As neighbours, Chan Shaoting and the others watched this scene eagerly, also wanting to know what it meant that these guys had run back. However, Chan Shaoting had never been on good terms with Yu Qing and the others, so he was too embarrassed to go over and ask.
Thus, it was naturally Xiao Changdao and Wu Ronggui who took the initiative to approach, running into the room where people had left and returned to inquire.
Yu Qing and the others no longer had much goodwill towards these two guys, mainly because when Nanzhu had been wandering around the various mountain peaks previously, he had met some people who had been driven away by the two men’s tricks, and inadvertently learned of the underhanded tactics they were playing behind the scenes.
Despite this, Yu Qing and the others did not tell Chan Shaoting the truth, because there was no need to make an enemy of him. They could also understand the mindset and methods of lower-level characters wanting to climb up. No one was willing to remain beneath others. It was merely a matter of whether the final result succeeded or not. For example, Yu Qing himself had once even worked as a human trafficker.
However, there was certainly a knot in their hearts. Therefore, they gave a perfunctory response, only saying they were not leaving and would continue to participate in the assembly, and so on.
Xiao and Wu could not figure out the reason. Afterwards, they went to ask Wu Tian. However, Wu Tian also did not understand what was going on. Anyway, if the sect said it was fine, then it was fine.
He could not care about so much, and only said they were participating in the assembly again.
Just as the two finished their pleasantries and went out, they ran into Ke Ran, who was approaching at a brisk pace.
Bumping into the two, Ke Ran raised his chin towards the room and asked, “What is going on?”
Both shook their heads. Xiao Changdao said, “It is unclear. They said they changed their minds and came back to participate in the assembly.”
“Came back to participate in the assembly?” Ke Ran looked utterly astonished. What did they think this was? Could they just come and go so casually? What were those guys playing at, going in and out? He immediately ignored the two of them, walked quickly inside, and went straight to ask Yu Qing and the others.
Yu Qing and the others naturally treated him much better than they had treated the previous two, but the answer they gave was still about the same. There was really no way to tell him the truth.
Confirming that these individuals had indeed returned to participate, Ke Ran broke into a slight sweat. He had also been preparing to withdraw. Fortunately, these guys had changed their minds quickly. A little later, and he would have left as well.
Without lingering too long, after exchanging greetings, he hurriedly returned to his own room and quickly sent out a secret letter to report the sudden changes here.
Xiang Lanxuan, upon receiving the news, was also quite surprised. Her first action was to figure out exactly what was going on. The people had already left, so why had they returned?
This was not difficult to inquire about. After asking Kunling Mountain, she immediately found out that the matter was related to Long Xingyun. She then found that carriage driver, and the result was naturally clear.
“Forced back by Long Xingyun?”
Xiang Lanxuan, standing at the railing of the pavilion, asked in astonishment, her face showing utter disbelief.
The attendant reported, “The carriage driver did not hear the entire conversation, but judging from what he did hear, and the behaviour of Long Xingyun and Yin Shanhe, the top scholar and his group were indeed forced back to participate in the assembly by Long Xingyun. The driver said it was obvious that there was a clear state of hostility between them.”
Xiang Lanxuan rested both hands on the railing, her facial expression completely blank and bewildered.
After a long while, she finally muttered to herself, “They had left, and Long Xingyun rushed to intercept them and bring them back. Why?”
How could the attendant know why? In short, he broke into a slight sweat. They had originally wanted to use Long Xingyun to force the top scholar away, but the result was that they had shot themselves in the foot.
It felt that this move by the great envoy had indeed turned out to be somewhat awkward.
After a long silence, seeing that the great envoy still looked unable to figure it out, he reminded her, “Actually, we can now let Kunling Mountain drive them away with a legitimate excuse. The pretext is that they have already withdrawn themselves, and such capricious behaviour cannot be treated as a game.”
