Chapter 185
Chapter 185: Groom Selection (3)
“You……you're back?”
The Phoenix Sovereign's voice trembled.
A thousand years of waiting. Countless days and nights of anguish.
The moment she caught that familiar scent, it all dissolved into tears.
The wavelength of his soul hadn't changed. That face…
hadn't changed either.
The Phoenix Sovereign was absolutely certain—the man standing before her.
Was the Dragon God she had waited a thousand years for!
Yet, faced with this peerless beauty's deep and ardent gaze.
Jiang Nan's face remained completely, utterly unmoved.
He tilted his head slightly downward, looking at the Phoenix Sovereign who stood so close.
No tender embrace. No pleasantries exchanged after a long separation.
Jiang Nan simply reached into his pocket and produced a slip of note paper.
With one sweeping stroke of the pen, he slapped it against the Phoenix Sovereign's proud chest.
The Phoenix Sovereign froze.
She looked down, and on the note, written in bold, sweeping strokes, was a single line.
【No betrothal gifts.】
【Dowry: Painting of Mortal Hearth-Fire, River-and-Mountain Brush.】
Having slapped down the note, Jiang Nan looked down at her from above.
“Getting married or not?”
Dead silence.
The entire hall plunged into a silence so absolute one could hear a pin drop.
Xiao Que's eyeballs nearly popped right out of their sockets!
The Dragon God was actually planning to live off a woman!
But wasn't this going a bit too far!
Not a single coin in betrothal gifts, yet he had the audacity to demand a dowry?!
And yet, contrary to everyone's expectations.
The Phoenix Sovereign first stared wide-eyed in stunned disbelief, then—rather than flying into a rage—let out a scoffing laugh.
The laughter grew louder and louder.
Until at last she was laughing so hard her whole body swayed, tears of mirth spilling from the corners of her eyes.
“Hehehe…hahahaha!”
The Phoenix Sovereign gazed at Jiang Nan with rapt adoration.
‘Yes. This was exactly it!’
‘This unreasonable, overbearing arrogance. This contempt that treated every soul in existence as nothing but cattle.’
‘No one else in this entire world but that man could ever be like this!’
“You want the 【Painting of Mortal Hearth-Fire】and the【River-and-Mountain Brush】as your dowry?”
The Phoenix Sovereign extended her jade arm, draping it suggestively over Jiang Nan's shoulder.
“But of course.”
“As long as you marry me, this Forest of the Middle Grove is yours, those two spirit instruments are yours, and even I…”
“Am completely and entirely yours.”
“Whatever you want to do…”
“You can do it…”
She rose onto her tiptoes, pressing her cheek against Jiang Nan's ear.
“You only need to say one thing…that you love me.”
Warm fragrance, soft jade in his arms—any normal man would have long since lost his composure by now.
Jiang Nan was a normal man, and he couldn't deny it—the Phoenix Sovereign before him was genuinely stunning.
Her figure, even more so, was beyond reproach. That air of nobility fused with a fragile volatility was more than enough to make any man's lower head instantly surrender.
But.
Jiang Nan's upper head maintained absolute calm and reason.
He had no memories.
Faced with a woman who was deeply devoted to him, if he were to casually utter dishonest words of love just to get two pieces of equipment—that would be deceit.
He, Jiang Nan, might be scheming…
arrogant…
ruthless.
But he disdained deceiving a woman's feelings.
And so, Jiang Nan raised his hand and pushed the Phoenix Sovereign away from his shoulder.
He met her eyes without any evasion, and spoke calmly.
“No.”
“Because I've lost my memories.”
Those two sentences were like two sharp blades, instantly piercing through the heart that had only just begun to reawaken inside the Phoenix Sovereign!
The smile on the Phoenix Sovereign's face froze instantly.
“You…what did you say?”
She stared at Jiang Nan in disbelief, her footsteps stumbling backward uncontrollably.
“Amnesia? You've forgotten me?! Impossible!”
“You're a liar! How could you ever forget me!”
“Do you know how long I've waited for you in this sunless, starless Soul-Return Town?!”
“A thousand years! I've lost count even of that!”
The Phoenix Sovereign's emotions began to spiral out of control. Her suppressive pressure surged through the hall, rattling and shattering the surrounding furnishings.
Jiang Nan stood in place, still unmoved.
He could hear the pain and despair in her words—but having no memories meant having no memories.
“I'm sorry.”
Jiang Nan repeated those two words once more.
Since he couldn't give her what she wanted, there was no need to offer meaningless hope.
