Chapter – 169 Travel to the Imperial City
Right from his childhood days to adulthood, Long Yu had had encounters with a lot of people from the Liu clan.
Feng Longsong’s wife and Feng Yao’s mother, Liu Yu, belonged to the Liu clan. She had always treated Long Yu coldly. After the changes that took place in the Feng clan in Yu Guan city, Liu Yu left her husband’s home and returned to her maternal home in the Imperial city.
Liu Mingxuan, Feng Yao’s cousin and a disciple of the Hanbing sect, was killed by Long Yu in the Royal Ginseng Forest.
Liu Ye, the fifth core disciple of the Knife Cut sect, who had displayed the ‘bury knife soul attack’, was killed by Long Yu in the Teng snake’s abyss.
Liu Mingcheng, the personal attendant of Wang Tianzhuo, had witnessed Long Yu destroying Wang Tianzhuo’s cultivation and turning him to a waste!
The only person of the Liu clan that was able to impress Long Yu was Liu Yuan.
In the Ling clan village, they not only fell inside the hidden chamber together and received half of the heavenly tablet each, Liu Yuan also let Long Yu borrow her white horse later.
It was there that Liu Yuan’s long, black hair had turned white. Oh, how they suited her!
But Long Yu didn’t know how she was now.
“Foster father, I want to accompany you to the Imperial city.”
Several images from the past flashed through Long Yu’s mind, followed by a wide smile on Feng Longsong’s face.
Liu clan was not an influential clan of the Imperial city. They were just a clan of merchants.
The people of the Liu clan left no stone unturned in order to gain favor from the influential families of the likes of Wang clan and Chu clan. Obviously, there was a big disparity among the statuses of Liu clan and Wang clan.
Long Yu believed that there must be no one in the Liu clan who could defeat him, so his presence would impart some safety to Feng Longsong. For him, Feng Longsong’s safety held top priority.
“That’s great! It’s always better to travel with a companion than to travel alone.”
Feng Longsong smiled and nodded his head, but the next moment, he seemed to be pondering over something.
Long Yu wondered if he should tell him about what happened between him and Feng Yao.
But on pondering further, he realized that Feng Yao had joined Xinghai Lun who was one of the Seven Calamity stars would not be good news for Feng Longsong. So he decided not to talk to Feng Longsong about Feng Yao.
Moreover, if he told Feng Longsong about all this, he would definitely get more worried about Long Yu’s safety.
Feng Longsong would be helpless as his current strength was no sufficient to protect Long Yu, and this would, in turn, make him utterly sad.
After thinking about all these things, Long Yu decided to keep this news buried inside his heart.
Long Yu looked on and found Baiyun Zhong calling the members of the contingent inside the main hall of Zhentian sect.
The seven sects competition this time was the most crucial one for the whole Zhentian sect. Naturally, each and every disciple of Zhentian sect wanted to participate and fight for their sect. However, it was impossible for the sect to let every disciple participate, and hence only the most talented disciples were selected for participation.
The disciples under the age of twenty-five years, with a cultivation level of at least Wudao eighth layer. were eligible to participate. They were going to represent Zhentian sect in this seven sects competition.
In addition to the contingent of the participants, the Sovereign of the sect, Baiyun Zhong, was leading the contingent himself in order to ensure the safety of the disciples, including the top two core disciples Long Yu and Bu Xing.
All the hopes of Zhentian sect now rested upon these disciples and Baiyun Zhong didn’t want them to encounter any accident before they would participate in the seven sects competition.
Apart from Baiyun Zhong, three pavilion Elders – Old White, Yu Shengshi and Li Bufan were also accompanying the contingent to the Imperial city.
Moreover, Yan Huanmo, who was already there in the Imperial city, was waiting for the contingent to arrive and had already arranged for the lodging of the disciples and the elders.
Besides Baiyun Zhong and the three pavilion Elders, fifteen Law Enforcement Elders were also accompanying the contingent to the Imperial city.
Since only selected disciples could participate, those disciples who couldn’t participate were not allowed to leave the premises of Zhentian sect during the one-month duration of the seven sects competition.
This was done in order to safeguard their lives.
After all, in the absence of the sovereign and the most powerful disciples and Elders, the defenses of the Zhentian sect would be weak and more prone to a sudden attack. It was essential for the disciples to stick together in case there was an attack on the sect.
With numerous disciples staying together, there were lesser chances of any enemy to infiltrate into the sect premises and harm the young disciples.
The contingent comprised of more than seventy members.
There were fifteen Law Enforcement Elders with a cultivation level of Zhenling first layer each, the Sovereign of the sect and three pavilion Elders. Besides these people, there were more than fifty disciples that were going to participate in the seven sect competition.
It was an honor for all the disciples to be allowed to participate in the competition. None of the disciples wanted to waste this opportunity to bring laurels for their Zhentian sect.
None, except Bai Hang!
After getting his long sword battle weapon shattered and this sword Zhenling entity damaged by Long Yu, Bai Hang’s self-confidence was shaken.
This had made him renounce his participation from the seven sect competition and torture himself with the ghosts of past by staying at Zhentian sect.
Long Yu didn’t have the slightest of guilt in this regard.
Bai Hang himself had challenged Long Yu for a combat. One had to stay ready to face the consequences after challenging someone for a combat!
Long Yu looked all around.
He knew several disciples who were going to participate in the competition along with him.
