Five years pa.s.sed by in a flash. For those that had focused on cultivating, the time flew.
Ever since they had known about the Clan Tournament five years ago, everyone in the Gui Yuan Clan entered into a frenzied state of training and cultivating.
Every day, there were many people that entered the Thousand Mountains Range to train. In the outside world, the prices of Demon Crystals remained high. However, for Gu Lingzhi who had learnt Alchemy skills from the Spirit Tribe, these Demon Crystals were made into powerful Spiritual Medicine that could increase one"s cultivation level. These pills were consumed by the members of the Gui Yuan Clan every day such that it had almost become a staple to them. Their cultivation levels improved at a staggering speed.
Out of all of them, Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan had increased their cultivation level the fastest.
With Gu Lingzhi"s Inheritance s.p.a.ce, they entered the depths of the Thousand Mountains Range despite how scary people had described it to be.
The deepest depths of the Thousand Mountains Range had not let them down as they found many precious materials and treasures that Gu Lingzhi could use to make Spiritual Medicine that could further improve their cultivation levels. They had also managed to find some Spirit Plants that were suitable for forging weapons. After adding these plants to their Fengwu and Dragon Sword, the quality of their weapons increased by another tier yet again. Their weapons were now high-grade G.o.dly Weapons.
Just like that, their cultivation levels had both improved drastically until they became upper-cla.s.s True G.o.ds. Their speed of cultivation caused people to sigh in admiration.
After enquiring about their experiences in the deepest depths of the Thousand Mountains Range, no one dared to question the speed of their cultivation. Their bodies were full of old and new scars, which showed the risks that they had to face whenever they went there. However, with this danger came the acc.u.mulation of knowledge and wisdom.
In these five years, the Gui Yuan Clan became more and more powerful. Every year, the number of disciples that joined the clan numbered in the thousands. A large number of them joined due to the Gui Yuan Clan"s Weapon Forging methods. Gu Lingzhi"s techniques were obtained from a combination of those pa.s.sed down by the ancestors in the Spirit Tribe and those that she had chanced upon in the Lost Lands. Thus, her techniques were much better than those currently available in the Realm of the G.o.ds, but it was also much more complicated.
Many people who were specialized in weapon-making bought these Spiritual Weapons from the Gui Yuan Clan, hoping to replicate it but to no avail. Thus, Gu Lingzhi"s Weapon Forging techniques became well-known throughout the Realm of the G.o.ds for being unbeatable. Many people who wanted to devote their expertise to weapon-making but had no resources to enter the top clans that specialized in the field decided to become a member of the Gui Yuan Clan. The elder of the Gui Yuan Clan who was in-charge of managing their weapon-making sector could only laugh at this, joking that it was entirely possible for the Gui Yuan Clan to be specialized in weapon-making. This angered the other elders who were in-charge of managing other sectors, yet they were unable to refute him. They could only hope that when the Clan Tournament was over, everyone would know that the Gui Yuan Clan was not talented in just Weapon Forging, but also in Alchemy and in Martial Skills.
To be talented in all aspects made them exceptional.
“Over the past few years, did we only find a hundred of them?” Gu Lingzhi asked Tianfeng Jin who held the heavy responsibility of being the Gui Yuan Clan"s leader.
Tianfeng Jin nodded her head, her voice carrying a heavy tone. “I"ve heard that whilst they were searching, they had seen some Ascension Members being sent into the Feixing Pavilion. They said that there were at least thirty of them, but there could be more.”
When they were undergoing the trial to ascend to the Realm of the G.o.ds, there were over 400 people who were doing it together with them. Now, they had only managed to find over a 100 of them. As the reputation of the Gui Yuan Clan grew, the chances of them finding the original Ascension Members dwindled.
“Has there been no news of Yan Liang?” Gu Lingzhi asked.
They were friends from the very beginning and Gu Lingzhi could not help but be even more concerned about these people whom she had met ever since her days in the Royal School.
“No. Ever since we ascended, there has not been any news of him at all,” Xin Yi continued. He thought that it was strange.
Although Yan Liang was not good at talking and he seemed to be unperceptive, he was still a very capable person. As long as he was not unlucky enough to have ascended into a place that was crowded with people, there was no way that he would get caught so easily. If that was the case, why was there still no news about him?
Unless…
“Let"s not care about that. If he"s safe and sound, we"ll definitely find him one day. The more important matter at hand now is how we"ll compete in the Clan Tournament,” Rong Yuan interjected. He placed a piece of paper on the table which attracted everyone"s attention and they made their way to the table.
On the piece of paper were rules of the Clan Tournament.
As long as a clan had Martial Artists that were above the rank of a Martial Sage, they could register to enter the Clan Tournament.
There were only six rounds in the entire tournament.
In order to fully showcase a clan"s overall abilities, the six rounds were split into duels for singles and for teams.
The duels for singles were further split into different rounds for different ranks of Martial Artists – Martial Sages, DemiG.o.ds, lower-cla.s.s True G.o.ds, middle-cla.s.s True G.o.ds and upper-cla.s.s True G.o.ds.
The candidates for each duel would be decided by drawing lots. In every round of dueling, a clan could send out three members of the same cultivation level to compete in a round robin fas.h.i.+on. If they could beat the members of the other clan, then they would be the victors. They would keep on dueling until there were a hundred clans left and these clans would be the top hundred in the Clan Rankings.
As long as a clan got into the top hundred placings on the Clan Rankings, they could then have the right to partic.i.p.ate in the finals where the top ten clans would be determined by team duels.
