“Uh-Yes, I am.”
After hearing his response, Lu Yue only turned back around without saying any more. Her cold and indifferent expression hadn’t left her face even as she spoke to him.
'This is the first time I heard her speak. If anything I thought she was mute or something.’
Li Shen hadn’t turned away from Lu Yue and was continuing to stare at her.
‘I don’t feel any ill-will towards her now for having that appearance, as it’s merely a coincidence, however… I can't see myself liking her if she's like this, even as she showed a minute amount of concern for me she’s completely detached. Marring someone who can’t even express the simplest of emotions, how can I? I don't even know if she likes me back, it would just be a loveless marriage. No, I suppose alliance marriages are all like this? But this one takes the cake out of all of them.’
Li Shen frowned in his heart as he thought about his married life with her for a bit.
After they got married he suppose they were required to have kids.
These thoughts made him embarrassed quite a bit but he couldn't help but have them. Li Shen even thought about the process of going about having kids.
What weirded him out was Lu Yue still looking at him with that detached expression in the middle of it.
That was certainly one way to kill a guy's confidence.
Li Shen bitterly smiled and shook his head internally before turning around.
However, halfway before turning around, a thought figuratively hit him in the face.
‘Wait, isn’t this a perfect scenario to use my new ability?’
With that, an unnoticeable flame suddenly appeared in his eyes.
Li Shen was unable to keep his passive ability on to sense people’s emotions, due to the distraction it caused. And despite turning it on, there were people that it didn’t work on due to their strong mental fortitude.
For Lu Yue, Li Shen had to use a bit more effort.
‘I wonder how she's really like under that cold persona, will she be the same?’
Li Shen was just about to get a read on her true emotions, but a commotion suddenly occur that drew his attention away from her.
The only thing Li Shen saw upon turning around was a red.
----
*Meanwhile Li Shen was in his thoughts...*
“Who are you people?!”
“We have no grudge against you, it’s with that shameless Prince!”
“Humph, if you want to fight my Master get past us first. If you can’t then you are not qualified!!”
“Ugh”
The group of youths had ugly expressions on their faces as they looked at Fei Yin who was radiating a Late stage Foundation Realm aura.
“How shameless! He’s just hiding behind his friends!”
“Right, just how more shameless can he get?!”
“Hey did I hear right? That red hair kid just called the Second Prince his Master.”
“Huh? What? Master? Are you sure?”
Different conversations floated from the crowd as they all began talking.
“Aren’t you all satisfied?”
Li Shu’s voice echoed out making the crowd’s chattering cut off dramatically.
“This is ultimately my son’s birthday celebration. I will not fault these young youths, but as Elders, you aren’t showing me any face by allowing them to cause chaos here.”
All the Elders of the various Academies showed mixed reactions to his words.
“I will compensate for my son’s actions but from how lively these youths who were supposed to be severely injured are, I might not need to do so.”
The Elders’ plan of standing back and watching had suddenly backfired.
Gritting their teeth, they all turned to look at the Ming Clan Elder as he was the one who had suggested they allow the younger generation to solve it amongst themselves.
Now they were cursing him and themselves as to why they agreed with him. This now gave the Emperor the excuse to not follow through on his offer to compensate them.
Thinking about all the resources they could have obtained, especially the smaller Academies, they felt as if their heart were bleeding with regret.
“My son’s birthday will continue and the gifts can now be presented.”
The Elders' hearts bled even more as they remembered they had to present expensive gifts to that shameless bastard.
Though like an annoying mosquito that just won’t go away, the Elder from the Ming Clan immediately spoke up.
“Our guests from the Star Bound Continent have been silent all this while. I am sure this incident has affected you all as well?”
All eyes suddenly turned to the group from the Star Bound Continent.
Seeing everyone looking at them, a handsome Lu Xue Feng as the spokesperson waved his hand dismissively while saying.
“There’s no need for respected Elder’s concern for us. As you can see our disciples are fine.”
Lu Xue Feng also motioned to the dozen or so disciples behind him, as well as the other sects' disciples and indeed they were fine with rosy colored cheeks and bright eyes.
‘Did the Second Prince Soul Attack not affect them?’
This question popped into everyone’s mind when they saw how relaxed they were.
Even if they hadn’t lowered their defenses, the Soul Attack would have still caused a certain amount of damage.
Smug and mocking expressions appeared on the Star Bound Continents youths’ faces as they looked at a burly Su Gong and a scholarly Zhaohui, as well as the other youths who had stepped forward to challenge Li Shen.
