Huang Dragon's Imperial Palace. The private royal courtyard.
In the massively spacious and beautiful courtyard were three beautiful youths.
The long silver hair girl calmly sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed was the vampire princess Amber.
The other two youths with extraordinary appearances and presence were, of course, Cain and Kali.
The Dragon siblings stood at an equal distance apart from each other.
Cain had his right hand stretched out, the tips of his fingers glowing with a shiny blue Spirit energy glow.
The tips of Cain's finger were shooting out multiple tendrils of Spirit energy.
These tendrils of Spirit energy had a unique appearance. They were all incredibly thin to the point of looking fragile.
If one didn't think too much about it, the Spirit energy tendrils would resemble multiple spider webs.
This was Cain's Spirit Web Art!
The Spirit used to penetrate into a person's defenses, causing their energy revolvement and bodily muscles to move significantly slower.
Cain was now using the Spirit Web Art to coil up Kali in a tight hold.
As this was an experiment, Cain wasn't utilizing his full Spirit energy force. But the power behind the Spirit Web Art would still be dangerous to any Sacred Sage warrior.
Cain's Spirit energy has always been perfectly fused with his Qi energy. So naturally, the stronger his Martial cultivation, the greater his Spirit energy prowess.
He simply didn't even need to reach a higher class level to achieve heaven-defying combat prowess.
At this time, Kali calmly stood still while the Spirit Web's tendrils coiled around her body. Spirit energy penetrated into her body as she didn't have her defenses fully up.
The fact that Spirit energy can penetrate her natural defenses is a feat on its own.
Even without using her energy reserves, Kali's natural defenses would be enough to easily tank any Early Stage Sacred Sage expert.
But these Spirit energy tendrils bypassed such defense with absolute ease.
Lights of blue Spirit energy emerged at sporadic points in Kali's internal body and her dantian space. Each light unleashed even more Spirit energy which caused one major effect for Kali.
That is, Kali genuinely felt slower in all aspects!
Just moving her eyes felt incredibly sluggish. And wanting to revolve her energy reserves felt as if she was pulling her soul through trudges of potent quicksand.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThis is why Kali chose to stand still like a statue to access the situation.
As time slowly passed, Kali couldn't help but feel complex about the Spirit Web Art and Spirit energy in general.
She always felt a natural disposition to not care about Spirit energy even though she is a World Spirit Master herself. She simply didn't think it could match up to the wide variety of Martial cultivation combat prowess.
But this Spirit Web Art challenged her thinking.
If Cain were to grow his Spirit energy, just what kind of level would the Spirit Web Art reach?
Moreover, just what other kinds of fantastical Spirit Arts exist out there that can directly challenge Martial cultivators?
An indignant feeling arose from Kali's soul. She had no choice but to put think upon Spirit energy in a better light.
But even with newfound respect, Kali's confidence in Martial cultivation didn't ripple at all.
She sneered as she completely focused her mind. Her Spiritual Sea expended, causing the rate of her thoughts to rapidly increase.
Under this state, Kali surged her Soul energy at a rapid rate, connecting to her dantian within seconds.
Her aura explosively rose. Icy blue lights continually flickered out her body until they converged into an Ice energy aura.
Kali's Ice energy aura froze the Spirit Web tendrils within only seconds. Then, with a wave of her hand, she shattered the Spirit tendrils into particles of blue lights.
Cain lightly smirked at her.
His gaze was teasing as he said, "So? What did you think? Beyond your expectations, right?"
Kali's expression didn't change from her sneer. She merely crossed her eyes while flicking her gaze over at Amber quietly sitting.
"Just a slight bit more of an annoyance. And if I had the same Spirit attainment, it wouldn't affect me at all. Either way, it's still not anything Martial cultivation can't deal with."
At this moment, Amber slowly opened her eyes. Her light smile was similar to Cain, calm and relaxing to gaze upon.
She said, "The more I study about Spirit energy, the more I see it has more variety than Martial cultivation. Who knows? Maybe one day, neither you nor Cain will be able to break through my tricks."
"Tricks, huh?" Kali loudly scoffed. "In the end, we can only see who the real victor is in a blood-pumping battle. But you...tch. You still use that being lazy as an excuse to avoid all conflict."
Amber casually shrugged, not caring about Kali's intent pressure. "Personally, I prefer tranquility than damaging my body with little to no gains."
Right as Cain was about to step in to break up the proceeding one-sided aggressive argument, a servant girl had suddenly appeared at the courtyard's entrance.
When the trio looked over at her, the servant girl felt a cold shiver shock through her spine.
But she suppressed all distracting thoughts, keeping her expression natural as she said, "Young Master, there is a guest requesting to see you. She is the Thunderous Sword Sect genius, Qiu Lan."
That name promptly got the trio intrigued. The one who was supposed to be Cain's arranged finance finally appeared after all this time.
Admittedly, Cain had almost forgotten about her. He had simply been too focused on his own daily life to really care about any otherworldly affairs.
