Xuefeng spent the rest of the day reading books in his room. After eating dinner, he borrowed a bunch of them from the library to learn more about this world. Even on earth, he was a bookworm, so this situation really worked out well for him.
Even though he didn't get much more information about the things he needed to know more about cultivation, he read a lot about the region he was in. He learned about all known locations and remembered many species that live there. Remembering the world map would greatly benefit him in the future.
It was not hard for him to remember things because he had a really good memory and even on earth he was at the top of his class.
He also managed to learn more information about the several sects and clans that ruled the Eastern Region. For starters, the Eastern Region was shared by one empire, ten kingdoms and thirty countries.
The Azure Dragon Empire was the strongest and controlled all ten kingdoms. All the kingdoms had to pay a lot of spirit stones yearly as a tribute.
After that, there were thirty countries which were divided between all the ten kingdoms. Some powerful kingdoms had more countries under their rule than the other kingdoms. For example, the kingdom that Aurora Country is under, the Sacred Sword Kingdom had five, but at the bottom of the food chain, Skyfire Kingdom had only one.
In every kingdom, there was only one ruler and it was the royal family only. In the Sacred Sword Kingdom, the Royal Family was surnamed Zhen.
Even if the Liu Clan grew stronger than the Zhen Family in Aurora Country, if its ruling was threatened, the Zhen Family from the Sacred Sword Kingdom would send some experts to suppress them.
Because of that, the Royal Families could rule without any problems for generations.
Unfortunately, there are ten powers that grew strong enough that even Royal Families of countless kingdoms can't touch.
These ten powers were the Empire's top ten branch sects. In the Azure Dragon Empire, there were ten sects that competed against each other to be the number one sect of the entire Eastern Region.
After sect leaders fought for over a decade, they finally decided to do something different. They created branch sects, one in each Kingdom, trained their disciples for 5 years, and let the younger generation compete against each other in a competition to decide who is the strongest.
The one sect who won can call himself the strongest one for the next five years.
In the Sacred Sword Kingdom, the top sect branch was called Sacred Institute. Three years ago, they were placed 5th in the competition. Not the best, but they weren't the biggest losers.
Xuefeng thought this whole idea of who is the strongest was stupid, but who was he to judge those experts.
Other than those powers, there were clans like the Liu Clan, which ruled smaller parts of the country.
After reading about all this information, Xuefeng ate something before taking shower and went to sleep.
Tomorrow was his big day, so he needed a good rest.
Every year, kids that were around ten years old, would gather at the Spirit Awakening Hall to start their cultivation. The clan was buying Spirit Awakening Liquid for them once a year, why would they buy it themselves earlier? Because of that, The Spirit Awakening Ceremony was really grand, and many from the clan were coming to watch it.
After all, what if a genius was born? They would be the first to see this.
This year, the ceremony was even more festive than usual. That was because, one of the participants that would be participating would be the infamous Liu Xuefeng, the Liu Clan Leader's only son.
When everyone in the city heard about the news, they were astonished. Everyone thought that the Liu Clan Leader bought a rank 3 healing pill for his son, which was as expensive as a city. Even some rank 5 Spirit Strengthening pills were less expensive than a pill that can heal a broken dantian.
They were even more curious about today's Spirit Awakening Ceremony, unfortunately, it was only open for Liu Clansmen and people with an invitation. But to get one, you had to be either a sect leader of a big clan from a different city or a strong cultivator in general.
Surprisingly, this year, the Liu Clan's Leader sent a lot of invitations to many high-ranked figures.
It was early in the morning but there was already a crowd of people surrounding the southern gate of the Liu Clan's territory. Why the southern gate? Because it had the biggest size and was treated as the main gate. All the invited guests would come inside this entrance.
The goal of those who were waiting at the doorstep was to learn who was invited for the ceremony and the results of Xuefeng's awakening. If his talent is, for example, an orange one, it would be a great shame to the Liu Clan.
"The Liu Clan's Leader sure is making a huge bet! What if his son's talent appears as an orange level? Wouldn't they become a huge laughingstock for everyone in the country?" A middle-aged man with thick moustache commented as he stood near the entrance.
"Well, he sure has balls. But what can anyone do to him? The Liu Clan is the overlord of this area. Who would dare to laugh at them?" His buddy answered.
"Yes, you are right. Who do you think will arrive? Do you think the Royal Family will send someone as a representative?" the moustached man asked.
"Who knows? They were really passive recently about the Liu Clan increasing their influence. Maybe they will use this opportunity to counter-attack." His friend shrugged.
"Anyway, our Phoenix City will definitely be interesting today. I even postponed my hunting mission for this. Oh, look! That's Manager Wu from the Golden Phoenix Restaurant." the man with a moustache pointed into the crowd.
There was a space left in the middle of the crowd so people who were invited could smoothly enter the Liu Clan's territory without any problems.
Some Liu Clan disciples were also keeping the crowd in order. They couldn't let anyone create trouble.
Manager Wu was walking in her high cut, red dragon dress, elegantly under everyone's sight. Her mature beauty was something different than a ripe young maiden's. She looked like the type of woman who would give you endless happiness if you managed to conquer her.
After an elder checked her invitation, she was let in. Many people were wondering why a manager from a restaurant would be allowed inside, but how could the Liu Clan not know the truth. It was because not only was she the manager for the Golden Phoenix Restaurant, but she was also the owner of Phoenix City's Spirit Artefacts Pavilion. Her role as a manager was only a cover-up.
It would be a shame not to invite such a person. Also, knowing that she gave a golden card to Xuefeng, Liu Xiaobei had to return the favour.
The next person to arrive was the Clan Leader of the Lu Clan. He came with his beautiful daughter and many people sneered at that. How could they not know what he was planning? If Xuefeng's talent was outstanding he would instantly propose a marriage between two clans.
Although Lu clan was weaker in comparison to the Liu clan, they didn't lose that much. They were also located far away from the Phoenix City, so their relationship could be considered friendly.
They arrived on a tamed flying Spirit Beast, else it would be impossible to travel a few thousand kilometres in one day on land. However, with a flying Spirit Beast, they would only need a couple of hours.
In the next hour, more and more flying beasts were landing near the Liu Clan's southern entrance. To everyone's surprise, the Lu Clan's leader wasn't the only one who came up with the plan of bringing their daughters to the gathering.
The most common topic among the crowd wasn't about how many clans will take part in this Spirit Awakening Ceremony, but how many beauties will Xuefeng manage to get to choose from.
The crowd completely lost it, when they saw a Spirit Eagle landing on the ground and on its back, an old man was standing smiling and with him, two young and beautiful women. One was even older and looked to be around 20 years old.
"Can someone tell me what is going on? It's been already a 12th party that came and 10 of them brought a young woman with them. That old man even brought two."
"I think he was from the Gao Family in the North. He probably wants to increase his chances."
"Are we going to witness a new marriage between clans?"
"I think that almost all top Clans and Families from the Country came. Do you think that someone from the Zhen family will come?"
"That might be possible! Look, almost all the clans came. Even if they didn't receive an invite, they would come for su…."
"Roaaaar!"
As one cultivator was finishing his sentence, a loud roar reverberated through the clouds and crashed into everyone's ears.