"Oh, right, Jiang Xiaoxiao, my luck was only average this time. I only recruited one seedling with purple fortune among the mortals. Ah!"
As Jiang Wanwan spoke, she deliberately let out a soft sigh, but anyone could plainly see the smugness her peach-blossom eyes could not conceal.
She leaned against the doorframe, her fingertips idly winding around a strand of hair hanging over her chest, her languid posture carrying a hint of showing off. "I imagine..."
"Your haul this time must have been better than mine, right?"
The moment she finished speaking, the air in the room seemed to freeze for an instant.
Standing behind Jiang Wanwan, Zhu Zhuqing keenly noticed an exceedingly subtle change in Jiang Xiaoxiao's expression, as though it were saying...
How infuriating!
But that odd look vanished in a flash, and she immediately assumed an indifferent expression.
Even the corners of her lips curved into a faint, elusive smile, as though she had not taken Jiang Wanwan's words to heart at all.
"Her name is Zhu Zhuqing, right?"
Jiang Wanwan froze. "Jiang Xiaoxiao, how did you know?"
After all, she had only brought her back to the Ninefold Heavenly Towers a short while ago. Aside from her registration at the Deacon Hall, word should not have spread so quickly.
Jiang Xiaoxiao did not answer immediately, and the smile on her lips deepened.
She gracefully turned sideways and gently drew a young woman out from beside her.
"She is Zhu Zhuqing's elder sister, Zhu Zhuyun. Though her fortune isn't purple, it is blue..."
"I didn't come back empty-handed this time, either."
Hearing this, Zhu Zhuqing was instantly startled and hurriedly looked at the young woman...
With just one glance, Zhu Zhuqing recognized that the young woman really was her elder sister, Zhu Zhuyun.
Her first instinct was to remain on guard, but she soon remembered...
This was the Shrouding the Heavens World, and with Jiang Xiaoxiao and Jiang Wanwan beside her, she had absolutely no need to worry about her sister attacking her.
Only then did mixed feelings rise within her, and she asked curiously, "Sister, how did you end up here too, and even join the Heavenly Court...?"
Hearing her younger sister's voice, Zhu Zhuyun finally began to recover from the shock White Emperor City had brought her.
She blinked, her gaze focusing on Zhu Zhuqing as a trace of complicated, unreadable emotion flickered through her eyes.
Back in the Star Luo Empire, the way she looked at this younger sister had always carried scrutiny, calculation, and even killing intent.
There had been no choice!
Because they had been enemies from birth. The imperial family's rules forced them to slaughter one another to survive, even if she did not want to...
But now!
Zhu Zhuyun sighed softly inwardly.
Their surroundings had changed. Everything had changed.
Once they left the Douluo Continent and came to this vast world called "Shrouding the Heavens," those old life-and-death struggles suddenly seemed so laughable, so insignificant.
Thus, she looked at Zhu Zhuqing and took the initiative to give her a gentle smile.
With a measure of relief and a measure of candor, she said, "It's a long story."
As Zhu Zhuyun spoke, her gaze swept over Jiang Xiaoxiao beside her and Jiang Wanwan inside the room before returning to Zhu Zhuqing.
"Let's talk alone in a little while."
Zhu Zhuqing froze at first. She had not expected this attitude from Zhu Zhuyun!
After all, back in the Star Luo Empire, this elder sister of hers had never spoken to her in such a candid, gentle tone, almost as though discussing things as equals.
More often, there had been orders, probing, and threats delivered with a smile.
But now...
Could Sister be like me? After witnessing the vastness and might of the Shrouding the Heavens World, has she begun to think of never returning to the Douluo Continent for good?
If that's the case...
Zhu Zhuqing felt that everything made sense.
After all, if she no longer intended to go back and compete for the Star Luo Empire's throne, there would no longer be any reason for the sisters to fight each other to the death.
Beyond the Douluo Continent, in this wider Shrouding the Heavens World...
They might even become each other's only blood sister whom they could trust absolutely.
That thought brought an inexplicable trace of joy welling up in Zhu Zhuqing's heart.
For a moment, she was filled with gratitude toward Heavenly Screen, toward the Shrouding the Heavens World, and toward His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor, and her sense of belonging grew as well.
Soon, Zhu Zhuqing gathered herself and nodded.
"All right!"
She knew what her sister meant. She wanted to say that with Jiang Wanwan and Jiang Xiaoxiao, people of the Shrouding the Heavens World, present, there were many things they could not easily discuss.
After all, they both came from the Douluo Continent, and that matter...
Neither of them yet knew how to tell Jiang Xiaoxiao and Jiang Wanwan about it.
They were very afraid that, if they spoke, the Shrouding the Heavens World might set its sights on the Douluo Continent.
They knew how powerful the Shrouding the Heavens World was. As long as its people entertained that thought, the Douluo Continent would face a calamity that would swallow it whole.
Thus, neither of them intended to reveal the Douluo Continent's existence for the time being.
But as her sense of belonging to the Shrouding the Heavens World gradually deepened, what the future might hold...
Zhu Zhuqing felt that would be hard to say.
Seeing this, Zhu Zhuyun smiled again and patted Zhu Zhuqing's shoulder.
"Little sister!"
"Don't think you're the only one who wants to change something. As the younger sister... never think of surpassing your elder sister!"
Before Zhu Zhuqing could react to those words, Jiang Xiaoxiao beside them laughed first.
"Did you hear that?"
Jiang Xiaoxiao raised an eyebrow at Jiang Wanwan, her eyes brimming with smugness, and deliberately repeated, "As the younger sister, never think of surpassing your elder sister!"
"Hah!"
Hearing that, Jiang Wanwan sneered. "But some people are simply born inferior to their younger sisters."
She spoke unhurriedly. "Wouldn't you agree, my dear elder sister?"
"Jiang Wanwan!"
Jiang Xiaoxiao instantly grew annoyed. "Don't get too pleased with yourself!"
"Didn't you just get lucky and pick up a seedling with purple fortune? Do you really think you can ride roughshod over me?"
"One day, I'll become the Empress Consort, and then you'll have to kneel and bow whenever you see me! Hmph, hmph!"
Jiang Wanwan's smile was "radiant." "You know perfectly well whether it was luck, Sister."
"Last time, at the White Jade Capital, who waited three months to attend His Majesty's bath without ever seeing him, then slunk away with her tail between her legs?"
"But as for your little sister, I attended His Majesty on my second day~"
Jiang Xiaoxiao refused to concede. "But a year later, I saw His Majesty too!"
"Wasn't that still a year later than me?"
"You!"
For a moment, Jiang Xiaoxiao was utterly furious.
As the sisters bickered, Zhu Zhuqing quietly glanced at Zhu Zhuyun, asking with her eyes: Are they always like this?
Zhu Zhuyun answered with a helpless look: I only just met them too, but from the looks of it... yes.
Just as the smell of gunpowder between Jiang Xiaoxiao and Jiang Wanwan grew stronger, until they were almost about to come to blows on the spot-
Dong-!
Without warning, a distant, resonant toll, as though coming from above the nine heavens, rang out within the Ninefold Heavenly Towers.
And the instant the bell rang-
The "anger," mockery, and smugness on Jiang Xiaoxiao's and Jiang Wanwan's faces-all their emotions vanished instantly, replaced by identical solemnity and reverence.
Then, facing the deepest reaches of the Ninefold Heavenly Towers, they bowed their heads slightly.