Banquet

Sovereign City, Middle Continent.

A day before the banquet which is prepared by the Sovereign Palace, countless number of experts have arrived in the Sovereign City. Some of them went to the City Treasury Pavilion and traded for weapons, elixirs and precious treasures.

Unlike the Black Market located at the outskirts of the capital, the City Treasury Pavilion is more organized and lawful. The guests that came to the city can simply ask an agent hired by the pavilion to look for the treasures they need and they can proceed to rest in an inn nearby where the agent would deliver their orders.

Nobody dares to cheat or swindle anyone at this place, may it be guests or the pavilion staff. It is a fact known to the public that the City Treasury Pavilion is owned and managed by the Qin Clan, the Sovereign's very own clan.

Some guests are not comfortable in dealing with agents and some only got a few items in their list so they prefer to shop the normal way. The treasure shops are arranged and clustered according to the products that they sell or trade so it is easy for them to find what treasures they need.

Qi Meng and his group belongs to the latter. They walked through the pavilion and looked at each shop casually. They have not made any stop as they are waiting for Qi Meng and see whether there is any shop that could catch his attention. Qi Meng has caught the fanaticism of the juniors ever since that unforgettable day at the Mountain Village.

Suddenly, Qi Meng stopped his foot steps.

He was looking at at 2-storey pavilion with the shop name read as "Sword Pavilion".

He then entered the shop without a word.

Upon entering the shop, a beautiful young lady is smiling at them from an elegant counter-top made of fine natural stone. She then approached them with the sweetest smile a lady can give.

"Welcome esteemed guests to our humble Sword Pavilion. My name is Qin Cheng and I am in charge of this place. Please take your time to look at our products and approach me if there is anything I may be of help with." The young lady said in a sweet voice.

"Young miss, please wrap for me those set of snow sword and ice saber." Qi Meng went straight to the point and made a purchase as soon as his eye landed on the set of treasures.

The snow sword and ice saber are of equal length about one and a half meter long. The two cold weapons exude a different kind of aura which makes other feel the coldness of its nature.

"Young master is too polite. You can just call me by my name. Please give me a moment while I wrap these set of ancient treasures. Actually, the young master here has a very keen eye. These set of snow sword and ice saber was once owned by twin Immortals from the Snow Region. They had ruled the Western Continent in the ancient times and these set of weapons had accompanied them in their journey to reaching and surpassing the apex of the mortal realm."

Qin Cheng had quickly wrapped the treasures and was about to pass the set of treasures to Qi Meng when suddenly a stern voice was heard from the rear.

"Hold on little miss, my young master is also interested in these set of treasures. We will double the price or even triple it as compensation to our young friend here." A middle-aged man approached them from behind while casually offering a price for the already owned treasures.

"I do not agree, these treasures are already mine. You can find another treasure as you like in these pavilion except for these and we won't have any issues here." Qi Meng calmly said while passing a pouch of spirit stones to the sales attendant.

"Kid, do not be too presumptuous in front of me! Do you even know who are you talking to!" The middle-aged man angrily replied.

"I don't care who you are. If I said that these treasures are mine, even if you had purchased it first, it would still be mine as long as my eyes has already laid on it. If you got any objection, you can take it away by force from me. However, I may need to warn you that death would be the consequence of anyone who tried to oppose me or block my path!" Qi Meng fiercely said without even batting an eye.

"I commend you for your courage. I am not sure whether you are too young to know the disparity between heaven and earth or you are truly stupid." The middle-aged man suddenly raised his cultivation aura of early stage Dao Monarch realm.

Currently, only Qi Yu had accompanied Qi Meng and the juniors to the Sovereign City as Chu Hao and the rest of the elders together with the 100 peak stage Dao Monarch puppets had gone to the Fang Clan's temporary camp at the nearby village.

Qi Yu and the juniors were astonished at the hidden strength of this middle-aged man. Since Qi Yu had not sensed the aura of this man earlier, he had not interrupted. However, the situation has escalated so quickly and now he is so worried that they cannot handle the situation. But after a few moments, he had remembered that his little son is not someone who can be easily bullied just by anyone. At the thought of this, Qi Yu felt sorry for the middle-aged man.

