The Legend of Futian - Chapter 131

Chapter 131: The Tingfeng Banquet Begins

Ye Futian’s group headed closer to the battle platforms. Just then, a harsh voice shouted, “Ye Futian!” The surrounding area was crowded and in disarray. Because of this, Ye Futian did not notice the members of the Nandou Clan. It was not until he heard the shout that he turned his attention over and saw them. Nandou Ku was among the group. The look in his eyes was ice cold, ready for blood.

WHOOSH! The members of the Nandou Clan did not waste any words and released all types of spells at Ye Futian.

A figure stepped out from beside Ye Futian. With a slight step forward—just one step—the wood sorcery targeted at Ye Futian was destroyed. At the same time, a fearsome force of sword intent filled the air. The temperature dropped and every member of the Nandou Clan was encapsulated by the force. They could not help but shiver at the drop in temperature.

The small area in which they occupied seemed to have been frozen. The members of the clan stared at the figure that appeared in front of Ye Futian. Shock filled their eyes. They could not believe there was such a powerful individual by Ye Futian’s side, protecting him. Did the disappearance of their fellow clan members in Donghai City have something to do with this person?

When Ye Futian had appeared in front of their very eyes just a moment ago, they had no other thoughts but to capture him. But seeing this powerful individual, the clan members seemed to have broken out of their daze. Why had Ye Futian shown up at the Tingfeng Banquet?

“There’s no need for you guys to be in such a rush. I will pay a visit to the Nandou Clan in Donghai City sooner or later.” Ye Futian quickly glanced at the clan members and continued on his way. He did not want to get pulled into this situation with them right now and obviously, Jing Yu could not start a massacre at the Tingfeng Banquet.

Jing Yu and the others moved forward together leaving the members of the Nandou Clan to stand in place, watching Ye Futian as he walked away. No one chased after him. They were all intimidated by the powerful feel Jing Yu gave off.

What on earth was going on? It was true, everyone thought it was odd that Ye Futian had the guts to show up at the Tingfeng Banquet, an imperial event held by the emperor. Jing Yu was strong, but no matter how strong he was, he could not go up against the emperor of the Nandou Nation. Emperor Luo was a cultivator in the Noble Plane. He was the only one in all of the Nandou Nation. The Nandou Clan could not even take care of themselves as of late, so of course, they did not know what had happened in the Cangye Kingdom. To be honest, only the royal Luo family would care about what happened in the neighboring countries. Thus, never in a million years, would the Nandou Clan members guess that Ye Futian came with the emperor of another country.

Many imperial bodyguards appeared to maintain order. They stood around the nine battle platforms. Up ahead, a crowd of powerful cultivators had arrived. Some of the guards cleared the road for them while royals, nobles, and clans stood on the sides to welcome them. From the imperial palace, a group of figures headed their way. The four people at the front of the group seemed to be chatting happily, as if they were the best of friends. The four of them had a certain aura around them. In the blink of an eye, the noisy area quieted down and everyone paid undivided attention to the group approaching. They knew that Emperor Luo was in the group but who were the other three?

The four figures arrived at the platforms and sat down in their own respective seats. Their status seemed to higher than people expected.

“Today is the beginning of the Nandou Nation’s Tingfeng Banquet. I have specially invited the emperors of the Cangye Kingdom, the Yunchu Nation, and the Yan Kingdom to come watch the competitions. We shall enjoy the performances put on by the youths of the Nandou Nation. They are our future and I hope that our younger generation cultivators will not disappoint our three guests from afar,” smiled Emperor Luo as he introduced his fellow emperors.

Immediately, the area was filled with discussion. Besides the one side of the country that was bordered by the sea, the other three sides were joined with bordering countries. Today, the emperors of those three countries had come to attend the Tingfeng Banquet. This year’s Tingfeng Banquet was graced with the presence of four emperors, the four strongest cultivators in the Noble Plane.

Below where the four emperors sat, everyone began to sit down. Beside Emperor Luo, Crown Prince Luo Junlin as well as other princes and princesses had arrived but only Luo Junlin could sit next to the emperor. This was the obvious difference in status among the children of the emperor.

