Teleportation

"Aren't you going to call them out yet?" Silence hung over the cell as the crisp, melodious female voice echoed softly alongside the gentle buzzing of the pendant. Orenli looked at Xu Yuan, streaks of light flickering in her azure eyes, brightening and dimming by turns. Xu Yuan looked back at her just as steadily, making no move. Amidst their silent stare, Orenli let out a soft breath and smiled leisurely. "Is that so? As expected, your goal was never just intelligence on Sien." The balance floating between them blocked Xu Yuan's line of sight, leaving him able to see only her smiling crimson lips. "You seemed to have anticipated it." "When trapped in a desperate situation, if one wants to escape, one must take every possibility into account." "If so, why did you still play into my hands?" "Hmm..." Hearing this question, Orenli suddenly fell silent, then offered a radiant smile. "Because I never imagined your objective was the boundary pendant bestowed upon me by the Emperor." "Heh." With a chuckle, Xu Yuan's eyes curved slightly. "Now that you know, do you have anything to say?" Orenli tilted her head and pondered for a moment, lightly tapping her cheek with a fingertip. "Humans really are insatiably greedy creatures." "..." Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow. Orenli smiled sweetly. "Don't you agree? To chase desires like fame, fortune, ideals, and love, everyone behaves like a hysterical gambler. Those who lose want to make a comeback and win it back; those who win want to win even more. Just like you right now. You clearly could have stopped while you were ahead and extracted rewards from me with low or even zero risk, yet greed drove you to want more. And for that, you have no choice but to stake far more on the table. Even your life." Hearing this, Xu Yuan could not help chuckling aloud. "You think I'll die?" "It's possible," Orenli answered very seriously. "It seems you are quite confident in the strength of whoever is about to be teleported here." Xu Yuan glanced down at the Boundary Void Stone pendant incessantly buzzing against his chest. "He is the strongest being in Sien." Orenli's answer was rather casual, yet an imperceptible sliver of dread lingered in her eyes. "Oh, no... He probably can no longer be considered human." Xu Yuan let out a light sigh and shook his head. "Orenli, in Great Yan, confidence and conceit are separated by only a single word." "No, I know your Prime Minister's Manor might indeed be capable of defeating Him, but that will give me far more options." Orenli glanced around and answered briskly, "I am well aware that relying on my own strength alone makes escaping this Black Prison nearly impossible. Even if I miraculously escaped, Great Yan itself awaits outside as a larger cage. So in fact, I should thank you for giving me this opportunity." "A remarkably self-aware assessment," Xu Yuan commented with a smile. "Though it sounds sarcastic, I'll accept it as praise." Orenli smiled sweetly and lightly wagged a slender index finger at Xu Yuan. "Still, Xu Yuan, are you sure you don't want to move? If you stay still any longer, the spatial forces are going to tear you to shreds." The vibrating drone of the Boundary Void Stone pendant had steadily intensified; over the course of their brief conversation, it had grown piercing to the ear. Xu Yuan lowered his gaze, glanced down, and smiled faintly. "Didn't I just want to chat with you a little longer?" Orenli clicked her tongue twice, crossed her arms over her chest, and smiled. "Are you regretting it?" Xu Yuan shrugged. "Of course not. I only find it somewhat regrettable. Had someone like you been born in Great Yan, I might have considered taking you under my wing. Whether as a concubine or my chief aide, your abilities are more than adequate." A sneer curled the corner of Orenli's lips. "Had you been born in Sien, I might have considered keeping you as a toy." "Only a toy?" Xu Yuan sounded somewhat dissatisfied. "I look down on people like you." "Just a moment ago you said we were the same kind of people." "I look down on myself too." Orenli waved a fair arm dismissively, her eyes slanting sideways. "Compared to people like us, I prefer pure souls like Huron. It's just a pity he was too weak." Catching the underlying meaning in her words, Xu Yuan fell silent for a brief moment, then scoffed, "Don't tell me one look at Changge ruined your life forever?" "Would you ruin your life over a woman?" "..." A sudden silence fell. Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly, staring at Orenli without a word. Meeting his scrutinizing gaze, Orenli smiled with curved eyes. "Why so quiet all of a sudden?" Xu Yuan let out a soft breath. "I suddenly understand why you dislike yourself." Orenli's eyes glinted with teasing amusement. "Is this embarrassment turning to anger after having your thoughts exposed?" "The person being teleported here should be your father, right?" Xu Yuan shook his head, ignoring her jab. "That, I can answer you. It is indeed my father." "The Emperor of the Sien Empire..." Xu Yuan frowned slightly, a flicker of contemplation passing through his eyes. He pointed at her slender, stark-naked figure and asked, "Since he's your father, aren't you going to take this chance to put on some clothes?" Orenli was taken aback for an instant, clearly not expecting him to say such a thing in a situation like this. She burst out laughing and waved her hand. "Pfft... He won't care." "Won't care?" Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes. Orenli twirled a strand of supple golden hair with her slender index finger, casting her gaze sideways toward the ground. "Well... how should I put it? Strictly speaking, my mother could probably also be considered my sister." "..." Xu Yuan was struck silent for a moment. After untangling the lineage in his mind, he massaged the space between his brows. "You people in Sien really have no sense of shame. Also... it must not have been easy for you to turn out so beautiful." Orenli looked slightly perplexed, failing to catch the meaning of his last remark. "What do you mean?" "..." Xu Yuan shook his head, having no desire to explain further. Reaching into his robes, he took out the pendant, casually tossed it aside, and turned around to walk toward the cell door. Orenli was an intelligent and dangerous woman; with incomplete information, she could very well have attempted to escape using the Boundary Void Stone pendant, much like how he had once shattered the Kunwu Mirror. However, that possibility was now gone. Although the array markings carved onto the Boundary Void Stone might differ from Great Yan's, once a teleportation array had progressed to this stage, cancelling it was impossible. As these thoughts crossed his mind, Xu Yuan's raised foot suddenly froze mid-step. "What's wrong?" A cheerful voice came from behind him. Orenli's tender bare feet made no sound against the floor. "Not leaving now? Do you wish to personally have an audience with the Emperor of my Sien Empire?" "..." His foot hung in the air, incapable of moving in the slightest. Xu Yuan felt the woman behind him drawing closer and felt her hand rest gently on his shoulder. Yet within his downcast eyes there was no panic; instead, an extra hint of relief appeared. That demon medium relic known as the Scale of Justice truly was not as simple as merely detecting lies. Orenli wrapped her arms around Xu Yuan's neck from behind, standing on tiptoe to whisper beside his ear: "To make sure I return alive, I need more leverage. So please, won't you—" Before she could finish her sentence, Xu Yuan's figure abruptly vanished before Orenli's eyes. Yet this disappearance did not even last a single frame before he reappeared right where he had stood. It was as though his vanishing had merely been an illusion. Having reappeared, Xu Yuan did not turn around or speak. He casually pulled Orenli's hands away and continued walking toward the door. Tap. Tap. Tap. Listening to the footsteps recede into the distance, Orenli stood gracefully in place. There was no surprise on her face, only a few traces of regret. Just as Great Yan's anti-magic arts were ineffective against her, the Scale of Justice was indeed incapable of controlling the flow of Source Qi inside these Yan people. It was just that Xu Yuan's teleportation technique was somewhat bizarre... Logically speaking, even if one teleported away using a spatial magic ring, the effects of the Scale of Justice should not have been interrupted. If not a spatial magic ring, then what was that? "Buzz—" Her train of thought was shattered by an intense drone. A violent gale surged from behind her, and the Boundary Void Stone pendant that had been cast onto the floor abruptly soared into midair. With the pendant as its epicenter, vortex-like ripples condensed within the cell. Blinding clusters of black, white, and purple light blended together, finally consolidating into a dazzling ring resembling a black hole. At the sight, Orenli slowly turned around, lowered her head, and dropped to one knee before the ring. After an indeterminate silence, a white boot that seemed like iron yet looked like cloth stepped noiselessly out of the ring, followed by a figure shrouded in a purple-black robe. With the figure's arrival, all filth within the cell seemed to be purified in an instant, and a holy radiance drifted into every corner. His features were concealed beneath a cowl, from which strands of golden hair drifted out, so lustrous they seemed infused with divine light. As the figure moved, stars seemed to orbit Him, and countless intricate patterns flickered into view around His form. He looked at the princess kneeling before Him, His voice clear and calm: "This is your first failure, Orenli." Kneeling on the ground without lifting her head, Orenli said softly, "This place is the dungeon of the Prime Minister's Manor of the Great Yan Dynasty. We must leave as soon as possible, Emperor." "..." After a moment of silence, the Emperor did not give her an affirmative answer. Instead, He said softly, "I know why you failed." "..." Her brow twitching slightly, Orenli instinctively looked up at her "father" before her. And then, behind her "father," in a dark corner of the dungeon, Orenli saw a man. That corner was like a forbidden zone of darkness where the holy radiance could not penetrate. And the man seemed to have been standing there all along. One could faintly make out snow-white robes; his upper body was hidden in shadow, leaving only a pair of calm eyes gleaming with a cold, clear light in the dark. He was watching them. Oh, no. He was looking only at Him.