221 Citadel City of the Lofty Sky Reaches

A few days later, Lu Qingyun and his party had followed Gao Tianyou and his group to the Citadel City of the Lofty Sky Reaches.

Throughout the journey, Gao Tianyou had put on a long face and he was in a bad mood; it was because the night raid by the dark celestials had reduced his two hundred strong group to a mere eighty cultivators. At the same time, he had lost half than half of the spirit stones that he was transporting to the main camp.

As Gao Tianyou did not know when the dark celestials would strike soon, he put his plans of getting rid of Lu Qingyun on hold first. It was because he did not want to put the rest of the spirit stones that he was transporting at risk since he needed all the fighters that he could muster to protect his precious cargo.

Lu Qingyun had asked him about the 'secret' that may cost him his life but Gao Tianyou merely said, "I will tell you when we've reached the main camp."

The Citadel City of the Lofty Sky Reaches was the main camp that Gao Tianyou had mentioned and was the converge point of the main expedition force of the four divine realms that were attacking the three dark divine realms.

The last time that Lu Qingyun had seen so many cultivators were during the Heavenly Fragrance Divine Tournament. There were literally thousands of cultivators everywhere in the streets and many of these cultivators were all at least a third realm cultivator.

In additional, there were also many golden celestials in the streets but barely anyone battled an eyelid. It was because there were actually hundreds of golden celestials in the city and dozens of golden celestials were always seen at any point of time.

The group of eighty cultivators immediately made their way toward the inner citadel.

Lu Qingyun took a look around, "So this is where the main camp is."

Gao Tianyou was now smiling to Lu Qingyun, "I will introduce you to my father and the elders."

Lu Qingyun returned a weak smile as he thanked him. He seemed a little less excited now. It was not because he did not want to fight the dark celestials. It was still his ambition to earn a renowned for himself in the fight against the Devil Goddess and the dark celestials but he was less passionate about fighting on the side of Gao Tianyou.

Gao Tianyou had whispered to him, "If you are willing to serve me with your loyalty then I will surely treat you like my trusted follower."

Then he had suddenly dropped a bomb shell on him that caused Lu Qingyun to be really unhappy, "I'm not greedy. I only want Tang Feng. You can have your Qian Qian. Think about it for a few days. This is your chance to prove to me your loyalty. In return, fame and cultivation resources await you."

Lu Qingyun did not expect that Gao Tianyou would be such a person and he was really disappointed that his so call heroic talks were all a front.

He tried to convince himself by saying, "I am not helping Gao Tianyou. I am joining the cause of the good against the dark terror of the Devil Goddess. Now I am on the way to meet my hero the Great Saint Gao Tianshou and I'm finally here. There will be many other heroes as well."

Now as they walked along the streets toward the inner citadel, there was a sudden mocking laughter from the other end.

Lu Qingyun saw that a small group of cultivators had approached them.

There were three golden celestials in the small group of ten.

A golden celestial that was leading this small group was the one that had laughed earlier. In fact, he had walked to Gao Tianshou and said, "My older brother. How are you? What happens to your group of three hundred? It seems that only less than a hundred are left now. I hope that you did not disappoint father this time."

The cultivators in Gao Tianyou group immediately greeted this newcomer, "Second Young Master Gao Xianyou."

Gao Tianyou did not hide his disdain for this brother of his and he said almost unpleasantly, "At least I am fighting hard outside while someone is hiding behind walls."

But Gao Xianyou did not appear to be angry as he laughed jovially. "My brother is indeed humorous." Then he was suddenly looking at Lu Qingyun, Qian Jingjing and Tang Xuefeng. "Weird. You have three more golden celestials with you now."

Gao Tianshou hummed coldly, "I've met them on my way back here. This is Brother Lu Yun, Brother Tang Feng and Maiden Qian Qian. They are interested to join our father's fight against the dark celestials."

Gao Xianyou smirked coldly, "They are not bad looking. Congratulations for finding three more able fighters to join on your side."

Then he smiled toward Lu Qingyun, Qian Jingjing and Tang Xuefeng before saying. "You can always welcome to join my camp."

Gao Tianyou growled unhappily, "I found them first."

Gao Xianyou laughed, "I think you are only interested in the maiden. Isn't it always your practice?"

Gao Tianyou: …

Gao Xianyou smiled coldly, "You are just in time for the banquet tonight. I see you soon enough, my brother."

