Boundary Void Stone Pendant

Orenli felt a sliver of panic spreading through her heart. Though confident, she was by no means arrogant. According to the intelligence she had gathered, given the Great Yan Dynasty's depth in alchemy, it was fully capable of producing an anti-magic cell specifically targeted at her within an extremely short period. Perhaps this anti-magic cell would have flaws at the outset, but nothing in the world remained static; with continuous refinements, the Great Yan Dynasty would eventually develop a prison on par with the Rebisa Sanctuary. When that time came, she would most likely lose all hope of escape. With her warm, tender skin leaning against the smooth, frigid inner wall of the cell, a chill crept into her heart as Orenli fixed a stern, cold gaze on the figure walking toward the cell door. Forcing her mind to steady, Orenli began contemplating whether to take a gamble. To gamble on the possibility that these Yan people would slip up before the anti-magic cell was fully completed. No one could remain vigilant every second of every day. Currently, everything about her remained an unknown to the Great Yan Dynasty; holding her captive would require far more manpower and material resources than detaining their native cultivators. In the space of a single breath, myriad thoughts flashed through Orenli's mind. In the end, she slowly closed her eyes. Her thoughts unfolded within the cramped, dim cell. Gambling on that razor-thin edge, wagering on a single path of survival amid a desperate dead end, faintly stirred a flicker of excitement within her. However, she could not pin the hope of winning her gamble on someone else's blunder. Security in this Black Prison was too tight—not only its defensive force, but its control over information as well. That Earth-rank jailer knew very little. He knew nothing of the conditions in the Heaven-rank cells, nor where the inner formation cores lay; even the map of the Black Prison in his mind was incomplete. "Tap." "Tap." "Tap." "Don't you find this boring?" As three footsteps sounded, crisp yet accented Great Yan speech fell from her slightly parted red lips, echoing through the cramped cell. "If you and I truly are of the same kind, you ought to know that the shrieks of prey struggling after falling into a trap are the most beautiful symphony in this world." "I'm already listening to it right now." Without pausing in his stride or looking back, Xu Yuan replied with a hint of teasing, "The symphony you speak of sounds delightful indeed, Your Imperial Highness." "..." A moment of silence fell. Orenli raised her eyelids slightly, sweeping a piercing gaze over him before letting out a soft laugh. Straightening up, she let her hands fall along her plump thighs, clenching her fists. "I will cut to the chase. Xu Changtian, how about we make a deal?" "Hm?" Uttering a soft murmur of amusement, Xu Yuan said with a smile, "What makes you think you're qualified to deal with me? There are plenty of ways to obtain intelligence on Sien, and you, Princess, are merely one of them." Orenli's brow arched. "Those nobles and knights on Dongying Island?" Xu Yuan halted his steps and chuckled softly. "Naturally. I certainly don't believe every single one of those soldiers and nobles adheres to that so-called chivalric code of yours. Whether through intimidation or inducement, someone will break first—just like when you gathered intelligence on our Great Yan, isn't that right?" Orenli fell silent for an instant, the temperature of her crisp voice dropping further. "They are them. Xu Changtian, if you truly had no interest in the intelligence I possess, wouldn't simply killing me be far less trouble than keeping me locked away?" She stressed the word "I." Different tiers naturally received different levels of information; facts that some believed without question might merely be deliberate illusions crafted by others. "..." After a beat of silence, Xu Yuan sighed softly and turned around. He was not surprised that Orenli saw through this; after all, it was a matter of elementary logic. It would have been truly disappointing if she hadn't. Yet this was precisely what he wanted. It meant Orenli had most likely been completely led astray by his deception. She assumed the trump card she could barter with was the intelligence stored in her mind, but Xu Yuan did not care about that at all. What he cared about was solely the key to activating the Boundary Void Stone pendant. Though the Grand Banquet of the Prime Minister's Manor was nominally a private New Year celebration, no different from the poetry gatherings hosted by prominent scholars, in reality it had become a political summit presided over by the manor. A lavish gathering for big figures, a decadent feast of power. As long