Chapter One Hundred and Three: I Am More Handsome Than You

Elder Zhang opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but when he saw the resolute look in Yun Keke’s eyes, he finally held himself back and stepped slightly aside to clear a path for Lin Xiaobao.

Lin Xiaobao did not take it to heart. If this had been in his former life, he would have been nothing more than a penniless, houseless, carless loser. Now that he had latched onto a rich and beautiful young lady, it was only natural that others would have opinions. As he passed Elder Zhang, Lin Xiaobao merely gave him a modest, unassuming smile to show his respect for strength before climbing into the azure beast carriage.

The moment he stepped inside, a faint and elegant fragrance greeted him. The interior was styled mainly in pink, accented here and there with touches of jade green, and that soft scent gave the whole carriage a soothing, pleasant air.

The beast carriage moved forward, yet the compartment did not jolt in the slightest. The Cloud Family’s private carriage was naturally far more comfortable than the one Xia Zihao had hastily arranged for Yun Keke in Dongxuan City.

Along the way, through Yun Keke’s explanation, Lin Xiaobao also gained a rough understanding of the Treasure Exchange Convention.

For cultivators, chance encounters during their journeys of training often yielded resources that could aid their cultivation, but not every resource suited every person. The Treasure Exchange Convention existed to provide everyone with a place to trade. As one of the four great empires of Dragonflight Continent, the Blood Victory Empire naturally possessed the strength to serve as host.

More importantly, behind the Blood Victory Empire stood the Mysterious Sun Hall, the second-ranked major sect in the present-day Dragonflight Empire.

That said, attending the Treasure Exchange Convention was not as simple as going to the Free and Easy Pavilion’s auction, where one only needed money. An invitation from the Mysterious Sun Hall was required, and each invitation admitted only one person. There were no exceptions.

Of course, if anyone believed they had the ability to break through the formation laid down by Elder Chen Chong, the Mysterious Sun Hall elder and the foremost formation master in the world today, they could also enter without an invitation. But ever since the convention began, no one had ever entered by such means.

Seated inside the azure beast carriage, Lin Xiaobao remained fully alert, his spiritual sense staying within a radius of several yards around the carriage body. What puzzled him a little was what kind of feed the Cloud Family used for their azure beasts. The two beasts pulling him and Yun Keke were actually traveling at a speed no worse than that of a cultivator at the first level of the Spirit Path realm.

At such a swift pace, it was only on the afternoon of the fifth day that they arrived from the border city of Blood Cloud City to the imperial capital of the Blood Victory Empire, Bloodwind City.

Upon entering the Cloud Family estate, Lin Xiaobao’s first impression was simple: vast, extremely vast. After the azure beast carriage passed through the main gate, it continued forward for a full incense stick’s time before finally stopping.

By Lin Xiaobao’s understanding, land in an imperial capital was worth its weight in gold. The fact that the Cloud Family occupied such an enormous tract of ground showed just how formidable their influence was.

Then, under the astonished and curious gazes of the Cloud Family members who had come to greet Yun Keke, Lin Xiaobao stepped down from the beast carriage.

“Did you find it?” Yun Keke had barely gotten off when a middle-aged man hurried up to her and asked with concern.

“Yes, Uncle. We found it,” Yun Keke replied. Though her tone was gentle, there was no sign of deference on her face.

As she spoke, through the master-servant pact with Lin Xiaobao, she had already conveyed this man’s information to him. Yun Zhongtian, a cultivator at the middle stage of Dao Heart realm, held a very high position in the Cloud Family, but he was not particularly kind to Yun Keke and her brother.

No wonder his spiritual sense could not discern the man’s cultivation. Lin Xiaobao could not help but look at him a few more times, since this was the first time he had seen a true expert of Dao Heart realm. Although he had once seen Chen Chong on Mount Jiu Ping, at the time he had seemingly never regarded Chen Chong as a master at all, and he also had no idea what Chen Chong’s exact cultivation was. Now, facing a genuine middle-stage Dao Heart expert, Lin Xiaobao found himself somewhat intrigued.

“Hurry and hand it over! Your brother’s condition is growing worse by the minute!” Yun Zhongtian looked anxious.

