The Central Plains was the absolute heart of the Douqi Continent. It covered more of the continent than any other region, held the greatest number of experts, and had the most tangled affairs.
The Central Plains' factions were a tangled web, and experts were as numerous as clouds. Human experts were hardly the only ones to reckon with; its magical beast factions were no less formidable.
If a powerful magical beast clan ever got serious, it could shake the entire Central Plains!
The Nine Serene Deepground Python Clan was one of the Central Plains' dominant powers. Its members could be found throughout the region, and its name carried great weight across the continent!
Some ancient texts even recorded a time when the Nine Serene Deepground Python Clan had been the most powerful force on the entire continent!
But that age lay too far in the past. How the clan had reached such heights, and how it had later declined, were mysteries of which even few among its own members knew more than scraps.
Still, the clan possessed the deep foundations of a top continental power. Among them was its sacred cultivation ground, the Nine Serene Cold Spring.
The spring's waters were darkly yin and bitterly cold. To those with yin-cold attributes, it was a sacred ground—a place the clan reserved for breaking through bottlenecks in their strength.
At one corner of the Nine Serene Cold Spring, cold mist drifted above softly rippling water, and a chill that pierced to the bone hung in the air. Xiao Xun'er stood quietly at the water's edge, her beauty a striking contrast to the spring's icy splendor.
She wore a simple, elegant long dress. Its hem stirred in the cold wind like the petals of a white lotus in bloom, pure and noble. Her