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The white ape’s entire body went rigid, and his hair stood on end. He watched as Su Yi gazed at them from afar.
“The Pomegranate Flame Monarch?” asked Su Yi.
“Fellow Daoist, you recognize me?” The woman on the ape’s shoulders calmed her nerves. Her lips were red, her teeth were pearly white, and her features were delicate and beautiful. Even dressed like a man, she looked like a graceful young beauty.
Ordinarily speaking, those who saw her would never guess she was the Pomegranate Flame Monarch, the high elder of the Hiddensky Sect.
“Back in the Great Zhou, at Dragonbridge Station, I once slew a wisp of your soul hidden within a black civet. I naturally remember your aura,” said Su Yi. He descended, then approached, walking across the waves.
As he drew near, the ninety-foot ape’s hair stood on end. He was instantly on guard, as if a mighty foe were fast approaching.
The woman gently patted his head and whispered, “Don’t be afraid.”
She then glanced at the slowly approaching Su Yi. “Fellow Daoist, do you plan to keep me here too?”
Su Yi shook his head. “I simply don’t understand. I heard that you’d already returned to the Great Xia, so why are you here now?”
“That’s right! Didn’t Lu Yun say you’d already gone back to the Great Xia?” Hua Xinfeng rushed over from afar.
Her beautiful eyes bore into the Pomegranate Flame Monarch, without even the slightest trace of fear. No, if anything, her tone carried a hint of questioning.
Su Yi couldn’t help but glance at Hua Xinfeng.
Earlier, outside of the Dongfu Prefectural Capital, at Celestial Waters Mountain Villa, Hua Xinfeng once displayed the command token of the Pomegranate Flame Monarch’s second disciple, Lu Yun. This was how she’d gotten them into the banquet.
At the time, Su Yi asked her if she was worried that the Pomegranate Flame Monarch would find out and try to get even with her.
However, Hua Xinfeng didn’t seem the least bit concerned. She said that the Pomegranate Flame Monarch had already returned to the Great Xia.
Now, it seemed obvious that something was amiss.
The Pomegranate Flame Monarch examined Hua Xinfeng from the shoulders of the great ape. Suddenly, she seemed to realize something. She shot to her feet, then leaped from the ape’s shoulder, the corners of her lips arching upward as she laughed, “Young Mistress, your art of transformation is truly miraculous. Even I didn’t recognize you right away.”
Young mistress? Su Yi mulled that over. It seems this is getting more and more interesting.
Hua Xinfeng glanced at him and sighed. “If I weren’t worried that Young Lord Su would misunderstand, I naturally wouldn’t reveal myself in front of you.”
As she spoke, she looked up, and her glittering eyes met Su Yi’s gaze. She said sheepishly, “Young Lord Su, it’s not that I was trying to hide this from you. I just didn’t think we’d encounter the Pomegranate Flame Monarch on this expedition. That’s why I used Lu Yun’s command token to get us into that banquet. Who’d have guessed that the Pomegranate Flame Monarch never really left
?”
Her voice carried threads of helplessness and irritation.
The Pomegranate Flame Monarch chuckled. “Young Mistress, it was Lu Yun who told you I’d returned to the Great Xia, wasn’t it? Although Lu Yun didn’t know it, I was playing a little trick on you both. My goal was to make you show yourself.”
“Despicable!” growled Hua Xinfeng.
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The Pomegranate Flame Monarch thought nothing of it. She just laughed, “Young Mistress, as I’m sure you’re well aware, I came to the Great Qin in part to search for strange occurrences and good fortune, and in part because I told your father that, when I found you, I’d bring you back home.”
Hua Xinfeng laughed coldly. “And do you think I’ll agree to go back with you?”
The Pomegranate Flame Monarch’s smile faded. After a moment’s silence, she said, “Young Mistress, it’s already been nine years since you left. In the past, I wouldn’t have minded looking the other way. I could have tolerated your stubbornness and let you do as you pleased. However, it’s different now.”
“What’s different?” Hua Xinfeng furrowed her brow.
The Pomegranate Flame Monarch said seriously, “You’ll know when you come home. If you insist on being stubborn, you’ll surely regret it for the rest of your life.”
Hua Xinfeng was briefly dazed, and her expression filled with uncertainty. After a while, she said, “You leave first. I want to have a private conversation with Young Lord Su.”
The Pomegranate Flame Monarch straightforwardly agreed, and she and the white ape left the area.
“Young Lord Su.” Hua Xinfeng lowered her pretty head, as if she dared not meet Su Yi’s gaze. “I have to leave
”
Su Yi nodded, but he found it rather funny. “Why do you look so guilty?”
Hua Xinfeng was stunned. She muttered, “Right! I have nothing to be guilty about, so why
 Why am I so apprehensive?”
“It’s fine,” said Su Yi. “Whatever it is, just say it. I told you a long time ago: my bottom line is that I cannot tolerate betrayal. The rest? I don’t care in the least.”
Hua Xinfeng sighed in apparent relief, then blinked her bright, beautiful eyes. “That’s great. And here I was worried you’d fault me for hiding my identity.”
Su Yi laughed dryly and shook his head. “Even if you were the Xia Emperor’s daughter, so what? It’s just an identity.”
Everyone had their secrets.
Hua Xinfeng had them, and so did he.
So long as she didn’t cross his bottom line, none of that mattered.
“Uh
.” Hua Xinfeng was stunned, but then, she broke into a grin, her eyes sparkling with stars as she stared directly at him. “Young Lord Su, I’ll never forget the time we spent traveling together, and I trust we’ll meet again one day.”
