Yuan Ji was now at the foot of the Holy Maiden Peaks where the Celestial Orthodox Sect was.
He was quite surprised to find that he was not the only one who was trying to seek an audience with Sacred Maiden Xue Qianxue.
As a matter of fact, there were hundreds of cultivators that were now camping outside the heaven gates of the Celestial Orthodox Sect.
When they saw him, there were clearly hostilities in their eyes.
"Look, here is another cultivator…"
"He may be handsome looking but the Sacred Maiden has indicated that looks alone do not matter to her."
"So what if he is another golden celestial? He still needs to queue up just like any one of us…"
"He looks poor…"
"He is definitely poor…"
"Must be someone who is from a minor sect…"
"He can go eat shit…"
"He has actually come alone?"
"He must be a hermit autonomous celestial in some unknown peaks…"
"Hahaha…"
"I don't even see his clan banner…"
"Looks like someone who has just broken through the golden celestial level and he's just trying his luck…"
"Isn't it obvious? He is just in time for the monthly invite. What a great timing that he got here in a nick of time."
Yuan Ji was actually quite startled by their open hostilities. It was because he was at least a golden celestial and they dared to be so rude to him?
Then he had suddenly realized that these cultivators were only servants to the golden celestials that were around.
As he took a closer look at their banners, he was even more taken aback. These were all the banners of all the other six major orthodox sects and all the prominent orthodox sects that were in the Desolate Celestial Fraternity.
Yuan Ji suddenly had a sheepish look on his face as he thought, "How come I didn't know that Xue Qianxue is so popular? This is a little too exaggerating. I don't even see so many suitors that are going after my Chengxi or Jiajia…"
"That's because the Goddess Fairy Ye Chengxi and Goddess Palace Mistress Xia Jiaqing have turned away everyone." His inner demon pointed out to him.
Yuan Ji frowned lightly, "Xue Qianxue seems to turn everyone away as well. How come there are so many hundreds of cultivators here? Some of them seem to be here for months even."
"To be turned away by the Goddess Sacred Maiden Xue Qianxue is the ultimate honor for these cultivators. Therefore they don't feel any shame at all." His inner demon analyzed his question to the finest detail. "Xue Qianxue is from the top seven orthodox clans and therefore in the eyes of the orthodox cultivators, she is considered to be the number one goddess. To be able to win her heart or to earn her praises mean great honor to their celestial clans at the same time…
"Therefore, these orthodox cultivators can be shamelessly thick skin in front of her." Yuan Ji interrupted his inner demon with another deep frown. "I get it now."
Yuan Ji was of course talking to himself.
Soon the heaven gates of the Celestial Orthodox Sect were opened and several maidens had descended down the flight of stairs to greet the cultivators below.
"Greetings to the holy maidens of the Celestial Orthodox Sect…"
"May you give this flying sword to the Sacred Maiden Xue Qianxue…"
"This is the thousand year red dragon fruit…"
"Ten thousand year Spirit Lingzi…"
"This is the primeval blood of a true dragon…"
"This is a half-step divine sword…"
"Golden life rejuvenation pills…"
"It is the thousand year old silk from the finest celestium silks…"
When Yuan Ji saw the numerous precious gifts that were prepared for Xue Qianxue, his eyes began to roll.
"This is too exaggerating. I didn't know that even divine swords can be given out in this manner. Golden life rejuvenation pills, thousand year old celestium silk, the precious drop of blood from a true dragon, ten thousand year Spirit Lingzi, flying swords…everything from cultivation resources to powerful weapons…this Xue Qianxue gets all these every month?!"
Yuan Ji was beginning to think that the 10,000 high grade spirit stones for his head were like sands in her eyes now. Every single one of these gifts was all highly coveted in the celestial fraternity. Even the Emperor Hall Sect could only barely afford a single gift that was equivalent compared to one of their gifts.
After some time, the holy maidens said to everyone, "If there are no other gifts then we shall take our leave first. We will show our Sacred Maiden these gifts and she will decide which one of you shall be invited to the guest hall.
Many of the cultivators were now pointing at the flustered Yuan Ji, "There is one more cultivator here. It looks like he has not presented a gift yet."
"That's right!"
"Show us your gift…"
"Don't tell me he is going away without ever presenting his gift?"
"I think he is too shy about showing his gifts."
"His gifts will be rejected anyway."
