Twin Phoenix Tower had managed to gain a firm foothold in Qinglan City within just a few short years, and had now developed into the city's hottest pleasure quarter. Without a powerful background, that would have been absolutely impossible.
Its main customers were influential figures from the city. Without powerful backers, serving people who could make Qinglan City tremble three times with a single stomp would have been exceedingly difficult.
Thus, Qinglan City had an unspoken rule everyone acknowledged: no matter which family's descendant you were, once you entered Twin Phoenix Tower, you could not cause trouble. Otherwise, you would be making enemies of all the other guests here and become the target of the entire upper class of Qinglan City. Of course, there were exceptions to everything.
"From the sound of it, the quarrel is on the fourth floor. Only the most elite descendants of Aristocratic Clans and high-ranking nobles can go there. I just wonder who has such nerve as to make such a clamor in Twin Phoenix Tower."
Before her brother could finish, Hao Xiaomeng sprang to her feet and dashed out the door like a wisp of smoke. She was only eleven, after all; wherever there was excitement, she would gather around it. Her nature was laid bare.
Li Mu and the other did not pay it much mind. They continued drinking tea and talking, letting Hao Xiaomeng go downstairs to watch the excitement.
"The fourth floor was booked by students from Cangyun Academy today. I heard they're celebrating a student's birthday. Sister Chun and Sister Qiu are both accompanying them upstairs."
The girl in red beside them spoke up. The tea cups Li Mu and the other had raised halfway froze in midair, and their expressions immediately turned grave.
"Cangyun Academy? It can't be such a coincidence, can it? Could that blockhead from before have gone back to call people, and brought them here to Twin Phoenix Tower?"
"This is bad! Xiaomeng went down to watch the commotion..."
The two instantly leaped up and shot toward the fourth floor in a flash. Their lightning-fast Movement Technique left the girl in red stunned. By the time she came back to herself, they had already vanished from Star Picking Pavilion.
The fourth floor of Twin Phoenix Tower was an exceedingly spacious banquet hall. A long redwood table ran through the entire hall, its surface arranged with exquisitely designed lamps and utensils.
Paired with finely carved wall decorations and all manner of rare, luxurious furnishings, the place was magnificent and extravagantly lavish.
Yet at that moment, a young man in white stood glaring furiously, pointing at a maid before him and berating her without pause. His words were so foul they were unbearable to hear.
A jade porcelain wine pot shattered on the floor explained everything. Many people had already gathered around to watch: Twin Phoenix Tower's managers were trying to persuade him, while other guests who had heard the noise downstairs had come up to join the spectacle.
"Young Master Yue, calm down, please calm down. Everyone comes to Twin Phoenix Tower to have fun. Don't let such a trivial matter spoil your refined mood."
The woman who was clearly a manager kept fanning the young man in white's side, offering him every kind of soothing word in hopes of calming him down.
"Hmph! So you know it would spoil our mood. Today, so many of my fellow students from Cangyun Academy have honored me by celebrating my birthday. I chose to host this banquet here because I had heard of Twin Phoenix Tower's reputation."
"Yet this clumsy little wench actually smashed the wine pot. Isn't that publicly humiliating me? Is this how Twin Phoenix Tower treats its guests?"
The young man in white clearly had no intention of letting the matter rest. He continued pointing at the maid, who was kneeling on the ground and repeatedly kowtowing, cursing her in words that made everyone deeply uncomfortable.
"Why is Yue Lin acting so arrogantly? Does he not know Twin Phoenix Tower's rules? He actually dares to cause trouble here."
"You don't know the whole story. Yue Lin is not only the number one student of Cangyun Academy, but his father, Yue Shan, is also the commander of the Qinglan Army—a proper general of the Cangyun Empire."
"And Twin Phoenix Tower is backed by the City Lord's Mansion. Those two forces have never gotten along, so that's why he dares to strut around here and flaunt his power."
"So that's how it is. Qinglan Army's troops are strong and its horses stout. I heard they have long been at odds with the City Lord's Mansion. It seems today's matter will not be easy to settle."
The crowd buzzed with discussion. Those able to gather here were all figures from Qinglan City's upper class. As they exchanged those hidden secrets, most of them came to understand that someone had deliberately come to make trouble for Twin Phoenix Tower today.
This was a clash between the city's two most powerful factions. Everyone fell silent as cicadas in winter. With Qinglan Sword Immortal Li Yubai absent from the city, the forces supported by the Cangyun Empire had become this brazen and lawless. No one dared to be the bird that stuck its head out at such a time.
A millennia-old Aristocratic Clan was best at choosing a good tree to roost in. It was still unknown who would be the deer and who the hunter; choosing sides too early was truly unwise.
"Hey! How can you be like this? This older sister has been apologizing to you nonstop. Why are you still insulting her like this? Didn't your parents teach you to treat others with courtesy?"
A clear, crisp voice rang out from the crowd. In an instant, the entire banquet hall fell silent, and everyone searched for the fearless person who dared to accuse Yue Lin like that.
A petite figure squeezed out from the crowd. Who else could it have been but Hao Xiaomeng? She pouted, planted both hands on her hips, and stared straight at the tall Yue Lin in white.
"Where did this wild brat come from? What nonsense are you spouting? You even dare insult my parents? Have you grown tired of living?"
