A few minutes earlier:-
The atmosphere in the guest house was reaching a boiling point. The people residing were no pushovers. In the eyes of the world, the Han River Trade ranked among the Five Noble Families. Yet they still obliged to wait, for the strength the Qin have.
But now, after waiting for more than half an hour with almost no signs any elders or important figures explaining why they'd been kept waiting. Murmurs were getting louder, the men were getting agitated. The situation was just one moment away for the lid to pop off.
All waiting, waiting for their leader's approval.
Zhenyao sat there, silently. Not saying a word. Until,
"Quiet."
No other words were needed. Unlike the guard's usual commands, heeded only by his student. This one carried no qi, yet it silenced the room. Guard Xiao was not a man to be taken lightly, but this was different. This was the voice of their true boss.
Though the atmosphere didn't totally die down, everybody grew quiet and silent. But one was having an entirely different reaction.
'What....?' The same guard thought. 'That was different. That's not how he would've usually acted. And there was also that natural reverence to his voice. What happened? He has been entirely different from the moment I've gone on that mission. Did something happened while i was gone? I should do a small talk to assure, just incase.'
When the guard's suspicion grew and was about to talk with him, as if right on cue, the door opened and a figure came in with several other elders like people coming behind her.
A switch was flipped and a whole new type of tension grew. This tension mostly came from the traders side. The Family Head of one of Seven Noble Families had arrived.
.
.
.
"Qin Yunxi didn't have a good childhood."
That was the single sentence known to most of the people about her, which greatly undermines just how tragic her past was. Mostly beacuse her beauty had shadowed most of her achievements. Her mother became weak after giving birth to her, which eventually led to her death. This generally doesn't takes place in rich household, especially in a cultivation household.
Her mother had been a strong cultivator, the only support her mortal father could lean on. Rumors spread she was weakened earlier on, probably due to some poison or physical harm. Though nothing concrete came out even after an investigation.
She mostly grew without a mother's embrace. But still, she was happy, content, as she still had her father, a loving, doting and a reliable father.
Her father, Qin Haoran, regarded as one of the most influential person in the world, was always suppressed by the other family heads. Born with a shattered dantian, his brothers cut down one by one, and his sole pillar, his wife. Stolen by fate.
Most expected the Qin to collapse, yet against all reason, the family not only endured, but thrived. Haoran, a mortal among cultivators, held the great house aloft with nothing but cunning, tenacity, and the will to defy Heaven itself.
He could have yielded, tempted by riches and safety, but his daughter's laughter was his cultivation, her smile his qi. For her, he defied fate and bore the weight of ten thousand scornful eyes.
That's why Qin Yunxi had always been grateful for her father. His strength shielded her youth, until fate placed the family's mantle upon her shoulders.
For two decades she bore the weight of grief and poison, yet her elegance remained untainted, her purity unbroken. Thus among the Five Great Dragons and Phoenixes, her name shone brightest,
Qin Yunxi.
.
.
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Zhenyao rose with a slow, easy smile.
"Lady Qin graces us at last. I thought the Phoenix had taken up residence at the Silver Spine, tending to… lesser affairs."
The laugh was light, the tone, not. Every head in the hall shifted a fraction.
Yunxi sank into her seat as if the chair were a throne.
"Lesser affairs, Sir Han? You do know that my family's duties outweigh your river trinkets by a large margin right?"
She let the words hang, then flitted the fan up, exposing a smile that did not reach her eyes.
Zhenyao's lips twitched but he didn't mind,
"Trinkets build empires, Lady Qin. Though your house has immense wealth, it lacks the wit to wield them."
A worker shifted, whispering to his fellow, "The boss is pushing it."
The hall's lanterns flickered, casting shadows that danced like uneasy qi.
An elder glared at Zhenyao, muttering, "Mind your tongue, merchant. You are on the Qin Family's ground."
Zhenyao's lips curved. "Of course of course, your hospitality was… satisfactory. Though waiting at an empty table, one starts to wonder if the phoenix herself fears her guests."
"Fears?" Yunxi arched a brow. "You mistake me, Sir Han. I simply assumed you'd keep yourself busy. I was just detained. A minor matter at the estate. But judging by the carnage here," she gestured at the demolished dishes "I was right."
A few suppressed chuckles slipped from the servants. Zhenyao's smile stiffened.
"Hmph. Then perhaps I should ask, what was so pressing that it outweighed your honored guests?"
Her fan snapped open again. "Oh, nothing too grave. Merely a stolen heirloom."
Gasps broke out around the hall.
Yunxi let the fan cover her mouth for a heartbeat, then tapped it once. Deliberate, almost playful.
"A relic kept for generations, bound so only a family head may touch it. Vanished the moment I stepped away to greet you. Curious timing, isn't it?"
The silence turned sharp.
Zhenyao's hand clenched under the table, his qi coiling like a river ready to flood, but unsteady. Elders exchanged glances, one gripping his staff tighter, while a trader paled, sensing the Phoenix's flame lurking beneath her calm.
His qi flickered, but his smile lingered. "A bold implication, Lady Qin. Surely you aren't suggesting that I-"
"Suggesting? No, no." Her fan covered her mouth, but her eyes gleamed. "I'm only speaking facts. If the words sting, perhaps they struck truer than you'd like."
Laughter trembled at the edges of the hall, half-nervous, half-amused and Zhenyao's smile thinned. A dangerous twitch beneath the facade which quickly cut off as he sensed something.
Zhenyao's qi roared, rattling the plates. His voice lost its humor at last.
"Enough games! To insult me, accuse me, and then mock me. This farce ends now. MEN, we're-"
"Oh, no you do-." Yunxi's smile vanished, her qi surging like a blade unsheathed.
Just as both were ready to use force, when-
"AAAAHH!-"