The golden hall was vast and silent. The floor was a single slab of golden jade, reflecting the golden light cast down from the dome like a sheet of motionless water.
Qin Guan stood in the main hall, looking around Xizhou in surprise and suspicion. Before long, his gaze was drawn to a figure deep within the hall.
A woman lay on her back in a purple reclining chair.
She wore a golden robe that spilled casually across the floor. Her eyes were half-closed, and she looked like a jade statue dozing off, her features so exquisitely beautiful they seemed utterly untouched by the mortal world.
She did not rise, nor did she fully open her eyes. She merely tilted her head slightly, revealing a narrow slit between her lids. She swept Qin Guan with a glance, then closed them again.
After a moment, her voice drifted over from the reclining chair. "Sui Sui brought you here?"
Standing in the center of the hall, Qin Guan nodded and smiled at the woman. "Yes."
"You can leave. I have no use for you."
After saying that, the woman closed her eyes, as though dismissing a beggar who had come knocking at her door.
Qin Guan smiled faintly. "It's not that you have no use for me. It's that you simply can't get away. You have no freedom."
At those words, the woman suddenly sat upright and looked directly at Qin Guan, like a stone tossed into a still pool. "You do dare to talk."
Qin Guan remained where he was, his expression unchanged. "I'm only speaking the truth. As long as that Dao demon lives, you cannot be free."
"So what? If that Dao demon gets out, the Primordial Realm will face utter annihilation."
The woman's voice was calm. "I remain