27: Really Fragrance Live, the challenge of the love rival!

Sky City, Central Arena, the welcome banquet hall after the opening ceremony.

This was a microcosm of the entire planet's power, a preview of the future world order. Above the dome, a simulated vast Milky Way slowly rotated, soft starlight cascaded down, illuminating the young and proud faces below. The air was filled with the mellow aroma of top-tier fine wines, the exotic fragrance emanating from rare spiritual plants, and the subtle yet powerful Aura of competition and pressure from the Geniuses.

However, ever since the legendary "Number Zero" descended, the atmosphere of the entire banquet hall had fallen into a subtle, almost frozen silence.

Lin Tian sat calmly on the Dragon family's most central and honored golden main seat in the entire banquet hall. He did not deliberately exude any Aura, but the transcendent majesty originating from his Pangu Body, as if innate, pressed down on everyone's hearts like an invisible primordial divine mountain.

The various Prodigies who had previously been engaging in lively discussions and exuding high spirits now subconsciously lowered their voices, and their every gesture carried a hint of restraint and decorum that would never be seen on a normal day. Their gazes were either reverent, curious, envious, or scrutinizing, yet no one dared to truly step forward and speak to him.

In this top-tier arena of fame and fortune, where strength and background were the only passports, fifteen-year-old Lin Tian was already the undisputed, sole king.

Just then, a gentle and soft voice, like the mildest spring breeze in the Jiangnan region in March, with a hint of intimacy and a smile, slowly broke the silence belonging to the strong.

"Tian'er, it's been years, you've grown into a handsome big boy. Do you still recognize... Auntie?"

All eyes in the hall were instantly drawn over.

It was The Empress Jade Maiden, the "Azure Emperor Jade Maiden" of Shennong Group, dressed in a cyan cloud-patterned qipao that perfectly outlined her mature and curvaceous figure. She moved with graceful lotus steps, leading a fiery red figure who seemed a bit unwilling and was pouting, walking gracefully towards the Dragon family's main seat.

Lin Tian slowly raised his eyes. When he saw The Empress Jade Maiden's gentle face, which bore a seven-tenths resemblance to his mother in his memory, a soft ripple couldn't help but appear in his deep, star-like eyes.

He slowly rose and politely, genuinely, nodded slightly to this Bloodline-related relative.

"Auntie."

These two simple words made The Empress Jade Maiden's eyes redden slightly, and a genuinely relieved smile appeared on her face: "Oh, that's wonderful, truly wonderful. In a blink of an eye, you've grown so big."

She gently pushed her daughter, who was still looking around and secretly glancing at Lin Tian from the corner of her eye, and said with a hint of chiding in her tone: "Luo Ling, what are you still standing there for? When you see your cousin, why don't you know how to greet him?"

"I..."

Called out by her mother in public, Jiang Luoling's delicate face, as exquisite as a porcelain doll, instantly flushed crimson.

She opened her mouth, but the phrase she had rehearsed countless times in her heart, full of defiance and unwillingness—"Who's your cousin, don't just call me that!"—seemed to be firmly stuck in her throat by an invisible force the moment she truly saw Lin Tian up close and face-to-face. She couldn't utter a single word.

The Young Lord before her... he was completely different from what she had imagined!

In her rebellious and imaginative mind, this legendary "Number Zero" cousin was either a burly brute with bulging muscles and a scarred face who only knew how to bully people with brute force; or a pale-faced, hollow-eyed scion whose body had been hollowed out by wine and women.

But he, before her... he wore a simple white martial Dao uniform, his figure tall and slender, like a peerless divine sword hidden in its sheath, its edge restrained yet seemingly capable of piercing the sky at any moment.

His features were so handsome as to be unlike a Mortal, as if a god had poured all his heart and favoritism into creating this unique and perfect masterpiece. His deep eyes, calmly gazing at you, were enough to make any young maiden's heart feel as if it were tightly clutched by an invisible hand, beating wildly and uncontrollably, almost leaping out of her chest.

There was not the slightest arrogance or domineering presence about him; only a detached nobility, as if he had transcended the mundane world and merged with the entire Universe and star sea.

All the grand pronouncements she had made on the space-air battleship, all the firm declarations of "I don't want to marry him," were shattered and vanished into thin air under the gaze of his deep eyes at this moment.

