The Coiling Dragon City procession wove through the land as a vast and magnificent azure dragon, traveling through Azure Dragon Region in an imperious and domineering manner.
A few groups considered ambushing them along the way, but quickly thought better of it when they noted the Dragonfeather King, Mountain King, and another Torch King from the Blazing Phoenix Region among their ranks. These were three nigh invincible sixth step kings—they would make short work of anyone unwise enough to try them.
……
In the flying treasure gliding over the middle of the entourage.
Qing Ting sat right next to Lu Yun, maintaining a stare of death at her brother and a young girl in crimson robes next to him. Discontent shone out of her face.
“Qing Ting, do you er… like your brother in that way?” Lu Yun looked at her strangely. This brother and sister duo were too weird. Azureclad forbade him from getting too close with Qing Ting, but Qing Ting loved spending time and being physically close to him. Was she using him to irritate her brother?
The more Lu Yun thought about it, the more it seemed to be the case.
He could clearly sense through the Karmic Tree that Qing Ting didn’t feel anything beyond platonic about him. He was, at most, a very good friend to her. Lu Yun wouldn’t have gifted her all those items if this wasn’t the case.
“No!” Qing Ting turned her unfriendly glare onto Lu Yun. “I just don’t like that Crimsonclad Duke! Uh huh, I don’t like her!” She ground her teeth.
“Do you two have a feud?” Lu Yun blinked.
“Yes! A death feud!” Qing Ting nodded and huffed out, “I’m stronger than her now. If it wasn’t for Qing Yan stopping me, I would’ve beat her up already!”
“How did you two form a feud?” Lu Yun asked curiously. Though she said it was a death feud, he didn’t read any killing intent from her.
“She said I’m flat!” Qing Ting snarled.
“Huh?” Lu Yun didn’t understand.
“Am I flat?!” Qing Ting puffed her chest out at Lu Yun. “Do you think I’m flat??”
Lu Yun: ……
Leng Che and You Cang looked away. They didn’t even dare listen to the conversation, much less look in Qing Ting’s general direction. Though they’d once harbored certain thoughts about her, that was before she became overwhelmingly stronger than them. Even the Azureclad Duke wasn’t a match for her anymore, and the Champion Duke someone they should avoid provoking at all costs.
The two had completely given up on Qing Ting.
“Ahem!” Their conversation naturally registered in Azureclad’s ears and he quickly lectured, “Now don’t go spouting nonsense, Qing Ting…”
“I’m not spouting nonsense!” she snorted. “She said my chest was flat the first time we met! As long as I’m here, she’s not making it through the city doors and marrying into Coiling Dragon! There is no me if she’s here, and no her if I’m here!”
Azureclad fell into an awkward silence and Lu Yun also looked away. But he did make a surreptitious comparison and found that Qing Ting really was much flatter than the Crimsonclad Duke.
Crimsonclad airily laughed the girl off. “And if I want to enter through your doors?”
“Then I’ll marry into the Immortal Pagoda and be the Immortal King’s concubine!” Qing Ting declared ferociously.
Lu Yun almost choked on his spit.
“That would be a very good thing,” Crimsonclad analyzed. “The Immortal King is a marvelously talented person and worthy of being hailed the foremost genius of the Hongmeng. His reputation is greater than Hua Fengwen’s, and marrying him would contribute to an alliance between the Immortal Pagoda and Coiling Dragon City, no matter if you’re a concubine or a wife.”
“You!!” Qing Ting flew into a rage and rolled her sleeves up, ready to throw fists and yank hair.
“Qing Ting!” Azureclad quickly stopped her. “Little Ying is just joking with you.”
Chi Ying was the Crimsonclad Duke’s real name.
“Just look at them!” Qing Ting stomped back to Lu Yun’s side in a huff and jabbed an accusing finger at her brother and Crimsonclad. She shook and muttered for a while, unable to voice anything intelligible.
“Are you really going to marry the Immortal King if they become dao partners?” Lu Yun asked carefully.
“Hmph!” Qing Ting swept a lofty glance over Lu Yun and brought out an image talisman. The talisman flickered, projected a limber young man in a white shirt in front of her.
It was Lu Yun.
“How am I worthy of him? …the Intrance King and he are a match made in heaven,” she said in a lovestruck voice as she looked at the image in front of her. “There are no men in the Hongmeng who are worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as him!
