Clan meeting registration

Bai Yun spend the next two weeks in the blacksmithing pavilion. He slowly build up an arsenal. He made two swords for Bai Shi and Bai Ling-er, three daggers for his own use, and a few flying daggers and small needles to use as hidden weapons.

Bai Yun then spend the last week of his free time working on his alchemy technique and his movement technique. He made a small improvement in the movement technique, improving his speed by another ten percent, but he was no closer to a breakthrough.

Bai Yun spend the whole time in his room and did not take even a step outside. Someone would arrange all his meals and other necessities for him. Xiao Mei-er was more than happy with this arrangement and gave Bai Yun a lot of medicinal ingredients to experiment with. In her eyes Bai Yun was even worse than his father. It seems as if every time he went outside, he returned injured. And each time was worse than the time before it.

Bai Yun was sitting in his room working on his alchemy. He was almost completely oblivious to the passage of time. When the door to his room suddenly opened, Bai Yun was stunned. He was nearly blinded by the sudden beam of light that came in. He was working hard on alchemy and had neglected everything else so his room was in near total darkness.

"My eyes." Bai Yun screamed and covered his eyes.

Bai Mu who had stepped into Bai Yun's room was amused. He looked around the room for a while before turning to face Bai Yun. The room was not even close to tidy. Most of the objects in the room were overturned. There were dirt and grime on the walls and the floor. The ceiling was black with smoke. All in all it was a horrible sight.

And there was a reason for this mess too. Once he succeeded in concocting a pill, Bai Yun would easily be able to make it again. But he would typically fail a few times before he succeeded for the first time. So most of what he tried to concote these days were failures. As a result there were a lot of by products that were made. But all of this wasn't without any result. Bai Yun's alchemy skill had improved by leaps and bounds. Now he was better than a genius of alchemy who had spend a couple of years in the profession when it came to concoting pills. He was just lacking a bit on the familiarity with various medicines.

"You know, we do have an alchemy pavilion where you can work." Bai Mu said.

"And who will pay for it." Bai Yun retorted. "If you will give me the clan points, I'll gladly spend it there."

Bai Mu simply chuckled when he heard this. His way of upbringing that was passed down in his family required that someone be responsible for their own expenses. So he had not give Bai Yun much money. Though Xiao Mei-er was more than happy to spend money to make sure that Bai Yun would stay indoors.

"True. But you can get to know other people." Bai Mu continued.

"Other people are idiots. It's much easier to do things by myself." Bai Yun responded.

Bai Mu groaned when he heard this. No father would want his children to grow up as loners. But it wasn't as if Bai Mu could say anything else either. He was just like Bai Yun when he was his age.

"Anyway, why did you come in. What's going on?" Bai Yun asked his father.

Bai Mu looked at his son in amusement. "Its the final day for registering for the fighting competition in the clan meeting. You already missed the first few days. I came in to confirm you really are going to attend the meeting." Bai Mu said.

"Really. Already?" Bai Yun was surprised.

"What day do you think today is?" Bai Mu asked Bai Yun .

"Sunday?" Bai Yun replied quietly.

"Which date?"

"The nineteenth?"

"Try Thursday the twenty seventh." Bai Mu said with a laugh.

"You know, how can we truly say that today is really a Thursday." Bai Yun said. "For all we know, today could be a Sunday, and someone made a mistake in-."

"Get ready if you want to register for the meeting." Ba Mu cut him short.

"On it." Bai Yun said, jumping up and running to the bathroom.

An hour later a sharply dressed, but half sleepy Bai Yun was walking next to Bai Mu. When Bai Yun walked out of his room after taking a bath he was dressed in comfortable clothes suitable for fighting, and not an official Bai clan robe. Xiao Mei-er nearly had an aneurism when she saw how sloppily dressed Bai Yun was. Both Bai Yun and Bai Mu got an earful before Bai Yun changed into the clan's robes and was finally allowed to leave the mansion.

Bai Mu then grabbed Bai Yun and then the two of them disappeared. The place for registration is quite far from their mansion, and it would take Bai Yun a couple of days if he was to go there by walking. The only other option was to take the bus but it was easier for Bai Mu to take him there by flying.

A few moments later, Bai Yun found himself in a large field. There was a row of tables in one end of the field and there were a huge number of people queuing up in front of them. There was also one table that was at the very end that was empty. No one was queuing up in front of that table alone.

Bai Yun immediately identified the location he was in as the place to register for the fighting competition in the clan meeting.

"Why is that table empty?" Bai Yun asked his father.

"That is the table for important members of the clan." Bai Mu explained. "Only direct descendants of clan elders or the princes of the clan are allowed to register there. So it is almost always deserted, as only a few people qualify for such treatment."

"That doesn't seem fair. Everyone else has to queue up." Bai Yun said.

