Chapter 22: The Arrival

Looking out the window, Huang Xue murmured softly to himself:

“Since today is the second day, I should go to the Shen Clan now. I’ll be staying there for a while, might as well go meet them and observe the surrounding environment there personally...”

Without bothering to inform his disciple, Huang Xue took out several Million Miles Teleportation Talismans from the blue ring on his finger. Having prepared everything he ‘needed’ two days earlier, Huang Xue had packed up on Qi Stones, herbs, and a few other artifacts and manuals. Inside his blue cosmic ring, besides a large stack of Qi stones, there were even three extra cosmic bags and four cosmic rings...each being gold colored!

This was a level of wealth that only an ancestral-figure of a Three Absolute Grand Sect could afford to have; and with Huang Xue’s indifferent attitude towards these objects, he was naturally not stingy spending them either…

If the previous Huang Xue was alive and knew that his entire fortunes that he had saved up through countless years of travel and tribulation, being carried and treated with unconcern...perhaps he would have long vomited blood on the spot in indignation!

*WHOOSH!*

A blue light enveloped Huang Xue’s body, before his body completely disappeared from the room in a flash...

***

The Bai Province was one of the top three largest province in existence in the Long Dynasty. With each province being separated either by large forests or mountain ranges, there were relatively few communications between the eight provinces on normal occasions.

However, since the Long Dynasty was not exceedingly large in respective to the other nations, being only 3.72 million square miles in size, the travel of news were relatively smooth between the provinces. Equipped with further items and transmission talismans of the likes, the eight provinces were still able to interact with each other and remain bonded under a single nation.

But being friendly with one another did not mean they were all equal. Beneath the surface of courtesy, each province would struggle to produce talented cultivators to show off to the other territories. This way, not only would their province’s status rapidly rise among eight major provinces, the cities within the province may even receive more concentrated cultivation from the royal Long family!

A country that was created five million years ago by the Long Clan, and was still able to remain standing even after being under the same ruler for so long; the wealth and power needed for such a feat was a terrifying thought for many normal people.

As such, the eight provinces, including even other smaller nations, would attempt to curry favors with this royal family. If they were to succeed in ingratiating themselves with this exalted power, then given the amount of resources the Long Clan wielded, their status and strength would naturally rise accordingly as well!

Three miles away to the south, outside of the Bai Province, laid a small dense forest. This was a relatively safe habitat, where only weak evil beasts would occasionally tread. To make it easier for travel, there were even paved roads slithering through the forests and land.

As the wind blew gently through the swaying grass, a sudden blue light appeared in the sky as it quickly descended to the ground.

*WHOOSH!*

In the next moment, the azure glow transformed to reveal a black robed with flowing white hair and a scholar look.

“Oh? I finally arrived, but it seems that I’m currently a bit off from the Bai Province...” Huang Xue looked at the green lush around him. With a relative location of the Bai Province and its name in mind, Huang Xue had used to teleportation to instantly travel here. Since he was unfamiliar with the Bai Province, he naturally did not want to waste effort traveling across the dimensional space.

However, since talismans were lifeless, although they were powerful items, they are not always correct. There were varied distances between where a teleportation talisman would send its user and where desired location was truly at. Sometimes it would only be a few miles, while other times it may even be tens of miles. There were many factors involved with these sort of transportation methods, but a major function of such talismen were to ensure the safety of its users. As such, it would often teleport a person to a location that was relatively near, or even at their desired place, where it would less populated of humans and beasts alike.

Closing his eyes and spreading his divine sense, Huang Xue was easily able to get a vague ‘picture’, or sense, of the surrounding lands within ten miles. He was able to ‘see’ those things that were beyond what his mortal eyes could detect when his divine sense is deployed.

While his cultivation was still suppressed, he was still able to use some of his innate divine abilities, such as his divine sense; albeit the range of effectiveness would naturally be reduced quite a bit due to the restriction.

Upon discovering a vague image of what looks like a small city inside a large patch of surrounding wall, and a brown sign showing the character ‘Bai’ handing in front of the castle-like entrance, Huang Xue opened his eyes as he leisurely began to walk out of the forest. Arriving on the main road, he headed towards north.

With his hands folded behind his back, a smiling black robed youth could be seen walking silently on a dirt paved path. The wind blew cautiously around him, as the birds and insects chirped excitedly under the burning sun…

***

Among the several small cities in the Bai Province, the White Feather City was the most prominent. It was one of the three major cities in this province.

However, it was not always like this. In reality, there were only two reputed major cities in the Bai Province several hundred years back. The White Feather City of then, was merely another common small city among a dozen.

But when the Shen Clan moved into this city and made it its base...things naturally began to change. With the Shen Clan’s rapid grasp of power and influence, the clan soon became one of the major powers in the entire Long Dynasty. The number of talented cultivators and overall strength of the Shen Clan was to such a great extent, that it had caught the attention of the royal family. Although the Long Clan would often limit the powers of those retainers under their rule, the Shen Clan was not of such affiliation with them. It could even be said that the royal family had no way to control or even tame this growing power.

As such, they had chosen to compromise and work alongside the Shen Clan! This kind of relationship with the Long Clan, which very few were able to establish, had dramatically increased the Shen Clan’s fame and influence. With the royal family now as their backer, the Shen Clan continued to flourish successfully over the next several years. And the White Feather City, in which they resided in, had naturally tagged along in their rise to prominence, becoming the third major city of Bai Province!

Directly south of White Feather City’s entrance gate, at the far end, there stood a thirty five meters tall mansion, looking quite similar to a grand Chinese castle. Spanning fifty thousand square meters, the building was covered with orange tiles and its exterior walls were painted a beige shade. At the very front of the mansion, there was a golden embroidered sign with the red colored words ‘SHEN CLAN’ plastered upon it.

While clans and other factions were often not permitted to build massive residences, due to the Shen Clan’s power being on par with the royal family, the Shen Clan was granted a generous plot of land to create their base. It could even be said that this large land was a gift from the royal family as a mean to rope in, or even simply to please, the dominant Shen Clan, in fear of the latter revolting. After all, this was a concern for every royal families across the continent --the dread of a similar leveled power overtaking their throne!

Outside the closed gates of the Shen mansion, everything was quiet. There were very few people to be seen walking near this area, save for two dedicated men in blue clothes who were guarding outside. Under the fiery sun, a rare breeze brushed through the mansion. Swirling through the air and entering a large courtyard, the wind rustled lightly across the clothes of several people who were gathered there.

Wearing various colors of clothing, a crowd of around two hundred people, both young and old, were standing in orderly next to each other. A few of them exuded a particularly strong presence among the group.

Every single one of them were looking up ahead towards two old men, who were standing on elevated steps of stone. In front of those elders, there were flickers of excitement, reverence, and even fear within the depths of the people’s eyes.

Standing in the center of the stone steps, was a skinny middle aged man wearing a silky dark brown robe. The man had a fierce appearance, his fading black hair and strong eyebrows served to enhance his mascularity. This person was the patriarch of the Shen Clan, Shen Lin!

Three steps to the right of the patriarch, stood an elderly man in a dark red robe. Although there were relatively few wrinkles despite the elder’s head full of gray hair, this person who looked to be only around sixty years of age was in truth, already a thousand years old!

Tiny powerful ripples were constantly leaking from this elder’s body, giving others who dared to look at him, a feeling of boundless ocean. A feeling of despair.

Many members in the clan did not recognize this person, apart from a few very older generations. And when they did, these usually lofty aged elders of the Shen Clan had immediately acted docile in the presence of the red clothed elder.

As for the others who did not know the mysterious elder, with just the red clothed senior being allowed to stand right next to their patriarch, they had easily deduced the extraordinariness of this elder. As such, none of them dared to directly look or even speak to him.

However, as majestic as this elder was, there is a nervous expression on his face that had been stuck there for the past two hours…

Under the glaring summer sun, the entire Shen Clan had been called to gather in the courtyard. They had each been told that they would receiving an extremely exalted guest, and that they were to do everything in their power to please him, but never offend!

If these words had been spoken by someone else, then perhaps these Shen clansmen who not mind much. However, they were actually spoken by the patriarch himself! The being who sat at the highest seat within the clan, the one who was in charge of the grand Shen Clan, had actually spared time to tell them this. So what did this mean? It basically meant that the guest whom they would receive must be truly extraordinary! At least, so much so that the patriarch had urgently summoned everyone and even brought that mysterious red robed elder.

However, they have been waiting for nearly two hours now...and this ‘guest’ had yet to appear! But seeing that their patriarch and the powerful elder standing patiently on the steps, the clansmen could do nothing about it as they continued to wait beneath the sun.

“Haha, looks like I’ve made everyone wait.”

A vigorous, young voice floated over as everyone immediately turned to see a black robed youth with white hair drifting down from the air. There was sense of refined and ancient air surrounding around this youth who looked to be around sixteen or seventeen.

All the elders were alarmed as they watched the youth in the sky. None of them had been able to detect this person’s presence, even when he was so close to them!

Upon seeing the floating youth, the red robed elder’s eyes widened in deep shock before they glistened with moist...