Chapter 773 - Banquet’s Arrival

Light shined through the window and lit up the room. Seated on the bed, Lin Yun slowly opened his eyes with immense sword intent flashing in his pupils. In that split second, his sword intent even shattered the sunlight that peeked into his room. At the moment, only his sword intent was shining in the room.

Sword intent was invisible and it would only reveal itself and its lethality when attacking. It might be invisible, but it could slash apart anything. As for the spiritual sword intent, the use of sword intent would exceed many people’s imagination.

“Is it going to begin?” Lin Yun didn’t leave his room and instead listened to the noisy street. Before, his blood would boil whenever he thought about the Draconic Banquet. Now that it had arrived, he was terrifyingly calm.

After washing up, Lin Yun gathered with everyone in the courtyard. In addition to Situ Yi and the rest, he also saw Zuo Yun who he hadn’t seen for a long time. Zuo Yun didn’t reach the top eight on the Dragon Gate Competition. He also didn’t join other sects in his journey outside of the Great Qin Empire. Unlike Situ Yi and the others, he didn’t have the qualification to participate in the test. In Lin Yun’s eyes, this was a shame.

Zuo Yun was a lot stronger than Feng Ye, so much so that many overlord forces’ core disciples were also inferior to him. But Zuo Yun was calm and said that it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing to be a spectator. Perhaps Zuo Yun had other secrets that allowed him to be inexplicably calm.

“The Draconic Banquet has a total of three rounds. The first round is a points round, the second round is an elimination round, and the third round is a ranking battle.” Pavilion Master Plum explained the rules as he looked at Lin Yun and Feng Ye. “The first round will start today. All the geniuses who got through the test will be divided into ten groups. Each group will number from a thousand to seven hundred and you guys will fight each other. You will gain a wisp of profound amber aura with every victory and you will make it to the second round based on having wisps of profound amber aura. If you exhaust all your profound amber aura, you will be eliminated. You will have to fight continuously in the first round, so the two of you have to be prepared.”

Accumulating points wasn’t comparable to an elimination round. The elimination round required constant effort while the accumulation of points encouraged strategy. One could give up on a battle that was disadvantageous. For instance, one wouldn’t have to battle to the death if they wanted to move to the next round.

“What’s the profound amber aura?” Feng Ye asked.

Pavilion Master Plum smiled, “No one knows exactly what it is. We only roughly know that they’re dragon fortunes, but if you can last till the ranking battle, you will have a chance to refine them. I heard that if you have enough profound amber aura, it will be extremely beneficial to you. But no one knows for sure about the benefits aside from those in the top ten.”

A similar scene appeared in the various sects’ courtyard. The Dragoncloud Ranking only had a hundred quota, and this meant that most of the other geniuses were cannon fodder. But everyone wanted to go as far as they could. Furthermore, it was also possible to make a breakthrough halfway through the battle.

At the center of Dragoncloud City were nine divine dragon statues. Each statue had a spiritual spring that sprayed from its mouth. This was known as the Nine Dragon Lake. The spiritual energy in the lake was unbelievable and no one knew how long it had been there. This was where the Draconic Banquet was held.

There were countless seats around the lake and some spectators had already taken the best seats. When they discovered that the spiritual energy was strongest next to the lake, they rejoiced. A fight also nearly broke out for the seats, but it was fortunate that the Sacred Alliance’s experts kept things in order. So, no one dared to act recklessly.

Getting closer to the participants’ seats, Lin Yun and the rest looked at the Nine Dragon Lake with shock flashing in the depths of their eyes. The scene was breathtaking as the dense spiritual energy enveloped them.

Currently, the nine divine dragon statues radiated with brilliance that made them look sacred and holy. Everyone could sense a powerful dragon aura from the statues if they were careful. It was almost as if these statues weren’t inanimate objects.

“There’s something unusual about the placement of the statues.” Lin Yun glanced at the statues and discovered that their position corresponded with the nine celestial bodies in the sky. He could even feel that there was a mysterious attraction between the statues and the celestial bodies. It seemed as though there were ancient realms hidden in the starry sky.

“There are no stages. Are we going to fight on the lake?” Feng Ye looked around and smiled, “This seems pretty good. The lake doesn’t seem simple and it might be satisfying to fight on it.”

Zuo Yun smiled, “Is it still satisfying if the lake is the same as the river outside the city?”

Feng Ye’s face changed when he heard that and waved his hand, “Of course not.”

While they were chatting among themselves, an ancient dragon roar echoed out in the horizon that caused the sky to change. A storm frantically brewed that made everyone nervous. However, their excitement took over as their hearts beat uncontrollably.

The water in the lake drained as ten ancient stages slowly rose up like giant dragons. These were the Dragonsoaring Stages, the official stage of the Draconic Banquet.

Simultaneously, ten old men descended from the sky. All of them were Heavenly Soul Realm experts, who were at least in the third soul. The ten judges spoke at the same time and announced the rules. The rules were simple and forbid the use of secret treasures and pellets. As for cosmic artifacts and armor, there was no restriction on them. However, the one rule that they had to remember was that they couldn’t continue to attack once the other party admitted defeat.

