"You little girl, your cultivation speed is downright terrifying! A few days ago, you had no cultivation at all, and now you've almost perfected the Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm. How is anyone else supposed to live?"
Luo Qingluan dusted off her backside and stood, circling Luo Yue with astonishment written all over her face.
After all, in Qingyun Province, she counted as a fairly accomplished expert who had perfected all five divine repositories of the Dao Palace Secret Realm. Even the leaders of some shabby little sects from smaller provinces were probably only at her level.
Yet the moment they met, her little niece's [Vision] had put her in her place. Although there had been an element of surprise to the attack, it was still no small feat.
Was the [Divine King Body] really that invincible?
Just the Divine King Body's Vision released from her Bitter Sea had frozen Luo Qingluan stiff.
"A Divine Body's Vision really is powerful. Yours hasn't even reached initial mastery yet. Once your Divine Body reaches full maturity, won't you become another invincible White-Clad God King?" Luo Qingluan's eyes burned with excitement.
At that moment, when she looked at Luo Yue, she no longer saw merely her darling little niece!
Here was a walking pillar of support she could cling to!
"Little Yue, I'm entrusting all the happiness of the rest of my life to you. Whatever you do, don't die young!" Luo Qingluan clasped Luo Yue's little hands with an eager expression.
Luo Yue: "..."
Her aunt certainly knew how to say auspicious things.
"Oh, right. People from those Source Arts Families came by a few days ago, hoping to extend an olive branch to you. They'll probably keep pestering you, so whatever you do, don't agree. Not one of them has good intentions!" Luo Qingluan warned solemnly.
Luo Yue naturally understood that. Even without Luo Qingluan's explanation, she could judge for herself from what those Source Arts Families had done in the original novel.
Never mind those few Source Arts Families.
Even the Jiang Family and the Ji Family had plenty of utterly disgusting people within their ranks. The sordid dealings within great families were no empty talk.
Even Jiang Tingting, with her gifted Taiyin Physique, and Ji Ziyue, whose Origin Spirit Body appeared only once in ten thousand years, had been coveted and plotted against by their own relatives. What couldn't happen?
Even the Desolate Heaven Emperor back then, they had dared to...
Ahem. She couldn't go saying that carelessly.
By contrast, the current Luo Family couldn't claim enough power to blot out the sky, but it certainly wasn't weak either. Though it had few descendants, it held its own territory, and the old patriarch was reasonable. Internally, the family was united, without all those schemes and calculations.
"When you go to the Jiang Family, you must be careful too. Those Desolate Ancient Families with legacies stretching back over a hundred thousand years are even worse when it comes to internal scheming!"
"But if you're wronged, don't be afraid. Come back to the Luo Family. At least you'll still have the old patriarch to back you up..."
Luo Qingluan seemed to have turned into a fussing mother, chattering on without pause.
Luo Yue didn't interrupt her. Knowing that her aunt cared about her, she simply listened quietly.
But since her aunt had mentioned the old patriarch, it seemed she didn't know that Luo Tiangang had little time left. Everyone thought the family's pillar was now out of danger...
"Ah..."
Luo Yue sighed softly.
By now, she was also essentially certain that she was the [Jiang Family Divine Body] from the original novel, whose name and even gender had never been described.
In the original plot, descriptions of the Jiang Family Divine Body had been few and far between, amounting to only a few hundred words.
Moreover, this person had never shown their true face. Their features had always been hidden beneath divine iron armor, and their voice gave no clue whether they were male or female. In the end, they had become a foil for Jiang Yifei, their role in the story wrapped up in an extremely perfunctory manner.
From this, it seemed highly likely that the Luo Family had already fallen into decline in the original course of events.
The old patriarch had probably long since died, his life and cultivation extinguished.
Without her paternal family's support, the original owner of her body had most likely struggled at every step within the Jiang Family. Otherwise, after she lost to Jiang Yifei, the Jiang Family wouldn't have simply ignored her and left her to fade into obscurity.
I have to find a way to save the old patriarch.
Luo Yue pondered this.
