The Broken Engagement Drama Unfolds: Xiao Han, Son of Destiny
The Great Li Imperial Dynasty, Linfeng City, the Xiao Clan.
Inside a simply furnished sitting room.
A girl of about fifteen stood tall and graceful.
Her youthful face was already breathtakingly beautiful, with a beauty that could topple cities.
Her magnificent robes and her innate air of aloof detachment.
All spoke of her exalted status.
Untouched by a speck of dust, refined and unworldly.
Standing there, she looked like a graceful fairy who had stepped out of a painting.
The divine maiden of the Gu Clan, Gu Xuanjin's younger female cousin, Gu Xiaoya!
Behind her.
Several pretty women with powerful presences stood respectfully in attendance.
Before them.
A square-jawed man in his forties, with thick brows and large eyes, sat in the seat of honor.
The Xiao Clan's patriarch and Xiao Han's father, Xiao Zhenyu!
Several elders sat on either side of him.
At that moment.
Their faces shifted between pale and ashen, their expressions ugly and gloomy.
Below them.
Gu Xiaoya's patience was gradually wearing thin, and a trace of anger had appeared in her beautiful eyes.
"Uncle Xiao!
I've only spoken so politely because I respect you as an elder! Don't push me too far!
If Xiao Han doesn't come out today, don't blame me for being discourteous!"
Being spoken to so imperiously by a little girl.
The veins stood out on Xiao Zhenyu's hands.
Yet her identity left him no choice but to greet her with a smile.
He could hardly have felt more aggrieved.
"Xiaoya.
If you were unwilling to marry Han.
Why didn't you come to break off the engagement three years ago, when his talent was still intact?
Now Han is afflicted with a strange illness, and his cultivation has fallen.
And you kick him while he's down!
Isn't that a bit much?
Besides.
Your grandfather and my father arranged your engagement to Han.
Even I can't make that decision.
Unless your grandfather comes in person to dissolve the engagement!"
Gu Xiaoya gave a cold snort.
"Uncle Xiao, there's no need to put it so harshly."
"No matter what Xiao Han's talent is, I won't marry a stranger I've never met!"
"My future husband.
He doesn't have to be a peerless genius or have a powerful background.
But at the very least, our feelings must be mutual."
"I didn't come before.
Because Father and the others never told me about it in the first place!
I only found out by chance a few days ago.
As for my coming to dissolve the engagement.
Grandfather and the others don't know.
But the engagement is my own affair. I think even if they knew, they wouldn't stop me!"
Xiao Zhenyu sprang to his feet.
He stared coldly at the beautiful girl below.
"Since this is your own decision.
You should go back and discuss it with your grandfather and the others before coming to the Xiao Clan again."
Gu Xiaoya's gaze gradually turned cold.
She suppressed the anger in her heart.
She had a maid behind her place a storage ring on the table in front of Xiao Zhenyu.
"Uncle Xiao.
I know that the woman's family coming to break off an engagement makes you lose face.
So I've prepared some pills, cultivation resources, and ten thousand supreme-grade spirit stones.
Consider them my compensation.
They're enough to let you and those elders beside you break through to the Pill Sea Realm!
With their help, it's not impossible for the Xiao Clan to dominate Linfeng City."
At those words.
Xiao Zhenyu showed little reaction.
But the expressions of the elders beside him became rather intriguing.
They looked at the storage ring before them.
Greed and longing flashed in their eyes.
The fifth elder was just about to urge Xiao Zhenyu to consider the bigger picture.
But Xiao Zhenyu gave him a casual glance, his eyes swirling with killing intent.
The fifth elder's heart skipped a beat.
He swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.
The atmosphere in the hall was tense and heavy.
In a courtyard at the back of the Xiao Clan estate.
Pavilions and small gazebos stood among bamboo and trees, with a stream murmuring through them, lending the place an air of freshness and tranquility.
A black-clad youth stood beside the stream.
