Dazed and Shocked

A King?

What King?

Zhao Yuling, descending from the sky, was stunned when she heard the Charm Clan elder's startled question.

Was he talking about her?

But she had clearly broken through from Innate Grandmaster to Half-step King.

After Xiantian came Half-step King—this was common knowledge.

It was the cultivation realm recognized by every race throughout the Barbarian Domain.

But that wasn't right either!

If she was not a King, how had she instantly slain a Half-step Invincible King?

Zhao Yuling stood in the wind, utterly disheveled, her thoughts a complete mess!

Common sense told her that she should currently be a Half-step King.

Yet in reality, she had instantly slain a Half-step Invincible King! There was a high chance that she had truly broken straight from Innate Grandmaster into the genuine King Realm.

Zhao Yuling's entire worldview had been shattered!

Something was wrong with the martial realm classifications she had known since childhood!

Was something wrong with everyone else, or was something wrong with her?

Zhao Yuling was truly dumbfounded!

It seemed there was only one person who could answer her question!

A figure appeared in Zhao Yuling's mind.

Not far away.

Watching the Charm Clan elder who had been blasted to the ground, then Zhao Yuling standing proudly and aloof in the air.

The Xia Clan martial artists were also stunned!

No, what... what was going on?

A newly advanced Half-step King had instantly slain a veteran Half-step Invincible King?

Had their identities been switched?

Were their eyes playing tricks on them, or were they hallucinating?

This clearly defied common sense.

It was like someone telling them that an acquired-realm martial artist had faced a perfectly healthy Innate Grandmaster head-on and killed him in a single move!

No one would believe such a thing!

Such an enormous gap between realms could not be bridged by talent!

The gap between acquired and Xiantian was the difference between heaven and earth.

The same held true for Half-step Kings and Half-step Invincible Kings.

If such a thing were told to others, everyone would only take it as a joke. Even serious martial arts biographies would not dare write something like this!

If anyone dared write it, they had better beware of hot-tempered Innate Grandmasters showing up at their door with blades in hand.

Because this was an insult to Innate Grandmasters!

Yet no matter how unbelievable it was, it had truly happened right before their eyes.

That alone was already shocking enough!

However, the Charm Clan elder's startled question shocked them even more.

A King?

The white-robed fairy was a King?

The Xia Clan had a King watching over them?

That information was even more explosive.

"No, wasn't it said that when the white-robed fairy was imprisoned by the foreign races at the Zhang Family, she survived a desperate situation and broke through into Half-step King? How had she become a King now?"

"Unbelievable. Impossible to believe!"

"Idiot, the white-robed fairy must have been a King long ago. She is one of our Xia Clan's hidden King Old Ancestors. She was merely bored and playing among the mortal world when she was accidentally captured by those Charm Clan fools who did not know the difference between life and death. In her fury, she slaughtered them all. Then, enraged by the Charm Clan crossing the border, she personally set out to hunt them down!"

"But the white-robed fairy's bone age looks very young?"

"Fool, those in the King Realm return to their original simplicity. How could people like us possibly see through their true nature!"

"Indeed."

"Reasonable."

The martial artists could not help analyzing in hushed voices, finally reaching a conclusion.

They felt that this was the only reasonable explanation.

Otherwise, it was simply too hard to accept that a Half-step King had instantly slain a Half-step Invincible King.

Zhao Yuling did not give them an answer.

With a swing of her sword, she delivered the finishing blow amid the Charm Clan elder's unwilling howl, ending his life.

Then, after greeting the other martial artists, she flew away!

She could not wait to return to Lin City.

After Zhao Yuling left!

An earth-shaking piece of news spread from this place, rapidly sweeping through the Xia Clan.

The Charm Clan Half-step Invincible King who had wreaked havoc within Xia Clan territory had been slain.

The one who acted was the white-robed fairy of Lin Commandery, who had risen to fame in recent years.

However, she was not as young as the rumors claimed.

She had actually lived for five or six hundred years!

She was a King Old Ancestor who had survived the Xia Clan's great upheaval last time.

She had suffered grave injuries and had been secretly recuperating all these years.

And now, being able to instantly kill a Half-step Invincible King expert in a single move.

It meant that her injuries had healed, and that she was about to return as a King, leading the Xia Clan to restore its former glory.

