The Flying Cloud Alliance: Courting Death with a Power Grab; Another Old Friend Lost, a Baleful Core Method for Extending Life

Clouds and mist wreathed the Xu Family's Flying Cloud Valley, where spiritual energy hung thick in the air. Buildings with sweeping eaves appeared and vanished in the sunlight, presenting a scene of perfect tranquility.

At the valley's highest point, the imposing Flying Cloud Hall stood atop a mountain, overlooking the entire valley.

On the square before the hall, cultivators from other lineages wore robes of various colors as they chatted merrily with their Xu Family hosts, discussing the Dao or admiring the scenery.

The delicate fragrance of spirit tea mingled with quiet laughter, and the atmosphere seemed congenial and harmonious.

Yet inside the great hall, separated from them by a single wall, the atmosphere was like an ice cellar.

Flying Cloud Hall was spacious, its ceiling some ten zhang high. Four coiling-dragon pillars supported the dome, and a faint sandalwood fragrance filled the air, unable to mask the oppressive tension of drawn swords and bent bows.

Three high-backed purple sandalwood chairs stood in a row upon the raised dais.

Seated in the center was a woman whose dark hair cascaded like a waterfall, her eyes touched with frost.

She wore moon-white robes, her face fair as jade and her lips crimson. Her bearing was as cold and serene as the depths of an icy pool. She was the Xu Family's current head.

Xu Hanji!

Thirty years had left no trace upon her face, thanks to the second-tier [Youth-Preserving Pill]. Instead, they had lent her an even greater air of authority.

She sat upright in the seat of honor, her aura restrained and profound. She had already reached the eighth layer of Foundation Establishment.

In the chair to her left sat a woman with cloudlike tresses and a flowerlike face. She wore scarlet brocade robes embroidered with golden phoenixes, her elegance