Within the deep crimson flames, a figure flickered in and out of view.
Ning Rongrong saw this and spoke up:
"Show yourself. I know you can sense what's happening outside."
As soon as her words fell, the terrifying flames erupted with bursts of intense aura.
Destruction… ancient, decayed.
The splashing flames tried to burn the cage bound by iron chains.
"It's useless. You should have already tried that." Ning Rongrong observed the deep crimson shining flames, her tone completely calm.
"Who are you? In the Douluo plane, there shouldn't be a powerhouse like you."
A somewhat alluring voice came from within the flames, and the flames in the cage trembled lightly.
"Ning Rongrong. Didn't you just hear my name from Bo Saixi?"
Ning Rongrong's voice caused the blood-red flames to fall silent.
A moment later, the outline on the flames began to take shape. The surrounding firelight compressed, finally transforming into a female phantom.
The woman was about one meter eighty tall, with long dark red shoulder-length hair gently floating. Her fair skin had an extremely lustrous glow, and a wonderful mysterious aura drifted around her entire body. The red dress she wore added a touch of allure to the woman.
"You're very dangerous. The feeling you give me is even more dangerous than that Sea God."
"Perhaps." Ning Rongrong did not refute, carefully sizing up the woman before her who possessed stunning beauty.
It had to be said that, judging purely from appearance, her looks were not inferior to the Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena.
Especially that superior aura, completely different from Gu Yuena's.
Gu Yuena's aura mainly came from the Dragon God.
As for herself…
That future love-brained Gu Yuena had absolutely no superior aura to speak of. Being tricked until she couldn't tell north from south was more like it.
"Nice to meet you, the true ruler of the Abyss plane."
"Crimson Mother."
"You know me?" The woman's delicate brows furrowed slightly.
A native who hadn't even left her planet actually knew her. Could the waters of the Douluo plane run that deep?
The current Crimson Mother was not the one who would be intimidated by God King Tang San tens of thousands of years later. Her actions were far more willful now.
Ning Rongrong did not answer. She spoke:
"I need power, so I hope you can give your power to me."
"Power…"
The woman sized up Ning Rongrong, but it was as if a layer of mist shrouded Ning Rongrong—she could observe no useful information at all.
"Hmph, I don't think you're weak at all. And what do I get out of it?"
"How about I give you the plane you're in right now?"
The woman thought for a moment before speaking.
A native resident of a planet connected to the Divine Realm should, in theory, hold absolute status within that planet.
"If you can actually do it, sure!"
"Pfft—" The woman sneered. "Just say you want it for free."
"Little girl, I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice. Wordplay tricks won't work on me." The woman continued, "If you want this power of mine, come and take it!"
"In this super divine artifact tower, plus with two special existences like you here, this fragment of my soul can't escape anyway."
"Then thank you very much." At Ning Rongrong's signal, all the chains binding the red flames vanished completely. The woman surrounded by faint flames landed on the tower's body.
"So… see you next time!"
Countless pitch-black, ink-like cracks appeared on the woman's body like blades.
"What exquisite space-time rules!" The woman was startled and tried to counter.
Even if it was only a fragment of her soul and will, she didn't want to hand it over so easily.
"Chi—"
"Chi chi—"
Several beams of white light stabbed directly into the woman's arms and legs, while her chest was pierced straight through by a wide-bladed greatsword.
"Materialized soul power!"
Before the woman could finish speaking, her body rapidly dissipated, leaving only specks of red light drifting inside the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.
Looking at the red floating on the surface—every single light particle cut to an extremely fine size, entwined with an aura of destruction.
"Tch, and I thought it was some kind of strength. Half-step God King is only at this level?"
Tokisaki Kurumi smiled disdainfully.
"We had the geographical advantage. Talking to her just now was only to relax her resolve to resist with all her might."
"What do you mean 'resist with all her might'?" Tokisaki Kurumi asked, puzzled.
"Because we're not from the Divine Realm." Ning Rongrong explained, "Even though she was sealed, she could still hear some of what we said to Bo Saixi earlier. That way, she wouldn't go all out and fight to the death."
"Aren't you afraid she'll use that information as a credential to join them?"
For a half-step God King realm, ascending to the Divine Realm wouldn't be difficult.
"The Destruction God and Life God still have no plans to pass on their inheritance positions."
"Half-step God King, and her cultivation rules are similar to the Destruction God's."
"Like repels like. Do you think she isn't afraid?"
"That's all just your speculation…" Tokisaki Kurumi complained. "I mean, what if something goes wrong?"
"What could possibly go wrong?" Ning Rongrong said.
"In two years, we have to reach a higher level. Otherwise, there's no meaning at all."
"It's better to rely on yourself than on others. Don't overthink it."
"Whatever you say. Who told you to be my master?" Tokisaki Kurumi absorbed the red light source, while the remaining portion was taken in by the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.
"The Extreme of Qi is yours now."
"During this time, I'll find a way to cultivate the pinnacle Extreme of Power properly."
Ning Rongrong exited the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. After she left, the fusion on her body was released.
At this point, it was equivalent to Tokisaki Kurumi cultivating inside the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.
Ning Rongrong, meanwhile, sat cross-legged in the middle of the sea, cultivating.
Hm, something like a certain "Eye Legend: Five Village Melee" clone cultivating immortal techniques, probably…
At the same time, in the Abyss plane.
"Interesting." The Crimson Mother wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. "That little girl named Ning Rongrong plans to resist the Divine Realm?"
"But the Divine Realm has five great God Kings and a large group of first-level gods. What's your trump card?"
"It really makes me curious!"
Even though her divine sense was imprisoned in the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, the Crimson Mother could still capture a rough idea of what happened when the divine sense disappeared, through the resonance power produced by the two super divine artifacts in her hands.
Inside that so-called Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda martial soul, the Crimson Mother had learned many interesting things.
The power of an Evil God King, power related to the Dragon God, and a cultivation system that completely did not belong to any plane under the Divine Realm's jurisdiction—it was also entirely different from the Abyss plane's cultivation method.
Precisely because of this, the Crimson Mother had not resisted violently. She treated it as an early investment.
A hot-headed fool might go out fighting and killing, but as the master of a plane, one had to understand human relations and worldly wisdom.
Ning Rongrong, who could capture or even kill the soul of the Sea God Bo Saixi, clearly wasn't a simple soul master from the Douluo plane.
Gazing down at the sealed passage, the Crimson Mother's eyes flickered as she murmured:
"The Douluo plane is still too far from my Abyss plane. To get there, unless I pass through the Divine Realm as a transfer point, who knows how long it would take."
She carefully examined the location of the seal.
"At most two years. Then let me see what you're really made of."
"So-called cooperation or even alliance only qualifies for discussion on equal footing. Otherwise, it's all just waste paper."
"Ning Rongrong of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect—do you have that kind of caliber when the time comes?"
(End of chapter)