157: I already have a Daoist partner!

Although Lu Yi's glance just now had sent a chill down his spine, as if he were being stared at by a prehistoric Vicious Beast.

But Li Xiu quickly steadied his mind.

He shook his head and secretly mocked himself in his heart:

"Li Xiu, oh Li Xiu, you really have just recovered from a major illness, even your courage has shrunk. It's just a pretty boy from the Lower Realm, how could you feel a sense of crisis from him? This must be an illusion; I am just being too sensitive."

Putting this inexplicable sense of crisis behind him.

Li Xiu raised his head and looked at Shen Yueyao, who stood before him, graceful and breathtakingly beautiful.

The dull light in his eyes was instantly reignited by confidence.

He straightened his white clothes, which, although clean, appeared somewhat thin and worn, and stood up straight.

He walked up to her, thinking himself quite suave.

Li Xiu directly ignored Lu Yi, who was standing beside Shen Yueyao, as if he were merely transparent air.

His gaze was burning as he stared fixedly at Shen Yueyao's stunningly beautiful Face.

His voice was gentle, carrying a hint of excitement and deep affection from a long-awaited reunion:

"Yueyao... It has been a long time. Have you... been well? These past few years, I have been thinking of you constantly..."

As he spoke, he subconsciously reached out, wanting to take Shen Yueyao's hand to close the distance between them.

However, faced with Li Xiu's sudden enthusiasm.

Shen Yueyao's reaction was like a basin of ice water poured over his head.

"Please behave yourself!"

Shen Yueyao instinctively took half a step back.

She even turned to the side, hiding behind Lu Yi as if she were avoiding something unclean.

Her expression was cold as frost, and her eyes were filled with wariness and distance:

"Young Master Li, men and women should not touch; please keep your distance."

Li Xiu's hand awkwardly froze in mid-air.

The atmosphere became extremely awkward, and suppressed snickers from some of the branch Family disciples could even be heard.

Normally, anyone else in this situation would have been furious or felt they had lost Face.

But Li Xiu was not an ordinary person; he was neither angry nor discouraged by this.

On the contrary, a strange sense of... being moved, actually rose in his eyes?

"She rejected me? Why would she be so cold to me in public?"

Li Xiu's brain began to spin rapidly, engaging in a textbook-style self-justification:

"That's it! It must be because I am now a cripple! She knows the Shen Family is snobbish. If she shows too much closeness to me, it will definitely implicate me and get me mocked by those snobs in the Shen Family, and might even make things more embarrassing for me."

"She is using indifference to protect me! This is 'anger at my failure to improve'! Yueyao... I never expected you to have such deep intentions!"

Li Xiu secretly swore in his heart, his fists clenched tight:

"Rest assured! When I break through and stand again, returning to my Peak! I will definitely let you see the dazzling me from before! I will never let down this deep affection of yours!"

Just as the atmosphere in the hall became stiff because of Shen Yueyao's rejection, and Li Xiu was still there, moved by his own thoughts.

"Ahem."

On the main seat, that middle-aged man who had been sitting as still as a mountain with a dignified Face, the head of the Shen Family, Shen Chengfeng, let out a light cough.

Shen Chengfeng looked at his daughter below without any expression.

His eyes were cold, without a trace of a father's love, as if he were reprimanding an ignorant subordinate:

"Yueyao, do not be rude. Worthy Nephew Li is an honored guest of our Shen Family and also your future husband. How can you be so distant?"

Faced with his father's unquestionable pressure and cold gaze.

Shen Yueyao's body trembled slightly; it was an instinctive fear born from years of accumulated authority.

Although she was extremely aggrieved in her heart and unwilling in every possible way.

But in public, she dared not openly defy the Family Head's Face.

"Yes..."

She bit her lip and replied with lowered eyes:

"Daughter knows she was wrong... Father."

Shen Chengfeng did not care about his daughter's emotions.

To him, as long as Shen Yueyao was obedient and could complete the Family's interest exchange, nothing else mattered.

He looked around, his gaze sweeping over the Elders present and Li Xiu, and directly dropped today's bombshell:

"Enough, we can talk about old times later. Today, I have gathered all the Elders and invited Worthy Nephew from the Li Family here mainly to discuss the marriage between our two families."

Shen Chengfeng's tone was flat, yet it set the final decision:

"Since Yueyao has returned, there is no time like the present. Let the wedding date... be set for the third day of next month."

Li Xiu's Provocation

"The third day of next month?!"

Hearing that the wedding date was set, and it was just a few days away.

A look of uncontrollable ecstasy instantly appeared on Li Xiu's pale Face, and he bowed deeply to Shen Chengfeng:

"Many thanks to Uncle Shen for your blessing! This nephew will definitely not let Yueyao down!"

Afterward, he straightened his back and turned his head.

He slightly raised his chin and cast a look at Lu Yi that held a hint of superiority, a hint of warning, and a hint of provocation.

It was as if he were asserting his sovereignty:

"Look, no matter how you fawn over her, she is ultimately my fiancée. You are nothing but a passerby."

Receiving Li Xiu's provocative gaze, Lu Yi almost couldn't help but laugh out loud.

However, before Lu Yi could react, and before he could start his performance.

Shen Yueyao, who had been enduring and whose body was trembling slightly, the moment she heard the date "the third day of next month".

Completely exploded!

"I do not agree!!"

She suddenly raised her head, staring straight at her father, who was high and mighty and had never looked at her properly.

Although her voice trembled slightly from fear, it was exceptionally firm and resounded through the entire silent hall!

The hall instantly fell into dead silence.

Everyone widened their eyes, looking at Shen Yueyao in disbelief.

Even Shen Chengfeng's unchanging icy Face flashed with a trace of astonishment.

"What did you say?"

Shen Chengfeng's eyes instantly turned cold, and terrifying pressure began to gather.

"I said, I will absolutely not agree to this marriage!"

Shen Yueyao took a deep breath, as if using all her strength.

She was going all out! Since she would die one way or another, she might as well die in a blaze of glory!

She suddenly reached out, pointed at Lu Yi beside her, and said loudly:

"Because... because I already have a Dao Companion in the Lower Realm! My Senior Brother and I have long since pledged ourselves to each other, and we are deeply in love! My heart cannot hold a second person!"

Before her words had even faded, under the stunned gaze of everyone in the hall.

Under the gaze of Li Xiu, whose originally smug expression instantly froze and gradually cracked.

Shen Yueyao, in front of the Shen Family Elders, in front of Shen Chengfeng.

And even in front of that "fiancé".

She turned around, grabbed Lu Yi's arm tightly, and even pressed her entire body against Lu Yi.

Assuming a posture of following him through life and death, and refusing to marry anyone but him.

And Lu Yi, who was suddenly pushed to the forefront and became the target of everyone's focus.

Not only did he not show the slightest panic or fear.

On the contrary, he very naturally and smoothly reached out and wrapped his arm around Shen Yueyao's slender, soft waist.

Meeting Li Xiu's gaze, which was instantly filled with killing intent and jealousy that was about to spit fire.

Lu Yi's lips curled up, returning an extremely arrogant and provocative smile.

That look seemed to say:

"Sorry, little brother, your fiancée is truly sweet!"