"Hahaha…"
A holy maiden quietly asked him, "Do you have a gift? If not, please leave now."
Yuan Ji said with a faint smile, "I happen to have the best gift for the Sacred Maiden."
When he had said that, all the cultivators were all laughing heartily.
Yuan Ji ignored them as he took out a letter, "I've a letter for the Sacred Maiden."
The holy maiden: …
Everyone: …
The holy maiden began to laugh jovially and so were all the listeners around Yuan Ji.
"A letter?!"
"A love letter to be more exact?"
"This is such a cheap gift…"
"Is it a recommendation letter?"
The holy maiden laughed jovially, "Our Sacred Maiden does not read any of the letters that her admirers sent. Don't say I didn't warn you first. So other than this letter, do you have another gift to send to her?"
Yuan Ji replied coolly. "This letter is already the best gift."
The holy maiden hummed coldly as she stared at him with a look of disbelief, "Good luck to you then."
With that she had taken her leave with the other holy maidens.
When they had left, all the cultivators were all laughing out loud at Yuan Ji.
"Look at him. Only a letter and no gift?"
"Is he trying to spoil the mood of the Sacred Maiden and screw us all at the same time?"
"The Sacred Maiden won't even bother to read your letter at all. Why don't you leave now, rather than be an embarrassment to yourself?"
Yuan Ji said nonchalantly to them, "All these precious gifts just so that you can be invited to the guest hall? You don't even know if you can see the Sacred Maiden. Do you feel that your actions are foolish or not."
"This is our business and none of your business…"
"We are rich cultivators and we like to show off…"
"So what? Are you envious of our cultivation resources?"
"Go away, you poor cultivator."
"Fancy someone like him who dares to even dream of trying his luck for our goddess..."
"He will never be able to even see the Sacred Maiden in his lifetime…"
"I have the honor to drink tea with the Sacred Maiden once before…"
"Her smiles can topple the entire cultivation world and her loveliness can cause all hearts to stop beating…"
"He isn't fit to even lift the shoes of the Sacred Maiden…"
Yuan Ji was smiling weakly at them as he cursed them silently. "I've better not let them know that I've shared the same bathtub as Xue Qianxue or I'll be a dead man in just a matter of seconds."
Then he was rubbing his chin, "But come to think of that, Xue Qianxue's loveliness is actually quite adorable..." He began to recall her loveliness that very night when he was peeping at her for an hour.
He began to cultivate at one corner while ignoring the rest of the cultivators who continued to mock at him and making him the butt of their bad jokes.
Two hours later;
The same group of holy maidens had descended from the heavenly gates.
"So is the Sacred Maiden pleased with our gifts?"
"Did the Sacred Maiden says who she will be seeing today?"
"We can go to the Verdant Tranquil Palace and be served tea?"
But the holy maidens ignored all the other cultivators and instead, they were greeting Yuan Ji respectfully, "Great Celestial, please pardon our rudeness earlier. Please come with us to see our Sacred Maiden."
The leading holy maiden said to the rest, "Our Sacred Maiden will not see anyone else today. We will return all your gifts to you shortly.
Then she turned to Yuan Ji and said, "Please follow us."
Yuan Ji nodded lightly.
Now he felt like the top of the world as he trampled the prides of all the lofty young masters of the prominent celestial clans under him.
Before he left to follow the holy maidens, he could not resist letting go of a downhearted sigh. "Why am I so awesome to have the only gazes of the beautiful goddess upon me? I guess that tonight I won't be lonely at all."
Everyone: …
Everyone: …
Everyone: …
Quite a number of cultivators had spurted blood when they had heard him and a great number of them were trembling with seething rage.
When Yuan Ji was out of their sight, all the hundreds of cultivators were all muttering in great confusion;
"It is…only a letter…"
"What is going on here?"
"Did we just insult a powerful reclusive figure?"
"Why did the Sacred Maiden only see him? This is the first time…"
"What is the mystery behind that letter?"
"Now we are the laughing stock instead of that man…"
"What magic did he use?"
"We should have asked him to read the contents of the letter to us earlier…"
"Now we never know what trick he has used…"
"Our goddess will be seeing him alone…this is too heartbreaking…"
"Someone has committed suicide by jumping off the mountains…"
"No, there are three more like him…"
"Wait, another young master has jumped off the mountains now…"
Thanks for the power stones!
Here is the bonus chapter for the dear readers ^__^