Xie Nandu was very calm when she spoke. She looked at that genius on the Latent Dragon List without thinking about the sect behind him, the relationship between that sect and the Great Liang Dynasty, nor the consequences that her words would bring about... However, she knew what she was doing; she just did not care.
If she had something to say, she would say it.
This had nothing to do with her being from the Xie family nor her being the last disciple of the academy dean. This was just her personality in the first place. It was the same as the words she said to Mr. Lin in Chen Chao's small courtyard back then in Tianqing County.
At that time, she could have chosen not to, but she still chose to speak. Now, she could choose not to speak, but she still chose to.
Everyone in the room was looking at this seemingly gentle and quiet young girl. The current atmosphere was unbelievably quiet. The cultivators from the foreign lands had never really taken the Great Liang Dynasty's cultivators seriously before and had never expected that something like this would happen. The young people from all over the Divine Capital were also surprised. In short, the entire hall was filled with a sense of shock.
He Yi looked at the young girl in front of him with a cold, icy glare. If they were not in the Divine Capital, or in the imperial city right now, Xie Nandu would have become a corpse a long time ago. It did not matter what her status was, it would be useless.
"Insolence! Is this how the Great Liang Dynasty treats its guests?!"
A foreign land cultivator could not hold back and spoke up to question. Although he was questioning Xie Nandu, his gaze was clearly directed at the Second Prince. His meaning was clear, this girl in front of them was so rude, aren't you going to do something about it?
The Second Prince barely concealed that trace of delight between his eyebrows. Feeling the gaze of the foreign land cultivators, he showed a difficult look and did not say anything.
His attitude was also very clear, which was that Xie Nandu came from the academy and was also the final disciple of the dean. Even if he was a prince of the Great Liang Dynasty, he could not reprimand her too.
But in reality, there was no way of knowing whether he was unwilling or unable to do so.
The Second Prince's immovability only annoyed the foreign land cultivators even more. But at this moment, they could not explode.
The atmosphere in the room was very tense and the smell of gunpowder was teeming.
"We have always respected the Great Liang Dynasty, and we are honored to have been invited by Your Majesty to attend this imperial banquet. We didn't dare to be negligent and arrived early, but that person was absent without any reason. Isn't this violating the rules? "Since he isn't following the rules, is there anything wrong with us proposing suggestions as guests who show understanding for the master?"
At the banquet, a cultivator suddenly laughed, appearing very nonchalant.
His words directly refuted the 'unwelcome guest' label that Xie Nandu had put on them earlier. This was an imperial banquet, even if their cultivation realms were powerful, they could not just start fighting at a word of disagreement. Even if they wanted to fight, they could not bully Xie Nandu, this academy disciple who had only recently entered the Initial Realm of cultivation. Even if they won, what would be the point?
It would merely be a dishonorable victory and a bad reputation of bullying a young lady.
Presently, both sides could only engage in a battle of words and debate on the grounds of reason.
Although Xie Nandu was from the academy, there were also cultivators knowledgeable in literature who were present in the audience.
"Whether or not there is a reason behind this, it is still uncertain. Whether there is right or wrong, it is also the responsibility of our Great Liang Dynasty. Since you all are guests, you should behave as guests and not interfere in the affairs of the host. Our Great Liang Dynasty has His Majesty and the Great Liang's laws. Everything will get a fair judgment."
Xie Nandu looked at the man and asked, "Under the Great Liang's laws, the Tianqing County case has already been judged. Are you saying that my Great Liang Dynasty cannot make decisions on its own in this matter?"
"You..."
That cultivator choked, his expression becoming very ugly. Previously, they had acted out of unease over that incident, wanting to test the attitude of the Great Liang Dynasty by using the Chen Chao. Many people present knew this, but no one would say it out loud. However, who could have thought that this girl would talk about this incident almost straightforwardly. She clearly did not want to give them any face.
"We had good intentions, but you are being so unreasonable and slandering us. It seems that the Great Liang Dynasty doesn't welcome us. We will leave now and inform our respective sects and seniors that we're unworthy to seek connections with the Great Liang Dynasty."
A cultivator stood up angrily, intending to bid farewell to the Second Prince.
Bidding farewell was fake, exerting pressure on the prince was real.
