Chapter 147: Lilt
Lin Huang lost her smile when she heard Jiang Yue’s words.
Even though she was arrogant, she didn’t believe her charm was enough to let all men follow her. However, this was the first time she was rejected so rudely.
"I didn’t expect you to be more arrogant than I am." She finally said.
A flame flashed in her eyes, and her limbs itched to make a move. For a moment, she was tempted to throw some phoenix fire at the young man.
She felt that this was the only way to wash away her humiliation, but fortunately, reason prevailed.
The anger accumulated in her belly settled down, and a smile curled her lips. Mockery filled her eyes, and her entire demeanour changed.
"What gives you the confidence?" She asked.
"That’s what I would like to know about you." Jiang Yue wasn’t about to be outdone.
His eyes were also filled with mockery, and there was no doubt that he was looking down on Lin Huang.
"Is he crazy?" One of the audience asked.
"Maybe he was too stimulated." Another answered.
All of them thought this way and looked at Jiang Yue in shock.
They couldn’t come up with a reason why he was intentionally provoking Lin Huang.
Even if he didn’t want to follow her, he could just reject her. If he did that, he would have to give up the platform at worst but provoking the phoenix could result in serious injuries and death.
Although it was a pity to lose his platform after guarding it for almost thirty days, it was always better to keep his life.
However, Jiang Yue didn’t think this way.
He wasn’t sure he could defeat Lin Huang, but he was sure he couldn’t let her walk all over him.
What if she had a domineering origin?
What if she was the favoured daughter of heaven? He was also a favoured son of heaven.
If he learned to compromise and retreat at slight difficulties, how would he catch up to Yu Nianzhen who was already walking ahead?
In this situation, Jiang Yue couldn’t take a step back. He would either guard his platform or make sure that both of them were in no condition to guard one.
Other than cultivation reasons, there was a more important reason that he couldn’t give Lin Huang a good face.
’If she truly liked me and confessed reasonably, I would also respond reasonably. However, how can I accept being treated so casually?’
When he thought of this, he turned to look at Yu Nianzhen.
Jiang Yue was clear that the other treated him like a treasure and always put him at the top of his heart.
In that case, how could he allow himself to be treated so crudely?
If he allowed it, wouldn’t he be taking Yu Nianzhen’s feelings too lightly?
"Do you want to fight?" He asked, and a blue light flashed in his eyes.
Lin Huang was surprised.
She didn’t expect the other to be so uncompromising.
"What’s the hurry? I want to continue talking." She smirked and sat a few metres from where he sat.
She had watched him for many days and was very familiar with how he fought.
At that distance, she was confident she could dodge or block any attacks if he suddenly attacked.
"As you wish." Jiang Yue was not in a hurry.
He continued to strum his pipa, but Lin Huang wasn’t worried about this. After careful observation, she knew the current tune wasn’t part of his attack music.
It was just something he played when he had nothing better to do.
"Why don’t you want to follow me?" She asked.
"I like someone else."
Lin Huang sneered, "I have the physique of a divine phoenix."
"My physique is ordinary."
One of the spectators snorted when they heard Jiang Yue’s response.
Who couldn’t tell what Lin Huang meant when she mentioned her physique, which was a natural furnace?
However, this Jiang Yue pretended not to understand and gave such an inane response.
"You may not see the advantages at the origin forging realm, but they will only become clearer as we go along."
"I am sure there are other cultivators willing to take those advantages."
The anger she managed to tamp down was rising again.
Originally, Lin Huang didn’t have a good temper, but she tried to calm down for Jiang Yue’s sake.
However, he didn’t appreciate her efforts and resisted her at every turn.
Lin Huang couldn’t help but be angry.
"Double cultivation with a natural furnace will produce twice the results with half the effort."
Jiang Yue lifted his eyebrows, and his entire manner showed he was sceptical.
"The quantity of effort is subjective." He answered.
At first, Lin Huang did not understand what he meant, and when she did, her eyes widened in shock.
’Is he suggesting that double cultivation with me requires too much effort? Am I that despised?’
Anger coloured her face red, and she grabbed her whip, ready to do it.
However, she realised something was wrong before she could swing her whip.
When she first stepped on the platform, she felt discomfort in her body, but she let it go because it was too slight.
Since then, she would occasionally feel a burst of discomfort but continued to ignore it.
She thought the discomfort was caused by anger at having encountered this humiliating situation.
Now that the discomfort had spread throughout her body, she realised it was not as she thought.
"What did you do?" She asked.
Her words were slurred like those of a drunk or someone who was trying hard not to fall asleep.
"What can I do? I have just been talking to you."
At this moment, Lin Huang was a little frightened.
For some reason, her body was lethargic, and her heart was beating slower than normal.
She wanted to call out her phoenix fire but couldn’t summon the energy to do it.
"Is it the music?" She slurred through gritted teeth.
Jiang Yue smiled at that.
In fact, it wasn’t the pipa music, but his voice.
Everything started a few weeks before the competition began.
At that time, Jiang Yue was determined to let Yu Nianzhen lose his control. Although he knew it was a bad idea, he still wanted to tempt the other.
Unfortunately, Yu Nianzhen was very wary of him. Going as far as blocking him out with a turtle shell talisman.
However, Jiang Yue did not give up.
He thought of a thousand ways and eventually decided to use his voice.
Maybe it was a flash of unprecedented inspiration or an epiphany, but he somehow managed to incorporate some of his understanding from practising lullaby into his voice.
Since then, he learned to manipulate his voice to produce different illusions.
What he used on Lin Huang wasn’t the lilt for seduction but a special voice that could induce an illusion.
The more he talked, the more the effect became.
If he was more powerful, he could stop the opponent’s heart, but he hadn’t mastered the new technique to search a level yet.
At the moment, he could only cause lethargy, but that was enough.
"Will you surrender, or should I do it?" He asked and stood up.
Fear flashed in the young woman’s eyes, and she couldn’t understand how things had come to this.
She was confident because her phoenix origin was domineering, but she forgot there were many types of strength.
Maybe Jiang Yue couldn’t match her power, but he had his own ways of winning.
Because she was never on guard since she stepped on the platform, she didn’t realise she had fallen into an illusion until it was too late.
"Well?" Jiang Yue insisted.
Lin Huang glared, but the other didn’t relent.
He continued to look at her, and she eventually had no choice but to lower her head.
After he saw that, Jiang Yue did not continue to embarrass her.
"Be a little more reasonable in the future." He said.
This time, his voice didn’t have a lilt, and Lin Huang felt her senses clear.
With clear senses, she realised her strength was as abundant as before, and anger filled her heart.
She immediately wanted to fight Jiang Yue to avenge herself, but the platform boundary wrapped around her and threw her out.
Since she had already surrendered, she couldn’t challenge Jiang Yue for the next twenty-four hours.
Unfortunately, the battle would end in less than twenty-four hours, and she had no chance to make Jiang Yue lose his platform.
Still, she couldn’t let it go.
Before she walked back to her platform, she glared at him and shouted, "this isn’t over."
The watching crowd had no idea what happened and how Jiang Yue won, but they knew the phoenix princess was angry.
The consequences of this anger were not something they could afford, and they walked a little further from the woman.
However, what they didn’t know was that Lin Huang had successfully provoked a sword demon.
