At that moment, the Temple of Time hovered in the void, and outside it, a great battle was erupting.
Yang Xue single-handedly engaged four Black Ink Clan Domain Lords who had formed a formation. Before a Ninth-Order powerhouse, even a Four Symbols Formation assembled by these Domain Lords was difficult to withstand.
Had they been four Innate Domain Lords, they might have held out a while longer. But this time, the Domain Lords who had entered the Ancestral Ruins Furnace were all Acquired Domain Lords—upgrades whose overall strength fell considerably short of their Innate counterparts.
Yang Xue was not delivering killing blows. Instead, she fought them continuously, much as she had with the Black Ink Clan powerhouses she had encountered earlier, using the prolonged battle to temper the explosive growth of her own strength.
The other human powerhouses understood her intent, so none stepped forward to assist.
Only Yang Xiao stood before the Temple of Time, periodically shouting out phrases like—
"Auntie is invincible under all heaven!" and "Auntie shall reign for ten thousand ages!"—flattering words that made Yang Xue's face flush red. It was one thing when the two of them were alone and he acted like this, but with so many outsiders present, it was genuinely embarrassing.
After a stretch of shouting, Yang Xiao suddenly let out a sigh.
Fang Tianci, standing beside him, turned his head and asked with a light smile, "What's wrong?"
Yang Xiao transmitted through his Divine Sense, a touch melancholy, "Old Fang, she's Ninth Order!"
Fang Tianci replied, "I can see that."
Yang Xiao brooded, his thoughts tangled in knots. "But when will I ever ascend to the Sacred Dragon form?" He estimated that if he revealed his true body now, his dragon frame would measure over nine thousand zhang—roughly equivalent to a peak Eighth-Order cultivator among humans. The distance to the Sacred Dragon form didn't seem all that great, but in truth, a dragon's advancement from the Ancient Dragon tier to the Sacred Dragon was extraordinarily difficult. If it weren't so, the Sacred Dragon lineage would not be so exceedingly rare across all the ages that had passed—each generation produced only two or three at most.
Back in the day, even Fu Guang had spent several thousand years seclude in the depths of the Dragon Pool without managing to take that final step. It was only thanks to Yang Kai's help that he had finally achieved his wish.
Yang Xiao had confidence that he could break through to the Sacred Dragon tier, but that required the slow grind of time—it could not be accomplished in a single leap.
"She's already my aunt, and now she's stronger than me too. Doesn't that mean I, Yang Xiao, am going to be riding on someone's coattails for the rest of my life?"
Yang Xue's advancement to the Ninth Order filled him with genuine joy—after all, in this chaotic world, every measure of strength was a measure of self-preservation. But the fact that he fell short of Yang Xue still left him with a touch of wistfulness.
When the two of them ventured out together and made a name for themselves in the future, people couldn't very well say that he, Yang Xiao, was the man who stood behind a Ninth-Order powerhouse. That would sound terrible.
He would far rather hear people say that he, Yang Xiao, was the Sacred Dragon who stood before a Ninth-Order powerhouse!
Having spent years together, how could Fang Tianci not read between the lines? He said nothing of substance, merely offering a faint smile—one laden with unspoken meaning.
Yang Xiao scowled and complained, "Old Fang, you've changed."
Fang Tianci asked, "Changed how?"
Yang Xiao looked him up and down, then slowly shook his head after a long moment. "I can't put my finger on it. I just feel like you're not quite the same as when we first met—especially after you advanced to the Eighth Order and your strength increased."
Fang Tianci thought to himself that it was because, as his own strength had grown, certain things sealed deep within his Soul by his primary body had begun to stir awake. But he saw no need to explain, simply smiling faintly. "Don't let your imagination run wild."
Yang Xiao would have none of it. He looped an arm around Fang Tianci's neck and squeezed hard, snarling through gritted teeth, "Old Fang, do you look down on me?!"
Fang Tianci was caught between laughter and exasperation. "Why on earth would I look down on you?" It's you who's deliberately picking a fight.
Yang Xiao maintained his fierce expression for a moment longer, then deflated without warning. "Fine. I'll be the one riding on someone's coattails. It's no big deal."
With that, he shoved Fang Tianci away, beaming with a flushed, rosy face, and hurried toward Yang Xue as she flew back. He fussed over her solicitously. "Auntie, are you tired? Are you hurt? You should've just killed these guys—why bring them all back alive?"
Yang Xue felt a wave of discomfort from his behavior and couldn't help shooting him a glare. Come to think of it, ever since she had broken through to the Ninth Order, Yang Xiao had been talking more and more—often spouting all manner of nonsensical chatter.
Was it… insecurity?
Hmph, men!
"Senior Sister, did you capture them to interrogate them for information?" an Eighth-Order human cultivator suddenly asked.
Given the strength Yang Xue had just displayed, slaying these four Acquired Domain Lords would have been effortless. Yet she hadn't killed a single one, instead bringing them all back alive—a clear indication that she had something else in mind.
The moment this Eighth-Order cultivator finished speaking, he felt a sharp gaze boring into him. Puzzled, he looked back and discovered that it was Yang Xiao glaring at him.
What did I do to you? The Eighth-Order cultivator found the whole thing bewildering.
You're stealing my title! Yang Xiao seethed with silent indignation. He called her "Auntie," and you went and called her "Senior Sister"—if that's not taking advantage of me, what is?
He didn't know what had come over him lately, but his thoughts had grown extraordinarily sensitive, full of petty anxieties and second-guessing.
He was just about to confront the Eighth-Order cultivator when Yang Xue's gaze drifted his way. Yang Xiao immediately backed down…
"I noticed that all the Black Ink Clan members we've run into recently have been converging in one direction. Something must be happening over there, so I brought them back for questioning," Yang Xue explained.