Moreover, he believed his grandmother would've already taken care of Qiu Lan's case.
Cain put a bit of thought into it and quickly recalled Qiu Lan's determined and honest personality about Martial cultivation. His slightly surprised face turned into a slight smile.
"So she finally couldn't stand waiting after all this time, huh? The change probably hit her equally as hard."
"That girl is the one with a firm Martial Heart, huh?" Amber's tone was filled with curiosity. "My bet is that she wants to face Cain in some kind of duel because of how much you surpassed her."
"Hehehe. This will be an amusing show." Kali let out a genuine laugh.
"Uhm..." The servant girl cautiously spoke up again. "Supreme Ancestor has told me to say that this will be a good opportunity for the Young Master and Qiu Lan."
"Is that so? Then, let her in." Cain readily agreed.
He didn't have a real reason to refuse her in the first place. And the Thunderous Sword Sect has the potential to be a valuable ally for his group.
The servant girl promptly bowed before heading out.
Moments later, a much stronger Divine aura approached the courtyard.
Cain, Kali, and Amber quietly watched as the figure of a beautiful young maiden slowly appeared at the courtyard's entrance.
This young maiden had an honest, steady fast look. She kept her hair neatly braided in a reserved fashion, and her classical blue uniform added to her virtuously graceful charm.
The only peculiar thing was the fact that this young maiden's eyes weren't of a calm, clear light.
She actually held evident complex emotions that seemed to be eating away at her mind.
Who else could it be but the Thunderous Sword Sect's top genius, Qiu Lan.
Qiu Lan's gaze immediately twisted into a complex cation upon arriving at the courtyard. Her Divine Sense tried analyzing the trio only to have little success.
Each of them felt unfathomable to her!
It was like she was peering into a mysterious fog with no end in sight.
Qiu Lan cast a deep gaze at the trio. She didn't care at all about Amber's status as Cain Dragon lover, only the fact that her aura seemed entirely warped with Spirit energy.
Her first glance around lasted for a mere moment.
Qiu Lan inwardly took a breath before trying to take a step forward. But right at that time, Kali slowly strolled forward.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmKali's smile, which was filled with amusement, never left her face. She even began to increase her aura, causing her already chilling presence to reach colder levels.
That colder aura thoroughly washed over Qiu Lan.
Qiu Lan's eyes slightly widened as a slight sense of suffocation stifled her chest.
Kali acted as if everything was perfectly fine.
She calmly said, "So it isn't the Sword genius? Been so long since those casual days, eh? So? what brings you here?"
Qiu Lan had to silently revolve a small portion of her Inner World just to stay calm under Kali's cold aura.
This act alone left her a bit mystified. She couldn't help but compare just how much a distance is between two people she had direct relations with in the past.
For the moment, however, Qiu Lan forced those thoughts out of her mind.
She quelled her mental state and then said, "I only came for the purpose of dueling...the seventh prince."
At informally using Cain's name, Qiu Lan was extremely hesitant to do so.
After all, his status was light years ahead compared to the past. Even she must show absolute respect to him.
"Hmph. What is this seventh prince crap? Just say our names, neither of us care." Kali bluntly stated.
And before Cain could speak up, Kali suddenly summoned more energies from her dantian, causing her Ice aura to rapidly strengthen. Her Ice aura engulfed Qiu Lan, suppressing her small amount of Inner World strength.
Qiu Lan stood rooted to her spot, eyes widening at the sudden increase of pressure.
She felt as if two iron hands were pushing towards the ground with great strength!
Kali's smirk broadened in amusement at Qiu Lan's evident predicament. Then, curling her brows, she asked, "Say, why do you only want to fight Cain? Am I not good enough? We had some talks in the past, you know?"
Cain rolled his eyes at this scene. Really, this little sister of his can be quite the bully.
In fact, Cain was sure that if Amber didn't have amazing Spirit prowess, Kali wouldn't hesitate to pressure her a lot more than she already does.
Deciding to put an end to her momentum, Cain summoned his own dantian energies, waved his hand, and sent out a wave of his powerful aura.
His aura easily dispersed Kali's growing momentum, allowing Qiu Lan to take a silent breath.
"You really know how to play around, don't you?" Cain lightly reprimanded.
As he talked, Qiu Lan couldn't take her eyes off Cain. The way he effortlessly dealt with power that seemed unfathomable was a direct attack on her Martial Heart.
Her mental state became even more complex.
Kali merely smiled at Cain's accusation. Shrugging, she walked back to her own side, saying, "Well then, since he acted, don't mind me anymore."
During this time, Amber stayed silent. She truthfully didn't have any strong feelings about Qiu Lan, feeling nearly indifferent towards her existence.
Though, she felt curious about just how much of a genius this girl was that she even caught the Ancient Dragon Empress's attention.
"Alright, alright, you two clear away. We'll have the duel right now." Cain stated without any hesitation