The royal palace of Onassis had doubled in size once again. Plundered wealth from foreign conquests proved more than enough to satisfy the King’s extravagant indulgence. The wine-scented ballroom glittered with gold, filling every attending noble with awe.
Amidst the expectant gazes of the court, Lin Yao placed his hand into Cody’s palm, allowing the prince to guide him toward where the officiating priest stood.
Cody’s appearance sent the hearts of the attending maidens fluttering with wild admiration. Yet the mask covering Lin Yao’s face caused even the King atop his dais—who had been eagerly anticipating Elina’s grand entrance—to furrow his brow in subtle displeasure.
Officiating the ceremony was the Grand Priest. Dressed in immaculate white robes, he recited sacred incantations like a solemn prayer: “Before the divine above, those bound by true love shall remain intertwined for eternity, their very souls intertwined through everlasting life. Here, I sincerely proclaim Prince Cody and Lord Yao wed as—”
“I object!”
A sharp female voice resounded across the grand hall, causing the guests who had been preparing to applaud and cheer to freeze in their tracks.
Their eyes turned toward the entrance. Disgust flickered in the eyes of the women, while the men’s gazes turned instantly mesmerized. The entire hall fell into absolute silence at her outburst.
Lin Yao swept his gaze across the room, the corner of his lips curving upward in a subtle smile that no one caught.
Cody tightened his grip on Lin Yao’s hand, casting a dark, lethal glare at Elina. “You object to what?” He demanded in an icy voice. “Think carefully before you speak.”
An involuntary shudder ran down Elina’s spine. The look Cody directed at her felt as though he were staring at a corpse.
Yet in the next second, a commanding voice sounded from the royal throne: “Elina, why have you arrived so late?”
That single sentence granted her the courage to proceed. Clapping her jade-white palms together, two royal guards brought a figure into the hall behind her.
Clad in pristine white priestly robes, with long dark hair and a silver mask, the figure was held up between two guards, practically dragged into the center of the hall.
Elina walked up to the King’s side. Looking at his obsessive gaze, a flash of disgust crossed her eyes as she declared loudly: “Everyone may believe I am committing sacrilege against the divine, but you are mistaken! That person beside Prince Cody is not Priest Yao—the real Priest Yao is the one being dragged before you!”
Cody’s grip on Lin Yao’s hand tightened sharply. Kathy looked at Elina standing beside the King, a glint of deep dissatisfaction flashing through his eyes.
He had originally intended to wait until Cody completed the marriage to reveal this truth publicly—so that a demon who defiled a holy priest would be permanently disqualified from the throne.
Regrettably, his scheme had been ruined by this foolish woman. Vain and brainless—no matter how breathtaking a face was, an actual intellect was truly a fine thing to possess.
“Elina, do not speak nonsense,” the King said with a practiced smile, looking down at the woman beside him. “Onassis would never permit a priest to be given away in marriage. That would be an absolute desecration of the divine.”
Yet while he attempted to halt her, his words lacked conviction due to his own underlying selfish desires. Elina averted her eyes from Cody’s murderous gaze and called out for all to hear: “I can prove it! Priest Yao is one of the most gifted priests in all of Onassis, yet this decoy cannot cultivate even a single Posuo Flower! Not to mention whether his purity remains intact—Venus possesses a sacred gemstone capable of testing a priest’s purity. I shall test him before everyone right now. This decoy remains a virgin!”
Using a silk handkerchief to hold a hexagonal crystal, she pressed it into the bound priest’s palm. The transparent stone instantly glowed with a soft, pale blue hue. “This gem of Venus is crafted specifically to test a priest’s purity: blue signifies a virgin, while yellow indicates the opposite.”
She then placed the gem into the hand of a noble lady standing nearby. The crystal immediately shifted to a brilliant, vibrant yellow.
The noble lady was accompanied by a young child—clearly no longer a virgin.
“Do I still need to prove that this man cannot cultivate Posuo Flowers?” Elina bit her red lip tightly, turning her gaze directly toward Lin Yao standing beside Cody. “What say you, Priest Yao?”
Onassis was vast; finding a dark-haired man on short notice was easy enough, but finding a dark-haired priest proved nearly impossible.
The silver mask covering the decoy’s face was torn away, revealing a pleasant yet timid face. Utterly terrified, the man cowered on the floor, stammering frantically: “It wasn’t me! I didn’t pretend to be him. I didn’t.”
His hands carried rough calluses—proof that he had engaged in heavy manual labor prior to being brought here.
Holding the silver mask and braving Cody’s murderous stare, Elina walked directly up to Lin Yao, suppressing the trembling throughout her frame. “Priest Yao, please return to your Sanctuary.”
As the silver mask was offered forward, Cody suddenly let out a cold, mocking laugh. Looking at Elina’s bewildered expression, he sneered softly: “Even if he is the High Priest, does the person I, Cody, choose to marry require your permission?”
It was an open admission. The entire hall erupted into a frenzy of murmurs.
Perhaps among the nobility, there were those who held little genuine regard for priests or the divine. Yet such blatant, public defiance was an act of utter treason against sacred tradition.
For the elder counselors present, such words were nothing short of outrageous blasphemy.
“The High Priest’s self-degradation is equally disrespectful to the gods!” An elder shouted, clutching his chest as though he could barely draw breath.
