Chapter 843 – Little Boy
To one side, Yu Xiaoxing's beautiful eyes were filled with shock.
Apparently, she, too, did not expect Heaven Connect City's martial culture to have become developed to such a refined level. The sight of so many warships and airships, as packed as locust swarms, easily caused one to imagine that wherever they passed would be swept barren.
When the two exchanged glances, they saw the shock and heaviness in each other's eyes.
This was the first time they truly realized the might and monstrosity of the Alliance of Domains.
The airship was moving ever closer to the congress divine temple.
Less than five minutes later.
As the airship slowly approached the eighteenth airport of the divine temple, it issued a signal to request landing.
As the saying goes, a mountain in the horizon always appears closer than it actually takes to reach. It took the airship a full thirty minutes to navigate its way to and berth at the airport, seven kilometers above ground.
A divine temple guard was already waiting on the path next to the airport.
"Welcome to the congress divine temple of the Alliance of Domains. Please follow me, you two." After speaking tersely with an indifferent expression on his face, he led Yu Xiaoxing and Ye Qingyu to ride on a formation vehicle, which was unique to the Alliance of Domains, toward the temple waiting area of this level.
The two were led to a side hall which was not far from the eighteenth airport.
This side hall was a fair distance away from the main hall. Via several portal formations, the journey would take at most fifteen minutes and would entirely not be done on foot.
This place was specially designated as a resting area.
The duo was arranged seats in the lobby.
Made of a peculiar type of red rock and finely embellished by lapis stones, the walls of the lobby looked distinct and magnificent. Apart from stone tables and chairs which were uniformly-colored, semi-partitioned, and neatly-arranged, there was not much else lying about. Sitting on nearly every seat were figures of diverse appearances who came in small groups and seemed to be waiting for something.
"Please wait here, the two of you. This is your queue nameplate…" The guard handed a hexagonal token with a number mark to Ye Qingyu. "Please do not casually move about or leave the side hall."
The duo gently nodded their heads.
After everything was well-arranged, the guard turned and left.
A long waiting time would ensue.
Observing their surroundings, the duo realized that there were many representatives, some of whom were humans, around.
At present, everyone was holding on to a queue nameplate while quietly waiting.
"Seems that it isn't just the Heaven Wasteland Domain that's waiting here today… Could all these people also be preparing to enter the main hall? And this is just one of many side halls. By my calculations, there might be tens of thousands waiting to enter the main hall for today alone… This… Could the Alliance of Domains have specially convened a meeting for the grading of the Heaven Wasteland Domain?"
Ye Qingyu was somewhat puzzled.
While taking note of the people and buildings around, Yu Xiaoxing was also pondering to herself. An astonished look appeared over her fair and exquisite visage, suggesting that she had similar thoughts to Ye Qingyu.
It's kind of unbelievable that within a side hall are already so many waiting representatives from various domains and forces. How many people can the congress divine temple actually accommodate?
Yet, the only thing we can do now is to wait here quietly, according to the guard's instructions.
However, waiting was a very heart-sapping activity.
Time ticked by.
Four hours passed.
As the numbers kept on progressing, people from the same side hall as Ye Qingyu began to be requested to enter the main hall. However, based on their queue number, their turn was still a long time away and certainly would not be within the next four hours.
This speed, or lack thereof, caused Ye Qingyu to grow rather impatient.
He thus began using the time to silently operate the nameless breathing technique to cultivate his own body while sitting where he was.
Another two hours passed.
Unwittingly, it was already afternoon.
There were still many representatives waiting in the side hall.
No messenger had to come to call out the duo's number.
However, they did not reveal their impatience outwardly and simply sat down waiting quietly, for they knew that nothing they did would be of use.
Over this morning time, they had already attracted the attention of others. Many representatives of other forces seemed to have vaguely recognized their identities. After all, as rarely-seen yet prominent characters, they were extremely conspicuous even amongst a huge crowd.
Quite a number of curious eyes were furtively noticing them.
There were fingers pointing their way and several indistinct whispers.
"Look, doesn't that white-clothed and black-haired young human look familiar? Isn't he that Demon King Ye who's rumored to have scared the crap out of the Black Moon Immortal Palace? He looks very alike those formation drawings!"
