Fang Yun was thinking by the window when he heard a familiar voice coming from the street outside.
Fang Yun turned his head and saw Lei Yuanting walking out of the entrance of Lingyun Tower. He whispered to a row of private soldiers, "Stand up straight! Ninth Brother is coming, so cheer up! Ninth Brother is in a bad mood today. If you piss him off, watch out for your heads!"
After Lei Yuanting finished speaking, he suddenly reached out and took out the official seal, then quickly took it back and said, "Ninth brother has entered the city, go and greet him quickly!"
Then Lei Yuanting got on the carriage, and the team of private soldiers trotted behind the carriage in an orderly pace, attracting many people's attention.
Fang Yun was curious. Lei Yuanting was the best among the Lei family's side branches. The relative who could be treated so seriously by him was most likely a person from the main family of the Lei family.
Fang Yun couldn't be sure for a moment which ninth brother of the Lei family it was, but he was already certain in his heart that the number one room in the Lingyun Building next door was reserved by Lei Yuanting.
"The people from the main family of the Lei family came to Jingguo with great ambitions. Ninth brother? There are many people ranked ninth in the main family of the Lei family, but when it comes to the young man ranked ninth in the Lei family, everyone will think of Lei Jiu."
Fang Yun couldn't help but think of a habit of the Lei family.
Denglongtai is an ancient land belonging to the dragon clan. It is opened every year, but not every year is suitable for entry. Sometimes it can be entered for several consecutive years, and sometimes it cannot be entered for three to five years. The Lei family has figured out the rules of Denglongtai and specially trained Lei family members for the purpose of climbing Longtai.
The Lei family will select thousands of outstanding disciples from a generation, and then train them together, gradually screening and eliminating them, and finally select one hundred people, rename them from Lei Yi to Lei Bai, and undergo hellish training.
Finally, ten people will be selected from the one hundred as candidate disciples for Denglongtai. Only after they leave Denglongtai or give up entering Denglongtai will they get their original names, otherwise they will always use numerical names.
The next time the Dragon Platform opens, the person who will enter has been decided. It happens to be Lei Jiu.
Lei Jiu is a rare genius in the Lei family. He has been staying at the Jinshi level in order to ascend to the Dragon Platform. Because the Dragon Platform was a place where young dragons were born in ancient times, it was forbidden for overly powerful forces to enter. Originally, it only blocked the power of the Holy Way. But after the ancient times, the Dragon Platform underwent a drastic change, which made it impossible for not only the saints to enter, but also the Hanlin, the demon lords, and more powerful beings to enter.
Others don’t know about the changes in Denglongtai, but Fang Yun, who inherited the ancient demon’s legacy, knows it clearly.
In the early ancient times, the Ancestral Dragon was the greatest and controlled the universe. In the middle ancient times, the Ancestral Dragon disappeared, and the world changed dramatically.
In the late ancient times, the dragon clan declined and the ancient monsters rose. The two clans launched an earth-shattering war, which shattered the dragon world, and Denglongtai became an independent ancient land.
Afterwards, the ancient demons were replaced by the demon barbarians, and the ancient period ended. Then, the ancient period began. After the emergence of humans, a new era was formed.
As for the most distant ancient times, it has become an era that all life in the world cannot touch. The only life that is known to have experienced the ancient times is the ancestor of the dragon race, Zulong.
Denglongtai is not the ancient land closest to Zulong, nor is it the most precious place. But compared with other ancient dragon lands, it is the safest place, so all tribes want to obtain the secrets of the ancient and prehistoric times from it.
The only proof for each tribe to enter Denglongtai is Denglong Stone.
Fang Yun smiled helplessly. The Lei family's Denglong Stone should have belonged to Lei Jiu. But in the end, he lost it to himself.
The Lei family's Dragon Ascending Stone is fundamentally different from ordinary Dragon Ascending Stones. The biggest difference is that it has the aura of a real dragon, and its role in the Dragon Ascending Platform is unimaginable.
