Chapter 231: Saber Emperor Convening Order
“Boom!”
Just as Xiao Chen was deep in thought, a resplendent firework went off in the dark sky of Lingyun Mountain Range. The dazzling firework reached a height of ten thousand meters in the blink of an eye.
The firework discharged and turned into the image of the founding ancestor—the Saber Emperor. It condensed in the night sky then it scattered in the next moment, turning into thousands of light motes that looked like meteors, flying in all directions.
Some of the meteor-like light motes flew about a thousand meters, landing; some did not scatter even after they flew several ten thousand meters. In an instant, the signal spread throughout the Great Qin Nation.
“Saber Emperor Convening Order!” Xiao Chen said in shock and stopped thinking as he watched the dissipating firework in the sky.
This was the Heavenly Saber Pavilion’s second-ranked Convening Order. It was only second to the Heavenly Saber Convening Order issued when the sect was at risk of being destroyed. The range of the Saber Emperor Convening Order covered the entire Great Qin Nation.
All disciples wearing the Heavenly Saber Pavilion ident.i.ty token, regardless of wherever they were or if they were in the middle of training, would receive the signal and rush back as soon as they could.
In the past thousand years, the Heavenly Saber Pavilion only used the Saber Emperor Convening Order twice. Even during the Demonic Calamity twenty years ago, the Heavenly Saber Pavilion did not issue any convening orders.
What exactly happened for the Heavenly Saber Pavilion to issue a Saber Emperor Convening Order? Countless people within the Great Qin Nation were all pondering the same question as Xiao Chen.
Early the next morning, Liu Suifeng and Xiao Chen rode the green bird heading to the Heaven Viewing Platform’s drill grounds for the exam. This time, Liu Suifeng did not go the wrong way; they managed to reach the drill grounds within an hour.
Originally, they thought they were early enough. Who knew the other eighteen inner disciples who pa.s.sed the second stage already gathered in the drill grounds and had been waiting for a while? Not just that, the spectator stands were already completely full as well.
With a glance, one saw dense groups of people everywhere. A rough count gave a minimum of three or four thousand people; most of the Heavenly Saber Pavilion inner disciples were here.
Aside from the inner disciples, there was also a big group of core disciples and true inheritors. They were all seated in a dedicated pavilion above; the atmosphere was overly grand.
Xiao Chen was confused; he turned and asked Liu Suifeng in a soft voice, “What’s going on? Why are there so many people today? This is more than double of the previous time.”
Liu Suifeng replied in a similarly soft voice, “Did you see the Saber Emperor Convening Order last night?”
Xiao Chen nodded, “I saw it. However, what does the Saber Emperor Convening Order have to do with today’s exam?”
The Saber Emperor Convening Order was indeed a big event. To put it in perspective, the Heavenly Saber Pavilion was one of the top sects in the Great Qin Nation. It was considered a big deal in the Great Qin Nation when they used the Saber Emperor Convening Order.
However, what did it have to do with the core disciple exam? The foundational stages were completed ahead of time and today’s exam only consisted of the arena battles. In Xiao Chen’s opinion, there would be no problems obtaining the first place from these nineteen people.
Although he enjoyed himself in the fight with Zhang Lie and Mu Heng, Xiao Chen had not taken out all he had yet. In single combat, he was confident of ending the fight in ten moves.
With the result pretty much decided for the arena battles, there would logically be no one interested in watching. However, not only did the audience not lessen, but there were also significantly more people than three days ago.
Liu Suifeng suddenly realized something, “That’s right; you have been training the past three days. So, you have no idea what went on outside. You will understand after I tell you about it.
“The second day after the exam ended, the Heaven Viewing Platform issued a notice in advance: The Main hall will recall all core disciples training outside. Today, they will have a ranking battle to choose the strongest ninety core disciples. So, we are not the main attraction today.”
What is going on for them to recall all the core disciples back? Xiao Chen wondered, feeling suspicious. However, he was not worried; it was impossible for everyone to rush back within one night.
In every major city within the Great Qin Nation, there were relay stations that had flights directed to the Heaven Saber Pavilion. As long as they spent a considerable number of Spirit Stones, they would be able to rush back to the Heavenly Saber Pavilion within half a day.
What Xiao Chen could not figure out was why the core disciple exam place was on the same day as the core disciple ranking battles.
Xiao Chen asked, “Did the notice mentioned why they were selecting the top ninety core disciples?”
Liu Suifeng shook his head and said, “It did not mention it. They probably have a very big mission. Otherwise, they would not use the Saber Emperor Convening Order to summon them back so urgently. Anyone who does not rush back within a day of receiving the convening order will be punished heavily.”
While they were speaking, many black dots appeared in the sky above the drill grounds. As the black dot drew nearer, the crowd discovered these black dots to be many ferocious flying Spirit Beasts.
The Spirit Beasts quickly descended and circled about hundred meters above. Then, cultivators jumped off them and landed heavily on the ground without injuries.
After they landed, these people headed for the pavilion prepared specially for core disciples. The core disciples who did not leave the Heavenly Saber Pavilion for training were already waiting there.
“That is the eighteenth ranked on the Wind Cloud List, Qianduan Peak’s Lin Yun. He cultivates the purely flame attributed True Sun Art. His Saber Techniques is incomparably tyrannical. After not seeing him for half a year, his strength seems to have increased again. He is not a peak Superior Grade Martial Saint.”
