This was a race known as the most gifted and loved by the heavens. A race whose power surpasses even that of the great sects.

sacred celestics.

****

Both Er Jinshu and Jixie Wudongyuzhong became apprehensive in the face of these individuals, especially the young woman who led them here.

Though she held a warm smile as if to greet them with open arms, they knew she was a person they couldn’t afford to offend. More accurately, they could offend the person she served.

“It’s the blessing of ten lifetimes to meet the Noble Attendant here!” Jixie Wudongyuzhong hurriedly cupped his fist in a greeting.

Er Jinshu also cupped his fist in a greeting saying, “The rumours of your temperament and grace don’t do you justice Noble Attendant.”

The group of people who followed behind her smirked when they saw this. Unlike the young woman, their arrogance was plastered all over their faces. They looked at everyone here with their noses and disdained to even exchange words with them.

However, this was to be expected as they were sacred celestics. It was said that as the loved ones of the heavens, their path of cultivation was incomparably easier than other races. They didn’t experience bottlenecks or anything of the like.

They were also inexplicably drawn to auspicious places and to people that greatly embodied the dao.

As a result, wherever they went was viewed very closely, and it was the same for whoever they collaborated with.

This was because it was said in time immemorial, an incomparably talented sacred celestics was drawn to a young man who other races regarded as cursed. The Heavens itself levied a burdensome yield of karma upon him that made his dao path treacherous and difficult.

Even the other sacred celestics tried their best to break off the relationship between the two. Yet, the girl was adamant and the boy never gave up.

This resulted in both him and her being hunted like dogs from their early days. For her to be recaptured and for the boy to be killed. After all, she was the top talent of their race at the time and he was nothing more than a human who was trying to reach for the moon.

She had stuck by his side despite the nay-say of others, and it was through their combined efforts that they survived the tribulation of the cultivation world as a whole. The young man became a legend and the sacred celestics became his wife and his equal, sharing in his glory.

Although the details of the story remain vague and ambiguous, it was one passed down by the elders of the sacred celestics race so that the younger generations will never become arrogant and look down on others.

Unfortunately, though the story sounded nice, sacred celestics were boundlessly arrogant and domineering due to their talents and the nurtured caring they receive from the heavens. They saw very few people from other races as important and none who they considered their equals.

The Noble Attendant chanced a glance at the lightning sphere and a fleeting look of surprise flashed past her face.

Though it quickly returned to normal, who were Er Jinshu and Jixie Wudongyuzhong?

They saw this and a bad feeling welled up in their stomachs. Er Jinshu, seizing the initiative, cupped his fist once more and asked. “Is the Noble Attendant planning to interfere in this matter?”

The group behind her sneered at Er Jinshu. So what if she wanted this treasure? Was Er Jinshu thinking of going against her to defend it!?

Curiously, however, the Noble Attendant smiled and shook her head. “Though this treasure is quite valuable, it’s not enough for us to fight others for it. We are here for something else entirely.”

Er Jinshu and Jixie Wudongyuzhong instantly let out a breath of relief. If the Noble Attendant wanted the treasure within the lightning sphere they didn’t know how to go about handling it.

They would have surely suffered a loss one way or another, so this was good.

However, the atmosphere soon became awkward.

After all, Jixie Wudongyuzhong and Er Jinshu were both driving experts from other sects to their deaths to wear for the power of the lightning sphere. However, the Noble Attendant came and spoke up in the face of this.

Even though she didn’t explicitly say they should stop, the mere fact that she bothered to say anything expressed her stance on his method.

Jixie Wudongyuzhong realized this and thus bit the bullet by asking the Noble Attendant.

“Noble Attendant, are you able to help us in breaking open this lightning sphere?” he spoke in a humble tone.

Everyone here then turned their attention to the Noble Attendant to see what her decision would be. If she helped, they could very well solve this without any bloodshed.

Seeing everyone staring at her like this, a graceful smile brushed her lips. She then spoke. “Since everyone here has asked, then this little one shall use her inadequate pupil arts to unravel the secrets of this lightning sphere.”

She agreed much to everyone’s surprise and delight.

