Chapter 70: The Birthday
w.a.n.g Ju Long quickly caught up to Hui Yue and a big smile was apparent on her face as she completely ignored the snake-woman they had left behind, and she quickly started conversing about their everyday life at the Royal Academy.
Chatting together, Hui Yue looked at the mansion’s landscape. Every garden and courtyard had been adorned with lamps and illuminating stones allowing for a soft and celestial light to light up the entire City Lord’s Mansion.
Servants were walking back and forth to the kitchen, and the people who had gathered in groups outside were gossiping with each other. The closer to the main hall Hui Yue and w.a.n.g Ju Long got, the more groups of people that could be seen and the higher their rank was within Riluo City’s hierarchy.
The stairs were bustling with hundreds of men who moved inside the main hall to greet the birthday pair while others were departing from the main hall, intent to socialise with certain n.o.bles which they usually would not see in their social circles.
Hui Yue was being led by w.a.n.g Ju Long and together they managed to push their way through the stairs and enter the main hall which had been decorated throughout. The main decoration was red lanterns which mostly had the phrases congratulations or best wishes written on them.
Each guest would go and write a greeting on these round lanterns with golden ink, before allowing them to float above illuminating the beautiful room and its guests.
The lanterns were not the only attraction. In different corners were young beautiful women who were playing the same piece of music completely in sync, allowing for a very calming background music which was extremely pleasant for the ear.
Big fans were also used to decorate the walls. Some of these fans were painted with images of Rong Xing and Rong Ming, either fighting deadly battles against magical beasts, or they were painted with pictures of the two twins cultivating. Some even showed images of the beasts that had been slain or captured by the two twins.
There was one area especially where the fans on the walls were much more numerous than the rest of the room, and it was right next to the stage where three women were dancing, all of the women using two beautiful white fans; swirling them around, tossing them into the sky, and catching them without a breaths mistake. The dance was mesmerizing, and a large crowd had gathered in front of these dancing women.
Seeing Hui Yue’s dreamy expression after looking at these dancing women, a pout appeared on w.a.n.g Ju Long’s face as she grabbed his hand and dragged him to the complete opposite part of the room.
This part was no less crowded than the former if anything it was worse, and Hui Yue quickly understood why that was. In front of them were multiple tables formed into a beautiful snake. Even the tablecloth had been made to make the table look snakish and on top of this giant snake was any kind of food which Hui Yue could imagine.
Gazing on all this food, Hui Yue could not help but lick his lips greedily, and he quickly made his way towards some of the dishes which he had gotten to especially like after his reincarnation.
One of these dishes was a springroll, which was made with a kind of rice paper wrapped around vegetables and some ground meat in the middle, of which Hui Yue did not know what kind of meat was in it.. These spring rolls were the dish which Hui Yue always ate whenever he was dining with the Rong twins at the City Lord’s mansion.
Another dish which he loved was a cake-like creation. It was so sweet that Hui Yue always thought he was having a sugar rush every time he ate one, yet the intense feeling of delight which was exclaimed from Lan Feng’s soul always made Hui Yue feel good, and he eventually came to enjoy those small sugar bombs as well.
Having picked some small snacks, and starting to nibble on them, Hui Yue noticed that at the end of the snake, at the tail, was yet other tables, which had been shaped like the different elemental affinities and their colours.
One was a yellow mountain, symbolizing the earthen affinity, another was a silver gemstone symbolizing the metal affinity, while yet another was a tree which obviously symbolized wood. The others were made into a red flame and a blue wave to symbolize the fire water affinities, respectively.
All these affinity tables were filled with all the drinks and more that Hui Yue had ever seen in this world. There were alcohol free juices next to strong spirits. There were simple beers and expensive wines. Hui Yue’s eyes were s.h.i.+ning as he looked at all the goodies, but before he had the chance of going to fetch himself a drink, w.a.n.g Ju Long pulled him towards the middle of the room.
Looking at the middle of the room a smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face, as he saw how the Rong twins were standing tall, greeting their guests, and accepting their presents with patient faces and polite smiles.
Walking towards the two siblings proved to be even harder than it had been to ascend the stairs, and Hui Yue had needed to use his elbows to finally worm his way through the crowd.
“Hui Yue!” Rong Xing called, a genuine smile replaced the previous polite one an excitement shone from her eyes as she looked at the young man who had just forced his way into the inner circles.
Hearing the beautiful young lady call for a man with such a kind and enthusiastic voice, many of the young masters within Riluo City looked at Hui Yue with disdain at first, yet after seeing w.a.n.g Ju Long by his side those expressions of disdain changed to complicated expressions instead.
