Chapter 256: The Start of the Conference
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
"Defender Xing…" Standing by the side of the huge lightning pit, Mo Wuji called out worryingly.
"I am fine," Xing Huang’s weak voice was heard and even though the voice was very faint, Mo Wuji could hear the excitement and happiness in his voice.
Without waiting for Mo Wuji to help him up, Xing Huang had already sat up by himself. In the very next instant, an incredible amount of spiritual energy was absorbed by him and Mo Wuji noticed that Xing Huang’s wounds were gradually recovering and his surrounding was bursting with spiritual aura.
Mo Wuji didn’t go over to disturb Xing Huang as he went to ignite the sect protecting array once again before returning to the spiritual fog pool with nine spiritual veins suspended in it. He wasn’t there to cultivate but to lock the spirit locking array. However, to allow Tian Ji Sect’s disciples to continue cultivating, he ignited a spirit directing array just beside the main spirit locking array. He would be directing the spiritual energy to the Tian Ji Summit and for the rest of the secondary summits, their spiritual energy shall be temporarily locked up.
Tian Ji Sect was still too weak so he couldn’t simply let everything out especially for such monstrous level of spiritual energy.
…
Five Elements Desolate City was located just outside the Five Rings Desolate Domain.
This was originally only an open air square-like transaction arena. This transaction arena was more like a huge plaza and surrounding the plaza were the huge sects’ turf.
The few opening ceremonies of the Five Elements Desolate Domain often resulted in this place become a crowd gathering arena. After the alien cultivators were chased away, the Zhen Mo Continent Experts opened a path from the Five Elements Desolate Domain to the Zhen Mo Continent.
The Hundred Sect Alliance used the fortune collected from the alien cultivators to build a Five Elements Desolate City on this open air square in just one year.
The breadth and length of the Five Elements Desolate City were about 100 miles each therefore, it shouldn’t be considered to be a small cultivation city. The moment this city was built up, there were countless of business organisations and sects trying to fight to own the buildings and land here. However, these competitions were immediately restrained as other than some housing estates near the periphery of this city, the rest of the buildings and places with concentrated spiritual energy were all kept in place.
The main reason why the Five Elements Desolate City was able to be built up was due to the fortune from the alien cultivators. Therefore, many big sects agreed that the city should be divided according to the results of the Hundred Sects Alliance Conference as they definitely should not forget about those sects who fought hard and contributed to the Lost Continent.
…
As the Hundred Sect Alliance Conference drew closer, there was an increasing number of people arriving at the Five Elements Desolate City. This was different from when the Five Elements Desolate Domain first opened because after the conference was over, there was no limit to the number of people who could enter the domain which meant that everyone would have the same opportunity to enter.
There was even a Flower of the True Gods in the Five Elements Desolate Domain, not to mention the countless treasures as well as cultivation resources available inside. In fact, during the opening of the Five Elements Desolate Domain, there was a period of confusion in which anyone could enter the domain because of this confusion. Because of this, there were a lot of people who managed to bring out loads of treasures from within the domain. Therefore, nobody would object to having a conference like this Hundred Sect Alliance Conference.
Today was the opening day of the Hundred Sect Alliance Conference and to convince all the sects as well as eradicate any doubts from the cultivators, this conference would be an open air style.
The conference would be held in the newly built Five Elements Desolate City’s plaza and there was a round altar for discussion in the middle of the plaza which was capable of holding a few thousand people. A sound amplifying array was installed on the round array as well such that any discussion made on the round altar could be heard throughout the entire Five Elements Desolate City. Any cultivator who was in the Five Elements Desolate City’s plaza would be able to hear the contents of the conference. Even if one was not in the plaza itself, as long as he was in the city, he would be able to hear the discussions very clearly.
Even though there was only a few cultivators in charge on the round altar busy working, the Five Elements Desolate Plaza was already filled with people who were all eagerly anticipating the Hundred Sect Alliance Conference.
A path made of white jade stone stretched out from the entrance of the Five Elements Desolate City all the way to the middle of the round altar. The entire plaza was overcrowded with people but nobody dared to step on this path. Everyone knew that only experts or sect heads would be able to lay their foot on this path. It would be perfectly normal for an ordinary person to step on this path and get killed immediately.
"Look, the Heaven Seeking Palace’s Dean Feng is here," Someone from the crowd shouted in a low voice and the entire plaza turned quiet.
"Beside Dean Feng is the Heaven Seeking Palace’s dao gate’s dao head, Qu Jiangyuan as well as the Heaven Seeking Palace’s defender…"
"The second to arrive is the Great Evolution Sect’s Lord Jiang? Lord Jiang looks so young and was simply too stylish."
"Who is the third one here? Looks like the Heavenly Temple’s sect head."
"No, that is the sect head of the Heavenly Drug Sect, Qin Fuyu. I’ve heard that Lord Qin is not only a Nihility God Stage cultivator, he is also a Earth grade pill refiner and was said to be the first pill dao expert in the entire Five Big Empires.
"The first pill dao expert? Ah, did you forget about the Heaven Seeking Palace pill pagoda’s Granny Linglong? I’ve actually heard that Granny Linglong was a Tier 7 heaven grade pill refiner.
"I’ve also heard that Granny Linglong disappeared after the war with the alien cultivators. Someone said that she was being chased by a True God Stage alien cultivator…"
…
Whether or not the cultivators by the side were discussing about the person, anyone who walked on this path would have to register their name and origins at the round altar. After registration, a person in charge would announce the person’s name and origins to everyone.
As time passed, more and more experts walked onto the round altar.
Outside the Five Elements Desolate City, Mo Wuji brought Defender Xing Huang and the sect’s Business Affairs Hall Lord, Zhuang Yuan into the city.
