Inside the vast Imperial Palace hall, all seats were already completely filled.
For the All Saints Day this time, everyone in the Imperial Capital had been looking forward to it very much. Because it was only on the All Saints Day that there wouldn’t be any differentiation between ranks or positions.
Even for the children from common families, as long as they were capable enough to pass the initial test, would have the right to come into the Imperial Palace, to duel with members of nobility, where they might finally be fortunate enough to become the festival’s male saint or female saint, to be elevated right up among the clouds in one step, gaining the Emperor’s favour.
But that was just a beautiful daydream. As the female saint every single time the festival came around was always Yan Ning Luo, the greatest lady prodigy in the Green Wave Kingdom, who was accepted into the Faint Mist Sect more than ten years ago when they came here personally to recruit her and was now a highly favoured inner disciple in there.
Even within the Faint Mist Sect where powerful pugilists were a dime a dozen, Yan Ning Luo’s name was always seen on their ranking chart and was even steadily near the front ranks.
And the position of male saint had always been taken by Xuanyuan Che which had the people always saying they those two were indeed a match made in Heaven, with their powers equally strong and profound.
The Three Great Sects had always been secretly fighting to gain the top position and although the Faint Mist Sect had been standing a notch above to hold the leading position among the sects, the Limitless Sect and the Carefree Valley were not just any laidback and insignificant bunch as well. They had been biding their time and building their strength over the past few years and their might was hard to determine now.
This year’s All Saints Day could very well be the year that would see some change.
As the Green Wave Kingdom’s past male and female saints, the duty of receiving important guests had naturally fallen onto the shoulders of Yan Ning Luo and Xuanyuan Che.
Although Yan Ning Luo was just recently come of age, but the calm and steady air surrounding her made it very difficult for people to not consider her age as they were all unconsciously subdued by her, completely bowled over. With her standing beside the Crown Prince of the Kingdom Xuanyuan Che, she did not pale in comparison in the very least.
“I have never seen you so eager in all the previous years.” Xuanyuan Che’s gentle voice sounded beside her, tinged with an indecipherable tone.
Yan Ning Luo had just greeted one of her fellow junior disciple and when she turned around to hear these words, she was taken aback a moment. The corners of her lips then lifted very slightly. “What? How am I different in previous years?”
Xuanyuan Che’s eyes darkened, and he did not face her as he answered her question. “That man Qing Ye Li, it is better you do not get too close to him.”
“Could His highness the Crown Prince be jealous?” Yan Ning Luo said with a burst of laughter. “I know better than you what kind of a man he is. Rest assured. I am still holding the name of being the Crown Prince Consort and I will not attract gossip to your name. But…..” She paused a moment, and then leaned in closer and her voice stifled low so only the two of them could hear. “Do you know….. why I do not like you?”
“Why?” That was something that Xuanyuan Che actually did not understand. He had initially not detested this woman but whenever they came to meet each other, she was always showing such a great lack of interest. As the Crown Prince of a Kingdom, how many countless woman would long so much for just a glance from him? But only this woman here avoided him like he was a poisonous scorpion.
As time went by, the two of them then grew to detest the sight of each other.
“Ha. By now, I am not afraid to tell you.” Yan Ning Luo suddenly broke into a smile. For the always cold and aloof little beauty to break into a smile like this, it was absolutely stunning. To the eyes of outsiders, they might think that the engaged couple were whispering sweet words to each other, and the young beauty’s smile was just so moving.
But only Xuanyuan Che seemed to hear the young lady’s cold voice whisper softly beside his ear. “Qing Ye Li….. He is the destined one for me. I was only just eight when I saw him for the very first time. But for as long as I can remember, this person had appeared in my dreams so frequently, and it was when he appeared right before my eyes that I came to realize that those dreams had all been real.”
Chapter 49.2: Weapon Spirit Awakens
“But I am currently still carrying the position of the Green Wave Kingdom’s Crown Prince Consort.” Yan Ning Luo’s expiration had suddenly darkened. “And I hate this identity of mine, and I hate you even more.”
“All these years in the Faint Mist Clan, I have been striving to make myself become stronger, only because I want to be able to stand beside this man one day. Now that the chance has come, once I become this year’s female saint, I will propose to His Majesty that we should call off the engagement between us.”
The expression on Xuanyuan Che’s face was a little startled, but he still suppressed his own voice to whisper. “Have you gone mad! ? Yan Ning Luo, Qing Ye Li is from the Water Edge. Not to mention that we are two opposing kingdoms, how do you think his fame as a god of slaughter had come about! ?”
“I do not care.” Yan Ning Luo turned around, her slender frame looking highly arrogant and aloof. “It won’t be easy to stand by his side, but I will not back off from it.”
Xuanyuan Che had still wanted to say something more but someone suddenly tapped him on the shoulder.
“Che, what kind of secret are the two of you whispering between yourselves?” Mo Fei Ran had come into the Imperial Palace with High General Mo and he had taken his leave from his grandfather when he spotted Xuanyuan Che, coming over to look for him.
Xuanyuan Che held his tongue when he saw Mo Fei Ran but the shade of his face darkened.
“What happened here? Little Ning, did you quarrel with the Crown Prince again?” Mo Fei Ran asked puzzledly when he saw the unfriendly look on Xuanyuan Che’s face.
“Nothing like that. Cousin, since you’re here, you should accompany the Crown Prince.” Yan Ning Luo said coldly, and then turned to walk away, leaving Mo Fei Ran to stand there baffled.
Xuanyuan Che’s eyes narrowed slightly. She had walked off so suddenly naturally because she had spotted the people from the Water Edge Kingdom, who were just coming into the palace together with Qing Ye Li.
