Chapter 970 – Top of the Storm

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“Fairy Feng, you wish to arrange this fifth stage Life Destruction baby into Phoenix Hall?” As Lin Ming and Fairy Feng received Phoenix Hall status token, the old man in charge of registration frowned. He suspiciously glanced at Lin Ming. The old man was the First Vice Hall Master of Phoenix Hall, surnamed Sun, with a Divine Lord realm cultivation.

“His foundation is solid enough but his cultivation is simply too low. Unless a Life Destruction martial artist is at the ninth stage, they cannot enter Phoenix Hall.”

“Is that right? I know that although Phoenix Hall has rules stipulating disciples needing to be at the ninth stage of Life Destruction or Divine Transformation realm to join, there are some martial artists from great families that can join during Life Destruction or even the Revolving Core realm. Those with a deep background and proven potential can be made an exception to enter prematurely.”

Fairy Feng’s words exposed Old Man Sun’s tricks. But Old Man Sun was not embarrassed. Instead, he smiled and said, “Yes, you said that one needs to come from a great family and have great potential, but is this boy from some wonderful background?”

Old Man Sun sized up Lin Ming. Lin Ming had just entered the Divine Realm and his true essence still retained the unique characteristics of a lower realm martial artist. One could see that he simply didn’t have an extraordinary origin.

Fairy Feng calmly said, “Lin Ming entered Saint Artifact Pavilion and obtained the approval of the artifact spirit. He even received the Phoenix Blood Spear. Is that enough qualifications to enter?”

“Mm?” The old man’s eyes shone as he heard Fairy Feng’s words. “The Phoenix Blood Spear! So that’s what happened! The one who obtained the number one saint artifact of Saint Artifact Pavilion was this young boy?”

The old man looked over Lin Ming once more, a hint of surprise in his eyes. He thought for a moment. “A martial artist from the lower realms can actually obtain the Phoenix Blood Spear. That’s quite magical. Fairy Feng, you’ve got some good eyesight. You’ve actually managed to pick up a treasure from the garbage dump.”

As he stared at Lin Ming, the old man’s eyes contained a strange and inexplicable meaning. Lin Ming remained silent. He could faintly feel that this old man had a Divine Lord realm cultivation, and perhaps he even surpassed the early Divine Lord realm. But as for what boundary he was truly at, he could not say. This sort of existence was not something he could contend with.

This sort of old monster with such a high cultivation naturally wouldn’t target him because of a top grade saint artifact. But Fairy Feng had mentioned to him that this old man was one of Sage Jiuyang’s people. He naturally had to be more vigilant against him.

“If you obtain the approval of Saint Artifact Pavilion’s artifact spirit, you can indeed enter Phoenix Hall. But, let me get the ugly talk out of the way first. If your future achievements are lacking, then I’ll have no choice but to kick you out. That might be a very big psychological attack on you, so you must consider this clearly before joining,” Old Man Sun slowly sad.

“If I am inferior to others, then senior will not need to drive me out; I will leave myself.”

“Good. Then here is your status token.” Old Man Sun casually tossed a token into Lin Ming’s hand. This was a golden red token with the image of a phoenix carved in the front and with the words ‘Lin Ming Command’. It was the same as the Golden Crow Hall’s token except for some minor differences.

“From this point on, you are a disciple of my Phoenix Hall and must follow my rules and accept my jurisdiction. Private battles are forbidden between disciples of Phoenix Hall. If there are problems that cannot be solved through more amicable means, you can fight. However, you must do so under the watch of a Hall Protector and your fight shall be carried out on the Nirvana Altar. The loser must pay the agreed upon price. As for anyone that dares to break these laws, they will be imprisoned for a thousand years!”

What Old Man Sun said weren’t just the rules of Phoenix Hall, but the rules of the entire Phoenix Cry Palace. But Phoenix Cry Palace had its own strict hierarchies. If a disciple of Firebird Hall or below were to offend their superiors or malign a disciple of Phoenix Hall, they could be directly executed by said disciple and it wouldn’t be considered violating the rules.

Fairy Feng said, “Lin Ming, you will be cultivating here from now on. I will leave you a jade slip that I spent 300 years of my cultivation on. It has a wisp of my incarnation within it. During a period of danger, as long as you crumble this jade slip, my incarnation will appear and my true self will also arrive within three breaths of time. Of course, this is as long as you don’t leave the world of Phoenix Cry Palace. “

Once a martial artist reached a certain boundary, they could form their own incarnation. The strength of this incarnation would depend on just how much of one’s cultivation was poured into it. However, the cultivation used to form the incarnation wasn’t lost; it could be taken back at any time. Only if the incarnation were to be killed, would the cultivation be lost.

“Haha, an incarnation formed from 300 years of cultivation, Fairy Feng, you really have hedged your bets on this Lin Ming. I fear you can only refine 2-3 incarnations like this or it would start affecting your training.

Old Man Sun chuckled. He knew that Fairy Feng giving Lin Ming the incarnation jade slip in front of him was to act as deterrence. She wanted all those who had dark intentions against him to give up.

“Lin Ming, come with me. Today just happens to be the day that I lecture, so come and listen.”

As Old Man Sun spoke, he waved his sleeves and a red light wrapped around Lin Ming. Together, they went directly toward the region of Phoenix Hall. This region was 100,000 miles wide and was one of the largest complexes in Phoenix Cry Palace.

Here, every disciple had their own mansion, and the size and degree of opulence of these palaces far surpassed any royal palace in the world of the mortals. There were pavilions built on lakes, glorious jade temples and palaces, vast gardens, spring baths, and even hunting grounds. There were daily meals specially prepared, and every palace was staffed with mortal maids and servants. These hundreds of people handled all trivial aspects of life and did so meticulously.

