Chapter 123 (2): The Target is Night Demon!

As the banquet progressed, the factions were gradually becoming clearer and clearer, but around fifty to sixty of the guests remained unmoved the entire time.

They were Yan Beihan's lackeys, among which were Ling Kong and Xi Yun.

After chatting with her close friends, Yan Beihan raised her cup in their direction and asked, "What are you all sitting there for? Let's have a drink!"

"Mistress Yan is raising a toast!"

Ling Kong and the others instantly rose to their feet in unison before downing their cups of wine in one go.

"This is turning out to be quite an eventful dinner," Bi Yunyan remarked with a faint smile, then downed her cup of wine alongside Yan Beihan.

Ling Kong and the others were very excited to see this. Did this mean that Bi Yunyan had also joined Yan Beihan's camp? If so, then this was truly cause for celebration.

After downing her cup of wine, Yan Beihan tipped her cup upside-down to show that it was empty, then ordered, "Ling Kong, go and check to see if any of them haven't finished their cups of wine. If there's even a single drop left in any of their cups, then they have to drink three cups of wine in a row as punishment!"

Ling Kong immediately jumped up from his chair and ordered, "Nobody move! I'm going to come through and check your cups one by one!"

Meanwhile, Chen Yun and the others were arguing so vehemently that they appeared on the verge of a physical altercation.

Yan Beihan remained a passive bystander as she smiled and asked, "What do you think, Yunyan?"

"I don't have many thoughts to share," Bi Yunyan replied with a faint smile. "I am content just to observe."

"You sure are chilled and relaxed. You're not going to help Bi Feng out? He looks like he's about to start a fight!"

"It's not in my place to help. I am but a woman."

"Chen Xue is also a woman, but she's right in the thick of things."

"Our personalities are different. I much prefer to observe, and I especially don't like to get involved when what I see is so unsightly."

***

Inside a nearby room, Yan Nan, Bi Changhong, Chen Gu, Bai Jing, Yu Hanyan, and Xiang Beidou were seated together at a table, casually observing the collection of young men and women outside.

"What do you all think?" Yan Nan asked.

"I think the standout picks of the bunch are Feng Yun, Feng Xing, Yan Beihan, Bai Ye, Wu Di, Chen Yin, Bi Yunyan, Yu Cheng, and Xiang Xin," Bi Changkong opined before heaving a forlorn sigh.

Unfortunately, Bi Feng's performance left much to be desired, but he was the male figurehead of the Bi Clan's main branch.

Bi Yunyan was putting on a much better showing, but as a woman, she had to marry into another clan eventually.

"I'm quite impressed with Feng Yun and Chen Yin," Chen Gu said.

"Feng Yun is not bad, but Chen Yin is a little too... calculating," Xiang Beidou said.

"I agree," Chen Gu replied with a nod.

"I think Beihan is doing very well," Yan Nan said, much to the exasperation of the other deputy popes.

Clearly, he was not pleased with the lack of praise dedicated to his precious granddaughter, and he had stepped forward as her primary cheerleader.

"I think we've seen enough at this point," Yan Nan continued. "Who wants to go out there?"

The other five deputy popes immediately recoiled at the responsibility.

"This is your house, of course you have to go!"

Yan Nan's expression instantly darkened.

"Lazy as ever, I see."

The five deputy popes burst into laughter in unison.

***

Inside the main hall, the wine was truly flowing, and some people had even begun drinking straight out of jars.

It had become extremely noisy and rowdy, but right at this moment, an almighty aura descended upon the entire hall.

Everyone felt a chill course through their bodies, and they were instantly snapped out of their drunken stupors and made sober and alert again.

They hurriedly returned to their original seats, and all of a sudden, they were all sitting like obedient model students.

Yan Nan appeared on the elevated platform in the hall, and everyone stood up from their chairs before kneeling in unison to pay their respects.

"You can all return to your seats," Yan Nan said with a warm smile. "Tonight belongs to all of you. I'm only here to take a look at the best young prodigies that our church has to offer, and I won't be around for long."

Everyone returned obediently to their seats, and the previously rowdy hall had fallen completely silent.

"I overheard your conversations just now," Yan Nan revealed with a faint smile as he sat down on the throne on the elevated platform.

Everyone lowered their heads in embarrassment, and in particular, the ones that had been the most rowdy and unruly were feeling very sheepish.

"I've gathered all of you here today because I have something to share with you all. Dongfang Sansan of the Guardians has sent me a letter, and the letter contains a proposal that's rather confusing to me."

Everyone's eyes lit up slightly upon hearing this.

This was a perfect opportunity for them to make a good impression on Yan Nan!

Yan Nan called Yan Beihan onto the elevated platform, then handed her the section of Dongfang Sansan's letter that contained only the proposal for the friendly matches, and he asked her to read the letter aloud to everyone.

