Reborn as a Hatrack in the Mystical Land-Chapter 623 - 80: Reunion with Cheng Ying
Dragon Pulling Test, a grand event held once every five years in the Dragon War Empire.
It is said that for this Dragon Pulling Test, Emperor Longteng the 72nd of the Dragon War Empire will also attend the ceremony, accompanied by his sole heir, Princess Long Xue.
The Quasi-Dragon Knights, who have successfully obtained the Sub-Asian Dragon contract qualification, will be personally adorned with the Dragon Emblem symbolizing a Dragon Rider by Long Teng the 72nd.
In the Imperial City as usual, there is not much different because the Dragon Pulling Test is a grand event only for the nobles and higher-ups, not open to the public. From the beginning to the end of the Dragon Pulling Test, everything is held within the heavily guarded Imperial City Training Ground.
In Wo Hua Imperial City, only officials of fifth-grade or above are permitted to bring their families to watch the ceremony at the Imperial City. They are not allowed to bring guards or weapons inside, and even Dark Beasts are prohibited from entry.
The Imperial City of Wo Hua is majestic and tall. As soon as the carriage from the Duke Mansion arrived at the Imperial City, Yue Minzhi joined the other Quasi-Dragon Knights from the Dragon Rider Reserve Camp and hurried to the assembly point of the Quasi-Dragon Knights.
Today Yue Minzhi wore a Light Armor, and it seemed that he didn’t wear the leather armor Long Rui gifted him yesterday. However, when he leapt off his horse, Yue Jinghua’s sharp eyes caught a glimpse of a piece of clothing under his Light Armor that hadn’t been fully tucked in, the color of which was the Clothes and Armor gifted by Long Rui.
Stubborn as a dead duck, Yue Jinghua couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly.
Although the Duke Mansion has gone bankrupt, because the nobility title of the Blood Cherry Duke Mansion is hereditary, after Yue Nian disappeared, Yue Minzhi, having reached the age of sixteen, inherited the First-class Lord title, and his mother Lie Rou enjoyed the honor of a First-rank Secondary Lady. Yue Jinghua was granted the title of Second-class Viscount. (In the Dragon War Empire, nobility titles are granted irrespective of gender, and they are classified into hereditary and lifetime. Hereditary titles can be passed down indefinitely, while lifetime titles expire upon the death of the bearer. Once a woman marries outside, she loses the right to inherit the hereditary title, which automatically becomes a lifetime title, and her descendants cannot inherit the title.)
After confirming their identities, they put down their weapons, and together with Hongling, headed towards the Imperial City.
Since external Dark Beasts are not permitted to roam within the Imperial City, Yue Jinghua and the others left their horses and carriages and were led by a palace Female Official towards the direction of the palace carriage.
Just in front, there stopped an anciently elegant violet palace carriage pulled by several creatures adorned with red silk golden bells.
These creatures, resembling unicorns with pure white bodies and horse-sized figures, have a very tame nature and are the palace-used beastly mounts of the Dragon War Empire.
Hearing the footsteps, the violet palace carriage came to a halt.
A woman in purple clothes poked her head out of the carriage, her autumn-water-clear eyes carrying profound meaning, fell upon Yue Jinghua’s face.
"Miss Cheng," Lie Rou recognized Cheng Ying.
Ever since Cheng Ying saved Yue Minzhi’s life, Lie Rou has regarded her as a lifesaver, sending thank you gifts and expressing gratitude, frequently praising Cheng Ying for her beauty and kind heart.
Hearing this, Yue Jinghua rolled her eyes; her beautiful mother was just too easily trusting. If she knew Cheng Ying was a corpse demon knowledgeable in Poisons, even more so than Elixir Pills, Lie Rou’s reaction would be unimaginable.
"Lady Yue, Master Yue Xiao..." Cheng Ying paused meaningfully, her eyes sparkling, "You are also here to watch the Dragon Pulling Test, aren’t you? There are a lot of people waiting for carriages ahead. My carriage still has space and it’s very cool. How about you all ride with me to the training ground together?"
The Imperial City for Cheng Ying, apart from Cheng Residence and the Imperial Hospital, was probably the place he visited most frequently.
To facilitate his entry and exit, the Imperial City specially allocated a dedicated palace carriage to him. The iconic purple, seen from a distance, resembled a purple cloud, and the female officials guarding from far away all knew it was Cheng Ying’s vehicle. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶
Yue Jinghua did not hold back either. It was already late June, and the summer in the Dragon War Empire was very hot. Without the palace carriage, walking all the way to the training ground would have been unbearable.
Cheng Ying’s carriage was designed to be spacious, and inside it even contained a beautifully carved pot of thousand-year-old cold ice jade, from which threads of cold air emanated, instantly alleviating much of the scorching heat.
In some ways, Cheng Ying and Xie Yu were somewhat similar; both enjoyed a balance of work and rest, yet the things they excelled at were entirely different—one only killed people, while the other only saved people.
Yue Jinghua was indeed anticipating that if these two met, it would truly be like firecrackers meeting the earth; it was unknown what kind of sparks would fly.
Cheng Ying’s visit to the Imperial City this time was also for the Dragon Pulling Test.
"Although during the Dragon Pulling Test day, there will be several knights from the Flying Dragon Knights present to maintain order at the training ground. The Sub-Asian Dragon is a very ferocious Dark Beast, and accidents may occur when it leaves the Dragon Pillar. Some Quasi-Dragon Knights might act out after failing the pact, so to prevent such incidents, a Pill Master must be present at the venue. These past few days, my father has been secluding himself to create new Elixir Pills and is unable to be present, so he sent me here," Cheng Ying and Lie Rou got along very well, and in just a short moment, they were conversing joyfully, their relationship resembling that of a mother and daughter.
In Lie Rou’s eyes, the ideal "daughter" was like Cheng Ying—mild-mannered, a perfect example of a lady from a prominent family. She just thought of suggesting to Yue Jinghua to learn more from Cheng Ying in the future when, turning around, she saw her daughter Yue Jinghua sitting with her legs crossed at an angle, comfortably leaning in a corner of the carriage, closing her eyes to rest, showing none of the elegance and temperament expected of a lady.
Lie Rou was both amused and annoyed, thinking to herself: Alas, Huahua is just Huahua, such a noble lady is truly unique in the world. That is Huahua indeed.
The palace carriage had just arrived at the training ground when the seemingly asleep Yue Jinghua woke up. She couldn’t wait to get out of the carriage.
She had thought the so-called training ground would just be an open area paved with bluestone bricks, but to her surprise, Yue Jinghua found herself looking at a huge round beast fighting arena.
Since arriving in the Imperial City, Yue Jinghua had always believed that the Underground Beast Fighting Arena was already impressively large, but only after seeing the Imperial City’s training ground did she understand what a real Beast Fighting Arena was.
The so-called training ground was not meant for people’s use, but a place where the Empire trained Sub-Asian Dragons in earlier years.
A Sub-Asian Dragon itself was as big as a building, no wonder the scale and grandeur of the training ground were so magnificent.
It was overall circular, with a radius of one thousand five hundred meters, and the ground was paved with extremely hard northern shattered gold rocks. The entire training ground was divided into the spectator area and the training area, with the spectator area being divided into four zones from near to far, depending on the stature of the spectators.
Closest to the training ground was an only isolated enclosed compartment, presumably the seats for Long Teng the 72nd and Princess Long Xue.
Further down were the seats for Imperial Relatives, calculated downward sequentially were nobles, various department heads, and officials’ families of different grades.
Yue Jinghua and Lie Rou had just found their seats when they saw multiple bizarre-shaped pillars erected within the training ground.