“The ranked ten Jade Maiden Peak’s Yun Kexin, I wonder how far she has cultivated her Gentle Musical Art?”
“The ranked second Tianyue Peak’s Ye Lingfeng is here as well. He has not been back for more than a year. He is now a Medial Grade Martial Saint.”
“I wonder if the first ranked Murong Chong will come? He was already a peak Inferior Grade Martial Saint last year. I wonder how much stronger he has become?”
After this, there were even more people jumping off Spirit Beasts. The crowd immediately recognized these people; they were all core disciples occupying the top hundred spots. Every time one of them showed up, there would be exclamations of admiration.
The twenty people on the drill grounds were all focused on this group of people. Xiao Chen took a casual glance and discovered this group to be very strong; their auras were all incomparably robust.
Most of these people were Inferior Grade Martial Saints. Some of them had already reached the peak of Inferior Grade Martial Saint. It seemed like the top ninety core disciples would be chosen from the top hundred people on the Wind Cloud List.
The people in the top ten ranks have such strength. How strong is the first ranked person? Xiao Chen thought to himself.
“Hu Chi!”
Suddenly, a sonic boom came from the sky. A black dot drew nearer in the sky; its speed was close to the speed of sound. As it moved through the air, the friction between it and the air gave off sonic booms, reverberating in the drill grounds.
“Bang!”
As the mentioned person was about a thousand meters away, an intense sonic boom reverberated in the air after he had already landed on the ground.
This person wore lunar-white long robes. His features were exquisite. He was holding a saber in his right hand, and his aura withdrawn. He had a certain charm to him as he walked slowly toward the pavilion.
“It’s Murong Chong! Murong Chong really came back! This is a flying Martial Technique. I can no longer make out his strength anymore,” The crowd on the spectator stands all started crying out. A significant number of young female disciples were blus.h.i.+ng red. Their eyes were gleaming, and their hearts were beating wildly.
When Xiao Chen saw this person, his calm face could not help but reveal a grave expression.
Although the top ten disciples Xiao Chen saw earlier were strong, if they fought, Xiao Chen was confident of a fifty percent chance of defeating them.
If Xiao Chen put in everything he had, even if it were the second Ye Lingfeng, he was confident he had a sixty percent chance of winning. Only this person gave him an undefeatable feeling.
From the younger generation of disciples, Xiao Chen had only felt such a feeling from one person—the Liu Ruyue he first met. Could it be that this person was comparable to the Liu Ruyue I met initially?
However, he was definitely not a match for the current Liu Ruyue. Liu Ruyue was now very close to being a Martial King. She was just short of a step of reaching the realm that every young cultivator yearned for. She was undefeatable within the same cultivation realm.
Although Xiao Chen was unable to see through this person’s cultivation, based on his aura, he could guess his cultivation to be Superior Grade Martial Saint, and there was still a distance to reaching the peak.
“Murong Chong… which Peak is he from? Why have I not heard anyone mention it?” Xiao Chen asked curiously.
When Liu Suifeng heard this, he had a clearly uncomfortable expression. He said, “He is a free man; he does not belong to any Peak.”
When Xiao Chen saw Liu Suifeng’s expression, he could tell that Liu Suifeng had things he did not want to say. He asked, “Free man? What does that mean?”
After entering the Heavenly Saber Pavilion inner sect, the first thing anyone would do was select a Peak. Only then would they make their ident.i.ty token and become a true inner disciple. How could there be someone not belonging to any peak?
If he did not belong to any Peak, then what was he doing in the Heavenly Saber Pavilion? Could it be for the dense Spiritual Energy in Lingyun Mountain Range? Is there someone who was that strange?
Since he could enter the inner sect, naturally he should value the high ranked Martial Techniques and Cultivation Techniques in the Peaks. The dense Spiritual Energy environment should be secondary.
Liu Suifeng paused for a while, as though he was making a decision. Then, he sighed and said, “In truth, Murong Chong was a disciple of our Qingyun Peak. w.a.n.g Rong, who we met in the library, also used to be a Qingyun Peak disciple.
“Murong Chong and my Sis are fellow disciples. They grew up together. Two years ago, he left in a huff after he failed to court my Sis.”
Xiao Chen was somewhat surprised. He did not expect there to be such a story behind this. He could not help but cast a few more glances at Murong Chong, who was already making his way up the pavilion.
Only after all the core disciples arrived, the chief examiner slowly revealed himself on the drill grounds. He looked at Xiao Chen and the rest before saying, “Each of you will undergo fifteen fights. A victory in each fight will earn you one point. A defeat gains no points. The person with the highest score at the end will be crowned first in this core disciple exam. He will be rewarded with a thousand Inferior Grade Spirit Stones and an Inferior Grade Earth Ranked Spirit Weapon.
“The remaining nine positions have the same reward: five hundred Inferior Grade Spirit Stones and a Superior Grade Profound Ranked Spirit Weapon. At the same time, the ranking of the top ten in the Ranking Hall will be increased by a hundred places.”
The rewards were indeed more than five times the previous years. Unfortunately, Xiao Chen did not care about them. Regardless of Spirit Weapon or Inferior Grade Spirit Stones, he did not have too much need of them.
The thing he needed now was a Rank 6 and above body tempering pill or a natural treasure that could temper his physical body. Beyond that, he needed highly ranked Cultivation Techniques that specialized in training the physical body.