38: Chapter 38 She's So Lustrous!

The banquet was in full swing. Hun Feng had just put Mu Xiao down from his lap; the little girl was so sleepy her eyelids were fighting, and she was carried away by Yao Yao to the side hall for a nap.

He raised his wine cup, about to drink another round with Soul Yuan Tian, when he suddenly stopped. It wasn't that he sensed killing intent, but rather a very subtle spatial fluctuation, coming from the direction of the old wall outside the main hall.

The Void Ancient Dragon's spatial talent was indeed remarkable. The barriers of the Soul Realm were so dense that even an ordinary Seven-Star Dou Sheng might not be able to tear them open silently, but Zi Yan had still managed to do it.

Hun Feng placed the wine cup on the table, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his lips. The person he was waiting for had finally arrived; a little later than expected, but arriving before the banquet ended, it was still punctual.

In the shadow covered by vines on the inner side of the old wall, a golden crack opened silently, and six figures walked out from the crack one after another.

Xiao Yan landed last. The xuan heavy ruler was already in his hand the moment he landed. The light of the four Heavenly Flames on the ruler was deliberately suppressed to the minimum, but the killing intent he had suppressed for a long time was sharper than any medicinal pill or Dou Technique on him.

Gu Xun'er stood on his left, the Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame flowing silently in her sleeve. Xiao Yi Xian's white hair was particularly striking in the gray void, and she hid several poison pills in her sleeve capable of taking down a high-ranking Dou Sheng.

Qing Lin's Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils had already been quietly activated. Zi Yan pressed one hand on the edge of the spatial crack, ready to tear open an escape route at any time. Yao Ming stood silently at the back, cold light appearing in his snake pupils.

Among the guests, Hun Tiandi was the first to tilt his head and look at the shadow. His fingers holding the wine cup paused slightly, then he resumed his unchanging, lazy smile.

Void Swallowing Flame didn't even turn his head; the black flame at his fingertips just flickered. Hun Qinger was still leaning against the pillar, the ice crystal lotus at her fingertips spinning a bit faster than usual. She did not move, just swept her ice-blue eyes across the shadows, as if weighing the worth of a group of uninvited guests.

The first to react was Gu Xun'er. Her gaze traveled across the distance of dozens of zhang and landed on the woman in the bright red wedding dress beside the main seat of the main hall.

Medusa—no, at this moment she was Cai Lin. She was wearing a wedding dress sewn by Lin Qingwan herself, with a nine-colored phoenix tail hair ornament inserted in her hair, and was whispering something to Hun Feng.

A faint smile hung on her lips, an expression Xun'er had never seen on her face. In those years at Starfall Pavilion, Medusa had also smiled, but that kind of smile was cold; it was a helpless indulgence towards Xiao Yan, a doting compromise for her daughter.

The curve of her lips was different now; it was a genuine, heartfelt peace.

Medusa also saw Xiao Yan at the same moment. Her fingers curled very lightly in her sleeve, the smile on her face dissipated completely, replaced by an extremely complex look.

She knew Xiao Yan would definitely come; she had known it since the day she decided to marry Hun Feng. But when that black-robed figure really walked out of the shadows, she found that she couldn't say a word of the things she had prepared for days.

There was guilt. No matter how Xiao Yan had treated her coldly back then, he was ultimately Mu Xiao's biological father, and he had ultimately given her a home after the Fallen Heart Flame incident. But besides guilt, there was another, clearer emotion.

She didn't want anything to happen to him, but she also didn't want Hun Feng to think she still cared about Xiao Yan. She stood between the two men; no matter which way she moved, it would be wrong.

Zi Yan poked her head out from behind Xiao Yan, her golden pupils staring straight at Medusa. She and Medusa had known each other for many years; from the Jia Ma Empire to Starfall Pavilion, to the Central Plains, the two had always called each other sisters.

The Medusa she knew was that cold, arrogant, and aloof Snake-People Tribe queen, not this woman in a bright red wedding dress standing beside the young master of the Hun Clan.

She shook off Xiao Yan's arm and stepped forward directly. Her clear voice was particularly jarring in the suddenly quiet main hall square.

"Sister Cai Lin, come with us! You don't have to be afraid of him; we are here today to take you away!"

Medusa looked at the anxiety and anger written all over Zi Yan's forever-young doll-like face and shook her head gently. The movement was very small, but Zi Yan saw it clearly.

Zi Yan froze in place, staring at her in disbelief, as if meeting this woman for the first time.

