琅琊榜海宴小说

Chapter 142 - Turquoise Family’s Number One Prodigy!

Long Chen thought Liu Yuan had the wrong name.

“That’s right. It’s Lan’er. Yunxi has liked Lan’er for quite some time, and this is well-known too. It’s not surprising that you didn’t know, seeing as you’ve only recently joined the Lingwu family.”

Long Chen was privately disapproving of this, though when he recalled Liu Lan’s seductive looks, he knew that he would’ve been tempted by her if he didn’t have Ling Xi with him.

“Sigh. Lan’er is probably going to marry into the Turquoise Imperial Hall soon. However, if Chu Yunxi enters the inner family, Lan’er’s status will also rise together with his ...” Liu Yuan remarked wistfully.

She’s so beautiful! It’s such a waste, like giving a beautiful head of cabbage to a pig! Long Chen cursed privately.

When Liu Yuan saw that Long Chen was silent, as if uninterested in the topic, he said, “In that case, you may return. Work hard to cultivate this Beast Soul.”

“Sect Elder, you mentioned that I’ll be on the same team as Chu Yunxi. What did you mean by that?” Long Chen hadn’t forgotten about this.

“The inner family’s qualifiers are the same as the outer family qualifiers with two rounds. One of the rounds places participants in teams of two to compete against other teams. Since you and Chu Yunxi are from the Turquoise family, you two will make a team. I’ll tell you the specific details later. We aren’t yet sure if past rules will be changed.”

Long Chen nodded, bade him farewell, and returned to his quarters.

Once they were home, Ling Xi emerged from the sword. She looked extremely happy, strolling around as she wrinkled her delicate nose and hummed a tune.

“Xiao Xi, why are you in such a good mood?”

“I’m not telling you! Hmph ...”

Long Chen smirked. “It’s not because the beautiful Liu Lan is getting married, is it?”

Ling Xi was surprised. “How did you know? Hmph, she’s always trying to get her hands on you. She needs to get married!”

“Uh...”

Long Chen already had Ling Xi figured out a long time ago. “Do you think I have a chance at the inner family qualifiers?” He sat down in the underground room.

“Of course! Don’t we have plenty of time? You’re only at the Human Core Realm, the bottommost level of cultivation. But cultivation is a very quick process. I barely put any effort into cultivation before, yet I easily entered the Heavenly Core Realm.”

Long Chen was secretly startled by how nonchalant she was. This girl’s status must’ve been extremely high since young. She doesn’t know the suffering that peasants like us go through ...

Ling Xi had finished cultivating the Soul Grass, so she was in peak form. She was very energetic and kept running around all the time. Long Chen let her off to play on her own.

Any spare time was to be used for cultivation.

“It’s time for me to use Blood Transmutation on the two Giant Devil Bears now. If I keep them in the Universe Pouch for too long, they may lose their strength.”

There were five more days until Chu Yunxi came with his proposal.

And Long Chen wasn’t expecting to be interrupted before that. He began by consuming the Giant Devil Bears’ blood essence, as he had enough time for it. “I can’t believe that two Category Four Black-tier beasts barely made a difference. The Earthly Core Realm is still pretty far off.”

Long Chen took out the Violet Demonic Lizard’s Soul Collecting Bead. Any Beast Warrior would see it as a treasure, but it was useless to Long Chen. He was a Dragon Warrior, not a Beast Warrior.

What he needed was the ancient dragon’s inherited blood essence, not a Beast Soul ...

“A normal Beast Warrior would be able to completely cultivate this Beast Soul by the time the qualifiers begin. When that happens and the old man sees that I still haven’t cultivated it, heaven knows what he’ll do to me. Ugh. I need to find a way to sell this for a hundred thousand divine jades without anyone knowing.”

However, Long Chen still hadn’t come up with a way to do so. He put the bead away, then he took out the Blazing Thunder Crystals. “The Blazing Thunder Crystals are almost gone too. My limit is probably thirty crystals. I’ll spend the next five days merging with three more to strengthen my Blazing Thunder Combat Body further!”

Achieving the Level One Thunder Combat Body had required ten crystals. Long Chen estimated that he was not far away from breaking through to the second level.

The Level Two Blazing Thunder Combat Body was the equivalent of an advanced Black-tier Body Tempering technique. It would be formidable!

Four days passed slowly. In the early morning of the fifth day, Long Chen was finally freed from the suffering. As he used Recovery to heal his body, he said happily, “I have merged with a total of thirty Blazing Thunder Crystals. The Blazing Thunder Combat Body is now three times stronger than when I first cultivated it, though it still hasn’t advanced to Level Two.”

He waited for his body to heal completely through Recovery. Then he stood up and moved around. “The stronger my body gets, the weaker the effects of Recovery become. Once my body reaches the advanced Black-tier level, Recovery will be much less effective.”

