Host’s note: Only chapter hosted for today. Two chapters until we catch up and start the waiting game.

As stream after stream of people populated the streets of Azure City, two contrasting figures could be seen walking through the crowd.

Walking on the right, was a handsome white robed youth who was currently holding a stick with tri-colored meat balls skewered through it. Right besides him, was another youth. This one was much more plump, wearing a visibly tattered blue robe; however there was a slightly an air of power around him. These two were obviously Jin Xia and Hu Feng.

Making their way through the busy street towards the Blue Imperial Colosseum, Jin Xia bit off a blue colored meat ball off from the stick in his hand as he said, “Too bad I can’t fly yet, otherwise we wouldn’t have to walk through this annoying section.”

Hu Feng did not reply, opting to only glance at Jin Xia with a strange look on his face. Flying was an ability that only Emperor practitioners could possess. And for Hu Feng, that was still a long way off.

When they finally made their way to the entrance of the large colosseum, there was only a small number of people still waiting to enter. By now, almost everyone have already taken their seat inside the colosseum. The competition seemed like it would be beginning very soon.

At the entrance, Hu Feng suddenly turned to Jin Xia and cupped his hands. “Alright, Brother Jin Xia. Since we’ve finally arrived at the designated location, I will take my leave for now. Once the competition is over, I will be waiting for you at a nearby inn. You can just–”

“Why don’t you follow me inside?” Jin Xia interrupted, taking a bite off the pink colored meat ball from the skewer stick.

“Uh, that’s because I was not chosen to represent my Hu clan? I told you this before, Brother Jin Xia…and not to mention, if my…’family’ sees me here, it won’t too good for me. I haven’t been home for a while, after all…” Hu Feng said carefully.

In all honesty, it was not that he did not want to participate in the competition, but rather that he did not want to see his family. Being ridiculed by his family members and shunned by his parents, even now, Hu Feng was unaccustomed to such alienation. He had even thought once before that “if this was back on Earth, he could have filed for a child abuse claim and be saved from this kind of family.” But here? He could only lower his head, endure everything, and hide away in the dark corners of his ” home”.

A mysterious smile spread across Jin Xia’s face as he looked at Hu Feng. “Haha, Brother Hu Feng do not have to worry about such limitations, I assure you that they will not matter…soon. If anything, this will be a great experience for you to look at a battle between higher staged cultivators. And besides, I’ll need you to help…identify your family clan in time.”

“?” Hu Feng had a confused expression as he looked back at Jin Xia. While Spiritual Dan realm is indeed a high level, considering that it’s in the Great Azure Country, but in end it’s just young people fighting against one another. What could be so ‘high leveled’ about that? And what did his family have to do with this?!

Hu Feng hesitated for a long while, but seeing the creepy smile on Jin Xia’s face and that stubborn light in his eyes, the former had no choice to give a helpless sigh in compliance. “I…I guess I’ll follow Brother Jin Xia in then. But if I’m forced out, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Haha, like I already said, you won’t have to worry about that soon…” Jin Xia laughed as he bit off the last yellow colored meat ball from his stick. Keep the now cleaned stick in his hand, Jin Xia nonchalantly waved it around as he turned and began walking towards the entrance of the Blue Imperial Colosseum.

Hu Feng could only give another sigh before following.

——————-

As the two were passing through the colosseum’s entrance, which was like a short-lived tunnel, Jin Xia saw an attendant tending to the wealthy and influential families on the side.

When Jin Xia approached, the attendant’s eyes sparked open as the middle aged man came forward to greet Jin Xia. “Young Master, seeing your heroic countenance, I assume you must be here to participate in the Annual Clans Gathering! May I ask which prominent household this young hero is from?”

Judging from Jin Xia’s handsome appearance and neat attire, the middle aged attendant had believed Jin Xia to have come from a powerful family. After all, only such families could afford to produce well groomed characters like this.

“Jin Xia.”

The moment the attendant heard the name, a frown appeared on his face. An obvious color of disdain streaked across his eyes. As if sizing up Jin Xia once again, the middle aged man said with a voice that completely lacked the previous courtesy:

“Oh, so you’re that Jin Clan. Well, you sure dressed up fine today, huh. Just go right in then.”

