"Heh-heh," Gu Xie chuckled, lightly fanning himself with the Fuyao Fan. He gave a wry smile to Jin, who was primly licking the edge of a Tianque Ming cup. "Polite, polite. Just some utterly run-of-the-mill parlor tricks. I apologize for showing off."

Jin, holding a cup of fine wine, spoke coldly. "Tricks that barely qualify as 'run-of-the-mill' managed to slip past the defense systems of Planet Yafik? If at least half the Fleet Commanders in the Stellar Alliance heard you say that, they'd be ashamed enough to commit suicide."

Gu Xichen merely smiled without speaking. Guided by a male servant, he stepped toward the first seat to the left of Fuya Ming.

Just as Fuya Ming was about to ask Gu Xie to introduce these "subordinates" of his—a line of over twenty men in red uniforms standing behind Jin—the gorilla named Da Jin suddenly grunted loudly, pointing at Xin Jia. "Hey, Big Guy! You look strong. Come on, give it a try!"

Fuya Ming lowered her head, silent. Jue Xie smiled slyly, her beautiful eyes continuously raking over Gu Xichen.

Gu Xie instantly understood. Was this a pre-arranged scene between Fuya Ming and Jin? Or was it Jin’s own initiative? If he hadn't brought Xin Jia and the others, this Da Jin might have directly challenged Gu Xie or Penghua.

Xin Jia’s eyes lit up. He let out a loud, dry cackle. "I'm just worried you won't be able to withstand my strength!"

Da Jin rolled his bizarre eyes, snorting two plumes of white vapor from his nostrils, and suddenly sprang into the air, leaping over the long dining table. He brought a punch down toward Xin Jia while suspended.

Xin Jia smirked dismissively a few times. He casually raised his right hand, grasping the punch Da Jin had thrown with all his might. With a muffled thud, a gust of strong wind burst from Xin Jia’s palm; the punch thrown with Da Jin’s full power was firmly pinched in Xin Jia’s hand. The massive body stood frozen in mid-air.

"Your strength... is too small!" Xin Jia roared, flinging his right arm and tossing Da Jin away.

The entire banquet hall shuddered violently. Da Jin smashed into the floor, carving out a pit nearly a meter deep, and couldn't get up for a long moment.

"Damn it..." Xiao Jin and the other twenty companions rushed forward, prepared to fight.

"Stop! We were just having a friendly contest. If your strength is inferior, don't blame the other party for embarrassing you!" Jin ordered his impulsive subordinates to halt. A strange smile touched her otherworldly face. "Esteemed Lord Xichen Gu? Lord Xichen Gu from the Earth Federation? Allow me to introduce myself: I am Jin, the Young Leader of the 'Broken Hook' Adept Group. We are the third-ranked Adept Group in the Stellar Alliance."

Gu Xie gave a faint nod and a smile. "I apologize for my ignorance, Miss Jin of the Broken Hook Adept Group."

Fuya Ming looked at Gu Xie in surprise, while Jin’s exquisitely beautiful, bewitching face crumpled into a frown. Da Jin, thrown to the ground and dizzy, called out dumbly, "What? Miss? Is our Young Leader a woman? Impossible! How does she look like a woman? Tsk, the Young Leader doesn't have breasts! Haha, the women in our clan, their chests are truly huge!"

Fuya Ming fell silent. Gu Xie fell silent. Penghua’s thieving eyes rotated incessantly around Jin's chest.

Jin’s face shifted from pale to green, then white. In a fit of rage, she flung her right hand out; the wine glass in her grip sliced through the air like cold light, bursting open against Da Jin's face.

The small wine glass contained immense power. Da Jin’s massive body was struck by the glass and sent flying over three meters away, where he crashed back onto the ground.

Fuya Ming spread her hands and sighed silently. This was turning into a huge mess.

Jin slowly rose to her feet. Smiling cheerfully, she leaped onto the dining table and walked directly toward Gu Xie, squatting down in front of him. She leaned close to his face, glaring fiercely into his eyes, and hissed each word with menace. "The Broken Hook Adept Group—which is the third-largest pirate organization in the Stellar Alliance—Lord Xichen Gu, which of your eyes noticed I am a woman?"

A pirate group? Gu Xie instantly understood. No wonder Jin's subordinates included so many espers. A pirate group ranked third in the Stellar Alliance would have been wiped out by the Alliance's regular forces long ago if they lacked such power. However, the question itself was difficult to answer. Should he tell her that his divine sense had completely surveyed her body? Even knowing that her undergarments were alluring, translucent, light purple little cuties?

Da Jin on the side still hadn't accepted defeat. He scrambled up from the ground, swaying slightly, and asked curiously, "Yeah, how did you find out the Young Leader was a woman? Hey, I've followed the Young Leader for at least three years, and I never realized she was a woman! The Young Leader has absolutely no feminine charm!"

Jin’s face twitched, her beautiful little features turning pitch black.

Slowly, slowly, Jin’s right hand pressed down hard onto Gu Xie's nose, with such force it seemed she intended to embed his nose into his face. Jin spoke, each word delivered with an icy chill. "No one toys with me and gets to live safely afterward. Regardless of whether you come from the Earth Federation or elsewhere, whether you are a destitute mercenary or hold some other title, whether you are a mercenary hired by Sister Fuya or a conspirator with ulterior motives—we duel!"

Gu Xie looked at Jin in astonishment. He managed a bitter smile. "Another duel? It feels like just yesterday I fought three duels in a single day!"

