[V6C208 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
Fortunately, almost no one noticed Qianye. Zhao Ruoxi was glaring at Ji Tianqing, and the latter was guarded against Li Kuanglan. Meanwhile, Li Kuanglan had to pay attention to Zhao Ruoxi despite keeping Ji Tianqing in check, since the relations.h.i.+p between their families wasn’t great. The three fell into a deadlock as they strived to keep each other restrained.
The one with the most freedom here was Zhao Ruoxi. Seeing Ji Tianqing turn obedient, she tossed William to the side with a snort and walked over to Song Zining. “Move aside!”
At this point, Song Zining had figured out that something was wrong. He shot a sympathetic glance at Qianye before flas.h.i.+ng away toward Wei Potian.
The Zhao clan young miss took her seat beside Qianye and raised a gla.s.s. “Let’s drink!”
Ji Tianqing looked over, raised her gla.s.s, and finished it with a smile on her face. Her expression, however, was quite cold as she stared at Zhao Ruoxi.
Li Kuanglan also finished her gla.s.s and sat down beside Ji Tianqing. The moment she sat down, the latter immediately became more tangible, and that unfathomable sensation around her quickly disappeared. Thereafter, she was just a young girl who truly existed in reality.
Ji Tianqing’s smile grew stiff. She turned around and glanced silently at Li Kuanglan, but the latter only snorted without paying her any heed.
“Brother Kuanglan, won’t you drink a gla.s.s?” Ji Tianqing provoked.
Li Kuanglan naturally wouldn’t refuse the toast, quickly rising to the back and forth challenge. Soon, the two had imbibed half a dozen gla.s.ses between them.
For some reason, Zhao Ruoxi also jumped into the fray and the three began downing the liquor as they would water—actually, one would be hard-pressed to drink water at this rate. At the height of their battle, Li Kuanglan simply stood up, and the other two pushed Qianye aside since he was obstructing their face-off.
Wei Potian was badly shaken. He quietly summoned his subordinates and had them secure another batch of spirits. Having experienced first hand what it meant to be “fierce”, the subordinate ran away swiftly to do his job.
Wei Potian sighed in relief only after seeing the increased alcohol stock in the courtyard. He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder as Song Zining’s sarcastic voice arrived, “Wasn’t the Wei clan heir going to wipe away his past embarra.s.sments? Are you scared already? The flames of battle haven’t even reached you!”
After being incited by Song Zining, Wei Potian shouted explosively, “With which eye did you see me acting scared? Enough with the nonsense, come! Let’s drink! If I let you go today, my surname isn’t Wei!”
Song Zining picked up the gla.s.s and emptied it in one go. “I’m not betting anything. A sure-win bet like that is meaningless!”
Wei Potian flew into a rage. He sat down in front of the table, filled up a row of gla.s.ses, and shouted, “Come and drink if you have the guts! Stop acting like a woman!”
Song Zining hadn’t even replied when Zhao Yuying became upset. She sat down and grabbed him over, saying, “Speak, what’s wrong with being a woman?”
The three engaged in a melee—Zhao Ruoxi, Ji Tianqing, and Li Kuanglan—glanced over immediately.
The taste of being glared at by these people didn’t feel too good. Wei Potian was self-important and arrogant, but he still knew his limits. He understood fairly well that he couldn’t defeat any of these ladies in a fight. As such, his heroic spirit vanished on the spot. He raised his gla.s.s and said with a smile, “I’ll punish myself with three gla.s.ses of wine!”
After seeing this outcome, Zhao Ruoxi and the other two reverted their attention to their opponents.
Zhao Yuying, though, wasn’t about to let Wei Potian off so easily. She grabbed the latter and forced him to drink repeatedly, while Song Zining fanned the flames from the side. Perhaps it was due to the inappropriate flattery or perhaps because Zhao Yuying simply felt that he was annoying, she also dragged him in eventually, thus beginning a chaotic three-way battle.
The people in the courtyard were split into two groups, each engaging in a bitter fight. Meanwhile, all the n.o.ble ladies were left out of the fun. In the end, these young girls, not knowing the immensity of heaven and earth, actually jumped into the battles on their own. Things ended with them sprawled across the ground after just a short while.
Qianye and William surprisingly left outside of the tempest, at least for the moment. Wei Potian, Song Zining, and Zhao Yuying had all suffered in Qianye’s hands, so they avoided him subconsciously. Meanwhile, those on Zhao Ruoxi’s side all possessed terrifying combat strength. They soon lost interest in the swaying Qianye and proceeded to ignore him, since none of them wanted to knock him out completely.
Qianye was all too happy about the respite. He dragged William to the side as though he were playing with the dog and whispered, “How come you’re here!?”
William remained unmoved and simply pretended not to understand.
“William! Don’t think I don’t know who you are!” Qianye exposed the fellow directly.
William: “Woof!”
Qianye felt his vision darken. “You! Do you feel no shame! Look at yourself! Where is that William who once sought a truce between werewolves and humans? Where did he go?”
William: “Woof! Woof! Woof!”
Qianye finally lost all hope and felt a certain firm belief crumbling in his heart. It was at this time that a soft body suddenly latched onto him from behind.
Qianye was just about to struggle free when he heard Ji Tianqing’s voice in his ears, “Why are you talking to the dog instead of drinking?”
Qianye was drenched in cold sweat. He turned back and found Ji Tianqing’s flushed face. Her watery eyes were wandering about but seemed to be in somewhat of a daze. Her appearance had become a bit blurry, and a different face was appearing vaguely in its stead. Apparently, she had drunk too much and wasn’t really paying attention to Qianye’s odd behavior from just now.
