Before long, the entire square suddenly dimmed. Xu Ziyan looked up in surprise and saw a soft white light descending from the sky, illuminating the whole stage.
“What’s that?” Xu Ziyan shifted his position to watch. He did not know how Moon-Embracing Garden was designed, but despite sitting in a remote corner, they had an excellent view of the stage.
The young attendant he had intended to question had disappeared at some point. Xu Ziyan did not mind. The mystery would surely resolve itself shortly, so he was content to enjoy a little suspense.
Xu Ziyan watched the stage. Xu Zirong, meanwhile, kept shifting his gaze between the performance and his brother.
As graceful, strikingly beautiful women appeared onstage one after another, the gloom on Xu Zirong’s face gradually eased.
Fortunately… he did not see the kind of lustful look he detested in his brother’s eyes. Xu Ziyan was simply admiring the performers with an appreciative, unpossessive gaze.
With his own extraordinary beauty, Xu Zirong had encountered plenty of predatory stares in his previous life. But because his cultivation was so formidable, he had killed those who acted on their desires. The survivors had eventually realized that this poppy blossom was poisonous: anyone who sought to approach it carelessly had to be prepared to pay with their life.
He had worried that his brother wanted to visit a pleasure house because he had designs on the women there. Now it appeared that Xu Ziyan truly had come simply to enjoy the spectacle.
That reassured him somewhat, but Xu Zirong remained displeased. He hated anything that could attract his brother’s attention, even if the interest was nothing more than innocent admiration!
How he wished he could kill everyone who managed to draw his brother’s gaze!
Xu Zirong’s eyes darkened. He buried such extreme thoughts deep within himself, not daring to reveal them to his brother. He did not know how Xu Ziyan would react if he ever learned the truth.
His brother had a line that could not be crossed, and even Xu Zirong dared not step beyond it. He could not endure the consequences of a complete rupture between them.
He wanted to possess his brother, but he did not want to become his enemy. Imprisoning Xu Ziyan would be a last resort, the worst possible outcome. As long as there was even the slightest chance, Xu Zirong would never allow things to come to that!
As the beauties onstage displayed their remarkable talents, guests sitting nearest the stage began calling out bids.
Xu Ziyan realized at once that this was a kind of auction. He had no intention of participating, however, and stuck to his original plan of simply watching.
Each woman onstage presented her finest skills. Whether playing the qin, dancing, or singing, every performer who qualified to appear on that stage was exceptionally accomplished.
Xu Ziyan was thoroughly enjoying the show when a familiar crunching sound suddenly reached his ears.
He turned his head in confusion.
A pink rabbit was lying across Xu Zirong’s shoulder, happily gnawing a carrot. Noticing Xu Ziyan’s gaze, it turned to look at him for a moment before calmly looking away again. It finished off the carrot in a few bites and started on another.
…
…
What the hell! When did this rabbit get here?!
Xu Ziyan was startled. It suddenly occurred to him that he had not seen the rabbit once since emerging from seclusion. He had almost forgotten that Xu Zirong even possessed a spirit beast.
But how had it arrived? They were a tremendous distance from the Flowing Light Sect. Very few demonic beasts could keep up with the Cloud-Piercing Shuttle. So… how on earth had the rabbit appeared here?!
“Ever since you went into seclusion, Pinkfur has been disappearing from time to time, then suddenly showing up again. I don’t know how it finds me. But it has never actually gotten lost,” Xu Zirong explained thoughtfully, noticing Xu Ziyan’s shock.
Xu Ziyan swore that the rabbit stiffened when Xu Zirong called it ‘Pinkfur.’ Apparently… it did not appreciate the name.
Wait a minute! This was no time to discuss the rabbit’s name. Just what kind of spirit beast was it? How could it wander around without its master’s permission?
“Your spirit beast can go wherever it likes?” Xu Ziyan frowned. He had no idea that the spirit-beast contract between Xu Zirong and the rabbit was a contract between equals. At the time, Xu Ziyan had assumed that Xu Zirong’s overwhelming charisma had attracted a rabbit desperate to become his spirit beast.
Xu Zirong’s eye twitched almost imperceptibly. He still had no idea what this damned rabbit actually was. Worse, it was nowhere near as weak as it looked. At least, Xu Zirong did not think he could kill it with his current strength. During the past five years, the rabbit had repeatedly vanished and reappeared without explanation, but it had never hindered him. Eventually he had simply stopped paying it any mind. At worst, it was a little extra weight on his shoulder. Since it even brought its own food, he did not need to spend any effort caring for it.
“Pinkfur is very naughty. It often runs off, then comes running back again.” Xu Zirong gave a faint smile.
Xu Ziyan thought he detected a grinding-of-teeth quality to those words. Somehow, he felt that further questioning might embarrass Zirong and make him angry. Better let it go…
“Oh, I see…” Xu Ziyan decisively changed the subject. “Did you give Pinkfur that name?”
“Yes! What do you think of it, Big Brother?” Xu Zirong’s eyes curved into happy crescents.
