Chapter 25: The beginning of the spor- tournaments Festival

In the Peach blossom garden, the Li clan were seated on the dinning table, the opening ceremony of the Grand Festival was quite long and tedious, not to mention the different happening that befell on some of them. Li Kun for example had to pass that moment stuck between a rock and a hard place, his assistant Yan Mei and fiancee Fairy Meng Lin acted cordially all the time but even someone like him could feel the tense atmosphere, as he sighed for the nth time his father patted his back with his firm hands and said wisely:

"Son, life is too short to keep being stuck in place like this, believe your old man on this one."

Li Kun looked at him saying such a passionate words with some hesitations his eyes, but seeing his father's earnest look he said it in the end:

"Father, you know that thing are very different from before right? From what I heard, unless an accident happen I should be able to live Six hundreds years and that is just the minimum…"

"..cough! cough! Well, what I mean is don't keep hesitating like this! You may take sometimes to make decisions but in the end the results are not within our controls sometimes. So just follow your heart, your family will always be there if anything."

Li Kun felt moved hearing his words, a teacher for a day, a father for a lifetime indeed! The gloom on his head seemed to clear up quite a bit.

Seeing that his mood improved, everyone finally began to talk about their days, Li Yun spend the time with his schoolmates, they were amongst those who gained enlightenment from the Headmaster's speech that moved Heaven and Earth, but he didn't say that to his family obviously, he just said that they were first year students and were placed quite far back so they didn't hear most of the speech but they were very impressed by the small tidbit they heard, what can be said lying was a second nature for these teens…

Li Ya was with Sun Jia... as well as the usual crowd, it actually expanded by quite a bit, with many young heroes from outside that didn't want to miss this opportunity! Thankfully? they began to have a fight between factions:

The local Young Masters Team, led by Student Zhou <VERSUS > The visiting Young Masters Team led by the Scion of the Flowing Sword Sect! The inevitable confrontation created quite a stir at the end of the Ceremony giving them the opportunity to slip away, but it was a close call!

Father Li then began to talk about his interaction with the two fellow Daoists and mostly talked about how wise the Dragon Emperor was despite his few words, while giving his wife a somewhat nervous and apologetic look thinking about what she had to bear for his sake! Husband and wife like rice and water, well it's all the better since it's already cooked…

It was at this moment that Xiao Ling'er who was still playing around with Hong Xi's small paws said:

"Well, sorry for disturbing the discussion but there is a situation."

Everyone looked at her in puzzlement when:

[SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: Congratulations to the Li Family to have unlocked the function of < Diplomacy>: by constructing a friendly relation with two or more Factions of a certain level the Family have gotten the System function <Diplomacy >: You can now get the opportunity to receive mission and props to increase the influence outside of the territory. ]

The family members were pleasantly surprised by this news, unbeknownst to themselves, they actually took a step forward to become the Greatest Clan amongst the myriad species!

As everyone felt invigorated by the news, giving praise to father Li for his hard work to get along with the Dragon Emperor, and he smiled lightly to their praise, another prompt appeared on the blue screen attracting their attentions.

[Diplomacy contributions ranking have been opened:

*Li Ying (mother): 900 pts

Li Kun ( eldest brother): 500 pts

Li Cheng (Father): 200 pts

Hong Xi (Mascot): 150 pts

Li Ya (Daughter): 120 pts

Li Yun (youngest brother): 100 pts

*The Dragon Emperor hold you in great respect. Seeing how smoothly and deftly you managed to deal with his wife which was a never before seen occurrence, he had a change of attitude toward the Li clan . You deserve the title of number one without a doubt!

Rewards: Can be seen on each member's panel.]

"...."

Everyone was speechlessly looking at the madam of the house, look like she was the true leader…

"How come I am in the last position?! Even Hong Xi is two ranks above me!!"

The dinner was livelier than usual, Xiao Ling'er didn't say anything else to aggravate the situation.

...…...

In a courtyard of the residence prepared for the Li Clan by the Academy in the Jade green secret realm, a middle-aged man was holding a talisman in the form of a simple white paper crane, after a breath, a weak light began to emit from the paper.

The middle aged man put it on the table respectfully before kneeling on the floor as if to wait for a respected figure and as expected, the image of an illusory figure wearing dark cloths appeared above the papercrane, he looked like a simple man with round face giving a good impression without trying to. It was the revered leader of the Dark Cult, the second ranked on the Wanted list, the unofficial Lord of the Dark miasma region, it was the Devil God Wang Dafei!!

Wang Dafei looked at the man kneeling down respectfully before him and said with his usual cold tone:

"You can rise up Jiang Xing, give me a rundown on the situations there."

The super agent was felling very excited discussing with the leader inside, he would get another thing to brag about; but outwardly he showed a solemn and serious face before recounting all of his interaction with the Li clan and everything he knew about them, he didn't try to make up something or hid any information no matter how embarrassing it was, like getting struck by lightning again and again in the Li clan's mansion.

Lying to the Cult leader was not only a foolish and risky action, but it would also be betraying what he believed inside. What can be said, even the Devil Cult had its principles of conduct and rule, it is just in the form of brainwashing and the terror they felt toward the leader…

After hearing his recounting, Wang Dafei fell in silence for a while, as Jiang Xing began to sweat and wondered inside if he missed something the Cult leader finally moved and said:

" You have done a good work Jiang Xing, keep doing so from now on."

The illusory image then disappeared leaving the white paper crane behind and a stunned Jiang Xing in the darkness of the night.

'That's it? What about the follow up on the mission?! And my well-being in all of this?!'

It was the thought of this super agent that felt quite desolate inside. Like, he was abandoned to his fate right? Look like brainwashing isn't an very effective mean in the end….

...….

