The Mirror of Startling Beauty: Her courtiers are everywhere

Shen Yan's smile froze for a moment.

Tang Xixue's voice continued.

"You keep saying I'm superior to you, but have you ever considered that you're the one kneeling? If you don't kneel, who can suppress you?"

"shut up!"

Shen Yan's face turned ashen.

"Shut up!"

"You tell me to shut up, but I'm going to keep talking. You've never dared to win fair and square; you just hide in the shadows like a rat in a gutter."

Tangxi Xue's words were like knives.

"You think you've won. But you don't even have the courage to stand before me and fight me. What have you won then?"

Shen Yan's lips were trembling, and her entire face was distorted with anger.

"Have you said enough?"

Her voice was so shrill it almost pierced people's eardrums.

"You're about to die! Tang Xixue, you're about to die! Do you know that? Do you know that?!"

She practically screamed those words, her voice filled with a kind of almost manic ecstasy.

"You dare to lecture me? You're trapped in the formation, unable to move, and you still dare to speak to me in that tone?"

"The array of light is receding."

Tang Xixue calmly glanced at the silvery-white light that was getting closer and closer.

"But your hands are shaking."

Shen Yan clenched her fist tightly, her nails digging deep into her palm.

Do you know why you're shaking?

Tang Xixue's gaze pierced through the light and landed on Shen Yan's face.

"Because you're unsure. You're unsure if this Dragon-Trapping Formation can trap me, you're unsure... whether you can win."

"What do I have to be unsure about!"

Shen Yan said sternly.

"Look around! Look at this light! Look at these guards! You can't escape!"

"Then come closer."

Tang Xixue's voice suddenly became extremely soft and slow.

"Come closer, stand in front of the light. Don't you want to see my fear? Come closer, and you'll see it more clearly."

Shen Yan subconsciously took a half step forward, then suddenly stopped.

She looked into Tang Xixue's clear, water-like eyes, which held no fear, no despair, and not even anger.

There was only a chilling calm.

Like a hunter watching his prey walk step by step into his trap.

"I...no! Why should I listen to you!"

Shen Yan forcefully pulled her foot back.

She stood outside the formation, separated by the silvery barrier, her hands clenched into fists.

She wanted to say something, but found herself too frightened to utter a single word.

All those harsh words that had been swirling on his tongue, all the sarcasm that had been brewing for so long, were now stuck in his throat.

That's right, just as Tang Xixue said, she was afraid of her to the core.

So, who is the fake?

It goes without saying who truly holds sway over this world.

"Ha, trash."

Tang Xixue glanced at her, then looked away and ignored her.

"You! You are so vicious!"

Shen Yan's entire face turned bright red.

She had waited for far too long.

Every step taken under the weight of Tangxi snow, every sleepless night, has now become this closing cage.

She should be savoring the sweetness of victory right now, but why...?

Why is Tang Xixue still looking at her with that kind of gaze?

"Your Highness, tell me, if you had just stayed obediently in Baiyujing and remained Princess Jingyue, why would you be... imprisoned in a cage?"

"Wouldn't it be better to be your canary?"

Her voice carried a twisted pleasure, as if she had finally found a way to hurt the other person.

"With clothes on and food on the table, living a life of ease and comfort, why did you have to stir up trouble and end up in this state?"

"You've said so much."

Tangxi Xue said calmly.

"Are you just trying to make me envious of you?"

"I envy you... still living on other people's charity?"

Her hand gripped the Snow Soul Fan, its tip silently swirling with sword intent, layering upon layer in the darkness, ready to smash the Guixu Palace and the Dragon-Trapping Array to smithereens.

"You're talking nonsense! I didn't! I relied on myself!"

Shen Yan's face turned from red to green, then from green to white.

She opened her mouth, about to say something.

A series of very light footsteps came from the shadows beside the hall.

The footsteps were steady, each step perfectly spaced, neither too fast nor too slow, as if measured with a ruler, extremely precise.

The clanging of armor fell silent abruptly at the sound of footsteps.

The guards in their silver masks fell silent, not daring to utter a sound.

Shen Yan's smile froze on her lips.

