After a brief exchange, Xinhai followed Diska through the crowd toward the main table.
Wherever they passed, the crowd automatically parted to form a passage. The young men and women all turned their eyes toward Xinhai, their gazes carrying all manner of meaning—curiosity, scrutiny, speculation, and even a faint, barely noticeable trace of jealousy.
After all, there were only a handful of people in this banquet hall whom the eldest son of the Dicolik Family would personally go out to greet.
What was more, the person being escorted over was wearing a dark gray explorer's outfit that was completely out of place for the occasion.
No suit, no tie, no carefully styled hair, not even the most basic accessories.
He simply wore that explorer's outfit and a pair of somewhat worn tactical boots as he strode openly through the banquet hall's deep crimson carpet, walking among guests in custom formalwear and dazzling jewelry.
Such a contrast was impossible to ignore.
Xinhai could feel those gazes falling on him—some curious, some appraising, some tinged with a little disdain.
But he did not feel awkward because of them, nor did he think himself beneath anyone just because he wore an explorer's outfit.
Clothes were worn for oneself, not for others. As long as he felt comfortable and was not being disrespectful, there was no problem.
His steps remained steady, his back straight, and his eyes fixed ahead. He neither deliberately avoided those stares nor deliberately responded to them, simply following Diska forward with natural composure.
That composure was not feigned calmness, but a confidence that seeped from his bones, something earned only after weathering real storms.
He had faced Gym-level poachers alone in Nature Domain, received the baptism of life energy in the Lizard King clan's territory, and undergone a qualitative transformation