Xiao Yan walked out of the shadows. He didn't look at Hun Feng, only at Medusa. Across the dark red carpet of the entire square and the tables full of leftover wine, across all the debt he owed her over these years and all the disappointment she had for him, across the mountains and rivers from the Nine Serene Yellow Springs to the Soul Realm.

He had imagined the scene of their reunion countless times—he thought she would be held captive, thought she would be haggard, thought she would be forced to wear the wedding dress. But she wasn't forced. She had put on the wedding dress herself, she had worn the hair ornament herself, and even the smile on her lips was real.

"Cai Lin." Xiao Yan spoke, his voice hoarse like gravel grinding against his throat, "I've come to take you and Xiao Xiao home."

Medusa raised her purple eyes to look at him. There was no hatred or resentment in those eyes, only a helplessness that had been worn very, very thin by time.

She had a lot to say. She wanted to ask him how he had been lately, wanted to ask how the reconstruction of the Sky Mansion Alliance was going, wanted to ask if Xun'er had taken good care of him. But when these words reached her lips, she found she had no standing to say them.

She was now wearing Hun Feng's wedding dress, standing on the ground of the Soul Realm, and the nuptial wine in her hand hadn't even cooled yet.

"Xiao Yan," her voice was very soft, so soft it was as if she were afraid of it being scattered by the wind, "You shouldn't have come."

Xiao Yan's knuckles gripping the xuan heavy ruler had turned white. Gu Xun'er stepped forward from his side to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Xiao Yan, her light cyan eyes coldly watching Hun Feng. The Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame condensed into solid-like golden flames around her, making her delicate, lotus-like face look exceptionally cold and stern.

Xiao Yi Xian stood half a step behind Xun'er, not releasing any poison gas, but the fingertips in her sleeves had already gripped three poison pills capable of instantly paralyzing a high-ranking Dou Sheng. She looked at Hun Feng; there was no burning anger in her eyes like Xiao Yan's, only an assessment so calm it was almost cruel.

Qing Lin's Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils had been fully activated, the emerald-green pupils shimmering with an eerie light under the sunlight, taking in the soul fluctuations of everyone present.

Yao Ming stood silently guarding the outermost side of the group, his snake pupils locking onto the direction of Hun Qian—if the Hun Clan guards showed any slight movement, he would be the first to strike.

Just at this moment, a crisp, very light sound of a cup bottom clinking against the table came from the main seat.

Hun Tiandi placed the wine cup on the table and leaned back against the chair, his gray-white robes emitting a cold luster in the sunlight. He looked at Xiao Yan, then at Hun Feng, a smile that was not quite a smile appearing at the corner of his lips.

"Private matters between young people, the elders of the Hun Clan will not interfere. You were peers with Xiao Xuan back then; if you were to make a move against a junior who is a Two-Star Dou Sheng now, where would the face of the Hun Clan be if it got out? However—" he tilted his head to look at Hun Feng, "Solve your own emotional entanglements yourself."

Once these words were spoken, Hun Qinger withdrew the ice crystal lotus from her fingertips into her sleeve and leaned back against the pillar. Soul Yuan Tian's withered fingers moved away from the formation eye of the Gate of Dead Silence, and the black flame dancing at Void Swallowing Flame's fingertips also retracted into a very faint cluster; even Hun Qian stepped back half a step and loosened the soul chain in his sleeve.

Xiao Yan gripped the xuan heavy ruler tightly. Gu Xun'er and Xiao Yi Xian stepped forward half a step at the same time but were stopped by Qing Lin with a look—the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils told her that there were at least three auras of Seven-Star or above locking onto this direction around the main hall.

Hun Feng stood on the steps of the main hall, looking down at Xiao Yan. The reaction stirred by those words was just as he had expected—the veins on Xiao Yan's hand gripping the ruler bulged, and the stone brick under his feet, covered by the dark red carpet, had silently cracked with a few fine lines.

But his gaze only stopped on Xiao Yan's face for a moment before shifting to the two beauties behind him.

Gu Xun'er stood on Xiao Yan's left, her light cyan martial outfit emitting a cold luster in the sunlight. Her delicate, lotus-like face was slightly flushed with suppressed anger, which instead gave her a different kind of charm than usual.

The Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame condensed into solid-like golden flames around her, making her look like a piece of celadon wrapped in raging fire. She was the God-Grade Bloodline of the Gu Clan, one of the brightest pearls on the continent, and at this moment, she stood on his main hall square, staring straight at him with those eyes that were clear as an ancient well but filled with anger.

