Even a Princess Could Only Be a Maid (Part One)

Even a Princess Could Only Be a Maid (Part One)

At this moment, everyone was stunned, including the six great Elders. Though they were Elders of the Washing Yan Ancient Sect, in terms of cultivation alone, if they entered the kingdoms, they could at most be granted the title of Heroes.

Yu He was different. As the Nine Sacred Demon Gate's chief grand protector, he was more than qualified to be granted a marquisate—and a marquis among marquises. He might even be granted the title of True Person.

Before such a powerhouse, even Elder Gu, the Washing Yan Ancient Sect's Grand Elder, had to lower his status by more than half. Within the kingdoms, Heroes simply could not be mentioned in the same breath as marquises!

The six great Elders all treated an expert like Yu He with considerable respect. Yet today, Yu He was utterly respectful toward Li Qiye. It was simply unbelievable.

Even more unbelievable was that Yu He had brought word from the Sun-Turning Demon Emperor: if Li Qiye visited the Nine Sacred Demon Gate, the Sun-Turning Demon Emperor would personally welcome him.

Who was the Sun-Turning Demon Emperor? He was the peerless overlord of the present-day Great Central Region, sweeping across the age without rival! Let alone the others from the Washing Yan Ancient Sect, even the six great Elders were not qualified to seek an audience with the Sun-Turning Demon Emperor.

And now, the Sun-Turning Demon Emperor wanted to personally receive Li Qiye. What an unimaginable matter!

As for the other disciples, they found it even harder to imagine. For a time, everyone present stood there petrified.

Yet something that petrified them even further happened next. Li Qiye merely held out his left arm. Li Shuangyan only gave him a cold look, and in the end said nothing. She simply lightly hooked her arm through his, looking obedient as she left with Li Qiye.

"Protector Yu, I won't be entertaining you," Li Qiye said only this before leaving. Yu He, the chief grand protector, merely bowed and answered in acknowledgment.

This scene shook everyone. Whether it was the six great Elders, the various protectors, or all the disciples, none of them could recover their senses for a long time.

Amid everyone's shock, Li Qiye and Li Shuangyan returned to Lonely Peak and entered the small courtyard. Once they were alone in the courtyard, Li Shuangyan flung away Li Qiye's arm.

Li Shuangyan shot him a cold sidelong glance, her bearing still icy and proud. "Satisfied now?"

Li Qiye merely cast her a cold glance in response. He sat comfortably in the grand chair, too lazy even to look at her, and said calmly, "You linked arms with me before everyone's eyes. Did you really think I was so vain that I needed to use you to climb to the top? If the shock and envy of a bunch of ordinary cultivators could satisfy my vanity, then I, Li Qiye, would have lived for nothing."

"I only let you hold my arm to give you a bit of face!" At this point, Li Qiye's gaze turned cold. "I have always protected those around me and cared for them greatly. If you stay by my side, I will give you some consideration! Letting you link arms with me in public was only so you could save face! Since when was a Sword Servant qualified to walk arm in arm with me?"

"You—" Li Shuangyan trembled with rage, her frost-like face flushing red. This time, she had come under orders. Setting aside her status to link arms with Li Qiye in public had already given him tremendous face. Yet today, Li Qiye actually spoke such words. How could she not be furious?

"You have your pride. I understand that." Li Qiye did not take her anger seriously at all and spoke unhurriedly. "You came here under the Sun-Turning Demon Emperor's orders, so you must be unconvinced in your heart. You see yourself as a proud daughter of heaven and look down on an ordinary person like me. That is only natural. But I have given you face, so think it over carefully. Letting you walk arm in arm with me today was giving you a good beginning! When I sweep across the heavens one day, if you have not followed me all along, there will not even be a place for you to stand at my side!"

A boy of around thirteen spoke the most arrogant words. Even the geniuses of the present age, even princes born of ancient kingdoms, would not dare utter such domineering and arrogant words. Yet today, such overbearing words came from a boy of around thirteen.

If anyone else had said such things, it would certainly have been arrogance born of ignorance, like a frog at the bottom of a well boasting of the sky. But Li Shuangyan looked at Li Qiye and found him incomparably calm. He spoke the most arrogant words in the world in the plainest, most leisurely tone. At any other time, she would certainly have thought him arrogantly ignorant, a frog at the bottom of a well. But now, she could not see the slightest trace of such arrogance or ignorance in him.

Li Shuangyan had not come here willingly. She had come under the Sun-Turning Demon Emperor's orders. It was not only the Sun-Turning Demon Emperor who thought highly of Li Qiye; even Elder Jian of the Nine Sacred Demon Gate believed Li Qiye had great potential. In the end, they persuaded her to come.

To Li Shuangyan, this matter was an enormous grievance. She was the successor of the Nine Sacred Demon Gate, the princess of the Ancient Niu Jiang Kingdom. Whether in beauty or talent, she was a phoenix among men, a proud daughter of heaven!

