Ye Chuqi looked at the blackened mark the lightning had left on her finger and clicked her tongue. It was formidable, all right. That strike could easily break through her defenses and injure her. Good thing she hadn't charged straight in.
But the path beneath her feet seemed prepared in advance, waiting for someone to walk it one day. And it had appeared only after she struck with the Thousand-Leaf Sword. So was it waiting for her, or for the sword in her hand?
As she moved forward, the path behind her vanished, and the storm closed in. There was no way back. She even had the illusion that if she stopped, the storm would swallow her and she would disappear along with the path. But it was only an illusion. She stopped to test it, and both the vanishing path and the closing storm stopped too. They waited patiently until she moved again, then obediently resumed.
The situation was strange, but Ye Chuqi couldn't help laughing.
She followed the path across the ink-dark sea. The moment she stepped onto golden sand, the scene changed completely. The storm was gone. So were the lightning and the dark sea. All that remained were blue sky, white clouds, sunshine, a beach, and a man standing on the sand, smiling at her with obvious delight.
She had seen this man in the gallery of the Barton Imperial Family. Back then, though, he had been nothing more than a remarkably lifelike portrait on the wall. It might have been the largest, finest, and oldest portrait in the gallery, but it was still a portrait.
The pioneer of the Thirteen Misty Islands, founder of the Barton Empire, and close friend of her Eldest Senior Brother, Ye Changsheng—
Kroya Barton.
So he was still alive.
Ye