Without warning, a cold and unfeeling voice echoed in his mind. ‘Come to Golden Lion Gate.’

“Qin Ling?”

****

“That’s the name of the Divine Daughter of Ice Phoenix Hall isn’t it?” Shen Ling asked, stunning Violet Flame Noble.

“Qin Ling?” Mina asked questioningly. “Isn’t that the Qin family brat? So she grew up to be a big shot eh? Interesting,” she finished with a smile.

Violet flame Noble couldn’t believe it. Long Di knew the true name of the Divine Daughter? It seemed the mysteries surrounding him were endless.

Who was he? Who was he truly?

Regardless, Long Di didn’t respond to any of the questions. He simply looked in the direction of Golden Lion Gate. However, even after calling her out in his mind several times more, he didn’t receive any sort of response, so he could only give up.

“Let’s go.” Long Di urged them on.

Before long, Long Di and the others had arrived at Golden Lion Gate. The sea of people surprised Xiannu Liang and Shen Ling.

Even the Sun siblings were surprised. Even though they weren’t well acquainted with the experts in Cang Bian City, they were more or less aware of the number of people in the city. The amount here far surpassed the number of people in the city at any given time. They were sure of it.

It was a good thing that Golden Lion Gate was such a large sect. Because of this, they were able to accommodate many people.

Violet Flame Noble, on the other hand, was indifferent to everything since he was used to scenes like this.

“Big Brother, are you going to fight today?”

Long Di heard the young voice of Sun Kai behind him asking about the tournament.

Since spending time with him, the Sun siblings came to realise that Long Di was quite laid back. He didn’t have them stand on courtesy and he was easy to talk to… well… most of the time.

He, Shen Ling, and Xiannu Liang were nothing like the experts they were used to. Those experts all acted arrogantly like they had to show off to everyone how special they were.

To the Sun siblings, someone like Long Di and his friends who didn’t feel the need to show off were the true experts.

“I’m not sure,” Long Di replied. “I only know that today is the start of the competition, so most likely.”

Violet Flame Noble took the chance to explain. “We’ll probably be placed in separate stages to fight at the same time to cut down on the time needed for the tournament. As we progress, the number of simultaneous stages and matches needed will diminish but it’s at those times that the peak experts will emerge. It’ll continue like this till the finals. Competitions like these normally follow a set format.”

“There you go.” Long Di waved to them like he was the one to explain everything.

“Long Di, are you sure no one will recognise me?” Xiannu Liang finally asked him under her breath.

Long Di looked at her and saw a trace of concern in her eyes. “I took a cursory look at this place and based on what I felt, I should be able to protect you. So don’t worry.”

Xiannu Liang let out a breath of relief but still pulled the cowl over her head a little bit more ballooning the shadows cast over her face.

Long Di finally saw that this was what was really eating at Xiannu Liang. It didn’t escape him and Shen Ling that she had been very low-key recently, even speaking only when necessary.

He made up his mind to ask Xiannu Liang just what about her and her race demanded such a need for secrecy when all this was over.

“Brother Long Di, we need to head to the area where the combatants are gathered.”

“Gotcha,” Long Di then looked to Shen Ling, Mina and Xiannu Liang. “Take care of the kids, guys. Oh, and keep a seat open for me and Firecracker over here.”

“Will do,” Mina waved him off. “Let’s go children.”

Shen Ling and everyone else disappeared in the throng of people. Violet Flame Noble and Long Di then looked at each other and nodded.

As the two made their way through the crowd, a path was opened up before them.

Even though a lot of people looked down on Violet Flame Noble’s action of begging Long Di for help, he was still one of the Five Heroes.

His prestige was so high that a single occurrence of such a thing wasn’t enough to have people lose their respect for him entirely.

So they made way for him and by extension Long Di.

“So it’s Brother Violet Flame Noble,” the duo looked over to see a quartet making their way over to them.

The crowd opened up to reveal Heavenly Sun Noble with Black Fortress Guo Da, Mad Sword Haoran and Jingyi Yu in tow.

Heavenly Sun Noble was wearing her armour like always and was as still as heroic as ever.

Long Di looked behind her and saw a particularly scary-looking fellow staring daggers in his direction.

He was big, bigger than anyone had any business being. He was also shirtless (which Long Di didn’t care in case anyone was interested) and powerful muscles that looked as tough as steel were present all over his body. Numerous veins writhed restlessly over them as if betraying the boundless power that lay dormant within.

Apart from his pants and shoes, the other notable article of clothing he donned was a pair of black spiked knuckle bracers.

The faint fluctuations they gave off told Long Di that these bracers were spiritual artefacts just like Heavenly Sun Noble’s Heavenly Golden Sun Armour.

Of course, the latter was on a different level.

“Heavenly Sun Noble,” Violet Flame Noble didn’t seem particularly thrilled to see Heavenly Sun Noble.

She then turned her attention to Long Di. “Dao brother Di. I hope you don’t back once you lose the bet.”

“Bet?” Violet Flame Noble’s brows furrowed in confusion. “What bet?”

“Did I not tell you?”Long Di looked at him. “So I ended up in a bet with her that if I beat her in a fight, she’d become my follower for like two years as an intern or something and then for three years if she wants the job.”

“What!?”

“Come again!?”

Not just Violet Flame Noble, but Black Fortress Guo Da and the crowd clustered around them exclaimed when they heard what Long Di said.

When the bet was made before, it was a private conversation between Long Di and Heavenly Sun Noble. As a result, the only people to hear it back then were Mad Sword Haoran and Jingyi Yu.

