"Quite a set of teeth."
Luo Yue's voice rang out, calm and even, betraying neither pleasure nor anger.
She withdrew the arm someone had bitten, leaving two little canine marks, and turned her gaze back to Yao Xi-more precisely, to the two little canines peeking out because of her nervousness.
"It seems biting comes naturally to you."
Luo Yue circulated her divine power, instantly restoring the snowy-white arm and erasing the two rows of little tooth marks.
Fortunately, the little girl was only at the Bitter Sea realm. Sharp though her two canines were, they could not even breach the defenses of Luo Yue's Divine King Body. Otherwise, she really would have tasted divine blood.
Yao Xi's little face flushed again. Even more embarrassed and annoyed, she had no way to argue back and could only glare indignantly at Luo Yue, like a little pufferfish puffing out its cheeks.
"You look less like a fairy of Guanghan and more like a rabbit. I wonder how that moon palace came to choose you," Luo Yue teased.
"You're the rabbit, you silver-haired witch!"
Little Yao Xi began baring her teeth and hissing again.
Only after enjoying the little girl's bristling reaction to her heart's content did Luo Yue reach out with her chilly little hand.
Yao Xi immediately drew her hand back like a startled little rabbit, watching Luo Yue warily, afraid she was about to pull another trick.
This time, however, Luo Yue did not stroke Yao Xi's head. Under Yao Xi's wary gaze, she lightly touched the rim of the little white-jade cauldron clutched tightly in her arms.
"Humm-"
A thread of pure, icy divine power flowed from Luo Yue's fingertip, instantly enveloping the little jade cauldron.
Under the influence of Luo Yue's divine power, a layer of ice crystals swiftly formed over the precious earth-milk spirit liquid half-filling the cauldron. Thin as a cicada's wing, it shone with a soft, moonlit luster.
"What are you doing! Don't touch my spirit milk!"
Yao Xi nearly jumped in alarm. Forgetting that she was still in Luo Yue's grasp, she wanted only to shield the jade cauldron with her body.
Luo Yue withdrew her finger. Looking at the spirit liquid, which seemed sealed within crystalline moonlight, she nodded in satisfaction and said:
"I'm just chilling it to keep it fresh."
"Something this good will slowly lose its Dao resonance when exposed to the air. I added a little of my own origin frost qi for a better effect. It can preserve ninety-nine percent of its spiritual essence."
Luo Yue spoke with perfect seriousness, her little face wearing an expression that said Yao Xi had gotten quite a bargain.
At those words, Yao Xi's furious expression froze, and she lowered her head to look at the jade cauldron in her arms.
Sure enough, the thin layer of ice had not damaged the spirit milk at all. Instead, the spiritual energy within it had become more concentrated and mellow. Threads of ice-blue divine radiance flowed beneath the moonlit ice, making it even more tempting than before.
Not only had that pure frost qi done no harm to the spirit milk, it had blended with it as seamlessly as milk with water, releasing an even finer, cool fragrance.
Yao Xi's little nose twitched. Although she had to admit inwardly that the "chilled" spirit milk seemed better, she absolutely could not concede aloud. "Who asked for your frost qi? Busybody. I can look after it myself," she muttered.
Her words were stubborn, but the little hands holding the jade cauldron involuntarily stroked the beautiful ice crystals. Feeling the lunar power within them, sharing Luo Yue's origin yet even purer and gentler, she found a tiny part of her resentment at being teased inexplicably fading, replaced by a trace of curiosity.
This silver-haired meanie's frost qi really does seem special? It smells so nice.
Luo Yue caught every subtle change in Yao Xi's expression and could not help laughing inwardly.
How could it not be special?
It was a wisp of Taiyin Source Qi extracted from that Guanghan Palace, blended with a drop of her divine blood-a form of compensation for peering into that moon palace.
It was not that Luo Yue had never considered returning the favor by giving little Yao Xi the true meaning of the Taiyin Guanghan Diagram she had copied.
But she feared the little girl would be unable to keep it safe. After all, the Yaoguang Holy Land was hardly a good place. She simply transferred that wisp of Taiyin Source Qi to her instead, leaving her to comprehend it herself in the future.
With her objective achieved, Luo Yue paid no further attention to the little girl baring her teeth. She turned, her waist-length silver hair sweeping through an arc, and her calm voice drifted back:
"The spirit milk is chilled. Take your time drinking it, and stop running around. Be careful some creepy uncle doesn't carry you off." She meant her sixth uncle, Luo Qingsun, who had just fled in disgrace.
