Chapter 2714 - The Inauspicious Spirit’s Wedding Banquet

At the foot of the Mountain of Blessings.

The cultivators were divided into groups based on their origins. Some were disciples of famous sects, while others were rogue cultivators.

The hierarchy was readily apparent; Su Yi could tell their relative strength and positions from a single glance at their attire and auras.

“Brother Luan, we meet again.” A few cultivators rose to greet them when they arrived. They were obviously already acquainted.

Qin Suqing transmitted the cultivators’ names and origins to Su Yi. All of them were cultivators from the Eternal Heavens Domain’s Blue Peak Continent.

Aside from her Sky Profound Court, there were three other prominent factions: Divine Willow Mountain’s Yu Family, the Bluebird Palace of the Windswept Lake, and Fire Dragon Temple.

The Yu Family had sent four representatives. Bluebird Palace had sent three, while Fire Dragon Temple had sent just two.

There were a dozen or so other cultivators, all of them rogue cultivators clustered into small groups.

According to Qin Suqing, all of them were famed for their ruthlessness. Some had claimed their own territories, while others intimidated other regions.

In the eyes of ordinary cultivators, they were already extraordinarily prominent experts. However, to Qin Suqing and other experts of prominent factions, as high as the rogue cultivators’ cultivations were, their foundations were lacking.

There was no need to look down on them, but no need to attach too much importance to them, either.

Indeed, Su Yi noticed that the rogue cultivators looked at Luan Yunzhong and Qin Suqing with varying degrees of caution and subtle hints of jealousy.

No matter where you went, rogue cultivators’ positions were lacking compared to the lofty disciples of prominent factions.

No matter how strong they were, they had to rein in their emotions and lower their heads before the scions of major sects.

By now, Su Yi roughly understood that factions in the Eternal Heavens Domain were divided into two types: those with Eternals and those without.

Those without were considered low-class, no exception, while those with Eternals were subdivided into numerous ranks.

The greatest factions were those helmed by Eternal Sovereigns, but there were only nine such factions in the entire River of Destiny.

Heavenly Sovereigns were the highest authority figures in the entire Eternal Heavens Domain!

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Sovereigns helmed by Heavenly Monarchs came in second. After all, they too had Heavenly Fate Realm cultivation.

Heavenly Monarch-level factions were already top-notch.

Immeasurable-level factions were next, and while they weren’t top-notch, it wouldn’t do to overestimate them. They were the weight-bearing pillars of the Eternal Heavens Domain.

Heavenly Sovereign-level factions stood proudly over the clouds, presiding over the world’s ups and downs, while Heavenly Monarch-level factions stood just beneath them, gazing down over creation.

Immeasurable factions were like ministers presiding over vast stretches of territories, the backbone of the Eternal heavens Domain’s cultivation world.

Those factions beneath that level were further subdivided into different levels. Factions with only Silent, Divine Wandering, and Unfettered Realm experts might also preside over their respective territories, but in the eyes of Immeasurable-level factions, they were second-rate at best.

As for those without Eternals... they didn’t even make the rankings!

This was how the Eternal Heavens Domain’s world of cultivation was divided.

By the standards of the Eternal Heavens Domain, even the top factions of the Four Divine Continents of the God Domain were small fries.

Because they didn’t have Eternals to oversee things!

Simply put, the presence of Eternals was a dividing line. Only those with Eternals overseeing things made it into the rankings.

Still, to be considered a “famous sect” required more than just Eternals at the helm; you needed strong foundations and accumulations, too.

Otherwise, you were no different than those organizations formed by rogue cultivators.

For instance, a faction with only Unfettered Realm Eternals at the helm might have been the bottom of the barrel by the standards of Eternal factions, but if they survived the passage of time, it implied that they had a stronger faction backing them, one with even stronger experts.

Bluebird Palace, the Yu Family, Fire Dragon Temple, and Qin Suqing’s Sky Profound Court were second-rate by the standards of the Eternal Heavens Domain, but they were peak hegemons by the standards of the Blue Peak Continent.

“Miss Qin.” A Daoist with fiery dragons embroidered on his robes approached to greet them. He looked young and a bit bashful and shy. He greeted Qin Suqing first, then lowered his head. “Long time no see.”

His sheer bashfulness left Su Yi stunned.

Qin Suqing, however, frowned, then glowered coldly at him. “Drop the act and scram!”

The young Daoist instantly looked aggrieved. He stammered, “Why yell at me? All I said last time was...”

“Go ahead!” Qin Suqing said coldly. “Let’s see if you dare say it again!”

Su Yi was stunned. Qin Suqing was kind, tranquil, and elegant, but she spoke to the young Daoist with revulsion.

Su Yi couldn’t even imagine what this seemingly bashful young Daoist had done to provoke her so badly.

The young Daoist stiffened, seemingly intimidated, then murmured, “Fine, fine, I won’t say anything.”

He turned, smiled shyly, and greeted Su Yi. “Friend, my Daoist title is ‘Fire.’ I’m from Fire Dragon Temple. What about you?”

His eyes were as bright as an infant’s, but when he spoke, he instinctively lowered his head in embarrassment.

Su Yi was just about to say something when Qin Suqing glared at the Daoist and said directly, “Scram!”