Certainly, the most powerful competitors from the Zhentian sect were Long Yu and Bu Xing. However, since Bu Xing had conceded the fight with Long Yu, it was still unknown who was more formidable among these two.
Of course, Long Yu was fierce, but Bu Xing had been keeping secrets of his own and was not as simple as he appeared to be!
Apart from these two, three disciples among the participating forty core disciples had entered the Zhenling realm.
One of these three people was the eighth core disciple, Zhuge Jian, who preferred to keep a low profile.
Although Long Yu didn’t know much about Zhuge Jian, Bu Xing once said that Zhuge Jian was a remarkable swordsman.
The last time Zhuge Jian was seen in the Zhentian sect was around two years ago.
At that time, Zhuge Jian had a cultivation level of Wudao ninth layer and was the eighth core disciple of the Zhentian sect.
As Long Yu looked at this young man clad in a purple robe, carrying a purple scabbard on his back, he observed that this young man had an air of indifference.
Zhenling third layer!
Long Yu immediately understood that since Zhuge Jian had been venturing out of the sect for two whole years, his combat efficiency had increased very quickly and hence he had entered Zhenling third layer. This added to the advantage of Zhentian sect.
The other two disciples who had recently entered the Zhenling realm were acquaintances of Long Yu.
One of them was the disciple of Elder Yu Shuiyun – the dark-faced Lu Guanming and the other one was the master of the Ling clan villa – Ling Han!
Both Lu Guanming and Ling Han had been going through the ‘Congealment’ which is the process that prepares the disciples to break through, and that’s why Long Yu had been unable to meet them.
During their practice for the seven sect competition, none of the disciples had shown even the slightest of laxity!
As Long Yu looked towards them, he sensed that although the cultivation level of both Lu Guanming and Ling Han was Zhenling first layer, but their actual strength was much more than that.
Surprisingly, Lu Guanming, who could easily get agitated, was standing with great calm.
“What kind of martial skills has he been practicing?”
Long Yu couldn’t help but speculate about his martial skills since martial skills couldn’t be sensed like cultivation levels.
But the aura released by Ling Han’s body seemed familiar to Long Yu.
“This aura seems just like Lunar qi. Has Ling Han absorbed the piece of Lunar debris that he found in the Ling clan villa?”
Long Yu continued speculating and was really very happy for the enhancement of their cultivation levels.
Although they both were just Zhenling first layer experts, they had successfully broken through one of the most crucial bottlenecks, at which several people failed and were stuck for the rest of their lives.
A tremendous change had occurred among the top five core disciples of Zhentian sect since the last year!
The second core disciple, Bai Hang, in spite of having entered Zhenling third layer, was defeated by Long Yu when he challenged the latter. The combat not only left his sword shattered and his Zhenling damaged, it also shook his self-confidence, making him withdraw from the competition.
The third core disciple, Su Biaoxin, got his cultivation destroyed as a punishment for his recklessness some time ago and was expelled from the sect.
The fourth and fifth core disciples – Duanmu Conglong and Yao Yan were killed by Long Yu in the Ling clan village.
Among the top five core disciples, two were dead and one was turned to waste; the second core disciple Bai Hang was unworthy of his position after being defeated by Long Yu.
Lu Guanming, Ling Han and Zhuge Jian had recently entered the Zhenling realm, making them three of the most powerful disciples of the Zhentian sect.
Long Yu had many acquaintances among the Wudao ninth layer disciples too.
Feng Hao, Feng Xiaofei and Feng Yuxin had entered Wudao ninth layer and hence were also participating in the seven sect competition.
Liao Lele, who had returned to Zhentian sect the day before, had herself stepped into Wudao ninth layer. In addition to concocting life-saving pills, she could now concoct Zhenling promotion pills. This could facilitate her breaking through from Wudao ninth layer into the Zhenling realm.
At this time, Ling Yiyue, Ling Han’s younger sister, was looking continuously towards Long Yu from the crowd.
By this time, she had also stepped into Wudao eighth layer. Although she was eligible to compete in the seven sect competition, but since she had recently entered the Wudao eighth layer, she lacked the necessary combat efficiency.
Moreover, the existence of Wudao eighth layer martial artists didn’t mean much in the seven sect competition and didn’t make any large difference in the position of the sect.
The martial artists under the age of twenty-five years were zealous and in the most productive phase of their lives. A tournament like the seven sect competition provided a great platform for exhibiting their talents.
“Now that we have all come together, let’s set out.”
Baiyun Zhong looked happily at the disciples who had gathered inside the main hall of Zhentian sect. He rubbed his beard and said: “Old Black, I leave you in charge of the Zhentian sect. In case there is any mishap, send me your messenger pigeons immediately.”
“Yes, Sovereign.”
Old Black bowed down to Baiyun Zhong in obedience.
Old Black was the second most powerful in Zhentian sect after Baiyun Zhong, so the responsibility of protecting the disciples naturally befell upon him.
“Long Yu, come here.”
Baiyun Zhong nodded as he called Long Yu.
“Yes, Sovereign?”
Long Yu came forward and was clearly baffled.
“This battle weapon is made from the body of the same beast whose wings you profoundly use now. I believe it will be of some help to you.”
Baiyun Zhong gave a slight smile and threw a garment made of white feathers towards him.
Long Yu immediately recognized this garment. He had seen it before leaving for the Demon Valley!
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