Having gotten the result she wanted, Nalan Yanran smiled like a flowering branch swaying in the breeze.
She signaled Ge Ye behind her with a glance. His face darkened as he reluctantly offered up a padded box.
"Here is a dose of Qi Gathering Powder. Consider it an advance betrothal gift from my Nalan Family." As she spoke, Nalan Yanran cast a seemingly casual glance at Xiao Yan.
Then, blushing, she continued, "Husband, three years from now, just wait for Yanran to bring an eight-bearer bridal sedan and marry you into her home..."
With that, she cupped her hands slightly toward Xiao Zhan and prepared to lead the Misty Cloud Sect members out of the hall.
"Wait!" Before she could even step through the doorway, Xiao Yan called her back.
"Husband, is there something else?"
Whenever she uttered the word "husband," Nalan Yanran could not help displaying a young woman's bashful tenderness.
Besides that, she could distinctly feel two piercing gazes directed at her from within the hall.
One belonged to Xiao Xun'er, the other to Xiao Mei.
As for Xiao Yan, he spoke with a calm expression:
"The time set by the Three-Year Agreement hasn't come yet. Who will win and who will lose remains to be seen."
"Please take this Qi Gathering Powder back."
His words pulled her out of her thoughts. Watching the brocade box being returned, she ultimately did not reach out to accept it.
Ge Ye, standing nearby, could no longer hold himself back.
He snatched the Qi Gathering Powder, threw it to the ground, and crushed it to pieces underfoot. "What an arrogant brat who doesn't know how high the heavens are! With your talent, you think you can catch up to our young Sect Master? Forget three years-even if we gave you thirty, you could keep dreaming!"
Xiao Yan raised his eyes to look at him, but still suppressed the urge to teach him a lesson. The situation remained unclear, and this was hardly the time to reveal his strength.
"Ge Ye? A Seven-Star Great Dou Master? Heh..."
"Let me, Xiao Yan, give you a word of advice. Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river. Never bully a young man for being poor!"
Those cold, ringing words made not only Ge Ye's heart tremble, but Nalan Yanran's delicate frame shudder as well.
What a familiar feeling...
The boy was still the same boy!
She was on the verge of being unable to suppress the urge to step forward and reveal her identity.
Just then, Xiao Xun'er's cool voice rang out from a corner of the hall.
"Miss Nalan, please don't assume that having the Misty Cloud Sect behind you guarantees victory."
"The Dou Qi Continent is vast. There are many powers far stronger than the Misty Cloud Sect."
"Three years from now, Brother Xiao Yan will certainly defeat you. He will never become a live-in son-in-law of your Nalan Family!"
Her voice was not loud, yet it carried an extraordinary force of intimidation.
Ge Ye, who had been the loudest and most overbearing person in the room, immediately chose to shut his mouth.
He could feel an intensely murderous aura in the surroundings locking onto him.
At the same time, Nalan Yanran had also prepared to stop him from continuing his arrogant behavior.
Since she had already resolved to become Xiao Yan's woman, she still needed to maintain amicable relations with her fellow sisters, especially since the other woman's background was not something the Misty Cloud Sect could afford to provoke.
With that thought, she neither grew angry nor argued. Instead, she gave Xiao Xun'er a friendly smile.
Outside Wutan City.
On the road back to the Misty Cloud Sect, Ge Ye sat to one side, seething. Utterly baffled, he asked, "Young Sect Master, why do you care so much about a piece of trash?"
Trash?
He would become the Flame Emperor in the future!
And you actually called him trash?
If my strength hadn't yet recovered, I would slap you to death myself before he could!
Suppressing her inner thoughts, Nalan Yanran said with a displeased expression, "Elder Ge, I don't want to hear you call him trash again. One day, he will become my man, or I will become his woman."
Ge Ye fell silent, deeply puzzled by the change in his young Sect Master.
He remembered it perfectly clearly.
Two days ago, the young Sect Master had insisted on breaking off the engagement, come hell or high water.
Two days later, she was insisting on rushing the marriage, come hell or high water.
None of that was the main issue, however. He was wondering how he should explain this to the Sect Master when they returned.
"Young Sect Master, forgive me for speaking out of turn, but if the Sect Master learns of what happened today, a reprimand will surely follow."
Nalan Yanran interrupted him. "I will personally ask my master's forgiveness for this. I believe she won't blame me, either."
Because I'm not only saving myself, but redeeming her as well. We're both pitiful women.
She did not say that last thought aloud.
For one thing, no one would understand. For another, she did not want anyone to know that she had been reborn.
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