After hearing Dongfang Sansan's proposal, everyone knew that this was the test that they had been anticipating.

"Clearly, Dongfang Sansan wants to achieve some type of objective through these proposed friendly matches, and that begs the question of what his objective could be," Yan Nan mused.

The six hundred young prodigies present immediately began to ponder this question.

The question had been raised by Yan Nan, and it pertained to Dongfang Sansan, so its significance was not to be understated.

"You see that chair in the center?" Yan Nan continued. "If any of you have any ideas, you can raise your hand, then go sit on that chair and share your thoughts to everyone."

Everyone immediately turned to the chair in question with looks of yearning in their eyes.

Feng Yun was seated in his chair with a mix of contemplation and disappointment in his eyes.

The friendly matches were capped at the Emperor tier, so his cultivation base was already far above the cutoff limit.

After a while, there was still no one raising their hand to share their thoughts, so Yan Nan decided to intervene and get the conversation going.

"What are your thoughts, Feng Yun?"

Feng Yun rose to his feet and extended a respectful bow toward Yan Nan, then made his way to the chair in the center before sitting down in a composed and assured fashion.

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

With Feng Yun the first one to be called upon, a hint of envy and resentment immediately surfaced in Chen Yun's eyes, and he had to lower his head to hide it.

***

"I have a few thoughts that I would like to share," Feng Yun began.

"Go ahead."

"I think the first objective that Chief Strategist Dongfang has for proposing these friendly matches is quite obvious: he wants to take this opportunity to assess and examine the top prodigies from both sides. Secondly, I think it's worth noting that he's set the Emperor tier as the cultivation base cap for the sparring matches. This tells that whatever or whoever he's looking for is within those three cultivation tiers.

“Right now, all of the most prominent prodigies of our main church's younger generation are gathered here, and I think we can split the younger generation up into two sub-generations. One of those sub-generations consists of people like myself, Feng Yue, Chen Xue, Bi Feng, and Chen Yun.

“However, the majority of people of our sub-generation have already reached the Sovereign tier and above, so Chief Strategist Dongfang's target definitely isn't among us, which means that Chief Strategist Dongfang must feel like he already has a good grasp on our sub-generation. At the same time, I'm sure he also has no interest in the people from our sub-generation who are at or below the Emperor tier because those people really aren't worthy of note."

This was quite a scathing assessment for all those present who were around Feng Yun's age, yet still hadn't yet reached the Sovereign tier, but given Feng Yun's status, he didn't have to pay any heed to their embarrassment, and he continued, "Hence, I think the Emperor tier is nothing more than a red herring that Chief Strategist Dongfang is dangling in front of us as a distraction."

Yan Nan nodded in agreement with this assessment.

"Another possibility is that Chief Strategist Dongfang wants to see if we have some hidden prodigies up our sleeves that he's unaware of. However, anyone that we deem worthy of hiding from the Guardians surely has to be above the Emperor tier, so I think we can eliminate that possibility as well. Let's now turn our attention to the King tier, which is basically Beihan's sub-generation.

“At this point, the vast majority of that sub-generation has already reached the King tier, and there are only a few stragglers still at the Warlord tier. This is the sub-generation that the Guardians have the least knowledge of because everyone in this sub-generation has been completely outshone by a single person, and that's Night Demon of the One Heart Church.

“There were many people who should've made a name for themselves coming out of the Parasite Ascension Project, but for starters, many of them were killed by Night Demon, and as for the rest, barely anyone has even heard of them because Night Demon has stolen all the limelight. Hence, I think Chief Strategist Dongfang wants to examine this sub-generation and see if it contains any prodigies that could pose a future threat to the Guardians.

“There are only three proven prodigies in this sub-generation in the form of Yan Beihan, Chen Yin, and Night Demon, but they're far from the only noteworthy prodigies. This is bad news for the Guardians because these enemy prodigies are all complete mysteries to them, and by the time they make themselves known, it could be quite a rude awakening for the Guardians. Hence, Chief Strategist Dongfang wants to lure these people out as early as possible.

“If we don't want to lose these friendly matches, then we'll be sure to send out all of our top prodigies to represent us, and that'll play right into his hands. As for the Warlord tier friendly matches, I think that's also nothing more than a red herring. I think his true objective is to assess the newly ascended Kings to have come out of the recently concluded Parasite Ascension Project.

“I'm not overly familiar with that sub-generation, so it'll have to be down to Beihan and Chen Yin and the others to provide further details. In any case, that's all I can think of for now. I hope my insights were at least somewhat useful to everyone."

"Those are some good insights," Yan Nan praised. "You can go back now. For your input, I shall reward you one Soul Resurrection Pill and a Holy Soul Pill."

"Thank you, Senior Yan!"