Mistsea.
This sea lay in the northern reaches of Heaven Pool. Once called the Great Wilderness, it had been the first territorial sea to return to the Dragon Court's rule.
At the center of Mistsea, an ancient black-jade hall stood upon an island. Jade bridges linked its grounds, waterways crisscrossed them, and a hazy gray halo revolved outside the hall, suffusing the air with an ancient, primordial presence.
Within the hall, luminous pearls shone brilliantly, illuminating a woman dressed in a slate-blue silk gown woven with gold.
She was tall and slender, her eyes half closed. The shadow behind her occasionally took the shape of a Nine-Headed Monster Bird, hideous and ferocious.
Fu Dong quietly awaited the master of Heaven Pool. Her expression remained perfectly calm, as though nothing could disturb her.
The Great Void opened, Violet Lightning surged, and rolling thunderclaps erupted from nowhere, announcing the Dragonkin's arrival. A deep, weighty dragon pressure also seeped through.
She opened her eyes, her gray pupils focusing slightly.
At some point, a figure had appeared on the principal seat before the hall. He wore a deep-purple dragon robe patterned in black, his jade horns curling like a crown. The reverse scale at his neck radiated profound, shadowy, mysterious yin light interspersed with Thunderbolt.
Xu Xuan said nothing. Instead, he scrutinized the Demon King who had arrived so unexpectedly. A faint probing of her presence told him that she had already reached Purple Mansion, making him all the more wary.
She advanced far too quickly. It defies reason.
He had last seen her in Flame-Offering, when she had merely been a Foundation Establishment cultivator serving Demon King Soul-Concealment. Exceptional though she had been, she could not possibly have reached such a cultivation level in so short a time!
*At least two divine abilities.