Martial World (Web Novel)
chapter-1009

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After Xiao Whitesnow finished his second period of seclusion, he was finally able to enter the fourth level, and even made it an additional 2000 miles in. This result neared the distance Yan Littlemoon reached after she left her first period of seclusion.

But as for Yan Littlemoon herself, she was even more amazing. After she left her second period of seclusion, she broke through to the fifth level of the Hells of Flame and reached an additional 4000 miles in!

This depth already surpassed the distance that White Daohong reached in the 18 Hells of Flame smelting trial when he first arrived as a rookie disciple!

70-80 years ago, when White Daohong was also a junior disciple, he had passed through two years of the Ancient Phoenix smelting trial and his final result was 3000 miles deep into the fifth level. This result had been surpassed by Yan Littlemoon in just a single year!

This result was enough to alarm the Ancient Phoenix Clan Headquarters!

Whether it was the phenomenon of Lotus Blooming Step by Step, or reaching 4000 miles deep into the fifth level after just one year, both of these were results that stunned and amazed all. These results even surpassed those of the talented geniuses of the Ancient Phoenix Clan Headquarters!

It could be said that as long as nothing happened to Yan Littlemoon, she would become a future Palace Master of one of the Ancient Phoenix Clan’s 72 branch palaces, controlling a territory of her own. That would be an extremely easy goal to accomplish. And if she trained well, there was even the faintest of hopes that she would become the next Patriarch of the Ancient Phoenix Clan!

That was a Holy Lord level character of the Divine Realm!

Such a talent was definitely worthy of the Ancient Phoenix Clan’s attention. Moreover, some Elders from headquarters even had thoughts of having Yan Littlemoon marry into their family.

“What? Headquarters is sending some people here?”

Whether it was Sun Cyprestar, Chu Redcloud, or any of the disciples from the three branch palaces, all of them were surprised as they heard this news from Fire Spirit Star’s black-robed guardian.

The Ancient Phoenix Clan Headquarters was the center of power for the entire Ancient Phoenix Clan!

In the Ancient Phoenix Clan Headquarters, there were all sorts of great Elders that wielded great amounts of power and authority. There were Disciplinary Elders, