The five young lords stood up as Qinghan had ordered, and the young man in the middle, who was named Dongfang Dao stepped closer to Qinghan, and said respectfully.
“Young master, have you ever heard of the Five Bloody Soldiers? We… we’re the offspring of these five heroes. Unfortunately, our ancestors have all been killed, and we were suppressed by Ye Jian ever since. During these years, the leader of the Ye family has been in seclusion, and the young master hadn’t shown his talent yet, so we refrained ourselves from taking any rash actions. Now, young master, you have gained the trust of the family. Er, and the leader, Ye Tianlong, has come out of seclusion. Frankly, we’ve got the approval from the leader to serve you from now on!”
“What? The Five Bloody Soldiers?” Suddenly, Qinghan remembered that his father, Ye Dao, had enrolled five strong men. However, they were all killed following his father’s death. Now, the five young men standing in front of him, declared themselves as their descendants. At first, he was a little bit suspicious, but since they mentioned Ye Tianlong, he chose to believe them.
“Alright, please take a seat, and we will have a more in-depth talk later.” Qinghan nodded his head, and instructed them to sit down beside him.
As ordered, the five men submissively took a seat, and kept silent. While at the same time, Qinghan slipped back into his chair, and grabbed his cup of tea. He intentionally kept some distance from these five new friends. For one thing, their identification was yet to be verified; for the other, even if they were the descendants of the Five Bloody Soldiers, he had to test their capability as well as moral quality, before he decided to accept them as his subordinates. As the Elite Prefecture War was around the corner, which was exceedingly important to Qinghan, he had to be careful in choosing his followers, for if he let five useless men, or even worse, five spies into his team, they might bring unexpected troubles.
As the greetings were finished, most of the guests had been seated. The Yue family had arranged the square tables into the shape of the character “门” (Meng = door). The seniors of the Yue family sat in the upper section of the Meng, and the young lords were arranged to take the first rows on either side. For people from less influential families, they took the seats in the rear.
“Congratulations, young lord Qinghan! Your team is reinforced by another five strong men!” Feng Zi, who sat next to Qinghan, held a cup of wine up, and the other young lords quickly did likewise, proposing a toast.
Although Qinghan had promised them to give up the chance for chasing after Qingcheng, they never knew whether this sly young lord would rock the boat or not.
“Thank you guys!” Qinghan kept nodding his head.
……
In the middle of their casual chat, the gate of the northern yard was opened, and a middle-aged beautiful woman came out. She still possessed a graceful, slender figure, and her face was as blush as a girl’s, only the wrinkles at the corner of her eyes betrayed her age. Following this woman, a giant man in green clothing came out, and his prominent eyes were so frighteningly sticking out, that it was as if they were about to pop out at any second. At the end of the crowd, were three grey-haired elders. They all went towards the camp in friendly smiles, and each and every one of them took a seat in the front row.
“Your highness, the five great elders!”
Suddenly, all of the people stood up, and bowed to the five elders, who had just walked in. Actually, it was a well accepted rule, that on the Summer Fire Festival, each of the prominent families would select an elder to participate in the game as a judge.
Meanwhile, Qinghan just perfunctorily cupped one of his hand before the other, while his eyes were staring directly at Ye Qingniu, who was among the five great elders, as though he was asking silently, “Who are the five men behind me?”
“Hey, Qinghan, don’t stare at me. It’s all your grandfather’s arrangement. They’re actually true descendants of the Five Bloody Soldiers. I guarantee that they’re all reliable people. You should believe in their integrity, and use them properly.” Ye Qingniu narrowed his eyes as he smiled, while conveying his voice secretly to Qinghan.
“Alright!” Based on Ye Qingniu’s assurance, Qinghan relaxed his vigilance, but still decided to test them in the following few days.
“Young lords, you’re all the new-generation elites in the Mars Prefecture. Today, I’m so honored to participate in the Summer Fire Festival on behalf of the Yue family. Your gracious presence has added glitter to our humble island. Now, I’ll announce the beginning of the Summer Fire Festival!”
Yue Ji stood up, before giving a concise speech. The young lords below responded with heartfelt smiles, as they appreciated her for not using a lengthy, boring formulae.
Suddenly, Yue Ji’s radiant face turned solemn, with her hands lifted in the middle of the air. She was gazing in the northern direction, petrified. Meanwhile, Ye Qingniu and Xue Fei also stopped in the middle of their whispers, turning their eyes to north.
Out of curiosity, Qinghan followed their eyes, but couldn’t discern anything in the north. However… several minutes later, an earth-breaking howl broke through the northern sky. Gradually, a black dot from afar quickly enlarged into the shape of a beast.
