Within Yun Ruoyan’s pocket dimension, Qiuqiu was exerting all its energy in an attempt to break the seal on the silver bracelet. Like a human, it was sitting cross-legged and hovering in mid-air. The ground below it was inscribed with an array that glowed with blinding light. Surrounding Qiuqiu was a translucent barrier which rippled with energy, the seal that had bound Qiuqiu within the pocket dimension for so long. Its presence was restraining Qiuqiu’s power and preventing it from leaving the silver bracelet’s pocket dimension.

Yun Ruoyan also entered the space.

“I’m about to start trying to break the seal, Mistress,” Qiuqiu chirped. “Please help me.”

It soared high up into the air, into a void-like space that didn’t seem to contain anything, but was actually like a cage for Qiuqiu. After it had ascended about a hundred feet, it was blocked by some invisible force.

When Yun Ruoyan saw what was going on, she also took to the air, effortlessly ascending hundreds of feet above the ground. The invisible force that was stopping Qiuqiu seemed not to affect Yun Ruoyan. She floated to Qiuqiu’s side and began constructing a ball of spiritual energy using a series of hand gestures that Qiuqiu had taught her. Qiuqiu told her that this was something that it had intuited from a deep, almost meditative inspection of the seal over the centuries in which it had been sealed in the bracelet. The ball of energy would help break the seal, and was only effective when used by a sword saint. Its power would vary with the user’s cultivation.

Just like Yun Ruoyan, Qiuqiu was also coalescing a ball of spiritual energy with its tiny claws. They made eye contact with each other; long periods of working together had granted them the ability to communicate without the spoken word. At the same time, they flung their balls of spiritual energy at the same part of the seal, cracking it visibly.

Yun Ruoyan and Qiuqiu continued to bombard the damaged seal with torrents of spiritual energy, widening the cracks and ultimately splintering the seal to pieces, leaving a door-sized hole. Blinding white light shone through the hole so brightly that Yun Ruoyan had to shield her eyes.

The moment she did so, Qiuqiu chirped in excitement, “I’m free, Mistress, I’m free!” Along with that shout of jubilation came a deafening howl, one that shook the very ground.

Yun Ruoyan gasped—Qiuqiu had regained its former power!

When the white light vanished, Yun Ruoyan opened her eyes. Her surroundings were still some sort of hazy mist. She was still within the silver bracelet, but Qiuqiu was no longer with her.

“Mistress, I’ve left the bracelet,” a deep, sonorous voice suddenly rang out in Yun Ruoyan’s mind. It took her an embarrassing amount of time to realize that this was Qiuqiu’s original voice, and she too left the pocket dimension.

Yun Ruoyan opened her eyes to see Li Mo smiling at her. Then, she turned to meet the gaze of a gigantic spiritual beast, crimson red, with a flaming bolt of lightning emblazoned on its forehead. Two snowy-white tusks protruded from its jaws, making it look ferocious. Its appearance seemed very much like that of a fire qilin, which Yun Ruoyan had seen in books and in statues and paintings adorning the royal palace.

“Qiuqiu,” Yun Ruoyan called out.

The gigantic beast walked toward Yun Ruoyan and stopped before her. Yun Ruoyan’s head was only at the height of its nose.

“Mistress,” Qiuqiu growled, its heated breath impinging on Yun Ruoyan’s face.

Yun Ruoyan reached out to pat its head and suddenly smiled. “Qiuqiu, I hadn’t expected your true form to be so imposing.” She couldn’t help but think back to its former appearance, cute and round, like a little ball of fur. Now, however, it seemed as if it had aged a thousand years in an instant and was given the grandeur and stature that came only with age.

Qiuqiu rolled its eyes at her, then shrank back to its sealed form.

Yun Ruoyan blinked, somewhat taken aback. “You can take on your old form at will? I was actually getting worried about how to bring you to the Jiyuan continent, given how imposing you looked and how much attention you would draw.”

“I have two forms,” Qiuqiu replied. “What you saw just now was suited for battle, but in general, I prefer this form for its mobility and convenience.”

“Excellent.” Yun Ruoyan stooped down and extended her arms toward Qiuqiu. Qiuqiu jumped into her embrace, and the two of them touched each other for the first time in the physical world. Tickled by its fur, Yun Ruoyan began to laugh.

By the side of the room, Li Mo’s face was turning black—because Qiuqiu was male! He stepped forward, reached out, and dragged Qiuqiu from Yun Ruoyan’s body.

“Ouch! What’re you doing, Li Mo?!” Qiuqiu shouted.

“Nothing. It’s just been a while since I saw you in person.” Li Mo tightly hugged Qiuqiu, a half-smile dancing across his lips.