For team duels, every clan could send out two representatives of around the same cultivation level to enter a Secret Territory. The number of artefacts that they could gather from the Secret Territory would correspond to the number of points that they stood to gain. The score would then be added up with the previous score from the individual duels, and the final score would determine the final placings of the clans. The Clan Rankings would be updated and would hold for the next thousand years until the next Clan Tournament.
“The last round of individual duels is for the upper-cla.s.s True G.o.ds, but we only have you and Lingzhi to represent us, how are we going to sign up?” Qin Xinran asked after reading through the rules of the Clan Tournament.
“Don"t worry, I"ve already asked around. If there are not enough Martial Artists in the clan, we can just register with the number of Martial Artists that we have,” Gu Lingzhi said. Afraid that Qin Xinran did not understand what she meant, she continued to explain, “For example, in the last round of duels between upper-cla.s.s True G.o.ds – our clan has two candidates and the other clan has three. For us to win, we"ll have to defeat all three of our opponents. For them, they"ll only have to defeat Rong Yuan and I.”
“Isn"t that winning by outnumbering?” Qin Xinran huffed, but she knew that the rules system was trying to be fair to those clans who had a great number of upper-cla.s.s True G.o.ds.
Rong Yuan tapped his fingers on the table. “Lingzhi and I will register for the upper-cla.s.s True G.o.ds duels, who"s registering for the middle-cla.s.s and lower-cla.s.s duels?”
“I"ll go!”
“Me!”
“Me.”
A few voices rang out in unison.
Rong Yuan looked at the few of them and raised his eyebrows. “We can"t all go, only a total of 8 of us can sign up. For the middle- and lower-cla.s.s duels, there are only six spots and we have to send the most powerful candidates. What about…those that are willing to register have a match between themselves now? The winners get to sign up for the Clan Tournament.”
“Let"s go,” Tianfeng Jin walked out the moment the words left Rong Yuan"s mouth, evidently ready to fight.
Xin Yi laughed bitterly as he held onto her hand and pulled her back. “My precious darling, you are the head of the Gui Yuan Clan. Leave the Clan Tournament to the other members. When the Tournament is ongoing, we"ll have to oversee our clan matters, we won"t have time to compete.”
Tianfeng Jin shot a questioning look at Gu Lingzhi.
Gu Lingzhi only nodded her head, a helpless look on her face. “It seems that the rules did say that the Clan Leaders are not allowed to compete to maintain order in the respective clans.”
Tianfeng Jin pouted and unwillingly retreated. Her eyes reddened as she looked at the contenders walking out, ready to compete with each other. She suddenly turned to Xin Yi and said, “Let"s get married.”
“Huh?” Xin Yi"s brain went into overdrive immediately and thought that he had misheard.
Tianfeng Jin looked straight at him and mouthed every word clearly this time. “Let"s get married.”
Those who had not yet walked out of the door completely immediately turned their heads to look at them.
What"s going on?
Was she too depressed from not being able to compete in the Clan Tournament? Tianfeng Jin then continued, “Let"s give birth to a child and let him be the Clan Leader.”
Gu Lingzhi burst into laughter. Only Tianfeng Jin could think of something as ridiculous as this. Gu Lingzhi knew that Tianfeng Jin had become sick of being the Clan Leader a long time ago in order for her to say such a thing.
“Yes…yes! Let"s get married, have a child, and make him the Clan Leader!” Xin Yi finally reacted once he confirmed that he had not misheard and was beyond excited. He lifted Tianfeng Jin off the ground and spun her twice.
“I"ll do whatever you say! We"ll give birth to as many children as you"d like!”
Gu Lingzhi was laughing so hard that she was on the brink of tears. Everyone who witnessed this scene followed.
Upon hearing the laughter from everyone, Tianfeng Jin seemed to recover from a trance as she realized what Xin Yi had just told her. She glared at Xin Yi, but there was shyness in her eyes and she did not pull away from his embrace.
It was a huge call for celebration that both the leaders of the Gui Yuan Clan were getting married to each other. Before the Clan Tournament, it would be the most important clan matter. The wedding was stealing all the limelight from the compet.i.tiveness of the clan members that wanted to sign up for the Clan Tournament. After much lively discussions for half a month, preparations for the wedding were complete.
After sending both Xin Yi and Tianfeng Jin into their bridal chambers, Gu Lingzhi was still in slight disbelief. She never would have thought that someone as cold as Tianfeng Jin would be the one to propose marriage to Xin Yi.
“Xinran, now you"re the only one amongst us who isn"t married yet,” Gu Lingzhi whispered to Qin Xinran, who wanted to sneak over to their bridal chamber to eavesdrop.
“It"s called "saving the best for last". Now that all of you are married, I"m the most precious one!” Qin Xinran twitched her nose. Her eyes, however, flickered to Hunting Cat for a few seconds. Though it almost went undetected, Gu Lingzhi caught it.
Playfully, Gu Lingzhi waved her hand and grabbed Rong Yuan who was behind her to eavesdrop on the bridal chamber as well. They jumped over the walls.
What was there to listen from behind the walls? She did not want to be secretive!
Qin Xinran, Hunting Cat, Nie Sang and the rest followed suit, giggling as they jumped over the walls, inching closer to the bridal chamber.
They thought that it would be a good idea to play this prank on Tianfeng Jin and Xin Yi, yet the moment they entered the bridal chambers, they were met with difficulty.
The living quarters of the Gui Yuan Clan"s leaders had to be the safest and thus, there were many active Restrictive s.h.i.+elds around it. The group of them that wanted to know what was going on could only curse at Xin Yi in their hearts.
In the bridal chamber, Xin Yi walked towards the bed that was draped with red satin, and finally asked Tianfeng Jin something that he had wanted to ask for a long time. “Why? Why did you want to marry me all of a sudden?”