In this age, her suitors were as numerous as carp crossing a river. No matter how outstanding the young talents were, she had never favored any of them. Yet today, she had to become a Sword Servant for a mortal.

Her master, the Sun-Turning Demon Emperor, possessed unmatched talent. Even in the final age when the Heavenly Mandate shattered, he had risen abruptly into prominence, which was enough to prove his talent and wisdom! Yet such a supreme overlord thought so highly of a mortal with a Mortal Physique, Mortal Meridians, and Mortal Fate. Even she could not understand it!

Li Qiye's words now left her unsure whether she should be angry or enraged. If he were arrogantly ignorant, like a frog at the bottom of a well, then why did he not seem like it at all?

"Fine, you believe yourself unmatched beneath heaven. Then prove it to me!" Li Shuangyan said coldly, both angry and furious within. "If you can truly do it, then I will admit you have some ability! Otherwise, you are merely daydreaming."

After quite a while, Li Qiye finally turned his head. He only looked at her lightly, as if clouds drifted and winds blew, and said, "Prove it? What do I need to prove?"

Li Qiye's arrogant attitude made Li Shuangyan tremble with anger. Worse still, Li Qiye was clearly only a thirteen-year-old boy, clearly younger than she was, yet he spoke with boundless dominance, as though he were an unrivaled emperor. A thirteen-year-old boy spoke the most arrogant and wild words in the most bored and indifferent tone!

"I have an array diagram here. Forget breaking this array—even if you can name a single mystery within it, I will count you as having some ability!" Li Shuangyan could not stand Li Qiye's arrogance any longer. It was simply too arrogant!

As she spoke, Li Shuangyan took out a corner of ancient, damaged hide. No one knew what kind of material it was. Upon it were carved countless curves, Dao sigils, stars, array nodes... Though it was only a small piece of ancient hide, it contained Myriad Manifestations, as though it encompassed every mystery between heaven and earth.

If someone looked closely, their soul would immediately be drawn into it, as though they had been sucked into a mysterious and profound world. This world was incomparably abstruse and supremely wondrous. No matter how unparalleled one's talent or how vast one's wisdom, a single glance would leave them unable to free themselves, drawn in by the mysteries within. At the same time, within those mysteries, even the most gifted person would be unable to walk back out.

The moment Li Qiye saw the ancient hide, it looked far too familiar—far too familiar. When he looked again at the curves, Dao sigils, stars, and array nodes within it... in the blink of an eye, Li Qiye had taken in the entire piece.

At that instant, a missing corner of an array diagram surfaced in his mind. It had once been one of his deepest memories, but the complete memory could not yet emerge. Only one erased corner of it surfaced.

This tiny fragment of memory was etched far too deeply into Li Qiye. As for the complete memory, he could not even be bothered to calculate further or retrieve it, because no one understood it better than he did!

"It is merely a corner of a ruined array. Enter from the Kui Star, pass through the Nine Profound Passes, retreat through the Eight Wheel Moons, transform into nine stars, turn the Heavenly River, then enter the Eternal Dao..." Li Qiye spoke with calm composure, pointing casually before finally saying, "The core of this corner array lies here. Myriad Manifestations guard it, while Six Beasts and Four Immortals protect it. In this world, very few can break this corner array."

Li Qiye spoke eloquently and with ease, as if reciting treasures from his own household. From his mouth, this did not seem like an earthshaking supreme array at all, but merely an insignificant little trick.

But Li Shuangyan was instantly shaken. She knew the origin of this fragmentary array. Its origins were heaven-shaking; the ancestor of the Nine Sacred Demon Gate had obtained only one corner of it! Yet even with merely this fragment, several generations of geniuses and sages from the Nine Sacred Demon Gate had contemplated it for their entire lives without fully comprehending all its mysteries. Only in recent generations, after the efforts of several generations of predecessors, had the Nine Sacred Demon Gate finally completely unraveled the mysteries of this corner array.

Even so, the Nine Sacred Demon Gate still could not set up this array. In this generation, her master, the Sun-Turning Demon Emperor, thought highly of her talent and wanted to see whether she could cultivate this array. That was why he had passed the array diagram to her. Half of her cultivation was related to arrays as well!

She had begun studying this array when she was very young, yet it had taken her more than ten years to truly comprehend it completely—and that was with the guidance of the insights left behind by the Nine Sacred Demon Gate's predecessors!

Li Shuangyan had once hoped that one day she could set up this array, because once it was formed, it would surely shake heaven and earth, slaughter gods and sever immortals. But she also knew that with her current attainments, it was fundamentally impossible for her to set up this array!

This time, when she came to the Washing Yan Ancient Sect, she had brought this array with her as well. The Sun-Turning Demon Emperor wanted to see just how extraordinary and unfathomable Li Qiye truly was, and to use this array to test him.

Li Shuangyan never dreamed that Li Qiye would merely glance once at this corner of an unrivaled supreme array, then speak of it eloquently as if reciting treasures from his own household.

What a satisfying chapter. Please vote ^_^