Lu Yun and Ying Luo looked at each other. They hadn’t thought that they’d bump into a newcomer as soon as they emerged from the realm monster’s body.

Ying Luo didn’t recognize You Huoran, a secluded disciple of Opposition Palace. Though the six sacred palaces were aligned with each other, secluded disciples were very mysterious. In fact, they were the most mysterious group out of the sacred palaces. This was why she’d said Lu Yun was a secluded disciple of Inception Palace when they ran into Wei Yuan earlier.

……

“I am Ying Luo of the Creation Palace, this is…” Ying Luo introduced herself first and then pointed at Lu Yun.

“Lu Yun, Inception Palace,” he interrupted Ying Luo. Since he’d displayed the power of inception in front of Ying Luo earlier, he might as well fully embrace the identity of an Inception disciple. It wasn’t like anyone would know who was who after they left the tomb.

“Ying Luo of the Creation Palace!” You Huoran’s eyes lit up and he ignored Lu Yun. Plainly, he’d heard of Ying Luo before.

“Junior sister Ying Luo, this isn’t your real appearance, is it?” His gaze seemed like it wanted to drill right through the girl in front of him. “Junior sister Ying Luo is the foremost beauty among the six sacred palaces…”

“Please conduct yourself with dignity, senior brother You!” Ying Luo’s forehead wrinkled in an angry frown.

“Ahem!” Realizing that he was out of line, You Huoran hastily adjusted his attitude and bowed to Ying Luo. “Ah, junior sister, there are many annoying mosquitoes on the island. We could be easily stung to death if we don’t keep our wits about us. If my guess is right, the key to solving this problem has to do with the crowd of realm monster corpses above us.

“Will you join me, junior sister, and investigate what mysteries may lie with the realm monsters?” He was completely ignoring Lu Yun, as if the other young man didn’t exist.

“You can go yourself, senior brother You. Junior brother Lu and I have just arrived and need to familiarize ourselves with the environment,” Ying Luo responded brusquely.

“Junior brother Lu?” You Huoran finally looked at Lu Yun. “What, are you trying to take junior sister Ying Luo from me?”

Lu Yun frowned slightly, finally understanding why Wei Yuan had treated him with hostility in the absence of any provocation earlier. Ying Luo was the foremost beauty of the six sacred palaces? The greatest beauty was second level mortal realm?

He made a close examination of Ying Luo and happened to meet her flustered gaze. It wasn’t until now that he noticed she was using a special combat art to conceal her appearance. Unbidden, the corners of Lu Yun’s lips lifted upward. He opened his mouth and daintily verbalized, “Fuck off.”

“What did you say?” You Huoran’s eyes narrowed.

“Didn’t you hear me the first time? I told you to fuck off.” Grabbing at thin air, Lu Yun’s hand returned with a longsword. Rays of emerald green power rose from his body and slowly shifted into a champagne color, ultimately collecting as a huge dragon of pale gold.

It was his first time fully deploying the power of inception. This power seemed to possess a life of its own, representing the genesis of all things and describing the origin of the chaos.

“The power of inception! You’re from the Inception Palace!” You Huoran had focused completely on Ying Luo earlier and ignored everything about Lu Yun. He finally realized who he was up against when he identified the energy ripples the young man displayed.

“But so what if you’re from the Inception Palace? If you dare fight me for junior sister Ying Luo, you will… What, wait, why are you attacking me without another word? This isn’t how things are done!” Halfway through a pompous speech, You Huoran retreated in panic and just barely managed to evade Lu Yun’s thunderous blow.

“I'm about to beat the crap out of you, but you want to cry about how things are done?” Chuckling, Lu Yun gently flicked his sword upward and once more sent out the golden dragon of sword qi.

Nine dragons in total blossomed from the tip of his longsword in the span of a breath. They circled into a tiny sword formation and trapped You Huoran inside.

“How despicable and shameless!” You Huoran yelled and summoned a black pole arm, sweeping it around with a power that was at odds with itself. He quickly smashed through the tiny sword formation of nine dragons. “DIE!!”

Enraged, You Huoran charged Lu Yun the moment he emerged from the sword formation. The power that opposed itself coalesced an enormous millstone of black and white, crashing down from the air alongside You Huoran’s blow.

“The power of opposition!” Lu Yun swiftly took three steps backward, but Ying Luo exploded into motion before he could respond with a second move.

She shook her hand gently and sent out a long chain that snaked through the air. It radiated curtains of bright green radiance, crushing the giant millstone with a languid twist of its chains.

“You Huoran, I’ll kill you if you harass us like this!” she shouted and put her hands together, commanding the chain to project two snake shadows with another twist of itself.

They blasted into You Huoran’s chest, pounding a mouthful of fresh blood from his body before he flew backward like a broken kite, slamming into the ground.

Ying Luo was close behind, kicking out at You Huoran while he watched with horrified eyes. He flew through the air again, now gravely injured.

But Ying Luo didn’t stop there. She dashed and bounded through the area, filling it with her images and kicked You Huoran around like a ball.

Anguished squeals and shrieks rose and fell in a noisy chorus as a gaping Lu Yun looked on. You Huoran’s strength was similar to his, at most just a hair waker. He would’ve needed to expend some effort to defeat the Opposition disciple. He never would’ve thought that Ying Luo would trounce the other starting from her first move, beating You Huoran so badly that he wouldn’t have a chance to fight back!

This meant that Ying Luo also had the ability to beat the crap out of Lu Yun.

He suddenly thought back to when Ying Luo said that it’d taken her only three moves to pass the bloody path.

……

After a dozen breaths, You Huoran was so swollen that he looked like a literal ball. He sprawled listlessly on the ground, staring blankly at the sky.

“I’ll let you off this time since you’re a secluded disciple of Opposition Palace. I’ll kill you if you dare offend me again!” Ying Luo threatened with a mean look in her eyes.

You Huoran opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted by another mouthful of blood. And then this mighty, noble secluded disciple of a sacred palace… fainted dead away.

“You’re this strong?” Lu Yun’s jaw dropped.

“Well, er, I guess?” Ying Luo blushed at the compliment.

Looking at her now, it was extremely difficult for Lu Yun to connect her with her earlier behavior.

“Then I’m at ease since you’re this strong. Come on, let’s go take a look at the island.” Settling on their next course of action, Lu Yun looked at the skull island.