In that one finger, in that one gesture, Cattaleya realized her earlier judgment had been laughably naïve.
Her elders?
Those figures who stood at the pinnacle of their clan, who had lived for hundreds of millennia, who carried bloodlines steeped in power from countless assimilations?
Compared to this woman, they were as flickering lanterns before a raging sun.
Her lips trembled against her will as a single thought seared across her mind.
'Just how strong is she? Dao Enshrinement? Dao Linking? Even… beyond that?'
The very idea made her scalp prickle and her blood turn cold.
Lin Mu, however, stepped forward, his tone calm, steady, and without fear. "Saintess, it's fine. She means no threat."
Cattaleya's wide eyes shifted to him, shock etched into her every expression. His calmness was what cut deepest... he wasn't just unfazed by this monster in human form, he knew her. And not distantly, not formally.
The familiarity in his voice was too natural to be anything else.
