Rumble...
The sky darkened, the clouds roared, and golden lightning descended carrying unimaginable waves of heaven and earth essence.
The intensity was beyond the scope of recognition, but it was divided between Tianshi, Yue, and Ning'er.
However, the intensity which Tianshi had to endure was far beyond that of her junior sisters.
If one was to make a comparison and say that Yue and Ning'er were sailing through a stormy sea, then Tianshi was attempting to sail through frozen waters.
Heaven and earth energy flooded like a tide, smiting down at the female companions in a manner that makes one shudder in trepidation.
Unbeknownst to the girls, the worldly whirlpool above that magnetized heaven and earth energy from the immediate vicinity had an alien energy submerge into the essence.
This amount of energy was laughable when compared to the quantity and quality of heaven and earth energy, but it wasn't anything a Peak Eclipse Cultivator can cope with, much less two juniors stepping into the Twilight Realm and a young woman stepping into the Eclipse Realm.
Just as they were oblivious of the abnormality, the same was for Noire and Arima.
The portion of corrosive Monster Qi was simply too abstract and inconspicuous to notice.
If there was a real human practice expert scrutinizing over the breakthrough process, then maybe he could differentiate one and two.
Alas, such an expert doesn't exist in the Northern Region.
"What is your connection with the Phoenix Household?" Noire suddenly asked, totally ignoring Arima's warning.
"Huh?!" Arima was perplexed for a moment, but he had nothing to hide.
"I have no connections with them," He faintly replied. "This is the wilderness, the strong dominates the weak! This is how it has always been. That Phoenix Queen had always been the only Celestial level entity and so she spread her filthy wings over the Northern Region, it's about time for some renovations."
From Arima's overbearing tone, Noire could deduce that at least there wasn't an agreed upon plot.
If there wasn't an agreement beforehand, this could only mean one thing.
Of course, Arima is also aware of this point, hence why he called the Phoenix Queen a good hostess.
'So she decided to use us as a peace treaty gift, huh...' Noire's eyes suddenly flashed with a cold light as he thought about this possibility.
No wonder, no wonder she remained quiet for these three years.
With a deep sigh, Noire turned his gaze towards the peak of the plateau as he spoke in a clear yet cold tone.
"I can reckon what your thoughts are. Still, I'll still say it better not be what I'm thinking."
Arima was bewildered for an instant, then he noticed Noire's gaze aimed towards the Heavenly Tribulation phenomenon.
Realizing the subtle threat, Arima laughed like a maniac as his bloodline exploded with Monster Qi.
A powerful ripple swept by, although he was at the early stages of Celestial Realm, the power was enough to instantly dissipate the trees in a hundred meters radius, whilst the aftermath of the shockwave uprooted countless trees.
From above, the landscape appeared as if a hellish pit emerged out of nowhere.
Of course, if this was a real Celestial Entity, the coercion has the potential to launch Noire like a ragged sack.
The difference in cultivation is simply that huge.
However, waving bloodline powers and Monster Qi in front of the descendant of a Holy Spirit was simply presumptuous.
Arima had his eyes closed, jerking his head back and laughing his heart out, he was yet to realize that Noire didn't budge.
However, back in the palace, the entire room was pin drop silent.
The scene left them flabbergasted.
Noire stood amidst the raging coercion as if it wasn't any different from a morning breeze.
The Queen didn't even want to think about why or how it was possible, her body grew stiff from the thought alone.
She could only pray nothing substantial occurs.
Intentionally or unintentionally, she glanced at Kirin and Lady Feng.
The former was just sweating lightly, whilst the latter, who witnessed the horror of Noire's capabilities, she was drenched in cold sweat and visibly trembling.
- - - -
Meanwhile, about a half incense away, Anastasia shuddered as the aftermath of Arima's fluctuations have finally reached her.
'This bloodline... A Celestial! Could the queen be personally watching over Noire's breakthrough? No, this bloodline is far off from a Phoenix bloodline.'
Anastasia somewhat had a panicked expression.
'Northern Region now has two Celestial Powerhouses? That's bad! Phoenix Queen doesn't care about human affairs, but what if the second powerhouse does?!'
