The Long-Bearded Guest was not angry at Wu Guangyu’s reprimand. He chuckled, looked around, then said, “Since everyone is here, let’s begin. The eighteen participants are required to step forward. Let me get a good look at you. I want to see how extraordinary the young talents of the Nine Great Clans are.”

After the Long-Bearded Guest spoke, the eighteen participants of the Martial Youth Competition acknowledged their patriarchs slightly, then stepped in front of him. Long Chen stood with Suxue, Lei Wen, and Lei Wu. The Divine Wind Faction had a man and a woman representing them aside from Feng Zhilin and Wu Guangyu. The man was a young talent from the Wind clan, and based on his looks, he was likely of similar age to the Lei brothers. The girl was a Divine clansman, and she was likely in her thirties too.

Reaching the Ninth Earthly Martial Stage before thirty was a difficult achievement. The Eight Sect Elders from the Demon clan were all at least a hundred years old, and they were in their fifties when they reached the Ninth Earthly Martial Stage.

Wu Guangyu and Feng Zhilin were an unmarried couple, but the other man and woman held hands, so they were likely married already. The Divine clan woman had married a Wind clan man.

They were both at the Ninth Earthly Martial Stage. When Wu Guangyu and Feng Zhilin were included, this faction’s team was very powerful. As for the Five Elements Alliance, eleven people walked over, led by Jin Ling. Almost every cultivator was at the Ninth Earthly Martial Stage, making for a magnificent scene.

“Aiyo! The quality of this year’s participants is very high! Much higher than the past few years, at least.” The Long-Bearded Guest looked at the eighteen people with curiosity. His gaze swept across every single one of them, and when he saw Feng Zhilin, his eyes shone. He muttered praises about her in a low voice. Wu Guangyu was about to attack him, but he finally looked at Suxue.

Suxue had a curvier figure than Feng Zhilin, and the moment he saw her, he could not peel his eyes away. However, Suxue was smart. She chuckled, then stood behind Long Chen so that he could not see anything.

“Eh? This kid?” The Long-Bearded Guest finally looked at Long Chen and said with great interest, “Is this kid Long Chen, the one everyone’s been talking about? The one who took the Seven Star Lord’s inheritance?”

“That’s me, Elder.” Long Chen saluted him.

The Long-Bearded Guest was a master and the host of this competition. There were no benefits to offending him.

Wu Guangyu had been rude to the old man, but Long Chen was polite and instantly gained the Long-Bearded Guest’s favor. He nodded approvingly and said, “Not bad, not bad. Work hard.”

“Enough of the nonsense, old man. Take out the Divine Space Talismans now,” Wu Lian said coldly.

“About that …” The Long-Bearded Guest suddenly turned shy and said, “I did prepare eighteen Divine Space Talismans, but after I came to the Ancient Graveyard, I gave two away to a good friend of mine …”

“What?!” Bai Lan, Wu Lian, and the rest were furious. The Long-Bearded Guest had always been off his rocker and had never been reliable. They could not believe that he would give away the Divine Space Talismans that were needed for the Martial Youth Competition. It was terrible.

“Long-Bearded Guest, how could you do that? Eighteen of us are participating in the Martial Youth Competition, but you only have sixteen Divine Space Talismans. Does that mean that two of us cannot participate? We’ve long agreed on the terms, so who would be willing to resign from the competition?” Wu Lian asked angrily.

“You must be held accountable for this. If not, the three factions will never let you go!” said Ancestor Jin from the Five Elements Alliance with annoyance.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

The Five Elements Alliance had ten participants, and there was no way the other factions would be willing to exclude half of their participants. This was a disadvantage to them.

“Uh … Uh … Let’s change the rules, then. Using the Divine Space Talisman for this is such a waste anyway …” the Long-Bearded Guest said awkwardly.

Bai Lan furrowed his brows and said mildly, “Absolutely not. Changing the rules now will affect the results greatly. Who would be willing to be at a disadvantage?”

The Long-Bearded Guest had no idea what to do, and the leaders of the three major factions were all mad at him. Usually, the Long-Bearded Guest acted like a pervert and Wu Lian never held him accountable for it; however, his carelessness with this event showed that he never took the three factions seriously at all!

The three factions would never let anyone else take the Five Emperor Keys, especially not the Long-Bearded Guest, who did not come from a powerful background. If he had not been willing to give them one slot from the Yellow Emperor Key, the three factions would have secretly attacked him already.

Out of the four Second Heavenly Martial Stage cultivators present, the weakest one was likely the Long-Bearded Guest.

