Zhu Zhuyun stared blankly at the Immortal Herb before her. Its cool, delicate fragrance seemed to possess a kind of magic, stirring even her Martial Soul into excitement!
She asked no more questions. Instead, she raised her head and looked deeply at Dai Weisi, her shimmering eyes filled with complete trust and surrender.
Then, as instructed, Zhu Zhuyun sat down cross-legged and gently placed the petals, which looked as though they had been carved from mutton-fat white jade, into her mouth.
The petals melted the moment they entered her mouth. A strange current, piercingly cold yet wonderfully warm and soothing, surged down her throat and flowed through her meridians to every part of her body.
Zhu Zhuyun let out a muffled groan. She felt the bones throughout her body give faint cracking sounds under the herb's medicinal power, as if a pair of invisible hands were reshaping and rearranging them.
It was an indescribable experience.
There was the aching, tingling pain of her muscles and bones being forcibly stretched and reshaped, but also a refreshing sense of relief, as though she were shedding her mortal body and being reborn.
At the same time, her body became lighter than ever before. Every inch of skin and every meridian felt as though it had been washed clean by the purest spiritual Qi of heaven and earth.
Driven by the medicinal power, the Soul Power within her surged wildly like a flood through opened gates, breaking through the barriers of level forty-eight and level forty-nine before finally crashing hard against the threshold of level fifty!
Level fifty!
Zhu Zhuyun's eyes snapped open, and a sharp light flashed through them.
She lowered her head to look at her hands. Her skin had become smoother and fairer, with a faint, jade-like luster flowing over it.
She could clearly feel that her body's flexibility had reached an incredible degree. She could even easily perform any movement that defied the body's natural limits!
More importantly, she finally understood.
"So that's how it was..."
She murmured to herself, her voice tinged with realization, resentment, and lingering fear.
"I knew it. Zhu Zhuqing... how could her Soul Power have risen so quickly? And her body, her attacks..."
"So... so that was it!"
If not for Dai Weisi, she might never have understood where she had lost, even on her deathbed.
Dai Weisi looked at the completely renewed presence about her and nodded in satisfaction.
"Good. Although your Soul Power has reached level fifty, I'm afraid obtaining a Soul Ring will have to wait."
"Wait?"
Her newly surging confidence had left Zhu Zhuyun somewhat impatient.
"Of course I know."
Dai Weisi reassured her.
"But we don't have enough time. The Soul Beasts kept in the Star Dou Royal Soul Hunting Forest are only a few thousand years old at most. They're nowhere near worthy of you after the Immortal Herb transformed you."
"And a round trip to the depths of the Star Dou Great Forest would take too long."
His gaze sharpened, and his voice grew grave. "Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing must be returning soon. Within seven days, this battle will be unavoidable."
At the mention of Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing, Zhu Zhuyun's newly kindled fighting spirit instantly gave way to composure.
She nodded, then recalled something else and knitted her delicate brows slightly.
"Weisi, when I was with the Zhu Family, I heard my father and second uncle mention something. Prince Cheng, Dai Tianfeng, and quite a few ministers at court seem to be very much against you."
"Could they... use some kind of scheme against us before we face them in battle?"
"Schemes?"
Dai Weisi gave a disdainful snort.
He walked to the window and gazed at the towering buildings of the imperial palace, his voice imperious.
"Zhu Yun, remember this: in my Star Luo Empire, political maneuvering is merely embroidery on brocade. The true foundation will always be strength."
"Dai Tianfeng's little tricks are nothing but the antics of a clown before absolute power. They're not worth mentioning."
He turned around and fixed Zhu Zhuyun with a burning gaze.
"You may not know just how brazen I was at court today."
"Because I wanted those fence-sitters to see clearly who the future emperor really is!"
"Think about your father, Zhu Xiaotian. One moment he was ready to treat you as a discarded pawn; why was he as respectful as a dog the next? Because he understood that the so-called 'prevailing tide' isn't worth mentioning before the man I am now!"
"We don't need to concern ourselves with anything else now."
Dai Weisi walked over to the bed and sat down again.
"If they want to scheme, let them. We only need to do one thing-keep growing stronger!"
As his words fell, he turned his palm over, and a presence far more overbearing and violent than that of the Narcissus Jade Muscle Bone instantly filled the entire bedchamber.
It was a right palm bone, an eerie dark gold throughout and covered in mysterious patterns. Its five finger bones were sharp as blades, and the middle three were each more than a foot long. The cold light flashing along them seemed capable of tearing a person's soul apart!
