Chapter 1919 - Betrothal Gifts
But when he heard Yang Kai say a Secret Art, Ai Ou immediately lost interest. He curled his lips and said, “I was wondering what it was, so it was a Secret Art. Although my Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce is focused on business, we do regard Martial Dao as important. Whatever that Secret Art is... Kid, you can keep it to yourself. My Chamber of Commerce doesn’t lack these kinds of things.”
Yang Kai smiled slightly as he threw out a few words in an extremely calm manner, “This Secret Art is known as... The Star Refining Art!”
Just as he said this, Ai Ou’s eyes bloomed with white brilliance. He snatched the stone tablet from Yang Kai’s hands as swiftly as a lightning bolt, reading it carefully with widened eyes.
Three ancient words were engraved on the stone tablet. They looked extremely mysterious and were completely different from the existing characters.
But if one looked at them closely, he or she would find that they were somewhat similar to today’s three words of Star Refining Art.
Ai Ou’s hands couldn’t help but shake.
“Senior, isn’t this a bit out of character for someone with your status?” Yang Kai teased Ai Ou.
“Shut your trap!” Ai Ou shouted angrily. Without any vigilance against Yang Kai, he immersed his consciousness straight into the stone tablet, trying to figure it out.
This stone tablet was something Yang Kai had obtained from the deepest part of the Emperor Garden. It was due to this Star Refining Art that Xia Ning Chang could refine the Star Source of Tong Xuan Realm. It might be useless to him, who had refined the Source of Shadowed Star, but this was absolutely the ultimate art to refine the Star Source.
Later, when the Avatar refined the Source of the Floating Continent had also confirmed this point.
Today, Ai Ou was a peak Second-Order Origin King. If he could get the Star Refining Art and refine the Source of a Cultivation Star, not only would it provide him limitless future prospects, but his advance to the Third-Order Origin King Realm was a done deal. That’s why he had forgotten his manners.
Last time, Ai Ou had asked Xue Yue to take a large number of masters to the Emperor Garden for this Star Refining Art, but unfortunately, it ended up in Yang Kai’s hands.
Xue Yue hadn’t told the truth to Ai Ou after she came back, so Ai Ou had no idea that the Star Refining Art was actually in Yang Kai’s hands.
When it was suddenly presented before him, he was naturally ecstatic.
Yang Kai smiled and stood on one side, waiting for Ai Ou.
With time, Ai Ou’s expression changed in a flash. Excited, nervous, eager, happy... all kinds of expressions had appeared on his face.
After a long time, he suddenly broke into hearty laughter.
“Senior, did you get some gains?” Yang Kai asked with a smile.
Ai Ou looked at Yang Kai. His face finally softened as he nodded and said, “Kid, you are really good, you sure know how to please others. What is rare is that your status is not the slightest bit inferior to this King with your strength, but you still know how to respect elders. This King is very satisfied with this!”
“If Senior is satisfied, then nothing could be better.”
“I have accepted this thing. I will give the matter between Xue Yue and you a careful thought!”
Yang Kai smiled. He didn’t coerce him at all. Because since Ai Ou had said this, it meant that he had agreed to it. However, he was just trying to maintain a bit of face, that’s all.
“Come, walk with me. I want to ask you something.” Ai Ou’s past domineering attitude was nowhere to be seen. He had become a lot kinder.
Yang Kai nodded and said, “How can I disobey from Senior’s orders!”
Ai Ou looked extremely satisfied with Yang Kai’s attitude. He then started walking forward carrying his hands behind his back as he asked, “This King wants to know: How old are you this year?”
“This... I’m not too clear about this.” Yang Kai smiled with embarrassment. Since he left Tong Xuan Realm and entered the Star Field, he had been wandering from place to place. How could he have the time to calculate his own age. “I’m almost fifty to sixty years old.”
“Fifty to sixty years old?” Ai Ou’s face changed slightly. “Are you sure you are only this old?”
To an ordinary mortal, fifty to sixty years of age was old, but to cultivators, it was just the beginning.
Most of the Saint Grade cultivators and Saint King Grade cultivators had almost the same age.
Even some Transcendent Realm and Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators with poor aptitude were much older than this.
And Yang Kai was the Second-Order Origin King!
In the entire Star Field, every Origin King Realm cultivator was an old monster who had lived for hundreds or thousands of years. Without a solid foundation and accumulation over these many years, it was impossible to advance to the Origin King Realm!
Thus, after Ai Ou came to know that Yang Kai was just fifty-sixty years old, Ai Ou was shocked.
“I want to check your bone age. You won’t mind, right?” Ai Ou suspiciously looked at Yang Kai.
“Of course not!” Yang Kai smiled and proactively stretched his hand out.
Ai Ou reached out and put his fingers on his wrist, pouring his Divine Sense into Yang Kai’s hand. After having probed for a while, he let go of Yang Kai’s hand in shock.
Under his investigation, he discovered that Yang Kai was only a few decades old, there was no doubt about it. After all, even though a cultivator’s appearance will change because of an increase in strength, only the bones reflected the true age of the cultivator.
[How did this guy even cultivate?] Suddenly, Ai Ou felt that he had lived all these years in vain. What shocked him even more was the fact that, when he checked Yang Kai’s bone age, he discovered that Yang Kai’s vitality was simply shocking.