Yet while claims to divine moral high ground were well and good, actual authority belonged to whoever commanded the army. Neither the King nor Cody paid the slightest mind to the archaic ramblings of those outdated counselors.
Yet Lin Yao could not ignore it—at least, not in his current capacity as a priest educated within the Sanctuary for years. He pulled his hand free from Cody’s grip: “Your Highness.”
“Yao, you need not listen to any of them. Leave everything to me,” Cody locked him tightly into his arms, raising his right hand in a sharp signal. Royal guards instantly surrounded the grand hall. Under the panicked gazes of the assembled nobles, Cody chuckled softly: “Who says that man on the floor isn’t the real priest? My consort is. I say that man is merely a commoner who happens to share his name.”
His voice carried absolute authority. The nobles who had been protesting moments ago hastily sat back down in their seats.
While the King felt satisfied with Cody’s swift handling of the court, his fingers tightened around the armrests of his throne. The immense military power his eldest son could mobilize at a moment’s notice was simply too terrifying.
Such absolute command made the King feel a pervasive, suffocating threat looming from every direction while sitting upon his own throne.
Sensing he had established complete control, Cody turned his gaze back onto Elina, his eyes as cold as glacial ice: “Escort the Princess down. As a mere tribute gift, she speaks far too much.”
“A tribute gift?” Elina gasped in disbelief. “What are you saying?”
She had been pampered in the palm of men’s hands since childhood. Even her Royal Father had declared her beauty irresistible to any man. Yet now, this man casually referred to her as a mere object.
The King permitted Cody to intimidate the nobles, yet as the guards stepped forward, he interjected: “Simply assist the Princess to her quarters to rest.”
Elina looked at the King. Though he had been pursuing her with attentive flattery just yesterday, today he was willing to treat her as a mere commodity for the sake of royal prestige.
Cody’s brow furrowed subtly as he watched maidservants step forward to take Elina by the arms. Yet at the moment she turned to leave, she suddenly broke free from their grip and threw herself desperately toward Lin Yao!
Lin Yao had no time to dodge, but Cody showed zero chivalry toward a woman, delivering a ruthless kick straight to her torso.
The sheer force of his kick was more than a grown man could endure, let alone a delicate woman. Her slender figure flew backward, tumbling heavily onto the marble floor before spitting out a mouthful of blood.
The King let out a sharp reprimand, and Kathy stood up instantly. Yet as Cody caught sight of what she held in her hand, the blood throughout his body seemed to freeze.
Dark hair cascaded down like spilled ink, laying bare a countenance as pure and radiant as clear moonlight. Long eyelashes fluttered softly over eyes that held a trace of delicate surprise. Yet as his gaze shifted, every person in the hall held their breath in collective awe.
It was not a conscious effort to suppress their breathing, but an instinctual reaction upon laying eyes on him—making it impossible to look away for even a fraction of a second. Every man present felt an overwhelming urge to pull him into their arms, desperate to witness just how exquisite that faint, crimson trace at the corner of his eye would look when soaked in tears.
Not until a broad arm wrapped around his waist, pulling his face firmly into Cody’s chest, did the suffocating atmosphere quietly dissipate.
Elina lay on the floor in utter shock, yet even her own maidservants had forgotten her existence in that moment.
Every man in the hall was consumed by bitter envy toward the person holding the youth in his arms. Lin Yao tried to lift his head, only for Cody’s hand to press firmly against the back of his head: “Do not move.”
Cody’s expression was dark to the absolute extreme. He knew full well what kind of intoxicating appeal the youth in his arms held for these decadent nobles—which was precisely why he had insisted Lin Yao wear a mask at all times.
Once they were wed and the dust settled, even if someone harbored dark desires, they would lack any legitimate claim. But now, right now, even if he slaughtered Elina on the spot, he could not undo the scene that had just unfolded.
For the King sitting upon the royal throne—whose eyes had been fixed on Elina moments ago—had shifted his entire gaze onto Lin Yao.
The King’s voice turned raspy, laden with undisguised, burning lust: “Cody, release Priest Yao. You must not continue down this path of error.”
He stepped down from his throne, brushing aside his servants’ attempts to support him, and walked straight toward Lin Yao. Yet as he extended his hand, he met Cody’s solid chest blocking his path.
“Royal Father, as I said, he is not a priest,” Cody pulled Lin Yao firmly behind his back, looking directly at the father he had once revered—only to realize that the man before him felt entirely foreign compared to his memories.
Obese, aged, and overtaken by grey hair, the majestic monarch of his memory was nowhere to be seen. His eyes were clouded with lust; he looked less like a wise sovereign and more like a common man consumed by primal desire.
“Cody, step aside!” The King’s patience with his eldest son vanished entirely. It was as though the man standing before him was no longer the proud son he loved to display to the realm, but a bitter enemy.
Cody’s shoulders were broad, yet Lin Yao’s eyes—along with that subtle, enchanting trace of crimson—were visible past his frame, driving the impatient King to forcibly push Cody aside.
He was not losing his sanity; he simply knew that if he did not possess such a matchless beauty, he would never be able to sleep again.
“Guards! Escort Royal Father back to his bedchamber—His Majesty is unwell,” Cody grabbed his father’s outstretched wrist, keeping Lin Yao firmly shielded behind him.
The disparity in physical strength was absolute. The monarch who had once led armies from horseback was forced to confront his own aging frailty in that very moment.