There are even great scholars who say that within a hundred years, a semi-saint will appear in the Lei family. After the semi-saint appears in the Lei family, relying on the power of the dragon clan, the number of semi-saints in the Lei family will increase explosively, and they may eventually become the family with the largest number of semi-saints in the human race.
"The Lei family's Dragon Ascension Stone belongs to me this time. It's a small loss for the entire Lei family, but for Lei Jiu, it's equivalent to cutting off his hope of becoming a saint. This kind of hatred is irreconcilable. No wonder he came here in person."
Fang Yun realized the danger of Lei Jiu, closed his eyes and slowly recalled everything about Lei Jiu.
Not long after, the door was pushed open. Fang Yun opened his eyes and saw Qiao Juze and several others standing outside the door.
Fang Yun stood up immediately, and Qiao Juze and eight other people came in one after another.
Fang Yun glanced at the nine top Jinshi candidates and saw two of them had flickering eyes. Fang Yun recognized them. One was from Kang Society and the other was from Liufeng Society. However, the two of them only had slight changes in expression and there was no hatred or hostility in their expressions.
Qiao Juze said helplessly, "I thought there would be no one in the afternoon, so I made the reservation a little late, causing the upper room in the Tianzi No. 1 room to be booked in advance. But the Dizi No. 1 room is not much different, I hope you don't mind."
"I even slept in the woodshed of an inn in the past. Don't mind such trivial matters. Business is more important." Ke Yuan said.
Qiao Juze nodded and said, "Brother Fang, you are familiar with the others. Let me introduce you to this young genius Cui Wang."
Fang Yun looked at Cui Wang, a tall and thin man with a childish face. He smiled shyly and said, "Cui Wang greets Brother Fang. Brother Qiao is flattering me. You must not call yourself a genius in front of Fang Zhenguo, otherwise you will bring shame upon yourself."
"Brother Cui, you are too polite. Brother Cui is the young genius." Fang Yun also bowed in return.
"You two should stop flattering each other and sit down. We won't drink today. I have already ordered food downstairs. We will discuss it after we eat." Qiao Juze said.
As soon as everyone sat down, some cold dishes were brought up, and then hot dishes were served one after another. Everyone had been hungry for a long time, so they started to eat with big mouthfuls.
After dinner, before everyone could discuss the Ten Nations Competition in detail, they heard someone downstairs suddenly say in a thunderous voice: "I hope everyone in Lingyun Tower will give me a favor. Yuanting is hosting distinguished guests recently. The distinguished guests like quietness. Please leave. I will pay for the wine and food, and the store will return double the money to you."
Fang Yun glanced at the people in the room. More than half of them smiled without saying anything, and a few even had sneering expressions on their faces.
Qiao Juze closed the window casually, then glanced at Ke Yuan from Kang Society and Yan Zewei from Liufeng Society, and said, "Don't forget, everyone, this is my Jing Kingdom, and the Imperial Academy is three streets away."
Those two people didn't say anything, and the others didn't refute either.
Not long after, the restaurant owner knocked on the door and came in. After taking just one step, Qiao Juze slowly said, "Manager Jiang, please get out. This matter has nothing to do with you. Don't bring trouble upon yourself."
Shopkeeper Jiang stood there in a daze, looking at everyone's faces. His hands trembled, and he said with a bitter face, "How are you all? I just came to ask if you need anything. Since there is nothing missing, I will take my leave first."
Suddenly, a clear sword sound was heard, and the sharp sword sound spread throughout the Lingyun Tower.
Fang Yun only felt a ringing in his ears, and then wisps of cold air surged around him. The tea that was originally hot to the mouth was freezing at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the soft steamed buns were also slowly hardening.
"A cold dragon pregnant with a sword? As expected of the wealthy Lei family." Fang Yun said.
"Hmph!" Qiao Juze snorted coldly. A calm and peaceful sword sound appeared in the room, dispelling the cold dragon sword sound.
Fang Yun smiled slightly and said, "Brother Qiao seems to be highly valued by the Chen family. I'm afraid your sword-bearing object is also a complete dragon bone."
