He washed, changed into clean clothes, burnt last night’s clothes, and doublechecked that there were no tell-tale signs of guilt. Only then did Mo Tianliao cheerfully follow Master out the gate.
The conference would be held in Liuyun Sect’s largest square, a tall quadrangular stadium stood there, one side reserved for each of the three major sects, while the other side was for the remaining minor sects. In the centre was a wide martial arts arena, it was separated into various floating platforms in the shape of drifting clouds around a moon.
The square stadium was made of white jade, there were seats and low tables, there were also fresh fruits and good wine.
The people of Qingyun Sect, all still wearing cyan coloured clothing, had arrived early, and were sitting bolt upright. As the hosts, Liuyun Sect had, of course, arrived in a neat and organized fashion, all the Elders and Peak Masters in a row, except for the Sect Leader and the Elder in charge of Yushan, who had not come.
Xuanji leaped onto the stands unhurriedly and sat on his seat with his head down, not saying a word. Hua Qing was dressed exceptionally brightly today, his colourful clothes shone in the sun, sparkling enough to cause observers to feel dizzy. Yu Li held a small jar full of water, crouching beside Xuanji, and soaking his hands in it.
Zi Mo and Bai Luo had gone to visit each of the sects bearing gifts. Some people from Qingyun Sect came and handed gifts to Hua Qing, when they saw Yu Li soaking his hands in water, they were curious and one asked, “What is fellow cultivator Yu doing?”
“Training,” Yu Li said, looking at him innocently. “As a… pure water cultivator, I don’t like to be separated from water for even a short period of time.”
They all gasped in admiration. It was no wonder that although the Woyun Sect had few people, it could be among the top three. It was because of this attitude of training anytime and anywhere that everyone there was so strong.
Xuanji gave each person a gift consisting of a coil of hemp rope and waved them away.
“Why haven’t we seen Qingtong Zhenren?” Someone from Liuyun Sect asked nosily, they had heard that something had happened last night and the Elders had told them to pay attention to the people from the various sects.
Just then, there was a bright white light across the horizon. Long snow-coloured mermaid silk robes fluttered in the wind, they had a train that was about one zhang long, it sparkled brightly, emanating light.
Because this was a grand occasion, Qingtong wore particularly gorgeous clothes. Although they were still white, the edges were embroidered with light blue cloud patterns, intricate and beautiful. The glittering mermaid silk produced a colourful halo under the sun. Some of his long black hair was tied up, bound with a jade crown and held in place with a translucent Liuli hairpin.
The peach tree is young and elegant; brilliant are its flowers. This young child goes home, bringing good to home and family. The lotus is white and pristine, this glittering bloom, can only be admired from afar, it cannot be defiled by frivolous touches.
Ordinarily, beauties brought joy to people’s hearts and attracted their eyes, but Qingtong, looking like he did, made people want to avert their eyes all the time, as if to look too much would be to blaspheme against him.
Mo Tianliao was very satisfied with everyone’s awe. This was his baby, no one else was allowed to look at him!
Gently flicking his sleeves, Qingtong casually took a seat. All the people who were talking on the Woyun Sect seats suddenly became quiet, bowed their heads and saluted. Mo Tianliao dragged a stool to sit next to Master, and the big tiger lay at his feet and made himself into a foot cushion.
Qingtong ignored everyone else and took a sip of the tea handed by Mo Tianliao. Yu Li took his water jar and hid to one side. Hua Qing also stood as far away from shishu as possible.
The other people could sense the atmosphere and left, Zi Mo and Bai Luo who had gone to distribute the gifts also came back.
A little while later, the central platform in the cloud pattern rose with a bang, bells and drums sounded. A powerful aura spread all over, and the Sect Leader of Liuyun Sect suddenly appeared in the centre of the platform. He smiled and said in a clear voice, “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for waiting!”
Although Liu Mang Zhenren laughed, he did not look good. Mo Tianliao raised his eyebrows, half of the sect’s closely guarded treasure had been lost, no matter how he tried, it would be impossible to completely disguise how upset he must feel.
The Wenyu fruit budded once every 30 years, took 30 years to bloom, 30 years to bear fruit, and another 30 years to ripen, to sum up, it would take a full 120 years to get a tree full of fruit. How could the people of Liuyun Sect not feel distressed?
The ten Peak Masters of Liuyun Sect sat down in a row.
Elder Ding, as an extremely qualified master craftsman, sat in a position second only to the Sect Leader. His eldest son Ding Zijin stood behind him looking at Ding Ziyu sitting on the last Peak Master seat.
Ding Ziyu looked exquisite, his eyebrows and eyes looked like those of his late mother, the furnace; they had a sort of coquettish charm. Today, his face was ashen, no trace of the high spirits he had previously as a recently appointed Peak Master.
