"You can’t say the Great Xuan has fallen to this state."
While the two were talking, the warships and sailboats from Jiangyin Prefecture began to approach the shore.
A Realm Gate had appeared in Anning County, but they couldn’t immediately locate the Elder Martial Saint of the Dragon Elephant True Sect.
According to Dean Pei Daoran, the Elder Martial Saint had supposedly taken his new personal disciple, Ji Xiu, and returned to his Sect to pursue the Dao of a Qi Cultivation Grandmaster. He was no longer in Jiangyin.
So, the Three Heads of the Prefecture City conferred.
Prefecture Lord Hu Mao used his family connections to report to Cangdu and request that a Martial Saint be dispatched as support.
Meanwhile, Garrison Commander Luo Daocheng personally led the Prefecture Army, mobilized the warships, and arrived alongside Dean Pei Daoran of the Jiangyin Institute. They brought with them the Prefecture Officials and the most outstanding Prefecture Students who were aspiring to take the Prefecture Examination.
Becoming a Prefecture Official and earning a place in the Six Great Xuan Registers certainly granted one superior authority.
But should an incident arise, Martial Artists who held the title of Prefecture Official were required to be the first on the scene.
The Mansion and Institute Students were no exception. Otherwise, their inaction would be counted as demerits come the time of the great examination.
One by one, figures in armor, weapons in hand, disembarked at the docks with vigilant eyes.
From the sailboats marked with the Mansion Courtyard insignia, several imposing figures dressed in fine silks also appeared. They stood on the decks and looked around, most of them frowning, as if they had never been to such a barren place before.
"This kind of remote little county is normally just a name under Jiangyin Prefecture, a place we might not visit once in our entire lives. But after this whole affair..."
"Tsk, tsk."
"...it’s going to become a land saturated with Spiritual Mechanism, to be fought over and snatched up by those Pseudo-Martial Saints and Titled Martial Dao masters who want to establish a True Sect."
Chen Zhi, the legitimate son of Fishery Master Chen Jing and the original favorite to win the Climbing Martial Arts Tower, scanned his surroundings with a sullen expression.
He frowned as he watched the dock laborers, who were keeping a wide berth due to the vast and imposing formation of warships and sailboats.
’Didn’t they say a Realm Gate had opened in this Anning County? That it’s probably been infiltrated for quite some time?’
’So how is it that the county shows no signs of being tainted by the Outer Dao...?’
He murmured to himself.
Behind him.
The other prodigies of the prefecture, each holding the title of Leader, had already walked past him.
Among them, Zhou Tong—the "Little Boxing Saint" from the Three Punch Mountain School and first in the Mansion Courtyard’s combat tournament—glanced back and smiled as he walked by. His fists were wrapped in what looked like iron-sand bandages.
"Some poor backwater?"
"You should know, the one who took first in our Mansion Courtyard’s Climbing Martial Arts Tower for the first time in a Jiazi cycle—someone who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the ennobled Marquis Beicang Xiao Pingnan—is from this very ’Anning County’."
"And... it only took him a little over half a year to do it!"
Both the "Little Boxing Saint" Zhou Tong, first among the five Leaders in combat, and Xuu Nian of the Wood Element, first in Dao Skill, had witnessed the events at the Climbing Martial Arts Tower that day.
Chen Zhi of the Fishing Trade was the teammate they had chosen. But first, he was outdone when the Gao Family’s Son from Dan Mountain entered the Climbing Martial Arts Tower. And right after that came Ji Xiu!
The young man’s presence stretched ninety-nine feet as he ascended to the very top, coming face-to-face with the past sages of the Mansion Courtyard. He was, without a doubt, peerless. To be frank, even Marquis Beicang Xiao Pingnan wasn’t that young when he did it.
So, it naturally caused a massive uproar, and the news spread far and wide.
This was especially true among the prodigies from the Prefecture City who weren’t at the Mansion Courtyard at the time.
"Anning County not being conquered by the Outer Dao isn’t necessarily a bad thing."
"True, ’Purifying Outer Dao’ can earn you great merit and rewards from the Great Xuan. If you perform some monumental service, once you become a Prefecture Official, you could even be granted a Fief, perhaps even a Fiefdom..."
"...but you have to stay alive to see it."
"According to the Archives, has there ever been a Realm Gate upheaval where Martial Artists didn’t suffer grievous casualties? Even Qi Cultivation Grandmasters aren’t exempt, are they?"
"For Mansion and Institute Students like us, who aspire to take the Prefecture Examination, it’s something we can’t avoid even if we wanted to."
Just as Zhou Tong finished speaking.
At his side, a young man with hawk-like eyes and a Dragon Horn Great Bow slung over his back scoffed at his words, his expression growing inexplicably complex.
"Ji Xiu..."
The young man’s name was Lim Yuan. He was the contemporary Chief of the Water and Fire Lodge—one of the "Six Great Mountains" of the Jiangyin School—and also one of the five Leaders of the Mansion Courtyard, the ’Leader’ of archery!
Furthermore, Ji Xiu had previously, first at the Anning County docks and then on the Jiangyin Daoist School Street, successively shattered the archery confidence of the Water and Fire Daoist School’s Lim Jing, as well as the Martial Arts Zen Heart of its Chief, Du Yan.
That Lim Jing was his clan’s younger brother, and he himself—the number one Leader in archery—had personally taught him the art. Moreover, the reputation of the Water and Fire Lodge had been ruthlessly stomped into the ground.
When Lim Yuan had first returned to the Mansion Courtyard and heard the news, he had wanted to test the mettle of this Leader Ji.
But upon receiving the order from the prefecture and arriving in Anning County, he finally learned just how humble the young man’s origins were.
He hesitated for a moment, ’Should I try to get on good terms with Ji Xiu? After all, we’re peers who will represent this generation of ’Jiangyin Prefecture’ in the Prefecture Official Examination.’
’We might even be able to help each other out then. It’s better to squash a feud than to start one...’
But at that moment, an inopportune voice suddenly rang out.
"Hmph. If he hadn’t gotten lucky and won the favor of a Martial Saint and the admiration of the Marquis Daughter, a bumpkin like him would never have been able to turn his life around in a place like this."
Gao Ye wore an arrogant expression. He stood apart from the other Mansion Courtyard Leaders like Zhou Tong and Lim Yuan, letting the sea breeze whip through his hair as he stared at Anning County with a judgmental gaze.
"My Dan Mountain Gao Clan’s Ancestor heard about the Jiangyin Realm Gate and has already petitioned the Duke in Cangdu, intending to suppress this ’Earth Dragon Cave’ and establish a foundation!"
"No matter what Outer Dao lies beyond the Realm Gate, once the layers of Restrictions are in place, all the Spiritual Mechanism here will fall into my grasp, paving my way to becoming a ’Qi Cultivation Grandmaster’!"