Everyone's eyes swiveled to the large entrance of the hall. At that moment, the person everyone was waiting for stepped inside.
Her blue robe fluttered noiselessly as she walked, giving her a graceful aura.
Nearly everyone in the banquet ended their conversations and walked around the long and smaller tables in the middle of the room to approach the graceful individual.
"Lady Mai, welcome."
The first one to greet Bai Luo was one of the five Clan Heirs. He was a young man in his late teens with a distinguished appearance.
His name was Cho Joon-sik. The Young Master of the Cho Clan, a Clan that is arguably the strongest Demonic Clan in the cult. As the future Clan Leader of such a family, he was very influential among the younger generation.
"Welcome Lady Mai."
After Joon-sik, the other four Clan Heirs gave their greeting.
Yi In-ho the Young Master of the Yi Clan. A scholarly-dressed youth with a peaceful presence about him.
The other was Kang Baek-hyun, the Young Master of the Kang Clan and a somewhat burly youth. He was dressed in simple black martial artist clothes compared to the others, but something about him screamed dangerous. Perhaps it was the cold and bloodthirsty aura around him. Though, he seemed to be trying to keep it under check as he greeted Bai Luo.
Lastly of the five Clan Heirs were Bak Eun-ah and Tae Hwa-yin, the two Young Ladies of the Bak Clan and Tae Clan respectively. Both of them were well known in the cult for their beauty along with Mai Yin. The three were given the title, The Three Fairies of the Demonic Cult.
The gathered crowd echoed the five Clan Heirs greetings, but Bai Luo only gave a brief nod of acknowledgment to everyone before turning his gaze somewhere else.
The cute girl that was with Sung-il and his brother Ho-yun was pushing through the crowd. After getting through, she smiled as she approached Bai Luo and grabbed his hand.
"Big Sis Mai, you're finally here! Let's go sit down, the food is about to get cold."
"Bae-min, slow down."
Bai Luo protested as he was being dragged to the large main table in the middle of the hall, but nonetheless, he still allowed himself to be pulled by Bae-min. He knew his sister was especially close to this girl, and the two brothers as compared to the Five Heirs.
Ha-yoon was right behind them, her expression calm on the surface but she was grabbing the sides of her robes with a death grip.
Joon-sik and the other Clan Heirs showed no discontent as they were already used to their Young Miss's indifference towards them.
"Come, sit next to me Big Sis Mai."
Bae-min said as she pulled out a chair for Bai Luo to sit down.
"Wait."
However, rather than sitting down, Bai Luo turned and looked across the hall to see a person lying down on a girl's lap.
Without any hesitation, he turned and headed in that direction.
When everyone saw this, their expressions momentarily changed to one of confusion.
After stopping in front of Xiao Mo, Bai Luo looked down at him and opened his mouth about to speak. However, as soon as he set eyes on Xiao Mo's face, the words got stuck in his throat and he was momentarily dumbfounded.
'Is this really the Third Young Master of the Han Clan? It looks like the rumors were true about him being overly handsome. Unfortunately, that's all he has going for him.'
In contrast to his sarcastic internal monologue, Bai Luo's following words were filled with delight.
"So, you're Han Xiao Mo? You're indeed as handsome as the rumors say. I apologize for being so late, but perhaps if I had known those rumors about your appearance weren't exaggerations, I would have arrived as soon as possible."
Suddenly, pin-drop silence cascaded over the entire hall. Without exception, everyone in the hall had their eyes open wide in astonishment.
Even Xiao Mo couldn't help but open his eyes and looked up at Bai Luo with surprise. However, he was quick to compose himself. After observing this so-called fiancé of his up and down for a bit, he snorted slightly then closed his eyes, completely ignoring her.
Everyone in the hall frowned at Xiao Mo's blatant disrespect while some openly glared at him threateningly.
They didn't care if he ignored someone like Sung-il, but to ignore their Young Miss, the daughter of their Cult Leader, was no different from coming into someone's home and scraping mud on their clean welcome mat.
However, before any of them could voice their thoughts, something unexpected happened.
Bai Luo suddenly grabbed Xiao Mo's hand that was resting on his stomach and pulled him to his feet.
Xiao Mo felt the strength of his fiancée's grip and immediately determined that she had reached the peak of the Innate Master Realm like him.
He wasn't surprised by this and was instead about to retaliate. However, he recalled that he was supposed to be hiding his cultivation, and even though he made up his mind to reveal it while in the Demonic Cult, this wasn't the right time.
'Also, according to my backup plan, I need to get closer to this girl and strike when we're alone.'
Xiao Mo's thoughts were as fast as a spark flying off a splint, and he allowed himself to be pulled up by Bai Luo.
"Since this is our first meeting, we should have a good meal and get to know each other."
Bai Luo said in a sweet voice as he pulled Xiao towards the table. But internally he was thinking, 'I should get close to him first so I can carry out my plan. Thankfully, he's easy to deal with since he's so weak. Speaking off…'
Bai Luo discreetly sent a wisp of his Spiritual Qi from his fingertips into Xiao Mo's wrist. He did a short inspection of the meridians in his arm, and when he sensed Spiritual Qi flowing through them, he sighed in relief.
'Great! He can cultivate. I wouldn't have known what else to do if he couldn't. Don't worry sis, by the end of the night I will have this brat begging to annul this absurd arranged marriage.'
Bai Luo was then about to check Xiao Mo's dantian to see what cultivation realm he was currently in so he could determine the amount of dosage to use. But after thinking of something he quickly decided against it.
After all, the person in question was the Third Young Master of the Han Clan and the third oldest son of the Heavenly Murim Alliance Leader.
Who knows how many deadly precautionary methods are currently hidden on his body to stop people from probing him?
'Judging from the flow of Spiritual Qi in his meridians, he should at least be a Second-rate Martial Artist. A dosage for a First-rate Martial Artist should be enough.'
Bai Luo concluded.
Xiao Mo suddenly felt that nosy wisp of Spiritual Qi leaving his arm, and he started to relax his guard.
'Was she checking to see if I could cultivate? Thankfully I always keep my true cultivation realm suppressed or else it would have been discovered by her sudden probe. After this banquet, I need to find a way for us to be alone. But how?'