Xiang Lanxuan sighed. “I said we cannot intervene in this matter openly. If there were no taboos, would we need to borrow the hands of Kunling Mountain? We could just tell them to leave directly. We would not even need to make them leave. Let them make whatever trouble they want, and I will handle it.”
The attendant sighed upon hearing this. He knew that what she feared was not the top scholar, but rather being misunderstood by a certain someone and leaving an impression of not knowing her place.
Beside a flying waterfall in the Kunling Mountain sect, there was a Waterfall Listening Pavilion. Its flying eaves were bathed in the surging mist, and moss had already grown on them.
Inside the pavilion, a slender and elegant figure facing heaven and earth stood silently with hands behind his back. It was the sect leader, Zhao Dengzi.
From this place, one could overlook the entire Spirit Valley. The scenery was nice, though the sound of the waterfall was a bit too noisy.
Not long after, Zhan Yunqi led the way and brought a person. It was the Great Elder, Huan Yushan.
Sensing the movement, Zhao Dengzi turned his head to look, then immediately turned around and bowed slightly to the invited Great Elder Huan. “Martial Uncle.”
Great Elder Huan looked around and said, “The sect leader summoned me here. I wonder what your instructions are?”
Zhao Dengzi immediately said to Zhan Yunqi, “Tell the Great Elder about that previous matter.”
“Yes.” Zhan Yunqi accepted the order and immediately recounted the matter of Long Xingyun intercepting Yu Qing and the others, who had withdrawn from the competition, and bringing them back.
Great Elder Huan was somewhat surprised. “For this kind of matter, it is fine for you, the sect leader, to make the decision. I am already old and cannot take care of every detail. I will naturally follow the sect leader’s lead.”
The implication was that this kind of matter was not worth him making a special trip, which also expressed his respect for the sect leader. Another layer of meaning was to ask if there was any other intention.
Zhao Dengzi said with a grave tone, “Just after we allowed those four abandoned disciples of the Longguang Sect to return to the assembly, the Grand Affairs Department came over to inquire about the situation.”
Great Elder Huan let out an “oh”. “Did not that great envoy arrange for someone to be over there? Discovering that someone withdrew from the competition and then changed their mind, it is normal to ask about the situation.”
Being able to say this showed that he was very clear about the current situation throughout the Kunling Sect.
However, Zhao Dengzi said, “It was not merely an inquiry. After we provided an explanation, they took further investigative actions. They found the carriage driver who delivered the people, and learned in detail about the process of Long Xingyun forcing those four people back. Judging from some of the inquiries, that great envoy seems to be very concerned about those four people.”
Great Elder Huan pondered and said, “It is normal to be concerned about those four people because of Long Xingyun. Is there some problem? What exactly does the sect leader want to say by calling me here?”
Zhao Dengzi said, “Martial Uncle, we only saw the identity and background of Chan Shaoting, but we ignored the anomaly of those four people being expelled from the Longguang Sect. Perhaps we got the direction wrong from the very beginning. Perhaps the person Xiang Lanxuan initially arranged to monitor over there was not Chan Shaoting. Why would someone with Long Xingyun’s status go to intercept those four people, and why is Xiang Lanxuan so concerned?”
Great Elder Huan suddenly woke up to the realisation. “Do you mean to say that Ke Ran did not arrange the Spirit Valley trip for Chan Shaoting?”
Zhao Dengzi nodded slightly. “Yin Shanhe is obviously here to watch Long Xingyun. How could he help Long Xingyun by coming forward to ask for a pass token to assist in this matter? Those four people might not be ordinary Longguang Sect disciples. We must examine things from the source. I have already ordered people to conduct an in-depth secret investigation at the Longguang Sect. Martial Uncle, we might have been watching the wrong person from the very beginning!”
Great Elder Huan fell into silence.
Several days later, the registration for the Chaoyang Assembly officially closed. This also meant that the grand gathering of the cultivation world, held once every twenty years, had finally begun in earnest.
