Wind carrying an ancient and primordial aura struck her face. The unfamiliar scent made Xuan Yi stir slightly, opening her eyes in confusion.

What met her gaze were strips of irregular pale white and deep black fragments of divine realm earth intertwined, suspended in her field of vision like ribbons. Shao Yi’s voice came from above her head: “Awake? We’re almost there anyway.”

Having exhausted her divine power earlier made Xuan Yi feel dizzy and disoriented when she woke this time. Her vision was very unclear. She barely managed to rub her temple, her voice weak: “…Where is this?”

“Before there was a Southern Heaven Gate, when the gods frequently descended to the lower realm to play, they all walked through passages they had opened themselves. This is one of the ancient passages.”

Why did that sound so mysterious? Where had he dug up this ancient passage?

Xuan Yi focused her gaze carefully. Suddenly brightness flooded before her eyes, stabbing painfully into them, forcing her to quickly shield them with her hand. In the next instant, scorching yet pure divine realm wind surrounded them—they had actually returned to the divine realm just like that!

Shao Yi’s voice sounded calm and distant: “This passage was opened by my father in past years. Back then, I often used this route to descend to the lower realm to play.” He had paid the price of one phoenix heart feather to be transferred here—it really hadn’t been easy.

Was he talking about the current dijun of the Qingyang Clan? Wasn’t he supposed to be frail? How did he open an ancient passage then?

Xuan Yi really couldn’t figure it out. Feeling the light seemed somewhat gentler now, she lowered her hand and saw beneath her feet a massive volcano suspended above the sea of clouds. The mountain was filled with lava, and these lava fields were planted full with wood-fire parasol trees. In the deep autumn season of the divine realm, the leaves of the wood-fire parasol trees showed extremely vivid and brilliant colors.

At the tree roots, ten-thousand-year fire rocks that could only be produced in Qiongsang were being scorched by the lava into an incandescent white color.

A city of the same incandescent white was built within the massive volcanic crater. Colorful phoenixes and luan birds flew and perched casually above the city. Seeing Shao Yi approach, they affectionately wanted to draw near, but seeming to sense the cold and dark aura of the Zhuyin Dragon God, they quickly fled.

The sky here was countless times clearer than Zhongshan’s—it was the thinnest, palest shade of blue, with wisps and threads of clouds flowing and lingering romantically. So this was what it looked like above the ninth heaven—it was really so bright it made her quite displeased.

Xuan Yi covered her eyes with her sleeve and heard Shao Yi say again: “In the past, Zhuyin Clan princesses who married here all had dedicated bedchambers and eye-protecting veils. I’ll have the female immortals prepare them for you later.”

Who would marry here! Xuan Yi frowned without speaking.

The incandescent white city gradually drew near. Shao Yi landed lightly on a high platform of red jade as bright as fresh blood. Divine officials immediately came forward to pay their respects: “The Phoenix Lord has returned. The princess honors us with her presence—we pay our respects.”

Divine servants came forward to receive Xuan Yi from his hands, but Shao Yi shifted slightly: “No need. I’ll do it.”

The red jade platform had no steps at all. He leaped to the edge of the platform—below was actually a ten-thousand-zhang abyss, and the scene of Qiongsang City lay within this abyss. Vast expanses of wood-fire parasol trees, sharp and towering palaces—completely different from Zhongshan’s sprawling dominance, and also entirely different from the majestic grandeur of the Palace of Ten Thousand Gods. It had a distinctive slender and magnificent quality.

Shao Yi suddenly jumped down from the platform. His long sleeves swayed like wings as he floated lightly down toward the ten-thousand-zhang abyss. Xuan Yi was stunned for a moment before remembering that the phoenix clan of the ninth heaven all had wings and naturally didn’t care about the restrictions of divine residences.

Circling, gliding—the magnificent and spacious Qiongsang City flowed past beneath their feet. Suddenly riding the wind up to a high peak, the summit was unexpectedly covered in white snow. The snowy ground was planted full with ten-thousand-year pines commonly seen at Zhongshan. The familiar icy cold aura surrounded Xuan Yi, and a very strange feeling suddenly arose in her heart.

Shao Yi broke through the snow forest’s cloud boundary. The scenery within was almost identical to the Purple Palace, except there was no imperial mulberry tree—covering the mountains and fields were all rare and exotic flowers and plants.

“This is where my great-grandmother once lived, called Yuanzhan Hall. I imagine the palace in the Purple Palace is also called by this name?”

Shao Yi set her down before the hall. Immediately several attending female immortals emerged from within the hall in a line, bowing in salute.

