Volume 1, Chapter 155 – Ye Ling’er’s Sense of Crisis

She stepped forward and positioned herself between the two clashing auras. An invisible barrier formed around her, quietly separating and dissolving the terrifying pressure on both sides.

“This is Yaochi Immortal Palace.”

Gu Han’s calm gaze swept over Qingxuan and Lingshuang.

“You are both honored guests who have traveled a great distance. Why not come inside for tea and sit down to talk things over?”

Her voice was not loud, yet it carried a strangely soothing authority that brooked no argument.

A faint glint passed through Empress Qingxuan’s eyes. She gave Gu Han a long look before her languid smile blossomed once more.

“Little Sister Gu is right. This Empress forgot her manners.”

She was the first to rein in her aura.

Seeing this, Empress Lingshuang gave a cold snort and slowly withdrew her chill as well.

The suffocating pressure over the square gradually dissipated.

Only then did the disciples breathe a sigh of relief. Their backs were already drenched in cold sweat.

“This way, please.”

Gu Han turned slightly and led the way.

Empress Qingxuan nodded with a smile and stepped forward first.

Empress Lingshuang followed with the same frosty expression.

The three women walked side by side into the main hall.

The doors slowly closed behind the three Empresses, cutting off every sound from within.

After a brief, deathly silence on the white jade square, hushed discussion surged through the crowd like an unstoppable tide.

“My heavens… That atmosphere just now was even more terrifying than running into a beast tide in a secret realm!”

A disciple in the middle stage of Foundation Establishment patted her chest, still shaken, her face pale.

“The two Empresses… They really met just like that? I thought they’d start fighting on the spot!”

Another disciple’s eyes held both lingering fear and a trace of disappointment at having missed a spectacle.

“Fight? Have you forgotten where we are? The Palace Master is right here!”

An older senior brother rebuked him in a low voice, though his eyes shone with pride.

“Did you see that? The Palace Master only said a few words, and both Empresses restrained themselves! That is the authority of our Palace Master!”

“Exactly! Eastern Region or Northern Region, it doesn’t matter. Once they enter our Yaochi Immortal Palace, even a dragon has to coil up and a tiger has to lie down!”

“But… why do you think both Empresses came to our Immortal Palace?”

“Yeah! And they both seemed… uh, like they really didn’t get along?”

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A more perceptive disciple raised the question.

“Isn’t it obvious? Our Palace Master is the Yaochi Empress now, and she’s so… beautiful!”

A female disciple spoke softly, her cheeks faintly flushed.

“Isn’t it perfectly normal for powerful experts to visit each other and discuss the Dao?”

“Discuss the Dao? The way the Empress of the Eastern Region was looking at our Palace Master… I don’t think discussing the Dao was all she had in mind.”

Another female disciple lowered her voice, her eyes gleaming with curiosity and gossip.

“And did you see that bracelet on her wrist? It looked like a matching pair with the one our Palace Master is wearing!”

“Shh! Keep your voice down! Is that something people like us should be discussing?”

Someone immediately stopped her, but their gaze drifted involuntarily toward the tightly closed hall doors. Their curiosity was already spreading like weeds.

Amid the crowd, Ye Ling’er seemed oblivious to all the discussion.

She stood motionless like a sculpture of ice, her eyes fixed on the closed doors as though she meant to bore straight through them.

Empress Qingxuan… That look in her eyes…

When Empress Qingxuan had looked at Master, there had been that glimmer in her eyes, that smile at the corners of her lips, and that intimate “Little Sister Gu”…

Not to mention the bracelet on her wrist, identical to Master’s!

That was no ordinary friendship between fellow Daoists!

And Master…

Master had not even denied it. She had called Qingxuan “Fellow Daoist” and invited her inside for tea!

Empress Lingshuang’s approach had filled Ye Ling’er with panic and anger.

But Empress Qingxuan’s appearance, along with the blatant intimacy between them, gave her an even deeper sense of crisis.

One was forceful and direct, the other languid and clingy, but they had the same target: her Master!

What gave them the right?

What right did they have?

They wielded supreme authority and ruled entire regions. They had lived for tens of thousands of years and seen countless wonders and people.

Why did they have to come and entangle themselves with her Master now?

Master was hers!

Master was the person who had pulled her from the abyss of despair, given her a new life, given her warmth, and given her everything!

She was the person Ye Ling’er had carefully hidden in the depths of her heart and worshiped like a deity, someone toward whom even the slightest blasphemous thought felt like a sin!

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But now, one after another, they were circling Master, looking at her with those hateful eyes and trying to get close to her…

No!

Absolutely not!

A burning emotion unlike anything she had ever felt before, mingled with panic and the desperate courage to act, battered violently inside her chest.

Her ice-blue hair stirred despite the absence of wind, and Lunar spiritual power rippled faintly around her.

“Fourth Junior Sister?”

Gu Luoli’s cool voice sounded beside her, tinged with barely perceptible concern.

She had keenly sensed the violent fluctuations in Ye Ling’er’s spiritual power and the nearly obsessive light churning in her eyes.

Ye Ling’er abruptly came back to her senses and met Gu Luoli’s double pupils, which seemed capable of seeing straight through the human heart.

