Yin Lingxi sensed them when they were just a few seconds away from their airship.

  A large group of cultivators made up of core formation realm experts, Nascent Soul realm masters, and someone whose cultivation she could not tell.

  A formidable group that would bring despair to whoever they targeted.

  Thankfully, they were inside the secret realm where their cultivation was restricted to the peak of the Core Formation realm and even then, they could only exert force equivalently to the peak of the Foundation Establishment realm thanks to the rules of this place.

  However, she was still worried about the person with unknown cultivation since he or she could pose a serious problem if they were in the Soul Transformation realm or above.

  She turned to her side to see how her beloved responded to this threat, only to see an intrigued look on his face as he turned in another direction, away from the approaching group.

  “Wei? Where are you looking?”

  “Hm? Oh! Nothing, I just sensed something strange. Putting that aside, do you want to retreat into our room for some rest while I deal with these people?”

  Yin Lingxi gave him a playful glare and smacked his shoulder.

  “I am not some helpless beauty that you need to look out for. Besides, this could be a good opportunity to test out my new powers on live targets instead of training against you which does not help me understand my true limits.”

  Da Wei laughed at her words before sitting down.

  “Alright. Have fun.”

  She felt her heart soar at the trust he showed with this gesture, once again making her realize why she fell in love with this man.

  In this world of cultivation, it was sadly common for women to be looked down upon no matter their power or status due to how their culture had evolved over the years. It was even worse for cultivators since most of the ancestors and leaders of the various forces counted their lives in hundreds or thousands of years, making their views on things extremely traditional and biased.

  But Da Wei was different. He never looked down on Yin Lingxi and neither did he ever take advantage of her. He never tried to act superior because he is stronger and neither did he ever try to be overprotective of her, as if she were a delicate vase that would be shattered with the slightest touch.

  Even with their relationship now confirmed, he never tried to be dominant over her like most men did with their lovers, and neither did he try to push his view of things on her.

  Yin Lingxi could not even name a single man who had such qualities which went to show how unique he was.

  Shaking her head to get rid of those distracting thoughts, she turned back towards the back, just in time for a group of cultivators to land on their airship.

  Normally, something like this would have been impossible since Da Wei had crammed hundreds of defensive formations onto his personal airship, including barriers meant to keep out unwanted intruders. But, he disabled some of these barriers to allow these people entry which was the only reason they landed on the airship and were not splattered all over the hard light shield around the ship.

  Instantly, Yin Lingxi and Da Wei noticed that it was not just one group that was following them, but two.

  One of them had higher numbers but a lower cultivation realm overall with eighteen cultivators in total, six of them in the core formation realm and twelve in the Nascent Soul peak. They were also dressed in pure black clothing with masks and artifacts that kept Da Wei and Yin Lingxi from identifying who they were.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The other group was much smaller and wore luxurious robes and trinkets. This group was only made up of six people but they were all in the Nascent Soul realm with their leader being in the Soul Transformation realm.

  It was also evident that the two groups had completely different objectives from the get-go.

  The group with the luxurious robes bowed towards Da Wei and started to speak.

  “Young Master Huxing-“

  Before they could complete their words, the other group moved and the airship erupted into chaos.

  With blades that reeked of foul essence to Da Wei’s senses, they plunged forward in a messy and oddly coordinated way. Half of them, those in the lower cultivation realms, rushed Yin Lingxi while the other half rushed towards Da Wei, intending to kill the two people on the spot.

  “YOU!!”

  The enraged roar of the Soul Transformation expert had barely rang out across the ship before Yin Lingxi moved.

  With a burst of Qi, the airship was suddenly engulfed by an oppressive feeling and crystal-clear liquid that completely trapped the assailants in their place.

  With a wave of her hand, the liquid instantly broke through whatever artifact these people used to hide their identities along with the masks and clothing, leaving them nearly naked while also revealing a small seal on their backs, a seal that she recognized instantly.

  “Oh? I never realized that the Baihu Empire was bold enough to attack an Empress in such an underhanded way. I thought Baihu Hankai was a straightforward man but it seems I thought wrong, right? Wei?”

  Da Wei relaxed in his chair and chuckled, completely unaffected by the liquid surrounding him thanks to Yin Lingxi’s conscious control over the treasure.

  “Yeah. Looks like he could not risk losing this chance to kill you even if he had to use assassins for it. What do you want to do with them?”

  “What do you wish?”

  Da Wei smiled, knowing exactly what was going on through her head.

  He knew that Yin Lingxi thought of him as a person who was too na?ve and did not like bloodshed while viewing herself as someone extremely ruthless. A baseless thought process but one that he could not change since she would not recognize the truth unless she witnessed it personally.

  “Lingxi, I am not na?ve and I know exactly what you are thinking. No matter what you do, my opinion of you won’t change.”

  That was all the confirmation that she needed as she grinned savagely and operated the natural treasure expertly.

  Under the horrified gaze of the other group of cultivators, the assassins were slowly crushed into a paste by the increasing pressure of the liquid until all that was left was a pile of meat.

  The crazed grin on her face sent chills down the spines of this group as they now looked at her with a trace of fear.

  ‘No wonder young master Huxing took her as his own. This kind of ruthlessness and talent is indeed worthy of being a part of the Holy Land. It is a pity she was not born in our own Holy Land. We could have used her hand in marriage as a way to strengthen ties with the Hidden Heavens Holy Land.’

  The leader of the group, Commander Luo, made sure to carve her figure and appearance into his heart so that he would report back to his master after this expedition and make sure to keep an eye on her in the future for any opportunities.

  Da Wei turned towards the other group while Yin Lingxi retracted the Starlight Essence Dew into her body.

  Somehow, the calm smile on his face appeared extremely threatening to this group of people.

  “Sorry about the mess. So, you were about to identify yourself right? Please, go ahead.”

  “…..of course, young master Huxing. I am Commander Luo from Autumn Fang Holy Land and we have come here to invite you back to our holy land for a visit.”

  “Not interested, you can go back now.”

  The dumbfounded look on his face made Yin Lingxi chuckle but she relaxed quickly when she sat down beside Da Wei and he took her hand into his own.

  As the group tried to understand what they were supposed to do now, Yin Lingxi secretly sent a transmission to her beloved.

  ‘You are really good at acting, Wei. I thought you would give us away when I killed those assassins in such a brutal way, or that you would openly be disgusted by my actions.’

  ‘…While your method was indeed too cruel, you should also know by now that I only care about the lives of those I love. Besides, they were assassins who were after our lives, you don’t need to justify your actions to me.’

  Yin Lingxi smiled at those words and silently leaned on him.

  ‘So, do you really not want to go with them to find your family?’

  ‘Not really. I don’t need a family that I never knew about until recently when I already have a loving family waiting for me. How can a holy land compare to a loving daughter, a beloved woman who crossed thousands of Li with me for the sole reason of spending time with me, and a village that looks at me as their pillar of support?”

  He received no response to his words, but he did feel Yin Lingxi’s hold on his hand grow stronger as she leaned more on him.

  The couple sat there like this, making the group of cultivators green with envy while they contemplated their next course of actions.

  All the while, an extraordinary meeting was taking place a few miles away from them.

  Read 8 chapters ahead on Patreon: