422 Ch 422 - Finally Took the Bait!
New character's illustrations has been added.
----------
What made Lin Guo feel embarrassed now was that he had just scolded so loudly, his non-violent intimidation methods were exhausted, yet the white-robed young man standing at the door showed no fear whatsoever. Instead, under Lin Guo's furious glare throughout the entire process, he casually walked to the table and pulled up a chair.
He just sat down at the banquet under the Emptiness Refining realm pressure, in full view of everyone on both sides of the banquet, and even picked up chopsticks to take a bite of food.
"Good girl, eat up."
Yino smiled, picking up a piece of meat from in front of Lin Guo and placing it in Ruoning's bowl.
Bathed in Yino's unique spiritual energy protection, though Ruoning could see Lin Guo's angry expression, sitting beside Yino, she indeed didn't feel any terrifying aura.
For a moment, the atmosphere seemed to freeze.
Lin Guo and Yino seemed to exist in two different worlds.
Guo's killing intent made even the lamps on the table flicker precariously, yet Yino and Ruoning paid no attention, as if they'd merely heard barking from stray dogs by the roadside and would at most glance over sideways.
In this situation, not only did Lin Guo's mouth twitch slightly, but even many Liu mansion elders present, rather than being shocked by Yino's rude behavior, were somewhat curiously turning their gazes toward Lin Guo in unison.
Their expressions seemed to ask:
Lin Guo, are you serious?
How can this dignified Lin mansion elder's pressure and aura not even intimidate a mere vermin?
"Bastard!"
Lin Guo finally had his defenses broken.
Seeing Yino about to finish the food he'd just picked up and reach for his chopsticks again, this time Lin Guo finally couldn't suppress his inner pride and exploded with his fist: "Kid, you refuse the toast and drink the penalty wine!"
"Cough, cough!"
At the crucial moment, the Liu mansion elder sitting at the head of the banquet coughed quietly with a deep voice.
Though he didn't speak openly, just those two coughs enveloped the entire Liu mansion hall with an even more pressure.
Lin Guo had just clenched his fist and hadn't yet struck when he was forced to calm down under suppression.
Damn it, this Liu family old man is playing his hereditary peacemaker role again!
This incredibly familiar déjà vu from decades past couldn't help but make Lin Guo feel instinctive disgust and psychological trauma.
He turned back to look at the white-haired elder sitting at the banquet's main seat, one of the Liu mansion's most respected figures, and couldn't help grinding his teeth in anger while finding no opportunity to retort.
For thousands of years, the Great Dragon Dynasty's three Grand Tutor mansions maintained separation of powers, with the Liu mansion always being the one that preferred to sit in the middle and sway back and forth.
Back when the Lin mansion's influence was at its peak, the Liu mansion allied with the He mansion to weaken the Lin mansion.
Now that the empress supported by the He mansion had risen to power, the Liu mansion was flirting with the Lin mansion again.
But even so, marriage alliance with the Lin mansion still didn't mean the Liu mansion would truly align completely with them.
To put it nicely, the Liu mansion deeply understood balancing strategies.
To put it harshly, the Liu mansion hedged their bets on both sides and truly refused to offend either!
In Lin Guo's view, tonight was supposed to be a banquet for his descendants and Liu mansion children to discuss marriage. At this time, when the He mansion's young master came to cause trouble, he should rightfully be rejected by both the Liu and Lin mansions!
But...
The Liu mansion elder had just prevented Lin Guo from taking action.
From a moral standpoint, Lin Guo taking action would indeed be bullying the weak and violating propriety, but when the Lin and Liu families were about to intermarry, couldn't the Liu mansion show a little favoritism and turn a blind eye?
So Lin Guo could conclude that the Liu mansion was maintaining justice on the surface, but was simply afraid of overly offending the He mansion and wanted to leave room for maneuver!
The atmosphere had been built up to this point, Lin Guo was furious but couldn't take action.
With the Liu mansion acting this way, Lin Guo was put in an extremely awkward position instead!
"Elder, tonight's matter is a conflict among us juniors. I can handle it myself. There's no need to trouble the elder."
At the crucial moment, Lin Ze read the three-way attitudes and saw Lin Guo's predicament, so he actively stood up to help his family elder save face.
When Lin Ze's words fell, he couldn't help but cast his cold gaze toward Yino.
This time, both sides were peers, so the Liu mansion elder nodded and said nothing more.
On the other side, feeling Lin Ze's gaze, Yino's previously immersive chopstick-wielding meat-devouring actions finally slowed down somewhat.
Crunch...
Under everyone's patience-wearing gazes, Yino picked up one last piece of fish and stuffed it in his mouth, finally satisfied as he picked up a napkin to wipe his mouth and look up at Lin Ze.
"Young Master He Yino, you must be the childhood sweetheart that Miss Ruoning often mentioned."
Lin Ze straightened his posture, taking over the conversation from his elder with interest, adopting a more moderate attitude to confront Yino.
After all, He was a young man who had seen the world.
For Lin Ze, he didn't need to maintain any elder's dignity or airs, so no matter how arrogant Yino acted, it wouldn't make Lin Ze feel embarrassed in front of outsiders.
In Lin Ze's view, Yino had obviously come prepared to provoke them at their door.
If he were angered by this contemptuous and arrogant attitude, he would instead be falling into Yino's trap.
"Correct. I am He Yino, Ruoning's childhood friend and fiancé."
Compared to Lin Ze's opening words, Yino specifically added the two words "and fiancé" for him.
At these words, Lin Ze's forced courteous smile couldn't help but twitch at the corners.
But Lin Ze wasn't angry. In his view, though Yino might have courage, he was ultimately just a clown. Currently, the marriage alliance between the Liu and Lin mansions could be said to be the general trend. Even if Lin Ze followed the principle of the happy party yielding, he had no need to seriously argue with an ignorant jumping clown like Yino.
"You say you're Miss Ruoning's fiancé. Do you have a marriage contract?"
"I don't have that."
"Then what gives you confidence?"
"Isn't that why I'm here at the Liu mansion tonight to prepare to sign one?"
"Sign? What qualifies you to sign?"
"Ruoning and I are mutually in love. Isn't that enough?"
At this point, Yino simply leaned back against his chair, placing his left hand on the blue-haired girl's shoulder beside him. His arrogant provocative implications were self-evident.
"Hehe... mutually in love...?"
Lin Ze couldn't help but laugh in anger.
He turned to survey the many Liu mansion elders present in a circle, then looked back at the blue-haired girl sitting beside Yino: "Mutually in love? Do you think this is children playing house?"
While saying this, Lin Ze sneered coldly, completely ignoring the gnashing hatred on Liu Ruoning's face.
"He Yino, we're all adults now. Be realistic, okay?"
"I'll tell you what! why don't you go home and ask your mother if she and your father really got together and married to have you because of mutual love?"
When mentioning the other party's mother, though Lin Ze's face still maintained considerable grace, his lips had already revealed irrepressible malice.
Yino listened quietly, but couldn't help raising his head with some difficulty maintaining composure.
How should he answer this...
He seemed to have never had a mother since childhood. Did his aunt count as half a mother?
"Sorry, I was picked up from the street. I've never seen my mother since I was a child."
When people are speechless, they will smile.
Yino was the same. After thinking it over, he finally smiled frankly with pursed lips.
At these words, Lin Ze's gloating expression also froze with some surprise.
"No mother to raise you, no wonder you're so stupid..."
After a long silence, Lin Ze sneered coldly with some mockery, still not concealing the disgust deep in his heart.
Yino smiled slightly, just silently watching his face.
Honestly, Lin Ze had no idea what he was thinking, but somehow, just being stared at silently by Yino like this still made Lin Ze feel somewhat guilty and uneasy...
This was probably the side effect of cursing someone's mother to their face.
You're not afraid of the other party getting angry and cursing back at you. What you fear is the other party staring at you coldly with no expression.
"Hehe... look how scared you are."
At some point, Yino suddenly laughed. The corner of his mouth curved up with amusement, as if mocking Lin Ze's guilty unease from just cursing him out.
This time, Yino was slightly more practical:
"So, you just said to be realistic. What do you think counts as realistic?"
"..."
Lin Ze raised his eyebrows slightly, as if he asked a very strange question.
He thought briefly, then glanced at Liu Ruoning and smiled faintly: "You should know that Miss Ruoning is not only the Liu mansion's daughter, but also the once-in-a-century Innate Mystical Sound Holy Physique... Such a destiny daughter with premium bloodline, He Yino, do you think you, a questionable youngest son from the bottom of the He mansion, are worthy?"
"Allow me to speak frankly. I, Lin Ze, am only seventeen years old, Core Formation peak, with human and Azure Dragon bloodline flowing in my body..."
"I won't boast about how excellent my qualifications are, but He Yino, even if your He mansion really wanted to send someone to compete for Miss Ruoning, they should at least send your family's second young master He Tianchen, who was once the capital's number one immortal lord, right?"
"He Tianchen didn't come, but you, this bottom-tier young master, came instead. What use is that?"
Lin Ze continued his output, but while mocking, he didn't forget to bring up the He mansion's famous second young master to highlight Yino's worthlessness.
But even so, Yino still seemed hesitant to speak and didn't get angry.
"So you're saying you think you're qualified to be worthy of my Ruoning?"
He asked tentatively.
Hearing this, Lin Ze finally stopped wasting words and couldn't help sneering coldly: "Otherwise? Since ancient times, the right to choose mates in this world has only belonged to the stronger!"
"He Yino, I see you're also only sixteen or seventeen. We're similar in age, so there's no question of who's bullying whom... If you really think you have the ability, why don't we go out and spar?"
"If you lose, get lost on your own."
Lin Ze grew more pleased as he spoke. He had planned to single-combat Yino long ago, but talking so much with Yino was to avoid making the violence appear too crude.
So Lin Ze had almost been guiding Yino to duel him the entire time.
Now, Yino has finally taken the bait!
"Heh..."
At some point, the white-robed young man sitting at the end of the long table also suddenly smiled.
He looked up at Lin Ze, and in just a short moment, his cold eyes finally took on unprecedented excitement:
"Took you so long to say that!"
---
Liu mansion, back courtyard, elegant pavilion.
Several minutes had passed since the earlier pressure and qi had emanated.
Yune and Shang Hua were still sitting here drinking tea.
Until a Liu mansion shadow guard rushed over urgently to report to the Silver Dragon Princess:
"Your Highness, the Lin mansion's Young Master Lin Ze and an outsider started fighting in the front courtyard!"
"Outsider?"
"The visitor is the He mansion's seventh young master, He Yino!"
Yune: ?!!!