The majority of these young n.o.bles had gone to the academy when they were younger, and although they were now graduated, they were still studying back when Hui Yue had fought Li s.h.i.+ng and the mercilessness which he had displayed had clearly left a lasting trauma in most of these young masters.
Although his name had long since been forgotten by Riluo City, which was currently dropping geniuses left and right, to these young masters his actions had never been forgotten, as it was the first time most had seen a killing with their own eyes.
Hui Yue completely ignored the many people who was staring at him and instead he moved towards the twins, two presents in his hands one for each of them.
Accepting the presents Hui Yue saw how they both struggled. Neither of the twins wished for Hui Yue to have brought a present for them as he had already gifted them an immense amount of treasures, yet here he was again gifting them presents which they did not feel as though they deserved.
Hui Yue was perfectly well aware of this, yet he still brought a present for the two, and he knew that there was no chance that the two could decline the gifts when they were in front of this many people.
Although Hui Yue had gifted these two a lot, they were the ones who had done what they could when he was younger and even now, Hui Yue felt completely a.s.sured that they would always have his back, should he need it.
Opening the cases, everyone present sucked in a deep breath of air as the scent of medicinal pills wafted out. To have such an amazing aroma it was obvious that these pills had to be at least at the Qi Congregating level, and anyone who was below Master rank would benefit hugely from such medicinal pills.
Greed surfaced on the faces of many of the guests, yet neither Rong Ming nor Rong Xing showed any expression on surprise, instead a gratified expression was evident on their faces.
Throughout the year, Hui Yue had constantly produced medicinal pills for the entire group, but even if he had managed to purchase most of the pills, he was not able to purchase all these Qi Congregating Pills at once, like he wished to, as they were used to pay the teachers at the Royal Academy thus the Medicinal Pill Outlet had a limited stock.
For the two of them to be gifted such amazing quant.i.ties of these pills obviously meant that Hui Yue had gathered them for quite a long time, and this thought warmed the Rong twins’ hearts as they smiled happily at the young boy who had gifted them these pills. With them, it was possible to attempt a forceful breakthrough into the Master rank.
Although Hui Yue wished to stay behind and chat with the two twins, it was now the time for him to pull back as more n.o.bles were standing in queue waiting for their turn to deliver presents. w.a.n.g Ju Long had left the c.u.mbersome tasks of all the procedures to the elders of the w.a.n.g family which also was present at the celebration.
Upon leaving the middle of the main hall, Hui Yue was gazing around looking for Deng Wu, yet no matter how much he searched it was impossible for him to see the young master, who was currently known as Riluo City’s number one genius.
Although Deng Wu had finally stopped masking his cultivation base this did not make him arrogant as was to be expected, nothing like that had happened at all and infact Deng Wu was exactly the same as before.
Breaking into the Master’s rank had required Deng Wu to refine quite a few Qi Refining Pills and in that way allowing for his Qi to become pure, yet everytime Qi was refined the total amount would shrink and although he was currently a Master, he was still working hard on regaining the amount of Qi he had lost while refining it to a higher purity.
Hui Yue had finally convinced the perverted phoenix to a.s.sist him in helping Deng Wu, yet because the phoenix was very stubborn he required Deng Wu to give him something in return. It could be anything from information to items, yet information was what Lan Feng liked the most.
Hui Yue sighed as he considered this, but in the end he had no other choice than to accept the phoenix’s demands.
After walking through the entire mansion twice, Hui Yue finally saw a familiar face flirting with one of the servants and a wry smirk appeared on his face. For someone who gave all his love to Rong Xing he sure was quite free whenever the queen of his heart was not around.
“Deng Wu.” Hui Yue called silently and instantly the older boy stopped flirting with the girl, turning around he saw the white-haired young man together with w.a.n.g Ju Long. The goofy expression on his face turned to that of a smile and he quickly paced towards them.
“So you made it in one piece.” Deng Wu said jokingly, as he looked for injuries on Hui Yue. He relaxed when he saw that no injuries had been caused by meeting with yet another pack of a.s.sa.s.sins.
“I have something for you.” Hui Yue said straight up and the words instantly caught Deng Wu’s attention. “But Lan Feng will not part with it for nothing. If you have any interesting information, now is the time you should to use it.”
Hui Yue had said this in a joking matter, yet as soon as the words had slipped past his lips he noticed how both w.a.n.g Ju Long and Deng Wu jolted slightly before glancing at each other.
“Well, as a matter of fact.” Deng Wu started, sweat beginning to run down his forehead. “There was this one little thing.” He continued, constantly glancing at w.a.n.g Ju Long who in turn ever so slowly was shaking her head, trying not to gain attention from Hui Yue.