“Grand Elder, if anything’s changed lately, it’s that a prodigy showed up in our realm — brilliant at both alchemy and medicine,” Situ Ming reported. “And today she even came with people from the Nether Palace and caused trouble at Starfall Hall.”
The Grand Elder of Starfall Hall went cold. He fixed Situ Ming with a hard look. “Where is she?”
“At first she was with that Nether Palace youth… then she vanished.” Situ Ming’s face drained. A wild thought ran through him and he shook his head. “No way. Elder, we activated the protective array the moment we crossed into Nether Palace territory. Feng Yuxin couldn’t have gotten in.”
The Grand Elder considered for a long moment, voice flat and cold. “She got in. If she didn’t, then someone in Starfall Hall — a traitor — colluded with her and brought the toxin inside.”
“I’ll send people to check right away.” Situ Ming was finally unnerved. If even the Grand Elder had been poisoned, who among them could be safe?
He barely reached the hall’s doorway when the hairs on his neck stood up. He felt the protective array above Starfall Hall snap. He turned back, panic choking his words. “Grand Elder—!”
The Grand Elder, who had been forcing the toxin out of his system, looked ashen. Even the motion of expelling the poison faltered; anger and alarm replaced his stoic composure. He shouted at Situ Ming, “What are you standing there for? Go see what happened to the array!”
Screamed at back into himself, Situ Ming bolted out.
The Grand Elder had no time to remain calm either. In the next instant his figure blended into the air and vanished — a blur overhead told Situ Ming where he had gone to inspect the formation.
Outside, the elders guarding the array were stunned. “What’s going on? The array was fine a moment ago — how was it broken?” one elder cried and rushed to inspect.
It was worse than they feared. The protective formation had been sabotaged thoroughly; it could not be repaired quickly. Then, as if on cue, forces from the Nether Palace erupted from every direction, many times more troops than before. No one doubted at all where the sabotage had come from.
“Alert the Hallmaster!” one elder shouted.
Before the words finished, the Grand Elder of Starfall Hall reappeared. The Hall’s senior elder recognized him instantly and breathed out as if they had found a steadiness: “Grand Elder…”
“Our array has been compromised.” The senior elder lowered his head.
“A pack of worthless fools.” The Grand Elder’s eyes swept the ruined formation. He knew it was beyond fast repair. Rage tightened his voice. “Are your heads just decorations? Has vigilance left your minds? An enemy crept in and sabotaged the array — this can’t be done in an instant — and not one of you noticed? You lot didn’t even raise an alarm?”
They all knew it was their failure. Heads hung low and they took the scolding in silence.
When the Grand Elder finished, his gaze cut toward the Nether Palace contingent. Two Grand Elders of the Nether Palace had come with them. Seeing that, the Starfall Hall Grand Elder seemed close to bursting with fury. If he weren’t still battling the poison in his body, he would have handled those two Nether Palace elders himself. But the toxin had weakened him; instead of the edge his cultivation normally gave him, he now felt it slide backward.
He couldn’t move. Yet the conflict unfolding below demanded attention.
Starfall Hall was on its own ground, and yet their forces were losing to the Nether Palace intruders. What had Starfall Hall become over the years? Heat flared in the Grand Elder’s veins until he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
One of the Nether Palace Grand Elders watched the battle from midair. When he saw the Grand Elder of Starfall Hall spit blood, he couldn’t resist a taunt. “Situ Hong, you’re bleeding before we’ve even clashed properly? When did you get so frail?”
“Silen— shut your mouth,” the Hall’s Grand Elder roared.
The two Nether Palace elders were twins: Ming Chen and Ming Xiao. Ming Chen, like his name, wore immaculate white robes — not a speck of dust — an image of serene refinement. Ming Xiao favored a black robe and a slovenly air. The twins were alike in appearance but opposite in temperament. Ming Chen offered a casual, “Seeing them fight makes me itchy for a real scrap — shall we lend a hand?” His tone suggested mischief. Ming Xiao sneered that Starfall Hall had a long history of opportunism — it was the Hall that had often taken advantage of the Nether Palace in the past.
Situ Hong didn’t know the whole history — he had been consumed by striving to restore his cultivation — but it didn’t matter. He couldn’t fight the twins now. He was forced to watch the battle inside the hall and could only endure.
With the array shattered, the situation inside Starfall Hall rapidly collapsed. Ming Zilin wasted no time hunting for Feng Yuxin’s trail.
At the moment the formation was breached, Feng Yuxin had slipped into a pocket of space and gone hidden. The fighting inside Starfall Hall was fierce; without a powerful protector at her side she’d chosen the safer route. She kept to a dead corner of that hidden space and didn’t peek out.
The cultivators in the hall were terrifyingly strong. She needed time to raise her own strength before reemerging and forcing her position in the power balance. So she remained invisible.
Ming Zilin and his searchers nearly tore the place apart looking for her. As forces from both sides poured reinforcements into the battle, he worried more and more that she might be accidentally injured.
Watching from afar, Jiu Tianhua and his companion were also stunned. Zong Zichen’s voice came out hoarse. “She… she actually breached Starfall Hall’s protective array?”
Jiu Tianhua’s eyes scanned for Feng Yuxin as well. He gave a low, approving hum. Zong Zichen was shaken: “That’s an ancient protection — an ancient array. Not a mere formation, but a defensive seal. How could she break it? What exactly is she?”
Zong Zichen was genuinely rattled. Up to now he had never heard of anyone at Feng Yuxin’s current level managing to rift an ancient protective array. Breaking such a thing burned more than spirit energy — it took endurance and will. Yet she had done it alone.
“Astonishing,” Jiu Tianhua said, and a strand of admiration flashed across his face.