The group walked along the still-unfinished blue-stone corridor and entered the Star Pavilion's main hall, which was still under construction. The beams and pillars had taken shape, though their decorations had yet to be carved. Simple blue stone slabs covered the floor, and the seats on either side were temporary furnishings made from thousand-year-old spirit wood. The hall lacked extravagance, but it had a certain weighty, old-fashioned dignity.
Yun Ce led Jiang Li and Hou Fei to seats on the east side, then took his own place in the host's seat. His dark pavilion-master's robe made his figure look even more upright. A steady presence quietly emanated from him, though he deliberately held back some of his imposing aura, afraid of disturbing this Divine Realm guest who was "playing the pig to eat the tiger." Qin Yu and Black Feather stood on either side of the host's seat, while Azure Dragon, Three-Eyed Old Demon, and the other guardians sat below them. The guards in the hall stood with their heads bowed beside the doors.
For a moment, an awkward silence settled over the hall, and no one spoke first. Azure Dragon, Three-Eyed Old Demon, Black Feather, and the others kept glancing at Jiang Li, their eyes full of curiosity and uncertainty. They were all highly accomplished cultivators with keen eyes. How could they fail to notice that something was amiss? Yun Ce was at the peak of the late Emptiness Realm and now ruled over hundreds of millions of miles of ocean. He had a lofty status, yet he treated a young woman in blue who appeared to be only at the Golden Core Mid Stage with such courtesy that he had even gone out to welcome her personally. Even old monsters at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage might not receive