Preparing to Settle Accounts

"Xiao Yan?!"

Even with the resilient temperament and broad horizons tempered through the trials of three Dou Saints, when they saw Xiao Yan again, an especially obvious look of astonishment involuntarily surfaced on their faces.

After all, when Yao Wan had carried Xiao Yan back to Starfall Pavilion a year ago, both Yao Chen and the two elders who had escorted the Young Miss there had known perfectly well that such injuries had almost no hope of recovery.

His heart meridians had been shattered, his soul had fallen silent—even a supreme expert standing at the pinnacle of the world might have been powerless to save him...

Yet Xiao Yan, who now stood before them, no longer bore even the slightest resemblance to the dying state they had seen a year ago, when even his final trace of life had needed to be sustained by the Yao Clan Leader's secret technique—?

Not only had the hideous, glaring bloody hole in his chest long since vanished, but his entire person had regained his former vitality. His cultivation and aura had even been rebuilt after destruction.

The three Dou Saints could not help exchanging glances, each of them scarcely able to believe their eyes.

If Xiao Yan had merely escaped this calamity, that alone would have been a blessing amid misfortune. Yet he had not only escaped the trial of life and death, but had even risen to a higher level, already breaking through into the Dou Saint realm...

Even these three well-traveled Dou Saints could not help sighing inwardly, feeling as though they were dreaming.

But with everything already before their eyes, how could they deny it?

"Xiao Yan!"

Compared to the shock and astonishment of the three Dou Saints, the four women who had arrived earlier were naturally overjoyed. Xun Er