In a room inside a residence in the guildhall district.
Li Ling and the Ninth Princess sat cross-legged opposite each other on a couch, fully clothed, circulating their arts. Their energies intertwined, cycling ceaselessly through each other's bodies before transforming into true essence balanced between yin and yang.
They had set the turmoil outside aside. The Four Seas Commerce Guild had sealed off the area with Array restrictions, creating an enclosed zone. Leaving would involve all manner of trouble, so they simply stopped worrying about it for now. Since they were here, they might as well settle in.
Shang Yuxian, however, could not relax as they did. She waited until late at night, then finally lost patience and tried contacting someone again through a magical artifact.
This time, to her surprise, the connection went through.
"Chief Steward Wen, what exactly is going on?"
"Miss Shang, we've gotten to the bottom of this. It was the Blood Shark Bandits!"
"The Blood Shark Bandits?"
"That's right. Their men have appeared. They've set their sights on this shipment of Hai Lanzhu that was lucky enough to reach us!"
"Then what was the story with that sword cultivator earlier?"
"Somehow, they learned that he had a daughter stranded in the mortal world. Traffickers sold her to a pleasure house to be trained as a dancing girl, then resold her on the black market here in Lucky Harbor.
"You know how those people from the Earthly Sha Sect deal in anything..."
"Those beasts!"
Shang Yuxian's expression darkened as she understood.
No wonder an expert like that had willingly become a blade in someone else's hand. He was plainly looking for an excuse to kill.
"That sword cultivator has already begun breaking through the formation to leave, but the Blood Shark Bandits haven't gone yet. We've