Zhou Family Academy

Canglan City, Zhou Family Academy.

An ocean of people was present.

Due to this event being very closely tied to the reputation of the Zhou family, if the minor branch Zhou family were to be on good terms with the main branch of the Zhou family then the future development for the minor branch would be naturally amazing.

Hence with that in mind, the Zhou family sent out invitations to plenty of famous scholars to witness this selection of genius event.

It did not matter if the guests invited were from a minor family or any known genius of any family—everyone was invited. This was done to show the influence the Zhou family had and at the same time show how good the reputation of the Zhou family in Canglan city was in the presence of the main branch of the Zhou family.

"Everything has been done in order, my Lord. There shouldn't be a problem. As for that person, according to Xiao family's intel, he had been staying in the hidden chambers of the Gu family for seven days now. However, he doesn't seem to be too powerful.

"However, he seems to be carrying an exorbitant amount of Spirit Crystals on him."

A pale-looking elderly man spoke.

"Hmm, it seems his father has left him some things, but that's within our expectations. However, we didn't expect Ning'er's support to come to her aid that fast! It was someone capable of shattering the very shackles of the heavens and earth. The only person capable of doing something of this magnitude would be the person supporting her from the shadows!

"Those people didn't listen to what we've told them. Ambushing Ning'er without thinking... It serves them right! Now the Xie family has the audacity to demand reimbursement from us! They don't know death!"

"We shall wait until the Lord of Canglan City dies, then we'll be able to take this city. Until then, we shall plan our next moves carefully.

"The Xiao family has fully submitted to the Xie family's will and now, Xiao Zhan is a cripple. His life is now a living hell; the Gu family had already been dissolved and thus Gu Yan himself is no longer capable of doing much. He's now in the same condition as Xiao Zhan.

"Hence, there isn't much to worry about with these people."

Another elderly man with a deep gaze spoke. His expression remained cold and emotionless.

"My Lord, why hasn't the main branch of our family made their presence yet? Could they possibly…"

"Insolence! Elder of Lore, the combat prowess of these people far exceeds the third rank in the realm of the Blade's Menace so their detection skills are extremely far-reaching. If whatever you just said were brought to their attention, you'd stir up unwanted troubles!

"Our Zhou family are just mere branches to the main branch of our family. Them gracing us with their presence is something we should be extremely grateful about, and we should never feel the slightest bit displeased."

The elderly man in black frantically explained.

He had a serious look on his face as he was observing the distant land. He finally relaxed only after sensing nothing approaching.

"Ahh… forgive me, my Lord."

The Elder of Lore had a remorseful expression and began gazing into the distant land frantically.

At that time, some major families were gradually making their appearance. As the Zhou family guard announced their presence, Zhou Wuzhen—Lord of the Zhou family, the Elder of Lore, and the others proceeded to greet these families.

A test of might was a grand event of any major families and any families who had no intention of making it a high profile event would usually just hold the event amongst its family members. However, if there was an intention to make it an extravagant event, they would usually open up their doors and invite plenty of well-known people from important families to spectate.

The Zhou family had always assumed Zhou Yan was nothing more than useless trash, so naturally they were not worried—even if he came to disrupt the order and peace of the event. Even if he were to make his presence known, useless trash without any abilities like him would never be taken seriously by anyone!

Until then, the Zhou family could very openly announce his 'B*stard child' identity. This itself would result in the Zhou family gaining more glory and status!

Hence, not a single soul was even remotely concerned about Zhou Yan.

…

"Lord Huang, I never expect you to grace us with your presence. It has been so many years now. Lord Huang's incredible mastery of your Blade's Menace truly would be a spectacle to bear witness for anyone!"

"If it isn't Elder Ling. Elder Ling's current prowess would put our Huang family to shame, and it seems you've made significant progress to your strength!"

"Hahaha, you flatter me too much… Hmm, the Lord of the Region of a Thousand Despair is also present! This Zhou family truly has a reputation for themselves!"

"Hey, it seems you're oblivious to everything, right? This time, the Zhou family has invited their main branch. As you know, a city holds more power than a district, and a capital city would hold more power than a city! In every capital city, it governs a hundred and eight cities. Anything that holds more power than a capital city would be a region.

"The main branch of the Zhou family was the governor of the Xiaoyao Capital City and our Canglan City, hence they're an extremely powerful family which has significant power of influence! They're one of the four major families!

"Even though they govern the Xiaoyao Capital City within the Water Region, their reputation still stands! Hence, why shouldn't the Lord of Canglan City dare not to show his presence here?

"Whoa...Who knew the Zhou family had this much power of influence?"

"Of course they do. Do you know a man named Zhou Wangchen? He had made a huge and significant reputation to himself within the walls of the main branch of the Zhou family, although, unfortunately, in the end, he lost all significance to his reputation…"

…

Both Zhou Yan and Gu Yan were standing close to both of these elders. Since they had disguised their appearance and had entered in a low profile manner, their presence was not detected by anyone.

In this event, anyone without an invitation would be denied entry, hence Zhou Yan proceeded to casually murder a lord from a minor family whom Zhou Yan had some grievances with. After stealing the invitation, he proceeded to enter alongside Gu Yan.

As of then, not much drastic change had occurred in the Zhou family—even in security and defense of the household, no clear strict protocols or formations were visibly deployed.

Hence Zhou Yan glanced toward Gu Yan. They had already understood that in fact, the entirety of the Zhou family had not even bothered to take them seriously under the state of complete ignorance and oblivious to the full extent of their powers.

This meant they had made everything easier for them.

