Invitation

Bai Yun finally left the blacksmithing pavilion and returned home. Xiao Mei-er was quite happy that Bai Yun hadn't left anywhere for a long period of time and had stayed at the Bai clan.

Bai Yun chatted with his parents for a while. They were impressed by the speed at which Bai Yun was improving his cultivation, but they cautioned him of going too fast. Bai Yun promised them that he would not such a mistake. Bai Mu finally let him go after confirming that his foundation was not unstable.

When Bai Yun reached his room, he collapsed into the bed and slept for two days straight. Even though he had made some breakthroughs in cultivation, his mind had been wound up too tight during this time. Thus he needed a good sleep to restore himself to his optimum condition.

When he finally woke up, neither of his parents were home. Then had gone to investigate the devil worshippers situation. After having breakfast, Bai Yun was casually walking and stretching his body when he ran into old Hai.

"You look good young master. I think you will have a good standing in the youngsters tournament." Old Hai said.

"Thanks." Bai Yun said. Suddenly he was reminded of something. "Wait. What day is it? How far to the youngsters tournament?" He had lost track of time when he was in the blacksmithing pavilion.

Old Hai chuckled when he heard Bai Yun's question. "The youngster's tournament is only three weeks away. The registrations have already closed two days ago. Don't worry I already registered Long Tian up for the tournament."

Bai Yun sighed when he heard old Hai. He was afraid of missing the fight with Zhang Zi. He was itching to rectify his defeat at the hands of Zhang Zi.

After Bai Yun got confirmation of his participation he was satisfied. He spend a few hours stretching himself before he decided to take a rest. He had spent a long time working on the blacksmithing pavilion. It was not a good idea to only keep training. Moderation is necessary for a balanced body. So Bai Yun decided to simply laze around for a few days.

He went to the small library in the mansion and picked out a few books on the history of the howling wolf world and the immortal's world. He spend a couple of hours in the library simply reading books. Then in the evening, old Hai came to him with a message.

"Young master there is a letter for you." old Hai handed him a letter.

Bai Yun frowned when he heard this. The only people he knew in the world other than his parents were Zhang Zi, Bai Ling-er and Bai Shi. And all three of them had his voice transmission signature. There was no need to send letters. Bai Yun was confused about who it could be.

Bai Yun collected the letter and slowly read it. The more he read, the more his eyebrows rose. Finally, he chuckled and threw the letter aside.

"Who was the letter from?" old Haii asked.

"Someone named Bai Tian." Bai Yun replied. "He invited me for a meeting at the coliseum. I don't wanna go so I threw it away."

"Why don't you go? Its always good to make new friends." old Hai advise.

"I have more important things to do." Bai Yun said.

"Like what?"

"Sleeping for one. Idling my time. Peeing. You pick one." Bai Yun replied with a chuckle.

Old Hai was stunned by Bai Yun's response. He just chuckled and threw the matter out of his mind. But he did send a letter back saying that Bai Yun would not be attending the meeting. After all, it was a matter of courtesy.

Once that was done, Bai Yun continued his lazy routine. But the next day he was once again interrupted by the letter from Bai Tian. Bai Yun once again casually threw the letter away.

But when the third letter came the next day, Bai Yun finally haad a reaction. He held the letter in his hands and frowned as he asked old Hai. "Hey, old Hai, who is this Bai Tian?"

"Bai Tian is the son of the current Bai clan clan head. Unfortunately, unlike his father he is a complete wastrel. He usually wastes his days just gambles and indulging in other vices. The Bai clan is a large clan. Not everyone can be a good seedling." old Hai explained.

"Okay. What has that got to do with me? I don't even know who he is. Why is he inviting me so forcefully." Ba oYun asked.

"I asked around for the last few days. Apparently he is throwing some festival or party in a few days. He has invited anyone who is anyone in the Bai clan or the descendent of someone. It is not just you alone." old Ha explained.

"Well I understand that. I understand inviting once. But why is he so persistent in inviting me over and over."

"He most likely thought of you refusing his invitation as an affront to his honor or something."

"I don't care about him enough to affront his honor." Bai Yun said curtly replied.

Old Hai chuckled when he heard Bai Yun's reply.

But the letters didn't stop. In fact the next day, Bai Yun received three letters from Bai Tian. Holding the three letters, old Ha could see a vein throbbing in Bai Yun's forehead.

"Fine. Old Hai, send him a message saying that I will be coming to meet him. If he wants me to come, ill go. Just tell him not to regret it." Bai Yun said while laughing evilly.

Old Hai shook his head and thought how similar the father and son were. When he was young, Bai Mu had also beaten up many a young master of the Bai clan at the coliseum. Old Hai had a feeling that history was going to repeat itself.

