Chapter 113

Chapter 113: Geniuses Gather

Wang Niu laughed: “I saw you from far away. My brother said it wasn’t you. I bet him, and now I win.”

Not far off, Wang Ma lifted his hand in an awkward try to call his big brother back, but failed. When Ye Wan Wan looked his way, he quickly clasped his hands and bowed to the group.

Wang Ma was still very grateful to Ye Wan Wan for saving his life.

Wang Niu chuckled: “My brother is shy.”

Ye Wan Wan was infected by the big guy’s cheerfulness and said: “Don’t call us ancestor. That was just a joke before. It’s over.”

Wang Niu scratched his head and admitted: “Mainly, I didn’t know your names. My mouth moved faster than my brain.”

Ye Wan Wan stood and cupped her hands: “Heavenly One Sect, Ye Wan Wan.”

She gestured: “My eldest senior brother, Li Yan.”

She introduced the rest: “You’ve met the others: my second senior sister, Bai Jian; third senior brother, Fang He An; fourth senior brother, Li Wan Zhi; fifth senior brother, Shen Nan Zhou.”

Wang Niu greeted each one. They all returned the salute.

Li Wan Zhi, always quick to make friends, asked: “Where are you and your brother sitting?”

Wang Niu laughed dryly: “We haven’t found seats yet.”

Li Wan Zhi patted the spot beside him and said: “Then come sit here. There’s lots of room. Come on, the more the merrier.”

Wang Niu hesitated: “Can we?”

Li Wan Zhi said loudly: “Why not? These stone steps are for sitting. What else? Do you look down on us? Don’t want to sit with us? Afraid we’ll embarrass you?”

Wang Niu definitely didn’t mean that. Thinking it over, he agreed it made sense. The place was big. Why not? He called his brother over, and the two sat down with them.

People in the back row gasped again.

“Two more blockheads.”

“How do they dare?”

“The three top sects aren’t here yet. When they arrive, there will be a show.”

“They’re here. Look.”

The main characters always come last, and so do the heavy hitting geniuses. Just as everyone else had mostly found seats, streaks of light flew up from the foot of the mountain, broke through the clouds, and aimed for the battle stage.

They came like meteors, drawing every eye.

Li Wan Zhi didn’t get it and asked: “Why did we have to stop at the sword platform, but they can fly all the way here?”

Fang He An thought and said: “Maybe that’s a perk of being late?”

Hearing that, Li Wan Zhi smacked his thigh in regret: “If I knew, we would have come late too. Flying a lap over the battle stage would be so cool. Everyone could see us.”

Fang He An mused: “How about we do that tomorrow?”

If they had flown straight up, they wouldn’t have met that Lu Xuan and Lu Yang pair on the mountain path.

Wang Niu was curious: “You can do that?”

Li Wan Zhi, acting like an old expert, explained to him: “You can tell they’re close to being late, so they had to fly right up. Otherwise, with so many elders here, would they show off up there? Too rude. If I were their elder, I’d whack them.”

The seats around Li Wan Zhi fell silent.

Up in the air, the young cultivators arriving by Sword Flight also paused midair.

On the Elders’ Terrace, Xun Yin and Lu Qing Xuan nodded in approval and said: “Makes sense.”

The other elders: “…”

Seeing the group hanging in midair, Li Wan Zhi nudged Fang He An and asked: “Senior brother, do they have a program to perform?”

Fang He An straightened and said: “Don’t know. Let’s watch.”

People couldn’t tell if the two were truly clueless or teasing the arrivals on purpose. But when the Immortal Dominion Sect landed quickly, shot one glare at Li Wan Zhi, and then went to their seats, everyone understood that this unknown fellow daoist had pulled aggro for sure.

After Immortal Dominion Sect arrived, Xuan Tian Sect came next.

They wore white robes with gold patterns. Men and women both looked striking, the air around them noble. When the young man in front, in a gold trimmed white robe, rode his sword into view, the crowd screamed.

“Sword immortal Bai Yi!”

“Bai Yi!”

The roar over the battle stage was so loud that Bai Jian, focused on eating, jumped in surprise.

Ye Wan Wan lifted her eyes to the youth. His face didn’t change as he rode his sword over. Beside them, a group from Supreme Sect also approached.

Ye Wan Wan glanced across the three great sects. A single sect had twenty or thirty people. Together the three had almost a hundred.

In comparison, their Heavenly One Sect had only six. That really was small.

No one lingered in the air for long. They all landed and walked toward their areas. But when the Xuan Tian Sect group reached their seats, their faces paused for a beat.

Ye Wan Wan and her friends looked back with open calm.

A junior beside Bai Yi wanted to speak, but Bai Yi said quietly: “Sit.”

There were seats near Ye Wan Wan’s group too, though the viewing angle wasn’t as good. Since Bai Yi had spoken, the others, even if unhappy, sat down.

Supreme Sect’s people returned to their places as well. As they took their seats, someone glanced toward the Heavenly One Sect’s row and froze for a long moment.

One whispered: “Is that the junior sister from Azure Cloud Peak?”

Another said: “You’re mistaken. The Azure Cloud Peak junior sister is by Senior Brother Ji’s side.”

A third muttered: “No, I mean the one from before.”

“Stop. Sit. The elders are coming.”

The voices were cut off. No one dared bring it up again.

More people arrived after that, but none with the showy entrance of the three great sects. The privilege of dropping straight onto the main stage seemed to belong only to them.

Ye Wan Wan’s group sat quietly, waiting for the opening.

After a short while, someone behind asked: “Senior brother, are the seats next to you taken?”

The six turned and saw two teenagers about their age. A few more followed behind them. Their numbers looked as pitifully small as Ye Wan Wan’s group.

One teen wore a bright smile. The other had a straight face and didn’t talk much.

Li Yan answered: “No.”

The smiling youth said: “Then we’ll sit there.”

Li Yan said: “As you like.”

The youth cupped his hands with a grin and said: “Thanks, senior brother. We came late and couldn’t find spots. Xuan Tian, come.”

The youth called Xuan Tian also bowed to Li Yan, and their group sat down.

They ended up with Wang Niu and Wang Ma between them and Li Wan Zhi’s side.

But Li Wan Zhi could never sit still. Even across the tall Wang brothers, his eyes still darted, measuring the two newcomers. He asked: “You’ve got so few people too. Are you, like us, from a small sect?”

The smiling youth, Liu Zai Xi, was just as chatty: “Our ancestors were glorious once. Now we’re a bit fallen.”

Li Wan Zhi said with deep feeling: “Us too.”

Liu Zai Xi blinked: “Which sect are you from?”

Li Wan Zhi sighed: “Don’t ask. The past is hard to face. The senior uncle and the master didn’t live up to expectations, so it’s on us now.”

Fang He An kept his eyes forward and gently reminded: “Lower your voice. Senior uncle and master can hear you.”

Li Wan Zhi switched faces at once and said solemnly: “I didn’t say anything.”

Liu Zai Xi laughed and shared snacks he had bought on the mountain path. He passed them over the Wang brothers to chat with Li Wan Zhi. A moment later, Wang Ma and Wang Niu had been squeezed back behind Liu Zai Xi.

Li Wan Zhi and Liu Zai Xi hit it off like old friends. They were one step away from swapping all their secrets.

But Ye Wan Wan could tell that even when Li Wan Zhi chatted, he kept his lines. He said what he should and didn’t reveal a single thing he shouldn’t. As for this Liu Zai Xi…

Interesting.