The contingency Ya Fei had prepared was not complicated: a sleeping smoke capable of knocking out a Da Dou Shi without taking their life. She had concealed its mechanisms in various hidden corners of the auction house, with these VIP rooms on the second floor receiving particular attention.
Xia Kong had originally asked Ya Fei to gather this batch of sleeping smoke specifically to test the effects of his tier-three antidote cucumbers. Even the idea of hiding the poisonous smoke as a security measure had come from him. He and Ya Fei had installed everything personally; even trusted aides such as Xiao Qin only knew the mechanisms existed, not what would happen once they were activated. Their sole intention had been to guard against powerful people attempting to plunder their tier-two spiritual plants during sales. They had not deliberately targeted Wutan City's three great clans or the city lord's estate. It was simply a precaution.
"To think these preparations, meant to guard against outside enemies, would have to be used on our own people today."
Ya Fei murmured under her breath and gave a cold laugh, about to signal the trusted aide she had stationed in advance to activate the mechanisms. The locations she and Xia Kong had planned were dense enough that, once triggered, the sleeping smoke would envelop the entire auction house in moments.
But at that very instant, a clear, piercing eagle cry thundered toward them from the distance!
A fierce wind swept down, setting the silks hanging inside the auction house flapping noisily and scattering the neatly arranged orange-red wisps of hair across Ya Fei's forehead.
Everyone on both sides of the confrontation in the corridor was startled by the sudden commotion and turned to look outside.
An enormous tier-two Blue Eagle with brilliantly colored feathers circled steadily above the Mittel Auction House's rear courtyard. A formidable aura capable of rivaling a Dou Shi radiated from the eagle's body, bearing down with relentless pressure on many of those below that rank. Yet what shocked everyone even more was the young man and young woman standing side by side on the giant eagle's broad back. Both possessed graceful bearing and striking beauty, one fresh and upright as a pine, the other ethereal as a spirit beneath the moon.
Xia Kong had seldom appeared in public during his time in Wutan City, but many of Ya Fei's trusted aides recognized him. They had even witnessed him storm the Spring Breeze Pavilion alone and kill the seven-star Dou Shi Aoba Kui.
Once they recognized the young man's face in the sky, the aides' taut nerves abruptly relaxed. The great stone weighing on their hearts fell away, and relieved smiles appeared on their faces. They looked toward Lei Le's group with keen interest, their resolve to face death instantly turning into the ease of spectators settling in for a show.
This young man, whom everyone had long regarded as Ya Fei's beloved, had not been seen for merely a month, yet he had already subdued such a powerful flying magic beast as his mount. Just how far had his own cultivation advanced? Dealing with the three-star Great Dou Master before them should presumably pose no problem.
At the entrance to the private room, Xiao Yan and Yao Lao, who was inside his ring, also recognized Xia Kong. He was the young man who had sat calmly behind Ya Fei at the Xiao Clan's coming-of-age ceremony.
"Damn, that's so fucking cool! Someday I'm going to tame a flying magic beast as my mount too!"
Xiao Yan gazed at Xia Kong's remarkable figure in the sky, with the otherworldly Xiao Yi Xian beside him, and could not suppress the envy filling his heart.
"His soul power is already approaching the late Mortal Realm? What kind of monster is this boy?" Yao Lao's voice rang in Xiao Yan's mind, tinged with wonder. "Unfortunately, his Dou Qi leans toward the wood attribute, making him ill-suited to refining medicine. Unless he can find a wood-based heavenly flame and turn that surging vitality into fierce fire. Only then could he achieve twice the results with half the effort in alchemy."
At their previous meeting, Yao Lao had already marveled at Xia Kong's extraordinary soul power. Back then, he had only just entered the middle Mortal Realm. In little more than a month, he had crossed a gulf in cultivation that took others years, even decades. No wonder Yao Lao was so astonished.
Hearing the admiration in his teacher's voice, Xiao Yan could not contain his curiosity and asked inwardly, "Teacher, what is a Mortal Realm soul? Didn't you say my soul talent was outstanding too? What level am I at now?"
"Your innate soul power is indeed more than twice that of an ordinary person, but compared with this young man surnamed Xia, you still fall far short. You are only at the early Mortal Realm, with a considerable hurdle still separating you from the middle stage. Do not let impatience take root."
Learning that the spiritual strength he had always taken pride in still lagged far behind Xia Kong's, Xiao Yan could not help feeling a measure of jealousy and resentment.
"Teacher, I've advanced two stars in succession over this past month or so. Surely he can't have outdone me there. Besides, what is his cultivation now? I can't see through him at all anymore."
"Heh, you've guessed wrong again. This boy is already an eight-star Dou Shi. From six stars to eight-his cultivation progress over this month is not the slightest bit inferior to yours."
After hearing Yao Lao's assessment, Xiao Yan felt as though the other young man had surpassed him in every respect. His head drooped in dejection, and a trace of aggrieved resentment entered his gaze as he looked up at Xia Kong.
If Heaven had already brought forth Zhou Yu, why bring forth Zhuge Liang as well? With someone so dazzling around, he seemed all the more like the cripple he had once been.
Still, the fact that Xiao Yan could keep these laments within his heart showed just how much he had benefited from the temperament forged during those three years as a cripple.
Xia Kong had long since sensed Yao Lao's subtle soul probe and caught Xiao Yan's gaze, laden with conflicting emotions. But he had no time to spare for either of them now. All his attention rested on Ya Fei.
Her gaze mingled the joy of reunion after a long separation with the flutter of seeing someone she could rely on in a moment of peril, yet also held a faint sorrow at finding another beauty beside him. A thousand tangled feelings lay within it, too complex for words.
Xia Kong also knew that, in matters of the heart, he could hardly avoid falling short of what he owed her. Even so, he met Ya Fei's eyes openly.
It was not indifference, much less a lack of concern. Quite the opposite-he cared far too deeply.
Sensing that the sincerity in Xia Kong's eyes had neither faded with time nor diminished because someone else had appeared at his side, Ya Fei quietly set her anxious heart at ease. A faint smile returned to her lips, and she gave Xiao Yi Xian, standing on the Blue Eagle's back, a polite nod of greeting.
As far as Ya Fei was concerned, Xia Kong bringing back other women was something she had long anticipated and mentally prepared herself for. Besides, such customs were commonplace on this continent, so accepting it was not particularly difficult.
Meanwhile, when Xiao Yi Xian had agreed to return to Wutan City with Xia Kong, she had harbored a few small ulterior motives of her own. She wanted to see just what sort of woman this Ya Fei he spoke of was, and she also had a slight urge to get back at him for his earlier forcefulness, which had left her no room to choose. In short, Xiao Yi Xian had come expecting to watch a show.
Ya Fei's reasonable, generous response left her a little disappointed instead. She then put those thoughts aside and lowered her gaze with interest to examine the tense confrontation in the auction house's corridor, where swords were drawn and bows were bent.
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