A single drop of divine blood, offered as a birthday gift — the effect it produced was, without question, a shock that rocked the entire city.

The Windstill national ruler would have preferred to keep it quiet.

But since it was a gift, it was awkward to forbid word of it from spreading — and besides, short of slaughtering every last person present, there was no way on earth to stop the news from getting out.

Word that the Titan Young Lord had presented divine blood as a birthday gift swept through the whole of Greenvalley City like a hurricane. The Mercenaries’ Guild secretly dispatched ten separate parties, one after another slipping out of the city to carry the news abroad. As for the countless spies of every faction already lurking in Greenvalley City — who could even say how many there were? — they had been lying in wait for a long time, and now, with a bombshell like the appearance of divine blood, they naturally rushed to report to their masters.

After inviting Yue Yang into the estate, the Windstill national ruler had originally meant to bring out his most beloved of his eighty-eight concubines, Lady Zhiguang, to receive the guest.

When Lady Zhiguang heard that what the visitor had sent was a drop of divine blood —

she was astonished.

And then, in the next instant, wild joy welled up in her heart.

Even so, she was unwilling to come out and thank the honored guest in person.

“My beauty, what is it that troubles you?” The Windstill national ruler found it rather strange. His Lady Zhiguang loved a lively occasion, and she was the very guest of honor at this birthday feast — when someone had sent divine blood as a gift, why would she refuse to appear and meet him?

“My lord, your servant feels this may not be so simple. To offer divine blood as a gift to a complete stranger — in all the world, how many could do such a thing? If it truly is as my lord says, that he came without any ulterior motive, then of course it is a fine thing. But should he have come with intent, doing this deliberately, then we cannot afford to be off our guard! Your servant is only a weak woman; it would be no matter if I died, but I dread that harm might come to my lord’s great and hard-won foundation.” As Lady Zhiguang spoke, the ruler’s fevered, excited mind swiftly cooled. Indeed — there was no such thing in this world as a benefit given for no reason. Even if this Titan Young Lord had come without intent, what if he had taken a fancy to one of his beloved concubines? Wouldn’t that be a disaster?

“Well said, my beauty. You’ve reminded me. Here in the Tianhua Domain, one must never be without a guarding heart — caution and prudence are always for the best.” The Windstill national ruler thought it over and decided to first arrange a little test for that generous Titan Young Lord.

“My lord, your servant will plead illness. Why not, instead, send this young lord a few beauties, and test his attitude that way?” Lady Zhiguang was indeed exceedingly careful.

The Windstill national ruler settled the matter with her.

He came out and at once offered Yue Yang a string of apologies, explaining that his beloved concubine, whose birthday was near, had been badly frightened by a recent assassination attempt and was feeling unwell, and so could not come out to meet the guest for the time being. He added that, to express her regret, his beloved concubine had decided to present the gift-bearing Titan Young Lord with two peerless beauties, and promised that at tomorrow’s birthday feast she would certainly come out to meet him and personally drink a forfeit cup by way of apology.

To the Windstill national ruler’s apology, our classmate Yue Yang gave a mild smile.

Putting on the airs of a great young lord, he said it was no trouble at all, and then offered up a top-grade Spirit-Calming Pill to help the frightened Lady Zhiguang recover.

As for the two beauties being offered, he flatly turned them down: “National ruler, I’m grateful for your kindness, but Titan was betrothed since childhood — a compact between great houses. My virtuous and proper wife has yet to enter the door, so Titan has no thought of taking concubines just yet.”

Hearing this, the Windstill national ruler was eighty percent convinced.

The marriages of great and noble clans were indeed just so — utterly impossible to choose freely, arranged and settled far in advance.

In a well-matched marriage, the power of the principal wife was immense. Should she be the more controlling sort, and should the husband wish to take a concubine without her consent, then any concubine casually brought in could be tormented by the principal wife at will — indeed, even beaten to death, entirely without blame. If this Titan Young Lord had accepted the two beauties, it would have been all the more suspicious, for in every great house and mighty faction, every descendant faced the question of the right of succession. As the scion of a noble family, he could not possibly carry on recklessly… This Titan Young Lord’s flat refusal made him seem all the more reasonable and natural.

