"What a grand entrance!" A sharp voice suddenly rang out from the sky—but no, not from the sky. A white cloud drifted down. Half-hidden within it was a strange carriage with a frame of fine jade and panels of icy crystal. Unless one looked closely, it was almost impossible to spot.
Someone below said, "Fairy Hua has arrived."
The clouds parted, revealing a fairy in palace robes seated upright in the carriage, her hair coiled like clouds and her gown made of gauze as light as water. She was understated and elegant, with a nobility all her own. Among the Immortal Realm's nine great Aristocratic Clans, the Clear Xiang Aristocratic Clan was the only one headed by women, generation after generation. Fairy Hua Shiwei was its current young mistress. Before she married, her beauty had been famed far and wide, even more so than Yun Xi's. In recent years, she had kept a low profile, staying home with her husband and children and rarely showing her face, so her fame had faded. Why had she chosen to appear now? The Clear Xiang Aristocratic Clan's Pale Cloud Technique was widely acknowledged as the Immortal Realm's foremost secret movement art. With a skill like that, no wonder Qi Ren had named her one of the five favorites to win.
Qian Tianbo had spent considerable effort arranging his spectacular entrance, but before he could savor it, Hua Shiwei stole the spotlight and gave him a scolding besides. He was deeply displeased. Yet Hua Shiwei was nominally his elder by a generation, and he could hardly argue with her in public without inviting accusations of disrespect.
The eight Southern Bright Separation Fire Pearls he had gone to such lengths to obtain spun through the air and sank into the heads of the Eight Steeds.