The right palm bone of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear!
Just looking at it, Zhu Zhuyun felt a shiver rise from the depths of her soul.
"This is..."
"An External Soul Bone!"
Dai Weisi offered no further explanation. He merely gave her a reassuring look, then sat cross-legged and pressed the dark-gold Soul Bone against his right palm.
"Buzz-"
The instant the Soul Bone touched his arm, a terrifying storm of energy erupted with Dai Weisi at its center!
"Roar!"
A furious bear's roar shook heaven and earth, resounding directly in Dai Weisi's Sea of Consciousness as though it had crossed time and space.
It was the phantom of a colossal bear that stood between heaven and earth. Its dark-gold fur bristled like steel needles, and its blood-red eyes were filled with a will to destroy and brutalize.
It was the will left behind by the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear after its death!
Unwilling to let a puny human claim its power, it sought to tear Dai Weisi's soul to pieces!
Beads of sweat as large as beans rolled down Dai Weisi's forehead, and the muscles all over his body spasmed violently.
The agonizing pain was far beyond anything he had suffered when absorbing the Golden Hawksbill Turtle Torso Bone.
If the last time had been like having his flesh forcibly stretched apart, this time it felt as though his entire right palm, along with his soul, would be ground to dust by that violent power!
"Weisi!"
Zhu Zhuyun cried out in alarm and instinctively tried to rush forward, only to be pushed back by an invisible wave of force.
She could only watch helplessly as Dai Weisi struggled in pain, his handsome face twisted with agony and veins bulging like coiled dragons on his neck and arms.
"A mere beast's remnant soul dares to behave so presumptuously before this prince!"
Just as Zhu Zhuyun's heart was burning with anxiety, Dai Weisi's eyes snapped open, and a supremely majestic, domineering light burst from his golden pupils.
The phantom of his Holy White Tiger Martial Soul soared into the sky behind him and unleashed a tiger's roar that cowed all beasts!
The might of a king could not be challenged!
The white tiger phantom lunged at the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's phantom, bit the giant bear's head to pieces, and devoured it completely!
Outside, the violent presence surrounding the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear Right Palm Bone abruptly vanished, transforming into the purest energy and merging obediently into Dai Weisi's right palm.
"Phew..."
Dai Weisi let out a long breath of turbid air and slowly opened his eyes.
The pain was gone, replaced by a strength greater than any he had known before!
Besides his Soul Power rising directly to level sixty, he could also feel an incomparably sharp power concealed within his right palm.
Meanwhile, at Prince Cheng's residence.
In the study, precious porcelain lay smashed across the floor, and the atmosphere was as oppressive as the sea before a storm.
Prince Cheng, Dai Tianfeng, had a face as black as the bottom of a pot, and his chest heaved violently. Clearly, he was furious to the extreme.
"Useless! A bunch of useless fools!"
He pointed at the ministers before him, who were as silent as cicadas in winter, and roared.
"Didn't you swear that Dai Weisi had suffered a crushing defeat, that his spirit was broken and he was full of fear, and that no one at court supported him? Didn't you say he'd surrender without a fight as soon as His Majesty put a little pressure on him?"
"And now! What happened now?!"
The ministers looked at one another, none daring to speak first.
Everything that had happened at court today had thrown all their arrangements into complete disarray.
Who could have imagined that the eldest prince would dare flip the table right in front of the emperor and the entire court!
More frightening still, after flipping the table, the strength and mystery he revealed had even made the emperor acquiesce!
"Please calm your anger, Your Highness..."
A slightly plump minister spoke up in a trembling voice.
"No one... no one expected His Highness the eldest prince to... to have hidden himself so deeply, or that he would have a Titled Douluo helping him..."
"What use is saying that now?!"
Dai Tianfeng kicked over the chair beside him.
"And that old bastard Zhu Xiaotian is a scoundrel who turns with the wind! My people just sent word that, over at the grand marshal's residence, he turned right around and welcomed Dai Weisi as though he were the crown prince!"
A deathly silence fell over the study.
Indeed, Dai Weisi's move had caught them off guard.
Now the eldest prince had returned in force, with a Titled Douluo backing him, and his final showdown with Dai Mubai was close at hand.
Once he won... the fate of everyone present would go without saying.
"Your Highness, I think... I think His Highness the eldest prince is determined to win this time. Should we... should we make other plans?"
"There's surely still time!"