The sky had long since turned dark, but Xiao Chen was still not satisfied. After all the tension while outside for a whole year, this was like coming home. He felt like he had not seen enough yet.
Mo Chen tirelessly showed Xiao Chen around. She brought him to the refining pavilion on Black Flame Island. More than ten thousand refiners of the Mo Clan were working on refining Secret Treasures at the same time.
This shocking sight woke in Xiao Chen a craving to go over and join them.
When it was almost daybreak, Mo Chen brought Xiao Chen to her winery to have a good rest and sample the wine that she personally brewed.
Upon their arrival at the winery, Xiao Chen remembered his promise to the Flame Rock Sovereign, so he took advantage of the moment to mention it to Mo Chen.
Mo Chen smiled gently and said, “This is a small matter. Big Brother Xiao Chen just has to send word, and I will deal with it.”
At this moment, the sky was suffused with white. The rising sun would soon bring boundless light and sweep away the darkness of the entire world.
The two chatted as they drank wine, not intending to go anywhere for now. They would decide after watching the sunrise.
The rising sun arrived as expected, coming out of the vast sea; one would not tire of watching it even after a hundred times.
As Mo Chen elegantly finished the wine in her cup, she said, “Big Brother Xiao Chen, actually, there are still many places in Heavenly Dragon City that you have not been to yet. Today, I’ll bring you to the business district. The people in charge of those merchant associations all really wish to meet you.”
“Sure,” Xiao Chen agreed happily. Those large merchant associations were the gods of fortune for Heavenly Dragon City. There would only be benefits and no losses if he was on good terms with them.
“Miss Mo Chen, there is news from the transportation formation, saying that honored guests are arriving and that we should prepare ourselves.”
Just at this moment, a guard came to the pavilion bearing a letter.
Mo Chen took the letter and looked at it. Her expression changed slightly; then, she handed the letter to Xiao Chen. “Trouble is here. It looks like we cannot continue looking around today.”
“What are the Three Holy Lands sending people here for?” Xiao Chen asked with a slight frown after reading the letter.
Actually, the letter wrote the Martial God Palace. However, at this moment, the Thunder Sovereign was not managing it; the Three Holy Lands were the ones in charge.
In Xiao Chen’s opinion, there was no difference between the people sent by the Martial God Palace and the Three Holy Lands.
Mo Chen said worriedly, “I have a bad feeling about it.”
Xiao Chen put away the letter and thought for a moment, considering countermeasures. Mo Chen waved her hand, dismissing the guard so that Xiao Chen would not be interrupted.
Officially, Heavenly Star Island was under the jurisdiction of the Martial God Palace. Furthermore, it was different from the sects that joined the Martial God Palace. Heavenly Star Island directly belonged to the Martial God Palace. The Martial God Palace still had many of such lands.
Although Kings like Xiao Chen held a lot of autonomy, they still had to pay a percentage of the land’s profits to the Martial God Palace.
However, Xiao Chen’s conferred land was rather special. Before the Three Holy Lands’ people left, they wrecked several of the buildings on the island, even destroyed the transportation formation.
Also, the Martial God Palace did not say anything or do anything about sending people to help Xiao Chen out and provide protection. Everything relied on Xiao Chen and his friends to develop.
Back then, the Martial God Palace also did not mention anything about handing over profits from the conferred land. This was because they did not believe that Xiao Chen would be able to develop it, and they did not care about the profits of such a place.
What reason could the Martial God Palace have behind sending people over? Aside from envy, Xiao Chen could not think of any other reason.
As for the people of the Three Holy Lands, Xiao Chen did not wish to meet them at all. During his King conferral ceremony, they secretly set up many obstructions for him. At the Human-Demon Paradise, they even directly sent people over to cause trouble. They had already openly fallen out with him.
Mo Chen knew that Xiao Chen did not like this group of people. She said softly, “How about we just shut off the link to the Martial God Palace’s transportation formation and ignore this group of people?”
