The wedding night (Part one) (1 / 2)

The System Sprite's voice did not distract Chen Yang for long. After only a second, he returned to normal and drained his wine in one gulp.

"You can certainly hold your liquor!" Jia Xingtian also drained the Jade Nectar in his cup, then turned it upside down in front of Chen Yang.

With Jia Xingtian setting a good example, Mittel Tengshan and the others came over one after another to cozy up to Chen Yang and leave a good impression.

"Brother Chen Yang, congratulations on your marriage!"

"Here's my wedding gift."

Fa Ma, president of the Alchemist Association, was the last to come forward and curry favor.

With his unremarkable looks and an alchemy furnace perched on his head, he was the first among them to offer a wedding gift, hoping to leave Chen Yang with a good impression.

As president of the Alchemist Association, Fa Ma offered an exceptionally generous wedding gift: a full thousand medicinal pills.

The pills came in a wide variety, ranging from first to fifth tier.

Chen Yang accepted Fa Ma's wedding gift and casually tossed it to Yun Shan without even looking.

The Storage Ring containing a thousand pills sailed in an arc from Chen Yang's hand into Yun Shan's.

Yun Shan steadily caught the flying Storage Ring. Then, with a faint smile and a turn of his hand, he took out the ledger hidden beneath his sleeve and personally recorded Fa Ma's wedding gift.

Seeing Fa Ma offer a thousand pills as a wedding gift, everyone was astonished by his lavish spending.

Yet when they saw that even this had failed to catch Chen Yang's eye, they could not help exchanging glances.

To make a favorable impression, they gritted their teeth and took out the wedding gifts they had prepared beforehand.

However, they added some real estate or cooperation agreements that would bring long-term benefits to their original gifts.

For example, the Jia Ma Imperial Family's wedding gift to Chen Yang and Yun Yun was to confer upon Chen Yang the imperial title of Peerless Prince, build a Throne in the imperial capital with ten thousand mu of land, and honor the Misty Cloud Sect as the Nation-Guarding Divine Sect.

The Mittel Family simply offered cold, hard cash, along with a ten-percent stake in the Mittel Auction House for Chen Yang. They also invested a vast sum in developing the area around the Misty Cloud Sect and building palaces for its disciples to live in.

The Mu Family and Nalan Family lacked the resources of the Jia Ma Imperial Family and Mittel Family, so their wedding gifts were not as lavish, though they were still quite substantial.

Fa Ma could only watch as those four old foxes—Jia Xingtian, Mittel Tengshan, Nalan Jie, and the Mu Family's patriarch—learned from his example and secretly raised their wedding gifts, thoroughly outdoing him to win Chen Yang's favor. He ground his teeth in anger, his lips drawing back slightly.

In the end, to keep his wedding gift from looking too paltry and making others look down on his Alchemist Association, he had no choice but to add to it.

Gritting his teeth, Fa Ma took a contract out of his Storage Ring.

As he looked at the contract, a trace of pained reluctance flashed across his round, wrinkled old face.

One could not snare a wolf without sacrificing a child.

To make a favorable impression on Chen Yang, he was ready to throw caution to the wind.

"Brother Yun Shan, my Alchemist Association would like to add to its wedding gift.

One additional contract."

Holding the contract, Fa Ma signed his name, bit his thumb, and pressed a bloody thumbprint over his signature.

The contract stipulated that the Alchemist Association would enter into long-term cooperation with the Misty Cloud Sect. For the next twenty years, it would supply the sect with one thousand pills free of charge every month. Any pills the Misty Cloud Sect purchased from the Alchemist Association would be sold at cost, with the association taking no profit.

Yun Shan accepted Fa Ma's contract and was instantly shocked, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

According to the terms of this contract, the Alchemist Association would truly be hemorrhaging blood.

And that blood would be pouring straight from a major artery.

"Hiss!"

Yun Shan could not help drawing in a sharp breath, his emotions surging wildly.

The Misty Cloud Sect was going to strike it rich!

Yun Shan's hands trembled, his thoughts surging like the tide.

Ever since the death of its founding patriarch, Yun Potian, the Misty Cloud Sect had gradually declined. Every successive sect master had exhausted every means to restore the glory the sect had enjoyed in Yun Potian's time.

Yet not one had succeeded.

Even he, who had devoted more than half his life to the Misty Cloud Sect, had fared no better.

Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that the opportunity for the Misty Cloud Sect's revival would hinge upon Yun Yun's marriage.

This was the happiest day of Yun Shan's entire life.

Now that he could see hope for the Misty Cloud Sect's rise, his obsession with breaking through to Dou Zong weakened.

He had sought to reach Dou Zong for the Misty Cloud Sect. Now that the sect was moving in the right direction and had boarded the great ship that was Chen Yang, it no longer mattered whether he made that breakthrough.

Having toiled for the Misty Cloud Sect for more than half his life, it was time for him to retire.

At that moment, Yun Shan's thoughts gradually became clear.

After retiring, he would enjoy his remaining years properly and, if he had the chance, help Yun Yun look after her children.

He would get a taste of being a grandfather in the secular world.

After an afternoon of socializing, midnight gradually approached. By then, Chen Yang had been plied with enough wine to feel slightly tipsy, and he swayed noticeably as he walked.

Even so, Jia Xingtian and the others still had no intention of letting him go. They kept pouring him wine, seemingly determined not to let him return to the bridal chamber so early.

How could Chen Yang fail to see what they were up to? He simply went along with them.

Since they loved plying him with wine, he would let them.

Although he seemed unable to hold his liquor, drinking every last one of them under the table would be no trouble at all.

After several more large bowls of potent Jade Nectar, Jia Xingtian and his companions finally could not take any more.

They lay sprawled every which way on the floor, yet even then, they still clutched their wine bottles, eager to keep drinking.

Since this was a joyous occasion, everyone in the Misty Cloud Sect, from elders and disciples to menial servants, drank to their hearts' content.

The entire Misty Cloud Sect was drunk, having all but lost its ability to fight.

If another faction attacked its gates now, it could take the Misty Cloud Sect without expending so much as the effort needed to blow away dust.

Of course, all of that rested on one condition: Chen Yang would have to stand aside with his hands tucked into his sleeves.

After drinking all the family heads who had come to offer their congratulations under the table, Chen Yang staggered drunkenly out of the main hall toward the bridal chamber.

Along the way, he looked as though he might bump into any number of things.

After leaving the main hall, Chen Yang, who had looked thoroughly drunk just a second earlier, suddenly regained clarity in his eyes and stood with his back straight.

With a thought, the Dou Qi within him surged, spilling out of his body as though it had taken solid form.

His five fingers formed a complex seal as he murmured, "The thirty-fourth art of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Stems Treasure Art: Complete Erasure!"

Complete Erasure, the thirty-fourth art of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Stems Treasure Art, could instantly remove any negative effects currently afflicting the body.

The moment the seal formed, it entered Chen Yang's body.

The drunkenness brought on by the alcohol vanished at once.

His hazy eyes became completely clear. Looking up at the red lanterns lining both sides of the corridor, Chen Yang gave a wicked smile.

The game was over. Next came the candlelit wedding night.

As the saying went, seeing one's name on the golden list and a candlelit wedding night were life's greatest joys.