Chapter 65: Shen Xueyi

Damian had barely left his Guest Elder residence with Mu Qingyao and the four youngsters when another group approached from the direction of the Evergreen Sect’s teleportation formation.

This group was considerably smaller than the delegation he had met yesterday as there were only two people.

The first was immediately recognizable.

Lan Ruyue walked forward in the flowing blue robes of the Azure Water Sect, her mature features carrying the same warm and approachable smile she had worn during their first meeting.

Her voluptuous figure remained just as difficult for clothing to conceal as before, though Damian’s attention only rested upon her briefly before moving toward the second person.

A young woman walked beside Lan Ruyue, and she was completely different compared to her.

Where Lan Ruyue felt like a deep, gentle river, the younger woman resembled a frozen lake beneath winter moonlight.

Her long black hair fell neatly behind her, partially decorated by delicate silver ornaments, while a pale-blue veil concealed everything beneath her eyes.

She possessed a slender and graceful figure wrapped in elegant Azure Water Sect robes, every step controlled enough that her clothing barely stirred despite the wind.

More striking was her temperament that was absolutely detached and cold.

She did not seem to be deliberately arrogant, nor did she carry the aggressive disdain Damian had encountered from cultivators who believed everyone beneath them should naturally kneel.

She simply seemed distant.

An iceberg did not hate the fisherman sailing around it.

It merely existed in a state where his opinion was irrelevant.

Mu Qingyao saw her and visibly faltered.

"Shen Xueyi?!"

Damian’s eyebrows rose slightly, as that reaction told him the newcomer was not ordinary.

Shen Xueyi’s gaze shifted toward Mu Qingyao, though her expression remained hidden beneath the veil and her eyes showed almost no change.

"Elder Mu."

Even her voice was cool, controlled to a degree that made warmth difficult to find.

Damian’s <Divine Sense> brushed over her almost reflexively, and another point immediately stood out.

Late Qi Condensation.

She was far stronger than Mu Qingyao.

The realization became even more interesting when Damian noticed the complicated look Mu Qingyao gave her.

Lan Ruyue approached first and cupped her hands.

"Fellow Daoist Damian, Elder Mu. It seems we arrived at an inconvenient moment."

"Not really. We were just heading out," Damian replied while returning the greeting.

Lan Ruyue smiled before gesturing toward her companion.

"This is my daughter, Shen Xueyi. She is a direct disciple of the Azure Water Sect and currently stands within the late stages of Qi Condensation."

Mu Qingyao’s lips pursed slightly.

That introduction was technically modest, in fact, too modest.

Shen Xueyi was not merely a talented disciple.

She was the Azure Water Sect’s number one beauty and, more importantly, the young cultivator widely regarded as possessing the greatest chance of entering Foundation Establishment among their generation.

Some even believed she represented the Azure Water Sect’s best hope of producing another Foundation Establishment cultivator within the present century.

Damian gave her a more interested look.

That part mattered significantly more than the reputation surrounding her appearance.

Lan Ruyue reached into her sleeve and produced a dark silver ring.

"I also came to fulfill yesterday’s promise."

She held it toward Damian.

"The agreed compensation is inside."

Damian accepted the ring.

Mu Qingyao’s eyes immediately widened.

Even Jian Rui and the other three youngsters reacted.

"A Storage Ring?" Shen Lian muttered before catching herself.

Damian glanced down at the object.

He had already encountered Storage Bags throughout Shengyuan, but a Storage Ring was clearly another level of treasure.

Hmm, the thing was smaller and far more convenient to carry around.

And judging by the expressions around him, considerably more expensive.

Lan Ruyue had not simply delivered the one hundred Condensing Essence Pills, fifty Essence Surge Pills and twenty Essence Purifying Pills she promised.

The Azure Water Sect had placed all of them inside a Storage Ring and apparently included the ring itself as part of the apology.

Damian looked toward Lan Ruyue.