This allowed Qianye to sigh in relief. However, he couldn’t help but feel p.i.s.sed at William who was feigning complete ignorance. He suddenly grabbed a bone and brought it to the werewolf’s mouth.
This time, it was William’s time to be dazed.
The wolf growled with a fierce expression, but Qianye wasn’t afraid of him at all. He pointed in Zhao Ruoxi’s direction with one hand while moving the bone closer with the other.
William was so furious that his fur was standing on end! But his explosive temper and courage receded after seeing Zhao Ruoxi, who was still drinking with Li Kuanglan and Ji Tianqing, looking at him curiously. He simply turned around and made to leave.
However, Qianye dragged him back by the mane and waved the bone in front of his face, waiting for a chance to stuff it into his mouth.
Qianye ultimately underestimated William. The latter suddenly lowered his head and bit Qianye’s leg! This bite was extremely powerful with nothing held back, and the sharp fangs actually emitted metallic sounds as they nailed into Qianye’s leg.
“You, you actually!!!” Qianye couldn’t describe his shock.
Ji Tiangqing interfered at the right moment, dragging William by the mane and away from Qianye. She then tossed the dog to a corner of the yard and said to Qianye, “Enough playing with the dog, back to proper business!”
The proper business Ji Tianqing was talking about was drinking. By the time Qianye rejoined the battle, he found that the situation was no longer the same. The people were no longer split into two groups but mixed into one confused lump. Zhao Yuying was forcing Song Zining to drink, and Wei Potian was contending with Li Kuanglan. Meanwhile, Zhao Ruoxi was hunting down everyone in the field and catching whoever she could. Adding Qianye and Ji Tianqing to the mix, the scene became a supreme mess.
Surprisingly, a big dog appeared in their drinking battle at one point. William was ultimately not satisfied with being left alone and wanted to flex his drinking muscles. Unfortunately, his abilities were mediocre at best, and those left standing in the courtyard were all fierce people capable of handling several of him at any given time. William was already on his back after a single round, foaming from the mouth and with his limbs facing the sky. Li Kuanglan tossed him into a wine barrel in pa.s.sing and closed the lid on it.
As the battle progressed, Wei Potian, Song Zining, and the others fell down one by one. Qianye only felt the people around him gradually decreasing and the supply of alcohol dwindling. It was now taking considerable effort to find drinks.
Time flowed faster as people became drunk. In the blink of an eye, Qianye was standing in the courtyard and glancing vacantly at his surroundings, his opponents nowhere to be seen. He took a step forward and felt something dragging his feet. He found, upon looking down, that it was Wei Potian. The Wei clan heir’s body was covered in footprints, and his snores echoed like rolling thunder. Zhao Yuying was resting on the nearby table with Song Zining lying at her feet.
On another side, Zhao Ruoxi, Ji Tianqing, and Li Kuanglan were huddled up together atop several n.o.ble ladies. It was a mystery who it was that had played such a trick. In terms of evilness, though, Li Kuanglan was the simplest of the three, while the other two were more or less evenly matched.
Facing such a situation, Qianye didn’t quite know what to do. He was gradually sobering up at the moment and wanted an opponent to go for yet another round. However, intentionally or otherwise, no one in the courtyard would wake up no matter how hard he tried.
It was truly lonesome with no one around.
All of a sudden, Qianye remembered Nighteye in the distant Blackflow City. Due to her ident.i.ty, she might not be able to witness such a scene in her lifetime. This also meant that perhaps Nighteye was fated to never come into contact with his circle of friends.
Qianye sighed deeply as he raised a gla.s.s toward Blackflow City and finished it in silence.
At that very moment, Nighteye was reading a book in the courtyard. As if sensing something, she looked to the sky with a warm smile and sipped her tea before turning back to her book.
Within the city of Indomitable, Zhao Jundu was sitting on the windowsill and gazing at the dazzling stars. No one knew what he was thinking.
A lady clad entirely in black appeared quietly in the room. “Young n.o.ble, what are you thinking about?”
A smile appeared on Zhao Jundu’s lips. “The drinking party there seems to be quite lively. I was thinking if I should go and join them. I’ll definitely beat them all if I go now, haha!”
“Then, you should go!”
Zhao Jundu shook his head. “That won’t do. There will be a lot of guests tonight. How can I give them an unforgettable welcome if I’m not around?”
“You mean Edward’s people? Just a piece of trash serving a penalty, you can leave him to me.”
Zhao Jundu laughed. “No, I’m waiting for a different person. I can’t leave her to you.”
The lady immediately became curious. “Just who is it?”
Zhao Jundu didn’t reply and merely kept gazing at the night sky. At the ends of his vision, there was an exceptionally bright star.
That night, the stars in the sky resembled a piece of embroidery. Countless stars fell down onto the floating continent like a meteor shower.
Every one of those meteors was a wars.h.i.+p.
On one of those airs.h.i.+ps, a young demonkin was standing beside the cabin windows and looking at the approaching landma.s.s, a pale flame flickering within his eyes. A demonkin beside him said, “Young master, you must be careful. It’s best if you can avoid Zhao Jundu.”
The young demonkin remained silent for a while before saying, “Since Her Highness, the Demoness, has awakened, it won’t be my turn to deal with Zhao Jundu. The old fellows have already reached a tacit agreement not to take action for this battle. That being the case, who else should I be afraid of?”
“Young Master, you have to be careful of Edward.”
“Him? Heh, heh”