Chapter 412: Yue Yao’s Decision
Translator: SoupHunter Editor: Milkbiscuit
The group charged up the Celestial Nation's mountain with the Mad Satan Bull leading the way. There were a few Celestial Nation cultivators who tried to stop them and ask for identification, but Yun Feiyang paid them no heed and simply continued forward.
Arriving at the newly-built flooring outside the lavish wooden house, Yun Feiyang jumped off his mount and shouted, "Little Sister Yue Yao, this young master has come to pay you a visit!"
The rest of the group dismounted as well. Miao Yi feelings were extremely complicated right now. He really wanted to meet his Little Sister, but at the same time, he was afraid to see her.
Lan Ruo, Yue Yao's handmaiden, soon appeared beside the entrance. With a wave of her hand, she gestured for the guards to make way, then extended her arm over to Yun Feiyang and said, "Young Master Yang, Lord Sixth would like you to come inside!"
Yun Feiyang happily led his men forward. However, Lan Ruo only allowed him passage before cutting off the rest, saying plainly, "The rest of you should wait outside!"
Lan Ruo had met Miao Yi before. As she swept her gaze across, she was a little surprised to see his face. Noticing how he was with Yun Feiyang, her brows creased a little.
Yun Feiyang stopped in front of the entrance. He then turned around and asked curtly, "Why the hell are you blocking my men?"
Lan Ruo replied, "How can one simply enter the quarters of Lord Sixth? I am sorry for the inconvenience, Young Master Yang."
"What's the point of having such a big house if it can't fit a few people? They're all my trusted subordinates who worked hard for me throughout the Subjugation Crusade. I brought them here precisely to let them see a beautiful woman and relax a little." Yun Feiyang huffed, "Lan Ruo, you're not going to deny this young master such a simple request, are you?"
For Yun Feiyang to be able to call out Lan Ruo by name, it was evidently not their first time meeting each other.
"Young Master Yang, please be more respectful towards Lord Sixth. When Hei Wuya and Feng Ruxiu came, they both went in alone."
The two that Lan Ruo mentioned were the son of Hei Yun and the disciple of Hua Yu respectively.
"That's their choice. How can they be compared to me? Situ Xiao and Feng Beichen are no match for my grandfather, and neither is your Mu Fanjun. So obviously, I have to be more special than the others," Yun Feiyang retorted, his tone blatantly insulting. *He really was as overbearing as his name implied.
Below the steps, Miao Yi suddenly voiced out, "Young Master Yang, you should just go in. We will wait for you outside."
"No way!" Yun Feiyang glared at him and said, "If I simply do as she says, won't I lose face? Even if I'm shameless enough to do so, the Great Devil Realm isn't!"
Miao Yi was instantly speechless. The reason he spoke up was because deep down he was standing on Lan Ruo's side. However, now that Yun Feiyang had dragged the face of the Great Devil Realm into the mix, he didn't dare to continue arguing with him.
Yan Beihong was about to speak, but he too decided to keep his mouth shut. As someone who knew Miao Yi's story, he had wanted to help him say a few words at first. However, it was no longer wise for him to speak up now. Simply put, his own life was nowhere near as important as the face of the Great Devil Realm.
With creased brows, Lan Ruo said, "Young Master Yang, can you please stop being so unreasonable?"
"I'm unreasonable? You've got some guts, Lan Ruo. How can a handmaiden like you dare to mock me? Why don't I get my grandfather to ask Mu Fanjun to make you my mistress? Then I can discipline you every day. Do you want that?" Yun Feiyang brazenly threatened.
Lan Ruo's expression immediately tensed up. Yun Aotian would truly be giving face to Mu Fanjun if he personally journeyed to the Realm Beyond Heaven for this. And it would be unlikely for Mu Fanjun not to return the favor just for the sake of a disciple's handmaiden. Furthermore, most disciples wouldn't want to make things difficult for the Celestial Sage either. It was quite possible that she really would be handed over.