However, the Mad Sword Haoran didn’t take it to heart since he had blind faith in Heavenly Sun Noble.

Conversely, Black Fortress Guo Da was a tad different. “Heavenly Sun Noble what is this child talking about!?” His features were etched in anger.

“Calm yourself Black Fortress,” Heavenly Sun Noble ordered coldly.

Black Fortress Guo Da’s expression changed. “You’re not my master. I’m not like this fool Mad Sword Haoran. I respect your strength and your promise for what lies beyond, nothing else! You dare to bet your allegiance!? What!? Should I also do the same if you lose!?”

“Black Fortress Guo Da, apologise to master right now!” Mad Sword Haoran put his hand on the hilt of his sword and immediately his gaze became sharp and powerful sword energy began collecting around him.

“Do you think I’m afraid of you!?” Black Fortress Guo Da clenched his fist and a strange energy collected around them.

In truth, Mad Sword Haoran’s master in the traditional sense was not Heavenly Sun Noble. This was a title he gave her of his own accord because of his massive respect for her. She was the key to opening upper realms for experts like them.

What was more honourable was that she was willing to take them with her. Because of this, he would not excuse any affront to her honour or any disrespect to her.

Mad Sword Haoran’s grip around the hilt of his sword tightened as he prepared to draw it.

“What is happening here!?” A booming voice instantly quieted the clamour of the crowd.

They all looked over to see a dark-faced elder staring at them.

“I hope the youngster of the ten great sects can act with more tact!”

“Hmph!” Black Fortress Guo Da snorted before he crossed his arms. Mad Sword Haoran also released his sword, leaving it to rest in his scabbard.

Heavenly Sun Noble massaged the bridge of her nose in a fit of exasperation.

Jingyi Yu stared at everyone with a faint shadow of amusement.

Seeing this, the dark-faced elder let go of the issue and got to work on what he came here to do.

He made his way over to a raised platform that was beside an object covered by a cloak.

“Greetings, experts. My Golden Lion Gate welcomes you all. As you all know, my Golden Lion Gate annually holds a competition that our own disciples take part in as a way for them to learn from each other. However, due to circumstances, this tournament this time around has garnered much attention.”

Obviously, everyone knew what these ‘circumstances’ were. It was the rumoured arrival of the Divine Daughter that was all but confirmed by the elegant carriage that broke through the sky.

“Now our Golden Lion Gate never had this tournament be closed off to outsiders and so anyone can enter. There is also a prize at the end of this tournament. I am not at liberty to disclose it but I am sure you will all be pleased.”

In truth, no one cared about the prize. Their intention was to see the Divine Daughter. If they were able to catch her eyes, maybe they could ride on her coattails and reach greater heights, changing their destiny.

As the dark-faced elder finished talking, he turned his attention to the object covered by the cloak.

Uncovering it revealed a strangely shaped grey wodge covered with runes that emitted spatial fluctuations. It was so old that some of the runes on it were ineligible.

Despite being a fragment of something much greater, it still caused a heart-palpitating feeling to grip the experts here.

Even those on the level of Heavenly Sun Noble were slightly stunned by the aura the object gave off.

A smile of vain satisfaction split the face of the dark-faced elder when he saw the reactions from the crowd.

“This is one of the prized possessions of my Golden Lion Gate,” the elder said with a puffed-out chest. “We found it in an ancient ruin. It has several spatial functions and will be used for the tournament henceforth.”

He waved his sleeves and several Golden Lion Gate’s disciples came out with tablets. Each tablet contained a rune present on the spatial item.

“These tablets were made after studying this fragment. They are made to work in tandem with it,” the elder explained. “Even though this item was damaged and some of the vanished runes deem even more of its uses impossible. It will be enough for this. Keep each one safe.”

As soon as every disciple received a tablet, the elder waved his hand and the Golden Lion Gate disciples exited the room.

“Let the tournament begin!”

Shing!

The tablets released a gentle glow and everyone, Long Di included disappeared from where they were.

When Long Di reappeared, he was surrounded by a sea of people. He scanned the surroundings in curiosity.

The noise from the outside was strangely absent and when he looked to the side, he could see thousands of other stages just as big as he was.

What made it bizarre was that his own stage was a pretty decent size, yet Golden Lion Gate’s arena was able to hold all these stages.

“Must be one of the spatial abilities of that thing,” he mumbled to himself.

He felt a cold gaze boring into him, and he looked to a specific place in the arena, far above the regular spectators where two familiar figures greeted him.

One was Wei Yun, and the other was Qin Ling. Wei Yun looked at him with cool indifference. While Qin Ling was another story.

In truth, she looked just like he remembered her. However, her countenance was far, far different.

She was cold, cold to the point of it being unreasonable. Her gaze birthed a chill in his heart that he had never felt before. She looked like Qin Ling, but at the same time, not like Qin Ling, it was strange.

At the same time, beside them, he saw a youth that he had never seen before scowling at him with malice in his eyes. If there was one gaze that Long Di was familiar with, it was malice. And this guy had it in spades for him.

The question was why?

The malice in his eyes was ever-present, but the scowl slowly turned into a smile. A smile that hid intentions that Long Di couldn’t read.

“Golden Lion Charge!”

A shout drew Long Di’s attention, and he turned his gaze to the front where a young expert charged at him encased in energy that took on the form of a rampaging golden lion!

“Now let’s see if I can do this without killing anybody.”