The young Daoist, “Fire,” jumped in fright, an aggrieved, exasperated look on his face.

Many others saw this scene, but none of them said anything.

Qin Suqing took a deep breath, then said to Su Yi, “Please don’t ask, Fellow Daoist. I’d hate to sully your ears with his disgusting conduct.”

Su Yi nodded.

Before long, an aged voice rang out. “Dear guests, please join us on the slopes. The banquet is about to begin!”

Suddenly, thousands of blood-red lanterns rose from the Mountain of Blessings, illuminating the path to its slopes.

The gathered cultivators instantly ceased their conversation and started climbing. Soon, they arrived at a hall halfway up the mountain.

A sumptuous feast was laid out in the lamplit hall. Beautifully dressed serving girls dashed to and fro, guiding the guests to their seats.

Once Su Yi had taken a seat, he noticed that there were over a hundred inauspicious spirits on the left side of the room. Their bodies were incomplete, but they were relatively intact. Baleful energy flowed over their skin.

Their ranks included the old woman with cheeks covered in a dense layer of blush.

The right side of the room was reserved for the visiting cultivators, while a worn-out coffin was placed at the center of the hall.

It seemed that the coffin was to be the bridal palanquin.

Su Yi glanced down at the dishes covering the table. Fortunately, they were perfectly ordinary. All of the dishes were imbued with spiritual energy. Both the cut fruit and the refreshments were commonplace among cultivators.

There was no sign of blood, gore, or rotten flesh. That would have been far too vile.

A man in Confucian robes sat beside Su Yi. He was from Bluebird Palace.

The man took a sip of wine, then asked curiously, “Forgive my boldness, but you’re an unfamiliar face. Are you perhaps another disciple of the Great Qin Empire’s Sky Profound Court?”

“I’m not,” Su Yi said casually. He didn’t explain any further.

“Oh,” said the man in Confucian robes. He sighed. “You’ve got such a vibrant, youthful air about you. I cannot help but recall my youth just looking at you. Aigh, thirty thousand years passed in a flash.”

Su Yi laughed. “Doing the math, it’s only been a little over a hundred years since I began my cultivation. I wouldn’t call myself ‘young’ anymore.”

“Just a little over one hundred years?” exclaimed the man in Confucian robes.

Qin Suqing was seated nearby, and she was stunned too.

He proved his Dao and achieved Eternity in just a hundred or so years?

What kind of monster is he?

On the River of Destiny, those capable of achieving Eternity in so little time were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns!

When monsters like that arose, Divine Reverence Pavilion proclaimed them “unparalleled geniuses,” “qilin sons,” “children of fortune,” and “natural-born cultivators.” They weren’t at all stingy with their praise.

Su Yi quickly realized the problem, then laughed and casually came up with an excuse. “I spent part of that in a hidden realm where time flowed more slowly.”

Ah, so that’s it.

The man in Confucian robes and Qin Suqing nodded. Everything finally made sense.

The man in Confucian robes tried to engage Su Yi in light conversation, but when he received a lukewarm response, he gave up.

The swordswoman in black was seated on the other side of him. She had a cold look in her eyes. She transmitted, “Martial Uncle, why bother chatting with that kid? Don’t tell me you suspect that he’s a hidden expert?”

“A hidden expert?” the man in Confucian robes transmitted back. “An Unfettered Realm cultivator, that’s all. He won’t be able to interfere in today’s business.”

The woman in black just said, “Oh.”

But then, something occurred to the man in Confucian robes. He said playfully, “It’s just a pity about Luan Yunzhong and Qin Suqing. They think they’ll leave Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit’s territory laden with treasure. Little do they know...”

But here, he trailed off. They were transmitting their conversation directly into each other’s ears, but there were still some things that shouldn't be said directly.

The swordswoman in black had a mocking glint in her eyes as she said something seemingly inexplicable. “The Great Qin Empire has occupied a prominent position in the Blue Peak Continent for far too long, but now that Sky Profound Court’s Immeasurable Realm patriarch has fallen, the sect is in decline, and the Great Qin Empire is not what it once was.”

The woman paused, her eyes full of pity. “And this time, they’ll lose a proud daughter of heaven, a young talent with real hope of one day reaching the Immeasurable Realm.”

The man in Confucian robes smiled faintly. “The competition for the Grand Dao has always been cruel. Over the years, Sky Profound Court has offended far too many in the name of protecting the Great Qin Empire. Countless factions would love nothing more than to take a bite out of them.”

As they conversed, the crowd stirred. Their host, Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit, had arrived!

When Su Yi saw the ruler of this inauspicious zone, he couldn’t help but be surprised.

He was a tall, thin, elegant man in robes whiter than snow, and he was handsome, bordering on beautiful. It was hard to think of him as the ruler of an inauspicious zone.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone.” Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit smiled and clasped his fist, the very picture of politeness.

A coarse bellow rang out, “You know you’ve kept us waiting, so cut the crap already!”

A big-boned, valiant man with a ferocious aura rose, then climbed onto the table and glared coldly at Ol’ Devil Golden Spirit. “We can drink the wine later. First, give us the treasures you prepared!”

Silence descended over the hall. Everyone was startled.