As per the arrangements of the Martial Department, all representatives attending the Global Martial Arts Convention are to gather at the Martial Department headquarters by 3 PM on the second day before the convention's opening. They will then travel by vehicle to the airport to board a chartered flight to the convention's venue in England.
Of course, this chartered flight refers to a plane chartered by the Martial Department, not a private one.
After all, in the Dragon Country, excluding private jets, the number of people owning exclusive aircraft can be counted on one hand.
This Global Martial Arts Convention organizing committee has granted the Dragon Country twenty-eight spots, the most among all countries.
The representatives are divided into two categories.
One category consists of members of the Martial Department, led by Qi Wufu.
In addition to Qi Wufu, the head of the Enforcement Division, Zhujian, and the commanders of the Five Great Legions are also representatives. Their primary role is to participate in the final two agendas of the convention, the election of members for the War God Hall Council and the Elder Council.
Besides the commanders of the Five Great Legions, the chief of staff of the Loulan Legion is also a representative.
The Loulan Legion is a unit independent of the Five Great Legions, equal in rank to them but holding a more special and prominent position.
This is because, in the past few years, the Loulan Ancient City has been the only landing point for extraterrestrial enemies in the Dragon Country.
In other words, only the soldiers of the Loulan Legion have been on the front lines!
Of course, during times of intense warfare and crisis, the Martial Department will also transfer personnel from other legions to support the Loulan Legion.
Furthermore, the deans of Yanjing Martial Academy and Donghai Martial Academy, affiliated with the Martial Department, are also representatives, holding the same rank as the legion commanders.
Among the twenty-eight representatives, ten are senior figures from the Martial Department, and two are from the military, namely the Chief Instructor of the Military and Ye Feng, the captain of the Battle Dragon Special Forces.
The remaining sixteen spots have been allocated to the major powers in the Dragon Country's martial arts world.
Specifically, Longmen, Kunlun, and the Buddhist Sect each have two spots, one elder and one youth. The elder is the sect leader or the grand elder, and the youth is the strongest successor.
If categorized by age, there are twenty-three representatives from the older generation, and only Jiang Wuming, Ye Feng, Gu Tianlong, Ye Kunlun, and Yuan He from the younger generation.
Among them, Jiang Wuming is the most unique.
He is not a member of the Martial Department, nor does he have a sect or elders to lead him!
In addition to the participating members, the delegation also includes dozens of logistical staff. Half of them come from various departments of the Martial Department, and the other half from the major martial arts powers—young geniuses who are not qualified to be representatives join the delegation as logistical staff to gain experience at the convention.
After lunch, the elders of the delegation all gathered at Qi Wufu's office, while the younger generation headed to the entrance of the headquarters courtyard, preparing to wait for the elders there before boarding the vehicles together.
"Why hasn't Jiang Wuming arrived yet?"
"Yeah, it's only an hour and more before we depart, and he's still nowhere to be seen. It's so strange!"
After the young geniuses arrived at the departure point, some of them couldn't help but start discussing.
Among the five young participating representatives, Gu Tianlong, Ye Feng, Ye Kunlun, and Yuan He had all arrived. Only Jiang Wuming had not shown up, which made them perplexed.
Immediately, before they could figure out anything, the discussion abruptly stopped. All eyes turned uniformly towards the front.
Following their gaze, they could clearly see Li Lianyi stepping out of a car.
Today, as usual, she was wearing a white robe and cloth shoes, her long, flowing hair casually draped over her shoulders. Her exceptionally beautiful face was free of any makeup.
With her natural beauty and graceful figure, in terms of looks and physique, she was in no way inferior to top artists known as national goddesses. If her temperament were added, she would completely overshadow them, as they were not on the same level.
Li Lianyi?
Why is she here?
Upon seeing Li Lianyi, all the young martial arts geniuses present, including Gu Tianlong and Ye Feng, were taken aback.
"Little Physician Immortal is a member of the delegation's medical team and will be accompanying us to England for the convention,"
A staff member from the Martial Department responded to the geniuses and then proactively approached Li Lianyi. "Miss Li, we are departing in an hour. Marshal and some other participants are drinking tea and chatting in his office. Would you like to go and say hello?"
"No, thank you," Li Lianyi politely declined.
Her presence here today, and her trip to England, were solely for Jiang Wuming.
After she got out of the car, she realized Jiang Wuming was not present at the moment.
"Miss Li, do you know why Jiang Wuming hasn't arrived yet?"
Subsequently, as soon as Li Lianyi finished her conversation with the Martial Department staff member, a young martial arts genius stepped forward and asked.
"I don't know."
Li Lianyi shook her head slightly.
"Miss Li has already broken off her engagement with Jiang Wuming, so how could she possibly know his whereabouts?"
