Yue Yang felt something and turned his head.
Ming Rihao was no longer behind him. At some point he had drifted over to the Wild Bull Brothers and was now eating and drinking with them.
Just at that moment, the lady of the birthday banquet was making her entrance, gliding forward on lotus-perfect steps. Zhongguan, Heitu, Baima, Flying Locust, Flower Panther, and the other Sky-rank cultivators standing behind Yue Yang each showed the same startled reverence in their eyes at the sight of her. Fengji and Keen-Eye Jinyun — the two newest quasi-Sky-rank additions, with less strength and less self-control — had the openly enchanted look of men whose souls had already been signed away.
She was a beauty whose face rivaled the stars of heaven.
Attended by a flock of pretty handmaidens, she emerged unhurriedly from the ruler’s residence. Her figure was exquisite, her bearing elegant, and the sight of her produced, involuntarily, that specific satisfaction of possessing her would be to possess the whole world — as though she were the finest treasure creation had ever produced, and to have won her would be to end this life with no regret left over.
There were countless powerhouses in the courtyard, cultivators whose composure was harder than steel and unmoved by mountains splitting or the earth cracking open. Every one of them stared at this woman with their jaws slack.
The Sky-rank cultivators who had come here full of private schemes had, for the first time this evening, fixed the entirety of their attention on the same person.
The lady was magnificently turned out.
Every detail of her attire dazzled.
Her hair fell over her shoulders like a golden waterfall, catching the light and shimmering in ripples with the movement of her step-shakers. The headdress itself was restrained but precisely right — a single circlet of tasselled pearls, running around the smooth line of her forehead. At the very center of the circlet was a single pearl, large, sending out little rainbows of color, glowing with an inner light. Below that peerless treasure of a pearl was a jade-white face so flawless it stopped the breath, its bright eyes clear as the dawn-blue sky where the last morning stars linger just before they fade. Her nose was delicately drawn, elegantly poised. Her lips, in two petals like flowers with dew still on them, kept a suggestion of a smile even before she spoke — sending joy ahead of any word — and against them the whole face lit into something no one there could keep their eyes off.
The truly striking thing, the detail that made the whole picture leap out at everyone, was a pair of small, intoxicating dimples in her jade cheeks.
From that face-of-a-nation smile, a soul-scorching warmth radiated out.
Even before she had arrived, that peerless beauty of hers had already carried the day.
At the sight of a woman like this, even Sky-rank cultivators who had spent the last hour scheming against each other simultaneously set their quarrels aside and stared at her with pure greed in their eyes.
Only when you saw her — only when you actually saw Lady Zhiguang for yourself — could you understand what “a beauty to topple kingdoms” meant. A flawless woman like this, held in your arms — wasn’t that the dream of every super-power on the continent?
“…” Tianzhu’s expression flickered slightly, and he glanced over at Yue Yang.
He wasn’t the only one. Dragon Emperor and Underworld Emperor did the same.
All three of them were worried — the same worry — that this little lecher of theirs, whose defenses against beautiful women were somewhere around zero, was about to embarrass everyone in public.
Yue Yang, for his part, tucked his hand quietly behind his back and flipped all three of these unnecessarily concerned bastards the middle finger, in an act of supreme contempt. This young lord likes a pretty woman, sure — but you’d have to check the circumstances first, wouldn’t you? Besides, there’s a tigress inside the Grimoire World right now with her claws out. Who would dare stray? There was even a song about this: don’t pick the wildflowers by the roadside. And this particular wildflower had thorns and poison to boot — whoever picked her was in for a very bad day. Was he really the kind of idiot who took one look at a pretty face and turned his brain to porridge?
Yue Yang made a small dismissive gesture behind his back.
Tianzhu, Dragon Emperor, and Underworld Emperor took one look and were reassured. Fine. The kid hadn’t turned into a rutting lecher on the spot.
“This lowly woman of the lower realm pays her respects to the Titan Young Lord, and to the three honorable uncles.”