It was early in the morning. The meeting that Liu Yuan had planned out was going to start soon. Long Chen had just finished merging with his Blazing Thunder Crystals, so the timing was perfect. “I don’t think I need to be involved in a matter like a marriage proposal. Once they’re done, I’ll go meet that Chu Yunxi guy and witness the prowess of the Turquoise family’s number one prodigy myself.”

After organizing his things, Long Chen lay down on his bed and relaxed, joking around with Ling Xi while he waited for someone to call for him.

“Hey, aren’t you sad that that beautiful lady is going to be married off?” asked Ling Xi, pursing her lips enviously as she was perched on the edge of the bed.

“Of course! I’m broken-hearted! Xiao Xi, should we go snatch her away?” asked Long Chen excitedly, suddenly sitting up.

When Ling Xi’s expression turned into annoyance, he laughed and reached out to pinch her cheek. She quickly dodged, glaring at him angrily. “You bastard. Don’t touch me.”

“Don’t be mad, I’m just joking. She’s so old and so ugly, I don’t want her! My Ling Xi is young and beautiful! Everyone wants her.”

“Hmph, I don’t want you.”

Ling Xi was happy to hear the compliment, though she still maintained her look of contempt.

Time passed quickly. Before noon, someone knocked on the door.

“Long Chen, Administrator Liu requests that you meet her at her residence.”

“Her residence? Aren’t I supposed to meet Chu Yunxi at the Turquoise Sun Hall?”

Gan Lin didn’t know either. He shook his head and said, “You should go meet her at her residence first. I have some matters to attend to, so I’ll be going.”

Long Chen was left puzzled, so he said to Ling Xi, “Ling Xi, we’ll go visit the beautiful Liu Lan first.”

“That’s strange. Why does that smelly woman want you to come to her?” Ling Xi cocked her head in annoyance.

“Whatever, we’ll just have to see what she has to say.”

“I’m not going.” Controlling the Ling Xi Sword, she left Long Chen’s ear. “I don’t want to see her, so you go on your own. I’ll stay in the house. Just come back when you’re done.”

Whoosh! Ling Xi disappeared. Exasperated, Long Chen closed the door and headed to Liu Lan’s residence, which was the center of the Turquoise Willow Residence.

***

Within the Turquoise Sun Hall, Liu Yuan was sitting in the main chair on the left of the room. In front of him were the four Elders and four Administrators, though Liu Lan was not present.

On the other chair on the right side of the room was a tall, muscular middle-aged man whose gaze was deep and moved with great power. Sitting in front of him was a teenager with clean features and a reserved power within him.

The middle-aged man was Chu Fengqing, who was the Sect Elder of the Turquoise Imperial Hall, also the Turquoise family’s most powerful hall. Next to him was naturally his son, Chu Yunxi, also known as the Turquoise family’s number one prodigy. Chu Yunxi looked quite different from Chu Fengqing, though similar to his younger sister, Chu Yunyao.

These two were here for their marriage proposal. “Yunxi has been ambitious since young. He was never willing to fall behind, so he has always been ahead of everyone else since he started cultivating. Now, he has obtained the right to participate in the inner family qualifiers. He’s considered an outstanding young prodigy by the outer families.”

Chu Fengqing did not even attempt to be humble, bragging openly about his son.

Liu Yuan chuckled and turned to look at Chu Yunxi. “May I ask how confident Yunxi is in the inner family qualifiers?”

Chu Yunxi thought for a while, then he answered politely, “Uncle Liu, I’ll say that I’m fifty percent confident. I’m very familiar with the other participants, and I know that Jin Shengen will definitely get one spot. As for the other spot, I have some hope.”

When Chu Fengqing heard Jin Shengen’s name, he said wistfully, “That little prince of the Gold family is indeed impressive. He’s the best amongst the outer family’s youths.”

Liu Yuan nodded in defeat too. “He is indeed impressive.”

“That reminds me. Didn’t Liu Lan almost pass when she participated in the inner family qualifiers years ago?” asked Chu Fengqing mildly.

“Brother Chu, you have over-complimented Lan’er. Although she was at the mid Earthly Core Realm, she wasn’t as powerful as the others and was disqualified in the first round. She didn’t come anywhere near ‘almost’ passing.”

Listening to their conversation, Chu Yunxi’s brows were knitted, and he said, “Uncle Liu, I will definitely help fulfill Sister Lan’s wish!”

Liu Yuan genuinely admired this teenager and approved of him marrying Liu Lan. It was just that she was a little too stubborn. “Lan’er has been on Xi’er’s mind for a long time now. Brother Liu, I think the deal is sealed just based on the deep feelings he has for her. What do you think?”

Liu Yuan smiled bitterly. “Naturally, I agree, seeing as I approve of Yunxi too. However, Lan’er hasn’t arrived yet, so let’s wait till she’s present for the final decision. Would that be alright?”

At this moment, a young cultivator knocked on the door and entered, saying reverently, “Sect Elder, Administrator Liu requests that Young Master Yunxi heads to the Turquoise Willow Residence.”

Chu Yunxi got up from his seat.