As Li Lianyi finished speaking, Gu Tianlong suddenly sneered. "In my opinion, that Jiang Wuming might be too afraid to show up."
"Young Master Gu, what makes you say that?" a genius asked doubtfully.
Swish, swish, swish…
At the same time, except for Li Lianyi, Ye Feng, Ye Kunlun, and Yuan He, all of them couldn't help but look at Gu Tianlong.
"The rules for this year's genius martial arts competition have been changed specifically to target Jiang Wuming. In other words, the convention committee does not want Jiang Wuming to win.
The odds for winning the genius martial arts competition this year are set very high, with no upper limit, which is clearly a trap.
As far as I know, up to this point, the funds bet on Jiang Wuming to win globally have exceeded five hundred billion, with ninety percent coming from the Dragon Country!
If this trend continues, by the time the genius martial arts competition begins, the betting volume for Jiang Wuming to win will inevitably exceed a trillion.
Under such circumstances, if Jiang Wuming fails to win the genius martial arts competition, it will not only bring shame to the Dragon Country's martial arts world but also lead to the harvesting of the Dragon Country's wealth, making him a sinner of the Dragon Country!"
Gu Tianlong spoke eloquently, not only clarifying for everyone but also for Li Lianyi.
"Jiang Wuming hasn't appeared yet, likely because he can't handle the pressure and is going to withdraw. After all, if he withdraws, he saves his own face, and the betting companies will refund all the bets!"
"So that's how it is!"
"Logically speaking, Jiang Wuming has always acted recklessly. Backing down and being a coward doesn't seem like his character, does it?"
Some martial arts geniuses thought Gu Tianlong made sense, while others raised doubts.
Ye Kunlun even directly sneered, "Nonsense!"
"Ye Kunlun, then tell me, why hasn't Jiang Wuming arrived yet?" Gu Tianlong frowned, glaring at Ye Kunlun.
"Although I don't know why my brother Wuming hasn't arrived yet, I believe that since he dared to slap you in front of your master in Li Village, this much pressure now is nothing to him!" Ye Kunlun sneered.
"You..."
Gu Tianlong, his scar having been exposed, was instantly enraged.
"Gu Tianlong, the glory of the Dragon Country's martial arts world and even the entire Dragon Country does not rest solely on Jiang Wuming!"
Just then, Ye Feng also spoke. He didn't argue about why Jiang Wuming hadn't arrived, but he was somewhat displeased with Gu Tianlong placing the honor of the entire Dragon Country's martial arts world on Jiang Wuming.
"That's only natural. Even if I am injured, I will do my utmost to defend the honor of the Dragon Country's martial arts world! Unlike someone who acts like a coward!"
Gu Tianlong also sneered. He had already found an excuse for his inability to win the genius competition and still believed Jiang Wuming would most likely not show up.
Meanwhile.
Deep within the Yan Mountains, at a secret cultivation base of the Martial Department.
Jiang Wuming sat cross-legged in a mountain valley, motionless like an ancient monk in meditation.
His spirit had entered a mysterious space.
In the mysterious space, Jiang Wuming sat cross-legged. The surroundings were a pure white. White dots of light, containing mysterious energy, filled the entire space, forming a vortex that enveloped him.
He fully circulated his internal energy cultivation method, absorbing the mysterious energy, converting it into true qi and mystical power, and then compressing and refining it to improve the quality of his true qi and mystical power.
Throughout this process, it also served as a tempering for his spirit, allowing him to condense his mental power.
This was a perfect cycle.
"It seems that only by obtaining a cultivation method for the spiritual domain can one's spiritual cultivation surpass its limits and break through to higher levels."
Suddenly, Jiang Wuming opened his eyes and murmured to himself.
Previously, he had asked Daoist Tianlong what would happen if his martial arts cultivation and spiritual cultivation simultaneously surpassed their limits.
The result was that even the all-knowing Daoist Tianlong had no answer.
To be precise, throughout history, no one in the global martial arts world had ever achieved this.
Since then, Jiang Wuming had set this as his goal, wanting to create a legend—to have both his martial arts cultivation and spiritual cultivation surpass their limits, and then break through to the two-star War God realm!
This was also why he had been suppressing his cultivation and not breaking through.
Otherwise, with his current foundation, he could break through to the two-star War God realm at any time!
In the past ten days, he had been cultivating in the mysterious space but still could not make his spiritual cultivation surpass the ninth stage of the one-star War God realm.
For this reason, he believed that his current cultivation method was insufficient and that he needed a matching cultivation method for the spiritual domain.
"It's time to go and get that spiritual domain cultivation method!"
Immediately, Jiang Wuming sensed an approaching aura, knowing that the people arranged by Zhujian were coming to find him, and that it also meant the Dragon Country delegation was about to depart for England.
And before the departure, he had already internally decided on acquiring that spiritual domain cultivation method!