They drank and celebrated merrily, no one knowing how much fine wine they had tasted.

The Windstill national ruler probed in secret. At first the Titan Young Lord was rather tight-lipped, mentioning little of his family or of the Upper Heavenly Realm.

But the scraps of information he let slip now and then all proved his familiarity with the Upper Heavenly Realm and the Four Great Families. In the end, the Windstill national ruler pried out the truth: it turned out that this Titan Young Lord, while touring the Western Heavenly Realm, had been invited by Lone Wind of the Lone Family, one of the Four Great Families, to come and enjoy himself in White River City.

Greenvalley City had been nothing more than a stop he’d passed through entirely by chance.

Upon learning this, the Windstill national ruler was overjoyed.

Seen this way, this Titan Young Lord was by no means an ‘enemy’ who had come with intent, but truly a scion of a great house who had wandered in by accident. Otherwise, why would he have let slip that he had an appointment with Lone Wind and was on his way to White River City?

“Might I ask what business Lone Wind has with the Titan Young Lord? When are you to meet?” The Windstill national ruler ventured a small show of concern.

“He never said when. Truth be told, that fellow Lone Wind only just escaped from the Earth Demon Divine Temple not long ago — his whole appearance turned into a snake-haired, ghoulish mess. I’d guess he hasn’t the face to go back to his family, so he wants me to come to White River City to fetch something to restore his body and his looks. What rare treasure could there be in White River City worth that fellow Lone Wind burrowing his way there for?” Yue Yang feigned puzzlement and tossed the question right back.

“White River City is not a territory under the Radiance Domain Emperor’s command. Windstill is not familiar with the place.” The Windstill national ruler put on an expression of complete ignorance.

“Never mind. Whatever it is, it surely can’t compare to my divine blood.” Our classmate Yue Yang went right back to showing off like some spoiled rich heir.

Hearing him say this, Steward Ye and the Head Guard both secretly found it amusing.

And the Windstill national ruler was greatly reassured.

It seemed this Titan Young Lord truly knew nothing at all.

As the sky gradually darkened and bright candles were lit all around, the Windstill national ruler saw the guard captain Zhongguan drift in and whisper a few words into the Titan Young Lord’s ear. He watched the young lord’s face turn displeased, but in the end he set down his wine cup all the same. So the ruler asked, “Does Captain Zhongguan bring good news? Come, sit and share a cup with us!”

Zhongguan made his salute, but waved off the invitation to drink: “My thanks, national ruler, but the young lord should not drink too much — otherwise he might lie drunk in your estate, which would be beneath his station.”

Yue Yang made a show of sulking and flung his cup aside: “Fine, fine, fine — even having a few extra cups gets me nagged. I won’t drink, then!”

Storming off in a huff, he didn’t even bid the Windstill national ruler farewell, but simply walked out.

Zhongguan wore a bitter smile.

Yet the Windstill national ruler and the others took no offense.

On the contrary, they understood perfectly… For a Titan Young Lord of such exceptionally noble station, how many cups he wished to drink was of no consequence. But for him to stay the night — that was hardly likely. In terms of both safety and comfort, there were certain constraints. Safety went without saying: entering another’s castle, one’s security could naturally never be best guaranteed. And there was one important point besides — if he stayed the night, it would be hard to avoid having a beauty share his bed, and should a child be produced by accident, that would be intolerable to a principal wife who had not yet entered the door and had no firstborn son to secure the right of succession.

So for a scion of a noble house who had not yet married, like the Titan Young Lord, this was a ‘dark period’ — the time when one was least free of all.

The Windstill national ruler understood very well why this Titan Young Lord would grow so bored that he wandered about everywhere: the reason was simply that he had no freedom, hemmed in on every side… Still, judging by the Titan Young Lord’s behavior, he was probably close to being wed. This was his last journey before marriage — otherwise there would have been no reason to refuse two peerless beauties on the spot, without so much as a second thought.

