Great Xia's Twelve Handsome Men

"Fat Dragon."

"Mm."

"You've suffered these past few months."

"It was alright."

Fat Dragon shook his head, his expression unreadable. "I said long ago that only those who don't believe they can become strong someday would feel humiliated by kneeling yesterday."

"It doesn't matter."

"These setbacks are things I must go through on the road to becoming a great figure. This is the Heavenly Dao tempering me."

Chen Qiu nodded complicatedly and said nothing more. Fat Dragon truly had an excellent mindset. If an ordinary person had transmigrated and gone through such a string of fucked-up events, they would probably be mentally unstable by now. Yet when he had first met Fat Dragon—

Fat Dragon had actually still been in the mood to snatch his braised pig head meat.

He really was somewhat carefree and heartless.

"By the way—"

Chen Qiu looked toward the woman surrounded by several young men in the distance and frowned slightly. Those young men gave him a bad impression. They had Ma Yinxue tightly protected in their midst, their gazes toward the other men around them brimming with hostility.

As though they feared a few more love rivals might suddenly emerge.

"What is Ma Yinxue's Beauty effect?"

"She can make her husband favored by the Heavenly Dao, allowing her husband to raise his cultivation by three minor realms within the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm while ignoring the realm's restrictions, and randomly obtain two temporary traits."

"Understood."

Chen Qiu nodded thoughtfully. "There's only a Beauty Ranking, no Handsome Men Ranking?"

"There is no Handsome Men Ranking."

"The Beauty Ranking includes men. According to intelligence I obtained some time ago, there are twelve men on the Beauty Ranking. These men are also Heavenly Dao Beauties, but the Beauty Ranking updates in real time, so I don't know whether there are still twelve now."

"If someone is fortunate enough to become a Heavenly Dao Beauty, they basically won't fall off the ranking unless they die. Then a new Heavenly Dao Beauty will take their place."

"Those men are also surrounded by flocks of beauties. These twelve men are called Great Xia's Twelve Handsome Men."

"Of course, behind their backs, everyone calls them Great Xia's Twelve Public Studs."

Just then—

Ma Yinxue in the crowd suddenly noticed Chen Qiu and Fat Dragon standing beneath a pine tree off to the side. The corners of her lips lifted slightly. No one knew what she had thought of, but with a light sweep of her sleeve, she slowly walked toward Fat Dragon.

The few flower-protecting guards at her side followed closely behind, their faces full of vigilance like proper household servants.

Almost everyone's gaze fell upon this delicate woman in a pink gown, and Ma Yinxue seemed to enjoy the sensation of being watched by all.

"She seems to be coming toward you. From the look of it, she doesn't seem to be here to catch up with you."

Chen Qiu looked at Ma Yinxue as she approached them and spoke quietly.

"Mm."

Fat Dragon nodded, his voice somewhat hoarse. "If she mocks me later and I curse her back, Brother Qiu, can you protect me?"

"You're that certain she'll mock you?"

"Mm. That's just her personality. Back when my company was doing fairly well in my previous life, she treated me quite well. But after the company's profits declined, her attitude made a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn."

"If it's just these few people, no problem. Curse her however you want, just don't insult everyone at once."

"If that many people come at me together, I can't beat them. Scholar and the others are still in Windward City, and it'll be hard for them to get away too."

"Understood. I know what to do."

"Long time no see, Fat Dragon."

With every step Ma Yinxue took, a plum blossom surfaced from the ground beneath her feet. She walked with an eye-catching, light catwalk to Fat Dragon's side, then raised her hand with a half-smile and lightly brushed it across Fat Dragon's cheek before finally resting it on his Adam's apple. Her voice was so syrupy it seemed ready to drip.

"The highest cultivation limit in this Heavenly Dao Secret Realm is Foundation Establishment Sixth Layer. You want to go in and try your luck too?"

"Tsk, you're still the same as before—addicted to gambling."

"Didn't I tell you back then that business couldn't be done? You insisted on doing it anyway. And what happened? Didn't you lose money? Why do you always think you're omnipotent, as though everything you do must be right?"

"Now that you're seeing me again, do you feel regret? If you had softened up and clung to me back then, instead of making me continue being your virtuous wife, perhaps you would now be qualified to stand among the people behind me."

Fat Dragon expressionlessly slapped Ma Yinxue's hand away and said coldly, "It's only been a few days. How did you become as slutty as a whore already?"

"Did you get fucked in the head? Did that fuck your brains to mush too?"

"."

Chen Qiu, who had been standing nearby smiling as he watched the fun and idly playing with a jade feather fan, suddenly felt the smile on his face slowly stiffen upon hearing Fat Dragon's words. He silently put the feather fan back into his storage ring and prepared himself to draw his blade and fight at any moment.

It seemed a fight was unavoidable today.

The people around them, who had been crowding in to watch the show, all tacitly scattered in every direction. The area beneath the pine tree, which had been rather crowded moments ago, suddenly became completely empty.

The venue has been left for you. The rest depends on your own performance.

Though the people had dispersed, every face was filled with gossip-hungry expressions. Gossip about a Heavenly Dao Beauty was simply impossible to hear enough of, much less fresh gossip.

The instant Fat Dragon finished speaking, the men standing behind Ma Yinxue drew their weapons from their robes with furious, twisted expressions and pointed them at Fat Dragon.

"Insolence!!!"

"Who gave you the nerve to speak to Sister Xue like that?"

"You're simply courting death!!!!"

"We haven't even held Sister Xue's hand! How dare you maliciously slander her and tarnish her reputation!"

Just as those men were about to charge forward in a blaze of rage and hack the foul-mouthed Fat Dragon to death on the spot, Ma Yinxue's face flashed with coldness. She waved a hand to stop the people behind her, then leaned close to Fat Dragon's ear and said, word by word,

"I once heard a saying—"

"A man's money isn't for a woman to spend. It's for a woman to see."

"I think it makes a great deal of sense."

"A woman's charm isn't for men to use. It's for men to gaze upon."

"As long as I don't choose a husband, everyone will want me. All these people can be used by me. And you? What do you have? I'll show you properly that my decisions have always been right. Men as arrogant and ignorant as you can only rage helplessly."

"Your heart will be filled with regret and resentment. After you wake up to reality, all you can do is face it again and continue hiding in a stinking gutter."

"Oh, right."

The woman took a step back and suddenly laughed. She took ten porcelain bottles from her storage ring and threw them before Fat Dragon. "These are the medicinal potions you gave me back then. I'm returning ten to you now."

"Didn't you say that you worked day and night as a laborer for more than ten days just to earn enough money for one bottle of that potion?"

"You had to bring it up every single day, as though you absolutely had to make me serve you like an ox and horse for the rest of my life over that potion. It was something worth only a few hundred coins. Did you intend to make me remember it for the rest of my life?"

"Are ten bottles enough to repay you?"

.