In this agitated state, even giving her all might not guarantee any advantage against her, yet Brian Clark still tried to go easy on her like others do.

Brian Clark knew Grace Turner would be angry. She was someone who saw things in black and white, unable to tolerate even a grain of sand in her eyes. And his actions, no matter which aspect, were, in her eyes, nothing short of utter betrayal.

A traitor must be killed.

A silent storm arose, and a wave of spiritual power, so dense it was almost suffocating, rampaged through the domain.

It was as if both sides were determined to end things quickly. Soon, after clashing, the two figures separated. At this moment, Brian Clark's index finger hovered half an inch from Grace Turner's forehead, while at his neck, a small dagger made of icy jade pressed coldly against him, its sharp pain immediate.

To an outsider, this would look like a life-and-death confrontation, as if mortal enemies were about to perish together.

Adam Harris darted left and right within the barrier for a moment. Seeing the situation, he gasped and had no choice but to step forward to mediate. To call it mediation was generous—he was really just trying to persuade Grace Turner: “All of the Luo Huang line, whether direct or collateral, have been properly settled, not a hair harmed.”

“Only the evil spirits and monsters were suppressed. Beings like that deserved to be suppressed in the first place.”

Grace Turner seemed not to hear, her cool eyes covered in a layer of frost, but the dagger in her hand slowly sank into Brian Clark's flesh, drawing a strange, bright red line of blood. Adam Harris's expression grew grave. He placed his palm on Grace Turner's slender wrist, applying force to stop her. “Grace Turner, what Brian Clark did was indeed improper, but to take his life over those things—isn’t that going too far?”

“He broke into Yedu for a mere Tea Immortal, bypassed the royal city, and acted directly. Is that not going too far?” Grace Turner finally looked up, her gaze sweeping over his now-serious face. “Tomorrow, if I go to your Chishui and set a sealing array, would you also think it’s a trivial matter not worth making a fuss over?”

Adam Harris smacked his lips and dared not speak further.

Grace Turner was truly capable of such things; she was not to be trifled with.

“Brian Clark.” Grace Turner ignored Adam Harris and turned her gaze back to Brian Clark's face. Her eyes were beautiful, her voice cold yet clear, but those hands—pampered as they were—were hands that killed. As she pressed the dagger along the Celestial Emperor’s neck, not a tremor betrayed her. “I have thousands of ways to break an array. If the usual methods don’t work, I’ll use a blood sacrifice, a spirit sacrifice, and if that still fails, I’ll use a living sacrifice from those who set the array.”

By the end, she was demanding Brian Clark break the array with his life.

If anyone else had said this, it would have been dismissed as wild boasting. There were countless spiritual arrays in the world, as numerous as the stars, some unheard of, some unseen. Forget breaking them—just recognizing them was a challenge. Yet the one claiming to have “thousands of ways to break an array” was Grace Turner.

In this world teeming with spiritual cultivators, there was a particularly unique kind of person. They did not cultivate the body or focus on spiritual energy. They appeared frail, yet possessed powers that could shake the heavens and earth. With a single thought, they could set or break an array. Grace Turner was the most gifted among them.

“Ancient arrays cannot be broken.” Brian Clark looked at her profile, ignoring Adam Harris's frantic, almost cramping, signals, and said quietly, “Those evil spirits and monsters will never come out again.”

“You’ve made up your mind, and insist on this?” Grace Turner seemed to see him for the first time, her eyes scrutinizing him seriously, her voice as cold as a snowy mountain wind in the dead of winter.

“A-Yu.” Brian Clark replied, word by word: “Everything that happened today is my broken promise.”

“But I must do this.”

That “must do this” made even someone as strong-willed as Grace Turner almost involuntarily lower her lashes and close her eyes for a moment. Over a thousand years, she had watched the man before her transform step by step from a frail, dying youth. Time passed, seasons changed, and she always thought he was still that same boy, forgetting the most important thing.

—In the shifting tides of power, the human heart is the easiest thing to change.

The boy she once thought she could see through at a glance now possessed abilities that could shake the heavens, to the point that he could pull off a sleight of hand right under her nose and throw the entire mortal world into chaos.

When the dagger struck heavily at Brian Clark's neck and hot blood spurted out, her own brow was pierced by a long finger of spiritual power. An indescribable pain shot through her limbs and bones. Facing the shocked, disbelieving eyes of Brian Clark and Adam Harris, she merely clenched her jaw, showing no fear or panic.

She knew she would not die.

Though ruthless, she was not someone who liked to trade her life for another’s.

The treasured Qiankun Pearl of Yedu was hidden in her sleeve, radiating moonlight from the moment she stepped into the inner hall. That was why she set the array without hesitation, using a near self-destructive method to force a stalemate with Brian Clark in the shortest time possible—relying on the Qiankun Pearl to absorb half the damage for her.

She thought it simple: Brian Clark was the Immortal Lord, his cultivation no less than hers, he would not die so easily. For the sake of both clans’ reputation and karma, she did not want his life. She only wanted him to cooperate in breaking the sealing array in the central city—by any means necessary.