Chapter 619: Emotions running hot, aura roaring loud
*Bing-Bong*
As a reminder, normal quotation marks will be used for the sake of clarity, but the entire chapter will still be in Tide Tongue.
Thank you.
*Bing-Bong*
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[Well isn’t that just precious? The maestro is doing royal therapy again…is this gonna happen every time he meets a princess?]
[I…doubt…it…]
[I would’ve said “there can’t be that many royal kids out there with trauma”, but I just realized that is probably a false statement,] Razorstella quipped.
=In…in what way?=
[Political marriages with a notable age gap.]
=Ah…=
[Sense what-oh…yeah, I’m sensing that.]
[That can’t be good…]
[Should we alert the maestro?]
=Pretty certain they’re gonna sense it before we can even say anything…=
[…]
[…]
[…my money’s on the dragon prince.]
[Our lord’s grandfather sweeps, easy.]
[You…you guys do realize that the ringmaster is probably gonna send us in to put a stop to that fight, right?]
[Oh yeah…]
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Zhen Liu stood there, doing his best to appear as friendly as possible while Jinju Ren was preparing to explain herself.
However, just before any words could be said, before any emotions expressed, before any possible relationship could be formed, the two of them sensed a distinct spike in the surrounding aether.
The kind of spike associated with people getting ready to rip each other’s necks out.
“What the fuck?”
“Uh oh…”
Both Zhen Liu and Jinju Ren stared back in the direction of the banquet hall they had both left, noticing that the spikes were originating from there.
The two looked at each other briefly, pausing for a couple moments to see if they were both sensing what appeared to be people close to them about to kill each other, before rushing towards the aforementioned door.
“Please don’t fly off the handle, please don’t fly off the handle…”
“You better not be doing what I think you’re doing!”
They had both hoped that once they opened that door they wouldn’t see what they were sensing, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case at all. Instead, they were greeted with something a bit…heavier.
“Oh what the fuck?”
“This…pressure!”
From the moment Zhen Liu and Jinju Ren entered the room, they could feel an oppressive feeling of powerful, conflicting aether fluctuations bearing down on them like a ton of bricks.
The source of these fluctuations though, were none other than the 24th prince of the Pearl Scale Empire and the patriarch of the branch Zhen clan, staring daggers at each other.
Although, due to the two of them being powerful aether warriors, there were a bit more than metaphorical daggers being pointed at each other. This was evident as many of the weaker warriors in the crowd had to take several steps back to not get caught in the crossfire between the two sides. Zhen Liu could see his aunts, uncles, cousins and parents had all taken several steps back as well. Unfortunately, they were on the far side of the room.
“Oh ho! How fun! It’s been awhile since someone had a duel to the death on our home turf!”
“Matriarch…”
The only ones not affected by this display of violent behavior was the matriarch of the main clan, how had a most amused smile on her face, and the Hero Elder, who appeared indifferent over the whole affair, but wasn’t happy with how his superior(/mother) had essentially taken a hands off approach to the situation and was treating this moment less like a serious fight and more like an interesting sideshow. That being said, the intent behind the words being exchanged and the auras clashing with one another was definitely not something that could be considered amusing.
“What the fuck did you just say about my beloved late wife, you lecherous lizard?,” Zhen Shi asked with barely repressed murderous rage in his voice.
“Nothing that hadn’t already been said by her family, you mud snake. Oh wait, I’m sorry, former family,” Jinju Yang answered with the barest hint of modesty and full blown condescension.
Surrounding the two old men were aura constructs, made from their respective aethers and forged into images that were associated with them, both in terms of personality and cultivation.
This particular display of aether against aether has tendency to appear only when warriors of equal strength meet each other in the field of battle. Supposedly, it is a means for them to determine who had a higher chance of victory, but the reality was a bit more…primal.
This display of power was simply a way for the fighters to taunt and intimidate each other before actually trading blows.
“I practically every right to rip your head off your shoulders and give your blood to someone more deserving.”
“Oh, I would love to see you try that.”
The prince’s aura had a distinctive pearl white and blue color to it, and took the shape of a vicious flood dragon. Complete with resplendent horns that were shaped like a deer’s, a maw long like a crocodile’s and wicked looking claws that seemed to put even tigers to shame, the dragon-like aura was remarkably lively. Combined with the fact that it was mixed with a bit of dragon force helped to solidify this draconic aura to be more than just a mere, illusionary projection of power.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to assume that if the prince had willed the aura construct to strike like a dragon, it would definitely hit as hard as one as well.
That being said though, Zhen Shi wasn’t one to shirk away from a challenge, and people were taking notice.
“Damn! No wonder the Pearl Scale Emperor has yet to be dethroned. If what they say about apples not falling far from the tree to be true and just one of his kids is this strong, how strong can he be?”
“So this is the power of true dragon force, huh? Shit…”
“Honestly, I think I’m more impressed with how the runaway is holding up against it.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I’m not entirely sure why, but staring at that guy’s aura somehow makes me feel…incredibly small…which is weird to me…”
In comparison to Jinju Yang’s dragon shaped aura, Zhen Shi’s icy blue aura looked decidedly less impressive…on a surface level at least.
Zhen Shi’s aura had taken the shape of a massive serpent with a large jaw filled with fangs and layers upon layers of scales that seemed to shimmer like the open sea. In essence, it was a big snake and not as impressive as an actual fucking dragon.
However, the longer some of the people on the side stared at this serpent shaped aura, the more uncomfortable they started to become.
It wasn’t because of the beastly spirit they could sense dwelling inside of the aura, several members of the main branch cultivated a similar formula.
It wasn’t because the serpent was a particularly ferocious looking beast, many in the crowd felt they had fought and survived through worst.
It wasn’t because Zhen Shi’s aura was decidedly alien, they recognized ice and Aquarii aether when they saw it.
The thing that was making them uncomfortable about the serpent aura was its “depth”, for a lack of a better word.
For reasons they could not comprehend or understand in the slightest, the longer they stared at this serpentine-shaped aura, the less it felt like they were staring at a simple aether beast spirit, and the more they felt as if they were staring at an abyss at the bottom of the ocean, a force of nature as it were.
While none of the knew why this was the case, they could at least come to one conclusion.
The warriors known as Zhen Shi was definitely an equal to the 24th Imperial Prince…perhaps…he was even greater than him.
“…”
“…”
The two old warriors stared at each other with intense eyes, waiting for the other to make a move.
For all intents and purpose, their argument had decisively turned into an informal duel, but the winner wasn’t going to be determined through a simple quickdraw.
Then again, hopefully this wouldn’t be determined at all, especially if one person in particular has their way.
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‘Fuuuuuuck, I was sincerely hoping this wasn’t going to happen, but here we fucking are,’ Zhen Liu mentally cursed as he watched his grandfather square up against the 24th dragon prince.
On the one hand, he felt proud that his grandfather had the balls to go toe to toe with a literal dragonborn, especially since he helped his grandfather reach this point.
But on the other hand, he was also ninety percent sure that throwing hands with the guy who was his late wife’s former betroth was the exact opposite of trying to make amends.
Making matters worst though, this fight might lead to an international incident due to the massive technicality that the entire branch clan were foreigner visitors.
Long and short of it was that Zhen Liu had to put a stop to this, but the question was…how?
‘Should I do my overlord schtick again, or…’
