Hundred Fragrances House.

This was an eatery in the outer mountains area. For the numerous outer mountain disciples, it was a place with extremely good service. The wide range of delicacies available was only second to the high grade ingredients used. Not only would the food satisfy your appetite, it would even benefit your cultivation.

Of course, one needed to pay Genesis jade to enjoy the services here. Hence, extremely few disciples could afford to come here during the initial period.

At this current moment, Zhou Yuan had brought Yaoyao, Tuntun, Shen Wanjin, Xiao Tianxuan and the rest of the Cangmang geniuses here, and booked a table to celebrate his breakthrough to the Alpha-Origin stage.

The more important reason was that the moment they reached its doors, Tuntun suddenly charged in as if it had gone mad, making it practically impossible to stop this little creature...

“Heh heh, I saw this place yesterday, but did not even dare to step in. Thanks to little Yuan bro, I can finally have a taste of its delicacies today.” Shen Wanjin chuckled, his face practically gleaming.

After arriving at the Cangxuan Sect, everyone had become rather poor, no longer the doted and pampered geniuses they were before. Hence, they were initially unable to afford coming to such a place.

Zhou Yuan smiled, a smile filled with raw physical pain. When he ordered earlier, he had discovered that the main component of practically all of the dishes were grade 4 Genesis Beasts. Even for the soup, numerous rare Genesis resources were used to enhance its flavor.

While at the Channel Opening stage, he had once consumed the royal clan’s Nine Beast Soup. Compared to this place however, the Nine Beast Soup was akin to a little shrimp in the ocean.

Of course, the better the food, the higher the price. A single meal had cost Zhou Yuan ten Genesis jade pieces.

When his thoughts reached this point, he could not help venomously glare at Tuntun, which was currently drooling with its mouth wide open and its tail happily wagging from side to side.

“Little Yuan bro was so cool today. Let’s see if they still dare to look down on our Cangmang Continent.” By the side, a rather pretty young girl with a goose egg shaped face grinned widely.

She was called Shuixi and her clan was also an overlord in the Cangmang Continent.

The others also smiled and nodded.

One could see that they had completely put down their previous mental block and started to truly treat Zhou Yuan as their core. Over the past two days, they had clearly felt how intense the competition was in the Cangxuan Sect. If they did not group together, they would only be bullied and trampled on by others.

As the only two first class disciples from the Cangmang Continent, Zhou Yuan and Yaoyao were the strongest amongst them. Thus they naturally became the central pillars of the group.

Zhou Yuan looked at everyone and said, “Shen Wanjin told me that the other disciples have begun forming their own groups and factions during the past two days, while we Cangmang disciples were the only ones that were left out. On hindsight, it was due to me that you guys were implicated.”

He softy chuckled, before continuing, “I’m honestly not too interested in forming a group, but since we are all from the Cangmang Continent, when possible, I will naturally try to take care of you guys.”

Shen Wanjin lifted his cup and declared, “These words of little Yuan bro are enough already.”

As he spoke, he suddenly nudged the silent Xiao Tianxuan beside him.

The latter's expression was somewhat rigid. He lifted his head and glanced at Zhou Yuan, hesitating somewhat before he finally said, “Before we left the Cangmang Continent, my father told me that he has sent an envoy to the Great Zhou Empire to seek an alliance.”

Zhou Yuan was slightly taken aback. It was hard to believe that the city lord of Saint Remains City had done such a thing. One must know that Saint Remains City was one of the strongest factions in the Cangmang Continent, and was not much weaker than the Great Wu Empire.

The reason why Xiao Tianxuan’s father had done so was likely because he knew about the grudge between his son and Zhou Yuan. Was this how the former planned to resolve it?

“What charisma, he’s an amazing man.” Zhou Yuan secretly thought to himself. The Saint Remains City lord had chosen to ally with the Great Zhou Empire because of him. Although Saint Remains City was a long distance away from the Great Zhou and Great Wu Empires, and would not be able to do much if something were to happen, Saint Remains City would still be able to function as a threat of sorts, ensuring that the Great Wu Empire would have to watch its back if it were to try anything with the Great Zhou Empire.

Thus, Zhou Yuan could not help but be grateful to the Saint Remains City lord’s actions.

Zhou Yuan could not help but sigh inside. No wonder Saint Remains City was growing increasingly powerful under the city lord’s leadership.

Zhou Yuan picked up his cup, and was silent for a moment, before he lifted it towards Xiao Tianxuan and said, “Let all our previous grudges end here.”

