Chapter 505: Chapter 375: Confrontation—Who Is Stronger?
Ye Lingyue sighed in relief when she saw Feng Xun.
A pair of pitch-black eyes filled with discontent. If eyes could speak, Ye Lingyue would have definitely roared in anger.
"Dead Feng Xun, hurry up and take this woman away. Whoever provoked her should take responsibility."
Feng Xun, picking up on her signals from her eyes, tugged at the corner of his mouth with good temper.
In his gentle eyes, there flashed a ripple of liu li color, which momentarily dazzled Ye Lingyue.
He had come to seek Master Hong Ru; the two had played a game of chess and exchanged some words. Just as Master Hong Ru placed his final piece, he requested Xue Pianran to call Ye Lingyue over.
He probably wanted to personally see what kind of person Ye Lingyue was—the one who, in the span of a year, had disastrously defeated the Xue Pianran he had trained for over a decade.
Feng Xun took Xue Pianran away, as to what he and Xue Pianran discussed, Ye Lingyue didn’t know, nor did she want to know.
At this moment, her mind was occupied by another person, someone she had long forgotten.
Master Hong Ru, the Dan Palace’s Palace Master, the first Alchemist of Beiqing, Chen Hongru.
Only moments before had Ye Lingyue remembered the origins of this so-called Palace Master of Dan Palace, Master Hong Ru.
She had always found Master Hong Ru’s name familiar and had muttered it several times, finally realizing this was none other than Chen Hongru mentioned by Ancestor Ye Wuming of the Ye Family.
Chen Hongru, a renowned figure of equal fame to Ancestor Ye Wuming from Beiqing and once famed in the World’s First Refining Competition, was actually still alive.
The words of Ancestor Ye Wuming before he disappeared still haunted her.
"If one day you meet Chen Hongru, you must avenge your Ancestor."
At that time, Ye Lingyue didn’t think she would ever encounter a five-hundred-year-old zombie like Chen Hongru and casually agreed, but did she really agree?
Ye Lingyue was at a loss for words.
After entering the depths of Dan Palace, she merely met an eunuch who told her that the Palace Master was at the Observatory.
Ye Lingyue vaguely remembered Housekeeper Mu from Feng Residence mentioning that, unlike in Daxia, the Alchemists of Beiqing could not only practice Alchemy and Artifact Refining but could also harness Star Power.
Star Power allows one to observe the astronomy above and the geography below, and even to know past events and predict the limitless future.
At the Observatory, where there were many steps, it seemed to Ye Lingyue to have twice as many as the thousand steps in Taiyi Secret Realm.
The higher she went, the darker her surroundings became. The lonely night sky gradually revealed its scattered stars as if someone was lighting them one by one from behind the curtains.
In the sky, there appeared nine distinctive stars, especially bright.
Chen Hongru was standing on such an observatory.
Dressed in long robes that could not be discerned as either black, white, or gray Alchemist Robe, whose rustling in the high platform’s night wind evoked a sense of chilling loftiness.
In front of him was a half-played chess game.
With black and white pieces firmly occupying their sides, Ye Lingyue, lackluster in chess skills, couldn’t discern the progress of the game.
"Are you Daxia’s Ye Lingyue?"
The man’s voice, resembling that of crows perched on old dry vines or the chilling icy water in winter.
Before Ye Lingyue could answer, suddenly, a pair of eyes intruded into her mind.
Those eyes, with the momentum of overturning seas and rivers, instantly penetrated her spirit, reaching into the depths.
Unconsciously, the sky had changed.
It was still a black night sky splashed with ink, usually full of stars, yet suddenly all disappeared, leaving only the nine stars Ye Lingyue had seen on her way up, emitting a cold and enchanting light.
On the observatory, a flash of light twinkled, and a star suddenly brightened, engulfing Ye Lingyue in its starlight.
With a chill in her heart, by the time Ye Lingyue realized it, she was already in a nebulous, ethereal state, as if her spirit was firmly captured.
"In the depths of her soul, a new strength emerged."
It was not her spiritual power.
Ye Lingyue’s heart trembled uncontrollably, realizing that her soul seemed to be utterly exposed to invasion.
From being abandoned as an infant, to being considered a fool for over a decade, and then her arrival in Xia Capital, all her memories were thoroughly scrutinized.
Chen Hongru, the renowned first Alchemist of Beiqing, directly employed his spiritual power to probe into Ye Lingyue’s soul.
His suspicions grew, especially after seeing the Five-Colored Reincarnation Elixir.
A young Alchemist under fifteen who had defied the heavens to refine such an elixir,
If it was said that previously in Daxia, the consecutive success in creating Reincarnation Elixir and the Elixir Candle Dragon were all coincidences, this time, the emergence of the Five-Colored Reincarnation Elixir made Chen Hongru truly acknowledge that after five hundred years, Daxia has produced another genius Alchemist comparable to Ye Wuming.
He was eager to find out if there was any connection between Ye Lingyue and Ye Wuming.
If he found any trace of connection between her and Ye Wuming in Ye Lingyue’s soul, he would ensure that this woman before him would vanish into oblivion, never to recover.
The spiritual power of the Fang Venerate Level was terrifying.
Ye Lingyue felt like an ant beneath the foot of a giant elephant.
"I must not be discovered, absolutely not."
Thinking about the existence of Hong Meng Heaven and the Qian Cauldron, the only thought in Ye Lingyue’s mind was her bottom line that must remain hidden from everyone.
Ye Lingyue clenched her fists tightly until her nails dug into her palms, tasting the flavor of blood. The cold Cauldron Breath was like a stream of Clear Spring, injecting into her soul.
"Ah~"
A sigh-like chuckle echoed uniquely through the night wind.
The figure originally under the starlight suddenly came closer, moving astonishingly fast.
During the time Chen Hongru used the Soul Searching Technique, his defenses were at their weakest.
Chen Hongru’s pupils shrank sharply under the starlight, seeing a face.
Radiant as snow, her eyes made the stars in the sky lose their color, such a lady who, though stiff in posture, smiled gently.
She was a demon, one that overturned all beings.
Her face, nearly within reach, was exquisitely peach heart-shaped.
The gentle laughter continued from beside his ear and went straight into Chen Hongru’s heart.
Having lived five hundred years, Chen Hongru’s heart had never been stirred like today...
A sharp pain on his forehead snapped him back to clarity.
In a mere moment, a dagger was just inches away from his forehead. With a shift in his divine sense, Chen Hongru rapidly dispersed it.
In the sky, the Nine Stars quickly dimmed, and the blood-red Cauldron Seal on his forehead also faded.
The Fang Venerate Level Spiritual Power Technique, the Nine Star Soul Searching Technique, was broken.
"The visitor is a guest, after climbing so many steps, I thought at least Master Hong Ru would graciously offer me a cup of tea."
The voice was quite faint, already free from the stiffness it had before.
"Serve the tea. Otherwise, it’ll seem as if my Dan Palace lacks hospitality," Chen Hongru’s voice dropped, and his figure disappeared, leaving behind a faint statement.
Shortly after, the eunuch brought up the tea.
At that moment, Ye Lingyue and Master Hong Ru were already sitting politely beside a small chessboard table, the earlier confrontation seemingly an illusion like Mirrored Flower Water Moon.