The emcee was also visibly stunned for a moment.
But being able to host such a grand event, her ability to adapt was naturally extraordinary.
The smile on her face didn’t waver, though a hint of perfectly appropriate inquiry flickered in her eyes as she spoke in a gentle voice:
“This Immortal Maiden, this is the Gathering Beauties Re-competition segment, intended to provide an opportunity for talented and handsome gentlemen to showcase themselves.”
“If the Immortal Maiden is here to observe, please return to your seat.”
Chen Mo stopped walking in the center of the red carpet.
Under the curious and puzzled gazes of everyone present, he raised his hand and reached toward his ear.
Qin Shuying’s back straightened almost imperceptibly, a cold gleam condensing in her eyes.
Fei Yu’s fan paused in her palm, the interest in her eyes growing even stronger.
Chu Yi’s finger, which had been tapping the armrest, came to a slight halt.
Even the cyan-robed youth and the sturdy youth, who had been preparing to take the stage, temporarily stopped their movements and looked over curiously.
click
With an extremely faint sound of a mechanism, the Huanxue Mian, as thin as gauze, was slowly removed.
What was revealed was a man’s face, handsome and gentle to the extreme.
His eyebrows were clean and relaxed, the bridge of his nose straight, his lips beautifully shaped, his skin white as porcelain, untouched by sunlight.
The entire face had soft lines, completely lacking the rough angularity of ordinary men.
Instead, it radiated a natural, unpolished spiritual beauty and purity. It was a kind of breathtaking, non-aggressive handsomeness that hovered between youth and young adulthood—startlingly beautiful.
His brows were dark without needing to be painted, his lips red without needing rouge.
His clear autumn-water eyes were now slightly moist with mist due to nervousness and forced composure.
The corners of his eyes naturally held a startling touch of crimson, adding another layer of heart-tugging charm that seemed to speak without words.
Every feature was as delicate as the most perfect masterpiece of heaven.
Combined, they created a beauty that transcended gender, transcended worldly definitions—extremely pure yet extremely seductive.
But what was most captivating was not merely this flawless face; it was his pure, ice-clear, dust-free aura, completely incongruous with the surrounding flashy, powdered atmosphere and the eager, masculine energy.
Silence.
A deathly silence.
It was as if time itself had frozen in this moment.
Everyone stared in shock at Chen Mo on the stage, who had just shed his female guise to reveal this stunningly handsome male face.
After the brief, dead silence, an explosive uproar erupted!
“A m-man?! He’s actually a man?!”
“My heavens! With that figure and aura just now, I completely didn’t see that he was a man in disguise!”
“So handsome! Truly… such a handsome face!”
“No wonder I felt his aura was special earlier. So he was a man playing a woman. To be able to make it so realistic!”
“Outrageous! How dare he deceive in this manner and infiltrate an occasion like this! What is the meaning of this!”
“Shh! Keep your voice down. Look at his bearing and appearance, and his disguise skills. I’m afraid he’s not without a background…”
“Interesting, so interesting! A man disguising as a woman to compete for Flower Queen. This is an unheard-of marvel!”
Voices buzzed like boiling water, threatening to lift the crystal ceiling.
The emcee was completely stunned, her mouth agape. For a moment, she didn’t know how to handle this unprecedented situation.
Beneath the stage, Chu Yi’s fingertip lightly tapped the armrest.
The obstacle she had promised to clear—this was the first and most critical one: questioning his identity and rejecting him based on the rules.
Her people should make their move now.
Sure enough, before the emcee or the on-site guards could react, a cold, majestic female voice, carrying the pressure of a Nascent Soul cultivator, rang out from a certain area in the Heaven-ranked section, instantly silencing the entire venue.
“Silence.”
Everyone followed the sound and saw a middle-aged female cultivator in the high-ranking steward robes of the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion, her face stern.
She was a powerful Elder in charge of the order of this Grand Competition.
Her gaze, sharp as lightning, swept over Chen Mo on the stage, then over the entire audience.
Her voice clearly reached every corner:
“The rules of the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion’s Gathering Beauties Re-competition only state that anyone who believes their talent and beauty can rival or surpass the ladies on stage may ascend. It does not specify what attire or disguise the ascendant must wear.”
“This young man has already removed his guise and shown his true face. His gender now meets the basic requirements for ascending the stage.”
“As for whether he can obtain seventy percent approval to gain qualification, that decision shall be left to the honored guests holding the Viewing Jade Tokens. Our Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion will act according to the rules.”
These words were watertight. They emphasized the reasonableness of the rules, lightly glossing over Chen Mo’s deception, while also pointing out that the final decision rested with the honored guests, shifting the pressure away.
More importantly, this Elder represented the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion. Her statement cleared the way for Chen Mo’s ascension, removing the obstacle of the rules.
Indeed, as soon as she finished speaking, the voices that had been eager to attack him on the grounds of “deception” and “disrupting order” immediately quieted down.
The rules were there, and the Elder had spoken. To persist would be to go against the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion.
The cyan-robed youth and the sturdy youth exchanged glances, both seeing shock and a hint of dismay in each other’s eyes.
Compete on the same stage as this man?
In terms of courage, appearance, and the attention he had drawn at this moment, they were already at a disadvantage.
……
In a private booth in the Heaven-ranked area of the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion, a booth with an excellent view protected by a one-way crystal barrier that allowed a clear, unobstructed view of the entire main stage without being seen from the outside.
Su Wan’er, dressed in a simple, plain moon-white Daoist robe with a thin green gauze over it, sat quietly in a carved rosewood chair.