“It’s the seventh-grade demonic beast – Pterosaur!”
Only after one of the elders cried out the name of the beast, did the young lords know what it was. They were excited and astounded at the same time!
Throughout history, the wild demonic beasts had never intruded the territory of the three prefectures. Therefore, they had quickly eliminated the possibility of a wild demonic beast. The only calculation could be, that this seventh-grade Pterosaur was a domesticated one. As a powerful beast, only some mighty people would be qualified to tame it. Across the continent, only those in Immortal City had the chance to rear a Pterosaur.
Now, this Pterosaur was flying in the direction of the island, which meant, that people from Immortal City were coming here!
Immortal City!
What did Immortal City stand for? If the Tranquil Lake was the paradise for men, then Immortal City would be the paradise for all cultivation pursuers.
Five thousand years ago, the three prefectures originally boasted their own unique culture and ethnicities. Conflicts among the three parties were a direct product of racial, and cultural differences. During those turbulent years, enormous numbers of soldiers and civilians had lost their lives in the wars. This kind of dire situation didn’t end until the arrival of a mysterious man – “Tu”. No one knew who Tu’s mother was, as if he was born out of nowhere. Owing to his heavenly power, Tu had stopped the war, and had stipulated rules for every prefecture to follow. On the very mountain, where the tri-party war had taken place, he had eventually established Immortal City.
Since that day, Immortal City had become the symbol for the highest cultivation. The glory left by Tu, was like the stars in the night sky, as it still shone brightly on the people in the continent. People were full of gratitude towards Tu, for he had brought them peace ever since.
According to the rules set up by Tu, those who were interested in combat could join the Prefecture War, and the more they killed, the more credits they would obtain; for those peace-lovers, they could just stay at home, without having to worry about being caught up in some war.
Aside from these rules, Tu would seldom get himself involved in other matters in the other prefectures. He usually remained in Immortal City, like a saint, laughing away the ups and downs of life.
However, as time went on, some conceited cultivators had thought that Immortal City suppressed the other prefectures, and had decided to gather other activists to topple it down. Nevertheless… as always, the outcome was unbelievably the same: never did any invaders come out of Immortal City, once they had stepped in.
Because of this, Immortal City became a holy place, where seldom anyone dared to go alone!
Today, on the Summer Fire Festival, a special guest from the Immortal City joined them all. How could they not be stunned, and excited?
Looking at the approaching Pterosaur, as well as the young man riding on its back, Qinghan narrowed his eyes with rapt attention. However, he bore no good feelings for Immortal City, for he always subconsciously believed that Immortal City was like a giant mountain, that suppressed all inspiring young people. Now, they had sent a young man to the Tranquil Lake, Qinghan was suspicious of their true intention.
Yue Ji put her hand down, and smiled at the young man in the air. Since Immortal City had sent a handsome young man, rather than an old person, she believed their motivation was self-obvious – to carry a beauty home. At least, this wasn’t a bad thing. As long as he wasn’t coming to wage war, he deserved a warm welcome.
At the same time, Ye Qingniu remained anxious, for he had never seen this young man before. Actually, Ye Qingniu was occasionally invited to Immortal City, and had had a couple of conversations with the elders there. But for this young man, he failed to recognize him. Moreover, he was irritated by the bravado created by this young man. Even if he was from Immortal City, he had to obey the rules and compete with other young lords. He couldn’t just snatch a beauty and run away.
As for Feng Zi, Hua Cao, and the other aspiring young lords, their mood was also negatively affected by this new arrival, especially when this man looked more handsome than them. Only Wuhen behaved abnormally, as a slight trace of joyfulness flashed in his eyes… And Qinghan, as always, didn’t care much about anything that happened around him, he simply kept drinking from his cup of wine. Since he had already announced himself as a quitter in this competition, he had nothing to lose anyway. The only thing he was expecting, was to watch the upcoming “drama” for free!
- Boom! -
The Pterosaur landed on the island with a thud, before a white figure slipped off the beast’s back, gracefully put his feet on the ground. Initially, this young man was enveloped in glaring golden rays, but seconds later, the light faded away. He stepped forward, and bowed politely to each of the five great elders.
“I’m Tu Qianjun, it’s an honor to meet you all. I have long heard about the matchless beauty of Miss Qingcheng, today I came here especially for her… Oh, I also heard that the young elites from this prefecture are all here. I'd love to make friends with them.”
chapter from: http://www.xianxiaworld.net/Beast-Piercing-The-Heavens/chaptererror();