Upon hearing those two words, the Phoenix Sovereign's psychological defenses collapsed entirely.
“Get out!”
She pointed at the hall's entrance, tears bursting from her eyes.
“Take your hollow apologies and get out of my sight!!!”
“Yes, my lady, please calm your anger! My lady, please don't let this damage your health!”
Xiao Que rushed forward to support the swaying Phoenix Sovereign, continuously patting her back to soothe her.
And Jiang Nan?
The moment he heard those words to leave, he didn't hesitate for even half a second—he turned directly and walked toward the hall's exit.
It didn't matter.
He hadn't come here planning to win through some back door anyway.
Since negotiations had collapsed, so be it. In the coming selection tournament—
he would simply use brute force to crush this wretched town from top to bottom.
Tap tap tap…
Listening to those footsteps growing ever more distant.
The Phoenix Sovereign, supported by Xiao Que, lifted her head and watched Jiang Nan's resolute retreating figure, trembling all over with rage.
“He actually…really left?!”
The Phoenix Sovereign could barely believe her own eyes. That faithless man—she had only snapped at him in the heat of the moment.
He hadn't even tried to coax her, not even once. He'd simply yanked his…
No wait—yanked his legs out from under himself and walked away without a shred of feeling?!
“Phoenix Sovereign, my lady! Please calm down!”
Xiao Que was sweating anxiously beside her and quickly began to reason with her.
“My lady, think about it carefully! That lord may truly have lost his memories!”
“Have you forgotten?”
“Thousands of years ago, when the Dragon bloodlines of Dragon-Summer Imperial City collectively wailed in grief, everyone personally witnessed the shattering of his Divine Nature!”
“With the Blazing Flame Realm and the Savage Realm completely severed from each other!”
“For him to stand here again—he must have paid a devastating price to reincarnate and return!”
Xiao Que pointed at Jiang Nan's retreating figure and cried out.
“Look at his aura now—though it is sharp, it doesn't even reach one ten-thousandth of his peak!”
“He has lost his power, lost his memories—but all of it is the price he paid just to come back!”
At these words.
The Phoenix Sovereign's collapsing emotions instantly stilled, as though a bucket of cold water had been poured over her head, bringing her fully back to her senses.
That's right! The dead end back then was irreversible!
For him to defy death itself and return to stand before her—even if he had only forgotten her.
Was that not already the greatest miracle imaginable?!
How could she still ask for so much more?
Just now…just now she had actually told him to get out?!
“Damn it! What was I thinking!”
The Phoenix Sovereign slapped her own forehead in frustration and hurriedly pushed Xiao Que beside her.
“Quick! Go stop him!”
“Do not let him leave the Forest of the Middle Grove under any circumstances!”
“Clear out the highest-grade Roosting Phoenix Pavilion for him and take him there to stay!”
Xiao Que let out a breath of relief, nodding over and over with delight.
“Yes! This servant will go at once! I guarantee I'll coax the Drag—”
“—coax that lord back for you, my lady!”
With that, Xiao Que lifted her emerald green skirt and shot out of the hall like a gust of wind.
“My lord! Candidate lord, please wait! Wait for this servant!”
Out on the corridor of the Forest of the Middle Grove, Xiao Que caught up to Jiang Nan breathlessly.
She spread her arms wide, blocking his path, and said urgently.
“My lord, the Phoenix Sovereign has given the order—the highest-grade 【Roosting Phoenix Pavilion】of this Forest of the Middle Grove has been cleared for your use!”
“Please rest here for now—nowhere outside can compare to the comfort here!”
Jiang Nan stopped walking, not a flicker of emotion crossing his face.
He cast Xiao Que an indifferent glance, his voice cool.
“No need. I'll find lodgings outside.”
With that, he moved to step around her and continue toward the exit.
There were too many rules here, and the volatile ghost woman's emotions were far too unstable.
For someone like Jiang Nan who dealt purely in efficiency and gain, staying in a place like this was nothing but inviting unnecessary trouble.
Watching this difficult guest about to walk away again, Xiao Que stamped her foot in desperation.
Left with no choice,
she bit her lip and gathered her nerve to play the sentimental card.
“My lord!”
Xiao Que's large eyes looked up at him with aggrieved, puppy-like sorrow. “You…you truly don't remember me at all?”
Jiang Nan's footsteps paused once more.
He turned his head, his gaze sweeping the handmaiden up and down, and replied in a completely flat tone.
“Should I?”
Xiao Que froze for two seconds, then—rather than getting angry—laughed.
“My lord, you really are too much!”