"No doubt, it's that Demon King Ye who single-handedly provoked the Black Moon Immortal Palace and shocked the Road of Chaos. Hmm, that beautiful and noble girl beside him should be the legendary Heaven Wasteland Empress."
"Yes, I think so too. I've heard that the grading of the Heaven Wasteland Domain will take place within these two days… They're indeed characters of the moment and possess extraordinary temperament. This Demon King Ye quite clearly possesses some of [Quasi-emperor Xiaofei's] bearing, and indeed appears capable of single-handedly confronting the entire Black Moon Immortal Palace."
"Haha, no wonder the pearl of the Phoenix Race and the Little Princess of the Black Demon Race would protect him. Such a handsome thing would surely attract lots of female attention."
All kinds of whispered discussions were heard in the area.
After some further time, several representatives from other forces began to walk in succession toward the duo's position. Most of them were human representatives and greeted the duo genially, with their words also expressing goodwill. Their intentions were apparently to establish relations.
Yu Xiaoxing received them with great propriety.
Since young, she had been groomed as a successor of the Heaven Wasteland imperial family, and thus her manners were of the highest standards. Furthermore, she had braved a few trials by now and received a number of Heaven Connect City forces over the past few days, and so she took to this like a duck to water.
To one side, Ye Qingyu had his eyes closed as he dozed away all his time, not acknowledging a single person.
This sort of behavior was in keeping with his image as Demon King Ye, and so nobody thought too much about it.
Yet another hour or so passed.
There were some strange movements among the crowd in the waiting area.
A few odd-looking and burly-figured representatives, whose facial features and hair bore some features of either the Demon Race or the Brute Race, took out a few animals they had brought along in their personal storage spaces. From the looks of it, they were about to have their meals in this side hall.
Evidently, they were frequenters here and, being more familiar with the environment and tempo of waiting for the Alliance's congress, had made adequate preparations,
At this time, the side hall became rather boisterous.
As if knowing that death was near, those wildly-hopping fowls, and wild pigs and cows which were even bigger and stronger than humans, made whining noises. However, those Demon Race and Brute Race beings, whose one arm were comparable to a human expert in size, were already accustomed to this.
They grabbed the live poultry and beasts and snapped the bodies into pieces, causing fresh blood to splatter on their own clothes. Not minding this, they gobbled down their food.
Although many humans on scene smelt the blood and felt revolted, nobody revealed a shocked expression.
After all, these foreign race representatives were not necessarily evil beings, and instead were simply used to their barbaric lifestyles. Then again, their battle strength was not to be underestimated, for anyone who could appear here was certainly not ordinary.
It was profoundly unpleasant for such a barbaric scene to suddenly appear in an environment like this which exuded so much refinement, such that even Ye Qingyu could not refrain from taking a few more looks.
Perhaps because it was lunchtime, the surrounding atmosphere had become noisy.
Just then, a soft voice was heard not far away.
"Mama… I'm hungry."
It was spoken in a tone of utmost forbearance, which yet contained a hint of grievance and uneasiness.
Logically speaking, this babyish voice should be drowned out by the din of the crowd, yet for some reason, Ye Qingyu heard it clearly during that moment.
Also, for some reason, the strings of his heart were heavily tugged by this voice.
He could not help opening his eyes and turning his head to look in the direction of the voice's source.
Behind a stone pillar five meters or so away from the duo, cuddling together was an isolated- and terrified-looking mother and her three- or four-year-old son who had spoken those words.
Looking in her twenties, the mother wore an aqua-colored brocade long dress and had her hair tied in a simple bun with only a plain wooden hairpin. Her willowy brows, pearl-like eyes, and jade-like skin gave her a pretty and gentle look, while there were shades of nobility in her temperament. However, her expression appeared rather haggard and exhausted, and her dress was an odd match for her temperament.
Snuggling tightly in her arms was a young boy who had a refined look with his short and curled black hair, large limpid eyes, slightly-flushed cheeks, and fair skin. One could tell with a glance that this cute little child was from a rich and powerful family.
At his age, he should be lively and carefree, yet for the moment, he had become rather weak due to hunger and exhaustion.