Yu Qing and the others, who were in the Dingyin District, did not feel the slightest bit of grandeur or solemnity. It felt not much different from usual.
At this moment, the inexperienced group finally realised that the aura of grandeur and solemnity did not belong to every participant. One could not command the attention of the masses just by making an entrance. Commanding the attention of the masses required qualifications, and it also required strength to support it.
There were simply too many competitors. Tens of thousands of people were distributed across more than a hundred districts. Just the first round of competition exceeded five thousand matches. Which spectator could pay attention to every single match? Therefore, very few people watched the district-level competitions.
The truth was that only when the top ten from each major district were decided and gathered together did the scene truly count as the grand “Chaoyang Assembly”.
One day before the assembly officially began, the participants from the Dingyin District were gathered together and taken to a spiritual rice drying ground that served as the competition venue. This was both to let everyone familiarise themselves with the venue and to announce the competition rules to everyone.
“These days, people keep asking me a question, asking how much reward the first place winner of this Chaoyang Assembly will receive. Here, I will publicly tell everyone that I truly do not know how much money will be awarded. The specific rewards are allocated according to the total amount of silver raised for each edition. The reward amounts will only be announced when the top one hundred participants entering the general competition are decided.”
Wu Tian, standing on the stage to announce the rules, first told everyone a joke.
Someone in the crowd immediately shouted, “So that means if you cannot enter the general competition, you will not get a single penny of benefit.”
Wu Tian on the stage immediately pointed at him and replied loudly, “Yes, you are absolutely right. But everyone knows that if you have the ability to stand on the Ding District competition ground from the district level, your future value will already be different. You will already be one in a hundred! Of course, I also hope you can become one in a thousand, or even the only one in ten thousand!”
“Haha.”
“Does he have that kind of destiny?”
The crowd burst into laughter. In their words and deeds, there were many vulgar people, and those who truly looked cultured were actually the minority. This was the true group portrait of ordinary people in the cultivation world’s jianghu.
Even those three brothers did not look like refined scholars. For example, Yu Qing and Nanzhu also laughed loudly along with everyone else. Especially Yu Qing, who occasionally raised his hand to pick at his little moustache, fitting in perfectly.
Chan Shaoting, who came from a good background, indeed had a higher quality in certain aspects. Looking at the conduct of the people around him, his facial expressions showed a hint of disdain for associating with them.
Seeing this chaotic scene where the shouting would not stop for a moment, Wu Tian had no choice but to wave his hand, signalling his fellow disciples to distribute the printed competition rules to everyone. Otherwise, if he continued to speak, he did not know how long it would take to be interrupted by everyone talking over each other.
Once everyone had received the competition rules, in order to read them clearly, they gradually quieted down.
Thus, Wu Tian shouted again, “Tomorrow, the assembly will officially begin, and the competitions among you will officially begin. Before the official start, which is right now, there is one most important thing to complete.”
Before he finished his sentence, someone waved the rule leaflet in their hand and shouted, “Drawing lots!”
“Correct!” Wu Tian, looking down from above, pointed at the person who spoke. “It is drawing lots! For the sake of fairness, we have already slightly balanced the number of people in each district. Our Dingyin District has a total of eighty-nine people. Because of this, a problem will arise in the first round of duels. One person will be left out. Who that person will be is decided by everyone drawing lots. At the same time, you will draw lots to determine your opponent and your competition match!”
As soon as he finished speaking, someone else shouted loudly, “Eighty-nine people? Forty-four matches in the first round, twenty-two in the second round, and eleven in the third round. Does this not mean there will be one person left out in each of the first three rounds?”
Immediately, someone else let out a “wow”. “If someone has good luck, would they not be able to practically breeze through the Dingyin District competition just by drawing lots?”
Someone nearby mocked, “You are definitely that lucky person.”
Another person sneered, “You can really think of anything. You might as well just rely on drawing lots to win first place in the Chaoyang Assembly.”