Chapter 183: Zen Was So Remarkable
Yates had met Nina Zhu several times and not even during the course of his interactions, he had rather fallen in love with her at first sight.
Zhu Clan was one of the top seven noble clans in the empire and Nina belonged to the same. On the contrary, Yates was only a young master from a small declining noble clan. It was said that Nina had a very high position in the Zhu Clan. Although she was a girl, and she did not have much ascendancy in strength, she was deemed to be even higher in rank than the eldest son of the eldest branch. She was, so to speak, doted on by all family members.
With the large social gap between the two in mind, which was actually the gap between the two clans, Yates had already decided that the usual ways of wooing a girl would not work. When it came to marriages, the noble clans preferred that their sons and daughters be wed into families of equal status. Even with the strength, talent, wealth and status that Yates carried, marrying Nina was an unrealistic fantasy. If the Mo Clan sent a matchmaker to the Zhu Clan with orders to formally talk about a marriage, not only he, but the entire clan would be humiliated terribly by the Zhus.
Therefore, Yates did the only sensible thing that he could do, and asked his cousin Yetta to bring Nina to their house. Yetta was Nina's friend in Lady Peak, Cloud Sect. Yates was hoping to win Nina's heart through their mutual contacts.
Last time, Yates had heard that Nina was going to take part in the trial for slaying demons. Immediately, he had gotten desperate to pass the examination in Egret Peak as well. A pity there were so many talented disciples over there! Although he had passed the initial test, he was defeated by the other disciples in the second test and therefore, could not qualify for the trials. After all, Yates' strength of fourth-grade of nature level was not particularly overbearing against the inner disciples.
During Nina's stay in White Emperor City, Yates had also been concerned for her safety. However, after she had come back to the Cloud Sect, he was at a loss and couldn't find a reason to keep visiting her anymore. The family party was a good opportunity for him and therefore, when he heard about it, he strongly demanded his cousin, Yetta, to bring Nina to the party. In return, he promised to give her a low-grade spiritual weapon for her kind help.
Motivated by his offer, Yetta did her best to persuade Nina to join the party.
Once Nina came, Yates stopped fussing with Nory and his 'loser friends' anymore. Obviously, Nina was to be the center of his attention now.
“This is Miss Nina Zhu, the young lady of the Zhu Clan. Tell everybody!” Yates ordered his servant.
The servant announced over the hubbub of the party obediently, “Miss Nina Zhu, the young lady of the Zhu Clan is here!”
The noble clans would often loudly announce their guests' presence in order to show respect, which was also a way to show off their class and status. Normally, their names would be announced by the servants. If the host announced their names himself, it meant that the guests were extremely distinguished and the host valued them very much.
As a young lady of the Zhu Clan, Nina was certainly a notable guest for the Mo Clan. But since she was a woman, Yates thought it would be better to have her announced by a servant. If a direct son of the Zhu Clan, such as Hendy or Matthew, came, Yates would have announced him himself.
Interestingly, according to this custom, Wurth, the young master of the wealthy Zhang Clan required Yates to announce him personally.
Nory knew about the same, but couldn't take the initiative to announce him, since Wurth was a very low-key person and Yates didn't know him at all. In his opinion, all of Nory's friends who were in white robes of Cloud Sect were rabbles.
Nina was wearing a pink coat with a silvery moire today. For warriors of the nature level, the function of clothing was more of beautifying than resisting cold. They were said to be able to stand in the snow naked without feeling any cold!
The pink coat suited her and set off her delicate figure. And charming face made her stand off from the crowd, even though the women from Lady Peak sitting right next to her were also pretty.
She habitually responded when she heard someone say hello to her. In her memory, the inner disciple standing in front of her was most probably Yetta's brother. But he was still a stranger to her since they hadn't interacted very often.
After the servant had announced her, Yates courteously led Nina and the other girls from Lady Peak to their table. The servants had laid out the chairs diligently and they respectfully invited the girls to take their seats, drawing a chair for each one of them.
After sitting down, Nina felt someone gazing at her. Her eyes swept over a table nearby and suddenly settled on Zen's face.
“Zen?” Nina exclaimed.
She immediately got excited on seeing the man.
Here was the man who had risked his life to save her and squeezed his strength to kill the demon generals. Obviously, he had deeply branded an indelible mark on her heart.
On that day, after the fierce war between the imperial army and the demons in the White Emperor City, the disciples of the Cloud Sect had eventually been sent back, except for Zen.
Yolande had captured him for his fight with Hugh.
Nina had been really concerned about him. Before leaving White Emperor City, she had implored her uncle Lennie to protect him in any case.
Although her uncle had promised readily, Nina was still deeply worried.
Later, she had learned from correspondence with her uncle that Zen had not only survived the war, but had also made great contributions.
With a strength of merely a half-step into the nature level, Zen had been able to establish brilliant achievements in war among the Illuminating Soul Realm masters. With all that news, Zen had risen to higher and higher levels in Nina's mind.