"The world isn't fair. It is a place that is ruled by strength. The clan will try to be fair, but it will also make things easier for those in power. This small table is meant to teach everyone that truth." Bai Mu said.

Bai Yun nodded as he heard this. "In that case, I'll go queue up." He said.

"Why? You are qualified for the special table?" Bai Mu said quizzically.

"Huh. But you are not an elder are you?" Bai Yun asked.

Bai Mu understood what happened. "I may not be an elder, but your great-grandfather is. Due to that you are qualified for the special treatment." Bai explained with a chuckle.

"I have a great-grandfather?" Bai Yun exclaimed while being surprised by the information.

"No you don't. Your grandfather just came into existence out of nowhere." Bai Mu replied sarcastically.

"It's just I've never heard of him." Bai Yun replied.

For a moment a sad look passed in Bai Mu's eyes. "It's not surprising." He responded. "After you were diagnosed with being born with a broken soul, he has been traveling looking for a solution to your problem. For the past few months, he was stuck in a special zone and didn't learn of your recovery. He only returned to the clan this week. One of the reasons I came out with you today is to let you meet him."

Bai Yun nodded his understanding. By now many people had noticed Bai Mu and Bai Yun. There were a lot of people pointing at them and whisperng. It was not surprising. Both of them were rather well known in the clan. Bai Yun was born with a damaged soul, while Bia Mu was the youngest Dao step cultivator in the world in recent times.

Bai Yun then walked over to the special desk. Today was the last day of registration and there were a lot of people queuing up. Bai Yun simply walked past them confidently. Seeing Bai Yun walking to the special desk made many of them look at Bai Yun in envy. Though many of them did not recognize Bai Yun and looked at him quizzically.

As Bai Yun walked towards the special desk, he found that there were two people in front of him. With a start he realized that the first one was Bai Qing.

"Look, its prince Qing." Bai Yun heard someone whisper. As the rest of the group heard this, they all turned to look at Bai Qing. As a prince of the clan Bai Qing's popularity was extremely high.

Bai Qing turned to look at the crowd and smiled. Some of the crowd immediately swooned as they thought that the smile was for them. Bai Yun simply rolled his eyes when he saw Bai Qing's tactics. But no one was paying attention to him by now.

Bai Qing went and registered himself at the table. The person at the desk did not put on any airs in front of Bai Qing and quickly got his registration done. When Bai Qing finished, Bai Yun had just reached the special table behind him and another young man.

Bai Qing turned and came face to face with Bai Yun. Bai Yun gave a smile and said "Long time no see."

Bai Qing frowned and did not reply. Instead he turned to look at the person between them.

The person who was standing between them was a young man who was nearly as tall as Bai Yun. Considering that Bai Yun was older than most people here, it was a surprising development. Bai Yun also turned to look at him and studied him closely for the first time.

But the look gave Bai Yun a surprise. The young man in front of him was extremely strong. Bai Yun could feel that his aura was in a state of flux. The young man was definitely suppressing his cultivation, possibly even with the help of some external treasures. Otherwise he would have broken through to the foundation establishment realm a long time ago.

Bai Yun could also sense the presence of the body as well as the soul path cultivation on the young man. Even though he had not traveled for much in that path, he had definitely taken a few steps. Bai Yun didn't think he would run into someone like him today.

The young man turned to look at Bai Qing with a sneer. "What's the point of participating in the clan meeting now. You are going to lose the fight anyway."

Bai Qing simply shook his head and said. "I'm not like you. I don't think the only reason to fight is to win. There are more important things in life that winning every fight. Besides I wouldn't want to win like you anyway."

The young man in front of him simply laughed at Bai Qing. "Sounds like a real loser. Well, that's to be expected. After all you didn't even reach the finals of the youngster's tournament. If it was me who went to fight, I would have won." The young man said.

The young man then walked forward. He simply pushed Bai Qing aside and went to the registration desk. He loudly slapped the desk and announced himself. "Bai Mo, registering for the clan meeting."

The middle aged man who was sitting at the special desk frowned when he saw the young man's arrogance. But he did not say anything and simply started the registration process. He was already used to the arrogance of the people who were coming to register here.

Bai Yun stared at the young man, Bai Mo. He took a look around himself. He saw that many people were staring at Bai Mo, and he could see frowns and even disgust on their faces. But none of them stood up to say anything to Bai Mo.

Bai Qing stared at Bai Mo for a moment and shook his head. He then turned away from him and walked away from the registration desk.

As he passed by Bai Yun, Bai Qing suddenly whispered in a voice that only Bai Yun could hear. "Be careful of Bai Mo. He is arrogant, ruthless, and small minded."

Bai Yun raised an eyebrow at Bai Qing' warning. But by the time he looked back, Bai Qing had already walked away.

Bai Yun turned back to look at Bai Mo. He was now a little interested in this arrogant young man who even Bai Qing took seriously.