He was fifteen or sixteen, with sword-like brows, starry eyes, red lips, white teeth, a handsome face, and a tall, slender build.
He wore an ancient ring on his left index finger.
Looking at his own dejected reflection in the water.
He forced a smile, trying to make himself look less listless.
Xiao Zhenyu's son, the bearer of Heavenly Dao fortune, Xiao Han!
Beside him.
A girl about his age watched him quietly.
The girl was peerlessly beautiful.
She had a slender waist, skin like ice and bones like jade, and a tall figure.
Dressed in a cyan gown, she had a serene, unworldly air, like a cyan lotus apart from the world.
Xiao Xueying, the little girl the Xiao Clan had taken in ten years ago.
Her heart ached a little at the sight of Xiao Han.
A figure with a heavy presence was concealed in the void nearby.
He frowned and transmitted everything that had happened in the hall to Xiao Xueying.
When he finished.
He warned her gravely, "Miss, it would be best not to provoke the Gu Clan."
"Uncle Chen, I understand."
Looking at Xiao Han.
The girl said softly:
"Brother Xiao Han, it seems the Xiao Clan has some uninvited guests, and they're here about you."
"Looking for me?"
Xiao Han's sword-like brows drew together slightly.
Looking in the direction of the Xiao Clan's sitting room, he sighed softly, then strode quickly toward it.
Xiao Xueying followed silently behind him.
In the sitting room.
Gu Xiaoya's patience had run out completely.
"Uncle Xiao.
These things are more than enough to make up for the little bit of face you've lost.
Even if Xiao Han refuses to see me today.
Our engagement must be dissolved!"
At her signal.
From the maids behind her.
Divine Ability Realm pressure swept out in an instant, like a raging wind and driving rain.
The entire hall became like a tiny boat on the sea, liable to capsize at any moment.
In imminent peril.
The Xiao Clan elders trembled inwardly.
Xiao Zhenyu's face grew even darker, and his eyes seemed to spit fire as his anger reached its peak!
Just then, the third elder said in a trembling voice:
"Patriarch.
Miss Gu isn't wrong.
An engagement can only be a good thing if both parties are willing!
Since she doesn't want to marry the eldest young master, whom she's never met.
Why not simply dissolve the engagement?
Why make things so awkward?"
Xiao Zhenyu couldn't help sighing inwardly.
The reason he didn't want to break off the engagement.
Was partly his own selfish interest.
He wanted to wait until Xiao Han came of age and married Gu Xiaoya.
Then use the Gu Clan's resources to restore his talent and set him back on the path of cultivation.
But now Gu Xiaoya was using her power to pressure them.
He had no room to refuse.
If he disagreed, the Xiao Clan might truly bring a calamity upon itself.
Seeing that Xiao Zhenyu was still hesitating.
The first elder growled:
"Xiao Zhenyu, will you only be happy once you've watched the Xiao Clan destroyed in your hands?"
The Xiao Clan elders turned their anxious gazes on Xiao Zhenyu.
The boundless pressure made Xiao Zhenyu slump helplessly into his chair.
As if all his strength had left him.
"Since you insist on dissolving the engagement, then I..."
Just as he was about to agree to dissolve it.
Xiao Han and Xiao Xueying strode into the sitting room, their faces cold.
They had just learned the gist of the matter outside.
Xiao Han looked at the cold, proud girl in the middle of the sitting room.
He demanded coldly:
"You want to break off the engagement? I have no objection.
I know a cripple like me isn't worthy of a heaven's favored daughter of the Gu Clan like you!
But in a matter like this.
You could have come directly to my father and me and settled it in private.
Why did you have to make such a commotion that the whole city is buzzing?
Now everyone in Linfeng City knows your Gu Clan came to break off its engagement to me, Xiao Han.
The whole city is laughing at the Xiao Clan!
There's no grudge or enmity between us, so why would you do this?!"