Yue Lin was also somewhat stunned by Hao Xiaomeng's righteous words. As a young master of the Yue Family, he had always been surrounded by admirers wherever he went. No one had ever dared defy him.
Today, he had come with his academy classmates to celebrate his twentieth birthday, only for a maid to splash wine all over him for no reason. His mood had instantly soured.
Then he thought of how his father, a dignified imperial general, had been suppressed by the City Lord's Mansion for years. Twin Phoenix Tower happened to be an enterprise the City Lord's Mansion had always supported, so anger rose in his heart and would not go away.
That was why he had been so relentless just now.
Yue Lin had originally only intended to vent his anger and make Twin Phoenix Tower pay some compensation before ending the matter. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected some little girl to appear and point at him while scolding him.
She had even said that his parents had failed to teach him properly. His blood rushed to his head, and he could no longer restrain the fury in his heart.
He swung out his right hand and slapped directly at Hao Xiaomeng. The strike drew startled cries from everyone present. They had not expected Yue Lin to be so utterly lawless that he would dare attack someone publicly within Twin Phoenix Tower.
And the one he was hitting was only a child.
Yet Hao Xiaomeng was no ordinary little girl. Being admitted to Qinglan Academy at eleven could not be explained merely by an Aristocratic Clan background.
Having watched her brother practice his fists since childhood, Hao Xiaomeng had gradually revealed astonishing talent in cultivation. At eleven, she could already perform the third form of the Dragon Tiger Fighting Saint Fist.
In that flash of lightning and spark of flint, Hao Xiaomeng raised her left hand and blocked Yue Lin's enraged palm. Although she stopped the blow, her body had not yet fully developed.
The tremendous force of the palm sent Hao Xiaomeng staggering back five steps, and her snow-white, tender arm immediately reddened and swelled.
At that moment, Li Mu and Hao Meng also arrived. The two landed before and behind Hao Xiaomeng, and boundless fury surged from them.
Someone had injured Xiaomeng right beneath their eyes. That had completely touched their reverse scales.
"Senior Yue, it's them! Li Mu and Hao Meng from Qinglan Academy. That little girl is Hao Meng's sister. When I came earlier, they beat me up in public and even said there wasn't a single person in Cangyun Academy who could fight."
Someone suddenly darted out from the crowd behind Yue Lin. It was the black-robed youth who had clashed with Li Mu and the others earlier. Enemies meeting again made their eyes blaze red with hatred, and he hurried forward to complain to Yue Lin.
"Oh? Li Mu and Hao Meng? Qinglan City's two famous trash have gathered together now? Qinglan Academy truly is an academy that only accepts garbage. It even takes in useless people like you."
"Such an academy is truly the disgrace of our empire."
After hearing the black-robed youth's account, Yue Lin looked at Li Mu's group with increasing amusement. He had not expected to encounter students from Qinglan Academy, his greatest rival, today—and the two greatest wastes among them.
Although he was Cangyun Academy's number one student and had reached the Half-step Core Formation Realm, he had no certainty of victory if he truly faced Qinglan Academy's top experts, people like Liu Yu.
But the two before him were different. One was a famous wastrel who had not cultivated for ten years, while the other was trash whose cultivation had stagnated for five years and who had been expelled from Qinglan Academy's Heaven Tier Class.
Thinking of this, Yue Lin began to feel fortunate that his luck was so good. Today, before so many Qinglan City dignitaries, he could cleanly defeat these two.
Cangyun Academy's reputation would surely crush Qinglan Academy completely.
"You're Hao Meng, right? Your sister publicly insulted my father just now, an imperial general. According to imperial law, she should be thrown into prison."
"Seeing that she is still young, I'll give her a chance. If she kneels before me in public and kowtows three times today, I will let her go. How about it?"
Yue Lin's words left Li Mu with a face full of black lines. How had these students standardized by Cangyun Academy been trained to use exactly the same method when showing off?
They always held their noses to the sky and demanded that others kneel and kowtow. They did not even have the slightest creativity. It was truly unbearable to watch.
"You want my sister to kneel and admit her mistake? I'm afraid you are far from qualified."
Hao Meng knew Yue Lin's identity. As Cangyun Academy's number one student, Yue Lin had always been a target of attention for all Qinglan Academy students.
If it had been in the past, Hao Meng might have needed to treat him with caution. But now, he and Yue Lin were no longer on the same level. Just as an elephant looked down upon an ant, how could he possibly take Yue Lin to heart?
Seeing Hao Meng's expression, as though he did not regard him at all, Yue Lin's anger finally reached its peak. No longer caring about Twin Phoenix Tower's rules, he directly threw a punch at Hao Meng.
Yue Lin used seventy percent of his strength in that punch. As its force tore through the air, it set off bursts of explosive booms.
Its terrifying power forced all the onlookers to retreat. Even the manager who had been anxiously trying to stop them stumbled and fell straight to the floor.
On the scene, only Li Mu and Hao Xiaomeng paid no attention to the battle that everyone else considered evenly matched. Li Mu was holding Hao Xiaomeng's injured left arm and examining it carefully.
After confirming that it was only a superficial wound, Li Mu finally let out a long breath. Yet he still blamed himself. He had brought Xiaomeng to Twin Phoenix Tower, but had failed to watch over her and allowed her to be injured. He truly should not have done so.
Meanwhile, Yue Lin's fist had already reached Hao Meng's face.
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