Ding Zijin mentally scoffed, the array he had set up was just half-baked, yet because he had claimed that it was Lord Duantian’s Treasure Defending Great Array, the Sect Leader had felt at ease and let him set it up. Well, something went wrong did it not? The Sect Leader must have punished him severely this morning for his face to look this bad.
“Thank you for coming, we gather here at Liuyun Sect today for the start of the Three Sect Conference. As we all know, since the ancient Great War between gods and demons, the three major sects…” Liu Mang Zhenren talked confidently on the stage, a story that covered the time since the ancient Great War to today.
At the time, the Great War had caused the destruction of many sects, it also brought about a great change in the ambient qi. In order to survive in the harsh circumstances of the time, several of the surviving sects had formed the Sect Alliance, the predecessor of the Three Sect Conference. Every once in a while, all sects would gather together, to exchange ideas, learn from each other, and discuss any major issues together.
The impassioned speech caused many of the Juniors who heard it to boil with righteousness. Qingtong rested his pale, jade-like hand against his lips and yawned.
“Sleepy?” Mo Tianliao took the hand and played with it.
“Mm-hm.” Qingtong turned to look at him, he had not slept much last night. Listening to Liu Mang Zhenren’s endless prattling made him sleepy. Because of his yawning, those cold and beautiful eyes were covered with a fine layer of water, when he looked at Mo Tianliao, he unintentionally looked a bit aggrieved.
That look was giving him ideas, Mo Tianliao clenched his fists until blue veins were visible on his skin, only by doing this could he resist the temptation to take Qingtong into his arms and feel him up.
“The main purpose of this conference is still to exchange ideas and learn from each other. Of course, there is also another important matter.” Liu Mang Zhenren deliberately paused and touched his beard, then he said, rather arrogantly, “Three hundred years ago, Lord Duantian fell, leaving behind a Mo Palace which no one could enter…”
Mo Tianliao, who was focusing on cajoling his cat, was stunned, he immediately perked up his ears. Why did he mention his Mo Palace?
It turned out that although the Mo Palace’s great array was deactivated from the inside, letting in countless cultivators to besiege and kill Duantian, once he had left the Mo Palace, the great array had activated itself again. Although it had been damaged, its power was still something to be reckoned with, and the whole Mo Palace was also covered in arrays on the inside. Given Duantian’s obsession with the Way of the array, virtually every step was covered in barriers, even the toilet inside the water closet had a transportation array. It was easy to imagine why most of the people who rushed in to explore the Mo Palace’s secrets would not live to tell the tale.
During the Battle of Absolute Death Valley, the cultivation world suffered heavy casualties. In order for the sects to avoid losing even more of their best people, the demonic sects and the righteous sects had joined forces and set up a barrier to protect Duantian’s Mo Palace, only those with tokens could enter.
“Speaking of, that was your idea.” Xuanji turned to look at the drowsy Qingtong.
Mo Tianliao looked at his Master with starry eyes.
Qingtong glared at Xuanji, snorted, and stayed silent.
Mo Tianliao pressed his lips and swallowed his laughter. He had not expected that his cat would be a guard cat. However, this was not the demonic cultivator’s style. “Why did the people of the demonic path agree?”
“I heard that it was because the Supreme Demonic Lord came forward himself to divide Lord Duantian’s power, he left only the Mo Palace, saying that the dead were already gone and they should not go too far,” The chatty Zi Mo chimed in enthusiastically.
Ming Yan? Mo Tianliao frowned slightly. To be honest, he did not have much contact with Ming Yan over the years, the man was so powerful that he did not have any need for the magical treasures crafted by Duantian, and was a complete recluse besides.
The Supreme Demonic Lord was often responsible for mediating conflicts between various factions and for maintaining the balance between the righteous and demonic paths. Lord Ming Yan rarely made any moves, the demonic path had always been in a very disorderly state, Mo Tianliao had never thought that this man would fight for him after his death.
Qingtong looked down, thinking about who knew what.
Mo Tianliao took his hand and whispered in his ear, “So, our things are still there?”
“That’s hard to say.” Qingtong glanced at him. Although supposedly most people were not allowed to approach, all the sects had tokens, and people knowledgeable in arrays were often sent to the Mo Palace for research purposes. It may be possible that someone had been able to break the array and got some things.
On the stage, Liu Mang Zhenren was still fervently blathering. In recent years, various sects had often sent array masters to study the place, but there had been no results. However, this year, a breakthrough had finally been made. Once he said this, he waved to Ding Ziyu. “This is our sect’s newly promoted Peak Master; he has deciphered the great array.”
When Ding Ziyu saw the Sect Leader’s summons, he immediately walked over. He stood beside Liu Mang Zhenren, raising his hands to salute.
Mo Tianliao’s pupils suddenly contracted, on Ding Ziyu’s raised arm was a wrist-guard embedded with precious blue gems, shining under the sun. It was his storage bracelet, the one that was a pair with Qingtong’s!
Unedited, please point out any mistakes
Thank you for the ko-fi, anon