"Who is it?"

A tall, slender figure emerged from the shadows of the pillars.

His long black robe flowed like water, and a silver mask concealed his face. He moved silently, his clothes rustling as he walked.

With each step he took, the air in the hall grew colder, and the swirling array of lights dimmed.

He held no weapons in his hands, nor did he wear the token of the Guixu Palace at his waist.

But the moment he appeared, the array patterns on the ground that were closing in all stopped abruptly.

"Lord Xuantian Pavilion!"

Shen Yan's voice finally lost all its previous composure.

She instinctively took a step back, her voice trembling.

"What are you doing here?"

As she spoke, she took another step back.

But she had never seen what the Xuan Tian Pavilion Master looked like.

That person never showed his true face, and rarely even attended the inner palace meetings of Guixu Palace.

There are very few people in the entire Guixu Palace who have seen his true face.

She thought he wasn't there.

She thought she was the only one in charge today.

"Could it be...?"

Shen Yan forced a smile.

"Are you trying to steal the credit? This is my spoils of war, the prisoner I set up and trapped, I..."

"roll."

The Xuan Tian Pavilion Master spoke.

Just one word.

It was done so lightly, as if dismissing a troublesome servant.

Shen Yan's smile froze completely on her face, as if she had been slapped.

"you……"

Her voice trembled with shame and indignation.

"What did you say?"

"I said... get lost. Are you hard of hearing?"

The Xuan Tian Pavilion Master's voice was flat, but with each word he spoke, the temperature in the hall seemed to drop a degree.

"Who do you think you are, to dare point fingers at me, the sect leader?"

He walked to the edge of the light and stopped.

Shen Yan's lips trembled, and suddenly, as if remembering something, she abruptly raised her head.

"She is the Palace Master's prey! No matter how powerful your Xuantian Pavilion is, it can never surpass the Palace Master! You...you cannot take her away!"

"The Palace Master is not here at the moment and has no authority over me."

The Xuan Tian Pavilion Master's voice was flat, yet it was like a heavy hammer that shattered Shen Yan's trump card.

"Shen Yan".

He turned his head, and his gaze, hidden behind the silver mask, finally fell on Shen Yan.

"Disobeying me..."

"Do you even want your life?"

There was no emotion in his gaze.

But it is precisely this unwavering gaze that is most chilling.

It was as if, in his eyes, she was not a person, but an object that could be discarded at any time.

Shen Yan's breath hitched suddenly.

A chill shot up from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, freezing her tongue stiff.

Her lips moved a few times, but ultimately remained closed.

The Xuan Tian Pavilion Master ignored her.

He turned around, his tall figure shrouded in a black robe.

"This great formation can only be activated when I command it."

He raised his hand, his slender fingers pressing against the edge of the light.

"If you tell it to stop, it has to stop."

The moment the fingertip touched the ground, the array patterns seemed to be frozen.

The flowing silver light suddenly stopped, emitting a sigh-like hum.

A frosty white line began to spread from his fingertips, climbing along the array of light, and wherever it passed, the light solidified inch by inch.

"This is my magic array; it is not for others to control it."

He raised his hand and gently brushed it across the stagnant array of light, as if parting a curtain.

"Come out."

The silvery light silently retreated to both sides, revealing three figures trapped within the formation.

Tang Xixue stood in the very center, dressed in white as snow, her eyes and brows cold and aloof.

She looked at him.

Eyes facing each other.

The Xuan Tian Pavilion Master paused in his movements under her gaze.

Those eyes were clear as water, cool as the moon, unwavering and unyielding.

She looked at him as if trying to see through the silver mask to his face and all the secrets in his eyes.

In a daze, she seemed to see something else in those eyes.

It wasn't that cold, aloof gaze; it was something else entirely...

Gentle, doting, and radiant with starlight.

It's like when you look at someone, the whole world lights up.

But that moment of confusion lasted only a fleeting instant.

The next moment, the Xuan Tian Pavilion Master returned to his cold and indifferent appearance.

He didn't look at her, but simply stepped aside to make way for her.

His dark robe billowed slightly as he turned, the hem brushing the ground.

"You guys come with me."