Both Er Jinshu and Jixie Wudongyuzhong cupped their fist to her in thanks.

“The Noble Attendant is being unduly humble. We have heard about your pupil arts before and getting the chance to see it today is our great luck.”

She smiled at their words and took a few steps forward to get started. Her white robes gently flapped in the wind, making her appear like some kind of immortal. Her bearing and grace were unmatched, and her beauty spoke volumes. However, they didn’t bear any impure thoughts about her, as if doing so was blasphemy of the highest order.

Everyone else sighed at their station. Only peerless experts like Er Jinshu and Jixie Wudongyuzhong were qualified to speak to her.

Shing

A spiritual light flashed in her eyes as runes circulated within them.

A few minutes passed before the light receded from her eyes. She then turned to everyone present with that same smile and announced, “It would seem there is a strange and powerful spiritual force keeping the lightning energy bound.”

Er Jinshu and Jixie Wudongyuzhong looked at each other a bit troubled. They each wanted the spiritual vein root that should be in this lightning sphere and even worked together temporarily to achieve that goal. But this power seems to be above their level.

“I may be able to unravel it for you.”

Hearing the Noble Attendant going so far as to help them, both experts were shocked.

“The Noble Attendant doesn’t have to go so far!”

Both Jixie Wudongyuzhong and Er Jinshu were worried that the Noble Attendant changed her mind and wanted what was inside the lightning sphere.

“It’s no problem at all. I’m doing this for my own goal as well. I think by doing this I can get the chance to meet the person who I’m here to meet,” explained the Noble Attendant.

“Who is worthy enough to garner the Noble Attendant’s attention?” asked Jixie Wudongyuzhong.

“You needn’t worry about it,” she replied, shaking her head before turning her attention back squarely on the lightning sphere. “Ready yourselves. I’m about to get started.”

Whoosh!

A formless wind kicked up all around her as her eyes narrowed.

“What powerful mental energy!” Er Jinshu was dumbstruck at the Noble Attendant’s power.

Aside from being naturally talented at cultivation, due to their innate pupil arts requiring mental energy to operate, their mental energy was immensely high as well.

“I won’t be attacking the lightning sphere,” the Noble Attendant stated. “I will only be injecting a different type of energy, which should throw everything off balance.”

As she said this, a powerful wave of energy washed over the lightning sphere. Her focus tightened as she realised that the lightning energy was being kept in place by the strange spiritual force at the very limits of its threshold.

This meant that the slightest change in the balance would cause a violent discharge of the lightning energy. In addition, there were several layers of this arrangement making this a trap that would take a long time to be depleted.

She couldn’t touch the lightning energy or it would go berserk, so she had to inject her mental energy into the spiritual force itself. That way, she could pierce through all the layers all at once and exhaust all the lightning energy.

Her mental energy swam the expanse of the lightning sphere looking for the right opening. Beads of sweat pooled at her brow from exertion. Such was the intensity of her concentration.

Though the experts were not adept in mental energy cultivation or spiritual force cultivation, they could tell that she needed silence and that she was at a critical point.

Even the group of sacred celestics that accompanied her wore solemn expressions at the moment.

‘Got it!’ she found the right opening and drilled her mental energy into the wisp of spiritual force and then immediately backed off.

Krrrrsssh!

B-B-Boom!

A world-ending explosion erupted, one much bigger than any they’d seen before. It spread at a frightening pace, causing rhose nearby to grab their sh*t and run!

Even Er Jinshu and Jixie Wudongyuzhong weren’t exempt from this.

The explosion tore apart the terrain and was so deafening that they temporarily lost their hearing. However, they didn’t need to hear anything to know that they needed to run, run, and run some more!

Sometime later, the explosion finally died down. Everyone looked back to see towering plumes of smoke billowing into the sky.

Fear reigned supreme at the moment as the power of that lightning sphere was far beyond anything they had ever witnessed.

It took half a day for the dust to clear, but what they saw shocked them into submission.

“Long Di, I think they’re looking at you,” a voice echoed out from the ruins.

A lazy voice followed soon after, saying, “My PTSD compels me to disbelieve you and to prove this, I shall walk away like it's nobody’s business…”