A group of admirers who had never even seen Zhao Yuling joined forces and raised the banner.

They called for the White-robed Empress to take command of the Imperial City!

Their momentum was overwhelming, unparalleled for a time!

Annan Land.

Blackstone Rock City was an important border city defending Annan against foreign races.

Lin Xueling stood atop the city walls.

She held a Xia Clan translated report in her hand. Reading the news upon it, her gaze turned contemplative.

She oversaw Annan Land, rotating every six years. Over the past dozen or so years, she had returned once.

Naturally, she knew that her little niece Zhao Yuling had been cultivating by Chu He's side!

The two also frequently kept in touch through carrier pigeons.

She had naturally known long ago that the white-robed fairy was Zhao Yuling!

But now, this report claimed that the white-robed fairy was an ancestor-level figure who had lived for five or six hundred years?

"Utter nonsense!"

That could be ignored.

"She is a King Old Ancestor?"

"She killed a Charm Clan Half-step Invincible King?"

Lin Xueling repeatedly read the latter contents, deep in thought.

She knew Zhao Yuling's realm.

She had been Xiantian Invincible for quite some time and could break through at any moment.

"So after breaking through, she became a King directly! As expected!"

Others found it impossible to understand.

They boldly guessed that Zhao Yuling was a King Old Ancestor who had survived and gone into hiding during the Xia Clan's great upheaval several centuries ago.

They did not even dare consider the possibility that Zhao Yuling had broken through from Xiantian directly into a genuine King.

But Lin Xueling, who had also broken through under Chu He's guidance, had long harbored suspicions over the years.

Her breakthrough might have been different from everyone else's.

After breaking through over the years, she had been given access to the Xia Clan's collected Secret Manuals and records concerning the Half-step King Realm.

From them, she discovered that the records were vastly different from her own situation.

Leaving everything else aside, the key point was that when she compared the baseline attack and defense power listed in the records to her own strength, they seemed unimaginably weak.

Even if those records used the weakest Half-step Kings as their benchmark, the gap was still far too absurd.

At first, Lin Xueling had guessed that Little Chu Brother was widely learned and versed in ancient and modern knowledge, with an exceptional talent for teaching, which had made her combat power extraordinary.

After all, within the Xia Clan, many renowned teachers could produce peerless geniuses invincible within the same realm.

Although those people only shone exceptionally brightly in the acquired and Xiantian realms.

But by the same logic, Little Chu Brother was even more formidable. It was possible that he could make her invincible even in the Half-step King Realm!

But later, when she read the descriptions of Half-step Invincible King combat power, she was once again shocked to discover.

If the descriptions were true, then her combat power had already reached that level the moment she broke through, even surpassing it in certain aspects.

Years had passed since then. Her strength had long been completely stabilized, and she had made further progress.

If she compared herself against the records now, Half-step Invincible Kings were already far from being her match.

Other than Little Chu Brother.

She.

Was already the strongest in the Xia Clan!!!

That discovery had shocked her for a long time. She had even felt that something was wrong with her own mind!

Until the news arrived that Zhao Yuling had instantly slain a Half-step Invincible King, Lin Xueling had remained uncertain about her speculation regarding her own strength.

After all, the matter was simply too inconceivable!

Over the years, the situation in Annan Land had remained stable, with no foreign races launching large-scale invasions here.

This gave Lin Xueling no chance to test herself. She had been cultivating diligently all along.

She had never considered taking the initiative to seek trouble with foreign Half-step Kings.

After all, the Lin Family's Town South Legion in Annan Land had been destroyed once already, and had yet to recover its vitality. This was already a time when their defenses were weak.

If she provoked a conflict over a mere guess of her own.

It would be fine if things turned out as she expected.

If not, she would likely become a sinner!

Only today, after learning the result of Zhao Yuling's actions, did she finally confirm it completely!

"So Yuling and I became Kings after breaking through from Xiantian."

"True Kings!"

Her gaze turned toward the distance, her Fighting Spirit surging and her killing intent fierce.

"Canine Fang Clan! Blood debts must be repaid in blood!"

PS: Thanks to boss Ta Huang Shi Jie for another hundred reward.

Thanks to boss DK98 for another five hundred reward.