With her personality and status as the Bright Moon Peak Lord, she would normally disdain setting foot in such a place.
However, the news about the Crimson Jade Snow Liquid left her with no choice but to set aside her dignity and come here in person.
She had hidden this from the Elders of her Peak, coming as a private individual.
Carrying a few treasured items that she hoped might move the Pavilion Master of the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion, or the mysterious figure who had provided the Dragon Spine Essence, she had quietly arrived.
Her goal was clear, though the odds of success were slim: to try, after the Flower Queen Competition, to contact the Champion or relevant high-ranking officials privately, to see if she could trade for that life-saving bottle of Crimson Jade Snow Liquid.
This was a desperate attempt. She barely dared to hold out any hope.
But as a wife, as a Dao Companion who felt guilty towards Chen Mo, she had to do something.
She couldn’t just sit idly by and watch herself harm him, watch herself become a burden to him.
At this moment, the Gathering Beauties Re-competition segment was underway below.
Su Wan’er’s gaze swept over it casually, most of her mind preoccupied with how to approach the managing staff for a face-to-face meeting.
Then, a figure in a vermilion dress, slender and graceful, covered by a light veil, left the crowd after the emcee announced the rules.
Step by step, she walked determinedly toward the high stage.
That figure… was somehow faintly familiar.
Especially the way she walked…
Su Wan’er’s gaze was unconsciously drawn to her.
Then, she saw the person stop at the edge of the high stage.
As the emcee spoke up to remind and the crowd below began snickering, she slowly raised her hand and removed the veil.
The Art of Disguise receded like a tidal wave.
The disguise peeled away, and a completely different, masculine face—handsome, ethereal, breathtakingly beautiful—was clearly exposed under the bright sunlight and the gaze of ten thousand people!
Boom—!
It was as if a lightning bolt from the ninth heaven had struck Su Wan’er’s crown chakra without warning, with brutal force!
She shot up from her chair, the violent movement knocking over the teacup beside her.
Warm tea splashed onto the expensive rug, but she was completely oblivious.
That youth in the red dress, standing tall and elegant, his face slightly pale under the countless heated gazes…
She stared fixedly at the face on the stage.
Those eyebrows, those features, especially those dark eyes now shimmering with a watery light, filled with panic, fragility, yet also a desperate will to fight to the end…
If it wasn’t her Mo’er, then who could it be?!
Wasn’t he supposed to be in the Eastern Sea’s Wuyin City, visiting an alchemist?
How had he ended up at the Ten Thousand Flower Pavilion’s Flower Queen Competition?
In a flash of lightning and stone, Su Wan’er understood completely.
Of course. Han Yi must have told him about her damaged Spirit Soul.
That was why he, sparing no expense, had disguised himself as a woman and infiltrated this den of tigers and dragons to participate in this damn Flower Queen Competition!
It was for her. To get that life-saving bottle of Dragon Spine Essence.
This realization was more agonizing, more heart-wrenching than seeing Chen Mo on that stage. It pierced her to the marrow.
Her Mo’er, that husband who had always been gentle, quiet, a little timid, and who valued rules and propriety the most—he had actually exposed himself to the world for her sake, placing himself under the countless greedy, scrutinizing gazes, displaying himself like a commodity…
Did he know what kind of place this was?
Did he know what kind of people were on and off that stage?
How many of those gazes cast upon him were pure appreciation? How many were curious titillation? How many were the naked greed of those who saw him as something to be owned, played with, and traded?
She would rather suffer an incurable wound, even have her soul scatter, than ever see Chen Mo degrading himself by selling his looks for her sake.
Her Mo’er, the husband she had carefully treasured, carefully protected, and wished she could shield from every storm and every bit of filth—was now like a rare, priceless treasure placed on an exhibition stand, waiting to be appraised and sold.
Exposed to the wolf-like gazes of these female cultivators, being brazenly looked over, evaluated, coveted…
Chen Mo himself was extraordinarily handsome, with a clean, unique aura.
Now, having shed his disguise and revealing his true masculine form while still wearing the vermilion palace dress, the extreme contrast was enough to pique anyone’s interest.
Several women seated in the front rows, richly dressed, with lazy smiles but eyes like hooks, were whispering to each other.
“Tsk, a rare beauty indeed! Pure as ice and so pitiful, it makes one’s heart itch unbearably!”
One woman slowly licked her full lower lip. “Look at that figure, even in that dress, you can’t hide how slim and taut he is… I wonder what he’d look like with those clothes off?”
“Hehe, what Lady Wang says… But looking at his figure, so slender and delicate, a waist you could encircle… If you held him in your arms… he’d certainly be much better than those wooden blocks at home…”
“Hmph, just a cheap spectacle trying to be sensational! Who does he think he is with that bit of looks, daring to pull such a shocking stunt? Shameless! If you ask me, he should be stripped of his disguise and publicly examined to see if he’s actually a complete man!”
“Publicly examined? Elder Li certainly has ideas… However… for a top-grade piece like this, if his primordial yang is still intact, he’d be a perfect material for cultivating certain secret arts, or as an excellent Furnace…”
“A Furnace? I’m afraid it’s not for the likes of us to decide. Didn’t you see the looks from those in the Heaven-ranked section? And Miss Fei Yi’s movements over there… This is most likely a rare treasure that some big shots have their eyes on.”
“So what? Treasures go to those of virtue… men, of course, go to those with the ability! It’ll come down to everyone’s own methods!”