Bryant was sitting calmly in his tiger chair, stone-faced. Although he showed no emotion, the august
aura oozing out of him awed everyone in his presence. No one could tell what was on his mind. The
senior elders of the Ximen Clan sat on both of Bryant's sides. They were all spirit manipulators at the
advanced level of the Supernal Stage, with the exception of one of them who was already at the entry
level of the Divine Stage. Their individual strengths alone were formidable enough, and that was just
the tip of the iceberg. One could only imagine the full power of the Ximen Clan. In fact, their strength
greatly concerned the emperor who had been trying desperately to weaken them.
The rest of the people sitting in for the gathering were all the important members of the Ximen Clan.
They were also incredibly powerful as all of them was above the middle level of the Heavenly Stage.
Some of them had even reached the entry level of the Supernal Stage.
Rocky was well aware that these people's strength was still only a small portion of the Ximen Clan.
With these elites gathering together, it showed that Ximen Clan took this meeting with Rocky very
seriously.
Rocky entered the hall, escorted by four spirit manipulators at the Heavenly Stage. Everyone including
Bryant turned to look at him even before the escorts announced his arrival.
They had all heard a great deal about Rocky recently as news about him were all over the Holy Dragon
Empire, which was indeed unparalleled. Among the people seated, no one else except for Bryant and a
couple of elders had met Rocky before. The rest of them had no idea what Rocky looked like.
Therefore, almost everyone was staring at him from the very moment that he entered the hall, all of
them hoping to gain a clear picture of his appearance.
They were quite surprised to see a young man with a tall and strong build, oozing with energetic aura.
He was contradictory to the thin and weak royal member in their imagination. There was no sign of him
being a useless imbecile, but rather, he looked like a very promising young man. They had no idea that
he looked nothing like he was now two months ago.
Bryant stood up to greet him as he saw him enter.
Everyone was a little unsettled to see this as there were not many people that Bryant would personally
greet. They could really tell that Bryant took the young man very seriously. Rocky was the rising star of
the Holy Dragon Empire now, and he was the only royal spirit manipulator who had fused with the
power of the Holy Dragon Bead. It went without saying that there was no limit to what he could achieve.
Having a family member of this status would not be a bad thing for Ximen Clan.
Seeing Bryant standing up, everyone else followed suit.
"Greetings, General Ximen and elders of Ximen Clan…" Rocky paid his respects to everyone present.
He glanced around and found that his future wife, Shirley, was nowhere to be seen.
A few moments after he finished paying his respects, he sensed an overwhelming spiritual pressure
coming straight towards him. It felt like a giant beast was pressing its giant claw down on him and there
was no escape. It brought a strong shock and deep fear in everyone.
Any ordinary spirit manipulator would be scared and collapse under such tremendous spiritual
pressure. After all, this spiritual pressure was coming from Bryant, a seasoned spirit manipulator at the
Immortal Stage. No one would be able to withstand spiritual pressure from someone like him.
'Is he trying to test me?' Rocky thought. Rocky's eyes narrowed as he turned to look at Bryant whose
expression remained the same. It then immediately dawned on Rocky that Bryant was probably just
trying to intimidate him and test his abilities in front of everyone.
"Oh, damn it! I got some dirt on my shoes." Rocky suddenly blurted out. The spiritual pressure was no
joke; if faced head-on, it was very likely that one would lose control of the spiritual power inside their
body. Rocky was being smart about this. He hunkered down after he yelled in order to avoid directly
confronting Bryant's spiritual pressure.
Bryant was quite surprised to see Rocky avoiding the huge spiritual pressure with such a casual
movement yet graceful and dignified nonetheless. The fact that he was able to come up with a simple
yet effective plan in such a short time—something that ordinary people under the pressure could not do
—indicated that he indeed had a sharp mind.
Bryant realized that it was probably time to stop testing Rocky. He withdrew the spiritual pressure with
great ease. The strength of his power was indeed formidable. Rocky then felt the spiritual pressure
gradually vanished. He slowly stood up and pretended as if the spiritual pressure incident did not
happen. "Oh, how rude of me. Where are my manners?"
"It's alright, Prince Basil. Please take a seat." Bryant slightly nodded and gestured at Rocky to his seat.
He then calmly walked back to take his own seat as if nothing had happened.
Rocky sat down at the chair that was designated for him as Bryant spoke, "Soon, Prince Basil will be a
part of our family. I invited the prince over here today so that he can meet and get to know our clan,
each and every one of our members. Everyone present here today is an elite and are some of the most
integral part of the Ximen Clan."
Bryant then briefly introduced the elders and other important members to Rocky.
After he was introduced to most of the members, Rocky's prospective wife soon showed up in an
elegant outfit that fully demonstrated her incomparable beauty. As everyone in the entire Ximen Clan
had never seen Shirley wear a woman's clothing, they were all stunned by her beauty. It was as if a
bomb was dropped on them.
"Shirley, come and greet Prince Basil." Bryant saw his daughter and waved her over.
As soon as Shirley caught sight of Rocky, she was not able to conceal her disdain towards him, acting
arrogant and distant from the get-go. However, since her grandfather told her to, she had to comply.
She then came forward, stared contemptuously at Rocky, and very obviously against her will, said, "It is
an honor to meet you, Prince Basil."
"You're being too polite. You're going to be my wife soon. How about just calling me honey from now
on?" Rocky said, trying to mess with her.
"You..." Shirley glared at Rocky. She was so angry that her face glowed red.
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