Registering for the clan meeting

Bai Yun listened to the rest of the group as he stood in line behind Bai Mo. By listening to the discussions of the group, he slowly put the pieces of Bai Mo's story together.

Bai Mo was the descendent of the tenth elder. But the reason for his infamy was not that.

Bai Mo was someone who loved to abuse his power. And his talent was high enough that the tenth elder valued him greatly. So he would often do things that made many people angry at him. Like hitting on girls, taking things that belong to others, and so on. But he as also a little smart. Thus he never went to annoy people with great backgrounds. So no one with any power would come after him. His was a typical case of fearing the strong and abusing the weak. Since the tenth elder would cover up his mistakes, he grew up without handling the consequences of his actions.

But that was not the only reason people looked down upon him. There was a reason Bai Mo was so strong.

Bai Mo actually reached the peak of the qi condensation last year. He could have participated in last year's clan meeting. But last year there were a couple of strong contenders who were also participating including Bai Song who eventually went on to win the clan meeting in the qi condensation realm. Fearing that he may not win, Bai Mo actually hid away during the clan meeting and trained for it during this year. He didn't break through to foundation establishment just so that he could participate in the clan meeting. He even started to train in other cultivation paths just so he could win this year's meeting.

This kind of behavior obviously won him the derision of the plan. But no one would say anything to his face. The elders of the clan were all at the dao tree real and no one would antagonize a dao tree realm cultivator for such a trivial reason.

After finding out about Bai Mo, Bai Yun also looked down upon him. There was nothing wrong with losing a fight. But to not even have the courage to fight against our opponents was something Bai Yun looked down on.

Bai Yun waited as Bai Mo completed his registration process. Bai Mo left with his head held high, without even giving Bai Yun a second glance.

Once he was gone Bai Yun stepped up to the registration table. Since not many people knew who Bai Yun was, he did not register much excitement from the crowd.

"You are?" the man sitting on the table asked him.

"Bai Yun." Bai Yun said his name. For a moment the man was confused. Then he suddenly realized who Bai Yun was. As someone who was assigned to handle the registrations at the special table, he knew about the important people who would come to register here. After a moment, he immediately recognized Bai Yun.

But when he did so, he looked at Bai Yun strangely. He also knew that Bai Yun was born with a damaged soul, and it was miraculously cured only a few months ago. He couldn't believe that Bai Yun would be able able to participate in the clan meeting so soon. Almost all the people who registered was at the peak of qi condensation. And people usually took a few years to reach the peak of qi condensation.

But it wasn't his place to judge, only to register people who wanted to participate. If Bai Yun wanted to recklessly register for the competition, it was none of his business.

"Age?" The man asked.

"Fourteen." Bai Yun replied.

Once he was done, the man quickly took down this information and branded it onto a small token. This token contained a talisman that would allow the organizers to quickly keep track of who all were registering for the tournament.

Once this was done, Bai Yun was asked to drop his blood onto a small form on the desk. This formation was a record keeping formation that was done to make sure that no one registered twice. The rules of the clan meeting were different from the youngster's tournament. There anyone could register as many times. It wasn't that difficult to cheat on the formation test anyway, so they made it a feature instead. But it was different for the clan meeting.

Once Bai Yun dropped his blood, the formation ran for a few seconds before it turned blue, confirming that Bai Yun had not registered for the clan meeting.

Then the final test for the clan meeting began, the cultivation test. The man sitting on the table pulled out a small orb and passed it to Bai Yun. Bai Yun could feel a small power slowly flowing inside the orb.

This orb was used to check the cultivation of people. The power in the orb would flow into one's body and check the cultivation before flowing back into the orb to report it.

As Bai Yun felt the power flow into his body, he smiled a little bit. This kind of checking was nothing in front of Bai Yun's god sense. He could easily fool it. Bai Yun had not broken through to the foundation establishment realm in the soul path, that is the four circle realm, because he was afraid that the cultivation checker tool would be quite sophisticated and he would not be able to foil it. If he knew it would be so simple, then he would have definitely broken through a long time ago and trained in that path much more. But it didn't matter, he still had time to break through before the clan meeting began.

Then again, he should have expected that the test would not be too complicated. Bai Yun had a great outlook and knew of many ways to check cultivation that could not be fooled by a weak god sense. But he should have known that they were all out of the Bai clans reach with their shallow history and resources.