as Orenli activated that pendant deep beneath the Prime Minister's Manor, the manor would obtain what it desired. Fixing his gaze once more on the blonde woman whose snow-white skin resembled that of an elf, Xu Yuan murmured softly, "What do you want to trade?" "One question each." "Pfft." Xu Yuan glanced around the gloomy cell, wearing a somewhat teasing expression. "Are you sure about one each?" Orenli paused briefly, then said, "I ask one, you may ask two." "A fair proposition." Xu Yuan nodded, then asked with a smile, "However, that isn't the problem right now. How do you propose building a platform of mutual trust between us?" In this world, the concept of inner demons existed, but deadly inner-demon oaths did not. Cultivators could fail to break through bottlenecks due to psychological hurdles, but such inner demons were always produced passively as a result of certain events. Nobility is the epitaph of the noble; baseness is the passport of the base. Perhaps there were people in this world who could be bound by solemn oaths, but Xu Yuan possessed sufficient self-awareness to know he was not one of them, and Orenli was even less likely to be. "If we just lie to each other, this deal becomes nothing more than child's play." Spreading his hands, Xu Yuan pushed the dilemma back onto Orenli. "So, what do you plan to do?" "..." Without speaking, Orenli raised her right hand and made a downward swipe with her index finger. A pitch-black rift opened along the path traced by her fingertip. Xu Yuan's pupils constricted slightly. When the battle began that night, the Boundary Void Stone pendant had not been on Orenli, yet when it ended, it had appeared in her palm. Thus, Xu Yuan knew she possessed something akin to a Sumeru ring, but he hadn't expected it to exist in such a form. As Orenli withdrew a gold-threaded balance scale inlaid with gemstones from the dark rift, she said softly, "This is an application of a spatial magic ring. It is similar to the Sumeru rings of your Great Yan Dynasty, but requires lower magical cultivation, though its internal space is smaller as well." Saying this, she looked up at Xu Yuan. "This is a demon medium relic, the Scale of Justice. Attach your spirit medium to it—" "What is a spirit medium?" Xu Yuan interrupted. "You can understand it as the intent-soul of your Great Yan." "Is that so?" Xu Yuan looked at the Sien treasure in her hand. He sensed it was an excellent item, but smiled faintly. "In other words, you want me to pour my intent-soul into one end of this scale?" "Yes." Orenli nodded and said softly, "Once your intent-soul is attached to it, if your words do not align with your true mind, you will suffer a backlash." Xu Yuan was silent for a moment, then gave a faint smile. "Do you mind if I take it to study for a bit?" "You really are suspicious." "I have no way of verifying what you say." Xu Yuan chuckled. "What if this is a treasure that controls others by comparing the strength of intent-souls? Wouldn't I be walking straight into a trap?" Orenli snorted at that, casually extending the balance scale forward without hesitation. Xu Yuan smiled pleasantly and made no move to take it. A trace of confusion flickered in Orenli's beautiful eyes, followed by a slow roll of her eyes. A quarter of an hour later, the resplendent scale hovered in midair, exuding a faint purplish-black luminescence. Standing to one side of the scale, Orenli glanced toward the cell door where two burly figures had just departed, and chuckled softly. "You should have finished whatever verification you needed to do. Can we make our deal now?" Xu Yuan drew a breath, the corner of his lips curving upward as faint pink ripples stirred in his crimson eyes. "Of course. Let's—" "I advise you not to try hypnotizing yourself." Orenli interrupted him with a pleasant smile. "That trick won't work on the Scale of Justice." The glow receded. Xu Yuan sighed softly, sounding somewhat regretful. "You actually noticed." "One cannot slip in the exact same puddle twice." "Let us begin." "Aren't you going to find someone skilled in illusions to verify the truth of my claim?" "You already knew I would check, so there's no need to go through all that trouble." With that, Xu Yuan channeled his spiritual vision directly into the magnificent scale hovering in midair. Orenli smiled radiantly, raising a fair hand to gently touch the other side of the scale. Looking at the slender, unclad figure of the woman across from him, Xu Yuan spoke: "I'll ask first. The first question: your Sien Empire's cultivation system—" Buzz— Before he could finish, a sudden drone erupted from his chest. The Boundary Void Stone pendant within his robes suddenly burst into a piercing, grating screech! The Boundary Void Stone pendant had been activated.