Ethan Brooks let out a light laugh. “Cultivate to the extreme, able to shatter gold and jade? So what?”

Seeing that the Seventh Young Master was still acting so recklessly, Lily Foster, who already had little patience, immediately exploded: “Useless? It’s extremely useful! If you could truly master this technique to its peak and open all your meridians, with true qi surging endlessly, everyone in the entire prince’s residence would look at you with new eyes. Whenever guests arrive, they’d have to come greet you in person. The eldest young master, the second young master, all the stewards and servants, big and small, would no longer ignore you. Even the esteemed Marquis would make time to summon you personally, rewarding you with mansions, beauties, gold, and jewels. The young lady would never get into a fight with Princess Grace because of you…”

When she got to the last sentence, Lily Foster suddenly realized she had let something slip, and her scolding voice came to an abrupt halt. She hurried to explain, “Uh, no! No, the young lady actually just went home to visit her family.”

Ethan Brooks watched her anxious attempt to explain and nodded with a light smile. “Mm.”

Lily Foster stared wide-eyed at the smiling Ethan Brooks, as if she were looking at a monster.

“Mm, what is it?”

“Seventh Young Master, did you really not hear what I just said, or are you pretending not to?”

“What did you say?”

Lily Foster pursed her lips. Thinking of the Seventh Young Master’s temperament, she stopped beating around the bush and said directly, “These days, the Second Prince Ryan Bennett, Princess GraceClaire Harris, General of the Northern Campaign David Clark, cultivation prodigy Henry Walker, legendary sword saint Logan Bennett, Saintess of Snow City Emily Carter, and all the young talents, rising stars, and civil and military officials of the kingdom have rushed here from all directions to attend His Majesty the Emperor’s fiftieth birthday. The young lady accidentally ran into Princess Grace, and because of you, suffered endless humiliation, even…”

Ethan Brooks slightly restrained the smile on his face and nodded.

“Heavens, Seventh Young Master, the young lady is your lawfully wedded wife! Now she’s being bullied outside, and when she fought with the Second Prince Ryan Bennett, she was even injured by Ryan Bennett’s sword qi. She’s been shutting herself in her courtyard ever since, refusing to come out. She must be heartbroken now… and you actually…”

“She’s always been very strong.”

“You…”

Lily Foster opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but no matter what she intended to say, in the face of this sentence, everything seemed so powerless!

Strong!

Even the Seventh Young Master isn’t worried, so why should you, a mere maid, be so anxious?

This one sentence instantly drained all the energy from the previously aggressive Lily Foster, leaving her utterly dejected. “Seventh Young Master… you… you… you’re really not a man…”

Ethan Brooks chuckled. “It’s risen to the question of whether I’m a man? That’s a serious issue. Then let me ask you, what should I do to be considered a man? Should I draw my sword and storm the imperial palace for a one-on-one duel with the Second Prince?”

Lily Foster curled her lips. “You can’t even get through the palace gates.”

“Heh, back then, the Second Prince abandoned her and chose the powerful and influential Princess Grace, which would help him compete for the throne. She was so angry that she immediately chose to marry me, an ordinary, unaccomplished nobody. She should have expected this outcome.”

“But… but Seventh Young Master, no matter what, the young lady is your lawfully wedded wife. Even if she doesn’t like you, can you really bear to watch her, a young woman, be looked down upon everywhere because of your lack of achievement?”

“Whatever choice you make, you must bear the consequences.” At this, Ethan Brooks seemed to think of something, his tone changed slightly, and he shook his head. “Too troublesome.”

“Troublesome?”

Ethan Brooks responded but said nothing more.

Now that her young master had finally loosened up a bit, Lily Foster was unwilling to let it go so easily and hurriedly pressed on, “What’s troublesome, Seventh Young Master? What do you mean by troublesome?”

Ethan Brooks still shook his head.

“Tell me, Seventh Young Master, do you have some difficulty? If you do, we can overcome it together with the young lady. As the saying goes, when husband and wife are of one mind, they can cut through gold.”

“The Second Prince has shown extraordinary talent since childhood—brilliant in both civil and military affairs, skilled in military strategy and imperial arts, and has honed his cultivation on the battlefield, breaking through to the peak of the eighth level of the Qi Path. He’s just one step away from reaching the ninth level and becoming a grandmaster, and is considered one of the top experts of our Great Qi’s younger generation, with prestige at its height. If he can form an alliance with the daughter of the Prince of the Western Command, Princess Grace, and gain the full support of the Prince of the Western Command, he’ll be like a tiger with wings, and ascending the throne will be just a matter of time. At this time, if I were to display some astonishing talent, cultivate to the eighth level of the Qi Path in one go, and help your young lady teach Princess Grace a lesson to vent her anger, before the Second Prince, this young expert, even makes a move, for the sake of national harmony and stability, the Emperor of Great Qi would never allow an unstable factor like me, who could damage the Second Prince’s reputation, to exist.”