"Hold on…" After walking to the entrance of the city, Mo Wuji stopped in his tracks as he saw a familiar backview flashing across the plaza.
"Zhuang Yan, you enter the round altar to help us secure our Tian Ji Sect’s position first. Remember not to position ourselves too far back because this could affect the benefits we could possibly receive. Defender Xing, you come with me," Mo Wuji said as he immediately squeezed through the crowd.
If he saw any ordinary person, Mo Wuji would not have bothered to chase. However, he would never forget the back view of this person even if he was burnt to ashes: Jing Feilan, this vicious woman.
Even though Yan’Er eventually profited from a misfortune to be able to get her Five Elements Mutant spiritual roots, he had to fight so hard in the Five Elements Desolate Domain to be able to save Yan’Er’s life. This woman tried to transfer Yan’Er’s spiritual roots to someone else and now that she appeared in the Five Elements Desolate City, how could he let her off just like that?
…
"Zhuang Yan, what are you doing?" A sharp voice from the crowd sounded out and this caught the attention of the crowd.
At this moment, the crowd saw Zhuang Yan walking on the white jade stone path and in front of the many experts and sect heads, Zhuang Yan was simply too out of place.
Zhuang Yan subconsciously stopped walking as she saw the person who called out for her. It was Zhuang Jie from the Zhuang family and she was in fact, Zhuang Yan’s cousin. There were two people standing beside Zhuang Jie, one of them was the man who set out to sea with her, Qi Wenxuan. The other was another member of the Zhuang family, Zhuang Yuantong who was Zhuang Yan’s male cousin.
Zhuang Yan saw Zhuang Jie and Qi Wenxuan standing together and she revealed a faint self-deprecating smile. Not only was Qi Wenxuan’s qualification decent, he was extremely considerate too. Ever since he entered the Zhuang family, Zhuang Jie had already started chasing after him intensely. In the end, Qi Wenxuan preferred the kind and gentle Zhuang Yan and because of this, Zhuang Jie always pick on Zhuang Yan.
.
What Zhuang Yan didn’t expect was that after she saw the true colours of Qi Wenxuan in the Sky Sea and eventually left him, this fella actually went back to the Zhuang family and ended up with Zhuang Jie. Even her cousin, Zhuang Yuantong was standing beside them and this made Zhuang Yan wondered how this fella won over the whole Zhuang family.
One must know that initially other than Zhuang Jie and herself, the Zhuang family didn’t really like Qi Wenxuan. Her parents once told her that if she were to stay together with Qi Wenxuan, she could never step back home again and the family would no longer have a daughter like her.
Zhuang Yan shook her head as she was truly blind to like Qi Wenxuan and dear to not listen to her parents’ advice. She no longer had the courage to face her family again.
Previously, Zhuang Yan did not travel much, hence she was not very experienced. However, after entering the Tian Ji Sect, she had experienced almost as much as before. Without mentioning her head senior brother, Mo Wuji, even Pu Qian was many folds stronger than Qi Wenxuan.
Seeing Zhuang Yan simply shook her head and continued walking towards the round altar, Zhuang Jie went crazy as she shouted, "Zhuang Yan, have you gone nuts? Do you know what you’re doing? Hurry roll back down here! Are you trying to get the entire Zhuang family killed?"
Even Zhuang Yuantong, who was standing beside Zhuang Jie, was frightened. Could it be that because Qi Wenxuan chose Zhuang Jie, Zhuang Yan wanted to seek revenge and get the whole family killed?
At the thought of this, cold sweat was all over Zhuang Yuantong’s back. Presently, Zhuang Yan had already walked into the round altar, no matter how daring he was, he would not dare to rush forward to pull Zhuang Yan back.
"May I ask this guest to present her identity card?" The two cultivators guarding the round altar said politely even though both of them were suspicious of Zhuang Yan too but before they could confirm anything, they would not do anything to Zhuang Yan.
The identity card was the blank white card given on the flying messenger sword. Tian Ji Sect was given three slots and as to who would be able to join, as long as the name was written on the card itself, it would suffice.
Zhuang Yan took out her identity card and handed it over to the cultivator that was speaking and after this cultivator saw the card, he immediately raised his hand to direct her and said, "Hall Lord Zhuang, this way please!"
After Zhuang Yan walked further inside the round altar, another cultivator shouted, "Tian Ji Sect’s Business Affairs Hall Lord, Lord Zhuang, enters the conference."
After hearing this announcement, not only were Zhuang Jie and Qi Wenxuan shocked, even Zhuang Yuantong was dumbfounded. Tian Ji Sect’s Business Affairs Hall Lord? Wasn’t Zhuang Yan just an abandoned woman from a small family? Since when was the change so drastic that she became a hall lord now?
A moment later, Zhuang Yuantong became excited as a member of the Zhuang family had became a hall lord and was even able to enter this Hundred Sect Alliance Conference. Don’t this mean that Zhuang Yan would have certain authority to get slots to enter the Five Elements Desolate Domain?
"Not possible, how is this possible?" Zhuang Jie finally reacted as she murmured to herself. Since young, she had always been ahead of Zhuang Yan in everything they did. The only time she lost to Zhuang Yan was when Zhuang Yan snatched Qi Wenxuan from her. Even so, she managed to snatch him back so what’s happening now? Zhuang Yan became Tian Ji Sect’s hall lord and even had the chance to enter the Hundred Sect Alliance Conference? How is this possible?
Those who didn’t know know Zhuang Yan personally were all secretly envious of her because she looked so young yet she was already a sect’s hall lord. It was simply too infuriating if they compared themselves with her.