Countless stories circulated throughout the empire of officials and nobles who believed they had manipulated her, only to realize far too late that they themselves had merely been pieces carefully moved according to her design.
Some factions collapsed months after offending her without ever understanding the true cause. Some ministers lost influence through chains of seemingly unrelated events.
Some clans found allies abandoning them one by one until isolation finally destroyed them completely. And at the center of it all stood the First Princess.
That was what made her truly terrifying.
Not raw strength. Not status. Not even talent. But control. Once she began moving seriously, the consequences rarely remained confined to a single battlefield or political court.
Her decisions spread outward like invisible ripples across kingdoms, noble houses, merchant alliances, military commands, and cultivation factions alike.
Entire futures could change because of a single quiet conversation she held behind closed doors. And standing behind such a terrifying woman was one of the four greatest powers in the known world.
The Heavenly Golden River Sect. One of the Three Heavenly Sects. She had been accepted as a core disciple at an exceptionally young age, a fact alone terrifying enough to silence countless critics.
The Heavenly Sects were not mere cultivation organizations. They were ancient powers whose roots stretched so deeply through the world that even kings and emperors treated them cautiously.
Their influence reached across kingdoms, noble clans, merchant federations, military factions, assassin networks, cultivation academies, and royal courts alike.
Disciples of the Heavenly Sects could walk proudly through major cities without fear because everyone understood a simple truth. Offending one of them could invite disaster upon an entire bloodline.
Among the Three Heavenly Sects, the Heavenly Golden River Sect was one of the most politically influential.
Its disciples were renowned for overwhelming wealth, frighteningly refined cultivation arts, vast intelligence networks, and terrifying control over trade routes and noble alliances.
Rumors claimed countless high-ranking officials across multiple kingdoms secretly maintained ties with them. Some even believed entire merchant federations operated indirectly beneath their shadow.
Gold. Information. Influence. Power.
The Golden River Sect possessed all four in terrifying abundance. Alongside them stood the Heavenly Mountain Foot Sect.
Unlike the Heavenly Golden River Sect's political dominance, the Mountain Foot Sect was famous for producing battlefield monsters whose physical strength and endurance bordered upon the inhuman.
Their disciples trained beneath crushing mountain pressures, across frozen wastelands, amidst violent storms, and through brutal body-tempering. Disciplines capable of killing ordinary cultivators outright.
Every technique they practiced sought to forge flesh, bone, and spirit into weapons capable of enduring impossible hardship.
Stories claimed certain elders could continue fighting even after suffering wounds that should have killed normal Transcendants several times over.
Broken bones. Collapsed organs. Missing limbs.
Such injuries merely slowed them. They were cultivators who embodied relentless force. Unmoving. Unyielding. Unbreakable.
Unlike the other Nine Heavenly Pillar Sect, the Heavenly Mountain Foot Sect's headquarters appeared strangely humble on the surface.
Their known headquarters existed upon a distant island far from the major kingdoms, where only a massive dark mountain overlooking the sea marked their territory.
At the mountain's base stood an ancient fortress-city built from black stone and iron, simple in appearance compared to the luxurious palaces of other great sects.
But no one believed that fortress was their true seat of power. Legends claimed the real headquarters of the Sect existed within the mountain itself.
Deep inside the mountain rested a hidden underground world carved directly into the ancient stone, supported by the colossal mountain it self. It's origin's older than recorded history.
Vast halls, training grounds, prisons, armories, hidden cities, and forbidden cultivation chambers were all said to exist beneath the mountain surface. Some rumors even claimed the mountain itself was hollow.
Unlike the Heavenly Mountain Foot Sect and the Nine Heavenly Pillar Sect, whose territories and strongholds were known to the world, the Heavenly Golden River Sect was different.
It existed everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Their influence stretched across kingdoms like invisible threads woven into the world itself.
Merchant federations, noble alliances, information brokers, trade routes, assassination networks, and political courts all supposedly contained traces of their influence.
No one truly knew where the core of the sect actually rested. Some believed it lay beneath a hidden golden city lost somewhere with in the western deserts.
Others claimed their headquarters constantly moved through enormous mobile fortress ships hidden along secret waterways.
A few even suspected the sect deliberately maintained multiple false headquarters to deceive enemies.
But one thing remained universally acknowledged.