Lady Zhiguang, followed by her handmaidens, bowed low to the ground. That heart-catching voice, that fragile figure — she gave her greeting, and the sight of it summoned an immediate, uncontrollable affection. All three uninvited rulers were within an inch of stepping forward to lift her back to her feet themselves. Of course, even if they’d tried, the Windstill national ruler would never have permitted it. And in any case, they were national rulers — they had at least a bit of self-control.
“Please rise. We have long admired the lady’s fame, and today we intrude uninvited, only to find it’s her birthday banquet. We haven’t even had time to prepare a proper gift — truly, we are ashamed.” Blue Wolf apologized quickly. The three rulers had of course heard Lady Zhiguang’s name before, but they had never once imagined the woman was this beautiful — beyond, in fact, the aesthetics of any race.
“Ah, ah, so — you’re Lady Zhiguang? Aha, quite a looker, honestly. Reminds me of my fiancée, that — cough, well, close enough, really unusual!”
Yue Yang, for his part, put on a very effective impression of a lecherous young lord.
What made the Windstill national ruler feel a small pang of regret — mixed with quite a lot of pleasure — was that this Titan Young Lord was clearly a perfectly normal young man. He too could see that Windstill’s beloved was breathtakingly beautiful, and yet he was still keeping his head, still thinking of his own fiancée at the same time.
From which one could infer that the Titan Young Lord’s fiancée, back in the Upper Heavenly Realm, was at least the equal of Windstill’s own beloved. Possibly better.
She had to be. Otherwise the young lord would not have recovered his composure this quickly.
Windstill thought back on the pair of female slaves he had tried to gift the young lord yesterday, which had been refused on the spot. That refusal now made perfect sense: a peerless fiancée at home, plus scion of a prominent family — of course the young lord had no interest in a couple of slave girls a rung or two below. Windstill was now completely at ease about the Titan Young Lord. What he was quietly wary about was the trio of Blue Wolf, Wanjiao, and Luoluo. The three of them cared more about power than about women, true, but they also never turned any woman down, and there was always the chance that one day one of them would try to make a play for Lady Zhiguang. That risk would have to be guarded against carefully.
The Windstill national ruler was left with mixed feelings — and also with one small, private regret.
The fact that the Titan Young Lord had held on to his composure this well proved that the young lord possessed a woman fully the equal of Windstill’s own beloved, if not better. Which meant that the most beautiful woman in the world was not, as it turned out, Windstill’s sole possession… which was, well, a little bit of a shame.
“Distinguished guests are at the door — how could Windstill do them the discourtesy of receiving them out here? Brother Titan, please! Blue Wolf, Wanjiao, Luoluo — all three of you, please, come inside as well and share a cup of thin wine.” The Windstill national ruler took his beloved Lady Zhiguang by her small hand, making it publicly clear that this woman was his, and drew immense private satisfaction from the flashes of jealous envy in Blue Wolf and the others’ eyes. He invited Yue Yang — his most honored guest, from the Upper Heavenly Realm — inside first, and then Blue Wolf and company second. If he’d had his way, he would gladly have kicked all three of them out on the spot. But that was a wish he could only entertain privately; in reality it was impossible. On the surface he had to play the gracious host — perfectly courteous, generous, every inch the magnanimous nobleman.
Lady Zhiguang, meanwhile — outwardly submissive and welcoming — was sizing up Yue Yang from the corner of her eye.
In her estimation, Blue Wolf and the other two rulers were entirely readable men.
However strong they were, they were still within measurable limits.
But this Titan Young Lord, who had casually offered divine blood as a birthday gift, was an unknown quantity beyond any way she had of assessing him.
If he really was a visitor from the Upper Heavenly Realm — a fabulously wealthy dilettante who could hand out drops of divine blood the way other men handed out silver — then everything was fine. What she feared was that he wasn’t here as a sightseeing young lord at all. That he had come for something else. The Tianhua Domain was a mess: three domain emperors had been at each other’s throats for thousands of years, and beyond that there were rumors of the Divine Codex and legendary divine treasures scattered through the region.
