Chapter 701: Challenge

It took quite a few minutes for the bald man to make his way through eating all of the strange and spicy foods that were arrayed before him. When he was finished the woman on the other side of the table was too disgusted to handle the mess. She just spun and walked back towards the other women. The woman on the far left waved a hand to one of the guards and then towards the table. The guard had to rush out and clean up the mess, but his Storage Bag didn’t have enough room, so he had to get another one of the guards to help him. The two of them stored all the dirty dishes and then picked up the table, carrying it off into the yard. The woman that had given the order had a very displeased look on her face, seeing the spectacle the guards were putting on, she immediately regretted not having brought a few servants outside with her.

At this point, the field was clear and three of the women had already stepped forward. That left only the fourth remaining. They had finally calmed down the second woman from a furious tirade, so she was now free to step forward. Contrary to the serious looks of the first three, this was actually smiling. She walked closer to where Sage was mounted upon a lion and looked up towards him. She pondered for a moment and then gave a little nod and held out her hand with the palm up. Her hand lifted a bit higher towards Sage and then she rubbed her thumb against the tips of her other fingers, holding her palm out.

Sage smiled and then tossed out a Storage Bag. The bag landed on her palm and she glanced down to send her consciousness inside to take a look. Then she looked back up at Sage and lifted her other hand, holding up four fingers. Then Sage tossed her three more Storage Bags and then she looked into each of them. Then she nodded and turned around, walking back over to the other three women without any further ado. She tossed each of them one of the bags and then the four of them turned around as a group and walked back towards the main entrance of the building.

A few moments after the women passed through the pair of double doors on the front of the building, the doors were pulled open by more of the well dressed guards. The three men on Sage’s side stepped to the side and Sage dismounted. He walked up the path the ladies had just stopped blocking and the three men followed behind him. Back in the crowd of people they’d brought along, three women were looking on with amused faces from the backs of their own Demonic Beast mounts. Those people were, of course, the Tiankong Siblings. The three men being the cocky blue eyed Jiyao, the short redhead Juzui, and the bald Tujiu. At this point, Sage was leading the others and they ascended the steps and then entered the main door of the Zhu Clan.

They were in a large foyer, wide and open with tall ceilings. The room had large square pillars along the side walls, which supported heavy horizontal beams. From these beams there were many bright red lanterns, each of them covered with elaborate decorative characters and animals, with a gold thread tassel hanging beneath it. He followed behind the four women, walking to the end of this foyer room and then turning to head down a hallway. They turned another corner and a pair of large doors opened in front of them.

In this new great room, there were many people waiting. There was a row of people in various shades of pink and purple on either side of the room. Sage followed behind the four women without any hesitation, crossing the room before coming to a stop in front of a red curtain that stretched across the room. The three other men stood behind him, all of them waiting patiently as the four women went to the edge of the room and snuck behind the curtain. There were a few faint murmurs coming from behind the curtain and then the sound immediately cut out along with a soft fluctuation of energy.

Sage didn’t plan on eavesdropping on any gossip, so he didn’t mind the change, but Jiyao behind him let out a short curse, “Damn!”

At this time, Sage knew his job and he took his time meeting the gaze of all those who had gathered in the room. His gaze fell over every person in the room before lifting his hands to salute them with a clasped fist. Then he leaned forward, giving a short bow to everyone in the room. A respectful greeting, yet without an inkling of submission.

Then, the curtains finally moved. The thick red silk was pulled to either side, parting in the middle and drawing back to reveal the other quarter of the room that had been partitioned off. That was when he saw her. She was draped from head to toe in red silk, wearing an extremely elaborate red silk dress, embroidered with golden thread, forming thousands of tiny array characters. There was a slightly sheer veil completely covering her head, long wide sleeves that hid her hands completely, and the bottom hem of her dress was long enough to brush against the ground.

Despite not an inch of her skin being exposed, Sage still knew exactly who it was. Even without using his Spiritual Sense to directly sense her, he could still recognize the aura of her Qi. If Spiritual Sense could be likened to a sense of touch, aura might be thought similarly to a sense of smell. Everyone’s aura was unique, but most weren’t sensitive enough to sense all the peculiarities. There were also things that could build up a stronger aura automatically, like killing or causing resentment, while others practiced techniques to weaken or strengthen their aura, like a supernatural version of perfume.

Sage had spent a lot of time in the past remembering the moment when she had gone against her family's wishes to help him flee from his pursuers. He used her help to escape to another Empire and was then ransomed to Guan Zhenyan. At that time, he was used to test hundreds of poisons, and more than a few of them caused him to relive his own memories in interesting ways. He’d lived that specific event over and over again through the years, and burned her every feature into his memory.

When he approached her, his voice was low as he spoke, “Zhu Jiao.”

The woman in the red dress merely lifted her sleeve and a dainty hand was exposed. He took that hand into his own and gave it a light squeeze. Then she took her hand back and he turned back around. Jiyao, Juzui, and Tujiu had giant grins on their faces. Then they all stepped to the side to let others walk past them. Sage walked back out of the room with many others following behind him. By the time he exited the building again there was a grand parade behind him. A good luck woman held a red umbrella over Zhu Jiao, while the three Tiankong brothers were walking beside the four women who had guarded the doors earlier. The rest of the people who had been waiting in the room had come along as well and as soon as this large parade exited the main building, it inspired a flurry of motion and activity.

A few of the Dragoons from Sage’s side lit fuses and then threw small objects onto the streets on either side. At the same time, the center of the group parted to either side and allowed a carriage to pull forward. It was a quite small vehicle, but it was crafted out of a red metal pressed into paper thin sheets and sculpted into the shape of a flower petal. The carriage itself looked like a giant peony flower blossom, with large golden wheels and most surprisingly nothing pulling the carriage. The petals of the flower expanded, one of the larger ones lowering all the way to the ground and forming a ramp for the two women to walk up.

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