"Wow, a Natal Gu Great Demon isn't worth celebrating? Sister Qianlan is so modest."
"Yeah, so low-key. What was that saying from Da Shun again? Only stillness, only... only..."
"Only stillness, only silence—the utmost clarity of spirit?"
"Yes, yes, yes! That's the one. You really do know a lot."
"Hahaha..."
The wisteria-covered corridor rang with the women's laughter and chatter, their teasing and banter as colorful as the falling petals.
"There really isn't much need for it. Still, Sister Qianlan is impressive—older and steadier.
At the peak of the Third Realm, she refined the peak Fourth Realm Natal Gu painstakingly raised by her family. And with the Lingfu Xinyuan Body, if she nurtured it properly for two or three years, it would cross the Three Tribulations and become a Great Demon. That was hardly unusual.
It only showed that Hundred Grass Ravine had, as always, chosen well when selecting a Natal Gu. Sister Qianlan had always been someone who strove tirelessly to improve herself. If she felt embarrassed, that was only human nature."
The laughter stopped abruptly.
The wisteria corridor fell silent.
Surrounded by the women, Yun Qianlan's smile faded. Her phoenix eyes, carefully painted by her servants with peach-blossom-red makeup, narrowed slightly.
Thirty feet away.
Li Xianghan leaned against a brownish-yellow flowering vine, fallen blossoms on her head. Her half-dry hair hung over her shoulders, damp and clinging, lending her a touch of disheveled fragility, as though the woman opposite her were pressing too fiercely and making her pitiable.
What a slut. She threw on a coat and ran out before her hair was even dry.
Yun Qianlan scorned her inwardly. Her lips parted as she prepared to speak.
"Snap! Snap!"
A dull, mechanical flicking sound cut her off first.
"Ah." Li Xianghan flicked the wisteria-patterned fingernails she had