CEO and Cinderella

"As if I'm afraid of you!" Xiang Tianwen retorted, unwilling to show weakness.

For a moment, the two sides were like a needle against an awl, locked in a tense standoff.

The atmosphere in the venue instantly heated up. Those present were all proud and arrogant young prodigies. With such personalities, friction was inevitable, and their Dao Protectors would not intervene.

This was an unspoken rule.

The struggle for the Great Dao naturally required fighting with others. Being a flower in a greenhouse simply wouldn't do. Therefore, as long as lives were not in danger, Dao Protectors generally wouldn't make a move; otherwise, it would be breaking the rules.

Just as the situation was at its most volatile, exclamations suddenly rang out from the entrance.

"It's Dao Child Jietian!"

"Dao Child Jietian is here!"

The crowd originally watching Wan Tiancheng and his rival all turned to look at the entrance. Clearly, Dao Child Jietian's reputation was far greater.

A man dressed in a pristine white Daoist robe walked over gracefully. He had a gentle face and a temperament as mild as jade. The spring breeze like smile on his face easily won people's favor.

He was followed by an expert at the late stage of the Immortal King realm.

"Greetings, Dao Child Jietian."

"Fellow Daoist Jietian, long time no see."

The crowd stepped forward to greet him one after another. Dao Child Jietian didn't put on any airs and responded to them one by one.

Dao Child Jietian was the successor of the Heaven Severing Sect, an ancient supreme orthodox lineage. His status was incredibly noble, and his talent was outstanding, making him arguably the number one person below the Immortal King realm.

Even though these young prodigies refused to submit to one another, making it hard to determine who was second, Dao Child Jietian's position as the first was absolutely undisputed.

Moreover, the Ancient Immortal City was the property of the Heaven Severing Sect, making Dao Child Jietian the equivalent of the host.

"Fellow Daoist Wan, Fellow Daoist Xiang, what is the meaning of this?" Dao Child Jietian noticed the two men at each other's throats and asked with a smile.

Proud as Wan Tiancheng was, he couldn't help but slightly lower his posture in the face of Dao Child Jietian's inquiry.

"Greetings, Dao Child Jietian. There's nothing going on between us. It's just that I haven't seen Fellow Daoist Xiang in a long time, and I wanted to see if he has made any progress recently."

Dao Child Jietian nodded and smiled, "Sparring among peers is inevitable, but please remember to know your limits and avoid damaging the harmony between you."

The moment he spoke, he carried the tone of an elder, faintly treating the group of Quasi Immortal Kings present as juniors. He was clearly carrying himself as if he were already an Immortal King.

Yet, everyone present felt this was only natural.

Because Dao Child Jietian's brilliance was simply too dazzling, dazzling enough to be mentioned in the same breath as an Immortal King.

Legend had it that not only was his talent exceptional, but he also possessed immense providence. When he was born, purple qi came from the east, and ten thousand cranes came to pay homage. The grand momentum of such a phenomenon directly attracted the Sect Master of the Heaven Severing Sect. After inspecting his aptitude, the Sect Master bluntly stated that this child had the bearing of an Immortal King and took him in as a personal disciple.

At the age of three, he mistakenly ate a spirit fruit out of playfulness. It was later discovered that what he had eaten was an ancient rare treasure, the Profound Heaven Spirit Fruit, which directly forged a supreme Dao foundation for him.

At the age of five, while he was cultivating in his cave dwelling, a heavily injured and dying True Dragon fell from the sky and landed right in front of him. Afterward, using the dragon's blood for a baptism, his physique became comparable to that of an ancient vicious beast.

At the age of ten, an immortal crane carrying an immortal sword descended from the sky. Astonishingly, it was an ownerless Immortal King weapon.

At sixteen, he went out to gain experience, accidentally entered the cave dwelling of an ancient Immortal King, and obtained an ancient inheritance.

From then on, his fortuitous encounters never ceased, a small one every three years and a major one every ten years. Coupled with his outstanding talent and the guidance of a famous master, he truly rose higher with every step.

He directly became the youngest Quasi Immortal King in history.

Furthermore, rumors said that he could have broken through to the Immortal King realm long ago, but had been suppressing his cultivation merely to solidify his foundation.

Despite only being at the Quasi Immortal King realm, he had once fought above his realm and defeated an early stage Immortal King expert. Ordinary early stage Immortal Kings were no match for him at all.

