A fine night rain had begun to drift over Chang'an City at some unknown point.
Rain fell upon the ruined walls and rubble, washing away purple-black demon blood and glaring crimson, gathering into dark red puddles in the hollows.
The Skywater Qilin stood silently in the void, his purple robes rippling faintly in the wind and rain.
"..."
He silently watched the massive tiger corpse below, its head severed from its body. Even after the tiger demon's life force had completely vanished, this peerless heaven's chosen of Cloud-Dream Palace showed no reaction.
Only deep within his violet-gold eyes surged emotions beyond description.
In a daze, the fine rain blurred his vision.
Several million years of cultivation—what an endless span of time, long enough to witness heaven and earth turn upside down, long enough to see through the rise and fall of the Cloud-Dream Realm.
Over those long years, he had seen far too many dazzling geniuses... Whether from Cloud-Dream Palace or the Nine Great Dao Sects, those names had once stirred storms across this land.
But upon careful reflection now—
All he had seen and heard over millions of years, all the remarkable figures over millions of years—
None had shocked him as deeply as the girl before him.
The Skywater Qilin lowered his gaze slightly.
The tiger demon had acted crudely, and its strength was hardly among the foremost of Cloud-Dream Palace's heaven's chosen.
Yet it was still a Great Demon of the Eight-Piece Chessmaster Realm, with deep foundations and an overwhelmingly powerful body.
It was certainly not something an ordinary human cultivator could casually humiliate.
Yet the aura revealed by this white-robed girl was merely that of the Third-Move Chessmaster Realm.
Three moves against eight.
Five entire realms lay between them.
Such a battle of defiance, crossing several