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Lan An watched calmly as his arrow incinerated a hall master's chest, indifferent to the Void-shattering hand nearing his head.
"Careful!" Shui Niang Qing, locked in combat with Hei Sha, kept watch over Lan An. Seeing the ambush, her face paled, and she screamed.
"Haha, die!" Hei Sha roared savagely, his axe swinging with brutal force. His eyes gleamed with ferocity and glee. Killing these two would secure the Lan Hong Sect, offsetting all losses.
As the hand closed in, Lan An didn't turn, only smirking eerily. "I've been waiting for you."
The ambusher's heart sank with unease.
At that moment, another void rift opened beside Lan An. A delicate, jade-like hand, radiating endless frost, struck at the attacking arm.
"Trouble!" the ambusher gasped. The icy palm shattered space.
Boom!
The clash of two Void Refinement arms sent Lan An flying from the shockwave.
The sudden twist stunned the battlefield, halting even Shui Niang Qing and Hei Sha's fight.
"What the hell?" Hei Sha bellowed, expecting Lan An's demise, not this upheaval.
Shui Niang Qing, noting Lan An's composure, recalled their past conversation, muttering, "Was this all part of his plan?"
The void split, revealing two figures facing off.
A masked man in black robes, exuding late-stage Void Refinement aura, was the ambusher. Opposite him stood a lithe woman, her graceful form breathtaking, at mid-stage Void Refinement.
"How can this be?" The crowd gasped as they saw her face—identical to Shui Niang Qing's.
Even Shui Niang Qing was stunned, staring at the woman who mirrored her perfectly, though with a colder, more ethereal aura.
The battlefield fell silent, two Shui Niang Qings present.
"Ya Er, finish him!" Lan An grinned at the woman resembling Shui Niang Qing.
"Ya Er?" Shui Niang Qing muttered, huffing inwardly. "This must be his trick… but who is she?"
Echoing her thoughts, the black-robed man glared at Ji Ya, disguised as Shui Niang Qing, his raspy voice cold. "Who are you? Stay out of this. Your mid-stage Void Refinement can't touch me!"
"A cowardly rat dares threaten me?" Ji Ya sneered, her pristine hand surging with spiritual power. Her lips parted. "Lingbo Twin Palms!"
One palm wielded water, the other ice, forming palm imprints that shattered space, striking the black-robed man without hesitation.
The air chilled.
The man's heart jolted, stunned by her attack's near late-stage Void Refinement power. His hands formed seals, shouting, "Raging Sea Crimson Fist!"
Endless Water Spiritual Power enveloped his fists, the surrounding sea roaring in fury, clashing head-on with Lingbo Twin Palms.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The mid-air collision of two Void Refiners could overturn heavens. Weaker pirates struggled, huddling in defense.
Shui Niang Qing, fighting Hei Sha, saw the black-robed man's technique and roared, "Raging Sea Crimson Fist is from the True Sea Scripture. You treacherous scum, you're behind it all!"
"Hmph, distracted while fighting me?" Hei Sha sneered, his axe slashing down. Shui Niang Qing dodged, but a long gash opened on her arm.
Nirvana Spirit Water surged, healing the wound swiftly.
"Damn it, go all out!" Hei Sha, knowing her Strange Water's terrifying recovery, feared defeat if the fight dragged on. He shouted at the black-robed man.
The man, seeing the dire situation as Lan An slaughtered the Sharks, gritted his teeth and dove into the sea.
"Where are you fleeing?" Ji Ya snapped, her Lingbo Microsteps pursuing, her hands unleashing Twin Palms relentlessly.
The man dodged frantically, reaching the sea's surface.
"Careful! The True Sea Scripture shines brightest at sea!" Shui Niang Qing warned.
"I'd like to test it!" Ji Ya scoffed. No matter how potent, the True Sea Scripture was only Heaven-grade, while she cultivated Spirit-grade techniques.
"Last chance. Leave now. We have no grudge!" the man growled.
"You talk too much!" Ji Ya retorted, her Lingbo Twin Palms tearing through the void.
The sea churned with massive waves under the Void Refiners' might.