Below the throne were the left and right ministers. Minister Zuo no longer had the same energy in his eyes as he once did. It seemed like he was no longer interested in anything. On the other hand, Minister Hua looked fresh and energetic. Even though things in Donghai City were not a success as planned, to see Minister Zuo fail, was the best thing for him.

Jing Yu, Ye Futian, and the others headed to where Emperor Ye was. As citizens of the Cangye Kingdom, it was only natural that they stayed by the emperor’s side.

The Nandou Clan members kept eyes on Ye Futian. When they saw that not only was Ye Futian not avoiding being seen by Emperor Luo and was even headed in his direction, some of them had already made predictions. They shivered at the thought.

“Isn’t that Ye Futian and Yu Sheng?” Among the large audience, there were some people who came from Donghai City. They froze at the sight of Ye Futian.

Naturally, the people of Donghai Academy also took notice. Yan Shao frowned. What’s going on? His gaze shifted to Emperor Luo and Minister Hua. They did not seem to care at all, as if they already knew Ye Futian would be here.

Zhuo Qing and other students of Donghai Academy were all confused at the sight of Ye Futian. Lin Xiyue had obviously seen him as well. Her beautiful eyes froze on him. She never imagined she would see Ye Futian at the Tingfeng Banquet.

One step at a time, Ye Futian’s group arrived at the very front of the area, right below where Emperor Ye was seated. The members of the Nandou Clan felt their hearts skip a beat. It seemed they finally understood. The reason why Ye Futian dared to show up in the Nandou Nation was because he had royalty backing him. The emperor of the Cangye Kingdom. Those from Donghai Academy looked very interested. Their mouths hung open as they watched Ye Futian take his seat slowly.

Ye Futian went to the Cangye Kingdom?

In a little over a month, Ye Futian had escaped from the Nandou Nation to its rival country, the Cangye Kingdom. Furthermore, he had been recognized for his talents by Emperor Ye. Now, he had returned on the day the Tingfeng Banquet began. However, he was not a participant of the banquet but one of the audience.

Zhuo Qing felt disheartened immediately after seeing Ye Futian. Zhuo Qing was here to participate in the banquet and did not even know if he would even be able to impress with his performance but then, there was Ye Futian. He was already seated by the emperor, though not Emperor Luo.

Yan Shao glanced at Zhuo Qing who was beside him. Then, he turned to another person and said, “Tianhao, that’s the person you’ve always wanted to meet. Full Attribute genius with twin spirits, Ye Futian. Do you think you can defeat him?”

Yun Tianhao stared at Ye Futian. In reality, he had taken notice of Ye Futian very early on. It was because they knew each other, but that was when they were younger. They battled once at Qingzhou Academy. As a top student of Heiyan Academy, Yun Tianhao lost to Ye Futian. After that, Yun Tianhao left Qingzhou City in pursuit of experience and better education. So, at the beginning of this year, he was admitted into Donghai Academy. His arrival shook up the whole school.

Then, he heard of another person who left a deep impression on the students of Donghai Academy. Ye Futian—a name that he kept engraved in his brain.

“I will defeat him,” said Yun Tianhao. Full Attribute and twin spirits? So, this was his true gift.

Seated below Emperor Luo, Minister Zuo first stared at Ye Futian and then at Emperor Ye. He felt disappointed.

After their trip to Qingzhou City together, Minister Zuo showed great interest in Ye Futian. It was not only for himself but for the royal Luo family as well. However, it was impossible to know what the emperor was thinking. The royal family actually got the idea that Minister Zuo wanted to revolt against them. They believed that Ye Futian was fated to become emperor of the country and was a threat to their family. Thus, an imperial order was sent to Donghai City. None of these events could be undone. As for Minister Zuo himself, the emperor lost trust in him because he insisted on rushing to help Ye Futian in Donghai City. If Minister Zuo was Emperor Luo, he would do anything to kill Ye Futian right now. Even if Emperor Ye would get mad and kill a lot of people, it would still be better than the downfall of the royal family. But Emperor Luo would never do that. Although Emperor Luo believed in fate and Minister Zuo’s prophecies, he would not trust them fully. Emperor Luo was very headstrong and believed that as an emperor and a powerful cultivator in the Noble Plane, he could easily change fate.