“I’m going to see my elder brother first!” Yun Keke clearly had no intention of handing the demon core to Yun Zhongtian.

“Yun Keke, what do you mean by that? Do you think my father would swallow your demon core?” The youth standing behind Yun Zhongtian was his son, Yun Feiyang. He pointed at Yun Keke and shouted.

“Whether you have that thought or not, I know better than you do. Not everyone can cultivate the Mind-Reading Art!” Facing Yun Feiyang’s aggression, Yun Keke did not yield an inch.

“The Mind-Reading Art? If it weren’t for that damn clan rule, would your brother have become the current clan head? If it weren’t for our family’s strength, what would the Cloud Family be like now?” Yun Feiyang looked at Yun Keke with disdain. “So what if you know the Mind-Reading Art? You’ve only reached the Mind-Reading stage. How much use can you possibly be? So long as we keep watch over you, what could you possibly read?”

“Is that so?” Yun Keke’s expression changed as she fixed Yun Feiyang with a cold stare. “Who was it that stole a Vital Yang Pill from the alchemy room yesterday?”

“Nonsense!” Yun Feiyang said angrily, glaring at Yun Keke. “Don’t spout slander!”

“Enough!” Yun Zhongtian bellowed, cutting off their argument. As a cultivator at the middle stage of Dao Heart realm, his discernment was naturally far beyond what Yun Feiyang, who had only reached the fifth level of the Acquired realm, could compare with. By now, he could already tell that Yun Keke’s Mind-Reading Art had advanced considerably. “What are you two making a scene for in front of guests? Keke, go see your elder brother first!”

Yun Feiyang did not have his father’s breadth of vision. Having been struck where it hurt by Yun Keke’s words, he felt somewhat guilty and did not dare continue arguing with her. Instead, he turned his gaze toward Lin Xiaobao. After a slight sweep with his spiritual sense, he discovered that Lin Xiaobao only had the cultivation of the fifth level of the Acquired realm, and his expression darkened at once.

“A guest? He? He’s fit to be a guest of the Cloud Family? He’s not even qualified to stand watch at the gate!”

“Yun Feiyang, don’t go too far!” Because of the master-servant pact, when Yun Feiyang insulted Lin Xiaobao, Yun Keke felt far more distressed than if he had insulted her herself. At that moment, she could barely suppress the urge to explode.

“I’m talking about him, so why are you getting worked up?” Seeing her reaction, Yun Feiyang felt he had found a chance to strike back. “Could it be that you’ve taken a liking to this pretty boy? Yun Keke, don’t forget your own identity!”

“Elder Zhang, take him down!” Yun Keke seemed to have lost all patience for arguing with Yun Feiyang and directly ordered Elder Zhang.

“Forget it, Keke,” Lin Xiaobao said. He did not want his presence to affect anything within the Cloud Family, and besides, he did not consider being called a pretty boy to be an insult at all. “Brother Yun only called me a pretty boy. That just means he thinks I’m more handsome than he is. No need to get angry.”

Yun Keke had not expected Lin Xiaobao to come up with such a theory, and she burst out laughing. Unfortunately, her laughter only further enraged Yun Feiyang.

“I said you’re shameless!” Yun Feiyang truly could not understand why Yun Keke would defend a man like this, though in a way that was even better. At the very least, he could use this to undermine Yun Keke’s standing in the Cloud Family.

“You think I’m shameless, yet I’m still more handsome than you? Brother Yun is far too modest.” Trading barbs with Lin Xiaobao was absolutely a path to self-torture.

Yun Feiyang was about to erupt when his father barked at him on the spot, “Feiyang, mind your manners. Step aside!”

In truth, the Cloud Family was descended from the demon race and the enchanting race. Those who had not inherited the enchanting bloodline all carried the demon race’s legacy in their veins, and their cultivation speed was frightfully fast. That was the very foundation on which the Cloud Family stood. But within the clan’s rules, the bloodline of the enchanting race still held primacy. Although Yun Feiyang and his father occupied important positions in the family, they still did not dare confront Yun Keke’s fury head-on.