"You'll regret this!" the man snarled, roaring, "True Sea Scripture, Sea's Wrath!"
Water columns rose like dragons, crushing toward Ji Ya.
Ji Ya's expression shifted, her hands forming seals for her trump card. "Ice-Water Lingbo Art—Lingbo Heaven-Imprisoning Hand!"
A colossal, breathtaking phantom appeared behind her—the Lingbo Empress.
"Shatter Mountains and Rivers!"
The phantom's delicate arm, imbued with earth-shaking power, grabbed at Sea's Wrath.
Crack!
The icy hand froze Sea's Wrath into towering ice spirals.
A thousand li of sea surface froze solid.
Before the man's horrified eyes, Lingbo Heaven-Imprisoning Hand thundered onward.
The gap between Spirit-grade and Heaven-grade techniques was stark.
"True Sea Scripture—True Sea Avatar!"
Unwilling to lose, the man roared.
The ice shattered, endless Water Spiritual Power surging like a tide, enveloping him. He became a water giant, commanding the sea, his massive arms swinging at the oncoming hand.
But Ji Ya gave no quarter, coldly declaring, "Ice-Water Barrier!"
A vast barrier of ice and water encased the water giant.
This technique, which once trapped Lan An, proved its might again.
"Damn it, break!" The giant pounded the barrier, nearing escape, but Lingbo Heaven-Imprisoning Hand struck.
With mountain-shattering force, it smashed the giant.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The barrier shattered, the water giant crashing across the sea, dissolving into foam.
The black-robed man, a late-stage Void Refiner, survived the blow but struggled to rise. A devastating palm, shattering space, struck his side.
"Soul-Merging Palm!" Lan An seized the moment, with only three Divine Transformation hall masters left, held at bay by Little Lion.
The man's reflexes avoided a fatal hit, but the palm tore through his waist, leaving a gruesome wound. Blood stained the sea red.
His mask shattered, revealing a pale, resentful face.
"Damn it, if I had her Strange Water, I wouldn't have lost so miserably… Argh!" he howled.
Lan An and Little Lion pierced the last hall master's chest with a spear.
Seeing the man's face, Lan An wasn't surprised, smirking. "As expected."
Hei Sha, watching his ally fall faster than him, paled bloodlessly.
Shui Niang Qing seized the chance, her spear crackling with lightning, her face stern, channeling all her spiritual power.
"Water Dragon Thunder Gang Strike!"
Her spear, wrapped in lightning and Strange Water, formed a Thunder Dragon phantom.
Roar!
The dragon's roar shattered the void. Shui Niang Qing, pale, shouted, "Go!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The earth-shaking strike, carrying annihilative force, tore forward.
A Heaven-grade technique from Saint Spirit Academy, it drained eighty percent of her spiritual power, used only at the perfect moment.
Hei Sha, startled, raised his axe to block.
Boom!
His body flew, half-destroyed, gasping on the brink of death.
Shui Niang Qing panted, not pursuing Hei Sha. Instead, she shocked all by condensing lightning at her spear's tip and charging the helpless black-robed man on the sea.
Her spear, brimming with killing intent, aimed at the man whose face mirrored her father's. Her eyes bloodshot, she roared, "Where is my father?"
The man looked at her, laughing maniacally. "Haha, Shui Niang Qing, you and your mother suspected it long ago, didn't you? Yet you clung to hope that Shui Xiong lived… Haha!"
"Scum!" Shui Niang Qing screamed, her spear piercing his arm.
"By rights, I should call you Great-Grandfather, but you're worse than a beast…" She gritted her teeth, tears streaming down her face.
Staring at the man who looked like her father—or rather, her grandfather—she trembled. "Why… after a thousand years, do you still look so young?"
"Haha, without that brat Lan An and this mysterious woman, the Lan Hong Sect would be mine again. With the Black Sharks' aid, I'd rule Lan Zhou. It all stems from an Eternal Visage Pill… Haha, heaven's jest!" The man laughed bleakly, his aura aging rapidly.
"Eternal Visage Pill?" Shui Niang Qing froze.