Xiao Que covered her mouth and giggled, yet her eyes held nostalgia and excitement.
“But…your temperament is exactly the same as when you were young!”
“Never a word wasted, and when action can speak, words never will—hehe!”
Still laughing, Xiao Que actually grabbed Jiang Nan's wrist in one swift motion, forcibly pulling him to turn around.
And started walking in the direction of the 【Roosting Phoenix Pavilion】.
“Since my lord has forgotten, this servant will tell you as we walk!”
“Tell you how we came to know each other back in those days!”
Jiang Nan raised an eyebrow slightly.
He glanced down at his captured wrist and, surprisingly, did not shake free.
He was genuinely curious about his memories from his past life.
And so, following Xiao Que's pull, he walked alongside her through the corridor, listening as she began her gentle recounting.
“My lord, it begins from a very, very long time ago…”
“Back when Dragon-Summer Imperial City had not yet moved from the 【Blazing Flame Realm】 to the 【Savage Realm】.”
Xiao Que's voice softened, her gaze drifting into the distance.
“At that time, I was still just a little girl of five years old.”
“Living in a place called Bluestone Town, on the outermost ring of the Imperial City.”
“Spending each day living the most ordinary life with my father and mother.”
“Until one day… war broke out.”
“It was an internal conflict that nearly overturned all of Dragon-Summer Imperial City.”
“And the instigator of the uprising was the 【Ancient Moon Evil Dragon Clan】—holders of one of the highest bloodlines among the Dragon Race.”
“The most powerful warriors of their clan had an extremely low chance of producing a mutant constitution with no upper limit on power—the 【Moon Hand】.”
“A right arm emanating violet light, covered in countless profound runes!”
“It could convert any form of energy in the world into the destructive force it needed!”
“And rarer still than that was the violet left eye—the 【Moon Eye】!”
“As you know, the Sovereign Above blessed the Dragon Race with the gift of monstrous physical constitutions, yet closed the window of 【Domain】 to them.”
“The Dragon Race's bodies are invincible—but they cannot awaken a Domain.”
“And the bearer of the 【Moon Eye】 was the sole exception among the Dragon Race capable of opening a Domain!”
“For that very reason, this bloodline had always been regarded as heretics within the Dragon Race.”
Jiang Nan listened in silence. Though no images formed in his mind, he felt an instinctive familiarity with these details.
“For a time, everyone coexisted without incident.”
“Until the heir of the Ancient Moon Evil Dragon Clan—Gu Yue Hao Yi—at the age of eighteen…”
“Awakened both 【Moon Hand】 and 【Moon Eye】 simultaneously! Becoming a once-in-a-millennium absolute genius!”
“But…on the very night after his awakening, a tragedy occurred.”
Xiao Que clenched her lips, her voice unsteady.
“This peerless genius's Moon Hand and Moon Eye…”
“Were gouged out of him alive while he slept!”
“The Dragon King Gu Yue Hao Tian looked upon his son reduced to a cripple and was consumed by grief.”
“At that very moment, his own younger brother, Gu Yue Da Ai, provided a piece of intelligence.”
“He claimed it was the Ancestral Dragon Emperor who had ordered the attack!”
“That the Ancestral Dragon Emperor, jealous of Gu Yue Hao Yi's talent, believed the Ancient Moon Evil Dragon Clan had produced a second existence whose gifts rivaled his own.”
“A future threat to his throne!”
“Gu Yue Hao Tian flew into a rage and stormed the imperial palace.”
“The Ancestral Dragon Emperor publicly denied the matter, admitting he did feel some jealousy toward the young man's talent.”
“But that he had not stooped so low as to order someone's eyes and hand gouged out—and he vowed to thoroughly investigate and give the Gu Yue Clan an answer.”
“But…the already maddened Gu Yue Hao Tian refused to believe a word of it!”
“He believed the Ancestral Dragon Emperor was utterly hypocritical—nothing but excuses from someone caught in the act.”
“After being expelled from the hall by the Ancestral Dragon Emperor, he returned to his domain and immediately rallied his forces.”
“He prepared to break away from Dragon-Summer Imperial City entirely and establish his own faction!”
Xiao Que's footsteps gradually slowed.
“To vent the hatred in his heart, before departing, Gu Yue Hao Tian prepared a grand parting gift for the Ancestral Dragon Emperor.”
“He intended to massacre several border towns, shedding blood in his son's name.”
“And Bluestone Town, as an outer-ring settlement…”
“naturally became the target beneath his blade of slaughter.”
……
Bunny