Old Xue's chest heaved violently, he gasped for breath, his clothes were soaked with sweat, and blood kept oozing from the corners of his mouth.

In the direct clash with the "domain," she was completely at a disadvantage, and her full-force burst just now was merely to buy herself a moment to escape.

Just now, Elder Xue felt a tremendous sense of powerlessness. His opponent was truly only one step away from the first-grade realm!

If the rescue hadn't arrived in time, and if the opponent hadn't paused for a moment and given the opportunity, she probably wouldn't have lasted long before being completely crushed.

But... his gaze quickly swept over the three people in the room, and it wasn't Ling Muxue as he had expected.

In the end, her gaze was fixed on the sixth princess, Qin Zhaoyue.

Sensing the unmistakable fluctuations of a third-grade Divine Martial Realm expert, his pupils suddenly contracted.

How is that possible?!

When this child came to the Royal Armory to look for cultivation techniques, he was clearly only at the fifth rank.

How long has it been? How could he already be at the third rank?

In the center of the arena, the withered old Taoist priest fought hard, his body only swayed slightly before he stood still.

A sharp glint suddenly flashed in his cloudy eyes. Instead of immediately giving chase, he looked at Jiang Wuyai, who had spoken.

Jiang Wuyai's stunned expression gradually turned into confirmation, his voice trembling with disbelief.

"You are...Master Yunmiao? It really is you!"

Looking at the other person's face, although they looked more than ten times older and withered, the faint outline and eyes looked remarkably similar.

Back then, my master appeared out of nowhere, gaining the approval of the Heavenly Plate with his exceptional talent. His cultivation progressed by leaps and bounds, and he shone with brilliance.

Yunmiao, who was already in his eighties at the time, lost all hope of advancing.

With his lifespan nearing its end, disheartened and carrying a last shred of resentment, he chose to leave the sect and travel, seeking that slim, almost nonexistent opportunity.

Jiang Wuyai still remembers the resentment hidden deep in the old man's cloudy eyes and the last trace of yearning for the Dao when he saw him off.

Everyone knew perfectly well that this time, Master Yunmiao would likely perish quietly on his journey.

Nearly twenty years have passed in the blink of an eye, and he's still alive?

However, Jiang Wuyai's shock lasted only a moment.

His perception far surpassed Qin Zhaoyue's; he easily penetrated the mountainous terrain set up by Pan Yue and clearly "saw" the scene inside the Imperial Study.

The empress lay on the ground, her face aged and tinged with a deathly bluish-black aura, with a sword tip still lodged in her chest, clearly indicating that she had suffered a fatal assassination attempt!

Instantly, a surge of overwhelming blood energy rushed to the top of Jiang Wuyai's head!

I just found a junior sister who is pregnant with the Heavenly Plate, and we haven't even gotten to know each other yet.

As a result, the senior figures of their own sect actually assassinated their junior sister's biological mother, the reigning empress.

Isn't this pushing him into a fire pit?

At this moment, the matter of advisors or not was completely unimportant to him.

"You old scoundrel Yunmiao, what have you done!"

Jiang Wuyai's hair and beard bristled as he let out a furious roar that shook the heavens and the earth.

His aura was like a volcano about to erupt, locking onto the withered old Taoist priest in the arena.

Just then, Elder Xue, who had just caught his breath, keenly sensed that the aura within Daoist Yunmiao, which had been slightly sluggish due to the interruption, was now surging and flowing at an even more frenzied speed.

His face changed drastically, and he screamed with all his might:

"Quick! He's attempting to break through to the First Rank! Join forces and capture him immediately! We cannot let him succeed!"

What!

Qin Zhaoyue was almost scared to death. So, her second battle after debuting in the Divine Martial Realm wasn't against a second-rank opponent, but against a first-rank opponent!

Is it too late to run now? Is it too late?!

Yun Miaozi had a hunched back and was so thin that he looked as if a gust of wind could blow him over.

The marks of time are deeply etched on every inch of his skin; wrinkles, like cracks in a dried-up riverbed, cover his withered face and the back of his hands, exuding an air of decay and exhaustion.

However, in stark contrast to his aged appearance, his eyes were unusually bright.

It burned with an almost manic brilliance.

After a lifetime of searching, I finally touched what I had been seeking at the end of my life, filled with extreme excitement and burning passion.

At the same time, he subtly concealed his immense power, which was about to undergo a qualitative change.

It blends almost seamlessly into its surroundings, exuding a profound and mysterious aura.

If Elder Xue hadn't risked injury to force a break from the battle and revealed the secret, Jiang Wuyai and Chu Xinglan, who had just arrived, wouldn't have even been able to immediately perceive the terrifying barrier within his body that was frantically surging.

As for Qin Zhaoyue...

Newcomers to the Divine Martial Realm have almost no understanding of higher levels of cultivation.

Yun Miaozi remained fearless, no longer even glancing at the three people surrounding him, his entire focus entirely on himself.

My fingertips trembled slightly, not from fear, but from extreme excitement.

Because he truly touched the door he had searched for and longed for his entire life.

He knew all too well that without the inheritance of the three sacred artifacts of the sect, namely "Heaven, Earth, and Man," it would be extremely difficult, almost like a pipe dream, for him to advance to the first rank on his own.

However, despite a lifetime of arduous practice, he never even glimpsed the shadow of that door until his twilight years.

Knowing that his time was coming to an end, he was already disheartened and sought out a place with excellent feng shui and beautiful scenery.

He only intended to prolong his life, quietly waiting for his body to be reborn, hoping for a vague and illusory next life connection that is only recorded in ancient books.

Just when he was in despair, a junior from the sect came to his door and presented him with a treasure that could defy fate.

The "Heaven-Mending Pill" was personally refined by the founder of Medicine King Valley!

This elixir is not one of those rare and common items in the world, but rather it was refined by a master of Medicine King Valley who devoted all his efforts to its creation.

It possesses the power to rival the wonders of nature, is priceless, and is a rare find.

That junior not only offered him this pill to forcibly prolong his life, but also came up with a new and unprecedented method to break through to the first-grade realm!

Not relying on the three plates to recognize the master is truly a genius idea.

Yun Miaozi thought of Xuanjizi, the brilliant and talented junior in the sect.

He received the Heavenly Plate's recognition as his master, but chose to enter the world and became deeply entangled with the imperial power of the Great Gan Dynasty.

According to his speculation, Xuanjizi wanted to glean the secret to breaking through to the first-grade realm from the prosperous dynasty's fortune.

The result was obvious: Xuanjizi failed.

Since that's the case, let's do the opposite!

As the Empress's life force rapidly faded in the Imperial Study, Yun Miaozi clearly sensed that the once stable imperial fortune was beginning to experience violent chaos and turmoil.

Indeed, his opportunity to advance to the first rank rested precisely on the word "chaos"!

The mysterious and almost Dao-like aura flowing around him at this moment is the clearest proof.

Jiang Wuyai was shocked.

Not only did this old guy not die, he actually managed to break through to the first-grade realm all by himself.

His lifelong obsession was cultivation, and he almost instantly connected Yun Miaozi's breakthrough with the assassination of the Empress.

Without time to ponder the intricacies, Jiang Wuyai roared, his voice booming like thunder.

"Let's do it!"