Peerless Pearl - Cultivation Space.
Fa Hua and Lan Ge were both breathing heavily, a trace of lingering fear still visible in their eyes.
It had been terrifying. Facing the Ruby Queen head-on— even with her cultivation suppressed to the Ninth Rank—was still far beyond what they could truly contend with.
Fortunately, although they couldn’t teleport away from her entirely, they could retreat into the Cultivation Space. At the very least, it gave them a moment to breathe.
“Thanks,” Lan Ge said suddenly.
When the Ruby Queen’s first slash had fallen right in front of him, if Fa Hua hadn’t decisively abandoned the original teleport coordinate and shifted him aside instead, he would already be dead.
“One life,” Fa Hua replied flatly.
Lan Ge’s mouth twitched. “Couldn’t you let me feel a little moved?”
“Was that necessary?” Fa Hua shot him a sideways glance.
Lan Ge snorted. “How are we supposed to fight her? Ninth-Rank? Her energy intensity might be Ninth-Rank, but her physical body definitely isn’t. At best, she’s just not mobilizing her bloodline power. Even so, her physical strength still far exceeds an ordinary Ninth-Rank cultivator. We don’t have even the slightest chance.”
“At least we can still teleport back into the Cultivation Space,” Fa Hua said calmly.
Lan Ge froze, then his eyes lit up. “Hey… when you put it that way, maybe it’s not so bad. We can’t beat her, but this Ninth-Rank version of her can’t kill us instantly, right? Which means even if we retreat, we can just come back again. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”
The Cultivation Space within the Peerless Pearl allowed four hours to pass in the outside world. Inside, that translated to twelve hours. Twelve hours was more than enough for them to recover their cultivation to peak condition.
As long as the Ruby Queen couldn’t kill them in one strike, they could always retreat and return. Death, at least, was no longer inevitable.
From within the Cultivation Space, they could still observe the outside world.
After they vanished, the red light threads that had torn through space began to slowly mend. The Ruby Queen, unhurried and unbothered, sat cross-legged where she was, as if entering cultivation.
A faint red radiance shimmered around her body. Within that glow appeared the outline of her original Devouring Ant form.
But when Fa Hua and Lan Ge looked more closely, they noticed something unsettling.
Behind the crimson Devouring Ant silhouette was a crack—starting just behind the head and spreading downward. Fine fracture lines branched outward from it, like glass that had been shattered and could never truly be restored.
The spread was slow, but unmistakable. After watching for a while, they were certain of it.
What is that?
Both of them felt a flicker of doubt.
It seemed that the Ruby Queen herself was injured.
Was the reason she could only display Ninth-Rank power not solely due to pressure from the Ancestral Court? Had her wounds never fully healed? The damage looked like it had come from her battle with the Tiger Demon King back then—but why did it seem to be worsening? With her Moon God–level cultivation, how could she be unable to repair it?
Yet the Ruby Queen showed no sign of pain.
She simply sat there, tranquil and composed, as if quietly comprehending something—or cultivating in silence.
**
Four Hours Later
Light flashed.
Fa Hua and Lan Ge were expelled from the Cultivation Space of the Peerless Pearl.
As if she had anticipated their return, an overwhelming red radiance arrived before them almost instantly.
Fa Hua was already prepared.
The moment he emerged, he was in his Holy Spirit Body state. His left hand held the Divine Codex aloft, while his right hand swept decisively across its pages.
A golden thread snapped.
The red radiance that had been charging straight at them veered ever so slightly, skimming past their bodies and streaking into the distance.
Fa Hua’s face paled.
Breaking that golden thread had clearly placed a heavy burden on him.
They had learned from their previous clash.
Meeting the Ruby Queen head-on was a dead end. Her strength was nothing like that of a normal Ninth-Rank cultivator. They needed another approach.
Passive defense was even worse.
This time, their goal was simple: survive longer.
Crimson light bloomed across the sky.
The red threads that had driven them back before reappeared, filling the air once more.
At the same instant, Fa Hua and Lan Ge’s eyes lit up.
Lan Ge’s body flushed with green light, as if he had become a favored child of the wind itself. He stepped forward from behind and wrapped his arms around Fa Hua, pulling them tightly together.
The green glow spread naturally from Lan Ge’s body onto Fa Hua.
Fa Hua closed his eyes.
The Divine Codex in his hands remained open to the Seventh Page.
In the next heartbeat, the red light converged.
