Chapter 116: Chapter 116
"They are looking for my sons," Lin Wan said, her voice completely flat and direct, devoid of any fear or hesitation.
She turned her head toward the wide open glass doors that led to the rear courtyard. Out on the green lawn, the three triplets—Xiao Chen, Xiao Rui, and Xiao Jue, were currently playing in a large, shallow wooden tub filled with warm spring water.
Their bodies were in a hilarious state of partial transformation; their upper halves were still perfectly round, ultra-fluffy white snowballs with twitching leopard ears and wet pink noses, but beneath the clear water, their beautiful, glowing blue merman tails were swishing happily, sending small sprays of silver water into the air.
They were completely unaware of the political storms brewing in the heavens above, their small minds entirely focused on chasing a small rubber duck that Lin Wan had brought from her modern inventory.
"Mother! Mother, look at my supreme ocean tail flip!" Xiao Chen babbled loudly, his high-pitched baby voice full of childish joy as he executed a clumsy splash, his glowing blue scales catching the golden light of the setting sun. "I am the captain of the giant water mountain!"
"Xiao Chen, your focus is completely off," Xiao Jue chimed in smoothly, his small voice carrying that serious, tactical military tone as he floated perfectly still near the edge of the tub, his silver-striped tail swaying thoughtfully. "You splashed Daddy Zhan’s clean boots instead of the target rubber duck. Your strategic accuracy is zero."
"Ah! brother is using his commander brain to criticize my fun again!" Xiao Chen whined happily, tumbling backward into the warm water with a series of loud, energetic baby yips.
"The cubs’ dual heritage is moving at a speed that cannot be masked by ordinary lower-realm logic anymore," Lanying said softly, her blue eyes melting into a pool of deep warmth as she watched her grandsons play. "The ancient bloodline of the sea beast clan inside their cores is waking up in perfect harmony with their divine leopard line. When the boundary thins in two weeks, the natural resonance between their cores and the upper heavens will create a massive spiritual ripple. We must be prepared for the impact."
Lin Wan slowly stood up from the quartz counter, her boots making a clean, solid sound against the floor as she walked out onto the rear porch.
She leaned against the wooden railing, her cool eyes looking up at the beautiful, unchanging sky of her sanctuary. Her heart was completely calm, but deep within her mind, a strange, persistent premonition had been growing stronger with every single passing hour.
For the past three days, whenever she closed her eyes to rest, she could feel a faint, rhythmic vibration echoing through the spatial core, a distant, magnetic pull that felt incredibly familiar, yet entirely separate from the local energy grids of the capital.
It was a heavy, masculine, and intensely protective presence that felt like a warm iron wall wrapping around her soul through the void.
’You are still looking for us, aren’t you?’ Lin Wan thought, her fingers tightening slightly around the smooth wooden railing as her jaw settled into a firm, rigid line.
She didn’t know his name, and she still couldn’t see his face through the thick seals of the lower world’s laws, but her supreme intelligence could easily connect the dots.
The sudden panic of the capital nobility, the preparation of the reception altars by the central alliance, and the frantic movements of the Upper Realm factions, all of it proved that the father of her children had not forgotten his family in the mud. He was actively tearing the heavens apart to find the path that led back to her side.
Long Zhan walked out onto the porch, standing beside her like a massive, unyielding shield, his violet eyes fixed on the horizon with a look of pure, bloodthirsty anticipation.
"Let them come, Wanwan. My fists have been getting soft from carrying sugar boxes for the past month. If those capital bastards or those upper-realm snobs think they can step into this valley to touch my sons, I will personally show them why a Northern Dragon King should never be forced to wear denim jeans."
"And my venom is ready to dissolve their entire lineage before they can even take a step across the border lines," Qin Mo murmured smoothly, gliding to her other side, his flat rubber flip-flops making a final, crisp ’thwack’ against the stone steps as his long arm wrapped protectively near her waist.