While a Youthful Visage Pill restored youthful vigor and preserved appearance, the Eternal Visage Pill was more miraculous, locking one's appearance and youthful aura forever at the moment of consumption.
"Haha, for over thirty years, I took a traitor for my father, unaware he fell to your schemes. No wonder, after Shui Mo Er's birth, Mother changed, ignoring Father despite their once-deep love. She noticed your oddity but dared not confirm or reveal it…" Shui Niang Qing murmured bleakly, her own suspicions about her father's strangeness growing.
Since Shui Mo Er's birth, her father never smiled at him. She thought it was strict parenting. Her mother's changes fueled her doubts, but she feared the truth.
Her father, Shui Xiong, was dead, replaced by an impostor. The horror overwhelmed her.
"When did you take my father's place?" she demanded, each word sharp.
"Haha, the night before that brat Shui Mo Er was born. Shui Xiong never saw his newborn son. And Shui Shuang Hua, so pitiful. I avoided her, fearing exposure. At first, she thought her husband's heart had changed… Haha!" The man laughed skyward, reveling in deceiving a family for over thirty years.
A thousand years ago, the Lan Hong Sect birthed twin brothers, identical in appearance, their strength nearly equal. The elder, Shui Liu, and the younger, Shui Chao.
The brothers were never close, fiercely competing.
After centuries of rivalry, Shui Chao won, becoming the sect's heir.
Shui Liu feigned acceptance but stole the sect's sole Heaven-grade technique, the True Sea Scripture, and fled. He later obtained an Eternal Visage Pill in an ancient ruin, preserving his youth.
After decades in seclusion mastering the True Sea Scripture, Shui Liu secretly founded the Black Shark Pirates. Hei Sha, then a genius rogue cultivator, joined him.
Over five centuries, the Sharks grew, with Hei Sha leading publicly and Shui Liu scheming in the shadows, aiming to reclaim the Lan Hong Sect.
An unexpected event altered his plans.
Shui Chao, after becoming Sect Leader, blamed himself for losing the True Sea Scripture. He tried reconstructing it from memory, but perfecting a Heaven-grade technique was beyond a Void Refiner. He died of grief.
Shui Xiong, Shui Chao's son, resembled his father, only six or seven then.
During the Lan Hong Sect's weakest moment, enemy forces attacked, eliminating its Void Refinement elders over years of conflict, at great cost to themselves.
By the war's end, the once Eighth-grade sect fell to Seventh-grade.
Shui Xiong, now grown, married Shui Shuang Hua, their love deep. They bore Shui Niang Qing, and a century later, Shui Shuang Hua conceived Shui Mo Er.
Shui Niang Qing, prodigiously talented, gained Strange Water young and joined Saint Spirit Academy, her cultivation soaring.
This sparked Shui Liu's greed.
After meticulous planning, posing as Shui Chao's old friend, he lured Shui Xiong out.
Shui Xiong, revering his father, agreed, shocked to see Shui Liu's identical face.
Too late. Shui Liu killed his nephew, using the True Sea Scripture's Submerge Water Art to suppress his cultivation to Shui Xiong's level, flawlessly impersonating him.
For over thirty years, Shui Liu deceived the sect, plotting to eliminate Shui Mo Er and Shui Niang Qing for her Strange Water, then seize the sect.
Shui Shuang Hua suffered most, sensing her husband's change but unable to voice it, dedicating herself to raising Shui Mo Er.
Shui Niang Qing, seeing her "father" in seclusion, was initially relieved, as long retreats were normal for cultivators. But over time, her mother's distance from "Father" and the lack of paternal bond with Shui Mo Er fueled her suspicions.
She hadn't clarified when Shui Mo Er was ambushed by Hei Ao, then kidnapped, hinting at a traitor.
With Shui Mo Er hostage, she couldn't act rashly.
She bet on Lan An, and he didn't disappoint.
Lan An, upon entering the Lan Hong Sect, avoided using his White Moon Soul-Seizing Eye out of courtesy, gauging cultivation by aura alone.
When hunting the traitor, his eye revealed "Shui Xiong's" true cultivation, piercing the Submerge Water Art's concealment.