Some disciples even had three palaces and six courtyards in their residences with harems filled with 3000 beautiful women. This was truly the life of an emperor.

In fact, within Phoenix Cry Palace, there were a massive amount of people that weren’t Ancient Phoenix clansmen. These people were only ordinary people from the Divine Realm. They were recruited here to work the variety of chores that needed to be done. Most of Phoenix Hall’s maids and servants were these types of people.

In Phoenix Hall, besides the many disciples’ mansions, there was also a great number of smelting trial fields, training arrays, as well as forests that were filled with vicious beasts. These places occupied the majority of the region.

When Lin Ming entered the core area of Phoenix Hall, the disciples were gathered in the lecture hall to listen to the lectures. Phoenix Hall would have Divine Lord realm powerhouses that would pontificate on various topics every day, for several hours at a time. This included the Ancient Phoenix Clan’s cultivation methods, martial skills, Fire Laws, and many other subjects. There were even lectures on the Concept of Time and the Concept of Space.

Today’s lecturer was Old Man Sun.

The lecture began at noon. Old Man Sun turned into a beam of light and brought Lin Ming to the lecture hall.

“Mm? Hall Master Sun brought someone along. Is that a new disciple?” Phoenix Hall only had a few hundred disciples. Divine Transformation martial artists accounted for 90% of them. These people all knew each other, so they were able to instantly recognize a fresh face.

“He’s only at the fifth stage of Life Destruction. Is he a junior from a great noble family?”

“How could that be possible? He’s clearly someone from the lower realms, and it doesn’t seem as if he’s been at the Divine Realm for too long. I wonder why he is accompanying Hall Master Sun. Could he have come to listen to the lecture? But only disciples of Phoenix Hall are allowed in on the lectures.”

As everyone was discussing, Old Man Sun suddenly pressed down his hands and all the disciples immediately quieted down. “Everyone, this is a new disciple to my Phoenix Hall. His name is Lin Ming. In the future, he will be staying at Yang Phoenix Hall!”

Phoenix Hall was in truth comprised of two different halls. One was them Yang Phoenix Hall and one was Yin Phoenix Hall. Yang phoenix and yin phoenix designated male and female phoenixes. Males where yang phoenix and females where yin phoenix. Male disciples stayed at Yang Phoenix Hall and female disciples stayed at Yin Phoenix Hall.

“Mm? So he really is a new disciple of our Phoenix Hall!”

“He’s only at the fifth stage of Life Destruction and he’s also a martial artist from the lower realms. How could he possibly have the qualifications to enter? Could his talent be that extraordinary?”

Old Man Sun’s declaration stunned all the disciples present. Many of them glared at Lin Ming with suspicious eyes. Among them, there were those who had to diligently cultivate and reach the Divine Transformation before they had the chance to enter Phoenix Hall, but Lin Ming was only at the fifth stage of Life Destruction. If the resources available to Lin Ming now were far better than what they had available to them back then, they certainly would feel ill at heart.

“Haha, none of you need suspect Lin Ming’s talent. With the matter of the Phoenix Blood Spear being taken, it’s caused quite the uproar. You should all know that it was taken by Lin Ming, and he also managed to obtain the approval of Saint Artifact Pavilion’s artifact spirit. He naturally has the qualifications to enter my Phoenix Hall.” Old Man Sun casually said.

“What? The one who took the Phoenix Blood Spear was him!?”

“A lower realm martial artist managed to take the Phoenix Blood Spear!”

All of a sudden, the way everyone looked at Lin Ming changed. They never imagined that this ordinary but handsome youth would actually be the new owner of the Phoenix Blood Spear.

“I really cannot understand the judgment of Saint Artifact Pavilion’s artifact spirit. My Phoenix Hall has so many talented senior-apprentice brothers that have tried to take the Phoenix Blood Spear and all of them failed. But now a lower realm martial artist actually managed to do so? I don’t believe that his talent or potential is greater than ours!”

A disciple said, refusal thick in his voice. The method that Saint Artifact Pavilion used to determine a martial artist’s talent and potential was not through a fixed standard. Everything was completely up to the own determination of the artifact spirit. This caused some disciples to feel as if a great injustice befell them. They suspected that the Saint Artifact Pavilion artifact spirit had made an unfair judgment.

“I also use a spear. I never imagined that the top divine weapon of Saint Artifact Pavilion, the Phoenix Blood Spear, would actually fall into the hands of a lower realm martial arts. My six years of hard work have all been for naught….”

A disciple sighed, feeling a bit regretful. This situation was as if an unparalleled beauty had appeared in a sect, and her talent lay at the pinnacle of the world, a junior-apprentice sister whose every aspect was perfect. If anyone was able to double cultivate with her, it would be greatly beneficial to one’s own cultivation, possibly even helping one to break through a bottleneck.

Countless male disciples would pursue her but all of them returned with empty hands, defeated. But later, a common man who just entered the sect would manage to obtain this perfect junior-apprentice sister with unparalleled beauty. How could others not feel envy?

Old Man Sun stood on stage, holding his hands together and allowing the disciples below to speak as they wished. He faintly smiled, not interfering.

As Lin Ming saw this, he could only ruefully smile. This was a truly inexplicable and baffling hatred. This Old Man Sun had 90% intentionally done this. With just a few words, Lin Min was pushed onto the top of the storm.

After half an incense stick of time, the noise gradually died down. Old Man Sun then said, “Alright, Lin Ming, you look for a place to sit down. I will now start my lecture. During my lecture, everyone is forbidden to speak.”

Old Man Sun waved his voluminous sleeve and sent Lin Ming into the crowd. Immediately, the eyes of the several disciples around him focussed on him.