At the Thousand Peaks Mountain's seating area, Qian Hong glared fiercely at Ye Yun, his eyes burning with intense jealousy.
As a devoted sycophant, seeing his goddess about to be tainted by another man, his inner fury was evident.
"Damn you, Ye Yun, I can't deal with you now, but I can deal with your disciples!"
As the saying goes, one picks on the softest persimmon. With the Empress of the Phoenix and Xu Binglan posing a threat, he wouldn't dare to do anything to Ye Yun right now.
However, his disciples were a different matter.
Weren't they all going to participate in the Three Mountains Exchange Meeting? Then, during the clashes, with no mercy from blades and swords, injuries would be quite normal!
Thus, Qian Hong decided to make an example of Lin Xueyan and the others, and called Qian Feng and Qian Luan over.
"When you spar later, if you encounter Ye Yun's disciples, do not hold back. Make sure to 'take good care' of them, understand?"
Upon hearing this, Qian Feng immediately nodded, a sinister smile appearing on his face.
"Don't worry, Young Master. I'm best at, and enjoy the most, crushing flowers!"
In his heart, he was also extremely displeased with Ye Yun, Lin Xueyan, and the others, and the threat he had just issued.
Qian Luan, standing beside him, also sneered and nodded.
"Exactly. Didn't they say they'd cut us into eight pieces? Let's see who cuts whom into eight pieces later!"
As the twin stars of the younger generation of Thousand Peaks Mountain, they had always been undefeated within the sect and simply didn't take those much younger girls seriously.
Hearing their assurances, Qian Hong finally showed a slight smile.
"Very good, then I shall look forward to your performance. Do not disappoint me!"
"Yes, don't worry!"
The two nodded in unison, and Qian Hong looked towards Ye Yun in the distance, his lips curling upwards.
"Kid, prepare to ache later!"
...
Ye Yun was unaware that he and his disciples had been targeted by a certain sycophant.
As the representative of Mount Chaofeng and the organizer of this Three Mountains Exchange Meeting, he had to face the powerful figures from various factions who had come to observe.
Naturally, he couldn't avoid giving a preamble on stage, spouting some nonsense about the exchange meeting being about communication, participants fighting with flair, and spars being to a halt.
Only after that did they get to the main point and begin explaining the matters of the exchange meeting.
"So, the exchange meeting, as per the usual convention of previous years, will have sixty participants who will determine their opponents through a draw."
"In the initial rounds, participants from the same faction will not be drawn against each other, until there are no more opponents to fight, and then internal competitions will commence!"
"The top three finishers will receive rewards gathered by our Mount Chaofeng, Mount Hongchen, and Thousand Peaks Mountain respectively."
As Ye Yun spoke enthusiastically, the powerful figures from various factions in the audience of the ancient arena listened quietly.
However, they were mostly sizing up this so-called husband of the Empress, trying to find something special about him.
But in the end, apart from being quite handsome, they didn't find anything particularly outstanding, which made them doubt the Empress's discerning eye.
After a while, Ye Yun on the stage finished explaining the rules and then said with a smile.
"Then I shall dispense with the pleasantries. Now, I invite all the favored sons and daughters of heaven to enter and draw lots."
Logically, the next step should have been the normal drawing of lots and spars.
Suddenly, at this moment, an untimely voice rang out from not far away.
"Elder Ye, could you please wait a moment?"
"Hmm?"
Ye Yun's brows twitched, and he followed the sound. As expected, the one who spoke was Qian Hong, with whom he had clashed earlier.
Qian Hong's voice wasn't exactly quiet, drawing the attention of tens of thousands of people in the audience, who looked at him with interest.
Not long ago, they had all heard about the conflict between Ye Yun and this Qian Hong, and his shouting now was definitely a prelude to some scheme.
"What is it, Elder Qian? Do you have any more advice to offer?"
Ye Yun glanced at Qian Hong and asked indifferently.
As representatives of the Three Mountains, Ye Yun, Qian Hong, and Xu Binglan were all on stage.
At this moment, Qian Hong walked up to him, looking at him with a smile and saying.
"Advice is not the word. I just want to ask Elder Ye, since you were so confident in the strength of those disciples earlier."
"Do you dare to add a stake to this Three Mountains Exchange Meeting?"
He looked at Ye Yun provocatively, while Ye Yun remained unfazed and asked in a low voice.
"You mean, you want to make a bet with me?"