Once the power checked Bai Yun's cultivation, it flew back into the orb. The orb slowly lit up with a blue color. The color reached a bright blue hue and stopped. Different colors would represent different realms in cultivation and their brightness represented the degree of cultivation. Since Bai Yun's soul path had reached the peak of qi condensation and his other two paths were still one step away from reaching the peak, the orb was displaying Bai Yun's attainments in the soul path. It would look at all cultivation paths and would only show the cultivation of the path with the highest attainments.

The man sitting at the table had a surprised reaction when he saw the color. He stared at it for a while before saying, "Peak of qi condensation."

He was surprised by the result. It wasn't that there were no ways for someone to reach the peak of qi condensation in a few months. The Bai clan could easily access resources that could help with that. But such quick rise in cultivation often left behind unsteady foundations.

The man at the table shook his head and handed Bai Yun the token that was filled with his details. When he saw the man's disappointed look, Bai Yun knew what he must be thinking. But Bai Yun only smiled and didn't explain anything.

Bai Yun took the token and walked back to his father. When he turned around, he saw that there were two others standing behind him. But Bai Yun did not recognize them, and they did not recognize Bai Yun either. So he just passed by them.

As he walked back, he quietly studied the token that was given to him. On one side of the token was the Bai clan's seal. The other side had a number, eighty five. This was probably the token number. Bai Yun figured that the token numbers must go to the thousands. But since he was a special registrant, he got a token with a small number.

"Finished everything?" Bai Mi asked him when Bai Yun reached him.

"Yes." Bai Yun replied while putting away the token.

"We will now go to meet your great grandfather." Bai Mu said.

The next second a great force surrounded Bai Yun. Before he knew it, he was lifted up by a strange power, and then he flew away. Bai Yun saw the images flashing outside quickly, too fast for him to register anything. Before he knew it, they had stopped. Bai Yun looked up and saw that he was standing in front of the gates of a large mansion. Bai Yun looked around, but he could not see anything in the nearby lands. It was an isolated mansion hidden away in some corner of the clan.

"Let's go." Bai Mu said and walked into the mansion. Once he opened the door, there was a grand hall inside. There was no one standing guard outside the mansion. Not that it mattered. A dao step cultivator was the strongest defense possible in this world.

"This is your great grandfather's mansion." Bai Mu said. " He has been staying here alone ever since your great grandmother passed away. He drove away all the servants and has been living like a hermit since then. He doesn't even go out for clan meetings. The only time he has left in recent times was to find a solution for your problem."

When Bai Yun heard this, he was once again struck by the fact that he had a loving family in this life. It strengthened his decision to live this life for himself and to forget his past life as much as he could.

"I don't know much about great grandfather. What's his name?" Bai Yun asked.

"His name is Bai Tianji. He is one of the three grand elders of the clan." Bai Mu replied.

Bai Yun lost his steps for a moment. The elders of the clan were at the dao tree realm, the second realm in the dao step. But the grand elders were at the dao flower realm, the highest realm in the dao step. Since the people in the howling wolf world could only be up to the dao step, it meant that his great grandfather was one of the strongest people in the world.

"Are you telling me I could have thrown my weight around as a descendent of a dao flower realm cultivator all this time?" Bai Yun asked his father.

"You could have, but would you?" Bai Mu asked.

Bai Yun thought for a while. "Nah, it would be too boring." Bia Yun finally replied.

Bai Mu chuckled when he heard Bai Yun's reply.

"One more thing, if I have a great grandfather, there must be other relatives too right. Where are they?" Bai Yun asked.

A look of sadness passed through Bai Mu's eyes when he heard Bai Yun's question. "Ther isn't anyone else." He finally replied after a while." Me, you and your great grandfather are the only ones left of our branch of the clan. Everyone else has already passed away."

"Oh." Bai Yun replied somberly. Bai Yun could see that there was probably more to the story, but it didn't seem as if his father was going to explain anything more.

The two of them walked in silence for a while. They walked through winding corridors in the mansion. Of course, considering the size of the mansion, the corridors were wide enough to be called halls. The finally reached another door and Bia Mu opened the door and the two of them stepped into a large garden.

When they stepped into the garden Bai Yun was hit by a strong scent of flowers and plants. Then he saw an old man with long white hair and a white beard standing in the garden. He was slowly pouring water on a small shrub. Once he was done he slowly straightened and turned to look at the two visitors with a smile.

"Little Mu, Little Yun, its good to see you." He said with a smile.