As both of their gazes met, they made mental preparations to be ready to adapt to any sudden changes to their plan.

At that very moment, a huge shadow suddenly stretched across and covered the entire clear blue sky.

Every single person instantly looked up to the sky.

Sprawled across the sky was a huge black eagle. While it flew across the sky, it shredded a spatial void with a sharp squawk and was flying above the crowd's heads.

At the same moment, after a humming sound, that huge majestic black eagle morphed into a dark blade with the carving of an eagle. It then suddenly flew into the void and vanished without a single trace.

However, after that display, a prismatic light appeared. Within that prismatic light, a flying ship that had a carving of a sigil of a centipede on the body appeared out of it.

As the flying ship materialized, an elderly man was the first to step out of that vessel followed by a pair of young man and lady.

The young man had long flowing purple hair which was fluttering in the wind—he seemed extremely attuned to his spiritual nature.

His body looked slender and tall. This man resembled a menacing sharpened blade—he was even emanating a sinister and menacing aura from his body.

Standing next to him was a young lady wearing a light green dress with an affinity to the spiritual nature. Her long flowing dark hair reflected the spiritual radiance of the night sky as it was draped on her shoulders, her' slender shoulders were as if masonwork was done onto perfecting such slender shoulders. Her waist was incredibly tiny as if restraints were placed around it to keep it in shape. Her hands were as soft as the budding leaves and her face was as pretty as a fully bloomed flower.

Her skin was bright as it glimmered as light reflected upon it. She was seemingly emanating an elegant spiritual aura as her cheeks blushed, both of her eyebrows were thick, luscious and dark.

She was terrifyingly stunning.

As Zhou Yan stared from a distance, he was slightly surprised. It seems as if after she had surpassed the realm of the Blade's Menace, various spiritual radiance would gradually manifest itself from her. This alone was enough to charm any soul.

Using his soul's detection ability, his soul casually phased through these people. Thus in an instant, he had gained an understanding of the realms they were currently residing in.

This spiritual strength seemed peculiar and unique and not a single person would be able to remotely sense its presence.

Under Zhou Yan's detection, he found out that this elderly man had ascended into the realm of the Blade's Heart. Zhou Yan could not judge the actual power level of this elderly man's skills since he dared not probe deeper into this man's Qi Column.

The duo on the other hand, had ascended to the very peak of the third rank in the realm of the Blade's Menace.

These people were not older than twenty years old, but the realms they had ascended into... Not even the infamous Yang Qingtian could remotely come close to being an actual competition to these people.

Ascending into such a realm was a quality Zhou Yan would have to admire as of then.

After Zhou Yan was done gauging what these trio of people were capable of, he withdrew his ability. Although the couple was unable to sense his presence, that elderly man suddenly focused his gaze and glared at the direction to where Zhou Yan stood.

Zhou Yan's heart twitched slightly and immediately recalled his soul's ability while collecting his emotions at the same time.

That elderly man's glare was as bright as the burning sun. The instant his gaze swept toward him, the lords, elders, and even the lord of the Region of A Thousand Despair who stood around Zhou Yan had a drastic change to their expressions and immediately bowed while an obvious wave of fear washed across their faces.

After doing so, the elderly man's gaze shifted to Zhou Yan. Although he had infused the powers of the Nine-Folds Yin Yang Manuscripts to keep his essence hidden, he did not make an effort to diminish his status by bowing toward him. He calmly stared back at the elderly man.

Moments later, the elderly man proceeded to stare at Silver Frost as if he was contemplating something. Silver Frost was also keeping its essence hidden. However, the elderly man's gaze suddenly lit up and emitted a shred of unimaginable radiance.

Hence, the elderly man proceeded to once again take another glance at Zhou Yan while hints of admiration could be seen from his gaze while gently nodding his head toward Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan's emotions of pure skepticism immediately faded away.

Since he was not using Sorrow Breaker, he kept it away.

Since Feng Lingqing was slumbering within Silver Frost's body, he was unable to keep it away within his Infinite Spatial Ring, hence it was hanging from his waist.

Although Silver Frost kept all of its Blade's Menace hidden, this elderly man had seemingly noticed something from it.

Zhou Yan was slightly nervous, but since things had progressed to such an extent, he no longer had any concerns toward the outcome of the entire debacle. He would do absolutely anything, even if he exploded into a manic state; he would do it in the name of earning the right to enter into the main branch of his family.

In the name of fulfilling his father's wishes and obeying his father's words, it did not matter if he had to scale mountains of blades nor swim across an ocean of flames. He would make sure it was done with everything in his power!

This was the purest determined will from his heart.

At that very moment, he was unsure if this elderly man had cracked a sincere smile or merely putting on a facade. He was able to notice the unique and odd nature of Silver Frost. Hence it did not matter which it was in the end. The elderly man had gazed at him with a hint of admiration, hence this meant everything was not as dire as he had imagined.

Zhou Yan proceeded to calm his mind and collect himself and it was only after that did he realize that Gu Yan, who had been standing next to him, was completely soaked in sweat.

"This man truly is powerful! He should at least be in the realm of the Blade's Heart! Truly a spectacle!"

Gu Yan lamented.

"Kind friend, you have a keen eye. That elderly senior is not only slightly more powerful than the elder of my Ling family, no. His power is totally beyond imagination!"

The lord of the Ling family spoke in high praise. 

"Could it be that spectacle earlier... was a Blade's Specter? A Blade's Spectre can morph into the Soul of War. It seems that this elderly man has high hopes in ascending into the realm of the Blade's Spectre!"

The Lord of the Region of A Thousand Despair lamented as his eyebrows constricted.