"Aah-!"
With a piercing scream, Nalan Yanran hurtled into the wall like a cannonball, just as she had countless times after losing, then tumbled to the floor.
Her face was bruised and swollen, her hair disheveled. Her once lovely, captivating appearance had vanished, leaving only a wretched mess.
Everyone froze in stunned disbelief, as though struck by an immobilizing spell, unable to recover for a long while.
Meanwhile, Xiao Qian suddenly sat cross-legged. The aura within him surged higher and higher like a raging tide.
Within his ninth dantian, he broke through the fourth stage of Dou Qi, the fifth stage of Dou Qi, the sixth stage of Dou Qi... one after another, with breathtaking momentum.
"I have seen consecutive breakthroughs at other stages, but consecutive breakthroughs during the foundation-building stage? That is unheard of."
Nalan Su was still immersed in shock when his father's frighteningly hoarse voice suddenly sounded behind him.
"Father! Why have you gotten up?!"
Nalan Su turned to look.
Although the old man was now as frail as a candle guttering in the wind, swaying on the verge of collapse, Nalan Su's heart instinctively clenched. A chill seemed to shoot up from his tailbone, and cold sweat instantly covered his forehead.
He hurried over, taking the steps two at a time to support him.
"Hmph!"
The old man shoved him away and slammed his cane against the floor. The collision rang out with a loud thud, like a warning bell.
His face seethed with anger, his eyes brimming with authority and fury. "If I hadn't gotten up, who knows what absurd trouble you would have stirred up in this Nalan Family! Do you all think I'm already dead?!"
Though the lion had aged, his might remained.
That roar left everyone inside and outside the hall silent