The first round was rather brutal as every participant had to participate in at least ten rounds, which didn’t leave much time for rest. There was also a possibility that one would have to fight while injured, meaning that the last few rounds would be brutal.

“Look at your Dragoncloud Jade Tokens. The Draconic Banquet will begin after you guys are divided into your groups.” The ten judges spoke at the same time as their voices echoed out.

Lin Yun looked at the jade token on his waist and saw the number ‘7’ appear. This meant that he was in the seventh group. He looked over at Feng Ye and saw that he was placed in the ninth group.

Nanyong Wanyu was placed in the eighth, Zhao Wuji was in the first group, and Yan Long’zi was in the fourth group. The three kings and seven elites were all placed in different groups, which was clearly arranged by the Sacred Alliance’s elders.

“That fellow is also in the seventh group?” Qin Yang’s eyes lit up when he glanced at the number on Lin Yun’s jade token from afar. He clenched his jade token and smiled, “What a coincidence.”

Not long later, everyone separated into different groups. Lin Yun looked at the stage symbolizing the seventh group. Two geniuses in the pinnacle Yang stage jumped onto the stage. One wielded a sword while the other wielded a saber.

The two were evenly matched and they exchanged over a hundred moves before the victor was determined. The one with the saber won the battle and he obtained half of his opponent’s profound amber aura. When the swordsman lost half of his profound amber aura, Lin Yun could keenly sense that the light in his eyes had become dim.

So our own fortune has been fused with the profound amber aura the moment we stepped into the city. It will be a great loss of our future fortune if we lose. Lin Yun was surprised. At the same time, this meant that the benefit would be great if one could win every battle.

After a few boring matches, the top-tiered genius of the seventh group, Qin Yang, had officially walked onto the stage. “The seventh stage’s eighth battle, Qin Yang VS Yuan Liang.”

There was a commotion among the crowd the moment the judge announced the matchup. No one felt that anyone could fight Qin Yang.

Yuan Liang’s eyes flickered as he looked at Qin Yang fearfully. He said, “I…”

He wanted to admit defeat, but Qin Yang wouldn’t give him the chance. A brilliant golden light exploded out on the stage as Yuan Liang was sent flying. Yuan Liang threw up a mouthful of blood as he was tossed to the shore of the lake. His face paled as he was in great pain. He couldn’t utter a single word, but it was clear that he could no longer fight.

“You must be disregarding me since you wanted to admit defeat after being on the stage for that long.” Qin Yang snorted with no compassion in his eyes. His tyrannical attitude left many geniuses in the seventh group nervous.

As the battles continued, Lin Yun turned to look at the other stages since it still wasn’t his turn yet. On the sixth stage, Yang Fan was fighting with a newly risen Yin-Yang stage genius. The battle was intense and ferocious. Even though Yang Fan was an outer ranking genius from the previous Draconic Banquet, he was having difficulty facing his opponent. However, he luckily emerged victorious.

Lin Yun could tell that Yang Fan’s opponent wasn’t any weaker than Yang Fan and that the opponent lacked experience. But when Yang Fan’s opponent lost, he wasn’t depressed and even smiled as he left the stage. That type of drive was great and he would grow stronger as he continued to fight.

If Yang Fan ran into this person again, he would lose. Fang Hanluo, Lin Yun engraved the name of this youth in his mind. He then looked at the eighth stage and saw a familiar figure, Ji Wuye. He was rather straightforward as he suppressed his opponent completely.

Lin Yun swept his glance through the stages and saw many powerful geniuses who had recently come to fame. This meant that many renowned geniuses would be destined to fall in this Draconic Banquet. Lin Yun also noticed that 70% of the geniuses only reached the pinnacle Yang stage. It truly wasn’t easy to reach the Yin-Yang stage.

Among those in the Yin-Yang stage, there were many in the lesser and greater Yin-Yang stage. Then, there were those in the pinnacle Yin-Yang stage, which was extremely rare. As for those in the quasi-Heavenly Soul Realm, they were so rare they were legendary. Aside from those top-tier geniuses who participated in the previous Draconic Banquet, there were practically no others.

This breakdown categorized all of the participating geniuses. The opponents of the top-tier geniuses defeated in a single move. As for those who faced the three kings and seven elites, they admitted defeat before they even stepped onto the stage.

“Seventh group’s twenty-first battle, Lin Yun VS Mo Qi!” A brilliant voice rang out that dragged Lin Yun back to the present. It was finally his turn to fight. His opponent was also a newly risen genius and a swordsman. His cultivation was in the greater Yin-Yang stage and his eyes were blazing with fighting spirits.

“There’s no meaning if a swordsman can’t fight those whose cultivation is higher. I’m just lucky that he isn’t too weak. At his level, he’s barely my opponent.” Mo Qi smiled as he folded his arms together. He was feeling very confident, but it was a shame that his opponent was Lin Yun.

Lin Yun replied, “Consider it my loss if you can draw your sword.”