Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

The moment the ground exploded, Su Chang'an's feet were already off the ground.

She didn't jump by herself. It was the force of Chen Daolin's palm that crushed the floor tiles beneath her feet into dust, and the rebounding shockwave sent her flying three zhang away.

Su Chang'an flipped in mid-air, his nine tails spreading wildly to steady himself. The moment he landed, his heels sank into the rubble, and a sharp, throbbing pain shot through his legs from his knees to his ankles.

This is not a fight.

This is a millstone.

A metallic sweetness lingered on Su Chang'an's tongue. She swallowed it back. She couldn't spit it out. Spitting it out would be a sign of weakness.

Chen Daolin's hand was still suspended in mid-air, his fingers not closed. He looked at Su Chang'an's landing posture and tilted his head slightly.

"Not bad."

In short, it's neither salty nor bland.

Su Chang'an didn't reply. Her nine tails folded into a fan shape behind her, blocking Chen Xuan from view. Her mind was racing.

Chen Daolin didn't use his full strength in that last attack.

It's not even 30%.

This is not something she can handle on her own.

But she had no choice.

Chen Daolin took a step forward.

Su Chang'an's tail suddenly tightened. The essence of the Heavenly Fox surged in her dantian, and the Phoenix True Fire flowed along her meridians to her limbs. She raised her right hand, palm facing forward.

"The first move," Chen Daolin began.

He flicked his right index finger.

Just for a moment.

A transparent burst of energy shot out from her fingertips, so fast that Su Chang'an's eyes only caught a fleeting afterimage. She had no time to dodge. Her nine tails instinctively crossed to protect her, and the essence of the Heavenly Fox condensed into a layer of red light on the surface of her tails.

The force of the energy collided with the light membrane.

Su Chang'an slid back four zhang (approximately 10 meters). His feet dragged two deep grooves in the gravel. The red light membrane cracked with a spiderweb pattern, spreading outward from the center and shattering into a large fragment.

Three of his nine tails bristled instantly, their tips curling outwards. A sharp pain shot through his entire body from his tailbone, and Su Chang'an's teeth clenched so tightly they grimaced.

Liquid was seeping from the corner of his mouth.

She didn't wipe it.

Chen Daolin withdrew his finger and nodded slightly.

"He can catch a finger, which is better than I expected."

Su Chang'an's knees were buckling, but she braced her right leg against her left, stubbornly keeping it straight. A thought flashed through her mind—he was testing her limits. Not to kill her, but to probe her boundaries.

And then what? Once you figure out the limits, you'll know how much effort it will take to win her over.

Chen Daolin was evaluating him as if he were a commodity.

Su Chang'an wiped the corner of his mouth, the blood smearing onto the back of his hand.

"You still have two moves left, right?"

She flipped her right hand over, and the Phoenix True Fire flared white between her fingers. That old bastard wanted to try? Let him try. She couldn't run now; Chen Xuan was still lying on the ground, his meridians only half reconnected. If she retreated, Chen Daolin could take Chen Xuan away in a single breath.

We can only endure it.

"The second move," Chen Daolin said.

This time it wasn't a snap of the fingers. He turned his right hand over, palm up, fingers slightly bent, and lifted it upwards.

There was no internal energy. There was no light. There was no visible attack.

But the ground beneath Su Chang'an's feet collapsed.

It's not just cracking; the entire foundation is sinking.

Within a radius of five zhang, the floor tiles, gravel, and soil all collapsed downwards, forming a bowl-shaped depression.

Su Chang'an's body instantly lost its weight and fell down with the rubble.

Her nine tails sprang outwards simultaneously, hooking onto the remaining stone walls at the edge of the pit. Her body was suspended in mid-air, with a pit three zhang deep beneath her feet.

Then Chen Daolin flipped his palm over.

Gravity has changed direction.

Su Chang'an's body slammed into the stone wall, hitting her back first. She couldn't pinpoint where it hurt. Everything hurt. By the time she slid down the stone wall and half-knelt at the bottom of the pit, the blood at the corner of her mouth was no longer worth wiping.

Two moves.

Just two moves—

Nearly 20% of her Celestial Fox essence had been depleted. The temperature of the Phoenix True Fire was dropping. Four of her nine tails were unresponsive, drooping to the ground.

Su Chang'an looked up. Chen Daolin stood at the edge of the pit, looking down at her. His gaze was no different from that of a butcher examining the ribs on the cutting board.

"The third move."

Chen Daolin raised his right hand.

Su Chang'an's pupils contracted slightly. This time, he was truly going to make a move. The first two moves were tests, his strength precisely controlled—neither killing her nor making her feel easy. The third move—

Chen Daolin's palm lit up.

A grayish-white light seeped from between his fingers; it wasn't spiritual power, but laws. A materialized attack formed from the laws of a quasi-emperor. The grayish-white light compressed in his palm, shrinking smaller and smaller, growing brighter and brighter, until it finally became a tiny speck of light the size of a thumb.

Su Chang'an felt a chill run down his spine.

The energy contained in that point of light was enough to blast the entire Guiyuan Hall again.

That's too late.

But Su Chang'an's mind didn't stop.

She did not place the shield wall in front.

Phoenix True Fire burned from his very marrow, and all nine tails stood erect, forming a semi-transparent red shield in front of him.

If you can't catch it head-on, then let it glide past you. Even if it's only half an inch off.

She mobilized all the remaining essence of the Heavenly Fox, raising all nine tails, and the Phoenix True Fire burned from her marrow, condensing into a semi-transparent red shield in front of her.

Chen Daolin loosened his grip.

