Chapter 198: Banquet Hall
Without answering his question, the servant led Jiang Yue to the banquet hall.
The hall was in the most central region of the Lu residence, and the two walked for an incense stick before they arrived.
When they did, they found that most others had arrived.
The atmosphere was a little solemn, but the wine in the hall was working as it should.
As he watched the situation, Jiang Yue guessed that everyone would soon get rid of the solemnity and turn cheery.
’These people have big hearts.’ He thought and looked at his fellows enviously.
Maybe it’s because they knew that the Lu family wasn’t targeting them, which made the other cultivators carefree.
However, Jiang Yue couldn’t afford the cheer.
Even if he drank wine, he couldn’t afford to be drunk. He knew the Lu family would take advantage of him when he was inebriated.
After the servant left, Jiang Yue walked to one of the small tables arranged in the banquet hall.
Each table could hold at least four people, and Jiang Yue made his way to one of the tables that wasn’t occupied.
However, he wasn’t alone for long.
As soon as he sat down, Qi Shuo made his way to him.
His face was solemn, and Jiang Yue could tell he was displeased.
’What happened to him?’ He wondered but didn’t care too much.
At the moment, he was most concerned about himself and didn’t have time to care about others.
"Yeying." Qi Shuo called when he arrived.
"Young master Qi." Jiang Yue answered, and without waiting for an invitation, the young master sat across from him.
"My Qi family is better than the Lu family. If Yeying joins my Qi family, the Lu family will have to give up." He said without beating around the bush.
He knew that the Lu family was determined to deal with Yeying, and there wasn’t much he could do about it.
Although the Lu family respected him, his Qi family was far away, and its deterrence could not persuade them to leave Yeying alone.
After all, Yeying was not from the Qi family, and the Qi family would not fall out with the Lu family over a stranger.
It is because of this that Qi Shuo asked Yeying to join his family.
As long as Yeying belonged to the Qi family, the Lu family would have scruples about dealing with him.
"Is joining the Qi family really helpful?" Jiang Yue suddenly asked.
If the Lu family did not give any face to Qi Shuo, would they care that Yeying was from the Qi family?
Somehow, Jiang Yue didn’t think so.
Even if the Lu family let him go on the bright side, they would not lose a chance to attack him on the dark side.
Also, if Jiang Yue wanted to deal with the situation using background, he still had another identity.
He was a disciple of the Sea Cloud sect and the personal disciple of a nascent soul alchemist.
With such an identity, the Lu family wouldn’t dare to move him.
However, Jiang Yue didn’t want to use his identity to deal with the Lu family.
On one hand, he didn’t want others to connect the identity of Yeying to Jiang Yue.
If they did, Jiang Yue would have to create another public persona, and he didn’t want to.
Yeying was the name he had when he transmigrated to the Cangxing world, and he wanted to continue using it.
The second reason he didn’t reveal his identity was that he didn’t want the sect people to discover his location.
When he exited the Lu family’s secret realm, Jiang Yue found a lot of messages on his communication jade.
Most belonged to his fellow brothers and sisters of the third peak. However, there was a fair number from Yang Xu.
From these messages, Jiang Yue learned that the people from the beast region had arrived at the Sea Cloud sect.
He also learned about the meeting they held and the decision they made to meet at the conference in the Ice Palace region.
The main reason for this plan was because the sect couldn’t find himself and Yu Nianzhen.
If Jiang Yue revealed his location, he would immediately be dragged back to the sect.
At that time, he would be lucky to escape severe punishment when the sect realised that neither he nor Azhen could marry Lin Huang.
’How annoying.’ He thought and took a sip of wine.
"Yeying? Yeying, how do you think about joining my Qi family?" Qi Shuo insisted.
"I can promise my Qi family will treat you well and never let you down."
"I am sorry young master Qi. Yeying doesn’t plan to join the Lu family or the Qi family. However, Yeying is grateful for your concern."
When he heard that, Qi Shuo was disappointed, but he had expected the rejection. He suspected that Yeying had a big background but was hiding it for some reason.
Since it had come to this, he could only support him in whatever way he could when the time came.
"Young master Qi doesn’t need to worry about me. Yeying will never allow himself to be wronged." Jiang Yue said.
Although he didn’t like the person, he could tell that Qi Shuo treated him sincerely.
For this person, Jiang Yue was helpless and hoped the young master would give up soon.
However, he couldn’t control other people’s feelings and could only make sure that he didn’t encourage the other.
"Yeying..." Qi Shuo began, but Jiang Yue interrupted him.
"Young master Qi should worry about himself first." He said and tipped his head towards a certain direction.
Qi Shuo turned to see that Lu Xuanrui was talking to her father while looking at them. Her eyes were a little feverish, and he involuntarily shuddered.
"Thank you for the reminder." The man said through gritted teeth.
"It is nothing."
Soon after, the two watched as Lu Xuanrui walked towards them.
Her eyes did not leave Qi Shuo, and she seemed to have come to a difficult decision.
"Young master Qi." She called when she arrived.
Jiang Yue was clearly next to the young master, but Lu Xuanrui acted like she didn’t see him.
However, Jiang Yue preferred being ignored to dealing with her usual attitude.
’It would be good if she could ignore me until the end of this hongmen banquet.’ He thought and took another sip of wine.
While drinking, he observed the surroundings but saw nothing strange.
Everything looked like it should. On the surface, the banquet couldn’t be more ordinary.
However, Jiang Yue wasn’t fooled.
He knew this was the calm before the storm, but he was not too worried.
He had made all the preparations that needed to be made, and he didn’t believe he would fail in securing his own safety.
"Let’s start and get it over with." He muttered under his breath.
As if to answer his prayers, a group of the Lu family entered the hall.
Jiang Yue looked at them and recognised the elders he saw at the back of the mountain.
Among the elders, he had a deep impression of the second elder and Jiang Yue couldn’t help but look at him.
’He is an old fox.’ He thought.
When the elder invited him to join the Lu family, Jiang Yue felt he was cunning.
Even now, the second elder gave him the impression that he wasn’t easy to handle.
If there was trouble Jiang Yue couldn’t handle, it would probably be instigated by the second elder.
With that thought, Jiang Yue narrowed his eyes and decided to keep an eye on the man.
’There should still be time before they make their move.’ He thought.
Although he was in this situation, Jiang Yue still believed in himself.
He knew his talent and guessed that the Lu family wouldn’t harm him until they were sure he wouldn’t join the clan.
In that case, Jiang Yue still had some time to observe and guess what angle the Lu family would attack from.
However, Jiang Yue thought too simply.
Initially, the elders planned to kill him if he didn’t join the family, but the plan changed.
In the hours since Jiang Yue separated from them, the elders had time to think and plan.
They considered a lot of things and eventually decided that a talent like Yeying’s couldn’t be wasted.
Their first plan was to properly invite the young man and offer him appropriate benefits.
If Yeying was still not moved, the elders would no longer require his opinion.
For cultivators in their position, controlling a junior in the qi transformation realm was a matter of moving one finger.
In their minds, Yeying was destined to be used by their Lu family. From the moment he appeared in front of them, his fate was sealed, and they wouldn’t give him a chance to turn over.
With deep currents swimming under the surface, the banquet officially kicked off.
