After the voice faded, the person who had spoken appeared outside the door.
He was a tall and imposing man with an impressive bearing, thick eyebrows, large eyes, a straight nose, and a neatly trimmed short beard. His authoritative face was brimming with a broad smile. With a sturdy build, he walked with a vigorous and confident stride, exuding an aura of absolute freedom and boundless ambition.
The newcomer was none other than the current Emperor of Yin’s own younger brother, Prince Duan, Li Chenghu. He held the supreme military power of the Yin Kingdom, and his status in Yin was similar to that of Ying Xiaotang in the Jin Kingdom.
The crowd from Kunling Mountain hurried outside. Led by Zhao Dengzi, they clasped their hands in greeting. “Your Highness Prince Duan has graced us with your presence. We failed to welcome you from afar, so please forgive our offence.”
Li Chenghu walked up the steps and returned the greeting with clasped hands. “Sect Master Zhao is too polite, and the elders are too polite. We are all old acquaintances, so there is no need for such formal welcomes. That is why I did not send word ahead and just barged in. I hope you will not take offence.”
Zhao Dengzi smiled and said, “Your Highness remains as majestic as ever, and just as straightforward.”
“Sect Master Zhao also retains his elegant demeanour,” Li Chenghu replied politely. He then turned his head to look back at a beautiful, flower-like woman walking gracefully behind him, accompanied by four escort guards. A knowing smile appeared on his face, and he beckoned her over. “Miaoqing, come quickly. Let me introduce you to some distinguished experts.”
Zhao Dengzi and the others guessed this must be the princess consort and could not help but stare. A first glance was already striking, but a closer look revealed a truly rare beauty. Her looks were breathtaking, her posture graceful and dignified, and her skin as flawless as carved jade. Paired with a high-quality green dress and accentuated by an aura of wealth and nobility, she was truly peerless in elegance. However, her bright eyes seemed to hold a faint, almost imperceptible trace of melancholy.
In fact, this princess consort was none other than the legendary Tie Miaoqing, who was rumoured to have married again.
Behind the four guards was an older woman. She was Sun Ping, the former manager of Miaoqing Hall, and her current attire reflected an extraordinary air of nobility.
As Tie Miaoqing walked up the steps, she slightly lifted the hem of her skirt.
Once she reached the top, Li Chenghu introduced her to the crowd. “This is my beloved consort, Tie Miaoqing. During our grand wedding, due to some special reasons, we did not hold a lavish ceremony and therefore did not notify any of you. Today, I have specially brought her to offer our apologies.”
“We would not dare,” Zhao Dengzi said politely, and then he and the six elders greeted her in unison. “Greetings, Princess Consort.”
Li Chenghu then introduced the people in front of them to his woman. “This is the famous Sect Master Zhao of Kunling Mountain. This is Elder Huan, Elder Qu, Elder Yuan, Elder Hu, Elder Jiang, and Elder Wan.”
Tie Miaoqing immediately bowed. “Greetings, distinguished seniors.”
Sun Ping, who had stopped at the bottom of the steps, watched the scene above and sighed inwardly. Before her young mistress had married into the princely manor, not a single one of these important figures would have given them a proper glance. It would have been hard enough just to get a chance to meet them, let alone have them act so respectfully and politely.
Thinking of the past and looking at the present, she still had not quite gotten used to it and continued to feel as if it were all a dream.
“We will be staying here for a few days anyway, so everyone can get to know each other better later,” Li Chenghu said politely to both sides. He then took Tie Miaoqing’s hand and gestured inside. “My sister-in-law is still waiting inside. If we keep her waiting too long, I am afraid she will be unhappy again.”
The husband and wife walked into the hall hand in hand. Xiang Lanxuan, who had been standing with her hands clasped in front of the hall, quickly stepped aside. She was finally relieved and let out a sigh of relief.
Li Chenghu stopped in front of the hall and bowed. “Your humble brother greets his imperial sister-in-law.”
Tie Miaoqing also bowed and said, “Your humble subject greets the Empress.”
Facing this Empress, she was well aware of the woman’s background beyond just being the Empress. She was a little afraid to face her and also knew that the Empress disliked her.
She still remembered a time when she went to pay her respects and was deliberately left waiting outside the door for an entire afternoon. She had to stand under the sun the whole time and did not dare to move a single step. It was only later when the prince heard the news and came to rescue her from the awkward situation.