However, she soon thought about Yue Yao's disposition and felt confident that there was no way she would agree to this. After regaining some of her confidence, Lan Ruo's expression immediately turned icy as she said, "Young Master Yang, can you please show some class?"
"This has nothing to do with class. What if you have assassins hidden inside? You're not even going to let this young master bring in his own bodyguards?" Waving his hand dismissively, Yun Feiyang started to leave as he said, "She's just a pretty face anyway. It's not like this young master has never seen a beautiful woman before. Since you're not going to let my men in, then I'm not going in either. Bunch of snobs. We're leaving!"
Right as Yun Feiyang walked down the steps, the sharp voice of a man came from the inside, saying, "Lan Ruo, let them in!"
Miao Yi's eyes brightened slightly. He'd met Yue Yao before and knew she was cross-dressing as a man. He had also heard her speak, so he knew that this voice definitely belonged to Yue Yao. His emotions were in utter turmoil.
"Haha! Little Sister Yue Yao, I just knew you were listening in on the conversation from back there. You should've just spoken up sooner. Then we wouldn't have wasted so much time bickering!" Yun Feiyang turned to Miao Yi and the others and beckoned them over. "Come! Let me show you what a top-class beauty looks like!"
Miao Yi had the urge to give him a couple slaps to the face. He had never seen such a shameless person before. However, he still followed him in, unable to stop his urge to sneak a couple of glances at his little sister.
Yan Beihong was also curious about Miao Yi's little sister, wondering what the nation-toppling beauty known as Fairy Yue Yao—one of the Twin Fairies Beyond Heaven—looked like.
The group walked up the wooden steps of the miniature, palace-like wooden house. As they entered the main hall, they couldn't help internally exclaiming at how luxurious it was!
On the floor was a fur carpet as white as snow, with the esteemed countenance of the Celestial Sage Mu Fanjun embroidered upon it. A wealthy assortment of intricate furniture, as well as beautiful pearls and jades, decorated the room. The sporadically arranged flower pots gave the place a refreshing scent, and masterfully written calligraphy scrolls hung on the walls.
Not that it was luxurious to have such furnishings, but given the current circumstances, for the owner to still be able to decorate her temporary quarters to such an extent showed how stringent she was in her own living environment.
There was no sign of said owner in the main hall. However, Miao Yi was already feeling a bit teary-eyed as he saw what lay before him, and couldn't help thinking back to those days when he and his two siblings used to live in that old, worn-down courtyard. He remembered those chilly, winter nights when a certain snot-nosed brat, all wrapped up in a thin blanket, would cry to him about how cold and hungry she was.
Miao Yi felt a strong sense of self-blame upon seeing the sight before him. He saw the kind of life his little sister was living now, then thought back to the life that he, as a big brother, had given to her. 'What can I possibly do for Little Sister now? Even if we were to reunite, not only will I be unable to provide anything for her, she'll have to be the one looking after me instead. What right do I have to proclaim myself as her big brother then?'
"Where are you?!" Pacing around the hall, Yun Feiyang yelled out.
The sound of gentle footsteps then came from the back of the hall. Lan Ruo quickly walked over to escort the owner. Soon, a young man walked through one of the doors by the side, his hands behind his back. He had a flawless complexion and wore snow-white robes.
The brilliance in those big, bright eyes; eyebrows that seemed as though they had come out of a painting; her dainty nose and captivating lips that could pull a person into an endless dream; her lush hair tied neatly in place by a single jade hairpin; and her tall, slender body. These all elevated her already noble aura and made her seem even more dignified. Her radiance was truly divine.
The hall immediately fell into silence, and almost all the men's gazes were fixed onto this person. It was as though they had even forgotten to breathe.
Needless to say, this person was the cross-dressing Fairy Yue Yao. However, even while dressed as a man, there was no hiding her beauty.
Yan Beihong was astonished. It wouldn't be an exaggeration at all to say a woman born with such looks would bring chaos wherever she went. Fortunately, as she was the Celestial Sage Mu Fanjun's disciple, no one would dare to make a move on her. Otherwise, who knew the kind of uproar she would bring?