Obviously, Minister Zuo was not going to attempt to persuade Emperor Luo. He wouldn’t do it even if he could. He was not going to come up with anymore plans for Emperor Luo. Despite this, Minister Zuo knew, he would never be able to leave. Even if the emperor was not going to give him anything to do anymore, he would also never let him go. The reason the emperor has not yet killed Minister Zuo was because he did not have a crime to accuse him of. The minister had recruited and bred many talented officers for Emperor Luo. If he killed Minister Zuo without reason, it would be poorly received by the emperor’s subordinates.

“I heard that the Cangye Kingdom’s Fenghua Banquet ended not too long ago. These should be the ones from the Fenghua Rank, correct?” Emperor Chu of the Yunchu Nation asked with a smile as he looked at Ye Futian and the group.

“They are the top ten. My goddaughter had other business and could not join us,” answered Emperor Ye. He returned a smile.

“In my Yan Kingdom, all those with outstanding gifts and high cultivation have the chance of being recognized by me. Some are even made lords or ministers. It has been like that for generations now. This is a policy that everyone agrees on. My people have the utmost trust in our royal family. To this day, as long as there is a brilliant person, they would make themselves known to me. There is no need for us to hold some boring banquet. I’ve always been curious. Your countries hold these events once every couple of years. Does it actually help to pick out brilliant individuals?” said the emperor of the Yan Kingdom. He looked at the group of people seated below Emperor Ye.

His words also included Emperor Luo who was holding the Tingfeng Banquet, but it did not seem like Emperor Luo minded. He smiled lightly and replied, “Every country has their own way of doing things. What matters is that we all do it for the same reason. I invited you all here today, so we’ll just have to wait and see if some outstanding young cultivators will appear today. And, all of you have brought some younger generation cultivators along. If interested, you can tell them to give it a try as well. I don’t mind,” Emperor Luo continued.

The people that the emperors of the Yunchu Nation and the Yan Kingdom brought along were indeed younger generation cultivators. They were all people their country had high hopes in. They had been brought to attend the Tingfeng Banquet to check out the genius cultivators of other countries.

As of now, the Tingfeng Banquet had not begun. Nobody knew what kinds of outstanding individuals would appear. But Ye Futian and the others had already piqued the interest of the cultivators from the two other foreign countries. From time to time, they would turn their gazes over to the group from the Cangye Kingdom.

Just then, Emperor Luo stood up. To everyone in the large area, he said, “Today is the start of the Tingfeng Banquet. Four emperors have gathered to observe the event. Starting from now the stage is yours. I look forward to all your performances!”

Chapter 132: Tit for Tat

After Emperor Luo spoke, people walked onto the nine battle platforms to organize the matters of the banquet. The Tingfeng Banquet was different from the Fenghua Banquet. The nine battle platforms would have fights at the same time. Because it was only held once per decade, the requirements of the Tingfeng Banquet were looser. Divided by plane, each of the eight planes from the five Glory planes and three Dharma ranks had a battle platform. They could only fight within the plane to find the strongest of each plane.

The center platform was for those of even higher planes. Those under 25 years of age and higher than the Third-level Dharma rank could go there to display their radiance. This way, the age range was ten years from 16 to 25. The Tingfeng Banquet was held once every ten years so all the talents created during that time could have this opportunity. The rules were simple and straightforward. It wasn’t as efficient as the Fenghua Banquet but it was easier to see what level the talents were at.

Ye Futian sat quietly in the stands. He obviously wouldn’t demand anything from Emperor Luo right outside the Nandou Palace. In fact, he hadn’t even looked at Emperor Luo. The emperor and crown prince hadn’t looked at him either. Both parties had forgotten about the Donghai City event in mutual agreement. No one would bring it up. Today was the Tingfeng Banquet and Ye Futian was a guest who had come with Emperor Ye.