All the transportation formations in the lands under the Martial God Palace’s jurisdiction were connected. However, transportation formations were like the airports of Xiao Chen’s previous life. He could freely choose which routes he wanted to close off. Once closed, the Martial God Palace’s people would not be able to come through the transportation formation.
Xiao Chen said after some thought, “There’s no need. The people they are sending are likely to be extraordinary. Even if we shut off the transportation formation, we might not necessarily be able to delay them for long. Instead, we would end up giving them an excuse to censure us. Send out a notice to get the entire upper echelon of Heavenly Star Island to come and put on the grandest welcome. I want to see what game the lackeys of the Three Holy Lands are trying to play.”
This surprised Mo Chen. Even shutting off the transportation formation will not stop them. Could it be that the other party will send a Martial Emperor to lead the group?
Martial Emperors could tear through space and move extremely fast. Even from the Kunlun Continent, it would take just half a day to arrive at the Heavenly Starry Ocean, traversing that stupendous distance.
One hour later, Xiao Chen and Lan Shaobai stood together at Heavenly Star Island’s transportation formation. Yue Chenxi and the others stood behind them.
All the core members of Heavenly Star Island were present and waiting quietly for the Martial God Palace’s envoys.
They did not know when the Martial God Palace’s envoys would arrive.
Lan Shaobai used this free time to discuss the important details of the Dragon’s Gate’s reestablishment with Xiao Chen. “Last night, I read through several ancient books. There are many grand ceremonies for sects being reestablished in them. The important etiquette and ceremonies are all recorded. I have them roughly organized. After this is over, you can take a look.”
Xiao Chen smiled and said, “I’ll leave that to you to handle. After you figure out what to do, you can just make arrangements for it. I trust you.”
Xiao Chen’s trust in Lan Shaobai had Lan Shaobai releasing his bated breath in relief. For such matters, the biggest fear was that someone unfamiliar with the requirements would interfere. With Xiao Chen being so easygoing like that, making arrangements would be easy.
“The ancient grand ceremonies for reestablishing sects are rather extravagant. I feel that we can omit a relatively large portion that is unnecessary. There is only one point that we cannot skimp on: honoring the ancestors.”
Xiao Chen nodded. That was in line with what he intended. The scale of it was meaningless. The most important point was paying their respects to the Dragon’s Gate’s ancestors.
As the two spoke, the transportation formation lit up, giving off rainbow-colored lights. The two stopped speaking, and everyone’s expression turned more serious.
Everyone knew that the people arriving would be hostile and not easy to deal with.
The lights stopped flickering, and a fiery-red Azure Luan appeared in the center of the formation. The Azure Luan was a Spirit Beast with the bloodline of the Vermilion Bird Holy Beast. It was a Distant Ancient mutated beast that represented nobility. It possessed an extremely strong ability to control fire.
The flames on this one Azure Luan were powerful. Xiao Chen estimated that even if his four deep-sea flood dragons worked together, they would not be a match for this Azure Luan.
There was a total of five people on the Azure Luan. All of them wore the pale gold uniform unique to the Martial God Palace. Of the five, one was rather special. While the others stood, only he sat on the Azure Luan’s back, his eyes closed and resting.
This person did not look old. There was a Vermilion Bird embroidered on his collar. He was probably a high-level elder of the Phoenix’s Passion Palace, one of the Holy Lands.
When Mo Chen saw this person, she was startled. Xiao Chen really hit it on the nail. There was indeed a Martial Emperor leading the group.
Mo Chen felt puzzled, wondering how Xiao Chen had figured this out. To think that he could even guess something like this!
Actually, it was not difficult to guess this. While in the Human-Demon Paradise, Xiao Chen alone had killed so many half-step Martial Emperors. The people in the Three Holy Lands already understood that without sending a Martial Emperor, they would not be able to suppress Xiao Chen.
The Azure Luan, which blazed with flames, spread its wings out, projecting the pressure of the Holy Beast bloodline in its body towards Xiao Chen and the others.