He shook his head firmly. Gu Xie chuckled lightly. "I’m sorry, I refuse your challenge. First, I just finished thirteen duels. Your timing now is unfair. Second, I have a personal rule: I don't lay a hand on women! My bottom line as a person is that I don't fight women!"

Ptooey! A mouthful of saliva, smelling of wine and some strange, faint fragrance, sprayed directly across Gu Xie’s face.

Jue Xie laughed wickedly. "I insulted you, so we duel! You don't fight women? You don't have to treat me like a woman then!"

Fuya Ming stood up anxiously. She hissed softly, "Jin!"

"Oh-la, oh-la!" Jin waved dismissively at Fuya Ming with ease. She laughed with overwhelming wicked charm. "Relax, relax. I’ll just beat him half to death. For Sister Fuya's sake, I’ll just break that little thing all men have, and then I’ll let you go!"

Gu Xie was stunned. This woman was truly too fierce.

Penghua sidled up to Gu Xie. He looked at Jin’s little face and said in a bizarre, drawling voice, "Break my junior brother's little thing? Hey, please don't. He's still a virgin! Hee hee, missy, even though you don't have breasts right now, at least you're flat-chested, right? Want me to bet I can turn your flat chest into a sunken, four-inch bowl chest?"

Gu Xie felt the hairs on his body stand on end. This zombie really never spoke a kind word. Penghua, that bastard!

Jin’s face went from black to purple. She suddenly jumped up and burst out laughing. "Good! Good! You have spirit! It’s been a long time since I met a man who dares speak to me like that."

Gu Xie sighed softly. "Please, Penghua isn't human, okay?"

Jin reached into the sleeve of her long robe, fumbled around for a moment, and tossed two fist-sized, transparent crystals onto the dining table. She sneered. "Hick, you rustics have never seen treasure like this, have you? If you have any nerve, duel me! We’ll bet one hundred of these high-grade Fire Origin Energy Stones!"

Fuya Ming gasped. "Jin! You're insane!"

Gu Xie stared blankly at the so-called high-grade Fire Origin Energy Stones, then gave Penghua a strange look.

These so-called Fire Origin Energy Stones were nothing more than Zakla energy crystals mixed with a little fire-attribute spiritual energy—what the Asian Dao Alliance called Fire Spirit Stones. On this voyage, just in case, Gu Xie and Penghua had stored at least tens of thousands of cubic meters of Zakla energy crystals in their portable storage bags! Of this utterly transparent, high-grade variety, there must have been tens of thousands of pieces!

Jin chuckled, "Heh-heh." She mocked Gu Xie with a sneer. "Well? Rustic, never seen high-grade merchandise like this before, have you? Oh, right, you probably don't even know what Origin Energy is, so how could you recognize these advanced Origin Energy Stones?"

Walking proudly back and forth on the dining table, Jin pointed at Gu Xie and laughed. "Forget it, I won't bully you. I am a Six-Star Venerable, certified by the Stellar Alliance Adept Council. If you feel you are no match for me, apologize to me. Then obediently leave the Yakfic Kingdom. Sister Fuya’s payment owed to you will naturally be canceled."

She shot a meaningful glance at Fuya Ming. Jin continued, smiling. "I don't think you are qualified to cooperate with Sister Fuya, truly. Sister Fuya doesn't need an ally like you."

Sighing deeply, Gu Xie looked at Fuya Ming, whose eyes were as still as water but kept glancing toward him. For some reason, he suddenly felt an inexplicable urge.

He took out a pristine white handkerchief and wiped the spittle from his face. Gu Xie stood up and, with great flair, tucked the Fuyao Fan into his collar. He smiled at Jin. "Rustic? Little girl, who is the rustic? This sort of junk stone? Children back in my hometown use them as toys."

He reached into his sleeve and slowly pulled out a fire-attribute spirit stone of extremely high quality, then another, and then another... In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, under the increasingly wide and astonished gazes of Fuya Ming and Jin, Gu Xie calmly produced over three hundred pieces of top-grade fire-attribute crystals.

Penghua chuckled smugly beside him. He waved his sleeve with a laugh, and with a loud whoosh, a small mountain of crystals, over three meters high with a base diameter of seven or eight meters, instantly appeared before everyone.

"Heavens! So many Origin Energy Stones!"

Jin screamed out loud. She waved a hand, drew a cyan longsword from who knows where, pointed it aggressively at Gu Xie, and roared, "Robbery! Robbing the Broken Hook Pirate Group! Robbery! Men stand on the left, women stand on the right! Pretty boys stand in the middle! Hand over all the cash on you, every bank card, every deed to property! If you're nobility, state your price and step up!"

As a string of familiar robbery jargon spilled out, Gu Xie was momentarily stunned. This woman was indeed ferocious.

But in the next blink, Jin shrieked in shock. "So many Origin Energy Stones? Where did you keep them? Are you Space-Attribute Adepts?"

Gu Xie and Penghua exchanged a look. Gu Xie nodded firmly. "Yes, Space-Attribute Adepts. What about it?"

Jin, who moments before had been bristling with aggressive hostility, suddenly smiled very seductively and charmingly. She carefully squatted down onto the dining table, looked at Gu Xie with a smile, and said, "Esteemed Lord Xichen Gu, I am willing to hire you at a high salary as the Chief Guest Elder of our Broken Hook Adept Group. Will you accept?"

Gu Xie was flabbergasted.

Fuya Ming’s face turned white with anger. This Jin was too disgraceful.