“He deployed the order of time to kill a sixth step king when he was in the common realm. He used a small ploy to dismantle the Supplemental Dao Alliance’s carefully plotted Supplemental Convention. He then refined creation and defeated the arrogant peacock Alchemist King in direct battle! He forced the Supplemental Dao Alliance to end their monopoly! Do you think a man like that can be compared to that rotten clod in front of you?!”
She sneered derisively at the Azureclad Duke, highly displeased by his earlier display. He was so girl-crazy that he forgot his own blood relation!
Lu Yun rubbed his nose; he still didn’t read any love or attraction from Qing Ting. It was more… idol worship? Admiration? Respect?
He actually didn’t understand what was going through her mind anymore.
“There’s more than that!” Crimsonclad suddenly added. “They say that the Immortal King used supplemental dao to defeat the Alchemist and Wild Formation King in concert outside Multitude City. That’s why the Haotian Tower from the Supplemental Dao Alliance doesn’t dare do anything to the Immortal Pagoda.”
“Hmph!” Qing Ting snorted and ignored the other girl’s addition.
“And what happened in Starspace Region! Did you know that…” Qing Ting and the Crimsonclad Duke fired off stories one after another, retelling Lu Yun’s grand feats in a variety of different fashions.
Azureclad listened with great enjoyment at first, thinking his sister and the object of his affections could resolve their tiny differences. But soon enough, his merriment turned to annoyance.
As the two complimented the Immortal King, they compared him to Azureclad, Leng Che, You Cang, and even the Champion Duke—denigrating everyone else as worthless cads in comparison.
Lu Yun didn’t mind at all and listened with delight. He hadn’t thought that Crimsonclad would be a fan of his as well! You Cang and Leng Che didn’t dare protest, whereas Azureclad’s expression turned darker by the second.
“After the Dragonling Assembly, I must go to Multitude City to challenge that Immortal King and see just what he’s made of!” Azureclad muttered with annoyance.
“You?” Qing Ting burst out laughing. “Can you even make it through his emotion formation?”
“I…” Azureclad turned beet red. “Supplemental dao is a means to an end, it’s complementary to cultivation. I’ll use my own strength to beat him, fair and square!”
“Supplemental dao being complementary to cultivation is also a saying from the Immortal King,” sniffed Qing Ting.
“Qing Ting! You’re my sister!” Azureclad yelped.
“So? You helped an outsider instead of me just now,” she chuckled happily, feeling like she’d avenged herself for earlier.
Azureclad muttered ominously—no one could make out what he was saying, but it was most likely something along the lines of defeating the Immortal King and whatnot.
“Eh? Champion Duke, are you not angry?” Crimsonclad asked with surprise. All of the youths present were irritated to a certain degree since she’d half jokingly used the Immortal King to criticize all of them, but this Champion Duke remained smiling easily without a change in expression.
“Me? Why should I be angry?” Lu Yun paused and continued, “All of my treasures are from the Immortal King, so why should I be mad?”
“Maybe Li Zhen’s right,” Qing Ting mused suspiciously. “You really are the Immortal King’s son… if I marry him, won’t you have to call me mother?”
Lu Yun: ……
……
Rumble—
An enormous explosion sounded in the air and the massive procession jolted, having run into a massive formation.
“A Spacetime Formation!” roared Dragonfeather. “How dare you, Spacetime King! This is an entourage of Coiling Dragon that you’re stopping!”
“I’m just a lonely old man now. I work for whoever pays me purple crystals, there is no ‘dare’ about it.” Spacetime King, having fled from Multitude City a long time ago, slowly revealed himself.
He was still a fifth step king, but the power of time on him was denser than before. There was even a hint of the order of time about him.
“Dragonfeather King, I know you’re strong. But since you’ve entered my Spacetime Formation, you won’t be making it out alive.” He stood in the air and leisurely addressed the group. “But I can let you go if you turn around now and swear not to participate in the Dragonling Assembly.”
“In your dreams!” The Dragonfeather, Mountain, and Torch Kings shot into the air. A hundred plus kings beneath them flared with power and formed an azure dragon.
“Ai!” Spacetime sighed heavily. “The Immortal King used a formation of space and time to slaughter more than twenty kings of the Colosseum in Multitude City. Today, I shall imitate him and use a similar formation to massacre more than a hundred kings of Coiling Dragon City!”
