Countless bolts of lightning fell from the dark clouds and entered Bai Zao's body.
This was a process, a process of descent.
Lian Sanyue should have tried to interrupt this process, but she did not.
She simply watched Bai Zao beneath the clouds in silence, her eyes holding neither wariness nor disgust, only pity and affection.
After failing to ascend, she had used the Spring Silkworm Transforms into a Butterfly Great Method to survive the tribulation and be reborn. Her sense of urgency had grown, so she had begun searching the world for a successor very early on. Luo Huainan, Tonglu, Tong Yan, He Zhan-the young, gifted disciples who had attended the Plum Gathering that year had all been candidates she considered. Bai Zao had received particular attention, but at the time, her constitution had been deficient from birth and she had been too frail. Lian Sanyue had felt that this child could not withstand such a heavy burden, so she had turned her attention to Zhao Layue and made a special trip to the Plum Gathering.
Zhao Layue had been perfect in every respect. The problem was that she had actually gone to Divine End Peak and become Jingyang's Reincarnated Disciple. On hearing this news, Lian Sanyue had known that Zhao Layue would not become her successor. Once she later learned that Jing Jiu was Jingyang, she had abandoned all thought of it.
As it happened, Bai Zao had returned from the Snowfield at that time, her hidden ailments completely cured, fully displaying the powerful will beneath her fragile exterior. Guo Dong had naturally chosen her without hesitation. Bai Zao had not disappointed her. While she slept, Bai Zao and Tong Yan had laid their plans in the Western Sea and truly come close to killing True Person Taiping.