Who Gave You the Courage to Compare Treasures with Me?
The air in the VIP corridor seemed to freeze.
Ning Rongrong pressed her back hard against a cold white marble pillar, her throat dry and even breathing 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 struggling to catch 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 stepped back half a pace to the side and stood behind Chu Yuan with her head lowered.
The pressure vanished, and Ning Rongrong's legs gave way. She nearly slid down the pillar and landed on the floor.
She hastily grabbed the pillar to steady herself and took two deep breaths, her pretty face full of embarrassment and indignation.
Growing up, apart from her father and the two Titled Douluo grandfathers in the sect, no one had ever dared make her suffer such an indignity.
If she slunk away with her tail between her legs, the Little Demoness of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect would lose all face.
Ning Rongrong gritted her teeth, forcibly suppressed the tremor in her heart, and stepped forward again to block the entrance to the stairs. She raised her face and glared at Chu Yuan. "Hmph! What kind of skill is it to scare a support-type Soul Master like me with your Martial Soul's pressure? Hey, back at the auction, you only got the better of me because you had more cash on hand. I'm Ning Fengzhi's daughter, and he's the sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. When it comes to judging treasures and collections of real wealth, no one on the entire Douluo Continent can compare with our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect! Do you dare compete with me? If you lose, you have to give me those three auction items at 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 looked Ning Rongrong over. "Little sister, compete with Chu Yuan? I'd advise you to save yourself the trouble, or you might lose so badly you'll end up crying."
"I won't cry!" Ning Rongrong retorted, puffing out her cheeks.
With a turn of her right hand, she took three dazzling treasures straight from a Storage Soul Tool of the same caliber as the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges, which she wore close to her body, and held them in her palm.
They were a piece of crimson ten-thousand-year fire jade radiating powerful fluctuations of fire-attribute Soul Power, a thousand-year soul tool amulet carved with intricate dragon patterns, and a fist-sized deep-sea night pearl of the finest quality, perfectly round and flawless.
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 Soul King's full-strength attack. Any one of them is a priceless, rare treasure you couldn't buy even if you had the money!"
Immediately afterward, seven-colored light blossomed in her right palm, and the exquisite Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda appeared once more, two yellow Hundred-Year Soul Rings pulsing around it.
She continued, "Besides, I possess the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, the world's number one support Martial Soul. The grade and attributes of any rare treasure under heaven can't escape my Martial Soul's senses. You bought that blue stone and the ancient bronze coin with a life spirit crystal just now because you noticed the special energy inside them, right? If you've got the ability, bring out another treasure that can surpass these treasures from my sect's collection!"
She had calculated shrewdly. That violet-and-emerald life spirit crystal had been exceptionally rare. No matter how well-off the young man was, there was no way he could have another treasure of the same caliber.
Chu Yuan quietly watched the girl in front of him, baring her fangs and brandishing her claws as she tried to regain the upper hand. A hint of amusement flashed in 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 being suppressed and scolded by Flender, she would become Tang San's devoted follower, eventually tying all the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's wealth and resources to Tang San's chariot.
Since they had crossed paths today, and the Divine Court of Heavenly Principles had just been established, it happened to need a personal maid for logistics and support.
Chu Yuan slowly descended two white marble steps and stopped in front of Ning Rongrong.
"You aren't qualified to compete with me in treasures with those pieces of ordinary junk in your hands. But since you're so proud of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's talent for appraising treasures, I'll broaden your horizons and show you what a true treasure of heaven and earth is."
As he finished speaking, Chu Yuan raised his left hand slightly, and an emerald light flashed in his palm.
A strange flower appeared silently in his hand. Its entire form looked as though it had been carved from blue-and-white glaze, and the edges of its petals shimmered with the luster of pure geo crystal and moonlight.
This was the Glaze Lily, an immortal flower of Liyue that had fallen into the secluded valley of Star Dou along with a fragment of Teyvat the day before yesterday. Chu Yuan had nurtured it with Irminsul's origin until it bloomed.
When Keqing saw the flower, a trace of nostalgia passed through her amethyst-like eyes. "This is a wild Glaze Lily that grows only on the spiritual veins of Liyue's Yujing Terrace and Jueyun Karst. It absorbs the purest geo crystal from the earth and the essence of moonlight, and blooms only when it hears beautiful music."
The moment the Glaze Lily appeared, a delicate, elegant fragrance spread through the corridor.
Ning Rongrong was still pouting, but the instant her gaze fell on the blue-and-white flower and its faint fragrance reached her nose, her whole body stiffened.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul in her right palm was completely beyond her control, humming more violently than ever before.
Dazzling seven-colored rays burst from the seven-story glazed pagoda. As though it had encountered an origin of heaven and earth that it desperately craved, it strained to move toward the Glaze Lily in Chu Yuan's left palm.
Ning Rongrong's eyes went round, and she cried out involuntarily, "Wh-what flower is that? My Martial Soul... my Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda is actually resonating with a flower on its own!"
Chu Yuan gave a soft, derisive laugh and slowly raised his right hand. "A mere ordinary flower 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, appeared silently above his right palm.
An illusory crown of light hovered motionlessly, radiating the seven-colored divine radiance of the elements. Four diamond-shaped, wing-like lights 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 shone with a seven-colored divine presence that ruled over the elements of the heavens, the Martial Soul inside Ning Rongrong went completely out of control.
Her palm felt hot, and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda she was so proud of broke free from her hand and floated in midair. Its tip bent slightly toward the Crown of Heavenly Principles in Chu Yuan's palm, like a subject paying homage to a sovereign.
What frightened Ning Rongrong out of her wits was that, under the light of a wisp of nine-colored divine presence of creation emanating from the Crown of Heavenly Principles, the Martial Soul's shackles—which had limited it to seven stories and troubled countless generations of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's ancestors-actually loosened ever so slightly.
Above the top of the seven-story pagoda, nine-colored glazed silhouettes of an eighth and ninth story, exceedingly faint yet real, appeared for an instant before vanishing.
An explosion thundered in Ning Rongrong's mind, and she stood rooted to the spot in a complete daze, oblivious even when the ten-thousand-year scarlet yang jade and night pearl fell from her hand onto the red carpet with a clatter.
Her lips trembled as she spoke aloud. "Eight stories... nine stories? The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda!"
As Ning Fengzhi's only daughter and the apple of the sect master's eye, she knew better than anyone what those two illusory stories meant.
Although the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was the world's number one support Martial Soul, it had a fatal flaw: it could only hold seven Soul Rings for its owner's entire life, making it forever impossible to break through level eighty and become a Soul Douluo or Titled Douluo.
Only the legendary Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda could break that family's fate.
Yet now, a wisp of the presence emitted by the black-haired young man's Martial Soul had caused her Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda to show signs of evolving into the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.