The weather was very good in the Jade green secret realm today, the Sun was shining brightly up above and there was no cloud to be seen in the blue sky several miles around.

Xiao Ling'er and Hong Xi were looking around the excitement of the whole place, it was the beginning of the second part of the Grand Festival, it was time for the numerous Tournaments!

They were followed by the caretaker Jiang Xing but he seemed absentminded today and didn't react much with their usual antic so the two didn't bother with him and went to look around instead.

Not far was held a tournament taking quite a large space about several thousands miles in the venue. There were many traditional obstacles like a cloud quagmire and invisible swords cliffs which were quite fantastic set up on the fairyland like landscape with mountains and pics towering to the sky.

There were many other things that were a bit more dangerous to spice up the competition, like a ravine full of earth spikes that could pierce the skin of magical beast of the Mortal transcendent realm there would be also fire explosives that could burn to a crisp even a as well as terrifying wind blades, it was covered in white fog that could hinder spiritual sense for those inside but won't affect those outside, it won't be funny if the spectators can't see the inside no?

As an appetizer it was quite cliche but it was always there for some nostalgia. There were many more dangerous things following up like an area full of barriers like things made of differents type of formations of the Magical rank be it bewildering array, illusory array, or even killing array but the effect was reduced so it won't be too lethal, the participants would just get unconscious and get kicked out if they get caught, at most they would lose a leg or an arm nothing too serious...

There were many more dangerous but exciting obstacles but they couldn't be mentioned for now or it would spoil the spectacle. Hong Xi and Xiao Ling'er didn't linger around anymore, the competition was about to begin and they may not get a seat of they are too late.

...…..

In the competition venue, most of the seats were already full and the calm serenity of the scene was just but a prelude to the great excitations that would come soon. Indeed it was time for the renowned first competition of the first days < The Sword Flight Racing>!!

In the commentary pagoda up above, the special commentator Disciplinary Elder Zheng would be the host while he had two prestigious guests to help him.

"Geeting everyone I am Zheng Yang your commentator for today's event. I am honored to be chosen for the occasion."

The crowd of students bellow were quite stunned hearing the old man's voice, so he wasn't just an Elder that made their life miserable?! What a schooling revelation!

Elder Zheng didn't care about their outburst, he wasn't there as the Disciplinary Elder today, he continued:

" I would also like to present our two honored guest today: they are very famous in the Thirteen continent , even more so for those who have a thing for the Sword Dao.

Welcome Venerable Sword Saint Meng Qian, welcome Sect master Zhang of the Flowing Sword Sect. It's an honor to be with you two there today."

The two big shot gave a small reply to the courtesy, and concentrated in the competition right now, the participants were already lined up and only waited for the start.

"The cream of the crop among the Sword cultivator of the Great Dao Academy of Prodigies would race there overcoming all obstacles as well as the other competitors to reach the goals and earn the title of Sword child of this Generation of heroes!"

Elder Zheng's voice was quite grave but it gave a blood boiling sensation that engrossed the spectators despite the competition not beginning yet.

"What an honor! What a prestige was that to stand above the whole generation of Prodigies and prove that one is the best."

He then turned to one of his guest and asked:

"If I remember well, Venerable Meng was the uncontested winner in your time there right, even though you were considered a sword prodigy, you were only on your second year when you beat all the other competitors that were of much higher cultivation and experience and managed to break the record of the fastest time for the clearances earning you the title of Legend and giving glory to the Sword Dao and all the Sword cultivators in the time. It must bring back memories to be there right?"

Sword Saint Meng Qian only gave a faint smile before answering calmly:

"It have already been several hundreds years since then, most people must have already forgotten about such an old story."

Sect master Zhang was rolling his eyes inside, what a show off! Everyone there know about your story and it even affected all the Sword cultivators in the later generation, look at him , he was also a Sword Child when he was at the academy but did anyone bother talking about it? No one does! There are no such a thing as second or third place in this world; only the winner and the other losers!

Elder Zheng finished his small talk with the guest and introduced the participants.

"The promising Third year student Zou Feng seem to be quite remarkable these time, I heard that his cultivation of the Sword is on the crisp of reaching the Sword unity, he in the absolute peak of the first level of Sword heart, he will be a good contender. There come the second year student Sima Jiang even though she is a bit disadvantaged before the senior student in Cultivation and The realm of Sword intent which just reached the Sword heart, the Limitless sword scripture of the Sima clan have a great advantage in speed, if some senior doesn't take precautions they might pay a deep precise at her hand….."

All of that took a long time to describe but with the speed and perception of cultivators it took only several breathis. He continued to introduce some more competitors like the first year student Wu Lin who registered despite being implying in the Qi accumulation realm, this young lady looked sweet but the newborn calf doesn't fear the tiger. Her courage it can be commended though.

He then turned to his guests and asked:

"Can you give your insight on of these competitors Venerable Meng, Sect master Zhang?"

"They are all very promising young cultivators and will surely bring the Sword Dao to greater height, but if you were to ask me about the favorite, I think that a junior does stand out amongst the other."

Sword Saint Meng Qian said calmly while looking at inconspicuous young man wearing a black Daoist robe, before turning to sect master Zhang and asked:

"What do you thing about it Sect master Zhang?"

Zhang BaoXiang just gave a light nod before saying serenely:

"As Venerable Meng said thing will be difficult for the other, Zhou Feng may have jade more chance if he was on the same year but for now if nothing unexpected happen their hope are not high."

"Look like our two guests are optimistic about a competitor in particular, let's wait and see for the result at the end of there may be some unexpected results. Look like the time is there, the competition is about to begin."

Elder Zheng then resumed before looking at the participants, the competitors were all ready for this moment, they wore an unprecedented focused face and readied their swords.

On your sword, let the competition begin.