Suppressing the dreadness in her heart, Anastasia decided to switch her target from the heart of the Heavenly Tribulation and first visit the Celestial Powerhouse Senior.
The matter of Noire can wait, first she should attempt and solicit a good relationship with the unknown senior. She doesn't care about the Nine Families, if she could at least speak in the favour of her husband's family; Luhei Household, that would already be enough.
Also, a second Celestial Entity is enough to shake the power balance in the entire continent!
Her husband is half step into the Celestial, but that's nothing against a real Celestial, and a monster nonetheless!
- - - -
By now, Arima noticed something amiss, his laughter was abruptly caught short as he looked in front of him.
"!"
Shocked.
"How are you still standing?" Arima exclaimed in disbelief.
His thought process instantly turned incoherent, mainly because he can still feel heaven and earth fluctuations from Noire, so the possibility of Noire being a pinnacle existence in the bloodline hierarchy never crossed his mind.
Noire noticed the confusion in Arima's eyes and instantly figured out the reason.
With a grin behind his mask, he found a good way to buy time, make use of Arima's staggered thought process!
Noire unceremoniously motioned to his jade mask and said in a righteous tone.
"This jade mask is inscribed with profound runes that contain the bloodline of a powerful beast from the core continent! It can not only block spiritual fluctuations, but also the coercion of Monster Qi!" Noire said.
Arima looked at him with a blank expression, he then tried to channel his soul force to probe into Noire's mask for it to be instantly repelled with a minor backlash.
Noire didn't lie... Completely. His jade mask is supported with the soul force of a Dragonborn.
Unlike bloodline, one can't discern the origin of a soul without seeing the spiritual body.
Therefore, whether he liked it or not, Arima had no other choice but to believe Noire's words.
'So he has connections with the core continent... Could he be related to the imperial family?' Arima thought.
After a moment of contemplating, Arima grinned wickedly and said, "Doesn't matter, I'll simply beat you up with my fists." Saying this, Arima instantly disappeared like a ghost, appearing in front of Noire to send a powerful punch.
BOOM!
The air erupted and split apart.
A wide crevice was formed from the shockwave alone, yet Noire was nowhere to be seen, startling Arima.
"Hah~..." Noire sighed as he ghostly appeared about half a kilometre in the distance.
"To think a dignified Celestial Entity is so slow, I can't believe it."
"What did you say?!"
BOOM!
Arima didn't finish his question before a thunderous sonic explosion erupted from Noire's previous location, which happened to be the current position of Arima.
Arima heard a crisp whizzing noise ring through his ears as a sharp headache washed over his senses.
It didn't last long, only a split second.
He shook his head in rage and exploded with Monster Qi, launching after Noire who kept elegantly dodging and expanding the distance.
To an onlooker, it two erratic phantoms would instantly clash and intertwine before fading in the distance. If one didn't know better, they'd think the contest is between two equally matched Celestial Entities.
...
"That Arima is an idiot! He can't even process the fact he's being toyed with!" One of the astute Phoenix Maidens gashed her teeth.
"W-what do you mean?" A young Phoenix asked.
"Remember the sonic blast that erupted earlier? That's Noire using his own Primal Predator movement technique. He moved so fast that he actually created a buffer period of at least two seconds before the blast actually occurred..." She replied with a pale expression.
"Not only that, now he's deliberately maintaining his speed within reach of Arima's momentum, this further emphasizes on how slow Arima's thinking is!" Another Phoenix Maiden sucked in a deep breath.
Suddenly, the entire hall had their eyes focused on the Phoenix Queen, and her dark expression spoke in volumes.
What they didn't know is that Noire's first step was to test the extent he can use 'Primal Predator' to in his current body, and he can't say that he was satisfied.
The backlash was too severe, thus his momentum dropped.
Although he was fast now, he could erupt a breach in sound barrier every five steps, which emphasizes on the severity of the received backlash.
However, it is just enough to cope with Arima till the breakthrough ends... Hopefully.
Currently, whether it was Noire, Anastasia, Arima, or the Phoenix Queen.
Ironically, and for various reasons, each had one subtle thought.
'This is very bad!'