"How generous of you."

"It is merely a token showing that yesterday’s mistake will not be repeated," Lan Ruyue answered pleasantly.

Mu Qingyao said nothing, her lips thinning.

The Azure Water Sect was really going all out.

The medicinal resources alone were painful enough to their treasury, but adding a Storage Ring on top of that meant Lan Ruyue had clearly decided that repairing Damian’s impression of them was more important than preserving face or wealth.

Unfortunately...

Mu Qingyao’s gaze shifted toward Shen Xueyi.

The Storage Ring was not the only thing Lan Ruyue had brought.

’So that’s what you’re doing? Shameless!’

Mu Qingyao felt her mood sour.

There was no possible way Shen Xueyi’s presence was coincidence.

Across the Azure Water Sector, countless young men dreamed of merely glimpsing the face hidden beneath that veil.

The veil itself was not worn for mystique, but because Shen Xueyi’s appearance genuinely created trouble.

Mu Qingyao knew because she had seen that face before.

And she also knew, with the uncomfortable honesty women sometimes possessed when judging one another, that she could not defeat Shen Xueyi in facial beauty.

Mu Qingyao could walk openly through Evergreen Immortal City without causing chaos while Shen Xueyi generally could not.

That alone explained the difference.

Mu Qingyao remembered Damian’s reaction upon first seeing her.

The staring, the obvious appreciation, and the utterly shameless pleasure he had taken in looking at her.

Her gaze quickly moved toward him.

Surely this time, he would also be smitten, right?

Mu Qingyao paused when her eyes fell upon him, because Damian was indeed looking at Shen Xueyi very closely, and with obvious interest.

But...

That was all.

He did not appear stunned nor were his eyes carrying anything close to the level of attraction Mu Qingyao had grown accustomed to seeing whenever Damian looked at her.

If anything, his gaze resembled someone inspecting a beautifully crafted painting.

There was appreciation, curiosity, and a strange gleam, but very little hunger.

Mu Qingyao blinked, then her eyes narrowed.

Why did she suddenly feel as though Damian could see through the veil?

Well, that would be because the fellow naturally could.

Between <Truesight> and <Divine Sense>, a piece of cloth hiding someone’s face had approximately the same effectiveness as placing a curtain over a window while leaving the wall transparent.

Damian could see Shen Xueyi’s features perfectly.

If he possessed less basic decency, he suspected he could probably develop the infamous X-rated version of this trick and become every degenerate protagonist’s dream.

Fortunately, Damian was not nearly desperate enough to start using supernatural perception as magical see-through vision.

Her face, however, was fair game when the only barrier was a public veil intended to obscure recognition.

And Damian had to admit something.

Shen Xueyi was beautiful, ridiculously so.

Her facial features approached the kind of symmetry people on Earth would assume had been digitally edited.

Her skin was nearly flawless, her nose delicate, her lips naturally shaped and her eyes possessed an icy clarity that complemented the rest of her appearance perfectly.

A sculptor could spend a lifetime trying to reproduce that face and still become angry at the final result.

But Damian did not feel particularly overwhelmed.

There were several reasons.

The first was simply that facial beauty eventually encountered diminishing returns.

At a certain point, symmetry became near-perfect, skin became flawless, and features became delicate and proportionate.

The face gradually approached what people on Earth would casually call ’elfin’ beauty.

That sounded impressive until Damian remembered that Julia was an actual elf.

He had already spent days around literal fantasy races whose natural features would cause modeling agencies on Earth to begin civil wars.

Once someone had seen the real thing, merely approaching it stopped being supernatural.

Secondly, Damian’s attraction had never been determined by facial beauty alone.

Shen Xueyi’s face might have been a twelve on a scale that traditionally ended at ten, but the rest of her beauty leaned toward slender elegance.

She was graceful, fine-boned, and delicate.

Her figure certainly possessed feminine curves, yet everything about her remained restrained and light.