Lin Wan let out a low, genuine chuckle, a relaxed but entirely dominant smile gracing her beautiful face as she reached down to scoop the wet, laughing Xiao Rui up into her arms as he scrambled out of the tub.
The cub’s round blue merman tail swished happily against her side, leaving a trail of glowing silver droplets on her trousers.
"We don’t run, and we don’t hide like victims," Lin Wan whispered, her voice carrying the absolute, unyielding authority of a true sovereign as she looked toward the southwestern sky. "Let them open their reception altars in two weeks. When the boundary line thins... we will give them a greeting that the entire lower-realm alliance will remember for the rest of their lives."
....
The freezing mountain winds of the Upper Realm roared fiercely through the highest peaks, but deep within the subterranean caverns of Elder Shen’s private mountain retreat, the air was dead, heavy, and completely stagnant.
A single, low-grade spiritual lamp hung from the damp stone ceiling, casting long, twisted shadows across a massive ironwood table.
This hidden chamber had been reinforced with five separate layers of silencing arrays, specifically designed to trap any sound or magical fluctuation from leaking out into the main territory of the Leopard Sect.
Elder Shen sat at the head of the table, his face looking incredibly pale and hollowed out in the dim light.
His hands were tucked deeply into his long grey sleeves, but if one looked closely, his fingers were twitching with a frantic, nervous energy.
Opposite him sat two tall, slender figures wrapped in thick, dark-blue feathered cloaks that completely covered their faces, the secret high messengers of the Northern Bird Tribes.
"The Patriarch’s pressure is far too terrifying," Elder Shen whispered, his voice cracking slightly as he glanced nervously toward the stone ceiling, as if he expected the roof to cave in at any moment.
"You did not see what happened at the feast hall. He broke the knees of the Roc Clan’s senior elders with a single glance. My granddaughter tried to approach his private pavilion last night, and he blasted her into the stable mud with a common gust of wind. His bloodline core is completely stable, and his mind is turning sharper by the day. If we do not act immediately, he will uncover the remaining data strings of the lower-realm array before the week is out."
The leading Bird messenger let out a low, sharp hiss that sounded exactly like a predatory hawk tearing through its prey.
He slowly pulled back his dark-blue hood, exposing a face covered in sharp, metallic blue scales and a pair of round, yellow bird eyes that flashed with absolute disdain.
"You are a coward, Elder Shen," the messenger sneered, his thin lips curving into a mocking smile. "You possess the backing of our supreme northern fleets, yet you tremble like a wet field mouse because a youth opened his eyes. The core stability of a primordial leopard is high, but he is still bound by the ancient laws of the Upper Realm. As long as the primary boundary walls remain intact, his physical body cannot descend to the world below without triggering a total heavenly tribulation that would wipe out his entire sect."
"But the boundary walls will not remain intact!" Elder Shen hissed back, leaning over the table, his eyes wide with a frantic, desperate intensity. "The natural thinning cycle begins in exactly two weeks! The local energy grids between the high peaks and the lower beast capital will drop to their lowest density for a period of three days! If the Patriarch discovers that his female and his three sons are still alive down there during that specific window, he will willingly trigger the tribulation just to force a spatial tear!"
The second Bird messenger, who had remained completely silent, slowly reached into his feathered cloak and pulled out a small, beautifully polished black jade box. He set it gently on the ironwood table, sliding it across the smooth surface until it rested right against Elder Shen’s trembling fingers.
"This is the Primordial Void Lock," the second messenger spoke, his voice carrying a strange, metallic vibration. "Our high ancestors spent fifty years refining this item using the core bones of a dead spatial beast. When the boundary line thins in two weeks, you will use your legal authority as the grand elder of the soul hall to activate the sect’s central array. Instead of letting the energy stabilize, you will inject this lock into the ley lines."
Elder Shen’s breath caught in his throat as his fingers touched the cold, dark metal of the box. "What... what will it do?"
