Seven-Colored Light.
Seven-Colored Flower.
Like a magic spell, those two nas left everyone in the banquet hall frozen in stunned silence.
"Impossible. This has to be fake. It's impossible!" Wei Ziting mumbled, his eyes glazed over.
"How is this possible?" The Emperor, who had maintained a detached, spectator-like expression all evening, finally saw his composure break. He stared at the flower, shimring with a seven-colored glow in the young man's hand on the stage below, utterly dumbfounded.
"Let see! Let see!" The Eldest Prince, Huangfu Chongzhi, rushed up to Xu Luo, nearly losing his composure. He didn't reach out, but instead stared intently at the flower in Xu Luo's hand.
Everyone in the banquet hall held their breath, watching Huangfu Chongzhi with nervous anticipation.
Although so looked down on this nominal Eldest Prince, everyone agreed on one thing: his knowledge of dicinal herbs was second to none, not even to an Imperial Physician!
"This... this really is... the Seven-Colored Flower... from the Seven-Colored Light! It's real! It's really real!" Huangfu Chongzhi mumbled. He turned to the Crown Prince and the Sixth Prince, who had remained seated all night but had now co forward together, and said, "Your Highness, Sixth Prince, Xiaoqi's illness... can be cured! It can be cured!"
As he spoke, Huangfu Chongzhi fell to his knees before the stunned Emperor and Empress on the second floor. "Father! Mother!" he cried out through his tears. "Qiqi's illness can be cured! She can stand again!"
The Crown Prince, the Sixth Prince, and the Seventh Princess were all full-blooded siblings, children of the Empress.
Although the Sixth Prince constantly vied with the Crown Prince for the throne, like the Crown Prince and all the other princes in the palace, his love for his younger sister, the Seventh Princess, was from the bottom of his heart!
The intelligent and beautiful Seventh Princess was the brightest jewel in the entire Royal Family!
The Crown Prince and the Sixth Prince quickly reacted, kneeling beside the Eldest Prince and declaring in unison, "Congratulations, Father! Congratulations, Mother! There's hope for Xiaoqi's illness! She... she can stand again!"
The voices of the Crown Prince and the Sixth Prince were also choked with emotion.
"Chongzhi... is it true? Is that really a flower from the Seven-Colored Light? You're not mistaken? Quickly, tell your Mother Empress, tell it's true! Hurry!" the Empress exclaid, snapping back to her senses and imdiately firing off a barrage of questions.
If her rationality hadn't reminded her to maintain her decorum, this Empress, who possessed considerable strength of her own, might have even leaped directly from the second floor to see the flower with her own eyes!
The Emperor was a bit more composed. He asked in a grave voice, "Chongzhi... this is no joking matter. Can you be certain that flower is the one from the Seven-Colored Light?"
Huangfu Chongzhi replied, "Father, Mother, your son would not dare make such a claim lightly. That is, without a doubt, the flower of the Seven-Colored Light!"
"Summon the Chief Imperial Physician—no, summon all the Imperial Physicians for Us! Also, imdiately fetch the top Pharmacists in the Imperial Capital. We want them all here within the ti it takes an incense stick to burn!" the Emperor commanded decisively, not even caring if he would face criticism for the order.
And surely, no one would dare to voice an objection at a ti like this.
After all, today was the Seventh Princess's coming-of-age ceremony, and it was no secret that the Royal Family adored her.
The Seventh Princess's inability to stand had always been a source of regret for everyone. If she were an able-bodied princess, the top noble families of the Imperial Capital would have been fighting madly over her long ago.
While she was unable to stand, the families vying for her hand did so for political reasons. But if the Seventh Princess truly recovered and could stand again, every family qualified to marry a Princess would fight over her with wild abandon!
"Brother Xu Luo... co up here. I... I want to take a good look." The Seventh Princess hadn't remained frozen like everyone else; after a brief daze, she had already recovered her composure.
But the joy in her bright eyes was impossible to conceal.
Seeing everyone else lost in a state of extre ecstasy, the Seventh Princess couldn't help but reveal a trace of girlish mischief as she softly called out to Xu Luo.
At his core, Xu Luo was a bold and audacious person; one's true nature really has little to do with physical frailty.
Upon hearing the Seventh Princess's call, he grinned, and with a single leap, jumped onto the stage.
"Hey, hey, Third Brother, don't you damage that flower!" the usually composed Eldest Prince exclaid, jumping anxiously to his feet.
The Crown Prince also shot Xu Luo a reproachful look. Though he said nothing, the aning in his eyes was clear: he was afraid Xu Luo would ruin the flower.
The Sixth Prince, however, spoke up directly: "You'd better be careful. If you damage that flower, I'll have your head!"
With his back to them, Xu Luo helplessly pursed his lips and silently rolled his eyes at the Seventh Princess.
The Seventh Princess covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. Her gaze didn't linger on the flower in Xu Luo's hand, but settled instead on his face.
"You've gotten taller, and more handso!"
"You've beco even more beautiful!"
The two spoke in unison, and then both broke into laughter.
The Seventh Princess studied Xu Luo intently, her gaze adoring. "You must have faced unimaginable dangers to get this, right?" she asked softly. "Years ago, Father Emperor sent people to the Black Forest, but countless experts couldn't even get near it..."
"It wasn't dangerous at all. I just got lucky," Xu Luo said with a grin, changing the subject. He didn't want to worry her, nor did he want to boast about his achievent.
As the two exchanged flirtatious glances on stage, the faces of the princes below turned green with envy.