With that, she headed straight toward her own courtyard, leaving little Yao Xi standing there with the chilled jade cauldron in her arms. The little girl fiercely bared her canines at Luo Yue's retreating back, but ultimately could not resist lowering her head and secretly stroking the beautiful ice crystals imbued with that wondrous frost qi again.
"Meanie... silver-haired meanie..."
She muttered softly, but her tone seemed to hold a little less sheer anger and a little more of the awkwardness of someone who had just been fed, along with a tiny hint of disappointment.
Elsewhere.
Luo Yue returned to her own courtyard and entered her quiet chamber, shutting out the clamor and prying eyes of the outside world.
She sat cross-legged, ice-blue divine radiance suffusing her body and making her look like a fairy from the moon palace.
Two things floated before her. One was the ancient scroll of the Hengyu Scripture, inscribed with imperial characters, vivid red as phoenix blood and flowing with an eternally blazing aura.
The other was the [Taiyin Guanghan Diagram] in her Sea of Consciousness, which the Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu had just analyzed and imprinted from the Guanghan Palace in Yao Xi's brow.
"The Taiyin Ancient Scripture and Solar Ancient Scripture are known as the human race's two great mother scriptures. They contain the secrets of the Great Dao's origins..." Luo Yue's ice-blue eyes were fathomless. Black and white points of starlight slowly revolved deep within her pupils as the Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu operated at full power.
"Part of the Taiyin Scripture's true meaning is hidden within this [Taiyin Guanghan Diagram]."
"Emperor Hengyu possessed astonishing talent. Though his Dao centered on true yang, the true meaning of his emperor scripture clearly shows traces of merging yin and yang and drawing upon the Sun and Taiyin Scriptures. Perhaps he, too, once read the human race's two great mother scriptures and forged his own path. I can work backward from this to deduce the true meaning of the Solar Ancient Scripture..."
With a thought from Luo Yue, the process began.
Her vast divine power and reserves of divine source surged like mighty rivers, pouring furiously into the Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu at the center of her Sea of Consciousness.
"Humm-!"
The tortoiseshell patterns and star-dotted chart erupted with unprecedented brilliance, as though the entire quiet chamber had been drawn into a chaotic sea of stars.
On the left unfolded the vision manifested by the Hengyu Scripture. An endless domain of fire descended, billions of crimson rays streamed forth, and nine phantom Divine Phoenixes were born amid the flames. They wheeled through the blazing starry sky, their clear cries piercing metal and splitting stone.
Every feather and every flame contained imperial Dao laws capable of burning all the heavens to nothing and creating all things-supreme in yang and unyielding strength, incomparably domineering.
On the right, the [Taiyin Guanghan Diagram] unfurled. Cool, aloof moonlight filled the void, where the towering, ancient halls of Guanghan Palace stood amid swaying moon laurels and curling frost mist.
Ultimate lunar power flowed, freezing time and space and extinguishing all things. Yet deep within that deathly stillness, it nurtured vitality like ice soul jade marrow-supreme in yin and yielding softness, profound beyond fathoming.
Under the powerful deductive force of the Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu, these two terrifying powers, utterly opposed yet both rooted in the Great Dao of origins, were forcibly drawn together to collide!
Boom!
A thunderous roar, as though heaven and earth were being cleaved into existence, exploded within Luo Yue's divine soul!
Yin and yang, annihilation and creation—the two supreme Dao Principles clashed furiously and obliterated one another, yet strangely attracted and entwined with each other as well.
"Pfft!"
Luo Yue's little face turned pale.
A thread of ice-blue divine blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
Even with the protection of the Yellow River Chart and Lo Shu, the backlash from forcibly deducing the mysteries of the two great mother scriptures far exceeded her expectations!
The Bitter Sea within her churned, glaciers trembled, and even her newly formed Divine Bridge groaned beneath the unbearable burden.
"No wonder even old Human Demon from before the primordial age went mad. Forcibly merging the two true meanings is far too dangerous." Luo Yue clicked her tongue softly.
Only because she was still dabbling on such a small scale had she avoided meeting the same fate as old Human Demon.
With this thing, the higher one's realm, the stronger the backlash!
Still, she had a clever trick up her sleeve. The corners of Luo Yue's lips rose slightly.
"With my supreme perseverance, world-shaking wisdom, and undying will!"
"Heaven-Mending Stone, it's your time to shine!"