Qiao Juze shook his head and said, "No, not even the Jinshi of the Chen family can have a complete dragon bone, let alone me. The dragon bone of my sword is missing the head, which is enough for me."
Fang Yun was about to speak when the window suddenly shook violently, and a large amount of white frost appeared in the window cracks. It quickly spread in all directions, and the whole room would be frozen in a hundred breaths at most.
"I'll lend a helping hand to my brother-in-law!" Chen Lile, a Jinshi from Shangshe, gently opened his lips, and an invisible sword sound of talent burst out, slowing down the expansion of the white frost.
The white frost continued to spread.
Fang Yun was certain in his heart that the person who came must be Lei Jiu. Apart from Lei Jiu, the talent and sword sound of the other ninth-ranked people in the Lei family could never surpass the two people from the Chen Sheng family, even if one was the son-in-law of the Chen family and the other was from a side branch.
"The person from the Lei family is no simple person. His talent and sword sound may have reached the second level." Gong Yangyu on the side spoke, and another talent and sword sound appeared.
Fang Yun automatically converted it in his mind. Although Shengyuan Continent did not measure the speed of sound in detail, there was a vague unit called "ming". One ming was the speed of sound, and two ming was twice the speed of sound. The higher the number of mings of the talent sword sound, the higher the realm, and the stronger the verbal battle.
It took the combined efforts of Qiao Juze, Chen Lile and Gong Yangyu to suppress the sound of the Cold Dragon Sword, and the white frost on the wall quickly retreated.
Suddenly someone downstairs said loudly: "I never thought that as soon as I arrived in the capital, Jingguo sent three Jinshi to welcome me. Lei Jiu was flattered."
As soon as the word "Lei Jiu" came out, everyone except Fang Yun changed color, even Qiao Juze couldn't help himself.
Qiao Juze snorted coldly and said, "Brother Lei, you are so arrogant. In the past, when the Grand Secretary came to Lingyun Tower, he didn't even clear one table. You are just a Jinshi, but you dare to drive away the whole room. It's too overbearing!"
Lei Yuanting added: "My old man has come all the way to Jing Country. What's the big deal about clearing out a restaurant? Don't you have the most basic hospitality in Jing Country?"
"The demon is here, do we need to sweep the streets and sprinkle water?"
"Oh? Does your Jing country treat the people of my Jia country like monsters and barbarians?" Lei Yuanting asked loudly.
"It is your Lei family who treats our Jing country students like monsters!" Qiao Juze said loudly.
"you… "
Lei Jiu suddenly interrupted Lei Yuanting and said, "If you can take action, try not to waste your breath. Let's go, I want to meet Jingguo Junyan."
Then Lei Yuanting was heard whispering the names of Qiao Juze and three others.
As Lei Jiu walked, he said in a eloquent voice: "I didn't expect that three of you would come to welcome me. I am overjoyed. I heard that Brother Qiao is a leader in calligraphy, Brother Chen is a master of zither, and Brother Gongyang is a master of poetry. I will discuss zither, calligraphy and poetry with you three. I heard the breathing of seven other people in the room. Since you are here to welcome me, Lei Jiu, then come along."
Everyone then understood that Lei Jiu wanted to use the literary reputation of the top Jinshi of Jing State as a sacrifice to the sword.
Everyone in Room 1 was silent.
The other nine people all looked at Fang Yun, each with a strange look on their face. Some of them even wanted to laugh out loud, but they finally held back.
Lei Yuanting downstairs laughed loudly and said with thunderous tongue: "Why, you dare not speak? I have decided for Lao Jiu, if you come out to greet us and admit your mistakes before we knock on the door, and leave Lingyun Building, this matter will be over. Otherwise, hehe..."
The ten people continued to remain silent. Cui Wang glanced at Fang Yun, smiled, and whispered, "Is it too bad for us not to talk?"
"It's pretty bad, but it's going to keep getting worse. Come, have some tea." Qiao Juze raised the cold tea.
Ten people raised their glasses and drank tea together.
Fang Yun sighed softly. (To be continued...)