After Bai Yun accepted the invitation the letters stopped coming. Then a few days later a letter arrived with the date, time and place of the meeting. It also mentioned that it was a formal event.

Bai Yun only casually glanced at the letter and ignored it. He was going there to have fun wrecking the event, not to satisfy Bai Tian's ego. It didn't matter to him what the dress code was.

As the days passed Bai Yun continued to read books. Bia Yun extended his reading genre to include any book that he found interesting in the library. Soon it seemed as if he was studying to be a scholar rather than a warrior.

Bai Yun had found a rather comfortable couch and had relegated to it. He didn't leave the comfort of the couch even for sleeping or for food, choosing to have his food on the couch instead. The only time he left the couch was to go to the toilet and to collect new books to read.

Finally, the day of the party arrived. When Bai Yun realized this, he was annoyed. He had grown quite accustomed to his couch.

"Why the hell is this guy keeping the party at midnight. Doesn't he realize that people need to sleep? What a lack of etiquette." Bai Yun grumbled like an old man.

Old Hai nearly fainted when he heard Bai Yun. Here was someone who was planning on going to a party only to wreck it and was complaining about etiquette. For a while, old Hai wondered if there was something wrong with the young master's head. But then he remembered the characters of his father, grandfather and great grandfather and finally concluded that it was probably a genetic anomaly.

Bai Yun put on a simple robe and shoes and had old Hai drop him off near the coliseum. Bai Yun had never been to the coliseum before. So he had come a little early in order to find out more about the coliseum. Even though it was nearly midnight things were still in full swing.

The coliseum was split into four parts. There were the min arenas, the stands, the underground offices and finally the VIP rooms at the top.

The coliseum was a place in the Bai clan where the members of the Bai clan could fight against each other or against demonic beasts. These battles would take place in the arena and the people in the VIP rooms and arenas could place bets on them. The only restriction on the battles was that only people in the qi step could fight here. The people who were watching the battles could bet on the results and win if they were lucky.

Sometimes there were also battles by slaves and prisoners of the Bai clan. They would battle it out and a person who could win a certain number of battles would be promised freedom. A lot of people would come to watch these battles as they tend to be bloody. The seniors of the Bai clan would often bring their juniors to such battles to teach them about life and death battles and the cruelty of the world.

Bai Yun entered the coliseum and went to the stands. He was going to wander around the coliseum and understand how it worked. Bai Yu was not too interested in betting so he stayed away from that side of the coliseum.

There were four battles simultaneously happening in the arenas. The arena was divided into the main arena in the center where important battles would take place, and then surrounded on the four sides by four smaller arenas, named after the four cardinal directions.

Bai Yun was standing on the south side of the coliseum, so he was in front of the south arena. On the arena, a foundation establishment cultivator was battling a demonic beast. Bai Yun watched for a few minutes before concluding that the foundation establishment cultivator would win as long as he did nothing too stupid.

It did not surprise Bai Yun. The coliseum was set up for two purposes: to provide entertainment and to provide battle experience for the members of the clan. Giving people opponents that they couldn't defeat would destroy the second objective. Thus the result of the matches would be pretty obvious. Such matches would also not generally be open to betting.

Bai Yun's prediction came true soon enough. The youngster on the south arena won after defeating the demonic beast. But the organizers did not allow the youngster to kill the demonic beast. If they allowed it, then they would soon run out of demonic beasts to battle.

Bai Yun walked around the arena watching more and more matches. But the more he watched, the less impressed he was with the arena. In all the fights that he saw, the youngsters from the Bai clan won comfortably against demonic beasts. And they way they fought was abysmal. They would run around the demonic beasts hacking at it for a while, before running away and utilizing their secret techniques to take down the beast in one swing. The worst part was how the beast seemed to be standing still to take the beating. It almost seemed like the two of them were doing a play.

And the audience ate it all up as if it was a great battle that took place. Bai Yun finally understood why his father looked down upon the ones who spend their time in the coliseum.

As he walked around he finally saw two people fighting each other. Bai Yun watched the two of them fight. But the more he watched, the more his face started to twitch. It took every bit of strength in him not to jump int the arena and beat the two of them up. It was that awful.

The two of them just stood there and attacked each other. From Bai Yun's eyes, he could easily see that they were both using a sword style they had learned. But they were simply swinging the swords according to what they learned and not actually caring about the fight. It seemed more like an exhibition match than anything else.

And in the end, one of them overpowered the other by using sheer strength. When he won, he raised his sword in the air and stood there receiving applause.

Just as Bai Yun was wondering whether he should leave before he got an aneurism, a voice sounded out from behind him.

"Look who is here. I never thought you would actually come. Welcome to my humble party."