The news that Eldest Princess Zi Ning had recovered her cultivation to the Great Perfection of the Three Flowers Realm was like a Dragon Pearl exploding in the depths of the sea.
Ripples of spiritual light spread outward, layer upon layer, reaching every corner of the Purple Sky Dragon Palace.
The old dragons who had been watching from the sidelines could no longer sit still.
Early on the first morning, before the doors of the Dragon Palace's Council Hall had fully opened, the Three Grand Attendants, who had spent years in seclusion, arrived together and stood outside for a full hour.
The one leading them had a withered face, his dragon horns gray-white as frost. His deep purple dragon robe snapped in the sea breeze.
Eldest Princess Zi Ning sat inside the hall with a pot of tea before her, without so much as raising her head.
"Let them all in."
The Three Grand Attendants filed in, stopped in the center of the hall, and bowed in unison.
The Attendant with gray-white dragon horns took half a step forward. His voice was aged but clear.
"Your Highness, we three have come especially to offer our congratulations. Your reconstruction of your physical body is a momentous occasion the Purple Sky Dragon Palace has not seen in a thousand years."
"Whether it's momentous or not depends on what you think."
Zi Ning lifted her cup and took a light sip, sweeping her gaze over the three men above its rim, her eyes full of contempt.
"When my eldest brother held the throne, you three said his merits and faults were equal."
"When I was locked up in Prisoner Dragon Ridge, you said those were the Dragon Palace's rules."
"Now that I'm sitting here, you've come talking about some momentous occasion. At your