Xu Ziyan silently glanced at the rabbit. Perhaps it was his imagination, but the creature seemed to be chewing its carrot with considerably greater force. →。→ “Not bad. It sounds nice. I remember you liked pink a lot when you were little,” Xu Ziyan said, rubbing his nose.
Xu Zirong’s expression instantly froze. A faint snort, almost like a laugh, seemed to come from the rabbit on his shoulder.
Xu Ziyan stared at it in puzzlement. Surely that was his imagination? Could rabbits laugh?
The only reply was the creature’s unchanging crunching. Nothing in the world could shake this rabbit’s determination to eat!
“Tsk, tsk. Good thing I got here in time, otherwise the flower queen…” A man’s voice suddenly stopped beside the folding screen.
Xu Ziyan turned around and frowned.
A young man and a boy stood by the partition. The boy looked familiar: apparently he was the attendant who had delivered their fruit earlier. The young man’s gaze, however, was fixed on Xu Zirong in open astonishment.
“Ah, forgive me, Young Master Yu! I’m terribly sorry. I was mistaken. This place is already occupied.” The attendant looked flustered and repeatedly apologized to the man.
The young man snapped out of his daze, looking first at Xu Zirong and then at Xu Ziyan. Finally, as if suddenly piecing things together, his expression darkened. Pointing at Xu Zirong, he demanded of the youth, “What is the meaning of this? Why haven’t I ever seen him before? Liuyun Pavilion gets fresh stock—and such a rare beauty, no less—and you didn’t bother to notify me?”
Joy flickered through the young attendant’s eyes, but he quickly hid it behind a look of panic and hurriedly waved his hands. “No, Young Master Yu! This young master isn’t one of ours at Liuyun Pavilion. The two of them were brought to Moon-Embracing Garden by the welcoming maidservant. They really are guests!”
“Guests?” Young Master Yu glanced suspiciously at Xu Zirong, greed flickering in his eyes. The attendant’s explanation had sounded helpful, but it also revealed that the two were first-time visitors to Liuyun Pavilion.
Everyone who lived in Wuti City knew that Liuyun Pavilion was divided into Star-Pointing Tower and Moon-Embracing Garden. Since the welcoming maidservant had sent these two guests here, the young man assumed they had no cultivation and had just arrived in the city.
Within a moment, Young Master Yu reached that conclusion and mentally labeled both Xu Ziyan and Xu Zirong as easy targets.
“Keep your eyes to yourself!” Xu Ziyan had been unhappy since the newcomers arrived. The attendant was young and poor at hiding his intentions. Xu Ziyan could see that he had deliberately led Young Master Yu into their partition.
Xu Ziyan did not know why the attendant had done this, but the way Young Master Yu was openly ogling Zirong filled him with fury.
“What did you say?!” Young Master Yu had already wanted to make trouble, and Xu Ziyan’s remark gave him exactly the opportunity he needed.
He had no spiritual roots and could not cultivate, but he was the son of the Yu family patriarch! In Wuti City, aside from the Fang and Jiang families, whose members he feared offending, nobody else dared to cross him lightly, not even cultivators. After all, his father was a genuine cultivator at the late Meridian Condensation stage.
The higher a cultivator’s cultivation, the harder it was for them to produce offspring. Although Yu Nianbai had no talent for cultivation, his father still doted on him, fostering his overbearing and arrogant temperament.
Naturally, Yu Nianbai was not a complete idiot. He was arrogant but did not ordinarily offend strangers without knowing who they were. His confidence this time came from the fact that they were inside Moon-Embracing Garden, an area intended mainly for ordinary people.
He had seen plenty of cultivators in his family. Most, including his father, regarded people who could not cultivate as ants. Would a person deliberately mingle with ants? Of course not!
Cultivators always preferred the privileges reserved for cultivators. Anyone with even the slightest cultivation, even a first-level Qi Refining disciple, would surely choose Star-Pointing Tower when visiting Liuyun Pavilion!
Except for Xu Ziyan, who refused to follow the usual rules!
Xu Ziyan’s presence overturned Yu Nianbai’s assumptions. As a result, Yu Nianbai was about to discover just how badly he had misjudged the situation.
Yu Nianbai’s father had assigned him two guards at the early Foundation Establishment stage, fearing that something might happen to his son. Such guards were more than enough to let Yu Nianbai swagger around Wuti City without fear. Even if he met a formidable cultivator, they should at least be able to stop Yu Nianbai from accidentally offending someone beyond his family’s power.
Unfortunately for Yu Nianbai, he had chosen to make trouble in Liuyun Pavilion, where cultivators and mortals were ordinarily kept strictly apart!
Convinced that Xu Ziyan and Xu Zirong were merely ordinary, powerless travelers passing through Wuti City, Yu Nianbai struck without hesitation. He unleashed a lethal blow right from the start—for Xu Zirong’s sake, he had already resolved to kill them to silence any witnesses, then lock Xu Zirong away to keep as his personal plaything!