With such strength, naturally, none of the young prodigies present dared to compete with him.

"I'd like to ask Dao Child Jietian to serve as a witness, lest Fellow Daoist Xiang refuses to admit his defeat later," Wan Tiancheng mocked.

"Hmph! So much nonsense," Xiang Tianwen snorted coldly.

The two sides were once again at daggers drawn. Seeing this, the crowd cleared a space, and Dao Child Jietian set up a formation to prevent the venue from being destroyed.

The battle immediately began.

The two had deep seated grievances. The moment the battle started, they went all out, not bothering with any probing attacks.

For a time, immortal light was resplendent, and rumbling sounds echoed incessantly.

Everyone watched with rapt attention. Only Gu Qingfeng felt a lack of interest. He quietly retreated behind the crowd and disappeared into the throng.

Gu Qingfeng felt that almost everyone had arrived. He needed to prepare in advance to prevent them from escaping.

Like a ghost, he shuttled through the periphery of the Blue Sky Lake. At every spot he visited, he shot out several streaks of demonic light, setting up a formation.

He planned to catch them like turtles in a jar by setting up a formation that only allowed entry but no exit, enveloping the entire Blue Sky Lake.

When the time came, jie jie jie...

This was a case of learning from past mistakes. From now on, before making a move, he absolutely couldn't alert the snake by beating the grass. He had to make foolproof preparations. Although the people present didn't have high cultivation bases, who knew if they had any hidden trump cards?

What if someone had obtained the inheritance of a Half Step Immortal Lord from the previous epoch and possessed some life saving escape methods? Wouldn't that be letting a cooked duck fly away?

Meanwhile, as Gu Qingfeng was setting up his formation, Dao Child Jietian, who had been watching the battle, also felt extremely bored. With his strength, watching Wan Tiancheng and the other fight was no different from watching toddlers brawl. He had no interest whatsoever.

He scanned the venue out of sheer boredom. Suddenly, his gaze paused, and a flash of astonishment crossed his eyes. He fixed his eyes on a corner, landing on Yan Lingxue.

At this moment, Yan Lingxue was secretly eating immortal fruits. She was even less bothered to watch a battle between Quasi Immortal Kings; she might as well eat some immortal fruits.

It wasn't that she was gluttonous. As a Half Step Immortal Lord, what good things hadn't she eaten in the previous epoch? It was mainly because Gu Qingfeng had sucked her dry multiple times, leaving her strength unrecovered and stuck at the True Immortal level.

Deeply feeling her low strength, she took advantage of the absence of that devil Gu Qingfeng to quickly eat some immortal fruits and recover more of her strength. After all, the higher her strength, the greater her chances of escaping his demonic clutches.

This scene fell into Dao Child Jietian's eyes, making his heart skip a beat. He found it uniquely adorable and felt that Yan Lingxue was exceptionally different from the rest.

It was just like in a melodramatic soap opera, where a domineering CEO attends a high class banquet and spots a commoner girl. Instead of currying favor or socializing, she is secretly eating the pastries at the banquet.

With her cheeks puffed out as she chewed, she looked like a cute little squirrel.

Of course, all of this had a prerequisite: she had to be beautiful.

Yan Lingxue's cuteness actually had nothing to do with her eating. It was mainly because she was beautiful; whatever she did looked good.

Dao Child Jietian suppressed the strange feeling in his heart, casually picked a delicate and small, rich red immortal fruit, and walked gracefully toward Yan Lingxue.

Yan Lingxue, who was frantically gnawing on an emerald green immortal fruit, suddenly heard a gentle voice coming from behind her.

"Miss, what you are eating is an Emerald Spirit Fruit. It is crisp and sweet, but eating too many might cause cold energy to enter your body. It is best to eat it with this Crimson Cloud Fruit to neutralize the cold energy. You see, the Emerald Spirit Fruit and the Crimson Cloud Fruit are a perfect match."

Yan Lingxue paused her gnawing on the Emerald Spirit Fruit, glanced at Dao Child Jietian with his greasy smile, and rolled her eyes as if looking at an idiot. Then, she resumed gnawing, completely too lazy to pay him any attention.

Dao Child Jietian's smile stiffened slightly, but he quickly recovered. Far from feeling discouraged, his interest was thoroughly piqued. He even found her eye-roll to be rather endearing.

She was the first woman to ever ignore him when he took the initiative to strike up a conversation.