Luoxue: Sun and moon shine together, I command destiny!
Qi Zhaoyue instinctively stroked her lower abdomen, feeling the burning heat within.
At that moment.
If someone could see through Qi Zhaoyue's long red phoenix dress and glimpse her flawless body.
They would clearly see...
Qi Zhaoyue's lower abdomen, which should have been fair and flat, now bulged slightly.
"Luoxue..."
Qi Zhaoyue looked straight into Ye Luoxue's eyes.
"Haven't you always wondered why my cultivation advanced so rapidly over these past ten years?"
"Your Highness?"
At Qi Zhaoyue's words, Ye Luoxue abruptly raised her head, a flicker of surprise and confusion crossing her bright eyes, which had remained cold and still for years.
This question had indeed puzzled her...
After all, ten years ago, when Qi Zhaoyue had saved her on that night of swirling snow.
She had been at the seventh realm, Golden Core, and so had Qi Zhaoyue.
Yet in just ten years, Qi Zhaoyue had advanced unstoppably, crossing a path that ordinary people needed centuries, or perhaps an entire lifetime, to traverse, and forcefully ascending to the Eleventh-Realm Celestial Person.
She had become the youngest Celestial Person Realm expert in the Great Yu Dynasty's history.
By contrast, she herself was only an Eighth Realm Nascent Soul.
It simply defied reason.
Even with Qi Zhaoyue's unparalleled talent and innate sword heart, it should never have been possible.
Over the years, Ye Luoxue had wanted to ask countless times, yet she had never spoken up.
She knew Her Highness had her own secrets, and as a subordinate, she only needed to obey, not pry.
"Luoxue, I can tell you this secret."
Qi Zhaoyue continued, "I can also let your cultivation improve rapidly in a short time, just like mine."
"Ten years at most..."
"You, too, can enter the Celestial Person Realm!"
"And in the future, you could even reach greater heights!"
In an instant, Ye Luoxue's breath caught sharply. "The... Celestial Person Realm? Reach... greater heights in the future!"
Ye Luoxue did not dare imagine those greater heights.
After all, the Celestial Person Realm alone was a height countless cultivators could never reach in their entire lives!
She was only thirty-five this year. Having reached the Eighth Realm Nascent Soul at this age and gained a lifespan of five hundred years, she was already hailed as a once-in-a-century genius.
Yet a despair-inducing chasm still separated her from the Eleventh-Realm Celestial Person.
Ye Luoxue could not even be certain whether she would ever truly enter the Celestial Person Realm.
For a moment, despite having killed countless people on the battlefield, Ye Luoxue still bit her red lip nervously.
"Your Highness, is that true?"
"It is!"
"But..."
Qi Zhaoyue paused, then said solemnly, stressing each word, "Luoxue, I need you to enter into a Heavenly Dao Oath with me."
"You must not reveal even the slightest detail of this to anyone, or the Heavenly Dao's backlash will annihilate your soul."
"Also, the process of 'cultivation' will require you, Luoxue, to pay an additional price."
"This price..."
"Is not a heavy one, but it will go beyond your imagination."
"Luoxue, are you willing to pay that price?"
Without the slightest hesitation, Ye Luoxue dropped to one knee again and cupped her hands, pressing her forehead firmly against their backs as she spoke in a resolute voice.
"This subordinate has long regarded Your Highness as family as well. So long as I can help Your Highness, I will not hesitate even to give my life!"
At Ye Luoxue's answer, a flicker of emotion crossed Qi Zhaoyue's eyes.
She sighed softly, but a moment later, uncertainty no longer clouded her gaze.
"Luoxue." She reached out and helped Ye Luoxue up again. "It isn't that I don't trust you. This matter simply has far-reaching consequences."
"This subordinate understands."
Ye Luoxue nodded in understanding.
After all, no amount of caution was excessive for something involving a breakthrough to the Eleventh-Realm Celestial Person.
Qi Zhaoyue smiled, a rare sight, her smile beautiful enough to topple cities and kingdoms.
