Seven days later.
Spirit City, the Holy Maiden's private Cultivation Room.
The heavy stone door was shut tight. Fox-clan totems on the walls glimmered with a faint purple light, and the Spirit Gathering Array had been running continuously for three days and three nights.
Hu Liena sat cross-legged on a cushion, her hands resting on her knees, fingers loosely interlaced.
Soul Power flowed around her, smooth and steady.
Unhurried, calm, and composed—not what you would expect from someone who had still been at level sixty-nine just a month and a half ago.
The Nine-Tailed Fox Seal between her brows flickered faintly. With every pulse, a warm current coursed through her meridians and spread throughout her body.
The Primordial Spirit Bead's power no longer crashed over her like a flood, as it had at first. It had become a gentle stream, seeping into her Martial Soul Origin drop by drop.
Deep in her dantian, the power of the Fate-Suppressing Cauldron intertwined with that of the Primordial Spirit Bead.
One rose while the other fell; one dispersed while the other gathered.
The Primordial Spirit Bead refined, purified, and elevated; the Fate-Suppressing Cauldron suppressed, stabilized, and solidified.
One lifted her up, while the other pressed her down. The two utterly different forces had found a natural balance within her, drawing and restraining each other as they flowed together in perfect harmony.
Her cultivation speed had more than tripled.
Before, completing one full cycle of cultivation had taken two quarters of an hour. Now she could finish one in less than half an incense stick's time, and every cycle brought a far greater increase in Soul Power than before.
This wasn't hollow growth from forcing a seedling to grow by pulling on it. It was solid improvement, with a foundation sturdier than ever.
In her spiritual world, the snow-white Heavenly Fox lay curled up in silence.
Its six tails rested loosely at its sides. Every so often, their tips quivered, and flecks of purple-gold light slipped from its fur and sank into the crystal-clear Sea of Consciousness beneath it.
The fox's whole bearing was worlds apart from what it had been half a month ago. Its demonic aura had faded, leaving behind nothing but a pure, noble elegance that seemed to reach down to its very bones.
Hu Liena raised her right hand.
A fist-sized cluster of white flames rose above her palm.
Their color had changed from purple-red to pure white, and their heat was astonishing. Even the Spirit Gathering Array's markings on the floor of the Cultivation Room had begun to discolor.
She flicked her finger lightly.
The white foxfire shot out with a hiss and struck the stone wall three zhang away.
A crater the size of a bowl appeared. Its edges were scorched black, and a small patch of the fox-clan totem on the surface had been burned away.
That single strike was two or three tenths more powerful than her third Soul Skill, unleashed at full force when she had been level sixty-nine.
And she'd done it with just a casual flick.
An eighty-fourth-level Soul Douluo—throughout all of Spirit Hall, only Bibi Dong and a few top elders could firmly keep her in check.
And she was still rising. Though her progress wasn't as astonishing as it had been during those first three days, she could feel her Soul Power steadily climbing each day.
"Creak."
The stone door to the Cultivation Room opened a crack from the outside.
All six fox tails shot upright, and her ears turned toward the door.
Xie Yue slipped inside sideways, carrying a food box. He kept his footsteps light—
but with the room's spiritual-sense perception amplified several times over, his little attempt at stealth was as good as nothing.
"Awake?"
He kept his voice low.
"Not asleep."
Xie Yue walked around the cushion and sat down in a clean spot. He set the food box between them and lifted the lid, releasing the sweet fragrance of osmanthus cakes.
"Have some."
Hu Liena reached out, took one, and bit into it. It was soft, sweet without being cloying.
Xie Yue didn't hurry to speak.
He leaned against the wall, arms folded across his chest, and looked his younger sister up and down. Once, then again.
Hu Liena grew uncomfortable under his gaze.
"What are you looking at?"
"You."
Xie Yue narrowed his eyes and let out a breath.
"Nana, I have to tell you something. Your aura now is completely different from what it was half a month ago. It's not just your Soul Power level. It's more like—"
He scratched the back of his head, searching for the right word before finally coming up with, "Presence."
"You haven't released anything. You're just sitting there, and I can barely breathe properly from three zhang away. It feels almost like when that old Chrysanthemum Douluo is standing right in front of me."
Hu Liena chewed her osmanthus cake without replying.
Xie Yue braced himself on his hands and leaned his head back.
"At this rate, it won't be long before your big brother isn't even qualified to carry your shoes."
"Brother, what are you saying?"
"Just the truth. Half a month ago, you were still ten levels ahead of me. Now you're at eighty-four, while I'm still hovering around seventy-two. In a few more months—"
He drew out the last words, tilting his head to look at her.
There was no jealousy in his voice, just pure wonder—and a touch of bitterness he couldn't quite put into words.
His younger sister was getting stronger. So strong that he couldn't keep up.
It was a good thing. The battle at Jialing Pass was drawing near, and every top fighter Spirit Hall gained meant better odds.
But all that power came from a man he hadn't even met. That weighed on his chest more heavily than any battle report.
"Speaking of which..."
Xie Yue's tone suddenly turned casual—but whenever he spoke like that, he was almost certainly setting a trap with whatever came next.
"Who do you think brought about all these changes—the Primordial Spirit Bead, the Fate-Suppressing Cauldron, your Martial Soul Evolution?"
Hu Liena stopped chewing her osmanthus cake.
He was testing her.
Of course she could tell.
"...That Celestial Master."
As she said it, her gaze drifted elsewhere, almost without her meaning to.
She turned the half-eaten cake over and over in her hand until it began to crumble.
Xie Yue noted every little movement.
Fidgeting with the cake, avoiding his eyes, the tip of her right ear starting to turn pink.
The three clues together made the answer plain as day.
He cleared his throat.
"Then let me ask you something—"
"Don't."
"Are you—"
"Brother."
"—in love with Shen Yichen—"
"Xie Yue!"
Hu Liena jerked her head up and glared straight at him.
They stared at each other for three seconds.
What Xie Yue saw was this:
His sister's fox ears had sprung out of her hair, turning from pale pink to deep red. Their tips glowed, and her face had flushed from her cheekbones all the way to her chin. Even the base of her neck had taken on a rosy hue.
But there was no anger in her glare, no irritation.
Only the panic and embarrassment of someone whose modesty had been stripped away in one swift tug.
Xie Yue swallowed the rest of his sentence.
There was no need to ask. The answer was written all over his sister's face.
The Cultivation Room fell silent for a long while.
Hu Liena turned her face away and tucked in her chin. She raised the half-crushed osmanthus cake to her lips as a shield and forced a bite into her mouth—purely to find some cover for her burning face.
Xie Yue didn't press her further.
He stood up and brushed the dust from his trousers. Then he reached out to ruffle the top of her head, carefully avoiding her pair of scorching-hot fox ears.
"As long as you know how you feel."
He paused.
"But I'll make one thing clear. When that Shen fellow actually gets here, I'll be the first to stop him. If he wants to prove himself worthy of my sister, he'll have to get past me."
Hu Liena kept her head down and said nothing. Her ears twitched.
Xie Yue turned and pushed open the door.
His footsteps gradually faded down the corridor. After he passed through the second sealed checkpoint, they disappeared completely.
Hu Liena walked over to the narrow window at the side.
It was tiny, barely a foot square. Afternoon sunlight slanted through and fell warmly across the back of her hand.
She rested her arms on the sill and laid her chin on her forearm, gazing outside.
The sky was blue. A few white clouds drifted past so slowly that they seemed not to change position for ages.
She stared at them, lost in thought for a while.
Before she knew it, she had begun imagining what the mysterious Celestial Master looked like. A strange ripple stirred in her heart.
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