Each crimson thread was razor-sharp, a terrifying cutting force that even space itself could not withstand. Compared to when the Ruby Queen had wielded Eleventh-Rank power, the threads were clearly weaker and less dense—but to Eighth- or Ninth-Rank cultivators, they were still absolutely lethal.
Green light streaked upward.
Lan Ge carried them both into the air, darting toward the region where the red threads were thinnest.
At that moment, they moved as one.
Just as their bodies were about to collide with a thread, Fa Hua’s right index finger flicked across the Seventh Page.
The crimson thread before them vanished.
They slipped through the gap, narrowly avoiding the threads closing in from all sides.
Fa Hua’s fingers moved without pause.
Key red threads—thin, but positioned where they mattered most—disappeared one after another. Driven by Lan Ge’s momentum, their bodies wove through the openings, cutting a path through the sea of deathly red light.
For the first time, surprise flickered across the Ruby Queen’s face.
In her eyes, the two of them moved with astonishing grace—like startled swans or coiling dragons—threading their way through her killing field. They never clashed head-on. Instead, they joined forces, dissolving the weakest points and slipping past again and again.
If she were still Eleventh-Rank, Fa Hua wouldn’t have been able to neutralize even a single thread.
But now, she was only Ninth-Rank.
Her energy intensity remained at the Ninth-Rank.
With the Peerless Pearl linking their energies, Fa Hua and Lan Ge could barely manage it. Even their recovery ability was on par with a normal Ninth-Rank cultivator.
But the Ruby Queen had no intention of letting them roam freely.
In the next instant, she appeared before them—moving within the web of crimson threads.
The crimson longblade formed from her back-stinger slashed downward, aimed directly at them.
Fa Hua’s eyes remained closed, but his mind was synchronized with Lan Ge’s. Lan Ge’s vision was his vision. Fa Hua focused entirely on sensing the shifting threads through Unravelling the Truth.
A full-powered strike from the Ruby Queen was beyond what he could resolve.
His cultivation simply wasn’t enough.
Lan Ge abruptly arched backward, bending his body like a steel bridge.
Fa Hua felt his spine creak alarmingly.
Lan Ge cried out in pain, but his movement didn’t falter. He carried them backward, narrowly slipping past the descending blade.
Clenching his teeth, Fa Hua endured the pain and kept working his fingers without pause, plucking apart thread after thread to keep them from being torn to shreds mid-flight.
Why is your waist so stiff? I’m taking half the pain for this, Lan Ge complained inwardly.
Fa Hua shot back coldly, “Are you a woman? Your waist is too soft.”
The slash missed.
The Ruby Queen followed through with her blade, her body accelerating as it brushed against the red threads. The shifting interference caused the light threads on the Unravelling the Truth page to flicker and destabilize.
Landing hard, Lan Ge drew in a deep breath.
One arm wrapped tightly around Fa Hua’s waist. His free hand thrust forward, finger pointing straight at the approaching Ruby Queen.
Violet and red light erupted together, surging forward just three meters—just enough to collide with her blade.
A thunderous explosion followed.
The Ruby Queen’s advance stalled.
At the same instant, a golden halo flared beneath her feet, forcibly binding her in place. Though she quickly slashed the restraint apart, the delay was enough.
Fa Hua and Lan Ge were already retreating at full speed, widening the distance between them.
From the moment this second exchange began until now, only a brief span of time had passed.
Yet both of them were drenched in sweat.
The pressure was overwhelming.
Crimson threads surrounded them, each one capable of killing them in an instant. Ahead was the oppressive presence of the Ruby Queen herself.
Only now did they finally have room to breathe.
So that’s how it is! Lan Ge shouted in his heart, exhilarated.
In the next instant, he swung his right hand.
A green blade of light shot forward.
It was only a foot long and looked unremarkable, but its green glow carried a faint golden sheen, as if it possessed substance.
Where the blade passed, crimson threads snapped one after another.
Though the light blade was quickly shredded and collapsed, it carved out a genuine opening.
Lan Ge’s comprehension was exceptional. Aside from constantly being overshadowed by Fa Hua, he was a thinker—sharp, adaptable, and fast.
He had already realized it earlier.
The Ruby Queen before them was no longer that Eleventh-Rank monster.
The difference between Ninth-Rank and Eleventh-Rank lay first and foremost in energy tier.
Her physical body was terrifying, but she couldn’t draw upon Eleventh-Rank bloodline power.
That meant her energy-based attacks still belonged to the Ninth-Rank.
Even if they were stronger than those of ordinary Ninth-Rank cultivators, they were still within the Ninth-Rank domain.
They were not god-level attacks.