Entering a certain living environment meant abiding by the rules of that environment. The imperial family had its own rules, and at least the superficial rules left her no choice but to comply. Some restrictions were inevitable, and she could no longer be as undisciplined as she was in the past.
Fortunately, she was used to being restrained. In the past, out of fear of being harmed, she was forced to stay confined in the underground world of Youjiao Port for many years without daring to leave. Now, it was just a different way of being restrained. The freedom she desired seemed to exist only in her aspirations, as if no one could truly afford to grant it.
Fortunately, she no longer had to worry about money or constantly fret over her safety. She now had fine clothes, exquisite food, wealth, and honour.
Sitting upright above them, Yanyi gave a faint “hmm” from her nose. The glance she cast at Tie Miaoqing revealed a trace of chilling coldness, which could even be described as disgust.
To put it bluntly, just seeing Tie Miaoqing annoyed her, and she even found it sickening.
When Prince Duan first wanted to marry this woman, she had strongly opposed it. However, Prince Duan was determined to marry her even if it meant falling out with her. Later, having no other choice and considering the bigger picture, she had to swallow her anger and just watch it happen.
She was not jealous because the woman was more beautiful than her, nor did she oppose it just because a dignified prince was marrying a divorced woman. She was also not angry about making a twice-married woman a princess consort. It was because some matters were just too tangled to sort out.
It was said that this woman had lived with that world-famous third-ranked scholar for a long time, resulting in an ambiguous relationship. Meanwhile, her own biological daughter was clamouring to marry that same scholar, yet Prince Duan ended up marrying this woman as his princess consort. What kind of mess was this? It truly sickened her to the core.
Thinking that someone was not satisfied with the mess and still wanted to matchmake her daughter with that scholar, trying to get her a son-in-law who was having an affair with her sister-in-law, she felt quite furious. She could not help but cast another cold, sidelong glance at Xiang Lanxuan, who was standing nearby. If Xiang Lanxuan were not her senior brother’s capable assistant, she would have killed her directly long ago.
Catching this murderous gaze, Xiang Lanxuan was instantly terrified and trembling again. She realised that women were truly too hard to please, much more difficult than men. She had no idea why the Empress was displeased with her again, feeling as though she could be disliked at any moment. She had never felt like she was walking on thin ice like this, not even in front of the Earth Master.
Yu Qing, who had not been settled in for long, was leaning on the second-floor balcony looking out at the mountain scenery. Suddenly, he saw Xu Yi, the Kunling Mountain disciple in charge of this garden, walking over. Xu Yi waved at him from downstairs and shouted, “Brother Zhang, there is a man named Cheng Long outside looking for you. He says he is an old friend of yours.”
Cheng Long? Yu Qing was stunned for a moment. When did he have a good friend with that name? He quickly realised that this seemed to be Long Xingyun’s alias.
He did not like Long Xingyun, so he immediately refused flatly. “I will not see him. Just tell him I am not here.”
To his surprise, as soon as he finished speaking, a sarcastic and mocking voice immediately came from under the tree shaded by the canopy ahead. “If you are not here, how can you still be talking here? Could it be that you have already mastered the legendary voice transmission over a thousand miles?”
A familiar face slowly walked out from under the tree canopy. Holding a folding fan and waving it, he walked over with a cold sneer while speaking. It was none other than Long Xingyun.
Xu Yi looked at both sides and finally gave Yu Qing an apologetic and bitter smile.
Yu Qing frowned and replied, “You do not even live here. Why did you come running over?”
“As soon as I found out you were here, I came over immediately to visit you. We are old friends after all. How can you say such heartless words?”
While joking, Long Xingyun leaped into the air and flew directly to the second floor, landing beside Yu Qing. Without being polite, he threw an arm over Yu Qing’s shoulder and gestured with his lips to Xu Yi downstairs. “Alright, we are old friends reuniting and just having a casual chat. You do not need to keep us company.”
Xu Yi immediately looked at Yu Qing for his reaction.
Yu Qing shrugged his shoulder to shake off the overly familiar arm, but had no other reaction.
Seeing this, Xu Yi clasped his hands and took his leave.