The main reason why Xiao Tianxuan had made things difficult for Zhou Yuan in the Saint Remains Domain was due to Gu Ling’s egging. However, the former had ended up gaining nothing, and was instead nearly tortured to death by Zhou Yuan.

After leaving the Cangmang Continent and arriving at the Cangxuan Sect, Zhou Yuan’s view of the world had changed, and Xiao Tianxuan no longer posed any threat in his eyes.

Since the city lord wanted to resolve the grudge between the two of them, there was no reason for him to make a fuss.

Xiao Tianxuan’s lips moved, but did not say anything in the end, merely lifting his own cup and downing it in a single go.

Following the closure of their grudge, the atmosphere immediately eased up, turning noisy and lively. Everyone present was a youngster, and had come a long way from home to this unfamiliar place. Hence, they soon warmed up to each other.

Delicious dishes began to arrive one after another, and everyone could not help but begin to gorge themselves.

Tuntun was the most terrifying of the bunch, its mouth opening wide as it swallowed food several times larger than its body...

Yaoyao was the most graceful, merely sampling some of the vegetables, no interest in any of the food that was too strong in flavor.

As more and more food entered their stomachs, everyone’s faces began to flush as boiling heat rose within them. They could feel searing Genesis Qi flowing within their bodies, ultimately swiftly flooding into their Qi Dwellings.

While everyone was happily digging in, laughter was heard, “Hehe, junior brother Zhou Yuan is so generous. Not many disciples will patronise the Hundred Fragrances House at such a time.”

Zhou Yuan raised his head, and saw a young man standing to the side, a slight smile on his face as he watched them. It was the one who had spoken up for Zhou Yuan in Genesis Mountain, Qiao Xiu.

Zhou Yuan had some good feelings towards the former, and immediately rose as he cupped his fists together. “So it’s senior brother Qiao Xiu.”

Disciples of the same status would differentiate their rank by age. Qiao Xiu was evidently older than Zhou Yuan.

Zhou Yuan could tell that Qiao Xiu had something to say, and thus pointed beside him and said, “Want to come over and have a seat?”

Qiao Xiu cheerfully consented, proceeding to sit down and chat with the rest for a while, before he finally looked towards Zhou Yuan and asked, “Junior brother Zhou Yuan, are you interested in joining us along with everyone else?”

He did not beat about the bush, directly stating his objective.

Shen Wanjin, Xiao Tianxuan and the rest fell silent.

There was not much surprise on Zhou Yuan’s face, evidently having already guessed Qiao Xiu’s aim.

Qiao Xiu smiled and said, “Junior brother Zhou Yuan should know that the competition in the outer mountains is extremely fierce, and the many disciples here have already formed various factions and groups.”

“Grouping up and watching each other’s backs is after all better than fighting alone.”

“Moreover, the Shengzhou disciples advantage is too great. They are too powerful and any non Shengzhou disciple will be suppressed by them.”

Qiao Xiao stared at Zhou Yuan as he slowly continued, “I’ve heard that there will only be ten gold sash quotas in the upcoming peak selection ceremony, and the Shengzhou disciples have already declared that they will be taking them all, a truly overbearing declaration."

"Gold sash quotas?" Zhou Yuan's brows knitted together slightly.

"Looks like junior brother Zhou Yuan has yet to hear of this." Qiao Xiu chuckled. "We are currently outer mountain disciples, and if we manage to enter the seven peaks, we will become inner mountain disciples."

"These inner mountain disciples are also divided into different categories, from highest to the lowest, purple sash disciples, gold sash disciples and black sash disciples."

"The higher one's rank, the higher one's status in the seven peaks. In addition, one will also be granted completely different cultivation resources. The top ten performers of every peak selection ceremony will directly become gold sash disciples, bypassing the black sash rank."

"Moreover, only the top ten will be allowed to choose which peak to enter. The others will be allocated by the sect."

At this point, Zhou Yuan and Yaoyao began to frown. They had come to the Cangxuan Sect to enter Saint Genesis Peak and obtain the second Saint Rune that patriarch Cang Xuan had sealed within it."

If they ended up forcibly allocated to one of the other peaks, won't they be unable to achieve their goal?

Zhou Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly. Looks like Yaoyao and him needed to each take one of the top ten spots in the peak selection ceremony…

As such, they would have to take them from the shengzhou disciples, an act akin to taking food from a tiger.