Zi Ning's figure vanished into the light.
The instant the light faded, she was already in front of the Purple Sky Dragon King.
She closed to within a foot of him, her right palm pressed against the center of his chest.
That mass of purple light was like a seed compressed to its limit, silently splitting open in her palm.
The Purple Sky Dragon King's pupils contracted, and he darted backward.
But his reaction came half a beat too late. The split seed in Zi Ning's palm erupted with a roar.
It became a piercing column of purple light that shot from her palm and struck his protective dragon qi.
The dragon qi shook violently, a long, narrow crack torn across its surface.
The column of light grazed the crack and pierced his left shoulder armor, bursting out behind it in a cloud of purple blood.
The Purple Sky Dragon King gave a muffled grunt and retreated three steps.
He lowered his head to glance at the smoking wound on his left shoulder. The flesh curled outward, and purple light at its edges was trying to eat its way inside. With a sweep of his hand, he suppressed that purple light, and the wound began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
He raised his head to look at Zi Ning, a complicated light churning in his deep purple eyes.
Within it was the remorse he had suppressed for far too long, as well as a trace of acknowledgment he could not evade.
Zi Ning stood there, panting slightly.
The light on her right palm had already dimmed by more than half, and the glow along the edges of her wings was much weaker than before.
That single strike had nearly drained the power she had accumulated over