The True Origin Realm.
Outside Lu Hai Changling.
An immense ancient city stood amid famed mountains and great rivers, brightly lit even beneath the night sky.
The city was called Gaoyang. Its ability to stand independently here was proof enough of its lord's considerable strength.
In the north of the city rose an inn of staggering proportions.
This inn was not built of brick and stone.
A closer look revealed an ancient, towering tree that had been dead for untold tens of thousands of years. Someone had hollowed out its trunk through extraordinary means, carving out hundreds upon hundreds of guest rooms.
The city's cultivators called it the Tree Court.
Its gnarled roots plunged into the mountain, while its thick branches stretched beyond the sea of clouds.
From afar, it resembled a silent behemoth crouching on the horizon!
At that moment, in a guest room deep within the inn.
The light was dim.
All four corners of the room were tightly sealed by the same exceptionally intricate isolation formation.
These formations complemented one another, concealing every fluctuation of energy within this enclosed space.
Not the slightest trace escaped.
And on a white jade meditation cushion in the center of the room.
"..."
A woman in a plain robe sat quietly cross-legged.
Her face inspired profound tenderness, her features carrying an innate, almost sickly frailty, like a delicate flower unable to withstand wind or rain.
She wore only a somewhat thin robe.
Perhaps because she had been circulating her magic power so intensely, fine beads of sweat had soaked the garment, faintly revealing her ample breasts bound beneath a strip of coarse white cloth.
They rose and fell with her long, steady breaths.
Whoosh-
With every breath she took, the spiritual energy in the surrounding space seemed to be drained dry,