The woman frowned slightly, asking with puzzlement, "Junior Sister knows this person too?"
Only after hearing the question did Su Yan realize she had let her composure slip.
She had been walking along moments ago when she suddenly overheard someone mention the name Yang Kai, and she had rushed over immediately.
Taking a gentle breath, she schooled her expression and nodded, "Yes, I know him. Senior Sister, could you tell me when you encountered him and how he was doing? I would be most grateful."
"It seems Junior Sister has quite a close relationship with him," the lead woman said with a light laugh, though she had no intention of prying further. "There's no harm in telling you, but it happened several years ago."
"Several years ago?" Su Yan's delicate brows drew together.
"Yes. Junior Sister, you should know that several years ago, when the Imperial Garden opened, I traveled there with a few fellow disciples. That was when I encountered him. If he hadn't stepped in to help, our group of senior and junior sisters would have suffered heavy casualties at the hands of Kong Wendong from the Fire Radiance Sect! He helped us and even killed Kong Wendong."
"He killed Kong Wendong?"
"Kong Wendong was at Return Void Stage Three—if he could kill Kong Wendong, doesn't that mean he's incredibly powerful?"
The person who had been chatting with the woman earlier clicked her tongue in amazement.
If Yang Kai had been there, he definitely would have recognized this woman.
During that trip to the Imperial Garden, the first clash between cultivators Yang Kai had stumbled upon was between this woman's group and Kong Wendong's party, fighting over an ancient hidden cave dwelling.
And it was at that time that Yang Kai had obtained the Pill Dao Truth and the Purple Void Cauldron.
"Could you tell me more?" Su Yan's beautiful eyes lit up with radiance as she gazed at the other woman expectantly.
The woman studied Su Yan thoughtfully for a moment, seeming to grasp something, and nodded. "Sure."
She then recounted everything that had happened in the Imperial Garden several years ago. The group of Ice Heart Valley disciples listened with great interest, but Su Yan had long since drifted away in thought.
He had already become so powerful.
She didn't know who Kong Wendong was, but from the exclamations of the surrounding disciples and their scattered remarks, Su Yan could piece together some information.
That Kong Wendong had absolutely been a top-tier powerhouse at Return Void Stage Three, yet Yang Kai had already been able to kill him several years ago. Back then, he had only been at Return Void Stage One!
Now, after several more years, what realm was Yang Kai in? What level of fearsome combat strength did he possess?
Her junior brother. Her man. So extraordinary.
A faint smile bloomed across Su Yan's face, and for a brief instant, the entirety of Ice Extinction Island seemed to brighten.
"Junior Sister Su, please hurry along! Don't make things difficult for us, alright?" The tall woman assigned to watch over Su Yan urged impatiently. Su Yan's brilliance made her feel a sharp discomfort.
"Exactly. If you keep dawdling and the Grand Elder finds out, we'll definitely be punished. Are you going to take the punishment for us then, Junior Sister Su?" Another woman chimed in as well.
The others looked on in bewilderment at them, then at Su Yan, unable to understand what was going on.
Su Yan thanked the senior sister who had told her about Yang Kai, said her farewell, and continued on her way to her ice residence with light, brisk steps, her earlier melancholy swept clean.
……
At the bottom of the Azure River. The Mysterious Realm Bead lay buried beneath layers of silt, having rested there in silence for over a year.
One day, a school of foot-long fish swam over the Mysterious Realm Bead, gliding close along the silted bottom. The fish at the front flicked their tails, churning up the silt, and the water vortex they created tugged the Mysterious Realm Bead loose, exposing it.
The fish behind it opened its mouth, swallowed the Mysterious Realm Bead whole, and wriggled a few times in mild discomfort. Then, acting as though nothing had happened, it continued downstream with the school.
More than ten days later, the school of fish rushed into a vast lake. No sooner had they entered than a massive dark shape appeared beneath the surface. The shadow opened its cavernous mouth, and like a whale sucking in water, devoured enormous quantities of fish. Of the school that had been swept downstream, less than a fifth survived.
After a moment, the dark shape let out a satisfied burp and departed contentedly.
A few more days later, more than ten thousand li from where the river fed into the lake, an iron ship sailed leisurely across the lake's surface. Aboard it, a group of martial artists in fitted attire each channeled their Sacred Yuan, unleashing secret techniques and the brilliant glow of artifacts to battle a massive dark shape beneath the hull.
Half an hour later, the shadow was slain. The martial artists cheered triumphantly and hauled it up from the lake.
It was a monstrous fish roughly five zhang in length, its eyes as large as copper gongs and vivid crimson, its mouth filled with serrated fangs—utterly grotesque and terrifying. Its tail resembled a meteor hammer, bristling with barbs.
Many of the martial artists had been injured during the fight with the monstrous fish, but now they sat nearby with beaming faces, tending to their wounds while admiring their prize.
"Uncle Wang, this Meteor Fish is really something. judging from the power it showed earlier, it's probably a peak eighth-rank demon beast, right?" A young man at Sacred King Stage One stood beside the enormous fish, kicking its belly with his foot as he grinned toward an elderly man in green robes not far away.
The old man smiled, stroked his beard, and nodded. "Indeed. This is a Meteor Fish that has grown to its absolute limit—a peak eighth-rank demon beast, no less."
"Haha, we've hit the jackpot this time! Meteor Fish inner cores are exceedingly rare. At the very least, we can sell this for two hundred thousand Sacred Crystals—worth far more than the core of any other demon beast of the same rank!" The young man laughed heartily.