Although she also had a Holy Lord level maternal great-grandfather in the Jiang Family, his word wasn't law there. Besides, only half the blood in Luo Yue's veins belonged to the Jiang Family, so the protection he could offer was probably limited.
She was far too weak now to allow even the slightest mistake. To be safe, she needed another awesomely powerful Holy Lord level paternal great-grandfather!
Having one more towering tree to shelter her from the wind and rain during the early stages of her cultivation certainly couldn't hurt.
With two Holy Lord level mighty figures backing her, she could swagger wherever she pleased in the Eastern Wasteland.
If anyone in the Jiang Family wanted to scheme against her later, they would have to carefully weigh the maternal and paternal great-grandfathers standing behind her.
"I really have no choice but to visit the Gambling Stone Workshop."
Perfectly at ease, Luo Yue patted her little hands together, stood, and headed out of the Luo Residence.
Seeing her head outside, Luo Qingluan's eyes immediately lit up. This was the prelude to stirring up trouble again!
"Little Yue, which stone workshop are we visiting this time?"
Luo Qingluan followed close behind her and asked eagerly.
"Great Evolution!"
Luo Yue tilted her little head up.
She felt that place was practically her blessed land and deserved plenty of visits. Besides, she also wanted to investigate the origins of the stone that had yielded the [Heaven-Mending Stone] a few days earlier.
After all, what she had now was only a fragment from one corner. There had to be other fragments scattered out there.
If she could find them all and piece them back together, then once a new artifact spirit formed within it, it would surely become another intact Emperor Weapon.
"Wait a moment. I'll go get my third brother and Jiang Wei. Let's all go together!"
Luo Qingluan was also the sort who never feared making trouble bigger.
Upon hearing that her little niece intended to crash Great Evolution's party, she turned around and went to round up reinforcements.
She had long been sick of those bastards from Great Evolution. They had come to Qingyun Province to do business without even paying their respects to the Luo Family, and then they had brought in so much Counterfeit Filled Stone to swindle a sucker like her, who lost every time she gambled.
They really couldn't tell the little joker from the big joker!
They had to be taught a lesson.
She would show these outsiders who truly ruled Qingyun Province.
The sunshine fell just right upon Luo City's main street.
That day, the Luo Residence's central gates swung open, and a group walked slowly out, immediately drawing the eyes of everyone along the street.
At their head was a little girl with waist-length silver hair, dressed in a plain white gown. Her exquisite features seemed beyond the mortal world, and her bearing was icy cool. A faint chill lingered around her, making nearby passersby shiver involuntarily and instinctively move aside.
This was Luo Yue, who had just emerged from seclusion.
Beside her stood Luo Qingluan, the Luo Family's eldest young lady, radiant once more, her every glance sparkling. Today, she had deliberately changed into a fiery-red fox-fur cloak, looking
valiant and spirited, her eyes gleaming with eagerness.
Half a step behind them were the Luo Family's third master, Luo Qingying, his face stern and his bearing composed, and Jiang Wei, dressed in cloud-patterned brocade robes, his presence as deep as a still pool and lofty as a mountain.
Neither deliberately released any pressure, but the steady, invisible aura born of long occupying positions of authority already rivaled that of older Dragon Transformation experts. It was enough to lower the voices along the entire street.
Behind them followed dozens of formidable guards from the Luo Family and the Jiang Family, each riding a Desolate Antiquity Savage Beast.
"Look! It's the Luo Family's little princess!"
"And Third Uncle Luo and Young Master Jiang Wei from the Jiang Family!"
"Oh my, that entourage... Are they heading to the Great Evolution Stone Workshop?"
"Hiss... Winning 110,000 jin of Source from the Fire Cloud Palace last time wasn't enough? They're going to 'pay another visit'?"
"There's a good show coming! Yanlong, one of the Great Evolution Sacred Land's ten great disciples, probably won't be able to sit still now..."
"Quick, follow them and take a look!"
Whispers and curious gazes followed them like shadows all along the street. A few days earlier, that hundred-thousand-jin gamble had already made Luo Yue famous in a single battle. The reputation of the Luo Family's "Source Arts prodigy" had long since spread throughout Luo City.