Under the soft pink glow of ten thousand paper lanterns reflected across the waters of Peach-Blossom Lake, five thousand invited sect guests and merchant nobles watched the central jade pavilion in hushed admiration.
Standing beneath his thirty-foot floral arch in spotless white silk robes, nineteen-year-old Holy Son Chu Tian looked every inch the tragic. Chivalrous romantic hero of a minstrel ballad—especially since nobody in the audience knew he was wearing an iron spinal brace under his belt. Had only one matching pair of boots left in his wardrobe.
Seeing the eighteen floating white-jade goblets of colorless [Rank 5 Heart-Locking Love-Slave Wine] hover. The eighteen enchanted heiresses, Chu Tian secretly cranked his [Peach-Blossom Harem System]’s remaining 82% Charm Halo to maximum output and dabbed a fake tear from his left eyelash with his silk sleeve.
“Alas, my eighteen fairy sisters,” Chu Tian sighed, his voice trembling with such theatrical sorrow that half the female disciples in the spectator boats began sniffing into their handkerchiefs. “Many of you asked me earlier why I suddenly moved our Nine-Continent Fairy Banquet forward by three months. Why I asked each of you to bring your clan’s Ancestral Spirit-Vein Deed to Peach-Blossom Lake tonight.”
On the first floating lotus boat to the east, Jade Lotus Saintess Mu Wan [Rank 5 Early. Brainwash: 98%]—a breathtaking nineteen-year-old beauty in emerald silk whose clan controlled the largest spirit-herb valley in the southern province—gazed up at Chu Tian with pink heart-shaped reflections swimming in her eyes.
