Chapter 19

Gilded rosy glow draped over Xuandu, the floating city.

The auspicious hour struck, and three peals of bells resounded across the skies.

From the highest spire of Xuandu, a magical passage coalesced. Its cyan-blue radiance cascaded down like a winding river of stars, looping three full times around the entire city.

Along the luminous path, ninety-nine auspicious beasts trod slowly forward bearing rare treasures. Every item glowed and shimmered, a rare treasure-level magic artifact hard to come by even in the cultivation world, drawing gasps of admiration from the spectators.

The Hundred Treasures Parade, staged as the opening of the birthday celebration, was the Lou Clan, one of the four great families, showcasing their status to the entire cultivation realm.

Lou Yue had no interest in any of this. She had long since picked a random seat at the very back of the banquet, while Xiao Rangchen stood not far away, arms folded, feigning sleep.

When the last auspicious beast reached the spire accompanied by curling celestial music, the whole world fell abruptly silent.

A white-haired elder whose hair fell to his waist stepped out through the air. His gaze was sharp as a torch, and his imposing aura filled the surroundings. This was none other than the head of the Lou Clan, Lou Mo.

"By the spirit vein of my Lou Clan that has endured a thousand years as the catalyst, let the spirit rain fall, and nourish all of Xuandu!"

Billions of streams of light shot up behind Lou Mo, converging into the shadow of a colossal whale that blotted out the sky and blocked out the sun.

The great whale flicked its tail and let out a long, resonant cry. Wherever it circled, golden light fell in a rustle, like a rain of golden stardust that spilled over every inch of land in the floating Xuandu City and the grounded Xuandi City below.

Lou Yue's features softened as she watched the golden glimmers of falling stardust fill the sky.

She stretched out her hand. A drop of the spirit rain touched her palm and dissolved into pure spiritual energy that seeped into her dantian, warm and comforting.

As a cultivator at the peak of the Golden Core stage, the spirit rain was more of a visual treat than anything of practical use to her. But for ordinary people, for Xiao Aiai, Dou'er, and Little Qiu, it was of immense benefit.

A smile tugged unconsciously at Lou Yue's lips. She rested her cheek in her hand, watching the specks of light on her palm intently.

Sensing something, she glanced to the side.

Everyone else there was looking up at the whale phantom and the spirit rain, only Xiao Rangchen still had his arms crossed and his eyes closed. His long, lean legs were propped casually apart, making him look icy, aloof, and strikingly handsome.

Tch, showing off for no reason.

Lou Yue decided not to look and spoil her mood, turning back to the spirit rain.

Xiao Rangchen slowly lifted his eyes. His gaze cut through the crowd, deep and heavy, settling steadily on the figure in the distance.

Amidst the sea of golden rain, there was only her. All the brilliance in the world paled in comparison to her.

...

The colossal whale phantom circled the sky for a full half an hour before it gradually dissipated. By then, Xuandu had turned into a fairyland, with plants and trees growing wildly, sprouting new green leaves and blooming flowers, brimming with vibrant life.

Lou Mo landed, standing with his hands behind his back before the dais.

On the high platform sat the heads of the three other great clans: the Cangya Clan from the Northern Sea, the Yue Clan from Qingzhou, and the Liufeng Clan from Langhua. The three of them raised their wine cups, and the younger generation of all the clans in the seats below followed suit, offering distant birthday wishes.

After all, this man was the original host's grandfather, so Lou Yue casually lifted her wine cup in acknowledgement.

Next came the session where representatives from each clan presented birthday gifts and performed musical and dance acts. Lou Yue had prepared a gift too, just as her father Lou Chengfeng had suggested: she plucked a small wild flower, making sure not to show up empty-handed. She had no intention of personally presenting it, and figured Old Master Lou would not hold it against a junior like her.

As Lou Yue watched the scene of people toasting and fawning over each other at the feast, she was already thinking of slipping off to a quiet spot to nap before the Ancient Tree Enlightenment session in the afternoon. Just then, a person at the table next to hers leaned over to greet her.

"May I know your name, brother? I am Yue Qi, of the Yue Clan from Qingzhou."

Before Lou Yue could even open her mouth, a man who had come up beside Yue Qi scoffed, "Yue Qi, why are you sitting with her?"

"Cang Wu, do you know her?"

Cang Wu twirled the wine cup in his hand, his tone full of disdain. "Just an abandoned child of the Lou Clan. Not worth my attention."

Yue Qi looked confused. "An abandoned child?"

Lou Yue had no patience for the two annoying people rambling on and spoiling her mood. She tossed down her wine cup and got up to leave, but Cang Wu deliberately blocked her path.

"Running away? Afraid of losing face?" Cang Wu said, stopping her with a hand, his words sharp and mean.

"Not running. I'm afraid you'll be the one losing face," Lou Yue shot back. Too lazy to waste words on a pest, she tried to step around him and leave.

Cang Wu reached out to grab Lou Yue, but a hand clamped around his wrist and wrenched him backward. The force was so strong that even he winced in pain.

