After arriving at the cityâs outskirts, Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen quickly found a flying boat.
Each boat could ferry one thousand people and there were three ticket categories.
The first-class ticket was for luxury suites and cost ten thousand spirit stones.
Below that was the second-class ticket which was for single rooms and the final class was hall tickets.
Although the distance between the Ice Palace city and the sect was not long, Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen did not want to wrong themselves.
They bought first-class tickets and soon boarded the flying boat.
However, they didnât stay too long in their room.
When the boat took off, they left the room and went to the boatâs restaurant.
The restaurant was large and many small tables were arranged on the floor.
After taking a seat at an empty table, the two made their order and began to eavesdrop.
"I heard the martial contest will be shown to the entire Ice Palace region using." A young man said, sounding a little excited.
"Why are you excited, wonât you see it first-hand?" Another sneered.
"Why do you care whether I am excited or not?" The first young man did not take the criticism lying down.
The two glared at each other and a young lady at their table sighed.
She pretended to be angry but she was secretly happy.
After all, she was the reason they couldnât stand the sight of each other.
âStupid fools. Do they believe they deserve me?â She thought but her face had a beautiful smile.
"Stop arguing you two." She said in a sweet voice.
"Senior sister, he is the one who started it."
"Would I mention it if you didnât act like a fool?"
"Okay... okay." The senior sister said and pretended to be annoyed.
"Senior sister, donât be annoyed." The second young man said and glared at the other man.
However, he didnât continue to argue and their table returned to calm.
"Itâs good for the martial contest to be shown everywhere. "The girl said and her face was a little nostalgic.
The two young men looked at each other and both had a bad face.
When he saw this, Jiang Yue glanced at Yu Nianzhen but the swordsman was also at a loss.
Jiang Yue didnât really care about what was happening with the three but he was a little caught up in the drama and wanted to watch a good show.
Unfortunately, the three turned back to the topic of the Ice Palace meeting.
"The Ice Palace sect is sure to bleed this time around. Using the image stone to show the martial contest to the entire region will consume a lot of spirit stones."
"Is it possible for the Ice Palace sect to bleed without making others bleed more?" One of the young men sneered.
"You are right. I previously came to the Ice Palace city and the entrance fee was only ten thousand spirit stones. The current fee is ten times the original fee."
"Even the inns are several times more expensive."
"Anyway, too many things happened at the same time." The girl said and the young men looked at her.
"The Cangxing list just came out and the Nine Treasures secret realm is about to open. Itâs inevitable for the Ice Palace sect to take advantage."
"Speaking of the Cangxing list, I heard that the top ten did not receive any rewards this time round." One of the young men said with schadenfreude.
He didnât have anything against the top ten but he didnât like to see others get better.
"Our Cangxing world is strange lately." The girl said and frowned.
"Senior sister, do you know something?"
"How can I know anything?"
After that, the young woman chuckled and promptly changed the subject.
Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen looked at each other and saw the doubt in the otherâs eyes.
From the girlâs reaction, they felt she knew something.
However, they couldnât guess what it was and this was not the time to care about it.
After all, the conference would start soon after they arrived and they didnât have a chance to interrogate the girl.
[Let it go for the time being.] Yu Nianzhen transmitted.
[I know.]
Since the three began to talk about mundane things, Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen shifted their attention to other tables.
As they ate their meal, they gained a general idea of what was happening in the Ice Palace region.
They knew the names of famous heroes who arrived to compete for the identity of Bing Lanâs fiancĂ©e.
They also knew more about the auction planned by the BlueStar Treasure pavilion and more importantly, they learned about a betting pool!
No one knew who started it but a betting pool to predict Bing Lanâs eventual fiancĂ©e had suddenly emerged several months ago.
According to rumour, the pool already had more than two billion spirit stones.
[I want to place a bet.] Jiang Yue said excitedly.
As soon as he heard about the bet, he felt this was a sent heaven-sent opportunity.
He and Yu Nianzhen had a lot of spirit stones but their consumption was also high.
He always felt that they could never have enough spirit stones.
Since they were confident in their performance, why not bet on master Yang and win a large pot?
[Master Yangâs odds are low. If we bet on him, we should be able to harvest a lot of spirit stones.] He insisted.
[You donât have to convince me.] Yu Nianzhen said and clenched his hands.
From what they heard; his masterâs odds were humiliatingly low. Master Yang was not even considered among the top ten contenders.
Even though his cultivation had risen and he topped the core formation category of the Cangxing ranking, no one was convinced.
Yang Xuâs injury was too severe and could not be healed by ordinary treasures.
Others believed Yang Xu was lucky to encounter a good treasure that slightly alleviated his injury.
However, the treasure was not enough to fully repair his origin.
As long as Yang Xuâs origin was not repaired, he was still a waste who couldnât break through to the nascent soul realm.
[How much do you want to bet?] Jiang Yue asked.
Yu Nianzhen thought about it and then turned to Jiang Yue.
[How many spirit stones do we have?]
[Excluding the peak-grade spirit stones, we have close to three billion. Do you want to bet all of it?]
[I will let you decide.]
Jiang Yue chuckled and already understood what his husband meant.
[Letâs bet all of it.] He said.
When Yu Nianzhen heard that, his eyes softened and he rubbed his husbandâs head.
[As I thought, XiaoYue is the one who knows me best.]
Jiang Yue rolled his eyes but was pleased by his husbandâs praise.
[We will wait until the last moment and then make the bet.] Yu Nianzhen said.
Jiang Yue laughed and stuffed a piece of meat into his husbandâs mouth.
"Your black belly is too evil." He said and continued to chuckle.
"Are you happy?"
"Happy."
"Good."
After they finished their meal, the two returned to their room and sent a message to Yang Xu.
It was only a few hours before the start of the birthday party and they wanted to meet up with master Yang as soon as they landed.
"What did the master say?" Jiang Yue asked.
"He will let someone pick us up from the gate and take us to him." Yu Nianzhen said and gave the communication token to his husband.
Jiang Yue read the message and heaved a sigh of relief.
"He sounds normal."
"Mmmmh." Yu Nianzhen nodded.
Before either could speak, the token received another message and Jiang Yue read it.
"He says that the sect has appointed four origin tempering realm cultivators to fight for him. Whatâs this about?" Jiang Yue said and frowned.
"Master insisted that I must participate on his behalf. The sect couldnât do anything about it and they probably want to make sure the sect wonât lose too much face."
"How duplicitous." Jiang Yue sneered.
"You are right. Itâs unlikely that the so-called champions will do their best."
"It doesnât matter. Master wonât lose as long as we are there."
"Your confidence is a bit..."
When Jiang Yue said that, his eyes lowered and his lips curled in a seductive smile.
Yu Nianzhen saw his husbandâs appearance and couldnât summon any resistance.
He place his hands around Jiang Yueâs waist, lifted him, and sat him on his lap.
A moment later, their lips interlocked and their blood became a little hot.
In the remaining time, the two entangled each other and didnât stop until the flying boat stopped on a huge glacier.
They hurriedly fixed their appearance and disembarked from the boat, hand in hand.
"Have we arrived?" Jiang Yue asked and his voice was a little doubtful.
The reason for his doubt was because there was nothing as far as his eyes could see.