A point of light flew out.

The instant she struck the shield, Su Chang'an heard the sound of tearing silk. It wasn't the sound of the shield shattering, but the sound of her internal meridians breaking apart inch by inch as they couldn't withstand the recoil.

A crack appeared in the center of the red shield, and a point of light passed through the crack, grazing Su Chang'an's right shoulder.

It didn't hit her head-on. But the aftershock tore the sleeve off her entire right arm, leaving a charred burn mark on her skin that ran from her shoulder to her elbow.

Su Chang'an's body fell backward.

She couldn't hold on any longer. Her vision blurred, her ears rang, and the vital energy in her dantian felt as if it had been scraped away with a spoon, leaving it mostly empty. All nine tails collapsed onto the rubble, utterly exhausted.

The pebbles in her field of vision were swaying. Su Chang'an felt like a bowl with a leaky bottom, everything was spilling out. Her consciousness began to drift. She thought she was going to faint.

Then her seventh tail moved.

It wasn't Su Chang'an who made it move.

The tail stood upright on its own. The tip pointed to the sky, and the red fur fluttered violently even without wind. A dark red light spread from the base of the tail to the tip, a color a full shade deeper than Su Chang'an's own Celestial Fox essence.

Su Chang'an's mind went blank.

She didn't recognize this power. It wasn't her Celestial Fox Origin, nor the Phoenix True Fire, nor anything given to her by the system.

But her body knows.

The tail drew an arc in mid-air. Dark red light detached from the tip of the tail, transforming into a crescent-shaped blade of light that silently sliced ​​towards Chen Daolin.

Extremely fast.

It was so fast that Su Chang'an himself didn't even realize it.

The light blade sliced ​​through the air three inches in front of Chen Daolin. A visible dent appeared in Chen Daolin's protective aura the instant the blade made contact. The dent lasted less than half a breath before disappearing, but it was undeniably there.

Chen Daolin frowned slightly.

This is the first time he has frowned since he stepped into Guiyuan Hall.

Su Chang'an knelt at the bottom of the pit, staring at his still glowing tail, with only one thought in his mind.

and many more.

I didn't put it there.

The dark red light on the seventh tail was still flowing. Su Chang'an tried to control it with her consciousness, but there was no response. The tail seemed to have its own will, slowly swaying behind her, with the remaining dark red light spots on its tip falling one by one, hitting the gravel and burning small black pits into the stone surface.

The origin of the ancient celestial fox.

Just now, when she was synchronized with that body in the abyss, that pattern—the pattern the system asked her if she wanted to absorb—she didn't choose. But that power seeped in on its own. It seeped into the seventh tail.

Chen Daolin stood at the edge of the pit, frowning as he stared at the tail for three breaths.

A warm sensation came from Su Chang'an's back. It wasn't the temperature of the Phoenix True Fire, but spiritual energy flowing in from the outside.

She looked down and saw that Chen Xuan's broken right hand had somehow grabbed her third tail, which was hanging on the ground.

All the knuckles were turned outwards, and the bloody, mangled fingers were embedded tightly in the hair. Spiritual energy seeped into the fingertips from that point of contact, bit by bit.

He was using his damaged meridians to transfer spiritual energy into Su Chang'an's body.

The meridians themselves were a mess; most of the spiritual energy was lost halfway through, and less than a tenth actually entered Su Chang'an's body.

But he didn't stop. His teeth were clenched so hard they were grinding, and he was suppressing a muffled groan as he slowly squeezed out the spiritual energy from his dantian.

Su Chang'an looked back.

Chen Xuan's face was deathly pale, his lips were bluish-purple, and the blood in his left eye had dried, forming a dark red crust. He stood there, trembling all over, but his elbows were firmly planted on the broken bricks, refusing to budge an inch.

He was prolonging her life.

He used his own nearly exhausted life.

Su Chang'an's chest tightened suddenly. The feeling wasn't just pain; it was something even more unbearable.

It felt like something twisted in her heart, and then she opened her mouth and cursed.

"Lie down properly!"

Chen Xuan did not lie down.

He held on there, his broken right hand unable to support himself on the broken bricks and slipped outwards. He used his elbow to push it back and continued to pour spiritual energy into Su Chang'an's body.

Su Chang'an was anxious. This unfilial son's meridians were already riddled with holes. If he continued to force it, at best his meridians would be completely ruined, and at worst his dantian would explode.

"Chen Xuan!"

Her voice rose by half a beat.

Chen Xuan's lips moved slightly. Very slightly. Su Chang'an couldn't hear it, but she understood the lip movements.

Two words.

"not enough."

He felt it wasn't enough. He felt the amount of spiritual energy he transferred was too little, not enough for her to withstand even one attack.

Su Chang'an's eyes stung. She abruptly turned her head away, refusing to look at him again.

Chen Daolin stood at the edge of the pit and watched the whole scene unfold.

His gaze lingered for a moment on Su Chang'an's glowing seventh tail. Then it shifted to Chen Xuan behind him. His eyelids twitched.

"Interesting." The three words fell into the ruins, floating lightly.

But the speed at which he raised his right hand was one fraction faster than the previous three moves.

Su Chang'an's pupils contracted. The seventh tail suddenly straightened behind her, and the dark red light on its tip suddenly surged, illuminating the entire pit with a dazzling red glow.

That power, not her own, surged wildly within her tail, carrying an ancient and savage quality. Even a quasi-emperor would have to take it seriously—

Chen Daolin's palm lit up.

At the same time, the seventh tail behind Su Chang'an suddenly lashed out.

Dark red light and grayish-white laws collided in mid-air.