Chapter 5372: The Peculiar Response of the Sculpture
The juniors of the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion turned their attention over when they saw Jie Yu arriving together with Chu Feng and Bai Yunqing. Some of them were surprised, but most of them expressed their hostility.
“Miss Sheng’er, I’ve brought the person whom you have requested here,” Jie Yu said.
The juniors of the Ling Clan and the Jie Clan were standing separately. After Jie Yu escorted Chu Feng and Bai Yunqing to Ling Sheng’er’s side, he went to stand together with the other juniors of the Jie Clan.
“This young master over here is Chu Feng?”
Ling Mo’er cast her gaze on Chu Feng. Clearly, she had already heard about Chu Feng.
“Chu Feng, this is my older sister, Ling Mo’er. We’ll be entering the Ancient Palace together,” Ling Sheng’er said.
“Chu Feng pays respect to Miss Ling Mo’er,” Chu Feng politely greeted her.
“It’s my pleasure to meet young master Chu Feng,” Ling Mo’er replied with a courteous smile.
The other juniors of the Ling Clan were perplexed. They couldn’t understand why their two lofty young misses were being so courteous to an outsider, but they dared not to question them.
“Jie Yu, who are they?” someone from the Jie Clan asked.
“They are the guests of our Seven Realms Sacred Mansion. Miss Sheng’er invited Chu Feng to participate in the Ancient Palace in view of his outstanding talents,” Jie Yu said.
“What? How can an outsider be worthy of entering the Ancient Palace together with us?”
The Jie Clan was shocked when they heard those words, but they only voiced their dissatisfaction amongst themselves. None of them dared to step forward to confront Ling Sheng’er.
“Young misses, I have an unreasonable request to make,” Chu Feng said.
“Feel free to speak, young master Chu Feng,” Ling Mo’er replied with a smile.
She seemed a lot more amicable than Ling Sheng’er.
“This is my brother, Bai Yunqing. He’s the disciple of the Totem Dragon Clan’s First Guest Elder. We’re on extremely close terms, so I’m thinking of…”
Before Chu Feng could finish his words, Ling Mo’er had already interjected, “Young master Chu Feng wishes to bring young master Bai together with us?”
“Yes. May I know if it’s possible?” Chu Feng asked.
“Of course it is.” Ling Mo’er nodded.
Bai Yunqing and Chu Feng were delighted to hear that. Jie Yu was also surprised, not expecting Ling Mo’er to accede to such a request.
“That won’t do!” a man from the Jie Clan suddenly spoke up. It was a junior who possessed the strength of a Blue Dragon God-cloak World Spiritist.
“Do I need your permission to invite a friend in?” Ling Sheng’er asked with cold eyes.
The other party was intimidated by Ling Sheng’er, which prompted him to turn his gaze toward Ling Mo’er instead. “Miss Mo’er, you should know that it’s against the rules to allow an outsider into the Ancient Palace.”
The man spoke in a calm tone that suggested that it was a negotiation rather than a criticism.
“I have already spoken to Lord Shuang Yu about this matter. She says that it’s fine as long as the others are fine with it. Do you have any problems with this?” Ling Mo’er replied with equal politeness as if she was willing to negotiate this matter.
Her politeness only emboldened the opposition.
“I have a problem with that! We can’t allow an outsider to enter the forbidden land of our Seven Realms Sacred Mansion!” The man turned to the other juniors of the Jie Clan and asked, “What do the rest of you think?”
“That’s right! We don’t agree too!”
Some juniors agreed with the man. There was only a small number of them, but it brought a frown to Ling Mo’er’s face.
“What are you arguing about here?”
It was then that a few more people descended from the sky. The leader of the group was at Purple Dragon God-cloak whereas the others were at Blue Dragon God-cloak.
Jie Yu sent a voice transmission to Chu Feng and Bai Yunqing, saying, “He’s Jie Zhou.”
“Young master Jie Zhou, you arrived just on time! Miss Mo’er and Miss Sheng’er have invited an outsider into the Ancient Palace.”
A couple of juniors from the Jie Clan immediately stepped forward to explain the situation to Jie Zhou.
Surprisingly, Jie Zhou didn’t react vehemently upon learning about the situation. Instead, he stepped forward with a smile and said, “I am Jie Zhou. It’s a pleasure to meet Brother Chu and Brother Bai.”
Jie Zhou was actually taking the initiative to greet Chu Feng and Bai Yunqing!
Chu Feng returned the greeting too.
Following that, Jie Zhou turned to Ling Mo’er and Ling Sheng’er and said, “Since they are your guests, our Jie Clan have no qualms about this matter.”
The faces of those who had opposed Chu Feng and Bai Yunqing’s entry to the Ancient Palace turned awful, but none of them dared to say a word about it. This showed how much influence Jie Zhou had here.
