As they pushed open the Rose Hotel's heavy wooden door inlaid with colored glass, a warm breeze laden with rich rose fragrance and expensive incense washed over them.
The lobby's decor was lavish, with an intimate air.
The entire lobby was circular, capped by a domed ceiling.
Thick red velvet carpet covered the floor, swallowing every footstep.
The pillars around them were all carved with patterns of flowering vines twining in an embrace.
Soft pink light from crystal lamps spilled down from the ceiling, bathing the spacious room in a dreamlike glow.
"Wow... it's so pretty here, Brother Su Chen!!"
Xiao Wu's large, bright eyes darted everywhere as she clung tightly to Su Chen's arm, almost leaning half her body against his side.
Su Chen had protected and cared for her all the way from Nuoding City to Suotuo City, but the long journey had still been tiring.
Now that she saw such a charming setting, most of the weariness in the girl's heart instantly melted away.
Su Chen's expression remained calm, a faint smile hovering at the corners of his lips.
He raised a hand and rubbed Xiao Wu's little head, his voice gentle. "Tired? We'll rest here tonight."
The two walked side by side to the marble front desk carved with intricate patterns. Behind the counter, an attendant had been idly sorting account books. Hearing them approach, he looked up-and stared.
The white-clad youth before him stood as straight and tall as a pine, his features strikingly handsome. A quiet, aristocratic air of authority surrounded him. The girl in a pink dress nestled beside him was exquisitely pretty, with a graceful, slender figure and a charming liveliness in her face.
Such outstanding bearing was rare even in Suotuo City, where dignitaries and nobles gathered in droves.
"Welcome to the Rose Hotel, honored guests." The attendant hurriedly put on a respectful, professional smile and bowed. "Will you be dining or staying with us? Do you have a reservation?"
"We're staying." Su Chen casually took a Gold Soul Coin from inside his clothes and set it on the counter. "Your finest suite."
The attendant picked up the Gold Soul Coin and weighed it in his palm, his smile growing more attentive.
He hurriedly opened the mahogany register and checked it for a moment, his face wreathed in smiles.
"Sir, you're in wonderful luck! Our finest luxury suite, the Red Ocean, has just become available. It's the only room in the hotel with a private rose hot spring and an open-air garden. I'll check you both in for tonight."
As he spoke, the attendant picked up a specially made brass key and prepared to check Su Chen in.
Just as his pen was about to touch the parchment, an arrogant, slightly hoarse male voice suddenly thundered from the hotel's revolving entrance...
"Hold it! I'm taking the Red Ocean!"
Before his words had faded, heavy, swaggering footsteps entered the quiet lobby, accompanied by women's coquettish laughter.
Su Chen's brow lifted slightly. Without even turning his head, a trace of cold mockery flashed through his eyes. What was bound to come had finally arrived.
Three figures strode over from the entrance. The youth leading them looked about fifteen or sixteen, yet stood well over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and a particularly powerful build. His dazzling golden hair fell straight to his waist, and his handsome face carried a cold, domineering, sinister air.
Most striking were his deep eyes, glinting with an uncanny light. They were a rare pair of double-pupiled eyes, each iris bearing two pupils, with a bloodthirsty gleam faintly showing whenever his eyelids moved.
On either side of the blond youth nestled a pair of stunning twins in revealing gauze dresses. Both girls had voluptuous, alluring figures and clung coyly to his arms.
Their eyes were hazy as they rubbed half their bodies against his chest, repeatedly calling him "Young Master Dai."
The moment the attendant at the front desk saw him, his face turned deathly pale, and cold sweat sprang out at his temples.
Who working in Suotuo City's pleasure establishments did not know this womanizing, overbearing Young Master Dai?
He was a powerful Soul Master who would throw punches at the slightest provocation!
"Y-Young Master Dai, what brings you here today?" The attendant forced a trembling smile, looking deeply embarrassed. "Unfortunately, this honored guest has already paid the deposit for the Red Ocean, and I was just about to register him. Perhaps... I could arrange our next-best Pink Romance Suite for you?"
"Another room?"
Dai Mubai sneered, tightening his arms slightly around the twin girls as he strode straight to the front desk.
"Who in Suotuo City doesn't know that the Red Ocean on the Rose Hotel's top floor is my exclusive suite? I stay there every time I come. Is this your first day on the job?"
The attendant's legs shook with fright as he pleaded repeatedly, "Please calm down, Young Master Dai, please calm down... but this guest really did arrive first. Our hotel's rules..."
"Rules? In Suotuo City, my fists are the rules!"
Dai Mubai snorted coldly and turned around.
His gaze swept over Xiao Wu's delicate, stunning face and her slender, shapely figure, and an instinctive flash of admiration and lust passed through his eyes.
But when his gaze landed on Su Chen, who remained calm and treated him as though he did not exist, an inexplicable fury flared in his heart.
He was used to throwing his weight around in Suotuo City.
Whenever ordinary young nobles saw those distinctive sinister eyes of his, which of them did not retreat three full paces in fear?
Yet this white-clad youth, who showed no sign of soul power emanating from him, had not even spared him a proper glance.
Such near-total disregard felt like an enormous provocation to the perpetually conceited Dai Mubai.
Dai Mubai casually fished a Gold Soul Coin from the brocade pouch at his waist and tossed it onto the floor at Su Chen's feet.
The Gold Soul Coin struck the gleaming floor tiles with a crisp clink and rolled to Su Chen's shoe.
"Kid, you're young, and taking a little girl so far from home can't be easy." Dai Mubai lifted his chin, an arrogant, condescending sneer curling his lips. "Take that gold coin. It'll cover ten days or a fortnight at an ordinary inn. Give me the Red Ocean, take your girl, and get out!"
Behind the counter, the attendant held his breath in terror. The twin sisters covered their mouths and giggled, as though they could already picture the young pair retreating in flustered humiliation.
Faced with Dai Mubai's blatant humiliation and demand that he leave, Su Chen merely lowered his head and glanced at the little golden disc beside his foot.
"Pfft..."
Xiao Wu could not help laughing, her lively eyes filled with disgust and contempt. "Brother Su Chen, where did this stray cat crawl out from? He reeks of cheap perfume and powder, and his mouth stinks just as badly!"
"Little girl, what did you say?" Dai Mubai's face abruptly darkened, and an icy gleam burst from his double pupils.
"Xiao Wu is right."
Su Chen finally turned around.
"A stray dog that fled the Star Luo Imperial Family, hiding among the painted women of the Balak Kingdom's brothels to cling to its last breath-and now you dare bark before me?"
Boom!
That single, simple sentence exploded in Dai Mubai's mind like a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
The Star Luo Imperial Family! A stray dog! Those two phrases were like a red-hot blade, forcibly slicing open the scar buried deepest in Dai Mubai's heart-the one he found most shameful, feared most, and desperately wanted to conceal!
Back in the Star Luo Empire, his elder brother Dai Weisi had utterly crushed him in the brutal, bloody struggle for the throne. Overwhelmed by despair and terror, he had fled like a stray dog to Suotuo City in the Heaven Dou Empire.
For the past six years, he had spent every day frequenting pleasure houses and drowning himself in wine and women, using debauchery to numb his own helplessness and cowardice.
This was Dai Mubai's greatest forbidden scale, the one no one dared touch, yet a youth he had never met had exposed it with a single sentence in front of everyone.
"You're courting death!"
Before you continue