368: Chapter 6: Reunion with an Old Friend Name_3 368: Chapter 6: Reunion with an Old Friend Name_3 “I am not a genius,” Yu Hua said, “Being called a Heavenly Girl is entirely because of my mentor’s foundation.
On the contrary, I am quite mediocre; despite my best efforts, I can only serve as a background for those geniuses.”
“Is this an old friend of yours?” a similarly soft voice inquired, yet with a distinctly different timbre that brought Gu Wen back to reality.
He nodded and asked, “What level is the top five hundred?”
Xie Yunnan pondered for a moment, then said tactfully, “The Tianxuan Conference requires participants to be below the Nascent Soul level, with no age limit.
It often involves tens of thousands of people, so making the list at all is cause for being called a genius.”
“That’s good then.”
Gu Wen smiled faintly.
Xie Yunnan saw him smile so genially for the first time; she thought that this person named ‘Yu Hua’ must be very close to him.
“Ah?
There’s no age limit?”
The teenage boy who had just taken Gu Wen to see the Cultivation Hall hung his head dejectedly, complaining, “If an old guy who has been cultivating for hundreds of years comes along, how can I compete with that?”
“There are age group competitions,” Xie Yunnan said as she looked at the list, her eyes glowing with enthusiasm.
“Moreover, the master once said that age can measure a person’s talent, and the time you lack after your victory is your gift.”
“Is the Sword Master who took first place in the Golden Era considered a peerless genius?”
Her brother’s words stunned Xie Yunnan for a moment because she had asked the master the same thing years ago.
On Sword Mountain, the man as stern as a sword gently shook his head, but gave no answer.
Xie Yunnan saw her master show a lonely expression for the first time.
His memories were soon disrupted by the noise of his junior brothers and sisters.
“Xiao Fan, you fool.
Of course, that’s the case.”
“Great!
I want to be first too.”
By then, Gu Wen had already turned away, and a Sword Sect youth shouted, “Brother, aren’t you participating?”
“I am going to attend the Tianxuan Conference from a thousand years ago.”
Gu Wen walked away without looking back, leaving the boy confused, muttering quietly to himself, “Strange Daoist brother, does he want to steal my first place?”
The boy’s words immediately provoked a burst of laughter from the people around him.
—————–
Outside Taiyi City, a tavern operated by the Qianfeng Sect.
In private room number three, marked with the character for “earth,” the flickering candlelight elongated two shadows; an array of fine wines and dishes sat untouched.
The silence seemed eternal until suddenly a flicker of the candle lit up the right-hand figure, with a large and elongated head, raised nasal bones on both sides, and a faint blue hue to the skin that looked ghostly.
A mountain goblin, a saint-level one at that.
“We need you to cause chaos at the Tianxuan Conference, to draw out Venerable Wen and give us a chance to kill him.”
The person opposite him immediately refused, “I only promised to help you infiltrate Taiyi City, nothing else.”
“You humans have a saying,” the goblin chuckled and pushed the candle toward the other, “See things through to the end.
Besides, do you even have the right to refuse now?”
With the firelight illuminating his face, the high-bridged nose and thin eyebrows over his purple pupils seemed bewitchingly strange.
“Purple Extreme Demon Venerable, you once dared to surround and kill members of the Sanqing Taoist Sect; do you now hesitate to kill a Venerable?”
“I hindered the Daoist Sect in order to survive, not to abet the rise of the Devil Clan.”
The Purple Extreme Demon Venerable shook his head.
No matter what, he remained human and did not take on the name of a devil.
Moreover, he had made thorough preparations; all he had to do was seize a heaven’s child and be reborn in a new body, his cultivation would then be legitimate.
“Why can’t the Human Race return to Jianmu?”
“What do you mean by that?”
Confused, the Purple Extreme Demon Venerable watched as the goblin produced a green leaf containing a hint of a Saint’s breath.
With just a slight perception of the leaf, an image of a giant Jianmu tree rising from the earth, enlightenment flooding in, appeared before him.
Qingcang ends, the Human Race returns, there should be a Human Ancestor.
With a calming voice, the goblin slowly spoke, “The animosity between humans and devils was merely Qingcang’s one-sided wish.
The Saint Venerable never said he wanted to eradicate the Human Race completely.”
The Purple Extreme Demon Venerable stayed silent, but by not taking a stance, it was already a change from his prior refusal.
Greed and the desire for immortality drove him to madness.
“That Chi Venerable, known for his ability to dominate eight thousand miles, fell into the Heavenly Defect; furthermore, with three Daoist immortals guarding the frontier and other Venerables busy suppressing disturbances everywhere, Fellow Daoist, if you step forward, the great Dao will be unobstructed; if you step back, the Human Race will not accept you.”
“Do you not want to take the seat of the Human Ancestor?
Even if you don’t achieve it, just for showing allegiance, how could you not be rewarded with a superior blessed land?”
“Our Jianmu absorbs the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth; it’s so dense it can make it rain, even the air is sweet.”
With a hoarse voice that carried a hint of a roar pouring into his ears, it was not a temptation but better than Divine Power.
The Purple Extreme Demon Venerable only hesitated for a moment, weighing the pros and cons before resolutely deciding to preserve the spark of the Human Race.
With Qingcang now crippled and twelve Devil Ancestors having recovered on the side of the Devil Clan.
One against twelve, the advantage is ours!
At the same time, in the countless shadows of the Human Race’s Earth Realm, many powerful beings labeled as Evil Cultivators received a green leaf from the Devil Clan.
Without fail, they all hailed, “The Saint Venerable returns, the advantage is ours.”