Qi Meng then immediately unleashed his Soul Suppression art and right before the middle-aged man can make his move, he already collapsed to the ground.

The young sales attendant from the Qin Clan was so shocked that she was speechless for a while.

"What happened? This is not good. This man came from a prominent sect located nearby the Sovereign Palace. This man actually is the servant of their sect's prime disciple which in turn is the most promising heaven's child second only to the Sovereign's daughter. Their sect has a close relationship with the Sovereign and it is known to the public that their sect's sect master, having been very close to the Sovereign, has proposed a marriage between their prime disciple and the Sovereign's daughter. However, the Sovereign has yet to announce their answer to this proposal after the ranking tournament has finished.

"What is the name of their sect, young miss, if you don't mind?" Qi Yu respectfully asked the young lady who is several time weaker than him in terms of cultivation realm.

"Uhm, their sect is called the Jinlong Sect! The strongest sect in the capital next to our Sovereign Immortal Sect."

"Alright, thank you young miss. We shall be going ahead first. See you later." Qi Yu said hurriedly wanting to leave this place immediately. As the sect master of their clan, he is not easily dissuaded but of course his another special trait is to avoid trouble as much as possible.

"Young miss, I like people like you. Kindly do me a favor. Once this ignorant uncle has regained consciousness, kindly inform him that if he still cares about his life, do not provoke me again. I will be at the Sovereign Palace tomorrow attending the banquet. He can find me there if he is still too deluded." Qi Meng said with a calm smile on his face.

Qi Yu and the five juniors had their mouths agape at Qi Meng's provocation. Qi Yu did not reprimand him as he knew that his son is already a grown up internally so he thought that he may have some plans.

They had left the pavilion and went to find an inn to spend the night until the banquet starts the next evening.

Inside the inn, they had rented a courtyard with 3 rooms. Qi Yu and Qi Meng occupied one room. Chu Yuexia and Chu Qing also shared a room while the rest of the juniors occupied the last room.

That night, Qi Meng chatted with his father until midnight as they welcomed his fifth birthday. The time flew quickly and Qi Meng is now five years old.

After a while, the sky above shined briefly and a dao palace descended upon into the father and son's room. The dao palace then hovered above Qi Meng's forehead and directly merged with his tenth palace.

Swooosh... swooooshhh... swoooshhh..

Initial stage of the Dao Saint realm!

Qi Yu was flabbergasted at what he just saw. He knew that his son is great but he could not imagine that it is to this extent. He has no words to say and was only able to speak after a while. He felt the energy of a Dao Saint coming from Qi Meng. After a while, the distinct aura then disappeared as Qi Meng masked his cultivation.

An over arching smile almost reaching the ears can be seen on Qi Yu's face.

"I am proud of you son!" Qi Yu proudly said as he praised Qi Meng.

"Thank you father!" Qi Meng genuinely smiled.

They chatted until dawn and then went to their sleep.

The next morning, after breakfast, they had checked out of the inn and roamed around the Sovereign City for a bit before heading to the Sovereign Palace.

It was already afternoon when they reached the Sovereign Palace.

There was a long queue at the entrance since numerous experts form all the clans and sects within the capital are attending this expansive banquet.

The scale of this banquet is never been seen before. One can't count the number of people in this event.

After passing through the entrance check, Qi Meng and his group found the designated place for them. A round table with 10 chairs have been allotted for them. Above the table is a name sign read as "Twin Dragon Sect".

Those who had come earlier than them are now observing and looking at them intensely. By this time, almost everyone had already heard of their sect's name.

Some praised them while some loathed them.

"Well, well, well. It seems that your sect indeed is courageous and fierce. We shall see whether you can act as you like at this place." Suddenly, they heard a familiar voice and turned their heads around.

They saw the annoying middle-aged man that had suddenly collapsed yesterday. In front of him is young man with a handsome face, fair skin as smooth as a lady and good posture as if he is a model.

"That is Long Xiongmeng, the prime disciple of the Jinlong Clan. Have they offended him? Why him of all people. This new sect's debut is too unlucky." A young expert nearby murmured with his companions.

"Hand over the snow sword and ice saber to me at once. It belongs to me! Otherwise, you would regret it for a lifetime offending me!" The young man named Long Xiongmeng said overbearingly as he pointed his finger to Qi Meng.