This was a significant blow to the youths from the Maple Continent. They had been heavily affected by Li Shen’s Soul Attack but these people weren’t. And that's despite the fact they were upfront, closer to the focal point of the attack.
As the youths from the Maple Continent were feeling discontent with the ridiculing stares at them, something weird suddenly happen among the Star Bound Continent group.
But first, let’s go back moments ago.
Li Shen had just sat down before Lu Yue spoke to him.
Shin, Lu Xue Feng’s younger brother, saw this and his eyes spout flames filled will jealousy.
‘That fucker is talking with Yue’er!! Even I haven’t heard her voice, how come she didn’t ask me if I was okay when I come home bruised and bloodied?’
‘This is unforgivable! That useless prince, I’ll make him suffer somehow. How can I let my beautiful sister be taken by him? NEVER!!’
Shin clench his teeth and balled up his fists.
Suddenly, he heard his brother’s voice.
“There’s no need for respected Elder’s concern for us. As you can see our disciples are fine.”
As if a spark of brilliance had come to him, Shin's eyes began to shine like the sun at mid-day.
He bit the inside of his cheek drawing blood, but feeling the amount in his mouth he frowned.
‘No, this is not enough, I need more.’
He thought of another method, but he hesitated. Though after a short deliberation his expression became determined.
‘This is all so I can save Yue’er from marrying that good-for-nothing brat.’
Shin then began circulating his Qi in his meridians in reverse.
Cut back to the present and what everyone saw was Shin suddenly going pale face before coughing up a bucket's worth of blood.
Everyone was shocked by this.
Shin staggered a bit before he fall to one knee.
“Ah, senior brother what happened?!”
A disciple nearby cried out in shock.
Lu Xue Feng seeing this immediately rushed towards his brother.
“Shin, what happened are you alright?”
One could hear the genuine worry in his voice as he spoke.
“El-elder brother, I’m fine, it’s nothing.”
Shin managed to force that out but his face showed his immense pain as he spoke.
Lu Xue Feng’s heart sank and he placed his hand on his brother’s upper back to check his injury.
Upon seeing his Qi moving chaotically inside his meridians with even a bit of damage to them, Lu Xue Feng’s body shook.
“Shin, you-what happened to you? Did-”
Lu Xue Feng’s voice turned cold and his expression became dark. He seemed like he was ready to mangle whoever caused this to happen to his little brother, but his face suddenly stiffened.
He examined his brother’s body closer and he saw signs that this was a self-inflicted injury.
His face quickly turned darker but for a different reason before he glared venomously at his brother.
Lu Xue Feng then stood up and turned his back away from his brother completely ignoring him and his antics.
Everyone seeing this didn’t know why his reaction went from anger to annoyance.
The Elder of the group too went forward and examine a pale face and trembling Shin.
Seeing his injuries the Elder’s face like Lu Xue Feng twisted into a dark look, but soon turned to a strange expression as he looked down at Shin.
The Elder slowly stood up not knowing how to react upon seeing the massive puddle of blood Shin had coughed up.
He too then turned away from Shen and ignored him.
Seeing this reaction from the Elder too, everyone in the hall had perplexed looks on their faces.
‘Were the people from the Profound Sword Sect this indifferent to their people?’
Everyone thought this as they saw this strange scene, Li Shen as well.
This was what had drawn his attention from Lu Yue, and as he looked at the puddle of blood beneath the youth name Shin, he was skeptical to believe so much blood could come out of one person.
“Elder, what happened to senior brother Shin, will he be alright?”
A worried-looking disciple asked.
Everyone in the group was wondering why the elder and their senior eldest brother weren’t helping him.
“He’s… It seems he has suffered from a Qi backlash, but he'll be fine, just ignore him.”
The disciples as well as the crowd heard this and became even more baffled at that.
“No Elder, just look how much blood brother Shin has coughed up, how could he be fine!”
“Bleh!”
As if on command Shin coughed out another mouth full of blood adding to the already gallon on the ground.
“Yes Elder, how could he be fine if he coughed up so much blood! But what I truly want to know is how brother Shin suffered from a Qi backlash? He was fine up until a moment ago.”
As if this was the moment he was waiting for, Shin struggle to raise his head and point at Li Shen with a trembling finger.
Li Shen looked at this youth pointing at him with a confused expression.
“That useless Prince is the one who caused this!”
“His Soul Attack had caused me to lose focus of my Qi making it reversed, I almost suffered Qi Deviation because of that!”
Li Shen stared at this shameless person accusing him completely dumbfounded.
Since when did cultivation work like that?