Pain.
The pain coming from her limbs was not like shattered bones and tendons. It was more like the surface of her skin had been burned, an intense, searing ache. Her consciousness gradually returned. Her vision was half-dark and half-clear as clamorous shouts poured into her ears.
“Silver Wolf! Bite her to death! Kill her, and our Black Tortoise Kingdom will no longer bear this humiliation!”
“Hahahaha! The Eldest Miss of the Feng Clan truly is a complete good-for-nothing. She cannot even tame a Second-Rank Silver Wolf.”
“Hmph, she is truly worlds apart from the Second Young Miss of the Feng Clan, Feng Xiaoxiao. Although Feng Xiaoxiao is from the collateral branch, she possesses the Phoenix Divine Bone and has a calm, dignified, pure, and flawless character. But this good-for-nothing is simply a disgrace to the family.”
“If she cannot tame a Second-Rank Silver Wolf, she might as well die.”
“Hahahahaha.”
The malicious insults surrounding her gradually became clearer in Feng Luan’s ears. As she listened to those unfamiliar words, sorrow and inferiority welled up from the depths of her mind.
What was this?
Hadn’t she jumped off a cliff?
Even if one possessed vitality, falling into a Ten-Thousand-Zhang Abyss would still leave one crushed to pieces. Even a great immortal could only turn her into a comatose person. Yet just now, Feng Luan had clearly felt that the Internal Injuries within her body had disappeared, and the shattered bones in her other hand were also perfectly intact and moving freely.
What had happened?
Her consciousness continued to recover. Her vision was still flickering between darkness and clarity. Occasionally, she could make out the surrounding people, who seemed to have formed a circle. She could vaguely tell that she was currently on a caged arena.
A snowy white expanse lay directly before her.
It was not human.
Before Feng Luan had a chance to recover, a snow-white blur flashed past. Everyone beside the arena instinctively held their breath.
Seeing the nearly two-meter-tall Silver Wolf in the Cage Arena pounce at the qingyi girl whose body was covered in wounds, the younger spectators could not bear to watch and hurriedly covered their eyes.
“Crown prince, why don’t we forget it? Since elder sister cannot subdue this Silver Wolf, I will find another, gentler spirit beast for her another day.”
In a private room on the teahouse’s upper floor sat a man and a woman. Their positions allowed them to see everything below: the person and wolf inside the Cage Arena.
The speaker was a girl dressed in white. Her long, straight black hair reached her waist and was gathered with a milky white jade hairpin, while the remaining strands cascaded down like splashed ink. Her fair skin gleamed like jade, her brows were slender, and her dark eyes were clear. Her entire person appeared incomparably cool and detached, with an otherworldly air.
This person was Feng Xiaoxiao of the collateral branch of the feng family.
The man beside her wore a deep purple long robe. His brows and eyes were handsome, his facial lines clean and sharp, and his lips pressed into a straight line, exuding an arrogant bearing. His clear, cold amber eyes stared at the beautiful figure below as he answered indifferently, “Xiaoxiao, you are too kind. She is merely a good-for-nothing. Why should you trouble yourself to curry favor with her?”
Curry favor? She had found this Silver Wolf precisely to eliminate that good-for-nothing. Although it appeared to be a Second-Rank Silver Wolf on the surface, she had used a treasure to conceal its true strength.
In reality, it was a fifth-rank silver wolf!
Feng Xiaoxiao concealed the viciousness in her eyes. When she raised her gaze again, her pupils were clear as ever. She spoke with a hint of reluctance, “crown prince, that may be true, but she is still Xiaoxiao’s elder sister.”
Ye Chen sneered lightly. “Xiaoxiao, she is merely the daughter of your late uncle. How can you call her elder sister?”
“All right, Xiaoxiao, just relax. I will not easily take her life, after all, our marriage engagement has yet to be dissolved. I truly do not know what imperial father is thinking. I have brought up the broken engagement with him many times, but he always avoids the subject! Now, the entire Black Tortoise Kingdom treats me as a laughingstock!”
