Such a Blessing of Rebirth, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect Will Never Forget!

The air in the VIP corridor seemed to freeze.

Ning Rongrong pressed her back hard against a cool white marble pillar. Her throat felt dry, and even breathing had become unusually difficult.

She had never seen a girl around her own age give off such a piercing, bone-chilling killing aura.

Just as Ning Rongrong was about to lose her breath, a calm, gentle voice sounded from behind Zhu Zhuqing. "Zhu Zhuqing, stand down."

"Yes, my lord," Zhu Zhuqing replied. Without the slightest hesitation, she instantly withdrew every trace of the violent Hell Thunder Shadow Cat presence around her. She turned sideways, stepped half a pace back, and stood behind Chu Yuan with her head lowered.

The pressure vanished, and Ning Rongrong's legs went weak. She nearly slid down the pillar onto the floor.

She quickly grabbed the pillar to steady herself and took two great gasps, her pretty face full of embarrassment and indignation.

In all her life, apart from her father and the two Titled Douluo grandfathers in the sect, no one had dared make her suffer such a grievance.

If she slunk away just like that, she, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Little Demoness, would lose all face.

Ning Rongrong gritted her teeth, forcibly suppressed the tremor in her heart, and stepped forward again to block the stairs. She raised her face and glared at Chu Yuan. "Hmph! What kind of skill is it to use your Martial Soul's pressure to frighten a support-type Soul Master like me? Hey, back at the auction, you only got the better of me because you had more cash on hand. I'm the daughter of Ning Fengzhi, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's master. When it comes to an eye for treasures and real wealth and collections, no one on the entire Douluo Continent can match our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect! Do you dare compete with me? If you lose, you have to let me have those three auction items for the price you paid!"

Standing to Chu Yuan's right, Mona couldn't help bursting into laughter at the childish challenge.

She folded her arms and tilted her head as she studied Ning Rongrong. "Little sister, compete with Chu Yuan? I'd advise you to save yourself the trouble, or you might end up crying when you lose."

"I won't cry!" Ning Rongrong retorted, puffing out her cheeks.

She turned her right hand over and took three brilliant treasures from a Storage Soul Tool of the same caliber as the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges, which she wore close to her body, holding them out on her palm.

There was a piece of crimson ten-thousand-year fire jade that gave off powerful fluctuations of fire-attribute Soul Power, a thousand-year Soul Tool protective amulet carved with intricate dragon patterns, and a flawless, perfectly round deep-sea night pearl of the highest quality, the size of a fist.

Ning Rongrong's face was full of pride. "Take a good look! This ten-thousand-year Scarlet Yang Jade can increase a fire-attribute Soul Master's cultivation speed by thirty percent, and this Defensive Soul Tool can block a full-force strike from a Soul King. Any one of them is a rare treasure that money can't buy!"

Immediately afterward, seven-colored light blossomed from her right palm, and the exquisite Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda appeared once more. Two yellow Hundred-Year Soul Rings pulsed around it.

She continued, "Besides, I possess the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, the greatest support Martial Soul under heaven. No rare treasure in the world can hide its grade or attributes from my Martial Soul's senses. You used a Life Spirit Crystal to buy that blue stone and the ancient copper coins just now because you saw the special energy inside them too, didn't you? If you've got what it takes, bring out another treasure that can surpass these treasures from my sect's collection!"

She had calculated carefully. That purple-and-green Life Spirit Crystal had been extremely rare. No matter how well-off this youth was, he couldn't possibly have a second treasure of the same caliber.

Chu Yuan watched the girl baring her fangs and brandishing her claws before him, trying to regain face, and a hint of amusement flashed through his dark eyes.

This was Ning Rongrong, the direct heir of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

According to the original course of events, this girl would apply to Shrek Academy tomorrow. After Flender suppressed and reprimanded her, she would become a devoted follower of Tang San, eventually tying all the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's wealth and resources to Tang San's chariot.