"Xiao Rangchen? You're still alive?" Cang Wu sneered the moment he saw who it was, but the smile faded instantly, replaced by shock. "Your spiritual vein has healed?!"

Xiao Rangchen flung Cang Wu's hand off, his tone cutting and icy. "Cang Wu, starting from this moment on, you'd better cherish every single day you have left."

"Xiao Rangchen, even if your spiritual vein is healed, so what? You're still just a lowly Foundation Establishment cultivator, while I have already stepped into the Nascent Soul stage!"

"It only took you five years to go from Golden Core to Nascent Soul," Xiao Rangchen retorted mockingly.

Lou Yue was just about to laugh when she suddenly remembered that the original host had been stuck at the Golden Core stage for six years now. She trailed off, speechless.

That line landed on Cang Wu like a slap too. Among the young aristocratic cultivators, that level of progress could only be called mediocre. He flew into a rage, yelling, "You spout nonsense! You're a lowly commoner who snuck up to Xuandu, how dare you even dream of participating in the Enlightenment? You don't deserve it!"

The people nearby had already noticed their argument, and now all eyes turned to Xiao Rangchen.

"He's a commoner...?"

"How did he even get up here?"

"Must have snuck in through some crooked, underhanded means, right?"

"Can a commoner even look that good?"

"A toad from the mud, trying to climb the immortal platform?"

...

Lou Yue's expression turned cold. None of these people had lowered their voices, they were all gossiping about him blatantly right to his face.

What's wrong with being a commoner? They're people too! With their noses stuck so high up in the air, no wonder Long Aotian would eventually turn all these great aristocratic clans upside down.

Calling him a toad? They probably had never even seen what a real toad looked like.

Lou Yue was seething with irritation. Xiao Rangchen just hung his head, not saying a word, not even bothering to refute them.

She could not hold back any longer. She pushed Xiao Rangchen aside, lifted her chin, and called out to Cang Wu loudly, "He's my guest. What, you got a problem with me too?"

"You're so desperate to stop him from joining the Enlightenment, I think you're just scared that he'll succeed in the enlightenment and leave you in the dust, making you lose all face."

Lou Yue feigned a look of sudden realization and nodded. "Right, you could make up excuses for losing to someone else, but if you lost to that 'lowly commoner' you just mentioned? You'd have no face left at all, you'd probably kill yourself out of shame."

Cang Wu was so choked by Lou Yue's words that he could not find a retort, his face turning red and then pale. For a moment, he could not utter a single response.

Lou Yue stepped forward, looked up at him, her eyebrows raised, a sharp, unyielding aura radiating straight toward him. "Let's make a bet. We'll see who achieves great success in the enlightenment, you or Xiao Rangchen. The loser kneels down and barks like a dog three times."

"You're pitting a Foundation Establishment cultivator against my Nascent Soul stage self?" Cang Wu sneered. "You're definitely going to lose."

Lou Yue smiled back brightly. "I'll be waiting for your dog barks."

Cang Wu's eyes were red with fury. He opened and closed his jaw, grinding his teeth almost to dust, caught between agreeing and refusing.

Lou Yue grinned cheerfully, then grabbed Xiao Rangchen by the arm and pulled him away, leaving Cang Wu standing there under the teasing glances of the surrounding crowd.

"Hey, Cang Wu," Yue Qi walked over, a gentle smile on his face. "I've been meaning to talk to you about something. Come on, let's go over to that quieter spot."

The onlookers scattered. Yue Qi led Cang Wu to a side area, where Cang Wu shook his hand off roughly, his face dark. "Cut the fake act, we both know what this is."

Yue Qi's smile faded instantly. He straightened the creases on his cuffs slowly and deliberately. "I don't care what grudge you have against those two, but don't kill that girl from the Lou Clan."

Cang Wu glanced at him sideways. The thought of this man's peculiar, vile preferences made his stomach turn, but he did not show it on his face. "Lou Yue looks so frail and delicate, she wouldn't even last two days with you."

"Her name is Lou Yue... what a lovely name," Yue Qi said, licking his lips.

Cang Wu could no longer stand Yue Qi's leering, familiar expression. "I don't care a thing about Lou Yue's life, but that man beside her — I want him dead!"

"Here in Xuan Capital City, do you really dare to kill someone openly?"

Cang Wu spat hard on the ground. He still rued the fact that he failed to kill Xiao Rangchen back in Xuandi City. He had no idea what kind of fortuitous opportunity the man had run into, but Xiao Rangchen had not only been cured of his Greedy Worm affliction, his spiritual meridians had fully healed too.

"There's no rush to kill him. We can make him taste a bit of suffering first," Yue Qi's voice dropped low, carrying a sinister, icy edge.

Cang Wu did not believe Yue Qi would go out of his way to help him for no reason.