To Yan Beihong at least, it was not necessarily a bad thing for Miao Yi that his disastrously beautiful younger sister was not by his side. It really saved him a lot of trouble. Otherwise, there was no way that Miao Yi could protect her with his meager strength.
Yue Yao had long become accustomed to receiving these types of looks from men. However, as she swept her gaze across the room, she suddenly felt that something was amiss. She reversed her gaze, her eyes homing in on Miao Yi.
It was because this person wasn't looking at her in the same way as all the other men did. It was not the way a man would look at a woman. There was no lust hidden behind his gaze, only a sense of conflicting emotions.
'I feel like I've seen this gaze before!' Yue Yao then quickly realized where. 'Isn't this person the Celestial Nation cultivator I saved from Bai Ziliang? How did he end up mixing with this hooligan, Yun Feiyang?'
Yue Yao's flawless brows creased a little. However, she was not concerned with the affairs of a common cultivator. Turning to Yun Feiyang, she extended her hand and said, "Have a seat!"
"Haha! Little Sister Yue Yao is still as beautiful as ever. I want to thank you for being so considerate of your Big Brother and putting up my flag for me." Yun Feiyang acted excessively enchanted to the point he made it seem like he was about to start drooling. He then turned around to look behind his butt and sat down.
Miao Yi and the others very naturally stood behind him.
"I've heard enough flattery already. It matters not whether I hear it from you as well," Yue Yao scoffed, lowering her flawless arm. As she sat down, she said in a serious tone, "Yun Feiyang. I called you here because I have something to discuss with you."
"Go on then! You have my undivided attention. We can talk for as long as you want. This big brother has all the time in the world." Yun Feiyang spread his arms out in an exaggerated manner. At the same time, he took the tea that Lan Ruo was serving and chugged it down.
Yue Yao said, "I was the first one to arrive on this island, and while I was here, I met several of my Celestial Nation cultivators. They told me that our participation in the Subjugation Crusade was too unfair for them, saying that we were robbing them of their chances of survival and dashing their hopes of making it out alive. They complained to me that the Six Sages were treating them very unfairly. I can sympathize with their situation, so after that, I had a short discussion with Hei Wuya and Feng Ruxiu. They both agreed to give the other participants an equal opportunity to fight for their own survival."
Truth be told, she was well aware that the other five nations had sent their own representatives purely because the Realm Beyond Heaven had dispatched her to the Sea of Constellations to train. The reason why she had even called Yun Feiyang over for a conversation in the first place was all because she felt very uncomfortable about this.
Yun Feiyang was nowhere as brash and lustful as his appearance suggested. As soon as they started talking about official business, his back straightened slightly, and his expression grew serious. He asked, "How are we going to give them this equal opportunity to fight for their own survival?"
Yue Yao answered, "All participants are forbidden from using extremely powerful transcendent artifacts, and must fight for a spot in the top 100 using their own strength!"
"This…" Yun Feiyang asked, "Does it include the six of us as well?"
Yue Yao gently shook her head, "Even if the six of us were to join, they probably wouldn't dare make a move against us. That is why we will not be taking part in the fighting, but instead we will be leading the remaining survivors of our respective nations. I'll discuss the specifics once Bai Ziliang and Kong Zhi have arrived."
Yun Feiyang pointed out, "This is just as unfair to those coming from the major sects. They brought powerful artifacts to this Subjugation Crusade precisely to increase their chances of survival. And now you want them to put down their transcendent artifacts and fight with their own strength? I doubt they will be too pleased about that."
Yue Yao replied, "If they don't wish to comply, we can offer them a different kind of opportunity. Since they like to compete using their transcendent artifacts, they can try to take on the six of us. If they're confident in defeating us, then we shall simply let them be. We won't force them to pick an option. Besides, the disciples of those major sects aren't pushovers either. They all have their own unique strengths, and may not necessarily be afraid of fighting without their transcendent artifacts."