It was entirely possible that this Titan Young Lord was really here for the Divine Codex, or for one of those legendary divine treasures.
The Divine Codex was not, for the moment, worth thinking about.
The Central Divine Hall had spent thousands and thousands of years trying to take it, and had never managed to.
But the shattered divine forms from that ancient age, and the various divine relics from the same period, were bait that any number of super-powered figures were still watching from the shadows…
“The young lord’s fiancée must surely be a peerless beauty. Zhiguang is a plain and homely creature, and dares not compare herself for a moment.” As they walked toward the residence, Lady Zhiguang, at the Windstill national ruler’s side, spoke softly, testing this Titan Young Lord whose true strength she could not read but whom she absolutely could not afford to take lightly.
“Well, our little tiger girl — how do I even put it — obviously she’s — cough, you’re also quite something, but our little tiger girl is different from you. It’s not just the outside with her. There’s, well, it’s hard to explain — different kinds of beauty, let’s just say!” Yue Yang put on his best I am a hen-pecked man, please don’t try to seduce me impression, which sent Lady Zhiguang into a genuinely delighted laugh, opening her jade lips to reveal a neat row of small, pearl-white teeth. Utterly seductive.
“Prayer Pearl. Quasi-divine artifact.” Tianzhu grunted behind Yue Yang’s shoulder.
“The honored one is broadly learned. This lowly woman of the lower realm submits.” Lady Zhiguang’s expression flickered at hearing this — then instantly recovered. She turned and offered Tianzhu another small courtesy.
Only after she had turned back did she feel the aftershocks in her chest.
She had assumed no one on the continent could see through the origin of the pearl she wore at her forehead. And yet this Tianzhu — the man who served merely as escort to the Titan Young Lord — had pinned it in a single glance. Only now, at this moment, did Lady Zhiguang really understand what an Upper Heavenly Realm noble house was.
Compared to Upper Heavenly Realm nobility, the people of the lower realm were, honestly, rustic bumpkins from the sticks.
Thank heavens she had not tried to seduce this Titan Young Lord.
Otherwise, Zhiguang thought, that ice-cold Tianzhu would very possibly have simply killed her on the spot…
Could it be that Tianzhu had been sent by the Titan Young Lord’s fiancée? A person capable of putting a man like Tianzhu on a leash — who exactly was the Titan Young Lord’s mysterious fiancée? Still, “tiger” was the operative word, which meant it wasn’t any of the female powerhouses she personally knew. Probably not the person she’d feared, then, which meant she was safe.
Lady Zhiguang exhaled quietly and let a small, warm smile return to her face.
Playing the perfect hostess, she took the Windstill national ruler’s hand — every inch the loving, doting consort — and, hand in hand with him, ushered the distinguished guests into the residence with attentive courtesy.
Blue Wolf, Wanjiao, and Luoluo were all doing their best to look uninterested, but they still kept sneaking glances at Lady Zhiguang’s face and figure, and were privately fuming that the Windstill national ruler had insisted on holding her hand the entire time.
If the Titan Young Lord had not been present, Blue Wolf and the other two would already have thrown down for her.
If not for the divine blood, they would already have simply seized Lady Zhiguang.
The Windstill national ruler saw all of this and sneered inwardly.
You can’t move a finger against me right now. Wait until the banquet is over. Then this ruler will take his beloved off to the most hidden of hideaways, swallow and fuse with the divine blood, and come back out considerably more powerful. At that point, not only will you three be unable to touch me — I might just be in a position to wipe your countries off the map. And if he could keep the Titan Young Lord as a nominal ally for the night’s banquet — with Tianzhu, the Dragon Emperor, and the Underworld Emperor as reinforcements — then Blue Wolf and the other two were essentially three ants. He might as well pretend they weren’t there.
Everyone found their seats. Music and dancing filled the hall; cups were raised in celebration.
Three rounds of wine passed.
Then Blue Wolf, without warning, stood up.
(End of Chapter 946)