Chapter 20: The gathering

The whole of Jiao's country was in a huge rush, as the preparation of the genius gathering was going to take place. 

It was now a commonly known news that the five sects are going to observe this gathering and take in disciples.

These five sects were incredibly famous. The sects were known for their vast line-up of powerful cultivators.

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Jiao clan had a god-like position in the Jiao country, but when compared to the sects, they were the small fish.

The royal clan also had its military academy. It was a place where nobles, along with the royal descendants and the soldiers were trained. It helped in the training most of the royal-guards and clan forces too.

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The Long and Bai clan were a part of the four families. The other two were Shi and Tu.

The rivalry between the two clans was well known, but they were banned from acting against each other publicly. Hence, they used underhanded methods to deal with each other. The incidents with Long Tao was due to this enmity only.

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The clans were preparing for the upcoming events. Only four months remained until the gathering.

"Reporting to the clan lord. This time our preparations are ample. Long Mengchen and Long Zhengyi have both stepped into the 3rd stage of the Qi child realm, and Long Dangtian is nearing the peak of the 3rd stage with hope to improve to the 4th stage by the time of the gathering. ".

Long Shen was satisfied. He had his hopes for the younger generations, especially Long Dangtian, to clear the shame of their clan.

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Long Mengchen was currently practicing in her room. She was already in the 8th stage of the Qi child realm at such a young age (She was four years younger than Long Tao).

She was trying her best to step into the Qi master realm.

Long Dangtian, who was Long Tao's cousin from his uncle, was currently in his courtyard.

"You need to practice more and more. Only if you show proper talent and get into the five academies will you be able to take the mantle of the clan's young master."

Long Dangtian nodded his head; he had access to the best resources in the clan as well as the arts in the clan library. His talent and prowess were second to none.

Little did the clan members knew that the young master who was rebuked by them would return and create a storm in the capital city.

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Long Tao was immersed in the training. While he was training and experimenting with the arts, he decided to combine the hell-forging art with the opening of meridians. It would give a massive boost to his body.

" Are you sure about going on this path. The twelve forges take a lot of time to complete. Body cultivation is, in whole, a prolonged process. It would slow it down even more."

" We can control the number of forges I am going to practice. I will continue to practice it till it's no longer of use."

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It resulted in Long Tao's body becoming scarier and scarier. The 12 forges, forged the body into a newer, stronger one every time it was practiced in the foundation forging.

Long Tao noticed that the change in the Qi child realm was even more prominent, due to increase efficiency of the hell Qi absorption. It helped in the opening of his meridians.

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Having nine avatars increased Long Tao's prowess. After cultivation for a whole year, his current cultivation stage was at the 5th stage of Qi child. He was able to contend against peak Qi child realm puppets. 

His hypothesis projected that his prowess would reach the Qi master realm when he steps into the 7th level of Qi child. He could easily defeat hordes of practitioners at the early Qi master stage. 

The experiment on combining the methods of training was underway. The Qi training was proceeding at a stable speed. He had to do some weapon training now.

He referred to the Keeper while choosing the arts, and charted out a plan to first practice them. The next step would be intermixing to form a more lucid and compelling skill.

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Long Tao was practicing saber and sword arts. In the beginning, they were practiced separately. 

But when he kept digging deeper and deeper, he found that practicing both of them together was much more efficient due to the similarity between their uses.

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Three months later:

Long Tao finally finished his cultivation today. The 7th stage of the Qi child realm was subsequently achieved. It took him a year to cultivate from Qi child 1st stage to 5th stage. But in the 8th months, the upgrade was of only two realms.

The reason was his research on the various arts and trying to combine the. It consumed a lot of time. The Crimson world enabled him to gain a constant speed. 

He stretched his arms, looked around, and proceeded towards the depth of the forests. He had long killed many peak 2nd level demonic beasts. He wanted to contend with a 3rd level demonic beast.

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Long Tao proceeded towards the depth of the forest and continued the killing of the beasts. But as he got deeper into the forest region, he found there to be less and less beast roaming around.

It signified that a powerful beast marked the area here. He was in search of such creatures. He soon came in front of a cave. He heard a ferocious roar while a towering figure came into his view.

It was a stone bear king, a 3rd level demonic beats, which was rarely seen in the outskirts of the forest. A clash soon occurred, and he was forced to assume a defensive position. It was the strength of a beast that was a Qi master's equivalent.

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The bear started using the Qi and attacked with its claws and jaws. Long Tao first contented with the fundamental arts and used this fight to see how far he can push the beast. A stalemate was reached between them. 

He attacked with the same style again, and as the bear confronted it, he reached for his sword behind him and stabbed at the bear's eyes.

The bear failed to guard itself. Its eyes got pierced, and blood was flowing, pushing it into a disadvantage. Long Tao used the opportunity and jumped atop the bear.

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He smashed the sword tip into the bear. The sword pierced the neck of the bear, and soon, life started draining out of it. He continued to stab until the bear finally fell dead.

Long Tao wiped the sweat out from his face as he stored the body in the Crimson world realm.

" I can finally make my appearance in the world. Its time to go to the capital city. It should be time for the gathering."

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Within the Long Manor-

The elders and younger generations were also making preparations. All the younger generation who were going to participate in the gathering were informed and ordered to get their belongings ready.

Long Shen went together with them to the royal Jiao city. The same scenario could be seen in every clan.