“Whoosh!” Under this pressure, some people on Xiao Chen’s side could not stand stably, finding it difficult to remain on their feet.
With the Azure Luan possessing a trace of the Vermilion Bird Holy Beast’s bloodline, after this Holy Beast bloodline was activated, ordinary people would find it hard to avoid being suppressed.
The leader of the five on the bird’s back revealed a cold smile. So, this was done on purpose to flaunt their might before Xiao Chen’s group.
“Chi!”
Just as Xiao Chen was preparing to take on this Holy Might, Little Yellow Feather suddenly came out of the Immortal Spirit Ring. Even though it was currently merely palm-sized, the moment it came out, it easily neutralized the Holy Might coming from the Azure Luan.
After the appearance of Little Yellow Feather, the flames on the Azure Luan withdrew somewhat but were not extinguished. Then, its huge body started trembling slightly.
The Martial God Palace’s envoys on the back of the Azure Luan wobbled unsteadily. The leader did his best to control the Azure Luan, but his efforts were useless.
Suddenly, Little Yellow Feather’s figure enlarged, and it glared at the Azure Luan. The Azure Luan became thoroughly frightened; it flapped its wings in a fluster, kicking up strong winds. Then, the Azure Luan retreated in horror before prostrating itself on the ground while shuddering.
The sudden change happened in merely an instant. It caught the five people on the Azure Luan’s back off guard, resulting in them getting flung off.
Except for that middle-aged man with the Vermilion Bird embroidered on his collar, the other four tumbled to the ground due to the Azure Luan’s unexpected actions. They ended up covered in dirt and dust before they managed to stand up quickly.
Little Yellow Feather held one wing to its belly as it started laughing, looking very cute.
The group of people from Heavenly Star Island could not help laughing, either.
Even Xiao Chen smiled involuntarily.
“Is that really funny? Xiao Chen, is this the attitude you take when welcoming the Martial God Palace’s envoys? Everyone says that you are arrogant, conceited, and condescending. Today, I finally see it for myself.”
One of the Martial God Palace’s envoys walked over with suppressed rage and started accusing Xiao Chen.
The middle-aged Martial Emperor, who was sitting cross-legged, looked like he moved in slow motion. He opened his eyes in the air and slowly landed on the ground. A formless Emperor Might suddenly swept out as that person spoke.
An invisible battle unfolded. After the Golden Crow Holy Beast helped Xiao Chen gain the upper hand, the Martial Emperor of the other side immediately made his move, unleashing his Emperor’s Might.
Indeed, these people were not friendly and were here with hostile intentions.
“You are really arrogant. Do you know who I am? I am Wang Feng, one of the ten Investigation Institution elders of the Martial God Palace. That is the Law Enforcement Hall’s Elder Xing. We have the right to kill the traitors of the Martial God Palace first before conducting any investigation.”
[TL Note: This is the first appearance of this particular Wang Feng, in contrast to the other two Wang Fengs that have appeared so far. All three Wang Fengs had different characters for the Feng word.]
The Investigation Institution elder named Wang Feng stepped forward with a sullen face and demanded, “Who gave you such courage to be so rude to us, trying to step over us? Are you trying to rebel?”
The strong aura, together with the Emperor’s Might of that Elder Xing, rendered the group breathless.
“Weren’t you just being careless and falling from the bird’s back? Why the need to put on such airs and make such accusations?” Jin Lin said angrily. He possessed a fiery temper and could not stand the other party putting on such aloof airs.
Wang Feng smiled mockingly. “Where did this trash come from? You don’t even know the rules. Is this even a place where you can speak?”
Xiao Chen smiled faintly and stretched out his hand to stop Jin Lin. Then, he looked at this Wang Feng. “You want to talk rules with me? Fine. In that case, let’s go by the rules. Xiao Chen is not good at disciplining, resulting in my Spirit Beast accidentally startling your Azure Luan. I’ll just make some compensation.”