308 Competing for Assembly Seats

According to the original schedule, the City Lord's birthday banquet would have lasted for seven days.

The important figures from the various factions would only attend the first two days. To the juniors, these two days were of extreme importance as it was a stage for them to showcase their skills.

The elites from various large factions were all extremely proud. How could they not flaunt their strength with all of them gathered together?

Under normal circumstances, the demonstrations during the birthday banquet were perfunctory, and there wouldn’t be any real fights on stage. It was just for people to show off their specialty skills as a performance to excite the banquet's atmosphere.

Originally, many of the juniors had prepared their performances, such as sparring, swordplay, etc, and they were eager to get into action, hoping to shine during the banquet and win rewards. But they never expected that the mighty figures all entered a negotiation room on the first day. They did not come out even after six hours.

What is the meaning of this?

Many of the juniors were dumbfounded. The food was already cold, yet not a single soul of that negotiation group was seen.

It was only until midnight that the large door to the side chamber opened.

The mighty figures from the various large factions filed out of the side chamber.

Leading the way was the Tai Ah Divine City's City Lord. He still wore his green gown and he gave off a breezy feeling with his faint smile on his face.

But the sharper people knew that something was amiss. There was a feeling of confrontation amongst the important figures.

Each party from the various factions was seated according to their respective statures. The atmosphere seemed to turn cold.

The middle-aged scholar stood up and raised a glass of wine, "It is my honor that everyone is here to participate in my birthday banquet. Due to a sudden turn of events today, I have neglected all of you. Please forgive me for being a bad host. Seeing that the Sun has set, please feel free to eat. The banquet will temporarily cease tomorrow and it will be held seven days later. This Splendid Room is a bit too small, thus the venue will bethe arena! It is much roomier there!"

The City Lord gave a simple opening speech, which seemed like pleasantries, but all the young elites from the various factions were shocked.

The birthday banquet would be held seven days later? This birthday banquet could still be pushed back?

And, this Splendid Room is small...This Splendid Room was hundreds of feet in radius and it could accommodate more than 1000 people easily, how could it be small? And the middle-aged scholar's mentioning of switching to the arena made many juniors present feel a surge of sharpness.

The legendary figures from the various factions did not speak a single word but they clearly silently accepted it. This birthday banquet's atmosphere was sullen as the juniors present felt the solemn atmosphere.

An elite youth from a small faction had specially prepared a swordplay show. After everyone was eating silently for 15 minutes, he could not endure it any further and jumped out, announcing that he was going to provide some entertainment for the birthday banquet.

The legendary figures from the various large factions lacked any interest. Seeing their elders sullen faces, none of the juniors had the mood to cheer, what more, jumping out to spar with the youth.

Due to the awkward atmosphere, the youth decided to stop demonstrating his swordplay in the end.

As a result, no other junior came forward to get snubbed.

The first day's birthday banquet ended in such a depressing atmosphere.

After the birthday banquet ended, there was a meeting of the Tai Ah Divine City Elders.

Jian Ge, Cang Yan, Grandmaster Yuehua and other divine city Elders were looking at the City Lord.

"How is the situation?"

The Elders did not enter the side chamber for the negotiations, so they did not know the results of the negotiations. They only noticed that the birthday banquet's atmosphere was heavy, so they guessed that the result was not optimistic.

"We did not manage to come to a consensus. The main problem is the commanding rights..."

The middle-aged scholar shook his head gently. With so many countries in an alliance, there was indeed a need for a commander to unite them. If they were not united and fought their own battles, then the battle situation would be terrible. One had to know that it was the Shepherd Boy leading the beast horde, and it was a horde that did not fear death.

The final result of a group of timid and disunited troops against a monolithic beast horde was obvious.

On the battlefield, there would be inevitable results of narrow escapes or even everyone dying on the battlefield. As such, whoever had the right of command was able to save their own strength to a certain extent.

No one wanted to be cannon fodder.

"The Seven Star Pagoda Owner wants to be the alliance leader, but I refused. The ten countries from the south wanted more benefits, which I naturally did not agree to. The final condition set forth by the Seven Star Pagoda Owner was to set up an Elder League during the war, and in the form of a legislative assembly, fight for the commanding rights. And exactly how many seats every faction would receive would depend on each country's strength."

"Strength?" Jian Ge frowned. In the world of warriors, strength was king. The bigger one's fist was, the greater one's voice was. This was not to be disputed, but how was one to compete in strength?

