"Wait here. Once I'm done teaching, I'll come back and deal with you."
Bai Wuyan stepped out of Cold Pool Grotto-Heaven. She neither tied up her hair nor cinched her waist, leaving Xiang Yuan behind with his back scratched into a floral mess as she returned to White Lotus Palace to continue her lecture.
Xiang Yuan stood there baring his teeth. After Bai Wuyan left, the scratches on his back healed in an instant. He wrapped his Daoist robe around his waist, sat cross-legged atop the Jade Pool, and drew the dissipating mist into his body, refining it into medicine.
Good news: the source of Palace Lord Bai and Door-Crack Sword Venerable's endless dispute had been found.
Bad news: the conflict was impossible to reconcile.
At first glance, the conflict between these two formidable women seemed to be Bai Wuyan pressing too aggressively, trying to control Sword Venerable Su Ran and make her obedient. But that was not its true nature. It involved the two women's past lives and ran far too deep; it was not something that could be solved by sitting down calmly for a proper talk.
These two formidable women had extraordinary origins. In their previous lives, they had both been innate deities—the Queen Mother of the West and the Six Paths Goddess—each among the very best of the innate gods.
With past lives and the Three Thousand Worlds involved, the grudge ran too deep. Xiang Yuan did not think himself qualified to make them sit down and talk things through.
"But perhaps the nominal Heavenly Court is something worth fighting for..."
Xiang Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly. Now that he knew the past lives of the two formidable women, he roughly had an idea for luring them both aboard the pirate ship.
The breakthrough lay in