If the Mountain Foot Sect represented overwhelming force, and the Nine Heavenly Pillar Sect represented immovable foundations.
Then the Heavenly Golden River Sect represented control itself. Invisible. Patient. But omnipresent.
The Nine Heavenly Pillar Sect's public headquarters was known throughout the Eastern Kingdom as a magnificent seven-storey tower rising proudly above the capital like a monument built to challenge the heavens themselves.
Each level specialized in a different field; cultivation, administration, arithmetic, commerce, diplomacy, martial training, internal governance, and military coordination.
Day and night, countless disciples, officials, merchants, nobles, scholars, and envoys passed through its halls beneath the ever-watchful eyes of the sect.
To ordinary people, that tower alone already appeared unimaginably grand.
Its black iron walls seemed indestructible.
Its banners never lowered. Its gates remained open to the world while still radiating unquestionable authority.
But those who truly understood the Heavenly Sects knew the visible structure was merely the surface.
The real headquarters of the Nine Heavenly Pillar Sect was said to exist far below the seven storey tower.
Deep beneath the earth itself rested an underground fortress city older than most existing kingdoms.
Supported by nine colossal iron pillars so massive that legends claimed entire palaces could be constructed atop a single one.
No one knew exactly how deep the underground city extended. Some claimed it possessed underground rivers large enough to sail ships through.
Others believed entire armies could live beneath the surface for years without emerging once.
The deeper regions were said to contain forbidden cultivation chambers, ancient prisons, hidden armories, ancestral halls, and relic vaults untouched for thousands of years.
Ancient formations supposedly covered the underground world like veins running through flesh itself. Some strengthened disciples. Others suppressed intruders.
A few were rumored to possess enough power to bury entire armies alive beneath collapsing stone should the sect ever truly come under attack.
And according to the oldest legends the nine iron pillars were not built by human hands at all. They were relics left behind by the ancient civilization, so not even the sect fully understood its origins.
Some even whispered the pillars were not merely supporting the underground city. But sealing something beneath it.
The poison had devastated the ordinary pursuing forces behind them. Entire formations had collapsed before even leaving the capital properly.
But unfortunately for Luo He the truly dangerous people had never relied on ordinary soldiers in the first place. The Crown Prince's real hunters still came.
And they came fast.
The pressure approaching from behind felt less like an army and more like a pack of demons tearing through the night itself. Powerful auras surged intermittently across the distant roads and forest lines behind the convoy.
Even at such distance, the sheer oppressive force of their cultivation could already be felt faintly in the cold air. The poisoned gold had slowed them a little.
But it had not stopped them. Not the truly powerful ones. The Black Cloud Shuttle floated lower briefly while Luo He stepped toward the rear edge of the platform, silently observing the darkness behind them.
Then finally he turned back toward the others. His expression had changed completely now. The playful arrogance.
The lazy amusement. The mockery.
Gone.
What remained instead was the cold calmness of someone preparing for battle. "They're coming," Luo He said quietly. That single sentence immediately changed the atmosphere around the leaders.
Fei's hand moved toward the hilt of his saber without hesitation. Jin Mulan's eyes sharpened instantly while faint heat already began radiating from her body.
Even Ning Jia's expression became serious as her hand settled naturally against her sword. Luo He glanced toward all three of them calmly.
"We won't remain undisturbed for much longer," he continued. "Someone will have to stay behind and buy more time." He said solumly.
The moment those words left his mouth, Jin Mulan stepped forward immediately.
"I'll stay." She said with out hesitation.
"So will I," Ning Jia said almost at the same time.
Fei did not even bother speaking. Luo He looked at the three of them silently for several moments. Then sighed. "You people truly never listen, do you." He said mockingly.
His gaze shifted toward Fei first. "You are not staying." He said firmly. Fei frowned immediately. "Master !?"
"Your orders," Luo He interrupted calmly. "Are to protect my daughter at all costs." He said clearly. The moment Little Lin's name entered the conversation, Fei fell silent.
Because everyone present understood one thing clearly. Luo He trusted very few people absolutely. And Fei was one of them. Which meant entrusting Little Lin to him was not merely responsibility.
It was absolute faith. Luo He then turned toward Jin Mulan and Ning Jia. "And neither of you are staying behind either." He said coldly.