But right then, he was struck with the realization that it should be because Yang Kai had refined the Immortal Divine Tree!
President Ai Ou really believed that Yang Kai had refined the Immortal Divine Tree, and due to this very reason, Yang Kai had become a Second-Order Origin King in such a short period of time.
He took a deep breath and said sincerely, “With your talent, I believe that no girl is worthy of you in this Star Field. It’s Xue Yue’s blessing that you have taken a liking to her. This King can rest assured now.”
He finally agreed to the relationship between Yang Kai and Xue Yue.
After all, a genius like Yang Kai was born once a blue moon. And he was more than worthy of Xue Yue.
“However, this King needs to remind you of one thing,” Ai Ou suddenly said as if he had thought of something.
“Senior, please say.”
“Do you know about Xue Yue’s physique?” asked Ai Ou.
“Dragon Marrow Phoenix Body.” Yang Kai smiled. “If not for this Special Constitution, Xue Yue might not have been able to hoodwink the eyes of the entire Star Field. Her disguise would have been already seen through.”
“That’s right! Since you know about the Dragon Marrow Phoenix Body, you must be aware of the greatest effect of this physique.”
Yang Kai nodded with a weird look on his face.
Ai Ou forced a cough and said, looking a little embarrassed, “As an elder, it might not be appropriate for me to talk about this but I have to remind you, for your own good and Xue Yue, don’t do it too early... Hmm, you understand what I mean, right!? It won’t be too late when Xue Yue had made success in Martial Dao. I believe that a man of your temperament would show enough patience.”
“I understand.” Yang Kai couldn’t help but wipe the cold sweat off his forehead. It was embarrassing to talk about this matter with his future father-in-law.
“Hehe, as long as you understand it,” Ai Ou affectionately patted Yang Kai’s shoulder before sighing. “Don’t blame this King for being cold and unreasonable. You will understand why I did everything when you become a father.”
Yang Kai earnestly assured, “This Junior understands that Senior does everything out of his love for your daughter.”
“Great!” Ai Ou nodded, “Hmm, I was thinking of inviting you to join the Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce as a Foreign Elder. What do you think?”
“There’s no harm in it. I understand that Senior just wants to use my fame. I’m okay with that.”
“I knew it! I knew that you would notice this. Furthermore, you have just won an Alchemy competition with Zuo De. More importantly, I’ve already spread the word about you triggering the Grand Alchemic Dao Tone. I believe that this news will spread to the vast Star Field very soon. And with you as my Chamber of Commerce Foreign Elder, the Alchemists in the Star Field will come swarming! This time, I will make them beg to join the Chamber of Commerce, I don’t need to give them a face anymore. Hahaha!” Ai Ou broke into a hearty laugh as if he was finally going to have his revenge.
Yang Kai forced a smile. He realized that Ai Ou was quite angry with those temperamental Alchemists.
“Also, what about your bet with Zuo De? What should I do with the several dozen Origin King Grade pills each year? Where do you live? Where do you need this King to send them to you?” Ai Ou asked.
“No need. You can think of those pills as this junior’s betrothal gift!” Yang Kai said with a smile.
Ai Ou’s pupils immediately shrank. “Don’t you want them? It’s several dozen pills every year, a couple hundred pills every decade, a couple thousand pills every millennium. Those are Origin King Grade pills, not some ordinary pills!”
“Senior, you are forgetting something. I too am an Alchemist! I can refine those pills myself.”
Ai Ou couldn’t suppress his laughter. “So, you don’t think that this betrothal gift is enough, right!?”
Yang Kai pursued his lips into a smile. “Plus the Star Refining Art, and my Alchemist disciples...”
“Mhmm, it’s almost there!” Ai Ou cheerfully said.
“What if I add dozens of Inter-Star Space Arrays?” Yang Kai smiled slightly.
Ai Ou was dumbstruck for a second. He immediately asked in a low voice, “I just wanted to ask you about this. Can you really lay out this kind of Space Array, an Array that could transmit from one star to another?”
“Senior, since you know about this, then you should have come to know about it from Shen Tu. Didn’t Shen Tu tell you that he had tested it himself!?”
“Shen Tu informed me, but... this King found it hard to believe,” Ai Ou’s face turned serious. “My Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce is in control of Cultivation Stars, Ore Stars, and Medicine Stars, a total of eighteen stars! It costs me a fortune to transport material to and from these stars, so if you can really have a Space Array to connect them with each other, then you will be the benefactor of my entire Chamber of Commerce. Let alone marrying Xue Yue, this King can let you marry all of my daughters if you want!”
“Senior, you must be joking! Xue Yue is enough for me! And it has nothing to do with it.”
“Excellent! Sure enough, Xue Yue didn’t find the wrong person. Her vision is pretty good!” Having said this, Ai Ou suddenly added, “Come with me!”
Just as he said this, he started rushing ahead.
Yang Kai had no idea what Ai Ou wanted to do, but he still followed after him without asking any question.
Not long after, the two arrived before a heavily guarded palace. The palace front was guarded by cultivators in golden armour. What’s more, all these cultivators were surprisingly Second-Order Origin Returning Realm masters.
The palace was also surrounded by dense barriers.
It was quite evident that this place was the most important part of Water Sky City.
“Greetings, President,” many guards hastily greeted after noticing Ai Ou’s arrival.
Ai Ou nodded his acknowledgement as he led Yang Kai inside.