Chapter 65: She Is My Fiancée
Without deliberately raising his voice, without any intentional emotional intensity, his voice was very calm, as if he were stating an ordinary trivial matter, making it exceptionally clear. Those three words were so distinct that the people in the hall could not find any reason to convince themselves they had misheard.
Thus, those three words directly silenced the entire Weiyang Palace.
Unlike the previous silence filled with beautiful anticipation, this silence was truly dead quiet, the atmosphere eerily strange.
The next moment, the silence was broken, and the hall erupted into an uproar.
Countless voices nearly shattered the dome of the great hall!
Someone objected?
Someone actually dared to object to this marriage!
Deep within the hall, Xu Shiji abruptly stood up, staring at Chen Changsheng at the entrance of the hall, his expression extremely grim. Prince Chenliu was momentarily stunned, not knowing what had happened. Mo Yu slowly rose to her feet, her face expressionless, a frosty hue gradually appearing between her brows.
The reaction from the Southern delegation was naturally even greater. The head of the Qiushan family stared at the youth at the hall entrance, not knowing who he was, and forcefully took several deep breaths to suppress his anger. However, the young men in the delegation who were to participate in next year’s Grand Examination did not have his depth of composure; their anger was hard to contain. Especially the three from Lishan Sword Sect, Guan Feibai and the others, whose expressions were extremely cold, looking at Chen Changsheng as if he were a dead man.
Qiushan Jun was their most beloved senior brother. They knew how much importance their senior brother placed on this marriage, and they knew how much he cherished and protected Xu Yourong. Yet, at this crucial moment when the perfect couple was about to become spouses and their senior brother’s wish was about to be fulfilled, someone actually dared to cause trouble!
If this wasn’t asking for death, what was?
If this were any other place, these three young experts of the Seven Laws of the Divine Kingdom would have already let their sword light flash coldly and killed Chen Changsheng. But since this was the Great Zhou Imperial Palace, and they were Southerners, they could only temporarily endure, waiting for the Zhou people to handle it first.
The handling came quickly. Xu Shiji’s face was gloomy as he stared at Chen Changsheng at the hall entrance and shouted coldly, “Where did this bastard come from! How dare he cause an uproar in the palace! Guards! Seize this man and drag him out!”
After being recalled from the front lines to the capital, thanks to the trust of Her Holiness the Saint Empress, he and Xue Xingchuan had begun jointly overseeing the defense of the Imperial City, one handling internal affairs and the other external. The palace guards and imperial troops were all his direct subordinates. At his shout, over a dozen guards surrounded Chen Changsheng.
Xu Shiji stared at Chen Changsheng, his gaze extremely hostile, filled with warnings and undisguised killing intent—he would not give Chen Changsheng any chance to speak. If it came to that point, he would order the guards to kill Chen Changsheng directly.
Many in the hall noticed his killing intent but didn’t associate it with anything else, because he was Xu Yourong’s biological father. If it were themselves, and someone dared to cause trouble at their daughter’s engagement banquet, they would probably have the same impulse to kill that person.
Those guards failed to subdue Chen Changsheng, because someone stood in front of him—Luo Luo had somehow left her position at the National Academy, holding the Rainfall Whip, not even glancing at the guards, her gaze directly falling on Mo Yu deep in the hall.
Then, another person stood in front of Chen Changsheng.
Tang Thirty-Six.
Earlier, after Chen Changsheng and Luo Luo left the hall, Tang Thirty-Six only arrived at Weiyang Palace, so he hadn’t seen the two of them. Moreover, his attention was focused on Guan Feibai, the Fourth Law of the Seven Laws of the Divine Kingdom. It wasn’t until Luo Luo returned to Weiyang Palace but still didn’t see Chen Changsheng’s figure that he began to find it strange.
He didn’t know why Chen Changsheng opposed the marriage between the Xu Mansion and the Qiushan family. He only knew that there was a grudge between Chen Changsheng and the Xu Mansion. But he couldn’t be bothered to think about those issues. Since someone was going after Chen Changsheng, of course he would step forward.
Xu Shiji’s expression grew even colder as he looked at Luo Luo and Tang Thirty-Six blocking Chen Changsheng and said, “I don’t care who you are or what background you have, but tonight I am arresting a criminal. If anyone dares to obstruct me, don’t blame me for being ruthless.”
“A criminal?” An aged voice suddenly sounded beside Xu Shiji, tinged with confusion.
The speaker was the Chief Bishop of the Ecclesiastical Council.
The old man had just opened his eyes and was indeed very confused, as if he had just woken from sleep.
He looked around and then asked Xu Shiji, “Where is the criminal?”
This rhetorical question made Xu Shiji’s expression very unpleasant.
The Chief Bishop followed everyone’s gaze to the hall entrance, saw Chen Changsheng, and seemed to understand. He said, “This little fellow is a student of the National Academy. I personally signed the roster; there’s no mistake. Even if he’s late now, he can’t be considered a criminal, can he?”
The guards at the hall entrance looked at Xu Shiji.
Xu Shiji’s expression grew even uglier. He had finally confirmed the Chief Bishop’s stance.
Prince Chenliu helplessly explained to the Chief Bishop, “He previously spoke out against this marriage.”
The Chief Bishop looked at the people in the hall and said with a smile, “Since there is a step of asking the world, naturally there must be allowance for opposition. If opposition is not permitted, why did Your Highness bother to ask earlier? If rules need not be respected, and one can simply get engaged as they please, then why come to Great Zhou to propose marriage?”
Logically, this was irrefutable.
