This time, even Shi Feifei, the principal consort, was stunned!
Had Liu Ling'er gone mad?
Slapping Su Ying earlier was one thing. After all, she and Su Ying were both secondary consorts, and Su Ying really had insulted her first.
But-
Striking Su Ying and striking Nanny Xu were entirely different matters!
Even when beating a dog, you had to consider its master!
Nanny Xu represented Shi Feifei, and Shi Feifei was the principal consort, far above Liu Ling'er in status!
After a moment of shock, Su Ying was wild with joy!
This was perfect. Liu Ling'er had caused a terrible disaster, and even the king would probably have trouble protecting her now!
With no ability or backing, she still dared to act so arrogantly in the royal palace. She was like the old god of longevity hanging himself-she must have been tired of living!
Su Ying thought Liu Ling'er must have dared to get so full of herself because she was carrying the king's child!
A lowly maid was a lowly maid!
Even I, Su Ying, don't dare provoke the principal consort like this. What gives you, Liu Ling'er, the right?
Is it stupidity?
Unlike Su Ying and Shi Feifei, Nanny Xu was utterly astonished and bewildered.
She might have been old and frail, but she was a genuine Martial Emperor Realm expert!
Her cultivation was several major realms higher than Su Ying's. Someone in the Spirit Guiding Realm was like an ant before her, something she could crush with a flip of her hand!
And yet!
She had struck at Liu Ling'er first, but in the end, Liu Ling'er had slapped her hard across the face instead!
Unbelievable!
How was that possible?
Towering waves of shock surged through Nanny Xu's heart!
Shi Feifei soon realized this as well, and she too was shocked and bewildered.
She looked at Nanny Xu, her face full of doubt.
"I remember the principal consort saying she would throw me into the Devil-Sealing Well after I gave birth, but I haven't given birth yet!"
Liu Ling'er drew back her arm and said calmly, "I advise the principal consort to be patient a little longer. Don't be too hasty. After all, there are many days ahead."
Liu Ling'er didn't want to take things too far yet. After all, Shi Feifei had only talked and hadn't actually acted.
There was another important point!
Shi Feifei was a princess of the Lingxi Kingdom. If anything happened to her, the Lingxi Royal Clan would never let the matter rest.
The Lingxi Royal Clan was no weak power, with more than one Quasi-God expert!
Liu Ling'er wasn't sure whether she could take on several Quasi-God experts at once, but she was certain she hadn't reached the true God Realm!
Of course, if Shi Feifei refused to back down and insisted on making it a fight to the death, Liu Ling'er wouldn't worry about so much!
Slapping Nanny Xu today served as a warning and a lesson to Shi Feifei!
"Fine, Consort Liu. To protect the king's child, I will spare you for now. But you dared lay a hand on my person, and I will make you pay a heavy price!"
Shi Feifei snorted coldly and left the bedroom with Nanny Xu.
"Just wait. You'll soon find out what it means to wish you were dead!"
Su Ying also left her with a threat before following Shi Feifei out.
"Tch!"
Liu Ling'er naturally didn't see them out. She rolled her eyes, then sat cross-legged on the bed again.
Fragrance Palace.
After leaving the Heartwarming Pavilion, Su Ying invited Shi Feifei and Nanny Xu to her own bedchamber.
"She's intolerable! Principal Consort, that wretch has lost all sense of herself. She's so arrogant she doesn't even know her own surname!"
Su Ying said furiously, "It's one thing for her to show me no respect, but she even dared hit Nanny Xu. We should ask the king to punish her!"
"Consort Su, have you considered why she could hit you and even hit Nanny Xu when she's only in the Spirit Guiding Realm?"
Shi Feifei picked up a cup of tea and took a small sip.
"This..."
Su Ying froze, then her eyes widened. "I was so angry just now that I didn't think of that! You're right. She only started cultivating recently, and her cultivation is only at the Spirit Guiding Realm, while I'm in the Purple Mansion Realm..."