On the other side, as Qing Yu was not supposed to be able to walk in public, he sat obediently in his wheelchair. No matter how curious he was, eager to have a look around the place, there was nothing he could do but to restrain the stir in his heart at that moment.
Qing Yu beside him was still wearing that plain and simple white dress, where even the little palace maids that passed them occasionally were more finely dressed than she was,
But is was exactly because of her low key dressing that caused many people who walked past them to gaze at her with measuring eyes. That face of hers had received exceptional love from the Creator himself where even without the slightest powder or rouge, she completely brought down all the other carefully and exquisitely made up beautiful looking women to look plain as dust.
But miraculously today, no one came up to try to strike up a conversation with her. It was most probably due to the fact that though the little beauty was exceptionally stunning, but why did it seem that there was a strange sort of pressure emanating strangely out from her? Which kept people watchful and wary.
Qing Bei looked at the young lady beside him who was looking rather distracted. He hesitated for a moment before he stopped and turned his wheelchair around to open his mouth to call out: “Qing Yu!”
“Hm?” She had already gotten used to hearing him call her Sis over time and suddenly hearing him call her name, Qing Yu raised up her eyebrow in surprise. “What?”
“Just what could have happened that you cannot tell me about it?” Qing Bei asked with his brows creased up, a little displeased. “For the past few days, you’ve been going around like you’ve lost your soul all the time, and you have not even been tending to you herb beds for several days. Don’t you realize that many of those herbs would wither and die if they are not watered with spirit ichor? And I was wondering when you will come to notice it but you’ve not said a single word about it even when a large patch of them died out!”
That was something that had never happened before!
Qing Yu had always liked to leisurely fiddle around among the plants and all those herbs had thrived exceptionally well under her care.
All those miraculous elixirs and divine herbs they sell for sky high prices out there did not even have half of the effects of the herbs in her herb garden, and even when he came to accidentally cause a few leaves to drop from the plants, that evil hearted young lady would then come over smilingly to him, to dump that disgusting toad into his arms to punish him.
Chapter 49.3: Weapon Spirit Awakens
“Hm? My herb garden died?” Qing Yu’s face was flabbergasted. It seemed like she really had not noticed it in the past few days. She had always tended the garden very carefully and now that it died, saying that she did not feel the pain was not possible.
Her slender fingers massaged the area in between her brows, where it had knitted up tightly together in frustration.
[Why had she turned to be become so weak after being reborn?]
[To think that she would become so fearful of a mere unidentified danger….. That was just laughable!]
Within her body at that moment, a golden little snake lay coiled up quietly in a corner. From its original body size of being about as thick as an infant’s arm, it had come to grow by quite a bit.
Besides a faint golden light that emanated from its body, a layer of swirling black mist was escaping out in all directions. But in the next instant, all those black mist looked like they were being strangled and held, to let out a final scream before it disappeared completely.
The golden light upon the little snake’s body then grew incredibly blinding in that instant, and with strong brilliant flash lasting for awhile, it then began to dim gradually. A pair of tiny eyes shaped like inverted triangles then opened slowly, the black mist within them slowly fading away. Those highly human like eyes looked deep in thought.
After a long while, a voice that felt like it came from ancient times past, wizened and with a tinge of wistfulness, it sounded: “I’ve returned…..”
The expression on Qing Yu’s face froze up, her phoenix like eyes half narrowed. Hiding the surprise and delight she was feeling right at that moment, her spirit consciousness delved deep inside her body. “Little Burrower….. Is that you?”
Completely different from that tiny little coil from before, what met her eyes was a young youth dressed in a suit of gold clothes, with a head full of golden hair, where his entire could only be described as “aglitter with gold”.
Upon seeing her, his heart filled up with absolute delight, his pair of highly intoxicating gold and silver eyes gentle and filled with longing. At that moment, the youth did not immediately pounced right over onto her adorably like before, but seemed to have immediately grown matured. The countenance was clearly still the same, but the gaze of his eyes and the air surrounding the youth had changed very much.
Qing Yu’s eyes were slightly misted over, her lips slightly parted, but she was unable to say a word.
The youth seemed to be able to read the millions of emotions rushing through her at that moment as he revealed a smile brighter than the sun itself. The figure of the youth flashed and he appeared right beside the young lady in the next instant with one knee on the ground, to lift up her hand in devotion as he pressed it to the side of his face, like this was the first time they were meeting each other. “My most beloved and honoured Mistress, my name is Zang Mai, and from today henceforth, I am bound to Mistress in blood, never to leave in life or in death.”
Qing Yu almost shed a tear right at that moment, but she quickly suppressed the surge of emotions inside her, to turn all the millions of things she wanted to say into just four words. “Good that you’re back.”
Zang Mai’s stern and serious demeanor only lasted for a short time and he reverted back to his wacky self, his handsome face almost coming to stick right up against Qing Yu. “Mistress, you were actually so moved when you saw me that you cried? Although Mistress looks very beautiful when you shed tears as well, it hurts my heart to see that.”
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Although not human, but the weapon spirit’s transformation was undoubtedly perfect. Regardless whether it was his body or expression, they were both lively and very authentic. At such close distance, the long and curly lashes on the youth’s eyes then fluttered, looking so very adorable.
Qing Yu did not know whether to laugh or to cry as she pushed the youth’s face away. “Tell me. Why have you recovered all of a sudden? Since you’re able to take human form, it seems like your spirit body’s restoration was very successful. But from what I remember….. the elixirs I cultivated have not reached such a Heaven defying stage.”
“Who says they haven’t?” Zang Mai arched up an eyebrow. “My Mistress is the most excellent elixir cultivator under the entire Heavens.”
“Stop all your flippant talk.” Qing Yu rolled her eyes at him, her long phoenix like eyes looking at him appraisingly, and then seemed to see through him somewhat. “Could you have come to gain something that nourished you greatly?”