Jiang Luoling felt her cheeks were so hot they could almost fry an egg. She was so nervous she didn't know where to put her hands and feet, so she could only desperately lower her head, staring at her toes, and in a voice as faint as a mosquito's hum, almost inaudible, she awkwardly and softly called out:

"Cousin... Hello."

This loud, exemplary slap of "it tastes so good" made her feel dizzy herself.

Lin Tian looked at this tsundere cousin, who had been aggressive a second ago and then turned into a shy little quail, and an imperceptible smile flickered in his eyes. He calmly nodded: "Hello."

This slightly awkward, yet to others, intimately "heaven-made match" interaction between the two was clearly seen by everyone in the hall.

At the elder's seats of the Long family and Jiang family, Long Zhanye and several Jiang family elders all showed knowing, relieved "auntie smiles."

Meanwhile, the Prodigies from other top forces were all secretly envious and jealous, their gazes at Jiang Luoling almost spitting fire, wishing that it was themselves standing before Lin Tian at this moment, enjoying that unique attention.

However, if some were relieved and some were jealous, then naturally, some were... consumed by burning jealousy!

In the distant VIP section, Ye Star, the Young Lord of Star Group, watched this scene, and his face instantly turned ashen!

His eyes, originally full of confidence and adoration, as brilliant as stars, were now burning with a raging fire of jealousy, enough to incinerate his reason! He clutched the expensive wine glass made of a single piece of Star Crystal in his hand, his fingers turning slightly white from excessive force, making a soft "click-clack" sound, as if it would shatter in the next second!

He could feel that the perfect confession he had meticulously prepared, which was to be staged before the entire world, seemed... to have been sentenced to death before it even began.

However, the final straw that broke his reason soon followed.

The Empress Jade Maiden looked at her daughter's "lovestruck" appearance, wishing she could bury her head in the ground, completely smitten. She felt both annoyed and amused, and couldn't help but decide to add more fuel to the fire.

In front of everyone in the hall, she said to Jiang Luoling with a teasing tone and a smile:

"Oh, Luo Ling, weren't you confidently saying on the spaceship earlier that you would personally defeat your cousin in the arena to let him know how formidable you, Young Miss Jiang, are?"

"Why now, you don't even dare to speak?"

She meaningfully glanced at Lin Tian, then at her daughter, and with a half-joking tone, hinted to the entire hall: "If you don't seize the opportunity and be more proactive, this 'engagement' that's set in stone might just be snatched away by someone else."

"Mom—!"

Jiang Luoling was so embarrassed by this absolutely devastating "assist" from her own mother that she wanted to find a hole to hide in. She stomped her foot hard, her pretty face flushed crimson, almost dripping blood, yet she couldn't find any words to refute.

Because she did not deny it.

This teasing remark about an "engagement" was like an invisible, red-hot branding iron, searing fiercely into Ye Star's heart!

He could no longer maintain the composure befitting a top Prodigy.

Jealousy, like a bursting flood, completely engulfed all his reason!

Bang!

He suddenly stood up and slammed the crystal wine glass in his hand onto the obsidian table!

The loud sound instantly silenced the entire banquet hall.

Under countless astonished gazes, Ye Star pushed aside the followers who tried to dissuade him and strode to the very center of the banquet hall.

He didn't look at anyone; his eyes, burning with fury and jealousy, were fixed, solely locked onto one person—Lin Tian!

He shouted in a cold, provocative voice:

"number zero heir of the Long family, I've heard much about you!"

"I am Ye Star of Star Group!"

"I hear Your Excellency's strength is extraordinary, having broken the gaia record, and your prestige is unmatched. I, though unworthy, wish to take advantage of this grand event to add to the banquet's excitement and publicly... ask Your Excellency for guidance on a few moves!"

He paused, and word by word, he presented his challenge to Lin Tian, and to the entire world.

"I wonder... if you would do me the honor?!"

The entire hall fell into instant silence.

No one had expected that at this opening banquet, which should have been harmonious and cordial, someone would so unseasonably issue an open duel challenge!

A grand event originally belonging to the Prodigies of the entire world, at this moment, seemed to have its script forcibly twisted.

All points of conflict instantly shifted from a "group struggle for supremacy" to... an impending "personal duel" centered around honor and love!