"I wasn't careless just now."
Nanny Xu continued, "I was on guard when she slapped me across the face. She struck extremely fast. Even though I tried to dodge, I couldn't get out of the way."
"Consort Su, do you know what that means?"
Shi Feifei asked again.
"What?"
Su Ying knitted her brows.
"It means her strength is not only far greater than yours, but also considerably greater than Nanny Xu's!"
Shi Feifei said.
"How is that possible?"
Su Ying was deeply doubtful. "She was sold to our family when she was little and was always my personal maid. She never cultivated at all before entering the palace! Besides, even if she had started cultivating as a child, how could she possibly have reached such a high realm?"
"Who knows!"
Shi Feifei was just as full of questions.
"So what if she really did suddenly become an expert?"
Su Ying gritted her teeth. "She's a little stronger than Nanny Xu, so she's at most in the high stage of the Martial Emperor Realm. She can't possibly be a Martial Thearch or a Quasi-God! The Grand Commander's residence has no shortage of Martial Emperor experts, and it has Martial Thearch experts too. The Lingxi Royal Clan even has several Quasi-Gods. Are we really going to let her ride roughshod over us?"
"Of course not!"
Shi Feifei nodded and added, "The king probably doesn't know she's reached her current realm, and she doesn't seem inclined to tell him herself. So we can't complain to the king. Once he learns of her strength, he'll surely see her in a different light!"
"You're right, Principal Consort!"
Only then did Su Ying realize that the deathsworn her father had brought into the palace had most likely been killed by Liu Ling'er herself!
She couldn't blame herself or her father for that. After all, no one could have imagined this would happen.
If a true expert were sent into the palace and discovered, not only would losing an expert deathsworn be a terrible waste, but it might also truly anger the king. So her father had only brought a deathsworn in the Body Tempering Realm. In any case, there were plenty of deathsworn like that.
"After she gives birth, she'll be very weak for a time. There will still be time to strike then."
Shi Feifei's expression turned sinister as she said, "As long as nothing happens to the child, the king probably won't look too deeply into it."
Time passed quickly, and another five or six days went by in the blink of an eye.
Liu Ling'er worked hard to grow accustomed to her current realm and strength.
For her, the greatest weakness was that she had cultivated for too short a time!
She hadn't experienced what many realms were actually like.
If she faced a powerful enemy at the same level, she thought she would most likely lose!
Deep winter had arrived, and snow fell thick and fast!
Late one night.
In the rear courtyard of an ancestral god temple in Chishui Royal City, Hong San sat cross-legged in a cold hall.
The hall wasn't particularly large. It was built from special stone, and an ancient, unadorned air emanated from it inside and out.
The four walls inside the hall, as well as the floor and domed ceiling, were covered in densely packed, intricate patterns.
Mysterious ripples of light flowed across them from time to time. They were clearly exerting a powerful force unknown to others.
In the center of the hall stood an old well!
An oval well cover shaped like a turtle's shell sealed its opening. Occasionally, wisps of Devil Qi escaped through the gap between the cover and the well mouth.
Faint, strange cries could also be heard.
This well was the Devil-Sealing Well!
Countless devils were sealed beneath it, including many Thearch-level and Quasi-God-level experts of the Devil Race. Legend had it that there was even a God-level great devil!
There was more than one Devil-Sealing Well; this was only one of them.
Each Devil-Sealing Well was guarded by at least one Quasi-God expert, who took turns standing watch.
Now that the Devil Race had launched a large-scale invasion, the Quasi-God experts of the Chishui Kingdom who normally guarded this Devil-Sealing Well had all gone to the Lingxi Kingdom. The king of Chishui had no choice but to order Hong San to stay here for a while.
Hong San sat steadily, his expression at ease.
Suddenly, his white brows knitted together, and his eyes, which shone with bursts of light, turned toward the hall's heavy stone door!
His divine sense had detected the presence of a Devil Race expert!