After meeting with everyone who came over to wish him well, Lu Feng settled down as he scanned the people.

"The room opposite us, they're from the Holy Palace. The one sitting in the middle is Long Tian," Li Wei transmitted his voice to Lu Feng's mind.

Lu Feng, of course, knew plenty of such tricks. Without any changes in his expression, he started to silently talk with Li Wei using telepathy.

"Long Tian... The guy with golden hair?"

Li Wei had a visible change in his expression. Telepathy wasn't an ordinary skill anyone could pick up on a whim. Cultivators needed to have a strong soul and be able to efficiently mobilize their spirit energy.

Lu Feng glanced at Li Wei sitting behind him, puzzled by the silence.

Li Wei came to his senses and resumed their telepathic chat.

"Yes, the one with the golden hair. He's the one who set you up. According to our investigation, four years ago, the Holy Palace was discussing a potential marriage between them and the Baihu Clan.

"Needless to say, they were eyeing our then newly discovered secret realm. The young woman sitting beside Long Tian, Wu Mei, was the one who was to be your betrothed."

Hearing this, Lu Feng rolled his eyes. He could guess what transpired next. The standard plot of a jealous obsessive man taking out the competition.

As Lu Feng was checking out the Sacred Sons and Daughters of the Holy Palace, unexpectedly, his eyes met Wu Mei's, who was looking at Lu Feng with a tender expression on her face and a charming smile that would've started a war among the mortal kingdoms if she were one.

Lu Feng smiled back as he continued to hear the rest of the story about Long Tian and the Holy Palace.

Before Lu Feng knew it, he tuned out Li Wei's voice and became engrossed in the unparalleled beauty of the Sacred Daughter, Wu Mei.

'Something's wrong...'

He executed a simple yet effective technique to dispel any illusions, but much to Lu Feng's dismay, it failed.

Lu Feng wanted to get angry at this blatant provocation, but something in his mind held him back. A moment later, the hint of anger that was starting to kindle was completely extinguished, replaced by a longing.

As Lu Feng's eyes roamed around Wu Mei's seductive body, he felt a longing deep in his heart.

This greatly startled Lu Feng. With eons of experience, Lu Feng always isolated a tiny sliver of his soul for this exact reason. If he wasn't naturally cautious regarding such matters, chances are he would've been completely taken in by this strong blossom of emotions.

"Uncle Wei, carefully observe Wu Mei... Do you find any abnormality?"

Li Wei was surprised at this request of Lu Feng, nonetheless, he carefully observed Wu Mei. But even after a long time, he couldn't find anything abnormal. Besides her otherworldly visage and her apparent interest in their young master, Li Wei found nothing wrong.

"No, it's all good... But she seems to like you—”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Before Li Wei could finish, Lu Feng interjected.

"She's casting a very powerful illusion or charm of some kind... If not for my strong soul, I would've become obsessed with her... Just like that Long Tian."

Li Wei's temper ignited, and he was about to do something drastic when he heard Lu Feng's voice in his mind.

"Uncle Wei, calm down... I have it under control. I wasn't thinking much of it, but it seems like these people do need to be put in their place."

Li Wei settled back in his chair and closed his eyes carefully scrutinizing every glance and wave of Spiritual Energy trying to probe them.

With the strange blossom of emotions growing stronger, Lu Feng figured it was time. He recited the chants of the Immortal Vajra Scripture and executed a powerful technique that temporarily disconnected his soul from the outside world.

After a deep exhale, Lu Feng closed his eyes.

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The auction had already begun, and Elder Fu was bringing out the first items. Lu Feng, of course, didn't care about this.

The reason Lu Feng let the strange charm illusion play out was because he wanted to sense the intent of the caster.

And he did exactly that. Lu Feng knew a whole host of these tricks, as such he trapped the illusive intent and began to analyze it.

Five minutes later, Lu Feng, who seldom showed any strong emotions, began to grind his teeth.

'How dare you!?'

Wu Mei, despite being aware of the enmity between the Holy Palace and Baihu Palace, and most importantly, between Long Tian and the young master of the Baihu Clan, very openly behaved as such, striking the jealousy of the male disciples of the Holy Palace, but most importantly, enraging Long Tian.

Lu Feng witnessed the entire scene of Long Tian being enraged and his protector calming him down.

'A conspiracy... She wants to pit the Baihu Clan and the Tianyun Immortal Kingdom... I wonder whose intention it is?... Hmm doesn't matter...'

Beautiful women have always been the Bane of men and kingdoms, even more so when they are talented and devious.

A smile crept up on Lu Feng's face.

The thing about illusions is that once someone is affected and continues to be under its influence, someone other than the caster can use it to his advantage, of course, only if said person knows the right tricks. Lu Feng is that person, and he certainly knows a trick or two, to put it mildly.

Lu Feng isolated the three energies in his body and moved the Qi and Essence Energies into his lower dantian.

He gathered the diffuse Spirit Energy into his upper dantian, between his eyebrows. Revolving his Spirit Energy, he divided it into several seeds and started to infuse them with specific thoughts and emotions, he concluded the process by injecting the illusory intent of Wu Mei he captured.

By injecting the seeds with Wu Mei's illusory intent, they should bypass any safeguards or protective measures Wu Mei might have put in place.

Opening his eyes, Lu Feng used his Spirit Energy supplemented with a special technique to view the people affected by Wu Mei's illusion.

All of the Sacred Sons of the Holy Palace seated in the room were under some level of influence. The most deeply influenced was none other than Long Tian. Long-running obsessions and feelings greatly enhanced the power of such illusions, so Lu Feng wasn't surprised to see this.

A small part of him wanted to release the condensed Spirit seeds and watch the ensuing chaos, but he managed to stay rational.

'Hmm... It's not time yet.'

Lu Feng was pulled away from his thoughts by the loud commotion that started.

Looking at the stage, he saw Elder Fu standing in front of a row of covered glass cases, wheeled in from the backstage.

"I know you've all been patiently waiting for this, so I won't delay it any longer. Behold the first Empyrean Grade items of the day!"

Elder Fu pulled the black cloth covering a glass case, revealing a pair of beautiful swords.

"These are a pair of Imperial Jian Swords. Made of extremely rare thunder steel and forged in the fires of heaven itself."

Following the description that sounded exaggerated but was factually true, a demonstration was arranged. And then, it began.

"5 Million Spirit Crystals, the gentleman from Sword City."

"6 Million Spirit Crystals, the young master of Lin Clan."

"7 Million Spirit Crystals, the Elder of the Raging Fist Sect."

As people raised their hands one after the other, Elder Fu began to shout increasingly bigger numbers.

With the bidding heating up, the peanut gallery discussions grew louder too. For whose benefit— He didn't know, but explaining the various origins of these forces and the "Oohs" and "Aahs" stroking the ego of the bidders.

Lu Feng, satisfied with the direction the auction was heading in, closed his eyes again.

'I just have to wait and collect my share... And then... It's going to be fun!'

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