Rong Xiu smiled slightly, and his thin lips curled up into an extremely faint smile, yet the depths of his phoenix eyes were nonchalant. “Greetings, Clan Leader.”

He lightly nodded, but even though he was greeting, his entire aura wasn’t reduced at all. This made his elegant, distinguished, and peerless manner even more obvious.

In front of Baili Chun, he didn’t lose out at all.

Baili Chun’s heart sank. After not seeing him for a few years, the current Rong Xiu is even harder to handle than back then. I can even recall Rong Xiu’s youthful appearance when I chose to go into seclusion back then. In the blink of an eye, that young man actually turned into another person and became a huge power holder today! I still underestimated Rong Xiu!

“Clan Leader, I didn’t know you came out of seclusion. I didn’t hear the news.” Rong Xiu chuckled. “If I knew, I would definitely come forward to welcome you personally.”

Baili Chun suppressed the overwhelming emotions in his heart. “It just happened two days ago. I originally wanted to send you a message to tell you, but I later heard about the incident here, so I decided to come forward personally. I thought we’d meet eventually, so I didn’t trouble them any longer.”

“I see. Clan Leader seems to have broken through again after coming out of seclusion this time? I really have to congratulate you.”

This sentence finally made Baili Chun’s expression loosen up. He grunted and pulled at the corner of his lips. “This can’t compare to the sudden improvements you made the past few years, Your Grace.”

However, this wasn’t him being polite.

After exiting seclusion, he specifically asked Yu Jing and the rest a few questions. Among them included questions about Rong Xiu’s current ability.

But in actual fact, Yu Jing and the rest didn’t have much understanding of this. That was because Rong Xiu didn’t spend a lot of time in the Sky-Cloud Empire in the last few years.

And every time he came back, it was basically in a hurry. So how would they know?

It was just an occasional and rough guess. But even so, it wasn’t hard to guess Rong Xiu’s basic abilities.

After being taken aback, although Baili Chun was unhappy, he could only accept it.

Rong Xiu was originally a genius that appeared only once in a thousand years, so it was normal for him to have such a cultivation speed. Others couldn’t be envious at all, including him.

Rong Xiu’s gaze lightly swept past the young man at the side, but it was cold and as harsh as a blade.

Jiang Zhiyuan’s heart tightened. Without raising her head, she could already feel Rong Xiu’s gaze wrapping her as if he could directly see through her.

She guiltily hung her head even lower. My face is disguised. My figure and even my aura were hidden by Baili Chun specifically as well. Logically speaking, there shouldn’t be any loopholes…

“Who is this? Why haven’t I seen him before?” Rong Xiu spoke up and asked slowly.

Baili Chun knitted his brows. “Xiao Liu—I just promoted him from below. I saw that he had quite a lot of potential, so I decided to bring him around. There are so many people in the Sky-Cloud Empire, Your Grace. You might not have seen every single one of them, right?”

Rong Xiu suddenly laughed. “You’re right. It’s definitely not an ordinary person that can gain your liking. My eyesight is probably bad, and I actually didn’t realize such a person existed in the past.”

As long as he had seen them before, he recognized every single person in the entire Sky-Cloud Empire—even if it was a humble servant.

And this person… Rong Xiu smiled and retracted his gaze.

Without that oppressive gaze, Jiang Zhiyuan instantly heaved a sigh of relief in her heart.

A gush of coldness attacked her. Then, she realized that her back was drenched in cold sweat.

She secretly gritted her teeth. Rong Xiu just looked at me twice. Why am I so useless… I just hope that he can’t see anything! 

Originally, Jiang Zhiyuan wanted to take the chance to look at the charming face. After all, they hadn’t seen each other in a long time.

But at this point, Rong Xiu’s sentences made her feel very guilty, and she naturally didn’t dare to move around casually. She simply looked down, stood at the side, and didn’t dare say another word.

Baili Chun smiled in a fake manner. “Your Grace is busy, so you naturally don’t have time to care about this.”

There were secret ripples between the duo.

Quite a few people looked over with complicated gazes, and their minds were active. It seems like… the two people with the most power and status in the Sky-Cloud Empire aren’t on good terms? 

They heard that back when Rong Xiu was found and returned to the Sky-Cloud Empire, this Clan Leader Baili was very against him entering the clan. He even suggested punishing Rong Xiu in the harshest manner on several occasions.

Those punishments would be hard to tolerate even for decent cultivators, let alone Rong Xiu, who was still a child back then.

If it weren’t because Rong Xiu took the initiative to summon the Extreme God Sundial and his shocking talent was tested out, he would’ve really died there. This was also the reason why Rong Xiu and Baili Chun’s relationship wasn’t good.

This was especially so now, when Rong Xiu held great power, and his one sentence could summon the entire Sky-Cloud Empire.

Baili Chun had no more power in his hands and was only a ‘clan leader’ in name. How could the two of them stand each other?

“Please rest first. I’ll go over.” Rong Xiu seemed to ignore Baili Chun’s clear and secretive mockery. After politely bowing to him, he turned around to leave.

From start to end, he had a distinguished pride that one couldn’t pick out a flaw.

Seeing the tall and fit figure leave, Baili Chun was stifled.

Thinking back, they wanted to settle Rong Xiu directly. But as he displayed outstanding talent, they still chose to let him stay after much discussion.

At that point, he actually didn’t really care about Rong Xiu. Even if his mother was the eldest daughter of the Sky-Cloud Empire, his father’s background was lowly. With this background, he was destined to be unable to raise his head in the Sky-Cloud Empire in his entire life.

But later on, things started progressing out of his control. It was only until Rong Xiu fought with his life and ascended the position of His Grace that he shockingly realized that he had completely underestimated this young man!

But at that time, everything was too late. Hence, he could only accept the fact that Rong Xiu became His Grace.

However, he still misjudged Rong Xiu’s ambitions and capabilities. It was only until he exited seclusion that he realized he had never seen Rong Xiu clearly before.

All the previous matters were small tricks from Rong Xiu! Knowing this earlier, I should’ve just killed him back then! But what is the use of regretting now? Baili Chun clenched his teeth and had a harsh expression.

…

On the other end, Rong Xiu seemed to be completely unaffected and directly sat beside Chu Liuyue.

“Hey, Rong Xiu, your seat is here—” Elder Bo Yan glanced at Rong Xiu from the corner of his eyes and pointed at the seat next to him, reminding the latter.

Rong Xiu leaned back and smiled slightly. “It’s the same no matter where I sit.”

An idea popped up in Elder Bo Yan’s mind, and he didn’t continue insisting. Rong Xiu really… spends a lot of effort on Chu Yue. 

Chu Liuyue also turned around.

Their eyes met.

She blinked lightly. Originally, Rong Xiu and I should respectively sit on each side of Elder Bo Yan. But now, it became me sitting in the middle of Elder Bo Yan and him. Invisibly, the two powers surrounded me in the middle. This is… clearly showing their support for me?!