A slap?
Before the eyes of all, Hua Zhiyao, Yunshan's envoy, had slapped Yue Gongli, heir to the Cold Palace Imperial Realm?
"He's got the gall of a dog!"
The reception hall erupted into instant chaos.
The maidservants were horrified. Some dropped the jade platters of pastries they carried; others could not even hold onto their pipa, which clattered to the floor.
It had plainly been nothing more than an unadorned slap.
There had not been the slightest ripple of Saint Power. Yet it landed on Yue Gongli's unprepared cheek and successfully knocked Young Master Li back.
Its force, its impact, clearly had not been all that great—yet it sent everyone in the hall retreating more than ten paces.
The only one who did not retreat was Yue Gongkui.
He stood there blankly, staring at Young Master Li clutching his face in disbelief, then at Hua Zhiyao, who remained calm even after delivering the slap.
Yue Gongkui had turned to stone.
At that moment, Hua Zhiyao's earlier expression of facing death without flinching, along with his request to be granted death, echoed in his mind once more.
At last, he understood.
There were some things one simply could not hear, because one could not bear them.
And there were some people that, even if one wanted to protect them and staked one's life on it, one still probably could not save.
"So this is how he meant to die..."
Yue Gongkui's head buzzed. Putting himself in Hua Zhiyao's place, if Young Master Li had ordered him to go as an envoy to the Cloud Mountain Emperor Realm, trick Hua Changdeng down from his seat, and slap him before everyone...
He could not think any further.
A chill ran through him. He could not imagine how much courage Hua Zhiyao must