"You could say that. Let's bet on which of our sides will take first place in the exchange meeting. Does Elder Ye dare?"
Upon hearing this, Ye Yun narrowed his eyes slightly, then nodded.
"Agreed. Say, what are you betting?"
"That would be..."
Qian Hong's lips curved upwards, then he extended his hand.
"I don't have anything too precious. Just a Star-Sun-Moon Flower I obtained some time ago. Let's use it as the stake."
As his voice fell, a flower emitting a faint purple glow and looking like crystal materialized in his palm. It was incredibly beautiful.
With its appearance, the bright surroundings seemed to dim, and specks of starlight began to appear.
This sight shocked everyone. They hadn't expected Qian Hong to be so generous!
"Elder Qian's luck is too good! He actually obtained such a peerless treasure?!"
"Truly worthy of being a top immortal flower, it's truly resplendent and dazzling. To see this flower today is truly worthwhile!"
"Tsk tsk tsk, why do I feel like he's deliberately showing off?"
"Very likely. Given the rarity of the Star-Sun-Moon Flower, it's not easy to produce an item of equivalent value."
The Star-Sun-Moon Flower, as its name suggested, was a peerless rare flower nurtured by the power of the sun, moon, and stars. It would take at least ten thousand years to produce a single bloom.
Its preciousness was almost comparable to a top-grade immortal artifact, and it could even be considered on par with a supreme-grade immortal artifact.
In the entire history of the Heavenly Domain, there had been no reports of a Star-Sun-Moon Flower appearing for thousands of years.
It was truly a great fortune for Qian Hong to have obtained it!
"Star-Sun-Moon Flower?"
This time, even Ye Yun was slightly taken aback. The name sounded somewhat familiar to him.
However, it wasn't because of its preciousness, but rather this heavenly material and earthly treasure
was the exclusive item that could help Fang Zhiwei evolve her Star-Moon Immortal Body into the Star-Moon Divine Body!
"This is interesting..."
Ye Yun's lips curved upwards, while Qian Hong, thinking he was shocked by the Star-Sun-Moon Flower,
said playfully, "Although the Star-Sun-Moon Flower is a peerlessly rare heavenly material and earthly treasure."
"As the husband of the Empress, Elder Ye should not produce a treasure inferior to it as a stake, right?"
This was a pure provocation.
To any discerning observer, the younger generation of Mount Chaofeng was generally inferior to those of Thousand Peaks Mountain and Mount Hongchen.
To say this in public now was clearly an attempt to force Ye Yun to give away a treasure to Thousand Peaks Mountain for free.
They had expected Ye Yun to use some ingenious method to counter his provocation.
To their surprise, Ye Yun simply nodded and said nonchalantly.
"Naturally. Since Elder Qian wishes to gamble, we, Mount Chaofeng, as the hosts, will naturally see it through to the end."
"Elder Qian, do you think this item can compare to your Star-Sun-Moon Flower?"
As his voice fell, a blood-red crossbow bolt materialized in Ye Yun's palm. It was none other than the God of Slaughter Crossbow!
The moment the blood-red crossbow body appeared, it exuded an astonishing killing intent that swept outwards.
As the crowd looked at the materialized God of Slaughter Crossbow, their initially surprised expressions soon turned to shock.
"Holy shit, is that... a supreme-grade immortal artifact?"
"Is Elder Ye insane? To use a treasure of this quality as a stake?!"
"That crossbow that was rumored on Mount Yueling not long ago must be this one!"
"So ruthless, Elder Ye is a formidable person!"
One must know that even some Emperor-level cultivators only used supreme-grade immortal artifacts of this caliber.
There were only a handful of such artifacts in the entire Heavenly Domain. And Ye Yun was directly bringing one out as a stake?!
While the Star-Sun-Moon Flower was rare, in terms of its ability to improve a cultivator's strength, it was far inferior to a supreme-grade immortal artifact.
For a moment, in addition to lamenting Ye Yun's extravagance, they also felt a sense of genuine admiration.
"Living off a woman truly feels amazing..."
Clearly, in their opinion, Ye Yun's possession of such a high-grade immortal artifact was definitely bestowed by the Empress behind him. Wasn't this a clear case of living off a woman?
But the problem was, even living off a woman was good!
Not only did he have a peerlessly beautiful Empress by his side, but he could also obtain a supreme-grade magical artifact for free. Was there anything better in this world?!