The young woman was all smiles.
However, Su Yi sighed. “If you weren’t in disguise, I’d be a lot happier to hear that from you.”
Hua Xinfeng was dumbstruck. “Young Lord Su, you care that much about a woman’s appearance too?”
Another man might instinctively deny it, or hurriedly explain, but Su Yi did no such thing. Without even pausing to think, he said, “Of course.”
“......” Hua Xinfeng froze, then burst into giggles. “Young Lord Su, ordinary men really can’t compare with you.”
She paused, then whispered, “Next time we meet, I’ll invite you for a drink as my true self.”
She then took out a purple jade pendant, which she passed to him. “Young Lord Su, this is my token. If you ever visit the Great Xia’s imperial capital, ‘Nine Tripod City’, no matter what you’re there to accomplish, you can take this token to Cloudmarsh Tower. There, you’ll find people to work on your behalf.”
She passed him the jade pendant, then laughed, “Of course, you can also use this jade pendant to see me again.”
Su Yi didn’t refuse it. However, when he held the pendant and examined it, a barely perceptible strange light shone in his eyes.
The jade pendant was carved with a divine bird bathed in flame, embracing both yin and yang. It had a body like a dragon, a head like a bird, and it was covered in feathers.
A dragon sparrow!
They soared throughout heaven and earth, obscuring moons and suns, devoured mountains and seas, and wielded the powers of demons and gods. They were one of the True Spirit divine birds of antiquity!
This jade pendant was actually carved with a dragon sparrow totem!
Su Yi couldn’t help but feel surprised. If the dragon sparrow jade pendant was a token of Hua Xinfeng’s family, he feared that her background wasn’t simple.
“Pomegranate Flame Monarch, we can leave,” Hua Xinfeng called into the distance.
Only then did the Pomegranate Flame Monarch draw near. She sounded gratified. “Young Mistress, you’ve finally grown up and realized what choice you ought to make.”
Hua Xinfeng pursed her lips noncommittally.
The Pomegranate Flame Monarch then turned toward Su Yi and inclined her head. “Fellow Daoist, before I go, there’s something I’m not sure I should say or not.”
Su Yi said, “Just say it directly.”
The Pomegranate Flame Monarch paused to consider her words, then said, “With your accumulations and cultivation, if you remain in the Great Zhou, you’ll be like a dragon in shallow waters. You cannot possibly realize the full extent of your ambitions there.
“Five months from now, the Great Xia shall host the Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly, and I rather hope you’ll participate. Only the Great Xia offers the opportunities you need to reach greater heights of the Grand Dao.”
“The Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly?” Su Yi recalled that the Featherflow King, Yue Shichan, had once invited him to the Great Xia to attend this very event, a grand occasion the Xia Emperor himself was hosting.
The Pomegranate Flame Monarch said softly, “If you’re interested, you’re welcome to proceed to Nine Tripods City whenever you please. I’ll personally make arrangements for everything you need. I’m sure that with your abilities, you’ll shine at the Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly.”
“Let’s leave it up to fate,” said Su Yi.
Hua Xinfeng couldn’t help but chime in, “Young Lord Su, you might not care about making a name for yourself at the Orchid Terrace Dharma Assembly, but if you obtain a Sumeru Talisman, you can proceed to Sumeru Immortal Island.”
She hesitated for a moment, then lowered her voice and said, “To the best of my knowledge, Sumeru Immortal Island hides a secret related to the Prohibition of Ancient Darkness. It would be an awful pity to miss it.”
Su Yi’s gaze focused, and he couldn’t help but take another look at Hua Xinfeng. This woman even knows some of the secrets of Sumeru Immortal Island?
She’s not simple!
Su Yi thought for a moment, then nodded. “Got it.”
“Then
 Then we’ll be on our way.” Hua Xinfeng waved farewell, then left with the Pomegranate Flame Monarch.
Su Yi watched them disappear into the endless ocean, then lowered his head and examined the dragon sparrow jade pendant a while longer. Once I have all my affairs in order, I really could visit the Great Xia.
The Great Xia was the hegemon of the Azure Continent, a place where cultivation factions flourished.
The Great Zhou, Wei, and Qin were all backwaters by comparison. They weren’t even remotely comparable to the Great Xia.
After a while, Su Yi put away the dragon sparrow pendant, turned, and faced the entrance to the ruins of the Immortals’ Sword House. He waved his sleeves.
Whoosh!
The vortex-like entryway silently disappeared without a trace, as if it had evaporated into thin air.
But with the bone seal in hand, Su Yi could still clearly sense its existence.
I can use this place for secluded cultivation later, thought Su Yi.
He then fixed his gaze on a nearby patch of water, a faint, nigh-indiscernible arc on his lips. “Even after all that, you still won’t come out?”
Ge Qian had been hiding deep within the ocean, using the Xuanwu Aura-Sealing Incantation to conceal himself this entire time. He instantly went rigid, and his heart shook. This guy
 He actually found me?
“Hey old man, hurry out! Tell me what to do!” Ge Qian was completely frantic.
He’d only just witnessed Su Yi slaying three terrifying existences, and his heart was incomparably shaken. He felt as terrified as could be.
Now that Su Yi had tracked him down, he quivered like a rabbit in the face of a vicious predator.
A long time passed, but there was no response from his sea of consciousness.
Ge Qian was stunned, then so angry, he almost cursed. That old fart! He’s usually so arrogant that he looks down even on the world’s greatest heroes! Yet now, he’s too cowardly even to speak! He’s just a turtle hiding in his shell!