Everyone was glaring at the Long-Bearded Guest furiously. He broke into a grin, then said, “Why don’t we do this? Those who have enough confidence in reaching the top eight, and are confident they will not get hurt or die, will not need a Divine Space Talisman. I’m sure Wu Guangyu from the Divine clan doesn't need it, right? He has the Azure Lotus Lord’s inheritance, so who among these eighteen people could hurt him fatally?”

“No way!” Wu Lian said hurriedly. Although she knew that her son was surely the strongest, she could not allow him to be at a disadvantage. Why would her son not have something that everyone else had?

Wu Lian objected to it, and naturally, the Divine clansmen did too. However, Wu Guangyu waved and said, “The Divine Space Talisman is useless to me. I don’t need it. It’s fine if I don’t get one, but only on one condition.”

The Long-Bearded Guest saw hope and asked happily, “What is your condition?”

Wu Guangyu searched for Long Chen among the group, chuckled lowly, then said, “There are a total of sixteen Divine Space Talismans, so two people will not have one. One of them will be me. As for the other person, I hope it’ll be him. Long Chen!”

The crowd erupted. Wu Guangyu had made it clear that he wanted Long Chen to not have a Divine Space Talisman so he could kill him in the ruins. If Long Chen had a Divine Space Talisman, he would not be able to kill him.

The Demon Thunder Faction objected, of course. Even Suxue glared at Wu Guangyu with hatred. “No way! That’s not fair! You’re basically saying that you’re going to attack Long Chen in the ruins, then take the Seven Star Lord’s inheritance! Absolutely not!”

Wu Guangyu smirked coldly and said, “Why not? Killing has always been permissible after the first round of the Martial Youth Competition. The winner is king, and the loser suffers. That is the rule passed down by our seniors. Even the clan leaders cannot interfere with this. Weaklings deserve to be killed. Unless … Does it mean that Long Chen has already admitted defeat?”

Suxue was stunned and cursed, “You lowly bastard!”

When Feng Zhilin heard that her man had been insulted, she raged. Suxue was as beautiful as she was, and she was jealous. Suxue had been secretly her greatest rival, so she rebutted, “Who is lowly? The one who snatched away the Martial God Tombstone and the Seven Star Lord’s inheritance using manipulative tactics is the lowly one! He doesn’t have true strength and only knows how to use tricks. Only you would like a weakling like that! If it were me, I would have dumped his ass!”

Suxue was angered by Feng Zhilin’s words, but Long Chen laughed. He laughed loudly for a while, attracting everyone’s attention, and then he said, “Don’t you think that’s a funny thing to say? Whatever happened in the hall of the Seven Star Lord’s tomb … The interesting things that happened between us … Don’t you think that was a beautiful memory, Feng Zhilin?”

Long Chen’s words triggered endless questions in everyone’s minds. They all wondered what had happened between two single people of the opposite sex. The one who suffered most was Wu Guangyu. Feng Zhilin was his fiancée, and the woman he desired. What did Long Chen mean? He thought back to how her clothes were disheveled when she came out of the Star Tomb …

“Don’t listen to his nonsense. He’s a piece of trash who only knows how to lie.” Feng Zhilin was furious. Whenever she recalled what happened that day, she would have the urge to kill him. However, she knew that the angrier she became, the more they would think that Long Chen was telling the truth.

That was why she could only reply in a calm tone.

Wu Guangyu half-believed her, but when he remembered that Long Chen had a low cultivation level at the time, and Feng Zhilin didn’t seem like her purity had been sullied, he felt more assured.

“Enough of the nonsense. Long Chen, I’m asking you not to use a Divine Space Talisman. Are you up for it or not?” Wu Guangyu asked coldly over the crowd’s discussion. He did not want to be seen as the man who got cheated on. That was worse than being killed.

Everyone’s eyes fell on Long Chen.

Long Chen was silent for a moment before he said, “I am.”

“Then it’s settled! Haha, two brave, talented prodigies! You have gotten me out of a tight spot, so I will naturally treat you well in the future. Next, I will stick the Divine Space Talismans on the other people.”

After Long Chen agreed, the Long-Bearded Guest hurriedly got started. He moved extremely quickly and swept past everyone like a gust of wind. When he returned to his spot, everyone other than Long Chen and Wu Guangyu had a flickering, dull, yellow rune on their foreheads. The runes flickered gently, then protective energy flooded across the surface of their bodies, which gradually faded to become invisible.

Suxue felt the new changes brought by the talisman and said, “The Divine Space Talisman feels great. It feels like I’m wearing a layer of armor. But, Long Chen, you really didn’t have to take that risk just get the last word in …” She looked at him with worry in her eyes.