Thus, the people of the Southern delegation grew even angrier. Many glared at the Chief Bishop with fury, but the old man closed his eyes again, as if to continue sleeping, completely unconcerned with those sharp-as-swords or cold-as-ice gazes.
The Chief Bishop continued to rest with his eyes closed, but his words set the tone for the matter, at least on the surface representing the attitude of the State Religion.
Few people were qualified to question his words. Mo Yu was naturally one, but she did nothing, slowly sitting back down in her seat, her expression slightly strange, because she had noticed earlier that when Chen Changsheng entered the hall, a black goat had simultaneously disappeared into the night outside the hall.
She certainly knew what that black goat represented.
That black goat had brought Chen Changsheng to Weiyang Palace. What did that signify?
Prince Chenliu hadn’t expected her to remain silent and was somewhat surprised.
At this moment, Lishan Elder Xiao Songgong stood up and said, “Your Highness, what exactly is going on?”
A marriage like that of Xu Yourong and Qiushan Jun was no longer simply a union between the Eastern Imperial General’s Mansion and the Qiushan family. Before tonight, the Great Zhou court and the various forces of the Southern Sect must have held multiple consultations until reaching complete consensus before the Southern delegation came to propose.
So-called proposal was merely respecting etiquette and ritual, a necessary process. No one expected an accident to occur. Xiao Songgong’s questioning naturally had its reasoning. Since this was in the Great Zhou Imperial Palace, and since both sides had reached an agreement beforehand, the Zhou people naturally had to provide an explanation.
Prince Chenliu smiled bitterly, speechless, thinking that Her Holiness the Saint Empress had only asked him to preside over tonight’s events without saying anything else. You ask me for an explanation, but who am I supposed to ask? The Chief Bishop was again resting with his eyes closed, and Mao Qiuyu was drinking with his head down. These old fellows… were too much.
After thinking it over, he could only ask the person involved: “This… what’s the situation?”
Prince Chenliu looked at Chen Changsheng at the hall entrance, spreading his hands, looking very innocent.
From this detail, it could be seen that he did indeed harbor some goodwill toward Chen Changsheng; otherwise, he wouldn’t have let him explain first.
“Earlier outside the hall, I heard Your Highness say that Qiushan Jun wished to marry Xu Yourong and asked if anyone objected.”
Having said this, Chen Changsheng paused before continuing, “So I said, I object.”
This answer was equivalent to no answer, merely a reiteration.
He didn’t emphasize his tone, but those three words appeared again, still making the atmosphere in the hall even more oppressive.
His attitude was very clear: I oppose Xu Yourong marrying Qiushan Jun.
…
…
“Why do you oppose?”
“What right do you have to oppose!”
Two voices sounded simultaneously in the hall. One came from Prince Chenliu, who frowned, somewhat puzzled and somewhat worried. The other came from Elder Xiao Songgong, who raised his eyebrows, extremely angry and very forceful.
These two questions were also what everyone in the hall wanted to ask.
Xu Yourong was of the True Phoenix bloodline, and Qiushan Jun was of the True Dragon bloodline. The two possessed talent and potential rarely seen in a millennium, regarded by the human world as future leaders against the demon race. They had both cultivated in the South, were fellow disciples, spent day and night together, and could be considered childhood sweethearts. Not to mention the importance of this marriage to the unification process of the Northern and Southern Sects. In short, there were countless reasons why they should be together, and not a single reason why they shouldn’t.
What were a divine couple? This young man and woman were the divine couple in the eyes of the world.
This drenched, disheveled youth actually opposed this marriage.
Why? On what grounds?
Chen Changsheng used only one sentence to answer both questions simultaneously.
“Xu Yourong and I have a marriage contract.”
He said, “She is my fiancée, so naturally she cannot marry someone else.”
The hall fell into deathly silence once more.
A marriage contract?
He said Xu Yourong was his fiancée?
Absurd!
The people in the hall were shocked into silence, staring at Chen Changsheng, unable to speak, utterly unable to believe it, thinking this must be false!
Xu Shiji stared at Chen Changsheng, his face slightly pale, his hands hanging at his sides trembling slightly.
He said it. This damned fellow really… finally… said it!
He was filled with endless regret. At the very beginning, he should have killed him, burned him to ashes, and scattered them into the Luo River!
After tonight, the Eastern Imperial General’s Mansion would become a joke!
The people of the Southern delegation were as angry as Xu Shiji, except they didn’t believe Chen Changsheng’s words were true. They only thought this youth was instigated by some force to deliberately cause trouble and humiliate Lishan Sword Sect and the entire Southern Sect.
The head of the Qiushan family’s expression was extremely grim. The female disciples of Saintess Peak frowned in silence. The young men of Lishan Sword Sect were full of anger. Guan Feibai’s face had even turned pale from rage, and his right hand had unknowingly grasped his sword hilt!
“Outrageous! Where does this shameless scoundrel come from, daring to insult my Lishan!”
Xiao Songgong abruptly turned and looked at Mo Yu, saying, “A madman like this, why not expel him from the palace immediately? What exactly do the Zhou people intend to do?”
How could that youth possibly be Xu Yourong’s fiancé!
Many in the hall only then reacted, angrily rising one after another, shouting curses at Chen Changsheng.
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(I recommend a new work by a certain esteemed author. It’s actually a Naruto fanfiction, reportedly participating in a writing contest. I have great confidence in this author’s writing quality. The address is: http://gshi.qq./bk/tr/79518489-1.html. Also, I traveled a long distance today and am indeed very tired, but rest assured! I’ve decided to be uncharacteristically diligent and continue writing a bit more. Two chapters confirmed! The next chapter… shouldn’t be too late, right?)