Xiao Yi Xian stood half a step behind Xiao Yan, her snow-white hair particularly striking in the gray void. Her slender, thin figure was wrapped in a plain white dress, her face as cold as frost; only the few poison pills in her sleeve, ready to be thrown at any moment, revealed her current guard and hostility.

Her temperament was different from Medusa's; Medusa was raging fire, she was cold frost. Hun Feng suddenly remembered how much this white-haired woman had sacrificed for Xiao Yan in the original story—protecting him with her life several times, bearing the torture of the Calamity Poison Body alone several times, yet in the end, she didn't even wait for a single promise.

Oh Xiao Yan, the women around you are more devoted than the next, yet you haven't protected a single one.

Hun Feng withdrew his gaze and let it land on Xiao Yan's face again. He stepped forward, the hem of his bright red ceremonial robe blown up by the wind, the smile at the corner of his lips so sincere it was almost arrogant.

"Xiao Yan, you do have some ability to be able to get here. But since you're here, why aren't you making a move? Do you feel like you've lost face because this young master married your woman? Then this young master will tell you clearly—I, your father, have married your woman. She has already married me, she is already my woman, what can you do about it?"

His voice was not loud, but it clearly spread throughout the entire square. Medusa's fingers twisted the dark patterns of her wedding dress in her sleeve. It wasn't that she hadn't heard him say such foul things, but those were all in private, under the moonlight of the East Courtyard, when she was alone.

At this moment, in front of Xiao Yan, in front of Gu Xun'er and Zi Yan, in front of the full hall of guests, he said this sentence with such righteous indignation.

"Speaking of which, I still have to thank you," Hun Feng continued, his tone still that lazy, languid style, as if commenting on the taste of a dish, "for taking such good care of Cai Lin and Mu Xiao. Don't worry, I will take care of them, mother and daughter, from now on. Mu Xiao is already calling me Daddy, and as for Cai Lin—"

He turned his head to look at Medusa, that gaze filled with undisguised intimacy and triumph, "I have already discussed it deeply with Cai Lin. Cai Lin's skills in that area are quite good, and she is very supple!"

As the words fell, the whole hall was deathly silent.

Cai Lin glared at Hun Feng, her face flushed with shame! She pinched his waist hard! Hun Feng pulled her directly into his arms! His hand was placed on her waist! Cai Lin on the left, Yao Yao on the right! The people of the Hun Clan present all gave a thumbs up! They held back the urge to laugh at Xiao Yan!

Gu Xun'er's face turned from slightly flushed to pale, the Golden Emperor Sky Burning Flame flickered violently around her, and for the first time, undisguised killing intent appeared in those clear eyes.

Xiao Yi Xian's fingertips extended half an inch from her sleeves, three poison pills rolling silently between her fingers; as long as Xiao Yan gave the order, she would not hesitate to cover the entire main hall square with poisonous weeds.

Zi Yan froze in place, opening her mouth but unable to say a word. She had known Sister Cai Lin for so long, and never thought any man would dare to say such things in front of her.

Medusa closed her eyes for a moment. She knew he was provoking Xiao Yan, knew that every word in his speech was intentionally said for everyone present to hear!

Xiao Yan moved. Not rushing toward Hun Feng, but looking at Medusa. His gaze stayed on her face for a long time, as if waiting for an answer.

Medusa did not avoid his gaze, nor did she defend herself—she didn't need to defend herself. She and Xiao Yan were never formally husband and wife; Xiao Xiao was born from the accident of the Fallen Heart Flame, and Xiao Yan later gave her a title but did not give her a complete home.

Now she had chosen Hun Feng, and this man had indeed done what Xiao Yan had not.

"She said you are very good to her. She said that you never let Mu Xiao sleep alone at the door waiting." Xiao Yan's voice was so low it was like talking to himself, and then he raised his eyes; all the emotions in those eyes were burned into scorching flames at this moment.

He asked no more questions, did not look at Medusa anymore, and ignored the obstruction of Gu Xun'er beside him and the exclamation of Zi Yan.

The four Heavenly Flames on the xuan heavy ruler erupted all at the same instant; the emerald green of the Green Lotus Core Flame, the formlessness of the Fallen Heart Flame, the ghostly white of the Bone Chilling Flame, and the deep blue of the Three Thousand Burning Flame intertwined into a brilliant and violent beam of light.

His whole body turned into a four-colored line of fire, rushing straight toward the smiling man on the steps of the main hall.