Chapter 982 - Wedding (01)

Chapter 982: 982 - Wedding (01)

Soon, Long Qingyi’s marriage to Ma Mingzhu was announced.

Normally, a wedding of this magnitude, involving such famous figures, would take months to prepare.

Unfortunately, Qingyi was running out of time.

Lingxi’s birthday was approaching, and the celebration would have to take place at the Celestial Orthodox Martial Alliance.

Because of this, many of the sects that would normally be invited to such an event didn’t even bother trying to attend. Even in their fastest ships, they would need months to cross the cosmos.

Of course, Mingzhu was more than satisfied with this.

She wanted a grand wedding, yes, but a hall full of strangers practically begging to kiss her feet wasn’t exactly what she had in mind.

In any case, the Sect Leader and his wife, along with the Ma Family, spared no expense, even while receiving assistance from the elders sent by the Martial Alliance.

After all, Qingyi would soon marry Long Qianyao and officially become the Young Heir of the Celestial Orthodox Martial Alliance.

Knowing this, the elders went out of their way to please him, rushing back and forth and attending to every detail of the wedding as if it were their own.

Meanwhile, Mingzhu was beaming, surrounded by all of Qingyi’s wives—her future sisters.

They were choosing her dress, with the Sect Leader’s wife offering advice on every garment that passed before them, pointing out embroidery here, criticizing a cut there.

They had already narrowed it down to ten out of hundreds of dresses, but another thousand still waited to be reviewed.

From those selected, they would have to vote for just one—the most beautiful of them all, without exception.

Even Lingxi was there, sitting among the girls with her little legs dangling off the edge of her seat, examining each fabric with adorable seriousness. Her eyebrows were furrowed as if she were deciding the fate of a kingdom.

Her choices weren’t exactly the best, but at least she was participating, and it was clear from her smile that she was having just as much fun as everyone else.

One of the dresses she picked even made it onto the final selection, which made her puff out her chest with pride, glancing around the room to make sure everyone had noticed.

In the end, after a little over three hours, they finally narrowed it down to the twenty best dresses. From there, the voting continued for another two hours, amid laughter and heated discussions, until only two remained.

One was a phoenix dress, accompanied by a beautiful and elegant crown in shades of red and white. It was encrusted with precious stones and expensive enough to buy entire planets in the poorest corners of the Northern Region.

The other was a jade-colored dress, just as beautiful as the first but with a greenish hue. The fabric itself shimmered as if it were a carved gemstone rather than a piece of sewn cloth.

Both had been created by Jin Meilin, who had found a new passion in dressmaking—an art she now mastered just as well as trade and diplomacy.

She missed running a Chamber of Commerce, but, honestly, she was happier now than she had ever been in her entire life.

The girls’ vote ended in a tie, and it was little Lingxi who broke the deadlock, pointing her tiny finger at the phoenix dress with all the conviction in the world.

With that settled, many more hours followed, this time spent choosing Qingyi’s clothes.

He would wear whatever they chose and wasn’t at all picky, but even so, they did their best, holding each robe up against the phoenix dress to make sure the two matched.

So much time had passed that Lingxi ended up falling asleep during this part, her head resting on one of the sisters’ laps.

Even so, she woke up right at the very end, rubbing her sleepy eyes and raising her little hand, just to cast her vote as well.

While the girls were having fun trying on countless elegant and luxurious outfits, Qingyi was back at the Sect Leader’s arena.

Before leaving for the Central Region, he had dueled the Sect Leader right there. Now that he had returned, the two stood in the same place once more.

The air in the arena was cold and still, smelling of ancient stone, and the silence hung heavily between them.

The Cosmic Dawn Sect Leader stared at Qingyi with a penetrating gaze.

"So, here we are," he sighed. "I didn’t think you’d be back so soon, let alone with me already having to call you ’senior,’ hahah." A bitter laugh escaped his lips.

"You will always be my senior, father-in-law, no matter how high my cultivation level may be," Qingyi replied, his voice humble and respectful.

"Besides, it won’t be long before you reach the Cosmic Emperor Realm too, will it? You’ve been at the peak of the Star Sovereign Realm for quite some time now. Once you set foot in the Central Region, your advancement shouldn’t take long."

"That’s true... but still, it’s a little embarrassing for me," the Sect Leader sighed again, scratching the back of his neck and looking away for a moment.

He had his pride as an old expert, especially in front of someone as young as Qingyi.

"I understand," Qingyi nodded, clenching his fists until his knuckles cracked. "Anyway, let’s let our fists do the talking."

The Sect Leader nodded in turn, shrugging off his heavy robes and letting them fall to the floor with a muffled thud. Underneath, he wore a light and elegant training outfit.

Without hesitation, the two charged at each other.

Their fists collided with a thunderous crash, Qingyi holding back his power so that the two of them remained on equal footing.

The air in the arena exploded, heating up enough to turn an entire ocean into steam in an instant, the pressure great enough to crush carbon into diamond.

A loud crack echoed off the walls, and the two stumbled back, their soles sliding across the cracked floor and kicking up dust.

The Sect Leader’s fists trembled, his skin red and his bones on the verge of breaking, a throbbing pain shooting all the way up to his shoulder.

"Ah... for a long time, as the leader of this sect, I thought I was at the peak of my life..." He opened and closed his aching hand, staring at it. "Apparently, I really still have a lot to improve upon."

With a smile, he charged forward again.

Punches echoed ceaselessly, and thunderous crashes filled the entire arena as the two trained. The smell of scorched stone lingered in the air with every impact, and the floor gained a new crack with every exchange of blows.

Until the wedding day, this was their routine.