A Lamb Under the Eyes of Beasts

Each time the God Empress held the Peach Banquet, over 60,000 pages and 30,000 fairies served. Though startling at a first glance, this number was the bare minimum to ensure that the 26,000 invited officials were served to perfection. The 33 Heavens only had over 9,000 active officials of the third rank or above, but many more held void offices, official titles bestowed by the succeeding God Emperors to those with matching cultivation bases—giving them the same status as officials—but without the responsibilities or corresponding authority.

Naturally, the void officials all came from mighty clans or sects, themselves boasting heaven-shaking cultivation. None of them needed the authority granted by a true office. In the Peach Page Court, over 1,900 pages already waited. With a surface of 200 hectares and 10 divine jade mansions each facing a spiritual garden of 10 acres, the Peach Page Court gave an air of opulence fit for a high-ranking celestial's residence.

The imperial clan treated its servants fairly, providing them with ample resources and decent living quarters, but even on Heaven's high standards, most couldn't use such residences. This was the God Empress' way of telling the Peach Pages that, even if today they were still servants, tomorrow all would become lords.

"The first mansion still has thousands of bedchambers. Feel free to occupy it. It holds the highest concentration of Heavenly Qi among the ten. As pages, we assume that you are used to serving your superiors. In five days, you just have to do the same. At the first gong of the fifth day, we will lead you to the Peach Forest.

Each page brings a plate of three peaches to the banquet. Two pages per official, the rest serve the imperial family. Tomorrow we start rehearsing the entrance part with the fairies. Be careful not to have any strange idea on them, their cultivation realm is not only leagues above yours, but their fathers aren't to be trifled with."

Fairy was an official position of the seventh rank reserved for females, meaning that in position or strength, they all were at least equal to a city magistrate. Compared to the current pages, a huge gulf existed.

In Heaven, all official ranks first had a cultivation level requirement. And while some might argue that administrative skills had nothing to do with cultivation, could a genius mortal administrator force a god to obey his directives? Of course not.

The first God Emperor understood that officials couldn't do their job if they didn't have enough cultivation to command those they ought to. With a limit of seven Divine Laws, he didn't want to waste his quota on such matters, and set up the cultivation requirement instead.

"Granted, you're only here five days, but the time here will let you lay down a robust foundation for the Divine Path. Do your best," the leading spirit youth said, and turned heels, leading his subordinates away.

At first the pages wished to express their thanks with a polite bow, but seeing that the spirit youths didn't care for those, they rushed toward the first mansion's door and dove in.

While outwardly flashing smiles and following the herd, Harun pondered the question of who wanted to harm him. Thanks to the magistrate and Blood-Feather Lord's actions, he could assert that the ringleader was either a high-ranking member of the Golden Crow clan, or of the imperial family.

The reason was simple. The Golden Crows were the ancestors and ruling branch of Heaven's Three-Legged Crow clan. A mere city lord didn't have any influence in the Divine Capital. What could he control or gain by sending Harun here? A superior clearly put him up to it.

In the Fourth Heaven, only a high-ranking member of the Golden Crows could force the Blood-Feather Lord to take action. That, or a significant member of the imperial family sent an ultimatum. Maybe both. But the more he pondered the question, the more annoyed Harun felt. He disliked non-food or non-poison-related thinking. Why could a man not just laze around with wine and meat. Why did all those celestial cunts have to force him to misuse his brain?

Still, for the sake of his hedonistic future, Harun forced himself to think and realized that on him, the only material thing worth of note was the left eye he kept hidden behind an eyepatch.

"The Eye of Luminous Treasures never spotted a treasure trove or chance above the five-star grade. What significance can it have in the 33 Heavens where the six-star grade is the minimum? Inborn traits are unusual in the Mortal Realm, but not that rare in Heaven's hegemonic clans. Do they have a way to upgrade it? Or am I just being paranoid? Never mind, the situation has reached a point that I can't control with wits alone. Let's wait and see," Harun thought, sincerely hoping that conflicting forces were part of the game. Otherwise, with his current cultivation, the die was cast.

But even as he ran through the hallway to pick his room, little did he know that from the moment he set foot in the Imperial Domain, several pairs of eyes nailed him from the shadows.

After a few probes, the pages realized that all rooms were the same, and randomly picked one. Harun did the same. Each room was over 25 square meters in surface, with a queen size bed lying in wait. The sheets were embroidered with divine-jade-carved leaves, so that even if the pages slept, their cultivation bases would rotate at maximum speed.

And recalling how his page salary was only two divine jades per year, Harun didn't know whether to laugh or cry. This room alone would cost him about 10,000 years of work. Before he broke through to the Celestial Guard Realm, his lifespan wasn't enough to afford it.

"Sniff, sniff," reminded of his own poverty, poor Harun sat crossed-legged on the bed, taking the lotus position to absorb the rich Heavenly Qi in the atmosphere. But instead of directing it toward his own Qi reserves, Harun gave 70% to the dark-blue flower in his soul and fed 20% to his Blood Drops to enhance their quality. The rest dissipated.

Like most cultivation methods, the Art of the Decaying Flower had nine layers. With each layer, the cultivator's strength and speed was multiplied by an increasing multiple of three. Three, nine, twenty-seven, eighty-one, and so on. This meant that if Harun could cultivate it to the fourth layer, his overall strength and speed would be multiplied by 59,049.

Such a terrifying concept could make the Heavenly Realm's hegemonic forces go mad with greed. Harun himself didn't have a full grasp of the significance. The art's only weakness was that with each layer, the cultivator lost 25% resilience and 20% lifespan. Ensuring that if he cultivated it to the fifth layer before reaching the Heavenly God Realm, Harun would die.

Still, in the short term, the Art of the Decaying Flower was Harun's most reliable card. If he could use those few days in the Imperial Domain to bring it to the second layer, he could at least hold his own against a first-level Celestial Guard. At the same, he'd make potential watchers look down on his cultivation speed, hitting two birds with one stone.

And after one hour of observation, one of the eye pairs observing Harun from a distance lost interest.

"So much for Golden Clouds. The absorption speed is just average, and 80% of the Qi dissipates. What a terrible Qi Retention rate. In such an environment, a true prodigy would be laying down the foundation for the Celestial Guard Realm already. Such a letdown. But as the saying goes, even if you feed a fish with Divine Water, it won't turn into a dragon," the observer appraised.

"If he isn't a prodigy, why is he already at the fourth level? Can he refine Insight Pills?"

"Of course not."

"Let's wait and see. In any case, his cultivation talent is irrelevant."