Then, without waiting any further, the attendant turned back around with an air of annoyance around him.

As for Hu Feng who was standing right besides Jin Xia, the attendant had paid even less attention to him. With the former’s tattered look, it was no wonder.

Jin Xia did not say anything further as he continued on. He was not dispositioned to argue with fickle minded people like the attendant. And Hu Feng did not speak either. This kind of treatment, he had already seen many times within his clan. Moreover, the victim of such treatments was naturally himself as well.

Upon entering the Blue Imperial Colosseum, Jin Xia could see the spacious battleground inside. There were still many people walking around, bustling about and finding their seatings. From as far as Jin Xia’s eyes could see, there were waves of people to be seen seated and chattering with the person besides them.

After searching for a while, Jin Xia’s eyes landed on a particular section at the back of the seating stadium. A gentle smile spread across his face as he began to head over towards that direction. Hu Feng silently followed behind, his head lowered as he tried to hide himself from prying eyes of his family.

Approaching the back of the seatings, Jin Xia went up towards a seated middle aged man in cyan robe.

“Father, I am back.”

Jin Liu Dan looked up at his son with delighted eyes as he quickly stood up. “Haha, Xia’er! You’ve finally returned.”

With the initial cold reception of the people in the colosseum, Liu Dan and the other clansmen had opted to cut off any attention to their surrounding. After all, who would want to purposefully hear spiteful words that are being said about them or their lans and yet, be unable to act?

Only a hard determined light could be seen within the eyes of the Jin clansmen as they endured and tried not to focus on anything for the time being. This time, the competition was going to be different.

As such, none of them noticed Jin Xia walking up to them until the latter spoke. Gathering themselves to their feet, they quickly greeted Jin Xia respectfully. This was the current number one person in their clan, after all. The other party’s status was not something that these youths could ignore, even if they’re in the same younger generation.

“Where is mother?” Jin Xia asked after giving an acknowledging nod to the others.

Jin Liu Dan smiled bitterly as he replied: “Your mother is very sensitive, so I did not wish to bring her to this competition. After all, even though our clan may have improved and would prove that here today, the initial reception towards our clan…is still unfavorable. I did not want your mother to see all this, so I asked her to stay home for the time being.“

“Mmn…I see.” Jin Xia nodded his head and took a seat next to his father.

After Jin Xia sat down, the other members also finally took their seat as well. The commotion caused by the Jin clansmen did not impact anyone within the colosseum. It was simply too loud and bustling with activity for anyone to pay attention to a small Jin Clan.

While the Jin clansmen waited for the competition to begin, Jin Liu Dan continuously stared towards the other end of the colosseum. That was where the royalty was residing in.

“We can finally truly rise up in this competition this time…finally…finally…” Liu Dan murmured under his breath as he stared ahead.

Jin Xia glanced at his Jin Liu Dan and saw a subtle look of envy, indignation…and desire in his eyes when the latter stared towards the throne.

“Does father wish to…become a king?” Jin Xia suddenly asked, turning to look at Jin Liu Dan.

The middle aged man had a shocked expression before it quickly turned into one of worry. “Wh-what are you, Xia’er! You must not ask such a question here! This is the territory of the royal clan; you must be careful of what you say or you’ll bring calamity upon our clan!”

While Jin Liu Dan had faith in his son’s ability, he was unclear on the power that the royal clan wielded. With the royal family being established in the Great Azure Country for so long, Liu Dan had come to believe in its invincibility.

As such, even though Liu Dan remembered his son telling him that his cultivation was at the 6th stage of Xing Profound, to Liu Dan himself, he did not know how it would compare to other powerful patriarchs. He could only assume that such large families would already have such powerful experts, from the scratches of overblown rumors that he had heard outside. Little did he know, that his son had already dispatched two of such ‘invincible experts’; and those two had merely been at the peak of the Spiritual Dan realm!

Jin Xia did not say anything after that, as he turned to look at the other end of the colosseum.

Thinking that his son had understood him, Liu Dan breathed a sigh of relief. However, he failed to hear the faint murmuring coming from Jin Xia.

“Hmm…a king, huh. If we have a ‘king’ that might…actually be useful.”