Chapter Ninety-Six: The Bright Pearl Princess! (Please Recommend, Please Bookmark, Please Tip!)

"Will we open the Xuantian Sect treasure together?"
"This..."

When the Heavenly Sovereign Marquis heard those words, his brow twitched in surprise. It was a thought he had not entertained.
He had obtained one copy of the Xuantian Sect treasure map and hidden it away.
If Qin Feng had not produced a Xuantian Sect treasure map first—and if he had not feared Qin Feng—he would never have brought out his own map.

"I had no choice!"
"North Martial King has overwhelming strength and a vast force. I cannot withstand him."
"If I hide the Xuantian Sect map, North Martial King will surely use other means. My family's safety would be in danger."

Qin Feng’s deep eyes were like the sea as he said quietly, "I know."

There was another thought he did not voice: once the Xuantian Sect treasure was opened, if he obtained the cultivation method of the Human King realm, then after he broke through to that realm and gained limitless increases, even North Martial King could be subdued by a single hand.

"So, King Qin, how strong are you?" the Marquis asked after a pause.

"Comparable to an early-stage Human King. I can withstand him for a move or two against a mid-stage Human King," Qin Feng replied in a low voice.
He did not reveal his full strength. He was not stronger than a peak mid-stage Human King, but with six hundred and twenty thousand measures of colossal force amplifying him and astonishing speed, even a top mid-stage Human King could not pin him down.

"Mm."

"Then as you say, open the Xuantian Sect treasure."

The Heavenly Sovereign Marquis, now clearer on Qin Feng’s strength, nodded and said gravely, "Very well."

"Good."

"Then I will quietly await your signal."
Qin Feng clasped his hands respectfully. His form flickered, and he departed in haste.

"This man is truly a prodigy in talent. He is only sixteen, yet his combat power already reaches the Human King realm."
"I only wonder if he can be made useful to the Great Chu Empire. If he can, the dynasty will rise to glory again."
The Marquis watched Qin Feng’s departing figure, eyes glittering. He thought this to himself.

Immediately after, the Marquis surged with astonishing speed, his figure vancking away as he returned to Hulao Pass.

...

"King Qin, the Marquis summons you to Wangtong Hall for a talk."
Three days later, while Qin Feng was still training, Song Haicheng hurried over in awe and stood outside the doorway, speaking respectfully.

Song had been warned by the Marquis beforehand that Qin Feng’s strength was not inferior to his own, and his respect for him deepened.

"Ah—"
Qin Feng opened his eyes, exhaled a breath of stale qi, and rose carefully to avoid tearing his skin, then walked slowly toward the doorway.

The Marquis had invited him to Wangtong Hall; it seemed all arrangements were already made.

"This time I will surely attain the Human King realm!"
"Once I become a Human King, beneath the vast sky and wide earth, what place is beyond my reach?"

Qin Feng stepped out with unwavering confidence in his stride.
"Please come, Your Highness."

Seeing Qin Feng emerge, Song Haicheng hurriedly bent and offered praise.
"Then let us go."

"Come." Qin Feng nodded, following Song Haicheng toward Wangtong Hall.

"Everything is arranged, Your Highness."
"North Martial King will arrive soon. He has already told me he possesses six copies of the Xuantian Sect treasure map. The imperial court also informed me it controls another copy. Tomorrow they will dispatch ten Commandant Generals."
"That makes nine copies in all. We will surely find the site of the hidden Xuantian treasure and open it."

When the Heavenly Sovereign Marquis saw Qin Feng arrive, he rose to greet him. He waved Song Haicheng away and said in a heavy voice, "Welcome."

"Good." Qin Feng’s eyes flashed once and he nodded.

"By the way, I hear King Qin has not yet married. I have a younger daughter, nearly your age. After hearing your deeds, she admires you deeply."
"I would like to give her to you, if you are willing."
"Though she is not a beauty to overturn a kingdom, she has a beauty that could still enchant a whole city. You two are as if matched by Heaven."

A smile touched the Marquis’s lips as he watched Qin Feng with expectation.
Before marching to the Xuantian tomb of treasure, he would surely confront the Xuantian Sect; he and Qin Feng needed to work together.
But they had only met a few times, and trust was not yet complete.
If he could give his daughter to Qin Feng, their relationship would become intimate and the trust would deepen.
And of course, the Marquis also weighed Qin Feng’s strength.
If Qin Feng possessed only ordinary energy work or mere garrison-level power, he would not be worthy of her at all.

"King Qin, I offer my respect to my would-be father-in-law."
Qin Feng was no sentimental man; when a worthy beauty was offered to him, why refuse? He stood and paid his respects.

"Good." The Heavenly Sovereign Marquis stood quickly and helped him up.
"Once the two of us unite, we can even break through a confrontation with the Heavenly Martial King and secure the Xuantian Sect treasure."

Soon the news of Qin Feng’s engagement to the Marquis’s sixth daughter spread through Hulao Pass and distant places like Yuntian Commandery.
Chen Xuanhao, Zuo Taoming, Lin Xiaozhong, and Chen Donghai, all close martial companions of Qin Feng, were overjoyed and hurried to the Qin household with congratulations.
Yan Chonghu, Shi Tie, Liu Qingchang, and other men under Qin Feng’s command also rejoiced. With his marriage into the Marquis’s family, their status rose together with him.

"Is he to marry into the Heavenly Sovereign line?"
Huang Ningbing’s tea cup trembled slightly as she heard the news.
A sharp pang, a painful unease, stirred within her.

"Was it because King Qin is to marry into the Heavenly Sovereign family?" Huang Ningbing twitched a stitched-looking brow.
"Servant! Prepare gifts. I will go to the Qin residence." she ordered.

At the Qin home, lanterns and decorations blazed with joy. Qin Tianjun, Wang Zhuyun, Qin Zhongkai, and Murong Wei were all in high spirits.

"Mother, Elder Brother Qin is going to marry the Mingzhu Commandery Princess."
Chen Yunyun, on hearing this, ran at once to Wang Xiaohua’s chamber and collapsed into her arms in distress.

"Enough, enough."
"Qin Feng is such a remarkable man; how could he belong to only one woman?"
A faint tinge of regret passed through Wang Xiaohua’s eyes. If not for her old pride, Yunyun might already have become his.

With a sigh, Wang Xiaohua patted Yunyun on the back and tried to comfort her.

Yet Wang Xiaohua felt a bitter taste inside. Yunyun had taken a liking to Qin Feng—who could say whether that was good or bad?
At Qin Feng’s pace of cultivation, Yunyun might spend her entire life seeing only the shadow of his back.

"King Qin?"
The Mingzhu Commandery Princess Zhong Yifei, gentle and soft-spoken since childhood and never skilled in refusal, upon hearing the news ordered her household attendants to gather information about Qin Feng.
As she watched him grow stronger, sweeping aside opponents one after another, a smile touched her mouth.
When she imagined herself marrying him, she did not notice her cheeks turning pink with shy beauty.

...

Two days later, North Martial King had still not arrived. Instead, the Tiancheng King, one of the four great kings of the Great Chu Dynasty, came.
"What brings you here, Tiancheng King?" the Heavenly Sovereign Marquis said, his face suddenly darkening.
"How so? I arrive, and you still need me to announce myself?"
The Tiancheng King shot the Marquis a cold glance and snorted.

The Tiancheng King and North Martial King were close; the Heavenly Sovereign Marquis, however, was aligned with the imperial bloodline. Their relationship had always been tense.