The Princess’s Unseen Perception

“Playing tricks!” Hu Lan snapped, forcibly suppressing the subtle unease stirring within her. Her fingers shot up, rapidly executing a series of hand seals with lightning-like speed.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Hu Lan’s figure abruptly vanished from her spot.

The wrist Ji Xue had gripped tightly instantly felt empty.

In the next instant, Hu Lan materialized ten meters away, her appearance as eerie as a ghost’s.

Before Hu Lan, three arc-shaped wind blades, solidified into tangible form and emanating a chilling, ethereal blue glow, materialized without the slightest warning.

The wind blades ripped through the air, unleashing a piercing, grating screech.

Resembling three venomous, green-scaled serpents fixated on their prey, they shot forth in a triangular formation, lunging directly for Ji Xue’s vital limbs, chest, and abdomen.

Their angles were cunning and ruthless, effectively sealing off all avenues of evasion.

Yet, to everyone’s astonishment, Ji Xue made no attempt to dodge or evade!

This unprecedented sight instantly sparked a clamor of astonishment throughout the spectator stands.

Despite the obscuring mist, the arena’s projection vividly displayed the scene unfolding within.

“She’s not dodging?! What audacious confidence!” someone exclaimed.

“Confident? More likely, her five senses have been severed, rendering her utterly incapable of perception! Look, she remains frozen in the very posture of seizing her opponent; she probably doesn’t even realize her foe has fled,” another person retorted.

“Only through the awakening of divine consciousness could she possibly navigate this predicament…”

“That’s practically an insurmountable feat! Those in the late Foundation Establishment stage who manage to awaken divine consciousness are already as rare as phoenix feathers, let alone someone who has barely reached Foundation Establishment!”

Almost unanimously, the spectators declared Ji Xue’s defeat an absolute certainty.

Beside Nangong Xuan, two attendants could not resist offering their scathing remarks:

“Hmph, without Lin Wan’er to rely on, this Imperial Princess ultimately proves to be nothing more than a dilettante.”

“Precisely! Hu Lan’s ghostly arts have already reached a state of profound mastery. Even if the princess miraculously achieved Foundation Establishment, would she not still be entirely at Hu Lan’s mercy? Master, you may set your heart at ease.”

“Yes, Master, you’ve been so restless these past few days, perhaps you are ‘indulging in mortal pleasures’? But such self-torment is detrimental to your immortal body…”

However, regardless of the words exchanged by the two attendants beside her, Nangong Xuan’s tightly furrowed brows remained stubbornly unrelaxed.

Was she truly at her opponent’s mercy?

She knew Ji Xue’s true nature; she understood her to be a highly emotional individual, one whose every feeling and sentiment was always plainly etched upon her face.

She found it quite vexing.

Yet, a person so prone to emotional displays was now exhibiting such profound calm. Especially after her five senses had been abruptly severed, there was not even a hint of panic…

Something was amiss.

Terribly amiss…

Could it be that Ji Xue had truly… stumbled upon some extraordinary serendipity?

She refrained from any rash movements, her eyes remaining fixed on the aerial projection, her gaze unwavering as it locked onto Ji Xue.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The three arcs of blue light slammed squarely into Ji Xue, erupting in a blinding flash of spiritual energy!

The spectator stands erupted in a chorus of lamentations and predictable gasps.

“It hit!”

“As expected, she couldn’t evade it! She didn’t even attempt a basic defensive maneuver!”

“Alas, this is Hu Lan’s fight, after all; the complete obscuration of the five senses is simply too devastating…”

“It appears to be over. Her Royal Highness is still… hm?!”

The exclamations ceased as if a hand had clamped around their throats, abruptly transforming into an incomprehensible collective gasp.

Upon the arena platform.

The anticipated spectacle of blood spraying and a figure being sent hurtling backward failed to materialize.

Ji Xue, astonishingly, had endured the assault with her bare physical body!

Merely with her physical body?

She hadn’t even employed spiritual energy for defense?

‘Since when had the Imperial Princess become a body cultivator?’

But then, Ji Xue’s arm suddenly arced upward, unleashing a forceful slap, imbued with a furious gale and a decisive ruthlessness, which struck fiercely into the seemingly empty space before her!

This sudden, inexplicable strike left everyone utterly dumbfounded—why would she attack thin air?

However, as a crisp ‘thwack’ echoed with the clarity of a thunderclap, an unbelievable scene unfolded: the previously vacant space abruptly twisted and vibrated, and the outline of a human figure rapidly surfaced as if rising from beneath water. Immediately afterward, Hu Lan’s form staggered into view, looking utterly disheveled and caught off guard!