The Eldest Prince was an exception; he had always genuinely hoped that his good friend would end up with Huangfu Shishi, also known as Qiqi.
The Crown Prince and the Sixth Prince, however, did not share his sentint.
It wasn't just that they doted on their sister and hoped she would marry a good man. More importantly, with the Seventh Princess's prestige now at its zenith, whichever family she married into would represent the rise of a new and powerful faction!
The Sixth Prince, in particular, was most opposed to seeing Qiqi marry into the Xu Family.
'The National Guardian General's Mansion? Absolutely not. Xu Ji is a staunch mber of the Royalist Faction, and the Xu Family is already powerful enough. They don't need to get any stronger!'
"AHEM..." The Crown Prince coughed lightly, reminding the pair on stage not to go too far. So many people were watching.
"Um... Xu Luo, shouldn't you co down first and present this flower to my Father Emperor and Mother Empress?" the Sixth Prince couldn't resist reminding him.
"Why should he!" Huangfu Shishi was right in the middle of imagining all the thrilling scenes of Xu Luo facing life-and-death struggles, overcoming a thousand hardships, and being chased by Tier Nine Spirit Beasts to get this flower. Being interrupted, she was quite annoyed.
"Are you two done being annoying? This flower is a gift for , what does it have to do with you?" When the exceptionally intelligent Seventh Princess decided to be willful, she was every bit as formidable as any other noble lady.
Furthermore, she was disgusted by the infighting between her two older brothers and despised it when they interfered in her personal affairs.
In the entire world, besides the Emperor and Empress, she was likely the only person who dared to speak to both the Crown Prince and the Sixth Prince in such a manner.
The Crown Prince gave a bitter smile and turned his head aside. He held the moral high ground; as the Crown Prince, there was no need for him to make his disagreents so overt.
The Sixth Prince's mouth twitched, his expression one of utter helplessness.
At that mont, the Emperor and Empress could no longer contain themselves and descended from the second floor, followed by a procession of the Empire's decorated nobles.
Nearly every eye in the hall was fixed on the young man standing on the stage.
The gazes were varied and filled with complex emotions.
Especially Wei Ziting, standing below the stage. By now, no one was paying him any attention at all.
The Ancient Divine Texts he had gone to such lengths to procure still sat on the Ten Thousand Years Agarwood tray, forlorn and forgotten, not receiving so much as a second glance.
The goddess of his heart, anwhile, was gazing adoringly at the very boy he so completely disdained.
'Damn it!'
'How did it turn out like this?'
'The star of the show today was supposed to be ! !'
'Why is the one basking in the spotlight... that damn... good-for-nothing! Why!'
Wei Ziting roared internally, but he had to force a calm and nonchalant expression onto his face, because the Emperor, the Empress, and a large group of the court's highest nobles were approaching!
The Emperor glanced at the Empress, and she gave a slight nod. With a gentle wave toward Xu Luo on the stage, she said, "Xiaoluo, co here. Co to Us."
Summoned by the Empress, Xu Luo could only shoot an apologetic glance at Huangfu Shishi before walking off the stage to stand before the Empress.
Although what she truly wanted to see was the flower in Xu Luo's hand, the Empress was still the Empress. She smiled at Xu Luo and said, "What a fine young man you've beco. It's been a few years, and you've grown so tall."
When Xu Luo was a child, he had been a frequent visitor to the Imperial Palace, so the Empress naturally used such words to close the distance between them.
"Xu Luo greets Your Majesty, greets Your Highness the Empress, and greets all the esteed lords!" Xu Luo said, dutifully bowing to the Emperor, the Empress, and the crowd of dignitaries.
'On an occasion like this, at a ti like this, I absolutely cannot get carried away. Otherwise, even if no one says anything now, I'll inevitably be labeled 'arrogant and conceited' later.'
"You may rise, Xiaoluo," the Empress said, not beating around the bush. "Now, tell , how did you obtain this flower from the Seven-Colored Light?" She went straight to the question on everyone's mind.
Feeling countless gazes fixed upon him, Xu Luo gave a slightly bashful smile. "Well, it's a long story. I suppose I was just incredibly lucky. Or perhaps," he added, "it was the good fortune brought by Your Majesty, Your Highness, and the Princess..."
Many of the dignitaries standing behind the Emperor shot Xu Luo a aningful glance, and many thought to themselves: 'We always knew this kid as a weak-bodied good-for-nothing who would faint at the drop of a hat. He was saddled with a whole host of ugly nicknas because of it.'
Nicknas like "dicine Jar," "Chronic Sickling," "Useless," and even "Civil Servant's Rice Bowl."
'That last one, "Civil Servant's Rice Bowl," was a recent moniker that ca from the Emperor's own mouth!'
'But looking at him now... we don't know if his constitution has actually changed, but his intelligence is clearly top-notch!'
'Did you see how, as soon as Xu Luo spoke, both the usually dignified Empress and the ever-composed Emperor broke into smiles?'
"You silly child, just tell us what happened. Stop keeping us in suspense and dragging us into it," the Empress said, beaming at Xu Luo. Though her words were a light scolding, they held no trace of bla, sounding more like an elder affectionately addressing a junior.
Many people were secretly astonished. At the sa ti, they fixed their burning gazes on Xu Luo. They were dying to know what thod he had used to snatch the Seven-Colored Flower from right under the nose of a Tier Nine Spirit Beast.
"Well... it was like this."
Xu Luo cleared his throat and began to speak.
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