Damian’s preferences tended toward a fuller balance.

Mu Qingyao’s face might not inspire poets to throw themselves off mountains, but she was still extremely beautiful, and her voluptuous figure amplified that attraction in precisely the direction Damian personally appreciated.

Ophelia was another obvious example.

Put Ophelia and Shen Xueyi before him and demand that he choose based purely upon physical attraction?

Damian would choose Ophelia without needing a committee meeting.

That was not an objective judgment of who was more beautiful, it was simply taste.

And taste did not care about rankings.

Finally, there was desensitization, and earth had already begun that process.

Social media, films, advertisements and an endless stream of carefully selected photographs meant modern people could see more extraordinarily attractive faces in one evening than their ancestors might encounter throughout an entire lifetime.

Then Damian arrived in Valoria and Shengyuan.

During little more than a week, he had somehow encountered an elf beauty, multiple beastwomen, powerful Mages who apparently treated gravity as a personal enemy, stunning cultivators and enough attractive people that genuinely ugly faces were beginning to feel rarer than beautiful ones.

At some point, the brain adjusted.

A teenage boy could become tongue-tied because his perfectly ordinary school crush smiled at him once.

Ten years later, that same man might watch a world-famous supermodel walk past, think ’damn, she fine af’, and continue buying groceries.

Shen Xueyi was gorgeous.

Damian appreciated that fact, then continued going about his life.

For some reason, Mu Qingyao found that extremely satisfying.

Lan Ruyue noticed the entire exchange, her lips almost twitched.

Interesting, very interesting!

Damian slipped the Storage Ring onto one finger before cupping his hands toward Shen Xueyi.

"Damian Baines. Nice to meet you."

Shen Xueyi returned the greeting with perfect etiquette.

"Shen Xueyi greets Fellow Daoist Damian. My mother has spoken highly of you. I hope my unexpected presence causes no inconvenience."

Having a cold demeanour did not mean rude.

Shen Xueyi’s every movement was refined, and her every word appropriate.

Damian nodded. "I’ve survived worse inconveniences."

Lan Ruyue’s eyes then shifted toward the gathering surrounding him.

Mu Qingyao was present, and so were all four youngsters usually assigned around Damian.

"You appear to have somewhere important to go. May I ask what Fellow Daoist Damian intended to do before we interrupted?"

Damian considered the question, then smiled.

Actually...

This was useful!

"We’re going to perform some controlled tests on several of the products I showed yesterday."

Lan Ruyue’s eyes lit up instantly.

The Azure Water Sect had clearly tested the three ordinary potions already.

There was no other reasonable explanation for how quickly Lan Ruyue returned with both the promised compensation and an attitude suggesting the Azure Water Sect had suddenly discovered religion.

Seeing was always believing.

Apparently, they had seen plenty.

"If Fellow Daoist Damian does not object, may we observe?" Lan Ruyue asked immediately.

"Sure, why not?" Damian assented with a chuckle.

"Then we would be honored." Lan Ruyue smiled and bowed gently in gratitude.

They were about to continue when Shen Xueyi stepped forward.

"Elder Mu."

Mu Qingyao looked toward her. "Yes?"

Shen Xueyi’s gaze settled calmly upon her.

"I wish to purchase the Demon Beast Core Fellow Daoist Damian transferred to the Evergreen Sect yesterday."

The temperature of the gathering seemed to fall.

Damian’s eyebrows rose.

Oh?

He folded his arms.

Was this Lan Ruyue’s real reason for bringing her daughter?

Damian glanced at the older woman.

One look at Lan Ruyue’s suddenly dark expression answered that question.

Apparently not, heh.

Mu Qingyao’s expression cooled. "The Demon Beast Core is not for sale."

"I am willing to consider any reasonable price," Shen Xueyi pressed without giving up.

"No." Mu Qingyao answered with a tone of finality.

Shen Xueyi remained completely composed. "Elder Mu should reconsider."