"Our strength is on par with the Yun Long Divine Kingdom's!" Cang Yan said.

"Yes, in terms of national power, we are almost the same. Besides, there is no way to compare national power. We cannot gather the sages and peak Human Lords from every country to fight a match. Therefore, we will compete with the strength of our juniors. Their Yun Long 72 Pagodas is not much different from our Tai Ah Divine City. It too gathers all the best juniors of the Yun Long Divine Kingdom."

"If the Yun Long 72 Pagodas is compared with the Tai Ah Divine City, we can indeed see whose juniors are stronger. A generation of juniors is the future of a Divine Kingdom. This form of competition isn't unreasonable."

"The Yun Long 72 Pagodas against the Tai Ah Divine City? City Lord, you agreed to it?"

"Yes!" The middle-aged scholar nodded.

"This..." Cang Yan was worried. "The geniuses of the Tai Ah Divine City are different every year. The last batch that just left the Tai Ah Divine City was filled with experts. Anyone chosen from Qin Haotian, Li Xiao and the Qiao brothers could fight one against ten, but now with them gone, the new crop has yet to come in to replace the old. Who do we choose?"

This rule was clearly disadvantageous against the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom. Cang Yan knew that the Yun Long Divine Kingdom had come prepared. It was likely that this batch in the Yun Long 72 Pagodas was much stronger than previous years.

For them to go against the Yun Long 72 Pagodas' strong phase while their Tai Ah Divine City was in the weak phase, the outcome was obvious.

The middle-aged scholar said, "You are right. The Seven Star Pagoda Owner knew this and purposely made this request. He is clearly very confident of this Yun Long Divine Kingdom generation."

"As for the ten countries in the south, they have agreed. They have added on a condition for them to have three additional Elder seats. They seem to be very proud of their countries' younger generation." The middle-aged scholar said as the Elders' minds were shrouded in gloom.

They knew that it was a necessary concession for the middle-aged scholar had to agree on.

As the Shepherd Boy had appeared at the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom's borders, the ten countries in the south and the Yun Long Divine Kingdom were still a distance away. If a beast horde were to happen, the first one to suffer was the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom.

They could watch on the sidelines as the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom fought against the beast horde first.

Although as the saying goes "when the lips are lost, the teeth will be exposed to the cold", the ten countries in the south and the Yun Long Divine Kingdom would only feel "cold", while the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom would be "lost". The difference was great.

"What are the exact rules? We can't be fighting without anything to reap?" An Elder dressed in a purple shirt said worriedly.

"No, if the younger participants do a good job, we will also win seats, just fewer in numbers."

"And for making it fair, if the difference in ages is too great, then the older one will have to suppress their cultivation level. Even so, the older one would still hold an advantage. As suppressing one's cultivation level is extremely limited. It is just for show as the insight into laws and Aspect Totems will not be suppressed."

"The number of seats in the end will be decided according to the overall performance. In the end, just being first will obtain a once-off 10 seats."

The middle-aged scholar simply introduced the rules. Cang Yan was extremely pissed hearing this as these rules were beneficial to the Yun Long Divine Kingdom.

The current Tai Ah Divine City's achilles' heel was that it lacked strong young adult cultivators.

They were not lacking in teenager experts.

But under these rules, it was impossible for a thirteen-fourteen year-old teenager to beat a seventeen-eighteen year-old young adult.

Hence, the final grand prize would have to be given up.

"Jian Ge, you have been the one in charge of the Tai Ah Divine City these days. Make a list of participants." The middle-aged scholar ordered. "You should know who is most suitable to compete."

The participant list not only needed to take into consideration the Earth roll ranking, but also the age. Even the sixth year cultivators, who were ranked in the top 30 of the Earth roll, could not compete as they were too weak.

But as for Wen Yu and Lu Jie, these rookie experts who were only ranked 3000-4000 on the Earth roll could take part in the competition.

Jian Ge said, "Yi Yun, Chu Xiaoran and Qiuniu are all the best experts. With them, the fourteen-year-old bracket is definitely to our advantage. But there is a lack of fifth and sixth year cultivators. There is only a girl named Luo Huo'er. Her origins are a mystery, and she has never participated in the Earth or Heaven roll tussle, so we do not know how strong she is!"

The strength of Luo Huo'er, who was ranked first on the Man ranking, had always been a mystery. Now, Jian Ge could only rest his hopes on Luo Huo'er to give a pleasant surprise.