Chapter 862: Unconforming to the rules
The sacred Empress Luo was peerless in beauty, with captivating looks that were unique.
Empress Luo wore a nine phoenix hairpin and her long hair was coiled up, like a gloomy cloud in the sky. She wore a jade garment with an Ancient Fey beast embroidery on it. Her royal elegance truly came from the bone.
And beside her was Empress Xuan, who had a voluptuous figure, with skin no different to a sixteen-year-old girl. Age had forgotten to leave its marks on her face, accentuating her youthful looks and mature woman's charm on her body perfectly.
"Paying our respects to Your Majesty Empress Luo! Paying our respects to Your Majesty Empress Xuan!"
The maid servants and the young elites present bowed respectfully.
The two sacred Empresses walked to the seats of honor with Empress Luo on the right and Empress Xuan on the left. In the Luo clan, the right was associated with the seat of honor, so on this point, Empress Luo's status was slightly higher than Empress Xuan’s.
"Xue’er, you came as well."
Empress Luo looked at Princess White Fox with an amiable and endearing smile. Clearly, she was very satisfied with Princess White Fox from the Lightning Domain. At the beginning of the banquet, she nodded and smiled to Princess White Fox, a treatment probably only reserved for daughter-in-laws.
"It appears as though Her Majesty Empress Luo is eager to have Prince Crimson Firmament marry Princess White Fox. If that's the case, Prince Crimson Firmament's position will be unshakable."
As people discussed it in private, they envied Prince Crimson Firmament for his good fortune in love affairs.
Empress Luo and Empress Xuan sat on the main seats of honor with Prince Crimson Firmament and Luo Huo'er sitting on the right and left respectively. Sitting near Prince Crimson Firmament was naturally Princess White Fox, but she was not sitting at the same table with Prince Crimson Firmament. Instead, she was sitting at a table beside the table of honor, and this was a distance away. From the looks of it, Princess White Fox had not fully accepted Prince Crimson Firmament. Hence, she did not want to appear too close to him at such an event.
This was nothing much, but on the other side…
Be it Empress Luo, Empress Xuan or Prince Crimson Firmament, they were somewhat taken aback when they saw the person sitting on the seat symmetrically across Princess White Fox.
Sitting near Luo Huo'er was an ordinary youth, who looked very young. His cultivation level had just broken through to the early stages of the Heaven Ascension realm. Such a person could not have a long cultivation time that numbered about thirty or forty years.
And most bizarre of all was that he was a human.
Yi Yun?
Empress Xuan immediately thought about Yi Yun. Only this person matched the various features.
But why was Yi Yun sitting beside her daughter?
It was impossible that he had sat without understanding the rules. The waiters responsible at the banquet would not have sat idle if that was the case. Could it be that her daughter had invited him to sit there?
Although Empress Xuan found it surprising, she at least knew about Yi Yun's identity. But for Empress Luo, she did not even know Yi Yun's identity.
For a small figure like Yi Yun, although he had won first place at a collective training, it was insignificant in Empress Luo's eyes. However, she had paid him some attention because he was sitting beside Luo Huo'er.
Empress Luo noticed that Yi Yun's clothes were worthless, as though he did not have any background. Why would Luo Huo'er let such a person sit beside her? Furthermore, this was not any ordinary occasion. Every word and action of Luo Huo'er and Crimson Firmament would be recorded by the hall page and reported to Emperor Luo.
"Dear Firmament, who is this youth?" Empress Luo sent a voice transmission to Prince Crimson Firmament.
"Answering Mother, if this child isn't wrong, that person should be Yi Yun. He had obtained an outstanding performance at the Mt. Azure Billow collective training. He obtained the recognition of three Ancient Fey columns, with two of them at the Hibernation Awakening ranking. At Black Wind Valley, he captured the Intermediary Spirit Blood Snake and he is considered to be a talented human. He is in Sister Purple Spirit's camp, and he was recommended by Prince Pingnan."
Prince Crimson Firmament informed her about Yi Yun's background and results in a few words, pleasing Empress Luo. Her son was meticulous, which made him a person capable of big matters. He knew every piece of information about a person, even if he was a minor character.
"Very good. You did well, but according to what you said, that Yi Yun isn't considered to be some blessed son of the heavens. He is just a young elite, so he's not even qualified to sit at where the two young fellows from the Ran and Donglin family are, much less beside Purple Spirit. That Purple Spirit is just too wilful."
Empress Luo shook her head secretly as she glanced at Donglin Yu and Ran Xueyi. They were sitting on seats at a lower level to Yi Yun, so when they saw Empress Luo glance at them, they immediately revealed embarrassed expressions. They probably knew what Empress Luo was looking at. They found it extremely embarrassing to sit beneath Yi Yun. However, this was sanctioned by Princess Purple Spirit, so what else could they say?
Empress Luo frowned slightly. For a princess of the Luo clan to be so enamored towards such a lowly human youth to sit beside her, it was not something that did not conform to the rules, but it would incur ridicule. Especially with Princess White Fox here, how would she think about Yi Yun sitting at a spot equivalent to hers?
"Mother, Sister Purple Spirit has always had a personality of lawlessness. Let her be. Even Father indulges her, so even if this small matter were to reach Father, he would not pay too much attention to it." Prince Crimson Firmament said with a tone filled with discontent with Emperor Luo.
Emperor Luo's favoritism was no secret. If not for his favoritism towards Princess Purple Spirit, wouldn't the throne be firmly in Crimson Firmament’s grasps?
"It doesn't matter if she's willful, it's not like we are disgracing ourselves." Empress Luo transmitted her voice to Prince Crimson Firmament and glanced at Empress Xuan, while a faint smile suffused across her lips.
Her son, Prince Crimson Firmament had brought Princess White Fox, and they were sitting along the main seats with her.
Look at your daughter. What sort of person is she sitting with? What a disgrace.
"Alright, all of our esteemed young elites, I held this banquet and invited all of you here as a welcome. I wish that everyone will be able to make a difference at the upcoming Luo Divine Hall trials, and bring a more brilliant future to our Luo clan."
As the host of the banquet, Empress Luo had to give a speech. As for Yi Yun, she quickly ignored him.
Everyone lifted their cups for a toast. Yi Yun did so too, and he drank the fragrant spiritual wine. It was unknown how the wine was brewed, because not only was the taste excellent, it also made his entire body warm up, and he could even feel his lifeblood strengthen.
It was good wine that was probably extremely pricey. And the food placed in front of him was all sorts of treasured materials. Eating them was beneficial for his cultivation level and lifeblood.
Yi Yun estimated that just this small table of dishes would cost a few hundred, if not a few thousand World Stones.
Thinking back of the painful expression that Lie Ya had when he had to produce more than a hundred World Stones, Yi Yun felt that he did not waste time coming to this banquet.
Although he had the Purple Crystal, he was not wealthy. Since he was at this banquet, he had came with the mentality that he would not suffer any losses. He would not miss out on delicious foods and drink. Hence, these spiritual wine and food quickly entered Yi Yun's stomach.
Seeing Yi Yun eat carefreely, Ran Xueyi and Donglin Yu were impressed. How bold are you? Didn't you noticed that Empress Luo had paid you attention a while ago? Don't you feel that sitting at the third highest level in the middle is like sitting on a cushion of needles?
Translator's Notes: Please support my Patreon! Let's try for the second goal (590/600), which is so close! It will raise TMW's releases to 11 a week from 9/week! Also, if it hits 150 (currently at 135) patrons before 15 Feb 2017, regardless of amount pledged, I will translate all chapters that are released for two weeks by the author and release them as soon as possible, which means approximately 10 additional chapters!