In that instant, all confusion dissolved into thin air! Hu Lan had not merely teleported away to cast her spell; nor was Ji Xue standing stiff and unmoving due to crippled senses!

Hu Lan, from start to finish, had never truly escaped Ji Xue’s grasp! Her eye technique!

Not only the bewildered spectators, but even Hu Lan herself was utterly dumbfounded!

“No, impossible! How—how could you possibly have seen me?!”

As Hu Lan’s astonished cry echoed, Ji Xue’s vision and hearing fully returned, allowing her to witness Hu Lan’s panic and terror in their entirety.

“Is that truly important?” Ji Xue’s lips curved into a chilling arc.

Yet, in the deepest recesses of her mind, even she couldn’t fully process the world she had perceived moments ago, after her sight and hearing had been momentarily lost.

The very instant her five senses were engulfed by the purple miasma, her vision plunged into a boundless darkness. Yet, against that inky backdrop, countless brilliant orbs of light abruptly materialized!

These orbs, though not substantial, were incredibly distinct. Directly before her, almost within reach, pulsed a violently fluctuating, blinding source of light, its contours vaguely humanoid.

As her gaze shifted slightly, the spectator stands revealed a dense constellation of light and shadow, like stars gathered together, each forming a blurred but unmistakably humanoid silhouette!

Even her own arm, hanging loosely at her side, had transformed into a vibrant, pulsating orange flame.

Even without the physical sensation of grasping, the pulsating light cluster before her had revealed that Hu Lan had never truly escaped.

She could neither see nor hear, yet within that profound darkness, she could perceive.

The force of that single slap sent her stumbling back several steps, so powerful that blood even trickled from the corner of her lips. She simply could not believe that this ‘useless’ Imperial Princess, who hadn’t even awakened her divine sense, could actually… shatter her ghostly arts!

“Impossible! This is utterly impossible!” Hu Lan’s heart thrashed wildly in her chest, threatening to burst from her throat.

“Your barks are quite resounding, yet your actual strength, I find, is rather mediocre.”

“Do not for a moment believe that merely because you fortuitously breached my ghostly arts, you can now revel in self-satisfaction! Do you truly imagine I have cultivated naught but such techniques?!”

No sooner had the words left her lips than—

Three spiritual blades assailed her once more!

“Come, wager on it and see: are these real, or are they illusions?!”

“Bet? Why would I need to bet?” Ji Xue’s voice rang out clear and melodious, entirely disregarding her opponent’s provocative and perilous gambit.

A thin, protective aura flowed around Ji Xue—yet, this very aura, upon its surface, resembled garments woven from a vibrant fusion of fierce flames and biting ice, draped about her form.

It appeared to offer no defense at all, seemingly fragile enough to shatter with a mere breath, but in actuality!

CRACKLE—!

An ear-splitting, teeth-grating screech erupted!

Crimson-gold flames surged forth, instantly coalescing into a terrifying, high-speed vortex, a maelstrom of swirling light and shadow!

The wind blades sliced into its depths, yet failed to dislodge Ji Xue in the slightest. Instead, they merely scattered a myriad of sparks and ice crystals into the air! At this very moment, the extremes of scorching heat and bone-piercing cold astonishingly merged into a perfect unity!

The three arcs of blue light instantly shattered mid-air, dissolving into mere wisps of dissipating blue smoke, utterly consumed by the interwoven ice-and-fire raiment.

The tempest subsided.

Ji Xue remained rooted to her spot, an unyielding sentinel like a solitary peak amidst ten thousand towering cliffs. Her crimson hair cascaded behind her like a river of molten lava, her skirts unruffled, not a single strand displaced.

Only the peculiar, fiery protective aura enveloping her, a seamless blend of golden-red and icy-blue, flowing ceaselessly like water, was now undergoing an unexpected and profound qualitative transformation.

And every eye in the arena was fixed upon this unfolding scene.

“What?! Her Royal Highness’s protective aura… is actually of ice and fire origin?! Impossible! Could it be, dare I suggest, a unique cultivation technique?”

“My eyes aren’t deceiving me, are they?! Ice and fire… can truly merge in such a way?!”

“Look quickly! Her flames… they are changing!” A shriek of utter terror sliced through the surrounding din.

Under the collective gaze of thousands, the fierce flames enveloping Ji Xue rapidly shifted, as if dyed, transforming into a deep, chilling, ethereal blue!

The terrifying heatwave that had moments ago warped space instantly vanished, supplanted by a dense, soul-freezing cold!

The ethereal blue flames swayed silently, exuding a chilling aura as if from the Nine Netherworlds, spreading heavily and silently until even the unyielding ground became subtly coated with a thin layer of white frost!

In that moment, Ji Xue utterly shattered everyone’s understanding—how could fire possibly be so intensely cold?