"I already have." Mu Qingyao retorted with a hint of coldness.

"The Demon Beast Core is being wasted in the Evergreen Sect." Shen Xueyi finally stopped holding back and spoke bluntly.

Mu Qingyao’s eyes sharpened at that, while the four youngsters went silent.

Lan Ruyue closed her eyes briefly as though experiencing the first signs of a headache.

Shen Xueyi continued with the same detached honesty.

"The Evergreen Sect currently possesses no young cultivator at peak Qi Condensation capable of properly exploiting the opportunity created by a Foundation Establishment Pill. Elder Mu herself remains years away from peak Qi Condensation under ordinary circumstances."

Mu Qingyao’s body trembled, not because the statement was insulting, but because it was true.

Ugly truths had always possessed sharper teeth than beautiful lies.

Mu Jianhong remained incapacitated while the Evergreen Sect’s younger generation lacked anyone currently positioned at the threshold of Foundation Establishment.

Even Mu Qingyao, one of their greatest hopes, still had considerable cultivation ahead of her.

Meanwhile, Shen Xueyi already stood in late Qi Condensation.

If a Foundation Establishment Pill were refined soon, everyone in the Azure Water Sector knew who stood among the best candidates to use it.

Lan Ruyue finally intervened. "Xueyi, enough!"

Shen Xueyi turned slightly. "Mother, I am only stating—"

"I know what you are stating." Lan Ruyue’s voice remained calm, but there was gloom and severity beneath it.

She glanced furtively toward Damian.

Yesterday, she might have allowed this conversation to continue.

She might even have subtly supported her daughter, applying the weight of the Azure Water Sect, their alliance and the approaching war until Mu Qingyao began considering whether keeping the resource was truly rational.

Today though? Absolutely not!

Lan Ruyue had already learned what happened when greed collided with Damian’s interests.

Worse, even a blind woman could tell Damian held unusual affection toward Mu Qingyao.

Pressuring her over the very treasure Damian jokingly called a bride price would be spectacularly stupid.

"Elder Mu has already answered. The Demon Beast Core belongs to the Evergreen Sect now. We will not pressure an ally to surrender property it does not wish to sell," Lan Ruyue stated firmly.

Shen Xueyi became silent.

Mu Qingyao looked directly at her.

"The answer remains no. Whether the Evergreen Sect uses it tomorrow, ten years from now or keeps it locked away for a century is our concern."

That ended it.

Unfortunately, the atmosphere had become about as pleasant as a funeral held during a tax audit.

Jian Rui looked uncomfortable, Bo Wen appeared to be considering whether breathing too loudly might attract attention, while Lin Meiyu and Shen Lian suddenly found the surrounding architecture fascinating.

Even Lan Ruyue looked tired.

Damian watched the two younger women for another moment before clapping his hands.

"Alright, alright."

Everyone looked toward him.

"We were going somewhere before this turned into a strategic-resource divorce hearing."

Mu Qingyao gave him a strange look while Shen Xueyi remained expressionless.

Damian smiled innocently.

"Mu Qingyao, lead the way. I need access to one of the Evergreen Sect’s medicinal gardens or any proper Spirit Planting area where we can conduct controlled tests."

Mu Qingyao exhaled slowly. "Very well, Lord Damian."

She turned and began leading the group, and Shen Xueyi followed after a brief pause.

The issue was shelved.

It was not forgotten, and definitely not resolved emotionally, but shelved.

Damian walked between both delegations as though nothing particularly interesting had happened.

Behind him, Jian Rui and the other youngsters exchanged restrained looks.

Lan Ruyue released a nearly inaudible sigh.

The two most famous young beauties associated with the major righteous sects of the Azure Water Sector now walked within several meters of one another beneath an atmosphere sharp enough to shave with.

And somehow, Damian Baines had become the person casually standing between them.

The testing had not even begun yet, and already, everyone except Damian felt exhausted.