Seeing the people walk to and fro, and the endless crowds before the nine battle platforms, Ye Futian realized that the Tingfeng Banquet was on a much larger scale than the Fenghua Banquet. It spanned ten years and he was sure there were many monstrously talented people born in those years. However, this didn’t make him feel anything. Monstrous? So what?

Battles erupted on the platforms and the atmosphere rose instantly. Countless eyes stared at the nine platforms. The young talents’ eyes all burned with competitiveness. They were ready to go up and perform at any time.

“Emperor Ye, how do you think our Tingfeng Banquet is compared to your Fenghua Banquet?” Emperor Luo gazed over at Emperor Ye and smiled while asking.

“It’s much larger and there are more participants; however, the efficiency is too low. The final winner, the pride of the kingdom, might not be comparable to my Fenghua Banquet,” Emperor Ye said, smiling.

“You are confident.” Emperor Luo laughed. “Nandou nation’s Tingfeng Banquet is held once per decade. You think that the talents from a decade can’t be compared to the three years of your kingdom?”

“You must understand that the top talents can’t be discussed with time as the basis. Regardless of Nandou or Cangye, how many years must pass before there is a Noble Plane cultivator?” Emperor Ye said calmly. The emperors of the four nations all nodded at that. Someone of the Noble Plane could become an emperor and was difficult to come by. Those who had a noble talent were too rare. In addition, it wasn’t enough to only have the talent. Too many talents died before they matured. They also needed to have a noble fate.

This type of person had definitely appeared in the four nations’ hundreds of years of history. It wasn’t just one person either. However, the emperors might not be able to discover and use them.

“Emperor Luo, your fate isn’t enough.” Emperor Ye smiled while Emperor Luo’s eyes flashed. There was a hidden meaning behind these words. Since Emperor Ye had adopted Hua Jieyu, this meant he would protect Ye Futian. Naturally, he knew many things.

There was someone with a noble talent had appeared in Nandou—more than one, in fact. Minister Zuo had personally tested his fate. Since he was fated to be emperor, he would definitely have the talent of a noble. It was undeniable that one must be a noble to become emperor. Unfortunately, this person with the aura of an emperor had fallen for Hua Jieyu, the descendant of the former Nandou royalty. Their fates were possibly emperor and empress. This way, even if they had the noble talent, Emperor Luo couldn’t use them for himself or keep them. If Hua Jieyu had agreed to become crown princess, her fate could be used for Luo Junlin but it was just a pity now.

“Oh?” Emperor Luo smiled thinly. “The noble talent is rare but it appears occasionally. Most die during the process of strengthening though. How many can truly become a noble?” There was murderous intent in those words.

“Emperor Luo is right,” Emperor Ye said. “I heard that your crown prince, Luo Junlin, is also believed to have the noble talent, right? I wonder if he’ll have to chance to grow into someone of the Noble Plane.” He smiled. Their conversation was tit-for-tat.

Emperor Luo had said that someone with the noble talent could also die, hinting that he wanted to kill Ye Futian. Emperor Ye had counterattacked. Luo Junlin also had the noble talent. Would he die as well? In actuality, he was warning Emperor Luo, try and harm my people.

Emperor Luo’s lips curled into a sneer sharper than a blade.

Ye Futian naturally overheard their conversation. There were hidden meanings behind their words. He understood that Emperor Ye would protect him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been brought here.

“Are you two speaking in riddles?” the emperor of the Yunchu Nation said. They seemed to be fighting with their words but he didn’t understand.

The nations all paid attention to the important events of their neighbors, such as the Tingfeng Banquet and Fenghua Banquet. They would also know who the most brilliant figures of the Fenghua Banquet were. However, Donghai City was just a small city of Nandou Nation. They wouldn’t pay much attention to it. Especially for emperors, they didn’t have the time to care about that. It was already a feat if they glanced at the names of the talents at the Fenghua Banquet.

