Chapter 149: Fashion Appreciation Event in the Imperial Palace

"Stop, we've arrived." The pumpkin carriage came to a halt, and Momotaro's voice drifted from the front.

"Whoa, so many people! And there are guards at the door. How are we supposed to get in?" Opening the carriage door, Wen Hui did not step down. Instead, noticing the extraordinary bustling scene at the entrance of the palace, she turned back and asked into the carriage. There was a rabbit in sportswear, a little girl in thin, heavily patched clothes, and even Chu Miaomiao, who was in the best condition among the three, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, didn't look like a noble capable of entering the royal palace.

"Hehe, I've already prepared for this." With a confident expression, Zhuang Xiaoyuan rummaged beneath the seat of the pumpkin carriage and pulled out a white candle.

"A candle? How is this supposed to get us in?" Seeing what Zhuang Xiaoyuan had produced, a puzzled look appeared on Wen Hui's face, and even Chu Miaomiao tilted her head in incomprehension.

"It's not the candle that matters, it's the flame." As she spoke, Zhuang Xiaoyuan produced the small box of matches she had secretly kept after being interrogated by the white cat officer. With the tiny flame ignited by the friction of the match, she lit the wick of the candle. Just as Zhuang Xiaoyuan had anticipated, any flame ignited by a match possessed the power of illusion. Under the illumination of the candle's glow, Zhuang Xiaoyuan, Wen Hui, and Chu Miaomiao were all suddenly attired in magnificent formal evening gowns.

As the group stepped out of the carriage and Momotaro entered the range of the candlelight, his original samurai attire transformed into a neat tuxedo under the guidance of Zhuang Xiaoyuan's self-imagined control. "Alright, let's go in. Get ready; the Witch Suppression Battle might begin at any moment."

"Oh!" With a distinctly unladylike gesture of raising her hand and a shout, the group of four walked toward the palace gates.

"Excuse me..." As Zhuang Xiaoyuan and her companions approached the palace, a guard stepped forward, intending to stop them and ask for their invitation letters. Another guard glanced at the direction Zhuang Xiaoyuan and the others had come from, reached out to pull his colleague back, nodded respectfully to the approaching group, and directly let them pass.

Once safely inside the palace, the group could still hear the guard behind them lecturing his companion: "Have some situational awareness! They came in the consort's pumpkin carriage, and they're dressed so lavishly—do you even need to ask? Don't go offending people at random, or no one will be able to save you."

"Tell me, aren't we just riding on someone else's coattails?" Hearing the voices of the guards behind them, Wen Hui glanced sideways at her companions and said with a chuckle.

"Indeed. There's even a little dog surnamed Wen tagging along and mixing in with our group," Chu Miaomiao retorted coolly, casting a sidelong glance at Wen Hui.

"Expressionless cat, who are you calling a dog?" Grasping the meaning of Chu Miaomiao's words, Wen Hui instantly flared up, her eyes glaring wide as she made a sound completely mismatched with her elegant gown.

"My, wasn't that your own description?" Chu Miaomiao covered her lips with a small hand, her tone carrying a hint of feigned surprise, though her expression remained completely unchanged. Although Chu Miaomiao was extremely petite, resembling a child who would never grow up, out of everyone in the group, the formal wear fit her the best.

"Ugh, you..."

"Alright, don't draw too much attention. Let's find our target first." Holding a candle-transformed fan in her left hand and extending her right hand to pat Wen Hui's shoulder, Zhuang Xiaoyuan noticed the surrounding gazes converging on them and offered words of comfort.

Soothed by Zhuang Xiaoyuan, Wen Hui and Chu Miaomiao finally ceased their bickering. The group followed the flow of people into a massive banquet hall, which was already crowded with numerous social elites.

"Time is up. Welcome everyone to the grand banquet hosted by His Majesty the King to showcase his newly acquired magical garments. And now, let us welcome our most beloved Majesty the King!~" Accompanied by the striking of the hour on the clock, the master of ceremonies' voice echoed throughout the hall. As the words fell, on the staircase draped with a red carpet at the side of the hall, a completely naked muscular man walked down step by step. For an instant, the entire hall fell into a dead silence for a certain reason.

"Xiaoyuan, he came out without any clothes on? Is he a streaker?" In the hall, the quiet atmosphere brought about by the king's appearance was shattered in an instant. Wen Hui's voice sounded exceptionally loud in the preceding silence, and every single person present heard it clearly. In a flash, all gazes converged upon the group.

"Idol-headed Hui, you've caused trouble again." Carrying a tone of resigned helplessness, Chu Miaomiao's expression remained calm.

"Oh dear, this is starting to look a bit bad." Noticing that the surrounding gazes converging upon them had begun to flash with an otherworldly red glow, Zhuang Xiaoyuan raised her delicate eyebrows slightly and looked up at the naked king at the very top.

"How dare you—how dare you insult this king as an idiot! None of you are leaving; you're all going to die." The naked king's eyes glowed red, and with a furious roar, the skin on his body suddenly split open to reveal bright red muscles. A pair of short bull horns sprouted from the top of his head, and his body swelled instantly, completely transforming into the bulky appearance of a Japanese fairy-tale red oni.

"How dare you show disrespect to our King! Seize them!" At some point, the previous master of ceremonies had also transformed into a tall, slender blue oni, pointing at Zhuang Xiaoyuan's group and shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Awooo~"

"Caw caw caw~"

"For His Majesty the King~!"

In the blink of an eye, the social elites attending the banquet tore off their formal attire, instantly transforming into big bad wolves, witches, and fierce demons. Everyone rushed toward Zhuang Xiaoyuan and her companions.

"Demons, I've finally found you! This is the place where I will thoroughly exterminate you." A sharp samurai sword flashed out of its scabbard, and Momotaro instantly eliminated several surrounding demons, charging directly toward the red-oni king.

"Even though divine power can't be used here, don't underestimate me either; I've specifically trained." Holding back thirty percent of her strength and putting seventy into her right punch, Zhuang Xiaoyuan sent a lunging grey wolf flying. Twisting her body, she delivered a direct side kick that launched another grey wolf trying to fill the gap: as the most elite graduate of the military department, combined with a physique exceeding ordinary humans reinforced by divine power, Zhuang Xiaoyuan was certainly not a weakling incapable of fighting back.

"Hehe, you can't catch me!" Relying on her signature speed, Wen Hui maneuvered dexterously among the witches. The speed that had originally been enhanced when she was the Wind Guardian Deity became even faster after using the Agility Crystal, making it impossible for these witches flying on broomsticks to keep up with her.

"Boom." The earth shook. As the marble-tiled ground fractured, Chu Miaomiao lifted a massive boulder—dozens of times larger than her entire body—straight from the floor she had shattered with her own strength, and hurled it toward Wen Hui.

With a thunderous crash, the group of witches pursuing Wen Hui were all pinned beneath the rock.

"Spit, spit, spit. Expressionless cat, you jerk, just now you were trying to crush me to death along with them, weren't you?" Spitting out the dust she had accidentally swallowed, Wen Hui ran back swiftly and kicked away a grey wolf lunging toward Zhuang Xiaoyuan. (To be continued...)