But to Su Chen, how outstanding Ye Xuan was did not matter. What mattered was that he was a young master of the Ye Family's direct bloodline in Clear River City.
And in his previous life, there had been an old score between Su Chen and the Ye Family that had yet to be settled.
Su Chen narrowed his eyes slightly, and a sharp gleam seemed to flash through them, but only for an instant. A moment later, they returned to their previous stillness, as calm as an ancient well.
After Ye Xuan spoke, everyone present stopped focusing on Su Chen.
Just then, the food and wine arrived.
An exquisite array of dishes filled the table. Every one was a rare delicacy unavailable elsewhere, every one worth a small fortune. Perfect in color, aroma, and flavor, they looked like works of art and made everyone's mouths water.
By the time all the dishes had arrived, everyone was already impatient to begin. They picked up their chopsticks and dug in, praising the food after every bite.
Wang Bingyan was all smiles. She had begged the head of the Wang Family for ages before he finally agreed to approve this banquet in a Human-Class Private Room at the Drunken Immortal Residence.
After all, they were only sixteen- or seventeen-year-old youths. Only a Lineage like the Wang Family, whose wealth ranked among the greatest in Clear River City, could allow its younger members to spend so lavishly.
Her alluring eyes shifted toward Su Chen, who sat nearby. To her surprise, he had been sitting there with an indifferent expression the entire time. He had not so much as touched his chopsticks, much less tasted any of the food on the table.
"Hey, Jiang Tingyi, why isn't your cousin eating?" Wang Bingyan asked mockingly. Naturally, she would never believe that Su Chen looked down on this food. She simply assumed he had never seen such exquisite dishes before and did not dare reach for them.
Jiang Tingyi felt embarrassed. Under the table, her small hand pinched Su Chen as she said, exasperated at his failure to measure up, "Go on, eat. What are you afraid of?"
In truth, Su Chen was not refusing to eat; he simply had little appetite. He had once been the exalted Pill Emperor of the Pill Domain. His daily meals consisted of delicacies rarely seen in this world, such as true dragon meat from the Eastern Sea and ten-thousand-year snow mountain fruit. They had to undergo eighty-one meticulous stages of preparation before reaching his table. How could the food and wine of an inn in a small city possibly catch his eye?
Only after hearing Jiang Tingyi urge him to eat did Su Chen leisurely pick up his chopsticks and taste the dish closest to him.
"How is it, Brother Su? Are the Drunken Immortal Residence's food and wine to your liking?" This time, the speaker was a fair-skinned youth with narrow eyes. He followed his words with a mocking smile. "Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Wang Teng, a member of the Wang Family."
Wang Teng-how could Su Chen possibly not know him?
He was Wang Bingyan's devoted suitor. Although they belonged to the same clan, their blood relationship was very distant.
To be fair, he was quite talented. At such a young age, he had already reached the seventh stage of the Qi-Attraction Realm. Even in the Orthodox Unity Sect, he would have ranked among the finest of the younger generation.
Although Wang Bingyan barely acknowledged him and devoted her heart entirely to Ye Xuan, Wang Teng never tired of pursuing her.
Speaking of which, Wang Teng deserved considerable credit for how miserable Su Chen's previous life in Clear River City had been. Because Su Chen was Jiang Tingyi's cousin, Wang Bingyan constantly compared him with Wang Teng, making the Su Chen of his previous life seem utterly worthless. Wang Teng was also eager to show off before the girl he loved. Whenever he had nothing better to do, he would stomp on Su Chen a few times, unwilling to stop until he had ground him into the mud.
Thus, in his previous life, Su Chen's most immediate enemy had actually been Wang Teng.
"It'll do," Su Chen said lightly. To him, this food was unbearably crude. The only reason he called it passable was to show Jiang Tingyi some consideration.
However-
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-to Wang Teng, those words were so amusing that he laughed on the spot. "It seems Brother Su is a man who's seen the world! There's just one thing I don't understand. How did someone of your stature get thrown out of his sect for stealing its pills?"
At those words, most of those present began snickering.
Jiang Tingyi said angrily, "You have no proof. Stop making things up."
She was beautiful, but in her anger she resembled a she-leopard. Several of the people laughing near her instinctively shrank back when they saw her expression.
Smack-
Making no attempt to conceal his mockery, Wang Teng set a wine pot before Su Chen. "Brother Su, you're our guest, so you might not know this custom of Clear River City. Whenever someone arrives here for the first time, we locals treat him to wine. This pot is a token of our goodwill. Go on, drink it!"
Another youth chimed in, "That's right. You have to finish every last drop to do justice to our goodwill!"
Su Chen swept his gaze over the wine pot. Seeing the words "Hundred-Day Drunkenness" engraved on its side, his eyes turned cold.
Naturally, he knew of Hundred-Day Drunkenness. It was a specialty wine of Clear River City. A single small cup would leave someone in the Qi-Attraction Realm dead drunk and unconscious. If someone drank an entire pot, even an expert in the Essence Condensation Realm could not withstand it and would certainly make a fool of himself on the spot.
He was currently at the eighth layer of the Qi-Attraction Realm. If he actually drank the entire pot, making a fool of himself would be the least of his worries. He might even die on the spot.
"What's wrong? Aren't you going to do me this favor, Brother Su?" Wang Teng wore a mocking half-smile.
Su Chen replied calmly, "Your dignity isn't worth a damn. If not for my cousin, I wouldn't have come at all."
"Hahaha..." Wang Teng seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world and rocked back and forth with laughter. "You? Who do you think you are? Do you think we begged you to come?"
"Brother Su." At that moment, Ye Xuan spoke from the seat of honor, his manner cultured and courteous. "You've come from afar and are our guest. Wang Teng means well. It would be rather improper to refuse his wine."
Did he? He meant well?
If someone who did not know the potency of Hundred-Day Drunkenness had said that, it would have been understandable. But everyone seated here, including Ye Xuan, had grown up in Clear River City. How could they not know that drinking a whole pot of Hundred-Day Drunkenness could kill someone?
Jiang Tingyi could not bear to listen any longer. She looked at Ye Xuan, disappointment in her eyes. So Ye Xuan was not as perfect as she had imagined, either.
Jiang Tingyi sprang to her feet. "We're not eating here anymore. Let's go home."
"Don't leave." Wang Teng wore a mocking half-smile. "I'm not deliberately trying to make things difficult for Brother Su. How about this? If you can't drink a whole pot, surely you can manage one cup. If you keep making excuses, you'll be refusing a toast only to drink a punishment."
From his tone, making Su Chen drink only one cup sounded like some enormous favor he was granting him.
But Su Chen knew that an ordinary Qi-Attraction Realm martial artist would immediately become dead drunk and unconscious after even one cup. Making a spectacle of himself would be inevitable.
Su Chen's eyes chilled slightly. Seeing Wang Teng approach him with the wine pot, he casually picked up a wooden chopstick from the table and hurled it at the pot in Wang Teng's hand.
Whoosh-
The next instant, an unbelievable scene unfolded.
The chopstick from Su Chen's hand shot like a sharp arrow straight through the wine pot Wang Teng was holding!
Then the wine pot shattered with a crack, and its nectar-like wine spilled all over the floor. But to Su Chen, how outstanding Ye Xuan was did not matter. What mattered was that he was a young master of the Ye Family's direct bloodline in Clear River City.
Then the wine pot shattered with a crack, and its nectar-like wine spilled all over the floor.
Before you continue