Since he had run into her today, and the Heavenly Principles Divine Court had only just been established, it was a good time to find a personal maid for logistics and support.

Chu Yuan walked down two white marble steps and stopped in front of Ning Rongrong.

"To compete with me in treasures, those pieces of mundane junk in your hands aren't worthy. However, since you pride yourself on the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's talent for appraising treasures, I'll broaden your horizons and show you what a true wonder of heaven and earth is."

As his words fell, Chu Yuan raised his left hand slightly, and an emerald light flashed in his palm.

A strange flower quietly appeared in his hand. Its entire form looked as though it had been carved from blue-and-white glaze, and the edges of its petals flowed with the pure luster of rock crystal and moonlight.

This was the Glaze Lily, an immortal flower of Liyue that had fallen into the secluded Star Dou valley along with the fragment of the Teyvat landmass two days earlier, and which Chu Yuan had nurtured into bloom with the origin of Irminsul.

When Keqing saw the flower, a trace of nostalgia passed through her amethyst eyes. "This is a wild Glaze Lily that grows only on the spirit veins of Liyue's Yujing Terrace and Jueyun Karst. It absorbs the purest earth rock crystal and the essence of moonlight, and blooms only when it hears beautiful music."

The instant the Glaze Lily appeared, a faint, elegant, and unusual floral fragrance spread through the corridor.

Ning Rongrong was still pursing her lips, but the moment her gaze fell on the blue-and-white flower and she caught its delicate scent, her whole body stiffened.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul resting on her right palm slipped completely out of her control and began to hum more violently than ever before.

The pagoda's seven glazed stories shone with dazzling seven-colored light. As though it had encountered the origin of heaven and earth that it desperately yearned for, it strained to move toward the Glaze Lily in Chu Yuan's left palm.

Ning Rongrong's eyes went wide, and she cried out, "Wh-what flower is this? My Martial Soul... my Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda is actually resonating with a flower on its own!"

Chu Yuan gave a soft chuckle and slowly raised his right hand. "A mere ordinary flower has made you lose your composure like this? Then take a look at this."

With a clear, ringing note, Chu Yuan's First Martial Soul, the Crown of Heavenly Principles, quietly appeared above his right palm.

An illusory crown of light radiating seven-colored elemental divine radiance floated there, while four diamond-shaped, winglike rays on either side slowly pulsed.

The Glaze Lily had stirred the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's longing, but when the Crown of Heavenly Principles released its seven-colored divine essence that ruled over the elements of all heavens, the Martial Soul within Ning Rongrong went completely out of control.

She felt her palm grow hot. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda she was so proud of actually left her hand and floated in midair, bending its tip slightly toward the Crown of Heavenly Principles in Chu Yuan's palm, like a subject paying homage to a sovereign.

What shocked Ning Rongrong even more was that, under the light of a trace of nine-colored divine essence of creation spilling from the Crown of Heavenly Principles, the Martial Soul's restriction, which had limited it to seven stories and plagued countless generations of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's ancestors, actually seemed to loosen a little.

Above the seven-story pagoda, illusory eighth and ninth stories of nine-colored glaze flashed into view and vanished. They were extremely faint, but real.

An explosion thundered through Ning Rongrong's mind, and she stood rooted to the spot in a daze, oblivious even when the ten-thousand-year Scarlet Yang Jade and night pearl in her hand fell onto the red carpet with a plop.

Her lips trembled as she spoke aloud. "Eight stories... nine stories? Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda!"

As the only daughter and darling of Ning Fengzhi, master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, she knew better than anyone what those two illusory stories meant.

Although the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was the greatest support Martial Soul under heaven, it had a fatal flaw: it could only accommodate seven Soul Rings in a lifetime, and could never break through level eighty to become a Soul Douluo or Titled Douluo.

Only the legendary Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda could break this family's fate.

Yet now, a mere trace of the presence given off by the black-haired youth's Martial Soul had caused her Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda to show signs of evolving into the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.