At this moment, the Second Prince also had no choice but to say something. He tried to placate the cultivator with a few words, saying, "Right now, it's a gathering of youngsters. Why make things so complicated?"
However, Xie Nandu ignored all of this and just continued calmly, "Although not everyone here is necessarily a genius on the Latent Dragon List, being able to attend today's banquet means you're all outstanding talents who will be attending the Myriad Willow Convention in a few days' time. But you want to go back and inform your elders after just a few ambiguous words. What's the difference between you and children on the streets?"
Hearing this, even the Second Prince was stunned. He never expected that this Xie Family girl's temperament would be so direct and resolute that she would not even be willing to back down at this moment.
If words could really kill, there would probably be more than one corpse in the room at this moment.
"Since today is an imperial banquet organized by His Majesty, you guys are guests. But at this moment, you want to leave without informing His Majesty. Is such a guest also considered a guest?!"
Xie Nandu's expression was calm when she spoke, her tone devoid of any particular emotions, making it hard to discern her sarcastic tone. However, every word she spoke was dripping with sarcasm, which only served to further infuriate the foreign cultivators present. Yet, they seemed unable to do anything about it.
Especially those people who had earlier suggested taking their leave, they felt a burning sensation on their faces at this moment.
When looking at Xie Nandu again, her expression remained indifferent from start to end, without any look of anger at all.
A cultivator laughed and said, "What a terrific Xie Family prodigy. If it weren't for that you're only at Initial Realm, I would like to have a spar with you."
The meaning behind this sentence was profound, but everyone present understood the deeper meaning.
Xie Nandu looked at him and said, "If you want to, you can make a move right now."
There was supposed to be sparring tonight in the first place.
The cultivator shook his head and laughed, "Miss Xie, I'd love to spar with you. But, you're seriously too weak. I'm afraid I might kill you if I were to really attack."
The moment he said this, some laughter sounded out among the foreign cultivators, easing the tension in the atmosphere.
Listening to the laughter that echoed around him, Wang Kuan's expression changed slightly and he was about to speak up. No matter what, Xie Nandu was a student of the academy too. Now that she was being humiliated, he naturally had to speak up for Xie Nandu as a fellow student of the academy. However, before he could say anything, He Yi, who had been silent until now opened his mouth to ask, "Since you say we are unwelcome guests, may I ask, do unwelcome guests also count as guests?"
Even though these foreign cultivators had traveled a long way to come here and were invited to this place, even if they were unwelcome guests, they were still guests too. No one could argue with that.
He was silent for a long time. Speaking up at this moment, he had likely already come up with a foolproof plan.
Xie Nandu nodded and said, "Yes."
She did not know what the other party was going to say, but she still did not care.
He Yi smiled and said, "Confucianism sages have a saying that's renown all over the world. 'Friends come from afar...' I can't seem to recall the second half of the sentence. May I ask what is it?"
There was naturally no problem with sparring at the banquet. But, the problem was that Xie Nandu's cultivation realm was too low. She was practically the lowest among all the people here. They wanted to regain face, but they would not fight because there was no meaning in winning or losing. Hence, that was why they tried to defeat the young girl with words.
That famous saying of the Confucianism sage was naturally well-known to everyone present. It was really appropriate to bring it up now. Since Xie Nandu had called them unwelcome guests previously, he asked if unwelcome guests could still be considered guests. If they were guests, then was this statement true?
If it was true, then why did you act that way earlier?
If this statement was false, where would this put the Confucianism sage?
This was a difficult choice.
Hearing this, Xia Yuan and Wang Kuan looked at each other, both feeling rather hesitant.
Xie Nandu looked at He Yi with some faint emotions in her eyes. It was disappointment. She did not expect that after thinking for so long, he would only say such a sentence.
Xie Nandu was about to speak when a voice came from outside the hall, attracting everyone's attention.
"Friends come from afar, with whips numbering dozens, drive them out of the courtyard."
Right on the heels of that, a young man dressed in black clothes appeared in front of everyone. He stood at the entrance of the hall and looked at He Yi as he asked, "Did I get it right?"
About the Confucian saying, the full saying goes something like this: "It's a delight to have friends come from afar"
General update: Just returned from overseas. I'm still catching up to work stuff, but chapter release should resume at ~1/day. I'll try my best to ramp up the release rate, fingers crossed.