“National ruler, forgive the discourtesy. Zhongguan apologizes on his behalf. We shall offer our congratulations again tomorrow. Farewell.” Zhongguan took the blame, apologizing again and again, and then swiftly caught up to escort Yue Yang out.

“This Titan Young Lord is ninety-nine percent the real thing!” The Windstill national ruler was in excellent spirits.

Back in his beloved concubine’s bedchamber, he assured his cherished beauty of Yue Yang’s identity, telling her that after repeated tests he had confirmed the young man was not an enemy come to pick a quarrel, but truly a scion of a noble house so unimaginably wealthy that he was accustomed to spending gold like water. Even so, Lady Zhiguang remained half-believing, half-doubting. Yet the facts were hard for her to deny — even if the visitor were an enemy, what enemy would ever use something like divine blood as a gift? No enemy, however foolish, would do such a thing; wouldn’t doing so only draw all the more attention?

Meanwhile, over at Ming Rihao’s lodgings.

Ming Rihao used the Roaring Emperor’s Roar Divine Art, spittle spraying wildly like water from a showerhead: “Did you take the wrong medicine? Using divine blood as a gift — what nerve of yours short-circuited to cook up such a ghastly idea? There is no stupider way to do things, absolutely none! You don’t usually look like an idiot to me, so how could you go and do something this foolish?”

Our classmate Yue Yang leisurely wiped the spittle from his face with a towel and said with a smile, “A person has to do a few muddleheaded things every now and then — that’s what makes him seem normal, isn’t it?”

Ming Rihao was very nearly driven mad with rage.

No matter how muddleheaded one was, surely one couldn’t go giving away something like divine blood as a gift?

One had to understand — once divine blood appeared, there was no one in all the Heavenly Realm who could suppress the thief’s itch in their heart. That was divine blood!

To bring it out in broad daylight before a crowd like that and give it away — wasn’t that plainly inviting others to come and snatch it? Never mind outsiders — Ming Rihao felt he himself had nearly failed to hold back from robbing the kid!

“If you had divine blood and nowhere to use it, you could have given it to me! Why take it off to give as a gift? Will that fellow Windstill be grateful to you? He won’t — he’ll only laugh at you behind your back for being a nouveau riche upstart! And I reckon that before long you’ll have thrown all of Greenvalley City into utter chaos — this place is bound to become a land of war. If that fellow Windstill can’t manage to devour the divine blood in time, then sooner or later it’ll fall into the hands of a domain emperor, and by then, trying to win it back will be no easy thing! The moment you tell others you have divine blood, how do you think those few in the Central Divine Hall will see it? What will they think? This isn’t carrying out the plan, isn’t luring the enemy — it’s deliberate sabotage, deliberately wrecking the whole affair!” Ming Rihao was so furious his face contorted.

“Chaos is fine. Let them scramble and fight among themselves — we just swoop in from the middle and scoop it up, isn’t that enough?” Our classmate Yue Yang wasn’t the least bit worried about the divine blood vanishing. Even if the Windstill national ruler devoured it, he could just kill the man and dig it back out of his body to refine it anew.

After all, he had Nirvana Flames and Innate Sword Qi — so long as he had the divine blood, it could be restored from any state whatsoever.

Besides, there was no way the Windstill national ruler could devour the divine blood at once.

If he really did such a thing, then he would be a true fool, doomed to certain death… While the Windstill national ruler was in the abnormal state of absorbing the divine blood, never mind the Sky-rank mercenaries eyeing him like tigers — even his own Head Guard would strike his master down and seize it on the spot. To absorb divine blood, one had to find a safe place and spend several months slowly melting and drawing it in, before the divine blood could be wholly converted to one’s own use.

Not everyone had Yue Yang’s Nirvana Flames; not everyone had Yue Yang’s Innate Sword Qi!

Having worn himself out cursing, Ming Rihao finally let out a sigh: “Fine. Things have already come to this. So tell me — what do we do next?”

(End of Chapter 940)