As the night carried on, the rest of the guests began to exit from the party periodically. Until at last the only ones left was Xue Chang and his family members.
Tian Hai and Tian Kai exited early on after discovering that Sun Jianhong actually was not great at holding his liquor and became extremely inebriated. They had to lead him out before he caused too big of a ruckus.
Once the rest of the guests had left, Xue Chang approached the hosts of the party quietly.
Although he still wore his disguise, he had already reverted back to his proper height and appearance.
Zhao Wei and Xue Mei both glanced over in his direction with a knowing smile on their faces.
Stepping forward, Xue Chang clasped his hands together and bowed to the both of them deeply, "I hope I didn't disrupt anything for my sister."
Xue Mei smiled lovingly as she waltzed over and pulled her son into her embrace, "How could you ever disrupt anything."
Zhao Wei smiled calmly and just nodded in the background.
"What happened to my little sister?"
"It seems that interacting with all of the guests took a lot more out of her than expected. She sleeping soundly in her room right now."
Xue Mei couldn't help but giggle at how distressed Xue Ai became whenever she had to act politically correct in front of others. She knew how wild and free her daughter was and understood that this wasn't her favorite thing to do. But their family still had a reputation to uphold.
"Let her rest for now honey, but you should go visit her later. She misses her big brother."
Xue Chang nodded as he began to recount some of his recent experiences to his mom.
Although he kept out some big details, he gave her a general outlook of how his life had been.
One of Xue Mei's biggest worry had always been about her children. Xue Ai was a talented individual but very young and rash, while Xue Hai was fated to do great things and sent to an immortal sect. But as for Xue Chang? He was always the odd one out. She always feared that he would spiral into despair due to his condition, but after hearing his exciting stories some of her worries subsided.
The three family members caught up with one another and shared stories and events of recent time. Because they were the host of the party, Xue Mei and Zhao Wei held back on the alcohol quite a bit. But now that everything had ended they did not hold back anymore and enjoyed themselves to the fullest.
Even Xue Chang partook in the drinking. Although his body looked young, he was mentally much older.
It wasn't until late into the night when they were finally able to stop. Xue Mei had long fallen asleep into her loving husband's arms. And Zhou Wei was only slightly intoxicated. But if he really wanted to it would be easy for him to remove the alcohol from his body thanks to his cultivation.
As for Xue Chang, he wasn't drunk whatsoever. His body wasn't affected by alcohol unfortunately, but he could still get drunk on the mood.
As such the father and son talked a little longer before Zhou Wei decided it was time to bring Xue Mei back to their room. Xue Chang said he would quickly visit Xue Ai before returning back to his villa as well. And with that the two went their separate ways.
Xue Chang entered into the bedroom of his little sister. Looking down at her sleeping face without a single trace of worry or pain, he couldn't help but smile lightly to himself.
Brushing her long black hair out of her face, he bent down and gave her a small kiss on her forehead.
"Happy birthday Xue Ai, I hope you live a long good life. One better than mine at least."
A small smile formed on Xue Ai's face as Xue Chang slowly stepped back out of the doorway and prepared to leave.
As he stepped out of the room, his eyes lit ablaze with a strange power as a mysterious waved suddenly surrounded him. Xue Chang didn't react much to it, but the pupils in his eyes dilated ever so slightly.
Xue Chang suddenly disappeared from sight as he reappeared a large distance away from where Xue Ai was resting.
He dug into his robes and pulled out a mask from its inner linings. Donning it, he took off his outer garments and flipped them inside out. After putting them back on, he stepped forward and disappeared toward the direction of the wave of energy.
As the sight of the city flashed by beneath him, Xue Chang landed onto a nearby building in an unpopulated secluded corner of the city. Looking around, he couldn't help but think this would be a good place for him to live if he didn't have his own private area already.
Although this place was hidden away from all of the hustle and bustle of the streets, it wasn't completely desolate.
Nearby, there were three other people who were already there staring at the same direction the strange energy came from.
Although they all noticed the presence of Xue Chang, none of them bothered to react to it.
Xue Chang also silently slipped down onto the ground and stand beside the group, waiting patiently.
After a couple more minutes, more people began to appear.
Many of whom Xue Chang recognized such as Sun Jianhong, the guild master, even the Wang family patriarch.
Several other new faces appeared together as well. Many of which he didn't recognize but based on their clothing and strength they appeared to be high ranking people of the city.
Finally at the last two people appeared at this mysterious gathering. Two people that Xue Chang knew intimately.
It was his father, Zhao Wei, and his uncle, Wu Jie.
The gazes of the small crowd landed on the two new arrivals and didn't budge an inch. Zhao Wei just gave a faint smile while Wu Jie just glanced around casually.
When he suddenly spotted a familiar masked individual standing to the side nearby, he couldn't help but give off a quick wink before returning his focus to the task at hand.
Xue Chang had to admit that while his body was never negatively affected by alcohol, he was quite impressed with how quickly cultivators could overcome their drunkenness with their own powers.
Xue Chang watched as his father and Wu Jie stepped forward arrogantly, putting in airs he had never seen before.
This was his first time witnessing them act in public. The atmosphere they gave off was overwhelming. Any normal person would've been crushed under this pressure.
Yet everyone present was not a normal person.
Although they could resist the overwhelming sensation, they still all had to take a step back. Obviously conceding to the main protagonists of the gathering.
The two grand cultivators stared at the original three people who arrived first.
With their attention placed onto these three, the rest of those who came looked over as well.
The three figures got onto one knee as they bowed down and gave their greetings.
"We, the investigation squad of the city guards, greet the city head. Reporting to the city head, we bring some bad news. Mass reports have came in about strange movements of all the nearby beasts. Several hundred demonic beasts have migrated and are gathering within a single area, seemingly preparing for something big. Based on their movements, we fear the worst…"
"A beast wave." Zhao Wei finished the investigators train of thought for him.
Listening to the news, everyone knew where it was leading but no one verbalized it. But now that Zhao Wei stated it aloud a series of quiet murmurs began to ripple across the group.
Wang Mu sighed quietly to himself as he looked over at Zhao Wei and thought to himself, "What a freakish intuition that man has."
Although Wang Mu had actually made a breakthrough, it just allowed him to tell how big the disparity between the two of them were.
Even though he wasn't sure by how much, he could tell Zhao Wei was much stronger than the average level nine expert. Far stronger.
Zhao Wei took in the news calmly. Without skipping a beat, he roared in an authoritative voice, "Everyone gather your forces and prepare yourselves. All the powers of Water Cloud City must be on high alert! We are under attack!"