Raul's regrets only grew as the night went on. The party was awesome and unlike anything he'd ever seen, but he couldn't participate in any of it. Most of the fun was in cultivation games.

Showing off flashy effects of qi, solving runic puzzles, controlling miniatures for gladiatorial combat, or drawing a 3D art piece in the air, none of it was something a mortal could try their hand at.

All he could do was the boring stuff. Following Tai around as part of the host group to greet the attendants, helping the servants, and directing people to their desired destination, all with perfect, by his standards, suffocating etiquette. He was beginning to think Tai only agreed for him to come because he needed an extra pair of hands.

'At least it's not a total flop." He thought as his eyes took in the picturesque scene in front of him. Not only were the sights of the games fascinating, but the cultivators themselves were largely gorgeous. Even the less fortunate ones were still comely and were free from most blemishes or imperfections that would mare their natural beauty. His eyes, at least, were eating good tonight. He also took no small pride in being one of the better-looking men in the room despite not being a cultivator.

Though he wouldn't exactly say he was having fun, it was definitely an eye-opening experience.

After his spat with Matthew and his plus one, he didn't really feel like following his original plan. He was content just helping out for the night. That is, until he saw her.

He was helping some servants move a particularly bulky failed artwork into a backroom when he suddenly felt a compulsion to look over.

She had short blue hair that perfectly framed her gorgeously stoic face, and a sensually buxom body. She looked even better than ninety percent of the cultivators attending, despite wearing servant attire.

It was only after hearing the yelling from the servants he was helping did Raul realize he dropped his section of the statue. When he grabbed it and looked up again, the girl was gone. 

After he finished handling the disposal, he went looking around for that girl again but couldn't find her. He was about to give up and head back to the party when he felt the compulsion to look again.

He glanced over and saw her about to walk into one of the servant paths, a group of pathways that let the servants move around without being seen by the guests much. Their eyes met, she had piercing blue eyes that radiated a chill, and she nodded at him ever so slightly.

Hoping that was an invitation, he chased after her. He found her leaning against a door, apparently waiting. She looked up at him and beckoned with her finger. He dazedly walked over to her.

Within five minutes she had him on the bed under her while he was still trying to figure out what had happened. He'd tried to flirt with her, but he barely got out that her name was Marina before they'd moved to the bed.

While Raul wasn't exactly complaining about these results, he was a bit disappointed as everything was going a bit too fast for his liking. He rather enjoyed the game of seduction, especially when he was matched with another player, it made for a more engaging connection during the main event. He was especially looking forward to this one since he had hoped to hear about fascinating details from lands beyond this valley.

But those minor hang-ups disappeared the moment she took off her shirt. 'We can always talk more afterwards,' he decided before becoming more active. Tragically the deed was no less unsatisfying.

Despite being in such a rush to bed him, she seemed to have no interest in him. Her face remained cold and expressionless no matter what he did.

He tried every trick he could to save his pride, but she just continued to look as if she was waiting for him to finish. It was a real blow to his confidence.

Combined with everything else that'd happened today, Raul was seriously getting depressed. Just as he was thinking of getting it over with, she suddenly came to life.

She changed their position to a sitting posture and wrapped her arms and legs around him so tightly he couldn't move. She moved her face closer to his as if to kiss him, then she bit his shoulder. Hard.

This wasn't a love bite, he was pretty sure she reached bone. The moment she did pain like he'd never known before split from his body, as if his organs ruptured and his blood turned to sand. He felt as though something irreplaceable was taken from him.

Before he could scream, the most intense feeling of euphoria he'd ever experienced changed it into a moan. The pain vanished like a dream and left endless pleasure in its place. He felt like he was being filled by the greatest gift that could be given, while at the same time he was filling someone else.

He was suddenly intensely aware of her body melding into his, his pleasure feeding into her, and hers into his. It was like her own moan reverberated into him through his shoulder and out his mouth. He was on cloud nine for what felt like hours.

They finally started coming down after a couple minutes and she released her death bite on his shoulder. If he'd looked at it, he would've been shocked to find it already pretty much healed, but he had other things on his mind. "What the hell was that?" He asked straight into her expressionless but flushed face. That's when the bomb on the ceiling went off.

It wasn't destructive in nature. To Raul it didn't look any different from the light tricks that were performed in the main hall. But whatever it was tripped the alarm on the formation. Red engravings showed up on the wall and Raul immediately felt a pressure pushing down on him.

Still sitting on him, Marina glanced at his painful expression and waved her hand. The pressure immediately eased up as her qi protected him.

"You're a cultivator!" His expression first turned to shock, then horror. The room door busted open and Tai waltzed in with his spear at the ready and quickly scanned the room.

His eyes widened the moment he spotted Raul on the bed, and he barely resisted the urge to facepalm. Before he could even complain an angry roar covered the compound and a piercing beam of energy flew through the ceiling towards Raul.

Raul's life flashed before his eyes for the second time today as Tai barely blocked the strike in time. The clash smashed the bed to pieces and sent Raul and Marina flying into the wall. It was only through the combined efforts of Tai and Marina that Raul didn't get hurt.

A little bit of blood trickled out of Tai's mouth as he shook off the damage from that attack. He threw a suspicious glance at Marina, who'd used the cover to wrap herself already, before turning his focus back upwards.

Three more blast came down, two aimed at Raul and one at Tai. Tai snorted contemptuously and flicked his wrist. The red engravings on the wall shined and red words formed a bracelet around Tai's arm. He yelled out as he swung his spear again with the formations backing him. Azure flames burst out and devoured the three lights before proceeding to completely destroy the roof.

A middle-aged man standing in the air looked down at the three in the now exposed room with an absolutely livid expression. He lifted his bow to attack again, but several members of the Vault family showed up in the air with their weapons pointing at him and radiating killing intent.

They weren't the only ones, as many of the chaperones from the other families appeared in the sky to watch the show.

Raul embarrassedly tried to hide his nakedness, despite the extreme fear for his life as all those powerful beings looked down on him.

The middle-aged man clenched his teeth as it became obvious there was no way to solve this quietly. He sheathed his sword with a snort, then pointed at Tai. "You better have an explanation for this Vault family! Otherwise don't expect my Norn family to take this lightly!" He roared. All eyes moved towards Tai to see his response.

As he glanced over at Raul and the other gazes followed, Raul thought, 'Yep, I'm screwed.'