"This is His Highness the Crown Prince!"

At this moment, Prince Jin came to Su Moyan's side and explained to the sect leaders with a smile.

Upon hearing this, everyone who had just sat down stood up and bowed in unison, saying, "Greetings, Your Highness the Crown Prince!"

Even though sects are outside the imperial court, as long as they are within the territory of Anguo, they must still observe the most basic etiquette when they meet the ruler.

Prince Jin then pointed to several people in the room and introduced them to Su Moyan.

"This is the Mingji Sect Master of the Qingyun Sect."

"Greetings, Sect Master Mingji!"

Su Moyan cupped his hands in greeting to the silver-haired nun.

"This is Pei Chunjing, the master of the Kunlun Mirror."

"Greetings, Master Pei!"

"This is the Qingyang Sect Leader of Tongtianque."

"Greetings, Sect Leader Qingyang."

"This is Mu Qingren, the deputy head of the Wuxian Pavilion. Head Cui Yuanji is getting old and has recently been focused on pursuing the Dao, so he has entrusted most of the affairs of the pavilion to Head Mu. After this martial arts tournament, Head Mu will officially assume the position of head of the Wuxian Pavilion!"

Su Moyan nodded and smiled, "I already had a brief meeting with Pavilion Master Mu on the way here. Congratulations in advance, Pavilion Master Mu!"

"Thank you, Your Highness."

Mu Qingren's expression was calm and composed, showing no signs of being surprised by favor or disgrace.

She glanced at Jing Zhe beside her a couple more times.

"This is Lin Qingshan, the newly established but very famous leader of the Qingcheng Sect!"

“Your Highness, I met you on the road. I was struck by your extraordinary appearance and imposing presence. Now that I know your identity, it only confirms my opinion!”

"Sect Leader Lin is too kind. At such a young age, you have already founded the Qingcheng Sect. You are truly a rare talent."

Su Moyan said with a smile.

After the introductions, the sect leaders took their seats, and Su Moyan was seated in the main seat. Suddenly, Pei Chunjing, the master of the Kunlun Mirror, stood up.

“Prince Jin, we came here today because we heard that you wanted to do your duty as a host. We did not hear that you would be meeting His Highness the Crown Prince. So, will you be involved in court affairs later? If so, it goes against our original intention. We don’t need to eat here. We will leave immediately.”

The other sect leaders nodded in agreement, seemingly blaming Prince Jin for not informing them beforehand, only to invite them here to discuss official business.

If they wanted to talk, why did they refuse to see guests for so long, even though Duke Yang Feng of Wei had been in Jinxi for so long and they arrived earlier?

Prince Jin immediately stepped in to smooth things over, laughing, "Gentlemen, you're overthinking it! It just so happens that His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived in Jinxi, so I thought I'd introduce you to him! The Prince's residence happens to have some excellent spirits; let's just enjoy the wine today and not discuss official business, how about that?"

Pei Chunjing's refusal was a blow to Su Moyan, a slight to him as the crown prince, but he had nothing to say, even if his father, Emperor An, were sitting there, there was nothing he could do.

He stood up and laughed, "Master Pei is overthinking it. Prince Jin is right. Today we'll just drink!"

"Alright, then let's drink!"

At the Prince of Jin's command, servants began serving wine and dishes. He sneered inwardly: "You think the four major sects are pushovers? They keep their distance from the court, but today I'll teach you a lesson!"

...

Seemingly intentionally, the King of Jin never mentioned Jing Zhe once throughout the entire event.

So Jing Zhe stood there dumbfounded, ignored by everyone, which drew pity from a few women in the next-door neighbors.

But Jing Zhe wasn't angry. Was he trying to intimidate me?

Ha, I'm not falling for that!

Apart from Mu Qingren, the rest of the people at the table were all old guys with their necks buried in the yellow earth. Did you really think I wanted to sit with you guys?

Turning around, I arrived at the door of the third room.

Today, Jing Zhe was wearing an indigo blue robe with silver-threaded cloud patterns embroidered on the collar and cuffs. He wore a wide blue brocade belt with auspicious cloud patterns around his waist, which made him look neat and capable. The collar was slightly open, revealing the mandarin duck jade pendant that Yu Xiangrong had given him.

Coupled with his already unparalleled handsome appearance, the women in the room couldn't help but look at him, their expressions varying. Seeing this, the man next to him looked at Jing Zhe with even more hostility.

This is exactly the effect I wanted!

At this moment, seven people were already sitting outside the square table in the room. In addition to Wang Yingqiu and Qingqiu sitting together, the other four men were also sitting in pairs. Feng Lianru was a confidant of the Crown Prince and usually enjoyed making friends.

Although they had only been sitting for a short while, they had already figured out the identities of everyone else. Upon seeing Jing Zhe enter, they immediately introduced him: "President Jing, let me introduce you! This is Zhou Tong from Kunlun Mirror, this is Yu Bo from Qingyun Sect, and this is Xue Dianzun from Tongtian Palace."

As for Jing Zhe's official position, he had already told others about it, so he was not introduced again.

Of the three men, only Xue Dianzun showed obvious disdain for him; the other two merely smiled symbolically, and Jing Zhe returned the smile with a professional fake one, not taking them seriously at all.

This angered the three men.

Isn't he just a minor civil official of the fifth rank?

Still "shooting long"?

Can you shoot longer and longer?

He became even more dissatisfied and disdainful of Jing Zhe.

Only Qingqiu was curious about what this "Jing She Chang" was, but since everyone was there, she was too embarrassed to show her curiosity about Jing Zhe and planned to ask Wang Yingqiu privately.

Jing Zhe looked around and found that there was only one empty seat next to Qiu Qianqian at the table.

Without a second thought, he prepared to sit down.

But before he could sit down, Qiu Qianqian pulled out a chair.

"Who let you sit here?"

"Miss Qiu—"

"I don't know you well, so don't call me Miss Qiu!"

Qiu Qianqian rolled her eyes at him and said coldly.

He went to Tongtianque just to get the token, and then immediately called her "Miss" upon meeting her. What an annoying man!

Hmph, I'm not going to talk to him anymore!

Upon hearing this, the men next to him immediately burst into laughter.

The happiest person was Xue Dianzun. He had previously thought that Jing Zhe and Qiu Qianqian were having an affair, but now it seems that he had worried too much!

So he smiled and said, "This... is President Jing? Don't think you can act like we're old friends just because you've met my junior sister once!"

Yu Bo from Qingyun Sect chuckled, "Perhaps President Jing is used to being an official in the imperial court and is finding it a little difficult to get along with us. We, the people of our sect, don't need to take orders from you officials!"

Although it was the first time he had met Jing Zhe, for some reason, Yu Bo didn't like this handsome young man. In particular, he felt that his senior sister's eyes looked a little strange when she saw Jing Zhe, but he didn't know if it was just his imagination.

Yu Bo and Zhou Tong from the Kunlun Mirror were both top performers in their respective sects and had known each other from previous martial arts tournaments. When he heard Yu Bo mocking Jing Zhe, he joined in.

"Although President Jing's official position is not high, compared with this Brother Feng Lianru, he is far too shameless. Anyone who didn't know better would think that you held a very high-ranking position!"

"..."

After Zhou Tong finished speaking, the other two burst into laughter.

————