But once he had left the White Emperor City, Nina had been unable to hear any news about him.
She had even pondered the possibility of going out to look for him.
However, she hadn't done such an apparently disgraceful thing such as a girl travelling thousands of miles just to find a man. Although the customs in Burning Sky Empire were fairly open-minded, Nina, who was born in a top noble clan, was still quite conservative.
Later, she had received the information that Zen had returned to Cloud Sect and often went to Lake of the Magical Fish to practice.
She felt both happy and disappointed when she learned this.
She was happy that Zen had returned to Cloud Sect unharmed. She was also disappointed that Zen seemed to have completely forgotten her and only cared about his boring practice.
'How about I go see him?' Nina had entertained the thought for some time. However, with a noble lady's reserved character, she had stifled it in the end.
She had initially been hesitant to join today's party.
But her close friend, Yetta, had repeatedly invited her and finally, she had to agree.
She had never expected that she would meet Zen at the Mo Clan's party.
Nina had missed him so much, but it seemed that Zen was indifferent towards her.
'It was okay when I found out that he was addicted to his practice. What's disappointing is that he has time to attend the Mo Clan's party, but no time to see me. Has he really forgotten me?' Nina was sad.
But when she saw him raising his head, smiling at her with his clear black eyes, she forgot all about her complaints at once.
She ignored Yates who was being all brands of courteous towards her at that time and shifted her attention towards Zen.
Smiling like a flower, she went towards him. “I heard that you'd come back. Why didn't you come over to the Lady Peak to see me? Am I not your friend?” She complained softly.
Hearing their conversation, everyone present there was shocked.
Especially those who knew Nina's identity.
One of them was Wurth.
As the young master of the wealthy Zhang Clan, Wurth had been made to learn to sort out the relationship between the important figures in the Imperial Capital from a very young age.
Whether the elders of the top seven noble clans or the important descendants of them, their powers, abilities, character and hobbies etc., were supposed to be clearly remembered by the children of the Zhang Clan.
This was a compulsory course for them and couldn't be forgotten.
Hence, Wurth knew Nina more deeply than Zen.
Nina, the direct descendant of the Zhu Clan, though not very talented, was still quite loved by the elders of the Zhu Clan. Even though she was a woman, she had an advantageous position that other children in the Zhu Clan could not have.
Generally, in order to develop their clans, all the noble clans had made their own set of strict family rules.
They weren't aimed at any single individual and were to be obeyed by all.
If you only had average talent and strength and still didn't know how to work hard, then you would receive less and less resources from your clan.
But, Nina was an exception.
Her talent could only be regarded as above-average, but she was still a beloved daughter of the Zhu Clan and it could very well be said that the whole Zhu Clan was willing to give her whatever she wanted.
This was absolutely impossible in other noble clans.
Too much favoritism towards one child was bound to cause other children's dissatisfaction and discontentment. Over time, this would lead to the intensification of conflicts inside the clan, which was very detrimental to their development.
However, the Zhu Clan hadn't faced this problem.
On the contrary, they were all partial towards Nina, including the elders and the younger generation.
Wurth had studied all the nobles of the capital of Burning Sky Empire, but she still had special significance for him.
The reason for this was that the Zhang Clan had once planned on establishing a marriage with the Zhu Clan. It was decided to let Wurth's brother, Wick, marry Nina.
Marriages between the noble clans were very common as both clans would get to expand their power and wealth by the ceremony.
However, after inquiring about the thoughts of the Zhu Clan's elders and Nina herself through various channels, the Zhang Clan had given up on the idea.
The reason was the Zhu Clan's declaration that “Nina will decide who she has to marry by herself, and the elders won't interfere. They will always support her choice.” Judging from Nina's character, she was a young girl with a fantasy about love. Therefore, marrying a man without love for the sake of family interests was bound to make her disgusted, which, obviously, was unacceptable.
After various analysis, the Zhang Clan had given up the plan.
Actually, the most critical factor behind the failure of the Zhang's plan was the idea of the Zhu Clan's elders. Most marriages were arranged by the parents of the prospective brides and grooms, and the clan elders at that time. The practice was even more popular among the noble clans since in that case, the marriage was not just about them, but the union of two clans. However, the Zhu Clan was intent on not restricting Nina for her marriage. From this point, one could clearly understand out how deep the elders' love for Nina was.
Because of this failed plan, Wurth today knew Nina better than other nobles. But at present, Wurth wondered how Zen knew Nina. He had never heard of any relationship between the two. 'Nina is complaining that Zen has never come to visit her, but Zen seems somewhat indifferent towards her.
You know Nina isn't an average noble girl. With her position in the Zhu Clan, she is even more powerful than the unloved princesses. How many people want to please her? How many young men are dreaming to marry her? But to everyone's surprise, Nina is courting Zen.' Musing, Wurth sighed with a strong feeling about how remarkable Zen was.