In truth, there were many people from the Ling Clan who opposed it too, but they didn’t dare to say a word, especially now that the Jie Clan had given in too.
“It looks like the prophesied child isn’t a bad person,” Bai Yunqing told Chu Feng via voice transmission.
He was overjoyed. In truth, he didn’t bear too much expectation about entering the Ancient Palace since he understood the implications here.
“It does look like he’s a good person for the time being,” Chu Feng replied with a smile.
Ling Mo’er and Jie Zhou took out a stone key each and slotted it into the sculpture in front of the Ancient Palace. They twisted their keys, and a brilliant light glowed from the sculpture. Slowly, a formation surfaced and enveloped Jie Zhou and Ling Mo’er.
The sculpture opened its mouth and two containers resembling a teapot flew out and floated toward Jie Zhou and Ling Mo’er. There was a slight difference in their containers—Ling Mo’er’s container was made out of silver, whereas Jie Zhou’s container was made out of gold.
Be it in terms of the material or the luster, Jie Zhou’s container was clearly of a higher quality.
The others stepped forward to do the same.
Ling Sheng’er received a golden container too, but its luster paled in comparison to Jie Zhou’s. However, Chu Feng keenly noticed that there was a disruption in Ling Sheng’er’s aura when she stepped into the formation, though the others didn’t seem to have noticed it.
“That girl intentionally sabotaged her own result, or else she would have received a better container,” Chu Feng said.
“Oh? Why is she doing that?” Eggy asked.
“I don’t know either.”
“Should I try to conceal my ability too?”
“For what? You’re here to teach the juniors of the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion their place. Not only must you not conceal your ability, but you must also actively flaunt it. Worse comes to worst, we’ll just flee from here. You still have your Divine Deer to fall back on, right?” Eggy said.
“All right, I’ll listen to you,” Chu Feng said.
He wanted to conceal his own strength so as to not draw unnecessary attention, but he thought that Eggy’s words made sense too. Thus, he decided to go with her.
Jie Yu entered the formation too and received a copper container. It was a decent result, considering that most people received a mere iron container. Some of them even got an ordinary ceramic container without the slightest luster.
Once the others had received their containers, it was finally Chu Feng’s and Bai Yunqing’s turn. They had the lowest priority here as outsiders, but it didn’t dampen their excitement at all. They knew that the better the containers were, the better the cultivation resources they could store, and they were curious to know what kind of container they could receive.
Boom!
When they stepped into the formation, the sculpture trembled a little. This tremble surprised the crowd, especially Jie Zhou. A sliver of worry flashed across his eyes.
A few moments later, the sculpture opened its mouth and released a silver container, which floated toward Bai Yunqing.
“There’s only one container? Does that mean that Chu Feng is unqualified to enter the Ancient Palace?”
The crowd discussed amongst themselves.
Even Ling Sheng’er and Yao Luo were confused too. It was hard to believe that someone who was talented enough to awaken the Life Crystal as and when he wished would be unqualified to enter the Ancient Palace.
But again, there was no reason for the sculpture to release only one container now when it usually released two at once.
“Heh…”
No one said a word, but contemptuous laughter could be heard from both the Jie Clan and the Ling Clan. They didn’t want Chu Feng to enter the Ancient Palace in the first place, and such an outcome was what they desired.
At the same time, Jie Zhou also breathed a sigh of relief.
Weng!
A blinding light suddenly poured out of the sculpture’s mouth, then a whiff of black aura gushed out. It was a black container.
Despite its unusual appearance, the container looked nigh indestructible. It was hard to tell what material it was made of, and it didn’t have a luster either. However, the black aura shrouding the container hinted that it was a treasure.
Right after the container emerged, the sculpture turned to look at Chu Feng and asked, “What’s your name?”
This sight shocked the crowd. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
“I am Chu Feng,” Chu Feng replied.
Two beams of golden light shot out from the sculpture’s eyes to inscribe something on the black container. Upon closer examination, the inscription formed the words ‘Chu Feng’. Only then did the black container float to Chu Feng’s side.
The crowd was dumbfounded, including Ling Mo’er.
Only Ling Sheng’er and Yao Luo were able to remain relatively calm, but they could hardly conceal their delight too. It was not unheard of for the sculpture to bestow a black container, speak, and inscribe a person’s name on the container, but it had only happened once before.
And that was when Lord Jie Ranqing challenged the Ancient Tower and reached the final floor.
“Young miss, Chu Feng sure is formidable,” Yao Luo said.
“Why else would I invite him?” Ling Sheng’er replied in glee.
In contrast, Jie Zhou no longer looked as amicable as before. As much as he tried to conceal it, he couldn’t hide his awful complexion. His body was also shaking ever so slightly.