The Yue clan of Qingzhou was the preeminent artifact-making family among the four great clans, responsible for forging nine out of ten of the world's divine weapons. Yue Qi was the oddity of the clan, who specialized in crafting insidious, cruel hidden weapons. Still, if he chose to lend a hand, their chances of success would indeed rise considerably.

Xiao Rangchen was a wild, unruly wolf cub. The more desperate the situation he was pushed into, the more reckless and unbridled he acted. Back in the day, to break out of an encirclement, he had not hesitated to forcefully absorb a demon core by leaping two whole realms of cultivation. Cang Wu still remembered that desperate, burn-his-boats ferocity vividly. If he had not used other people as human shields back then, he would have lost his own life that day.

Cang Wu asked tentatively, "You're willing to help me?"

"It's a partnership," Yue Qi stroked his chin, a wicked, sinister smile spreading across his face.

Cang Wu knew full well that Yue Qi was selfish, cunning, and never let a slight go unavenged. He refused to believe the man would wade into this muddy water purely on a fleeting whim.

All of a sudden, he recalled the rumors he had heard on the road to Xuan Capital. Yue Qi had an elder brother, and the two had a very close relationship. Word had it that his elder brother had fallen in love with a direct-lineage daughter of the Lou clan, only to be tied up by the Lou clan and sent back to the Yue clan, leaving the Yue family utterly humiliated.

The four great clans had deeply intertwined relationships, and political marriages were a common practice. The problem was that the woman in question was a direct-lineage daughter of the Lou clan.

Everyone within the four great clans knew that the direct-lineage members of the Lou clan inherited a powerful perception talent. The women of the lineage, aside from possessing extraordinary perception and affinity for spiritual energy, were also extremely rare, perfect cauldrons for cultivation partners.

The stronger one's external perception power, the more potent the cauldron power they held.

For that exact reason, direct-lineage female infants were very rarely born into the Lou clan. For a hundred years, Lou Mo, who had the strongest perception power, had only fathered three sons, and all of his sons had sons as well. It was not until the fourth generation that two girls were finally born.

And the woman Yue Qi's elder brother loved was one of them.

The Lou clan never allowed their direct-lineage daughters to marry outside the clan, and they would never tolerate outsiders coveting them. Every time a direct-lineage daughter of the Lou clan was born, the clan leader would personally plant a soul seed to protect her. Once she turned sixteen, she would be married to a person designated by the clan, whose cultivation she would help elevate by drawing on her cauldron power, so that the clan could produce top-tier powerhouses.

That meant Yue Qi's elder brother was never meant to be with her. Word had it the Lou clan had already scheduled the woman's wedding to take place right after the clan's longevity banquet.

Cang Wu saw the full picture now. "You want to get back at them for your elder brother."

"Lou Yue isn't even a woman who bears that cauldron power. What's the harm in having a little fun with her?" Yue Qi tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Besides, she does strike my fancy. This move kills two birds with one stone."

Cang Wu cast away all his lingering doubts. "What kind of 'suffering' did you have in mind?"

"According to the usual protocol, the Lou clan will arrange for all the visiting guests to stay in the same residential compound."

Cang Wu caught on instantly. After a moment of silent thought, he lowered his voice and said, "There's someone who might be able to help us."

...

Lou Yue had grown up bold and unruly, and she did not take Cang Wu seriously at all.

Compared to Cang Wu, it was Xiao Rangchen who really got under her skin.

She dragged Xiao Rangchen to a corner, then roughly shook his arm off. "You're so arrogant to me on a normal day, but why don't I ever see you act that wildly toward outsiders?"

Xiao Rangchen looked up at her. If those people were outsiders, then what was she?

The unpleasantness from earlier that morning seemed to fade away a little.

Seeing that he still had that unflappable, completely indifferent look on his face, Lou Yue's face darkened even more. "Ugh, I was a meddling cat picking on a mouse, sticking my nose into something that wasn't my business."

She turned to leave after throwing out those words, but Xiao Rangchen reached through her clothes and grabbed her wrist.

"Who gave you permission to paw at me?" Lou Yue glared at him, brows furrowed.

Xiao Rangchen released her. His voice was low and magnetic as he spoke. "I was thinking about some old memories back then. By the time I snapped out of it to speak, you had already stepped in ahead of me."

Lou Yue crossed her arms over her chest, lifting the corner of her eye. "Oh, so now it's my fault?"

A faint, almost imperceptible smile flickered in Xiao Rangchen's eyes, like tiny ripples spreading across a cold, deep pool.

He spoke slowly, every word clear and unwavering. "I won't let you lose."

That was how it should be.

Lou Yue huffed and turned her face away.

Xiao Rangchen gazed at Lou Yue, his eyes deep and unreadable.

The slanting sunlight fell into her eyes, lending them a clear, translucent luster like glazed glass. Her cheeks were flushed a soft, faint crimson from her anger.

A breeze drifted through the corner, carrying the faint, sweet scent of osmanthus blossoms.

The sounds of the ongoing banquet, with guests toasting and chatting noisily, felt as if they were separated off in a world of their own.