National Preceptor Su Qingying

National Preceptor's Residence.

Stepping through the vermilion-lacquered gates, a vast Bagua-shaped courtyard suddenly opened up before them.

The entire ground was paved with black and white jade. The Yin-Yang Twin Fish seemed to flow beneath their feet, while a faint azure light drifted through the lines of the trigrams.

At the center of the Bagua stood a colossal bronze sword statue, planted deep into the earth. Its blade pointed straight at the heavens, its body coiled with hair-thin lightning patterns, as though it could strike down heavenly punishment at any moment.

At this moment, the National Preceptor's Residence was exceptionally quiet, without the slightest sound coming from within.

"Does the National Preceptor like peace and quiet?" Jiang Ning suddenly asked.

"Yes!" The young girl nodded. "In such a large residence, the National Preceptor has only kept me and one other servant. Including the National Preceptor herself, there are only three of us. Whenever night falls, I find it terrifyingly lonely!"

"With the National Preceptor here, what is there to fear? She is the National Preceptor of Great Xia!" Jiang Ning said.

"That's true!" The young girl nodded as she walked. "Looking across the world, the National Preceptor is among the strongest. With her here, no one would dare sneak into the National Preceptor's Residence."

As they spoke, the two crossed the open expanse of the front courtyard.

Then they passed through a circular archway.

The scenery abruptly turned deep and secluded.

Several dozen ancient cypresses, each thousands of years old, rose from the ground. Their trunks twisted like horned dragons, and their dark green canopies intertwined into an impenetrable dome.

The sunlight was shredded into fragments of gold, scattering in mottled patches across the moss-speckled stone path.

The deeper they went, the denser the pale azure mist hanging in the