Seeing that the other man was unhappy made Long Xingyun very happy. He waved the folding fan in his hand and actually took the initiative to fan Yu Qing. “You dog of a scholar, who are you pulling that sour face for? Come on, calm down.”
Yu Qing raised his hand to block the fan. “Do not go too far. I have already done as you said. What else do you want?”
Long Xingyun said cheerfully, “Did I say I wanted anything? I said I came over to see you. Why are you panicking?”
Yu Qing said, “Tell me, when did you become so shameless? If you have something to say, say it quickly. If you have something to let out, let it out quickly.”
Long Xingyun looked him up and down. “I have wanted to visit you for a long time, but I never had a suitable opportunity. Now that we live closer, it is considered convenient.
“I heard you have been quite lucky. Out of eight total draws, you drew four blank tokens, two opponents who conceded directly, and the remaining two were severely injured and easy to beat. Being able to scrape by until now just by taking advantage of cheap wins, you are truly a rare scoundrel.
“I came to give you a kind reminder. The upcoming matches are all genuine contests. It will be basically impossible to get any more easy wins. If you run into someone ruthless, you might lose your life. If you are scared, you might as well concede early.”
After speaking, he carefully observed Yu Qing’s reaction. He had not been able to gauge Yu Qing’s true strength all this time, so he actually felt a bit unsure himself. After all, this was a man who dared to take the initiative to attack him.
Yu Qing was a bit puzzled about what this guy actually wanted by coming over, so he retorted, “I divined a fortune for you. You are going to lose in the very first match of the first round. What I am most afraid of right now is actually that you will not keep your word.”
Long Xingyun sneered. “Divination? Blind fortune-telling with your eyes open is useless. You better worry more about tomorrow’s draw. There will be no blank tokens for you to draw tomorrow!”
Not wanting to look at other people’s expressions any longer, he patted Yu Qing on the shoulder, leaped downstairs, and swaggered away.
Yu Qing raised half an eyebrow, truly wanting to incite Kui Kui to come out and have a fight with this fellow.
However, he quickly frowned again. He had been lying here just now thinking about tomorrow’s draw. His plan was to draw Long Xingyun in the first match and just defeat him to get it over with. He did not want to participate in the subsequent matches and planned to concede and hide from people.
However, he did not have absolute confidence in his heart and did not know Long Xingyun’s true strength. To be safe, should he first pick opponents he was sure he could beat, such as those from the Ding area, or opponents whose backgrounds he had investigated and was confident of winning against? He could first observe Long Xingyun’s strength when fighting others before deciding whether to clash head-on. It would be even better if he could hold out until Long Xingyun was defeated by someone else first.
Thinking about all these random thoughts, it was soon the next day, which was also the third day of rest. Just like the previous rules, today they had to draw lots to decide the lineup for tomorrow.
Early in the morning, Xu Yi called the four of them out and led them to assemble at the competition venue, constantly urging them by shouting, “Hurry up, hurry up.”
There was no helping it. Kui Kui was a bit undisciplined and lacked a strong sense of time. Even though the departure time had been agreed upon, he did not take it seriously and delayed things until it was a bit late.
This venue was much larger than the previous ones, mainly because the surrounding stands covered a vast area. It was incredibly lively, with tens of thousands of people present. It was a true centre of public attention, packed with crowds and buzzing with voices. Everywhere, people were pointing and discussing the competitors assembling in the arena.
Yu Qing did not expect so many people to come and watch a simple lottery draw.
After leading the four of them to the edge of the field, Xu Yi stopped. He gestured for them to head towards the area where the competitors had already assembled, as it was inconvenient for him to enter.
Kui Kui did not yield to anyone and strode ahead, looking around proudly under the gaze of countless people.
Wanting to keep a low profile, Yu Qing shrank back behind the others.
The assembled competitors included both men and women, and most of them were unfamiliar with each other, so the arrival of the four did not attract much attention. However, Long Xingyun, who had arrived earlier, seemed to take an interest when he spotted Yu Qing. He pursed his lips and gave a loud whistle to greet him, drawing everyone’s gaze towards them.
As soon as Yu Qing saw it was this guy, he immediately stepped out of the line and forced his way right next to Long Xingyun.
That was right. He had already made up his mind to cheat in the draw and just take out this guy in the first round to get it over with.