“Bathe and change clothes. I’ll come again afterward.”

He turned to leave when Xuan Yi felt she really couldn’t hold back and finally spoke: “Your great-grandmother? I remember that in that generation our two clans had no marriage exchanges—rather, the two dijuns created the Sea of Lihating.”

Shao Yi turned his head, pretending to think deeply. His eyes flowing, he actually smiled slightly: “You’re right. I remembered wrong.”

What kind of answer was that! Xuan Yi said coldly: “I don’t want to bathe and change clothes. Take me to see Qing Yan and my father.”

Shao Yi said coolly: “You’re too dirty right now. I can’t stand to look at you. When you’re cleaned up, then you can go.”

Xuan Yi took a breath, then slowly exhaled, turned and walked toward the interior of Yuanzhan Hall. The attending female immortals immediately followed.

The layout inside the hall was also exactly the same as her Yuanzhan Hall at Zhongshan, except for those furnishings that looked extremely ancient—some were things from antiquity she had never seen before.

The enormous white jade bathing pool had already been filled with clear water. Xuan Yi removed her clothes and slowly walked in, staring at the simple bronze wall lamps on the walls in a daze.

It seemed the Qingyang Clan and Zhuyin Clan really had been on extremely good terms before, as Shao Yi had said. The Zhuyin Clan princess who married here even had a Purple Palace the same as the one at Zhongshan, which showed they must have been deeply in love. In that case, Zhongshan also had a place like Qiongsang City with gushing earth fire—it was Dragon Sleep Valley where Qi Nan was constantly punished to face the wall.

Zhongshan Dijun didn’t like that place and had specially sealed it off to keep her and Qing Yan from approaching. Thinking back on it now, there probably was also a cloud boundary there specially for the Qingyang Clan princess who married into Zhongshan.

If their relationship had been that good, how did they turn against each other so suddenly?

Xuan Yi carefully washed herself thoroughly clean. The female immortals brought forward shark-silk cloud gauze and various types of celestial garments, spreading them out one by one for her to choose from. They were all ancient styles she had never seen before, uniformly jet black. Which past Zhuyin Clan princess had liked such an ugly color? They had no taste at all.

She reluctantly picked for a long while. Seeing there was no choice, she could only point to one black silk robe that looked relatively acceptable. The female immortals respectfully attended her while changing clothes, combing through her damp long hair bit by bit with a golden comb, slowly combing it until half-dry, inserting the golden ring, then presenting a thin black veil to cover her eyes.

Xuan Yi felt she probably looked about a hundred thousand years older now. She had always loved beauty—even her war general’s outfit had to be dressed up nicely, but now made to look like this, she was extremely unwilling. With a gloomy expression, she walked out. Female immortals immediately followed behind, quietly inquiring: “Would the princess like some tea and refreshments?”

Her heart was preoccupied with Qing Yan and her father. She actually had no mood to eat and only waved her hand. The female immortals tactfully withdrew.

Stepping out of Yuanzhan Hall, the scenery seemed both familiar and strange. Xuan Yi slowly walked to a cluster of peonies. In her Purple Palace, this spot should have an imperial mulberry tree planted.

She leisurely plucked the rich and splendid peony petals off one by one and crushed them in her palm. After seeing Qing Yan and her father, she needed to find a way to help them escape Qiongsang City. She just didn’t know where that Qingyang Clan dijun was or what methods he would use to control the Zhuyin Clan.

Just as she was lost in thought, from the corner of her eye she glimpsed a figure breaking through the cloud boundary and entering the Purple Palace. The newcomer wore flamboyantly bright cherry-grass-colored robes that made his face seem jade-like, his soul-seizing, bewitching handsomeness as strong as liquor—it was precisely Shao Yi. Only he could wear these bright and vivid colors so lifelike.

He raised his eyebrows with a smile, sizing up Xuan Yi. Walking close, he suddenly crouched down, plucking away the hem of her soft silk skirt that had caught on the peony branches. Looking up, he said gently: “Though I’ve never seen my great-grandmother, her appearance in this icy, snowy land back then was probably much like yours.”

Xuan Yi was silent for a moment, then suddenly said: “Who exactly are you?”

She didn’t believe he was merely a fifty-thousand-year-old Phoenix Lord of the Qingyang Clan. What he said, what he did, exceeded far too many limitations. There was an even stronger sense of incongruity—he couldn’t be measured by common reasoning.

Shao Yi rose with a smile, taking her hand and walking toward the outside of the cloud boundary: “Since you’re so clever, why not guess for yourself?”