Chapter 766: Late Arrival
The arrival of the group from the Lian clan had sparked another round of conversations among the many people that were present here. These powers didn’t gather so many people often, as there were few opportunities.
Most of the times such opportunities were during some event or martial gathering and were mostly them fighting and competing. An event like this where they could ‘relax’ and just go out while still meeting others was rather rare.
Additionally, there were some normal disciples accompanying the elders of the sects and kingdom too this time. These were intentionally brought along by the elders so that they may have a chance to learn more about other powers as well as expand the horizons.
Of course, they will not be entering the Millennium forest with them. All the powers knew that it was incredibly risky, especially since they didn’t know who was the true person behind the Millennium forest.
The disciples they had brought along were relatively talented and were their future. If something happened to them in the millennium forest, it would be a great loss they would not want to bear.
Thus instead of bringing them into the forest, they had asked the Ling Kingdom to arrange for a banquet for the disciples so that they may get to know each other while the elders went to the forest.
The Ling kingdom could only accept this request even if it would be rather stressful. Minister Ting was thankful that this responsibility came upon the other ministers and not him.
That was also the reason why the other ministers were not here to help him. They were busy setting up the banquet in the Deer wood city. The aristocratic clans of the Deer Wood city were in a tizzy too as this was possibly the biggest high-profile event they had ever had.
It was even bigger than when the king had visited them once in the past.
Though the Ling kingdom ministers knew that this banquet was nothing but a glorified babysitting arrangement. The elders would go to work while the young played.
Lian Xiaojian also looked around and checked out all the people that were here. He didn’t leave his personal place that much, and could count on one hand the number of times he had even left his clan.
That was also the reason why many people didn’t even know he existed. They knew that there was a first young master of the Lian clan, but they didn’t know who he was or how he looked like.
Rather than him, the other heirs of the Lian clan were more known. Even Lian Li, the sixteenth young master of the Lian clan, who wasn’t that good at business, was still known better than Lian Xiaojian.
Though Lian Li’s talent was even worse than Lian Xiaojian. But it could also be attributed to the fact that he was way younger than Lian Xiaojian, being barely twenty five years old, compared to the overs eighty years old Lian Xiaojian.
In fact, the difference between the two was enough for Lian Li to be Lian Xiaojian’s grandson.
Along with Lian Xiaojian, Kai Li was watching the others here too, while Elder Ruanjian kept to himself and didn’t speak anything.
“May I ask who we are missing?” Lian Xiaojian questioned Minister Ting.
“Ah! That would be the envoy from the Ji clan.” Minister Ting hurriedly replied.
He found it a bit hard to watch Lian Xiaojian while keeping a straight face. The man was simply far too fat to be considered normal. Minister Ting could literally see the indents forming in the ground wherever Lian Xiaojian walked.
“The Ji clan?” Lian Xiaojian was surprised.
He knew that the Ji clan would be attending as well, but was surprised that they were the one to be the last. From what he had heard about the clan, they were very strong and prompt.
“Do we know who is coming from the Ji clan?” Kai Li quickly caught on, a slight smile appearing on her face, her thoughts unknown.
“Um, no… the Ji clan simply informed that they would be sending someone. But didn’t tell us who, or how many would be coming.” Minister Ting replied.
“Oh? That’s unusual of them.” Kai Li muttered.
She too knew the conduct of Ji clan and had even interacted with a few members of the Ji clan before. Even if they were low ranked members, the conduct was rather disciplined.
“Any idea on how long we need to wait for them?” Kai Li asked next.
“They should be here by the end of the day at the very latest. After all, we need to follow the timeline set by the other party.” Minister Ting replied.
“Alright. It’ll be nice to see who the Ji clan sends.” Kai Li stated, and went to talk to the other elders of the different sects and kingdoms.
A few hours passed by and the sun was now about to set. The sky had turned orange and was hiding behind the mountains in the distance. The mountains were very small from the location of the Deer wood city since they were hundreds of kilometer within the millennium forest.
There were a lot of conversations going on between the different powers as the night approached. By now, most had gotten acquainted with each other and the Ling Kingdom’s people had already set up fruits and drinks for them.
Minister Ting looked at the sky in the distance as a wrinkle appeared on his forehead.
“Just how long will the Ji clan take?” He wondered.
The plan was to send the disciples of the various powers to the Deer Wood city at night, while the elders and other envoys would stay here for the morning. They would talk amongst themselves before it was finally time to head in.
But this could only be done when all of them were here. But the Ji clan was still late.
Hours continued to pass by and it was a quarter before midnight.
“Minister Ting, should we let the others proceed? The younger generation has already been taken to Deer wood city.” One of the attendants asked.
Minister Ting rubbed his forehead, and tried to suppress the headache.
“What else can we do… tell them we shall head off now? We can only ask someone to direct the envoy from the Ji clan in later.” Minister Ting replied.
“Alright sir.” The attendant said before going to inform the others.
Hearing that they were going to go ahead without all of them being present, some of the elders were surprised.
“Is the Ji clan really going to be this late?”
“I know, right? I thought they were always very disciplined.”
The elders talked amongst themselves.
A few of the elders were not pleased with it either and felt like they had been humiliated by being made to wait this long.
Which was correct for them since there were some very influential people present here too. There was the patriarch of the Frozen Cloud sect, the envoy from the Long clan, and the young master of the Lian clan.
Any one of them was already enough for everyone to be respectful, and when all three of were here, anyone making trouble was simply being disrespectful. For some powers, this level of disrespect was enough to kill the offending party.
“Honored guests, and elders, I’m afraid we will need to begin our journey without the Ji clan’s envoy.” Minister Ting announced, hoping that this could stop the inflammatory comments.
All this was happening within the territory of the Ling kingdom after all, and any conflict could easily implicate them. For him, it was best if everything was taken diplomatically and was calm and cool.
Even if the conflict didn’t involve them, them being the hosting party would still cause them trouble. It was after all, the duty of the host to see that the guests were amicable towards other guests.
“Alright, that is fine with us.” Junior elder Kai Li stated.
“It is fine with us, too.” Wang Xiong spoke in the stead of his patriarch.
“Okay” The Long clan’s envoy said one word without even opening his eyes.
Some of them were actually surprised that the man from the Long clan had been this calm. Many of them wanted to talk and interact with him, trying to grow their circle, but the man was simply too intimidating.
Wang Xiong had actually tried that already but was ignored right away. Lian Xiaojian was going to do the same, but stopped after seeing the response Wang Xiong got.
~shua~
With the decision made, all the envoys left their tents and soared in to the sky. There was still some distance till which they needed to travel before entering the Millennium forest.
~WHOOSH~
But just as they were about to leave, a strong gust of wind was felt. At first they ignored it as winds were rather normal this time of the year, but they only got stronger.
“Look! There’s someone there.” One of the envoys spoke.