She drew a deep breath and forcibly suppressed her roiling qi and blood, along with her surging spiritual power.

“Third Senior Sister, I’m fine.”

Ye Ling’er’s voice was slightly hoarse. She looked away, refusing to glance at the doors again.

“I just feel a little stifled. I want to go back and cultivate.”

Without waiting for Gu Luoli’s response, she turned and left. Her steps were hurried, almost as if she were fleeing.

Gu Luoli watched her swiftly retreating figure. Golden light flickered faintly within her double pupils as her brows knitted tightly together.

Something was wrong with Fourth Junior Sister…

Was it because of the two Empresses?

Or was it because of… Master?

Recalling what she had witnessed in the main hall before, as well as Ye Ling’er’s intense reaction at the time, Gu Luoli began to form a vague suspicion.

She sighed softly and shook her head, suppressing her tangled thoughts.

This was not something she should interfere in.

She trusted Master to make her own decision.

For now, Gu Luoli needed to focus on her own cultivation.

The journey into the secret realm and the successive appearances of these two Empresses had shown her more clearly than ever just how great the gulf was between her and the true pinnacle experts.

The power of her double pupils, the Dragon Abyss Sword, the Nine-Pattern Golden Core…

They were still nowhere near enough.

She had to become stronger, strong enough to truly support Master rather than remain a disciple who needed her protection.

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Gu Luoli cast one final glance toward the main hall. Her gaze settled into calm determination once more, and she turned toward the Myriad-Phenomena Tower.

Seeing that both senior sisters who were personal disciples had left, the other disciples gradually dispersed as well.

However, the shock and speculation sparked by the two Empresses gathering at Yaochi Immortal Palace were destined to circulate throughout the Immortal Palace for quite some time.

Ye Ling’er did not return to her residence, nor did she go to the Myriad-Phenomena Tower to find Gu Luoli.

Like a lost young beast, she wandered aimlessly through the Immortal Palace. Before she realized it, she had arrived at the edge of Yaochi.

The vast, mist-shrouded waters shimmered beneath the moonlight. On the island at the center of the lake, the Enlightenment Tea Tree exuded a hazy Dao Resonance, serene and mysterious.

Usually, this place could calm her mind.

But today, the sight of the water only made her more agitated.

She crouched down, hugged her knees, and buried her face against them.

The bitterness, panic, and increasingly intense possessiveness within her heart wound tighter and tighter around her like creeping vines.

“Master…”

She murmured softly, her voice choked with tears.

Memories of every moment she had spent with Master rose uncontrollably in her mind.

Falling Star City, one year ago.

Master had descended like a deity, helping her awaken her physique, teaching her the Lunar Canon, and guiding her onto the path of cultivation.

When the Ye family’s main branch had tried to take her away, Master had intervened with overwhelming force and personally brought her to Tianfeng City to settle her karmic ties with the family.

Whenever she was injured, Master would heal her. The warmth of her fingertips seemed capable of dispelling every trace of cold.

Whenever she was confused, Master seldom said much, yet somehow always managed to enlighten her.

And then there was yesterday…

When she had been unhappy, Master had gently embraced her, wiped away her tears, and comforted her in a soft voice…

It had been the warmest and safest moment in all her memories.

Master was so wonderful. Powerful, gentle, aloof yet tolerant, she was the single ray of light in Ye Ling’er’s dark life.

Ye Ling’er had never dared hope for anything more. All she wanted was to remain forever by Master’s side, be her obedient disciple, cultivate diligently, and never bring shame upon her.

But… why did other people have to appear?

Why did they look at Master that way?

Why could they approach Master so naturally and even give her a bracelet meant to be worn against her skin, while Ye Ling’er felt that even looking at Master for too long was an act of blasphemy?

She could not accept it…

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She truly could not accept it!

A clear thought suddenly cut through the chaos in her heart like a sharp blade breaking through ice.

She had to tell Master!

She had to tell Master how she felt!

Not the reverence of a disciple for her Master, but the yearning and love of one woman for another!

Once the thought appeared, it spread like wildfire across dry grass, instantly consuming all her hesitation and fear.

Yes, she would say it!

Rather than stand by and watch others approach Master, she would give everything she had and fight for herself this once!

Even if Master rejected her, even if Master flew into a rage and expelled her from the sect… she would accept it!

At least Master would know how she felt.

At least she would have tried.

Ye Ling’er abruptly raised her head. Her tears had already dried, replaced by the grim resolve of someone prepared to stake everything on one final attempt.

She stood and looked toward the main hall.

The doors remained tightly closed. She had no idea what Master and the two Empresses were discussing inside.

She could not wait any longer.

She had to find an opportunity as soon as possible to confess her feelings to Master in private.

Ye Ling’er wiped the lingering tear tracks from her face, straightened her dress and hair, and did her best to calm herself.

She knew she was in no state to rush recklessly into Master’s presence.

She needed to calm down. She needed to prepare. She needed… to find the right moment.

She cast one final look toward the main hall, as though she could see through the layers of palace buildings to the aloof, transcendent figure with silver hair inside.

“Master…”

Her voice was scarcely louder than a mosquito’s hum, yet it carried the solemn weight of a vow.

“Wait for me.”

With that, she resolutely turned and walked toward her residence.