Seeing Ye Chen grow angry, Feng Xiaoxiao extended her slender jade hand and gently placed it on the back of his hand. She said understandingly, “crown prince, please calm down. Perhaps His Majesty has his difficulties?”
Ye Chen grasped Feng Xiaoxiao’s hand and brought it to his lips, kissing it carefully and gently. He raised his eyes to look at her. Her face flushed bashfully, pleasing him greatly. “No matter what difficulties imperial father has, in my heart, you are the only candidate for Crown Princess.”
Feng Xiaoxiao lowered her eyes, concealing her disgust, and acted bashful. “Highness...”
With the Black Tortoise Kingdom’s Number One Beauty sitting beside him, how could Ye Chen restrain himself? In the eyes of outsiders, she was usually as cool and detached as could be, yet in places where no one else could see, she was equally alluring. Moreover, Feng Xiaoxiao was a genius who possessed the Phoenix Divine Bone. Her willingness to lower herself before him gave his vanity immense satisfaction.
On the Cage Arena.
Although Feng Luan’s vision was still half-dark and half-clear, preventing her from seeing the situation clearly, her usual vigilance allowed her to detect a faint sound of wind.
Something was flying toward her.
Feng Luan tried to see whether she could circulate the spiritual power within her body, only to discover that the Golden Core, which should have contained spiritual power, was completely dim. This was not a sign of spiritual power depletion. Rather, this body itself was an untrainable good-for-nothing!
Absurd!
She, Feng Luan, had been the Number-One Prodigy of an Ancient Martial aristocratic family, reaching the great perfection of the spirit venerable realm at the age of twenty-one. Yet now she had become a good-for-nothing.
Could it be that her Internal Injuries had caused her cultivation to regress completely?
Unfortunately, the current situation gave her no time to investigate. The object flying toward her was getting closer and closer. Fortunately, the bones in her hand and the Internal Injuries in her body had recovered. As the bloodstained hem of her skirt fluttered lightly, she leaped into the air and flipped upward, then reached out by instinct and caught the unknown object attacking her.
It was furry.
The Silver Wolf possessed spirituality. Its desperate strike had been caught with ease by a girl without spiritual power. Its firefly-like green eyes revealed terror as its enormous body was flung by the petite girl into the Cage Arena’s bars, producing a violent crash.
The spectators, who had initially worn expressions of excitement and agitation, were all stunned. Some rubbed their eyes, gazing at the scene before them in disbelief.
That black tortoise kingdom’s number one good-for-nothing...
had actually flung a Second-Rank Silver Wolf away without using spiritual power!
The entire arena fell silent.
This caused Ye Chen, whose hand had just slipped beneath Feng Xiaoxiao’s robes, to pause mid-motion. The impact had been quite loud, so why was there no cheering from below? Instead, it had become completely silent.
Feng Xiaoxiao sat upright beside him, her fingers beneath her sleeve gripping the edge of the chair until they turned faintly white. Seeing him pause, she gave an almost imperceptible sigh, then raised her head and asked coyly, “crown prince, what is wrong?”
Seeing the shock on Ye Chen’s face, she followed his gaze toward the window and saw Feng Luan standing safely in the very center of the Cage Arena, where she should have been smashed into a puddle of bloody flesh by the Silver Wolf. Meanwhile, the fifth-rank silver wolf had been thrown against the edge of the Cage Arena.
It lay on the ground, completely motionless.
A breeze stirred. The girl stood tall on the arena, her delicate body clad in a Qingyi stained with blood. She had originally been timid and weak by nature, but at this moment she radiated dazzling light that inspired awe.
Feng Luan breathed faintly. Her body was simply too weak. A single, straightforward killing move had nearly cost her half her life.
The darkness before her eyes faded. Faced with the intense light, Feng Luan instinctively closed her eyes. After taking a moment to adjust, she opened them again and discovered that she was standing in the center of the Cage Arena. The surrounding buildings and crowd were all unfamiliar. Her gaze finally fell upon the enormous, furry Tuanzi that had pounced at her earlier.
Before she could think about why she was here, what happened next left Feng Luan even more bewildered.
✦✦✦