Chapter 37

“Lunatic.” Mu Qianyue coldly spat out this one word.

Against the backdrop of blue skies, pristine lake waters, and weeping willows, it was a beautiful and pleasing scene with the young man and young lady holding hands together as they stood. Yet, the atmosphere wasn’t cordial at all.

A complicated gleam flashed across Nalan Jing’s glaze-like lilac eyes as he watched the scene unfold from a distance.

“My dear, so you were here.” A clear and melodious voice rang out, interrupting the two figures.

Mu Qianyue turned her head and seeing Nalan Jing walking over, hurriedly shook off Nalan Ye’s hand. For some reason, a sense of guilt welled up in her heart, like she just got caught cheating on her husband.

Damn it! Why am I feeling this way?

This was clearly only a fake marriage! After the Defender Marquis Manor’s crisis was resolved, after she became more formidable, she would leave this place sooner or later.

Just as Mu Qianyue’s thoughts were whirling about in her head, Nalan Jing had already walked over and held her hand. “My dear, your hand feels so cold.”

“It’s the wind.” Mu Qianyue snapped out of her reverie.

Nalan Ye found the sight of them holding hands piercing to his eyes. “Prince Jing, you’re not good enough for Yue’er. If you have some self-awareness, you ought to leave her as soon as possible.”

“Who are you to tell me that?” Nalan Jing frowned in displeasure, killing intent flickering across his glazed, intoxicating purple eyes. This was the first time he did away with his innocent facade and revealed a murderous aura filled with arrogance befitting of his position.

Mu Qianyue paused in surprise. This was the first time she saw him behaving like this. It felt so foreign. She suddenly felt that he was showing his true colors!

“I’m the Fifth Prince, Nalan Ye!”

“Oh, so it’s Young Master Ye who fled from Phoenix Shadow City overnight back then like a pathetic stray dog. Sorry, I didn’t recognize you.” Nalan Jing’s lips curled up in a sneer.

Nalan Ye’s countenance changed imperceptibly, a coldness exposed in his eyes. “You’re no better than me, Prince Jing. Your parents died when you were very young, and I’m afraid it’ll be difficult for you to regain your eyesight in this lifetime.”

“I shan’t trouble you to concern yourself over this. Young Master Ye, you’d better worry about yourself instead. If you’re not careful, you might have to flee from Phoenix Shadow City like a stray dog once more.” Nalan Jing let out a scoff and tightly held Mu Qianyue’s hand. “My dear, the dueling contest is about to begin. Let’s go.”

Watching their back views as the duo left, Nalan Ye slowly clenched his hands into fists under his sleeves. “Yue’er, I will make you return to my side. Nalan Jing is merely a blind man. He’s not good enough for you!”

…

“My dear, why do you keep staring at me?”

Mu Qianyue blinked. “I thought you couldn’t see? How do you know I’m staring at you?”

“Although I cannot see, my mental powers are stronger than most. Everything I see through my consciousness gets transmitted to my brain,” explained Nalan Jing.

“Oh…” Mu Qianyue nodded her head in enlightenment. So with powerful consciousness, one could indeed see that in their heads.

It seemed like Nalan Jing had a lot of secrets. Things definitely weren’t as simple with him as they seemed on the surface.

As people from four nations were taking part in this dueling contest, there were numerous participants—nearly one thousand of them in all. Due to this reason, the first round was completed by a means of elimination.

“My dear, go for it! I’ll wait for you here.”

Mu Qianyue nodded and got to her feet, moving swiftly towards the training grounds. Nearly a thousand participants were gathered together, making for a bustling scene.

Standing amid the crowd, quite a lot of participants were sizing her up with malicious intent. A single defenseless woman was the easiest to bully, wasn’t it? Moreover, it was someone with a known reputation for being trash!

“Mu Qianyue, so long as you beg me, I can make sure you don’t get eliminated and smoothly enter the next round!” Nalan Jie stared at her with an eerie smile, the way his lips were arched made Mu Qianyue feel repulsed.

“Ooh… what a stench!” Mu Qianyue frowned in disgust. “Why do I smell shit coming from your mouth whenever you speak, Third Prince? Did you not brush your teeth when you got up this morning? Or is it just natural?”

Upon hearing this, everyone around instantly detected a repulsive odor coming from Nalan Jie, making them cover their mouths with a hand at once and jumping away from him.

Nalan Jie’s countenance changed and his gaze turned incredibly dark. Recalling the scene of himself falling into the manure pit, he was so disgusted he had an urge to throw up again. Retch…

Mu Qianyue froze. What the hell was going on here? Although she did inflict laxatives on him, there wasn’t a reason for him to react so strongly. Did he not manage to hold himself back and end up pooping in his pants?

After vomiting for quite a long while and nearly emptying his stomach of everything, only then did Nalan Jie feel better. As he wiped away the remnant vomit at the corners of his mouth, he looked up and stared at Mu Qianyue ferociously. “Don’t cry when you get eliminated later! Hmph!”

“The first round is mixed combat. So long as you fall out of this ring you’ll be considered eliminated. The last hundred participants to remain in the ring will successfully enter the next round.” After the judge announced the rules, the dueling contest officially began.

Looking at those numerous people with wicked intent staring at her, Mu Qianyue’s lips arched. Rolling her eyes about, she retrieved a gold card from her clothing and said with a smile, “There are 1,000 gold coins in this gold card! Who shall I give it to?”

“Consort Jing, I can help you get rid of these irritating houseflies and help you smoothly enter the next round.” A man stared at the gold card in Mu Qianyue’s hand with a glow in both eyes.

“It’s yours.” With a flick of her slender and fair fingers, that gold card landed in that man’s hands.

Some people turned green with envy. 1,000 gold coins! How generous of this trash to offer 1,000 gold coins just like that!

With the big population on the continent, not everyone was rich. Some came from poor families and had difficulties even buying weapons and medicinal herbs. At the sight of this, many walked up and exclaimed, “Consort Jing, I’m willing to be of service to you!”

“Consort Jing, I definitely won’t let you be eliminated.”

“Consort Jing, don’t worry. With me around, I’ll help you smoothly enter the next round!”

“Consort Jing…”

Those people were seen turning into rocks on the stage. Was this allowed?

Nalan Zheng’s countenance turned charcoal-black. However, as Mu Qianyue was after all a citizen of his Phoenix Shadow Nation and represented his country, he naturally couldn’t say anything. Surely he couldn’t throw his own face? He could only say with a chuckle, “This is also a form of strategy. If one only knows how to use brute force, that person would be nothing more than a boor.”

The judge’s mouth twitched upon hearing this.

The envoys from the other countries gave it some thought and didn’t voice any objections. After all, in a mass mixed combat like this, only by getting others on your side would you not be eliminated. For one to tackle all his opponents single-handedly, he had to be sufficiently formidable. As the saying went, “it’s hard for two fists to counter four hands.”

Hence, Mu Qianyue breezed through the first round to enter the second round without much effort.

The second round was done by drawing lots—one would be up against the person whose name they drew in a lot. No one would deliberately let another person win in this round, as from now onwards, their own rankings were at stake.

The opponent Mu Qianyue found herself up against was Gu Sheng, the son of a Sky Ocean Nation general, a seventh-stage True Cultivator.

“To think I’ll be competing against trash! Forget it, I’m in a good mood today so I’ll give you a three-strike handicap so that others won’t accuse me of bullying a piece of trash.” Gu Sheng cast a dismissive, yet scornful glance at Mu Qianyue as he spoke.