In the world of the cultivators, the most important thing for an emperor was just cultivating and becoming stronger. Therefore, the emperor of the Yunchu Nation only slightly understood their conversation. He guessed that it had something to do with the Fenghua Banquet participant who called himself the talent of the Nandou Nation.

“The Yunchu Nation also brought some younger talents this time. There were some very talented people earlier from Cangye Kingdom’s Fenghua Banquet. If there’s a chance, you all can mingle,” Emperor Luo said with a smile.

The Yunchu Nation emperor also smiled. He glanced at the talents of his nation and asked, “Did you hear that?”

They smiled and looked over at Ye Futian and Ye Wuchen’s group. One of them, dressed in glamorous clothing, asked, “I heard some news from the Fenghua Banquet. Apparently, the winner is from the Seven-star Glory Plane. It’s quite interesting.”

“A Seven-star Glory Plane genius who defeated the Dharma rank might really have a superpower,” someone joked.

“Then what kind of Dharma cultivator can be defeated?”

“Apparently he entered the Fenghua Rank too.”

As the Yunchu Nation talents chatted, Yu Jiang and Bai Qiu’s faces darkened. They obviously understood the jabs in those words.

“Naturally, it’s a Dharma cultivator who can defeat you,” a voice said indifferently. Unlike the Yunchu youths who had hidden meanings, he responded straightforwardly. The speaker was Ye Wuchen. He acted just as he fought—he didn’t often make actions but they always hit their mark.

“Really? I hope I’ll have to chance to experience it,” the Yunchu youth said with a smile. He wasn’t angered. As the pride of their kingdoms, they were rivals. Some remarks couldn’t affect his mood.

“I’ll take you all around the Imperial City after today’s event. Now, let us watch quietly,” Crown Prince Luo Junlin said. Many looked over at him. He was popular. He was known as the future emperor of the Nandou Nation at such a young age and no one could move him. One must enter the Noble Plane to become the emperor. Therefore, Luo Junlin was a future Noble cultivator.

“I’m sure today’s Tingfeng Banquet will be boring,” a youth from the Yan Kingdom said. He wasn’t very excited. The Tingfeng Banquet had such a large scale and all the talents would come to battle. Many were just here for fun and to test their skills; they were easily defeated. Occasionally, someone would be eye-catching but it wasn’t enough. Unless the genius talents were chosen today, the current battles were uninteresting to them.

“Really? What do you think about that one?” Luo Junlin smiled and pointed at a battle platform. It was where the Seven-star Glory Plane cultivators were. At the moment, there was a battle. A very young talent stood there, having won many rounds continuously. He was skilled in matrices. He could create one per step and use these arrays to fight without using up any time.

He’d been fighting and continuously defeated strong cultivators from everywhere. No one was his match. In fact, they were defeated instantly. The matrices he carved could collect Spiritual Qi from every element and transform into an impossibly strong spell. The power was horrible.

“I’m afraid no one in the Glory Plane can defeat him,” Minister Hua said. This must be Yun Tianhao, the talent that Yan Shao had told him to keep note of. Yan Shao had said that his life spirit was the matrix. He could use full-elemental Spiritual Qi to carve matrices and had limitless potential. If he had a good teacher, he could wow the world.

Ye Futian also gazed at the battle platform. He was shocked when he saw the youth because he knew him. It was the one Ye Futian had fought with when the Heiyan Academy came to challenge the Qingzhou Academy. He’d used tactics of the Inscriber to defeat others.

Compared to then, Yun Tianhao was much more mature now. He won many more rounds before stopping. His gaze moved to the emperor’s stand. Ye Futian realized that Yun Tianhao was looking at him. It seemed that Yun Tianhao still hadn’t moved on from that fight.

Ye Futian smiled and watched Yun Tianhao walk toward somewhere in the crowd. Following his direction, Ye Futian saw Yan Shao and the strong cultivators of Donghai Academy. He even saw Lin Xiyue, looking at him with her pretty eyes.

The Donghai Academy! Ye Futian’s eyes scanned Yan Shao and they flashed coldly. The place he had once cultivated at was very memorable.