After Qiuqiu broke out of its seal, not only could it choose when to take its smaller form, it was still able to enter the silver bracelet’s pocket dimension, so there would be no problem with taking Qiuqiu to the Jiyuan continent.

Yun Moxiao and Li Luo rested for the night at the Slaughtering King’s manor and were just about to leave when the demonic dragon forefather informed them to stay put, because Rong Yueshan was currently hidden outside the front doors of the Slaughtering King’s manor.

Yun Ruoyan received the message from the demonic dragon forefather at the same time. They all gathered by the underground chamber, where the demonic dragon forefather had been conducting his technique.

They gathered around the soul-divination array and observed the scene that it generated. It was currently directed at a corner outside the Slaughtering King’s manor. There, an old female beggar was squatting and begging for alms. She wore tattered rags that had clearly seen better days, and her white, spotty hair covered her face entirely.

“This is Rong Yueshan,” the demonic dragon forefather said.

If not for his words, Yun Ruoyan would never have associated the figure in front of her with Rong Yueshan. As she continued staring at the old beggar, the old beggar suddenly raised her head and revealed a pair of vicious, gleaming eyes.

“The silver dragon elder really did give her some holy water,” Yun Ruoyan murmured. “But since she’s right outside, it’ll save us a considerable amount of trouble.” Given her cultivation, killing Rong Yueshan was a trivial matter.

“You must kill her in one blow. If she flees again, we won’t have time to chase after her,” the demonic dragon forefather warned. “The silver dragon elder has instructed Rong Yueshan to kidnap Li Yan once we leave. Because we were in closed cultivation all this time, Rong Yueshan now believes that we’ve already gone to the Jiyuan continent.”

“Elder, you mean…?” Li Mo asked.

The demonic dragon forefather glanced sternly at the array. “She’s already been outside for at least ten days. If I’m not wrong, she’s planning to strike within a few days, so we can easily just catch her during the attempt.”

In order to tempt Rong Yueshan into action, in the afternoon, Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo decided to have a servant bring Li Yan to the Yun family. A large number of Mo guards patrolled the vicinity of the area during the trip, and Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo were hidden among them. If Rong Yueshan were to strike, they would immediately kill her on the spot.

Rong Yueshan did not strike. Unlike Yun Ruoyan, she preferred well-planned schemes rather than spur-of-the-moment decisions, where there were too many variables she could not control or plan for. Instead, she followed behind the carriage and watched the servant bring Li Yan into the Yun manor. The trip made her even more certain that Yun Ruoyan and the others had already left—otherwise, they wouldn’t have dared to let a servant bring Li Yan out.

She intended to strike that night.

At night, the Slaughtering King’s manor was vacant and silent. Suddenly, a dark shadow appeared by the lotus pond. Just like last time, Rong Yueshan dumped a satchel of sleeping powder into the pond water.

Then, she skulked to the Mo guards patrolling nearby and killed them all silently, her actions quick, methodical, and precise. She padded over to Li Yan’s room. The servant responsible for him was sleeping on the futon, and Li Yan’s crib was right in front of her.

Rong Yueshan snatched at the figure within the crib—but somehow, that figure suddenly jumped up and pounced on Rong Yueshan. It had two luminous eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth.

Rong Yueshan reacted instantly, drawing her sword and stabbing at Qiuqiu, who opened its jaws wide and swallowed half the sword in one go. Her heart jumped: what lay in front of her was a spiritual beast, but she had never encountered one so powerful before. Quickly realizing that she was no match for it, Rong Yueshan turned to leave—but when she escaped to the corridor outside, a gigantic white form emerged from within the pond and blocked Rong Yueshan’s path.

“Rong Yueshan, this is where you’ll meet your end.” Yun Ruoyan walked out of a side room with Li Yan in her hands, and Qiuqiu prowled out of Li Yan’s room in its combat-ready form.

Li Mo, the demonic dragon forefather, and Yun Moxiao all appeared from various hiding spots outside the corridor, trapping Rong Yueshan between them and Whitey, Yun Ruoyan, and Qiuqiu.

Except for Yun Moxiao, everyone else present could easily defeat Rong Yueshan, and she had no chance of leaving this ambush alive.

“You haven’t gone to the Jiyuan continent? Were you trying to lure me out this entire time?”

“Rong Yueshan, you think too highly of yourself,” Yun Ruoyan replied.

“You weren’t hiding to lure me out?”

“Of course not. We have far more important things to accomplish, but if you so desperately want to die, we’ll honor your request. Rong Yueshan, today, I’ll kill you in revenge for those senior brothers and sisters of Kongming Academy who died to your betrayal!”