Prince Zhao looked at Baihe with expectant eyes; on this whole continent, who else was more outstanding than him? Only he was worthy to be the husband of the phoenix summoner. Thus, Prince Zhao waited for Baihe’s appeal to be his princess consort; but Baihe barely glanced at him before grabbing the mermaid pearl necklace off Fei Fei’s neck.

With the Old Witch dead, the glyph on their hand had also vanished and the teleportation array was activated. Baihe and Fenglong quickly disappeared through a beam of light, leaving behind a shell-shocked Prince Zhao to clean up the mess.

The smile on his face froze; his body stiffened from being snubbed. To kill with a borrowed knife; how would Prince Zhao not know the meaning behind such words when he was reared from the imperial family?

A mocking smile surfaced in Prince Zhao’s eyes and bitterness filled his heart when he saw the true perpetrators leave while he was left with nothing but a crippled right arm and a troublesome unconscious fiancée.

♦

As the light faded, Baihe and Fenglong found themselves back in the familiar mountain terrains on the other side. Carefully, they hiked along the path; but once again, the ground beneath them shook viciously and the mountain walls began closing in on them.

Fuck this mountain maze!

Baihe really wanted to point a middle finger to the sky and curse the array master, but there were more pressing matters to attend to. Using their qigong, the two of them tried to outrun the closing maze. The moving mountain walls manipulated their route and led them toward a crevice attached with a long rope ladder extending all the way down to a pit.

Rather than being flattened into human meat paper, the two unhesitatingly jumped down and latched onto the ladder right before the mountain walls collided with one another. Slowly, the pair began their descent.

Beads of sweat gathered on her forehead; the further down they go, the hotter the temperature becomes. Baihe glanced toward Fenglong, only to find the despicable man easily climbing down without an ounce of perspiration while she was drenched in sweat with her robe sticking to her in all its icky glory.

Why did she suddenly get the feeling that if this bipolar man really wanted to, flying down safely would be as easy as lifting a hand?

But then again, what kind of winds and waves haven’t she encountered? Baihe had trained her body in extreme weathers and conditions, so she preserved for another four hours till they reached the bottom of the pit. Unfortunately, the temperature was hot enough to fry an egg on the ground.

Molten lava traveled along the cracks between the rocks. The deeper they went, the hotter it got. Even Baihe was starting to feel like her body was melting.

Suddenly, Baihe felt Qian twitch; startled, her footsteps paused and Fenglong stopped along with her. Was the phoenix reacting to something inside the pit?

Without delay, Baihe plopped down on the ground and began to mediate in a lotus position. Only now did she realize that the spiritual energy in here was extremely dense, but the color was different. Instead of the usual green specks of light, the essence in the air was crimson red.

Could it be fire spiritual essence?

Regardless of what kind of weird spiritual essence this was, they were being absorbed by Baihe at a rapid pace; the essences were happily entering her body like they’d found the perfect host.

Guiding them down toward her dantian, the lake residing inside her elixir field rejuvenated as the spiritual essence flowed into the water and the crystallized sphere floating above the lake turned bright red — glowing with life.

Fenglong guarded her quietly by the side; ripples could be seen in his sapphire eyes. The dense spiritual essences inside this pit were all converging toward the woman as if they were fighting one another for an exclusive spot. An enigmatic smile bloomed on his attractive, suave face; but it was a pity no one was able to see it.

His eyes glided down to her tattered robe and exposed arms. This woman was truly bold! In certain kingdoms, females were still required to wear a veil covering their face; but the more advance empires had long abolished such practice as they value strength and martial arts.

Even so, most women were prim and proper, valuing their chastity and reputation, so they wouldn’t expose much skin; however, Fenglong found Baihe’s brazen action refreshing. It was as if she didn’t care for the social norm and refused to conform to anything other than what she wanted.

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed dangerously as Fenglong recalled how Prince Zhao had ogled her — evoking a deep desire to somehow bind this woman to him. Fenglong really didn’t like it when another man stare at Baihe nor did he understand why his heart would be filled with an astringent sour feeling, awakening a primal instinct to attack, claim, and defend.

Glancing at Baihe, a complicated look flitted across his eyes. Since meeting this woman, Fenglong felt like he could no longer truly understand himself; but at the same time, being with her was exciting — never a dull moment, always full of surprises. Most importantly, she made him feel alive.

After living for 21 years, Fenglong thought he was born without a heart; but after meeting Baihe, he finally heard something pumping and beating on his chest.

His expression softened; the gentle look in his eyes was like basking in the sun after a storm. If Baihe were able to witness his myriad of facial expressions within a short span of time, she would have confirmed for the x time that this man was 120% bipolar.

By the time Baihe opened her eyes, a week had passed. The scorching heat in the pit no longer bothered her; on the contrary, the fiery temperature had a soothing effect.

Most importantly and predominantly, Baihe had broken through to Mid Dao Stage 5.

In such a short span of time to be able to advance so many levels would cause the mass populace to faint in terror, but Fenglong only gently smiled at this monster girl and lightly said: “Let’s go.”

As they walked further down, they passed a stone arch leading to a huge chamber. Inside, there was a gigantic waterfall fountain attached to all corners of the walls; the water naturally cascaded over the rocks and stones, beautiful and serene. But what caught their attention was the sleeping beast.

Four stone pillars enclosed an elevated platform in the middle of the chamber and on the platform laid a sleeping beast with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail.

Baihe stared in astonishment. This couldn’t be the mythical fire-breathing chimera right?

Fenglong was about to handle this fight alone as the chimera was at Nascent Soul Stage 5, way above Baihe’s cultivation; but when he saw the glimmers of light in Baihe’s eyes, he knew she was itching to test her new strength.

After a brief moment of contemplation, Fenglong decided it was best to let her gain more experience battling stronger opponents and this was still not the time to reveal his true strength. This way, he could also help her grow and unless the situation was dire, Fenglong would hold back his strength as much as possible.

Baihe masked her killing intent to prevent beating the grass and startling the snake, so she would have the element of surprise; but the chimera had sharp senses. It stirred in its deep slumber and lazily opened one eyelid. Upon seeing intruders, the chimera rose up on all four legs — 7 meters tall and 14 meters long — and shook its enormous body.

With fierce golden eyes, it glared menacingly at Baihe and Fenglong before releasing a mighty, ferocious roar.

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