a bet?” Chi Hong put down the jade slip, offering the proposal with great interest.
“Bet on what?” Chi Huang perked up, her Dragon Eyes widening.
“Let’s bet that if he takes the initiative to seek us out soon, you have to be obedient and listen to me for a period of time. How does that sound?” Chi Hong looked at her with a smile.
Chi Huang tilted her dragon head and thought about it.
Feeling that the possibility of Jiang Huai coming to them was infinitesimal, she asked, “And if I win?”
“If you win,” Chi Hong’s smile remained unchanged, “I will listen to you and go with you to apologize.”
Chi Huang blinked, suddenly feeling that something was off. “For real?”
Chi Hong chuckled at her reaction but stopped teasing her. She didn’t say anything more.
She had her own calculations.
Jiang Huai’s Yin-Yang Body had an unusual cultivation method.
Last time, the Saintesses of the Five Great Dragon Clans had joined forces to pour the power of the Five Elements into him under the guise of a sparring match, helping him break through his bottleneck and enter the Nascent Soul stage.
But could the improvement brought by such an external infusion truly be maintained long-term?
Could that level of Five Elements power truly become self-sustaining within the Small World inside his body?
Chi Hong was skeptical.
If one could simply charge up once and then advance all the way to the top, then the cultivation of the Yin-Yang Body would be far too simple, and it wouldn’t fit the principle of balance.
Inside the quiet room, the Crystal Coffin emitted a faint, ghostly chill.
“What did you say?” After hearing Jiang Huai’s words, Zhu Siyao’s beautiful eyes widened in disbelief.
“You want me to strip the senior’s clothes to check her?!”
She raised her hand and smacked Jiang Huai’s shoulder quite hard, scolding him, “Are you crazy? How can you be so disrespectful to a senior! What does this have to do with you being unable to break through?”
She truly couldn’t understand how checking the remains of the previous Yin-Yang Body could help Jiang Huai with his current cultivation bottleneck.
Jiang Huai endured the hit, his body swaying slightly, but there was no sign of a joke on his face.
He braced himself against the edge of the bed and stood up, walking slowly toward the door while leaving behind a single sentence.
“Of course it matters.”
“Besides, I’m asking you to check. I’m not looking. What are you thinking?”
When he reached the door, his footsteps paused.
Without turning back, he added, “You need to check thoroughly. Don’t miss any unusual marks or imprints.”
Zhu Siyao watched his back and then looked at the Crystal Coffin that was emitting an invisible pressure.
She felt a massive headache coming on. She bit her lip in hesitation but finally sighed in a tone of compromise.
“Fine. Go wait outside.”
After Jiang Huai stepped out and considerately closed the door from the outside, the quiet room held only Zhu Siyao and the Crystal Coffin that had slept for countless ages.
Zhu Siyao took a deep breath, forcing down the unease that was a mix of awe, fear, and the feeling of offending an ancestor.
She walked to the side of the coffin. Her fingertips trembled slightly as they touched the ice-cold, translucent lid.
This was the previous generation’s Yin-Yang Body.
A supreme existence who had once single-handedly supported the Five Provinces, fought against the celestial tribulations outside the cities, and was regarded as a legend and a source of hope by countless cultivators.
Even though it was now just a corpse, it still made her heart race.
She didn’t dare look directly at it; the remains carried a natural pressure and a terrifying aura.
But then she thought of Jiang Huai’s furrowed brows, his predicament of being unable to cultivate, and how he had risked using his Essence Blood to wake these remains.
Zhu Siyao’s gaze gradually became firm.
For his sake, she would have to be a little disrespectful.
She circulated her Lingli, carefully and slowly pushing the heavy lid open just enough for her arm to reach in.
She reached into the coffin with movements so gentle it was as if she feared disturbing the deceased’s eternal sleep.
She began to carefully examine the immortal remains according to Jiang Huai’s request.
For a time, the only sound in the room was the extremely faint rustle of fabric.
After a long while—so long that Jiang Huai outside was starting to feel restless—a low cry of irrepressible surprise suddenly came from Zhu Siyao inside the room.
“Wait… This is…”
Another long moment passed before Zhu Siyao finally raised her voice. “Jiang Huai! I’ve finished checking! I really did find something very special!”
“Where?” Jiang Huai asked immediately from outside, his voice urgent.
“On her chest.”
Zhu Siyao’s voice came through the door. “There’s a mark. It’s not a scar or a birthmark; it’s a Five-Colored Mark!”
“Looking at the patterns and colors, it looks a lot like something left behind by the Five Great Dragon Clans working together.”
Hearing this, Jiang Huai’s eyes lit up.
As expected! There really was a clue!
“What kind of mark? What are the specific patterns? How are the five colors distributed and blended?” he asked in rapid succession.
Inside the room, Zhu Siyao was silent for a moment before a soft, slightly teasing laugh rang out. “Why don’t you come in and see for yourself?”
“I’m not coming in,” Jiang Huai refused immediately.
“Hmph, I’d scold you if you dared to come in. I’ll draw it for you,” Zhu Siyao huffed.