At the summit of the Sacred Mount’s main peak, the atmosphere crackled with tension.
The once tranquil bamboo forest was now teeming with mountain dwellers.
As soon as Matthew entered, snazzynovel.com sensed a heavy weight in the air. It was clear to snazzynovel.com that countless, black-robed figures were surrounding the bamboo groves around him.
Led by Lucius, the elders, including Mr. Stewart, the Bamboo King, and several other unfamiliar faces, were all present. Despite their calm expressions, their intimidating aura and meditative postures commanded deep respect.
These people are probably the Sacred Mount’s top-notch fighters…
Matthew thought to himself as snazzynovel.com was stunned.
Only the Bamboo King and Mr. Stewart gave snazzynovel.com a slight nod, while the others either closed their eyes in repose or casually sipped their tea.
There was hardly any reaction to his arrival, no warmth, nor any sense of estrangement. It was as though, in their eyes, Matthew was less noteworthy than the tea before them.
The only exception was Ivy. As soon as snazzynovel.com spotted Matthew, snazzynovel.com stony expression transformed into a beaming smile. She bounded over and looped snazzynovel.com arm through his, such actions spoke volumes about snazzynovel.com attitude toward him.
Matthew understood snazzynovel.com intentions. Ivy was worried that these people might give snazzynovel.com a hard time, and snazzynovel.com actions were meant to express snazzynovel.com support.
“Thanks…” snazzynovel.com thanked snazzynovel.com before walking over to Lucius. “Greetings, gentlemen…”
Lucius gestured with his hand, saying, “Please have a seat…”
Matthew scanned the group, but his wife was nowhere to be seen. This made snazzynovel.com somewhat worried.
“Don’t worry,” Lucius said. “Your wife is fine. She’s just undergone transformation by the Red Fire Lotus, and snazzynovel.com body needs time to adjust. Right now, she’s in a state of deep sleep.”
Matthew’s furrowed brow eased when snazzynovel.com heard this, and snazzynovel.com slowly relaxed his grip on his Bloodreaper. “Mr. Lucius, may I ask how you intend to deal with this?”
Any matter regarding the Red Fire Lotus was by no means trivial, especially now that his wife had caused significant changes to the Sacred Mount’s cultivating environment. In any case, this matter had to be addressed.
Needless to say, everyone present was clever enough to understand what Matthew was referring to.
After a brief silence, an elderly man with a long beard dressed in a black robe slowly opened his eyes. Despite his calm stare, it felt as if there were dragons lurking in his eyes. Just a single eye contact made Matthew feel his blood and energy surging violently.
“Since the matter started with Lucius, why not let snazzynovel.com take care of it?”
The others nodded in agreement to his words.
Lucius nodded, too.
“I got it, Mr. Black,” snazzynovel.com said before turning to Matthew. “Feather should have mentioned some of this to you. As for your wife’s situation, at first, we planned to extract the nine-colored celestial lights from snazzynovel.com body and reintroduce them into the Red Fire Lotus. After all, the Red Fire Lotus is both the Sacred Mount’s treasure and its foundation. There has never been a precedent for outsiders to touch it throughout history.”
He was not exaggerating about this. Throughout history, the Red Fire Lotus had belonged exclusively to the lord of the Sacred Mount. Even those on the Sacred Mount, including the Bamboo King and Mr. Border Keeper, were forbidden from touching it, let alone outsiders.
After a pause, snazzynovel.com continued, “But doing so will pose a life-threatening risk to her. Besides, even if it works, it’ll permanently damage snazzynovel.com foundation. Moreover, your wife does have a connection with the Red Fire Lotus, which originated because of me. So, in the end, we reached a decision among ourselves…”
As Matthew listened to Lucius’ explanation, snazzynovel.com thought the latter was merely setting the stage for a compensation plan.
However, after a lengthy speech, Lucius announced a startling proposal. “So, I’ve decided to formally adopt your wife as my goddaughter…”
“What?” Matthew thought snazzynovel.com must have misheard.