After admiring her own reflection for a while, Ye'e Mannali finally rose.
A maid hurried forward to support her, while another draped a thin silk robe over her shoulders.
"What time is it now? Has my lunch arrived?" Mannali asked casually.
At these words, the maids in the room all wore peculiar expressions mingled with horror, fear, and disgust.
"Y-your Majesty, it is already past noon. Those below have everything ready."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let us go and see." Ye'e Mannali paid no heed to the maids' reactions and spoke languidly.
Before long, she arrived in the courtyard outside.
More than a dozen blue-faced, fang-toothed yakshas stood solemnly on the bluestone paving. Beside them stood five humans with their hands bound behind their backs.
All of them were men. Their clothing and bearing suggested a wealthy merchant, a farmer, a Daoist, a scholar, and an official. Clearly, they had all been abducted from mortal kingdoms in the Spirit-Taming World.
The men had been terrified and uneasy, but when such an exquisitely alluring beauty suddenly emerged from this palace filled with blue-faced, fang-toothed yaksha fiends, they could not help staring in astonishment.
"Hehehe..." Ye'e Mannali licked her vivid red lips with her long, pointed scarlet tongue, drew closer, and examined them carefully.
Gently swaying her water-snake waist, she slowly asked under the five men's unwavering gazes, "Do you think I am beautiful?"
"Beautiful! Beautiful! My lady, you are as lovely as a heavenly immortal, without equal in the world-a beauty who could topple a city!" The middle-aged man who looked like an official reacted quickly and immediately agreed with her.
The wealthy merchant hurriedly added, "My lady, you are truly the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. To behold you is good fortune earned over three lifetimes."