Gao Tianyou returned a smile, "Watch your steps brother and don't accidentally step into a pit of dung."

Gao Xianyou appeared to be startled and there was an ugly countenance in his face.

Lu Qingyun stole a glance at Tang Xuefeng who pretended to look another way.

He was smiling weakly because this joke was said by Tang Xuefeng to Gao Tianyou and now he was saying it to his second brother Gao Xianyou.

Gao Tianyou began to laugh aloud after Gao Tianyou had disappeared from view.

He turned to say to Lu Qingyun, Tang Xuefeng and Qian Jingjing. "I have arranged for a fitting accommodation for you in the inner citadel. There is a banquet tonight. My father and all the other three divine rulers will be presented. You must definitely attend this banquet. During the banquet, I will make a recommendation for the three of you to my father the patriarch lord."

Lu Qingyun raised his hands in a gesture of thanks, "Thank you, Celestial Gao."

"What Celestial Gao?" Gao Tianyou laughed. "Why so polite? Just call me your Brother Tianyou and I will call you my Brother Yun."

While he was saying that, he was actually looking at Tang Xuefeng but she pretended not to hear him and was looking the other way on purpose.

Even Qian Jingjing was looking at the other way too.

None of them had wanted to address Gao Tianyou as Brother Tianyou.

Although Qian Jingjing looked extremely innocent all the time and appeared to be a maiden that lacked tact but her swordsmanship was actually very good. Her state of divinity with her sword had long reached the Spirit Intent state of divinity and she could sense the slight killing malevolent of anyone near her.

That day, she could clearly sense the killing intentions of Gao Tianyou and his group. It was the sudden appearance of the golden shadow of the Devil Goddess that caused their killing intentions to vanish all of a sudden, hence saving them.

Actually Tang Xuefeng had also sensed their malevolent air and she knew that Gao Tianyou was up to no good.

Soon they had reached the gates of the inner citadel.

Gao Tianyou soon said to Lu Qingyun, "Brother Yun, please wait here for a little while. I will get a personal attendant to show you your resting place later." Then he laughed, "There are many good places in the outer citadel that you may want to have a look first. All the top merchants from all over the Nine Celestial Fraternity is here. Who knows if you may find a profound treasure or two in the profound treasures market or the auction house?"

With that, he had disbanded the rest of the cultivators and he had entered the gates of the inner citadel with his inner circle group.

Qian Jingjing hummed coldly, "Finally they are off our backs. They are like smelly flies."

Lu Qingyun smiled weakly but he had a subtle nod.

When the two maidens saw that he was nodding, they began to chuckle softly.

Tang Xuefeng chuckled softly, "So even our Qingyun cannot stand him too?"

Qian Jingjing inspected her surroundings before she whispered, "Just a few days ago, they are trying to kill us."

Then she turned to smile at Tang Xuefeng, "Because of our great beauty Tang Xuefeng here."

Tang Xuefeng smiled, "But it seems that this Gao Tianyou had a change of plan. Why is that so?"

Qian Jingjing laughed, "Isn't that obvious? It is because they are afraid that they may be attacked on the way here and they need us to be their extra swords."

Then she turned to smile at Lu Qingyun, "Brother Qingyun, what do you think?"

Lu Qingyun said quietly, "This Gao Tianyou is just trying to make use of us to redeem himself later."

Qian Jingjing and Tang Xuefeng gave him a perplexed look, "Oh?"

Lu Qingyun continued, "He had lost such a valuable precious cargo of spirit stones. Great Saint Gao Tianshou may not be too happy with him. However, there is a way to make up for it if he is able to recruit three golden celestials to his side."

He inhaled softly, "And we are the three golden celestials."

Tang Xuefeng frowned softly, "So he is only trying to pretend to be the nice guy by suggesting that he will be kind enough to recommend us to the Great Saint Gao Tianshou. But in actual fact, he is only trying to save his own skin."

Qian Jingjing giggled as she looked at Lu Qingyun, "Brother Qingyun, why are you smart?"

Lu Qingyun returned a weak smile, "It all comes to me when I saw his second brother. It seems that this Gao Tianyou isn't exactly favored by his father as the eldest son or else his second brother won't be behaving in such a manner toward him."

Tang Xuefeng and Qian Jingjing were astonished that Lu Qingyun was able to interpret so much information from the small exchanges that he had observed.

At the same time, they were both frowning secretly to themselves. "So he is just playing dumb when he is with us all the time and pretending not to see our affections for him?"