"Luoxue, come see me tonight after the midnight hour."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Soon, Ye Luoxue left, and silence returned to the study.
Qi Zhaoyue walked to the bookshelf and reached out to take down a yellowed ancient book, but just then...
A shrill voice suddenly rang out beyond the door. "His Majesty has issued a decree! Your Highness, Eldest Princess Qi Zhaoyue, please come out to receive it-!"
"The authority to establish my own residence and sect?"
Qi Zhaoyue narrowed her bright eyes slightly and murmured with a cold laugh.
"Imperial Father, who says daughters are born inferior to sons? Who says a hen crowing at dawn brings misfortune upon the nation?"
Sunlight spilled through the window lattice onto Qi Zhaoyue. Her red dress was like blood, and her shadow stretched long, its silhouette upright and proud.
"In the Great Yu Dynasty's thirty thousand years and more, there has never been an empress."
"If this is destiny, and destiny cannot be defied!"
"Then I..."
Qi Zhaoyue raised her hands.
A golden sun slowly rose from her left palm, radiating scorching, dazzling light;
In her right palm, a silver moon quietly appeared, flowing with cool, gentle moonlight.
Two entirely different powers, one gold and one silver, shone upon each other in her palms, wondrous and magnificent.
"Will become the heavens above!"
Qi Zhaoyue abruptly clenched both fists, gripping the sun and moon tightly in her palms.
The golden sunlight and silver moonlight instantly shattered into specks of starry sand, vanishing on the wind through the gaps between her fingers.
Whoosh-!
With a sweep of her sleeves, Qi Zhaoyue strode out of the study.
"Sun and moon shine together, I command destiny!"
That night, near the end of the midnight hour.
The study in the Eldest Princess's residence's inner courtyard.
A lone candle flickered, casting Qi Zhaoyue's shadow onto the wall, alternately bright and dim.
The bright yellow imperial decree lay on the desk, its dragon patterns particularly glaring in the candlelight.
Everything was exactly as Qi Zhaoyue had anticipated.
The emperor of Great Yu had issued a decree granting her the authority to independently establish her own residence and sect.
Yet there was not the slightest joy on Qi Zhaoyue's face.
She sat at the desk, tapping her fingers lightly against its surface with a monotonous "tap, tap, tap."
"Now that I have the official standing, the next step is to improve Ye Luoxue's cultivation while beginning to establish the Divine Maiden Sect and recruiting exceptionally gifted female disciples."
"Use Xu Changsheng to expand my power, step by step."
Qi Zhaoyue murmured to herself, "One day..."
"Mother, one day!"
With a flick of her fair fingers, Qi Zhaoyue casually tossed the imperial decree onto the floor, then carelessly stepped across it in her golden high heels as she walked to the study door.
At that moment, the midnight hour had just passed.
"Your Highness."
Qi Zhaoyue opened the door, and Ye Luoxue's crisp, respectful voice came from outside.
She had already been waiting outside for some time, still clad in that close-fitting black battle armor, a Tang-style straight saber at her waist. Her hair was secured meticulously with a hairpin, and she looked valiant and formidable, exuding a chilling killing aura.
"Let's go."
Qi Zhaoyue waved a hand, and the phantom of a huge white lotus slowly bloomed before them, its overlapping petals pure and flawless, giving off a faint, refreshing lotus fragrance.
At the lotus's center, a rotating silver-white portal quietly appeared.
Beyond the portal lay a blur of light and shadow, connected to another world.
This was the entrance to the Lotus Grotto-Heaven, a small world belonging solely to Qi Zhaoyue that she had created at the sixth realm.
However, the Lotus Grotto-Heaven had only been one meter square back then. Now, it was no smaller than a city.
"Prepare yourself..."
Qi Zhaoyue looked at Ye Luoxue. "The me you see next will overturn everything you know."
"Overturn... everything I know?"
Ye Luoxue's slender brows drew together slightly, curiosity in her eyes.