In response to Ye Zichen’s call, Li Jiayi and Lin Xiyue transformed.
Su Liu’er, as expected, was wearing her usual blue skirt. The instant she appeared, Zhao Ziming gulped unconsciously.
What a beautiful woman.
He gazed at Su Liu’er, practically mad with desire.
“Hm?”
Sensing his gaze, Su Liu’er frowned instinctively. She hated nothing more than men looking at her with that sort of greedy look in their eyes.
“You’re courting death,” Su Liu’er roared, then raised her right hand into the air.
A wave of cold air blew past. In the time it took to wave her hand, Zhao Ziming was frozen into an ice statue, longsword and all.
But it wasn’t just Zhao Ziming. When the demons in the courtyard sensed the incoming chill, they started to resist but found they were already too late.
Creak.
A layer of ice climbed up the demon soldiers" bodies. In just a few breaths of time, each and every one of them was frozen solid.
“Empress Su Liu’er’s ice techniques are truly number one in the Three Realms. I once thought the Ice Empress of the Deer Clan might be your equal, but it seems I overthought things. Your ice arts have truly reached the peak of perfection, and that"s no mere rumor."
Li Jiayi’s body s.h.i.+fted, and before long she transformed into a man wearing a green s.h.i.+rt.
But….
Just now, that was a feminine voice.
To outsiders, this was indeed strange, but to people from the Immortal Region, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
The head of the Hundred Flowers Gate rarely showed his face, but rumor had it that he had a man’s face and woman-like body. After hearing him speak, it seemed that the rumors were true.
He reached out and pushed the demon behind him into the ground, then instantly appeared before Ye Zichen.
“Emperor Ye.”
“Sect Master,” said Ye Zichen with a subtle bow.
To tell the truth, seeing something like this left him feeling somewhat repulsed.
The sect master of the Hundred Flowers Gate was here now because Ye Zichen had gone and discussed the matter with him in advance. By a fortunate coincidence, the sect master knew the art of transformation, so Ye Zichen had asked him to transform into Li Jiayi specifically to deal with this sort of situation.
But even so, it was uncomfortable.
He was obviously a grown man, yet he spoke just like a woman. This was hard to take, no matter who you were.
Even though this was off-putting, no one could deny that, amongst the top-level figures of the Immortal Region, he was the strongest. Thousands of years ago, there were already rumors that his strength had reached the immortal king level.
Just to be sure, Ye Zichen had tested his strength back at the Hundred Flowers Gate.
His conclusion was....
He wasn"t any weaker than Su Liu"er.
With this sort of a.s.surance, Ye Zichen finally felt comfortable letting the sect master and Su Liu"er implement his plan.
"To tell the truth," said the obviously-male sect master with a charming smile, sounding just like a teenage girl, "back when Emperor Ye came looking for me back at the sect, I didn"t believe a word you were saying. I agreed to come simply out of concern for your face."
"Looking at it now, it seems you"re truly a master of strategy. You even knew that the demons were targetting the wedding guests."
"It wasn"t much," said Ye Zichen somewhat awkwardly. This was.... this felt really freaking weird, okay?
"Ye Zichen, what on earth did you bring a transvest.i.te along for?" chimed in Su Liu"er, transmitting directly into his consciousness. But before Ye Zichen could respond, he saw the sect master"s expression darken.
"So it turns out that the Ice Empress is such a gossip. Talking about people behind their backs is a terrible habit, you know."
"......"
Su Liu"er and Ye Zichen were both speechless. He"d actually heard their transmissions....
But this wasn"t the time to be surprised by that sort of thing. They had to immediately explain what they"d just said. It wouldn"t be good if they fought amongst themselves.
"Hundred Flowers Sect Master, please don"t take offense. Big Sister Liu"er didn"t mean anything by it."
"Ha...ha...." the sect master forced a chuckle, his expression just as cold as before.
In response, Su Liu"er"s expression darkened as well.
"What are you laughing at?"
"What, you get to talk about me behind my back, but I don"t even have the right to laugh?"
"The way you"re acting really p.i.s.ses me off."
"Is it? But I rather like it."
"Do you?"
Boom.
Instantly, Su Liu"er released her spiritual energy with a loud bang. Nine snow-white tails manifested behind her, swaying to and fro.
"Are you threatening me?" laughed the Hundred Flowers Gate Sect Master, his spiritual energy bursting out of his body.
Their spiritual energy collided violently. Su Liu"er narrowed her eyes, and without a moment"s hesitation....
“Instant Glacier！”
"Faded Flowers!"
They released their spiritual techniques.
Snowflakes and flower petals intermingled in the air as Su Liu"er and the Hundred Flowers Sect Master glowered at each other.
Still standing in the gateway, Black Dragon was enjoying watching all the commotion when he suddenly noticed that....
Ye Zichen had disappeared.
“Sword of Heavenly Flame!”
Just then, a giant sword of pure flames manifested behind Black Dragon"s back. He instinctively leaped forward, just barely avoiding its path....
"How sinister."
They hadn"t been fighting amongst themselves at all; the whole routine was obviously intended to trap him.
After just barely avoiding Ye Zichen"s attack, Su Liu"er and the Hundred Flowers Sect Master"s attacks launched at him in rapid succession. He cut a sorry figure as he rolled to the right, but before long a spike of ice shot out of the ground. Furthermore, as the flower petals landed on the floor, it....
Corroded.
Within just a few seconds, the marble floors corroded, leaving behind a deep pit. Fortunately, the petals hadn"t landed on his body. Otherwise, the consequences were painful to even imagine.
After recovering from his terror, Black Dragon signed in relief, then laughed, "in terms of scheming, you humans and yao really are a notch above us."
"You make it sound like you demons are so honest," said Ye Zichen, still concealed amongst the clouds.
Then he roared, “Sword Slash Maelstrom!”
“Hundred Flowers Withering!"
"World of Ice and Snow!"
At the same time, the Hundred Flowers Sect Master and Su Liu"er called out.
In truth, their early argument was intentional; they were putting on a show for Black Dragon.. They had hoped to take him out with a single blow, but to their surprise, he was on to them.
Since they"d been discovered, all they could do now was charge head-on.
They used powerful skills right from the start in hopes of defeating him as fast as possible.
Take out the leader, and the army falls.
If they could take out Black Dragon, it would be much easier to deal with the rest of the demons later.
"Hmph, what can you even do to me? I"d like to see it."
Battered and exhausted, Black Dragon"s expression darkened. Soon, blood energy spread into the surrounding air and the scales on his body spread outward, covering up more and more of him.
"That"s enough. It"s still too soon to play our final trump card."
Suddenly, an aged voice called out near Black Dragon. Shortly after, a defensive formation appeared in front of him, absorbing Ye Zichen and the others" spiritual techniques.
As the elder appeared, Black Dragon called out happily, "Brother Su."
The elderly man nodded gently, then looked into the sky and laughed, "Ye Zichen, long time no see."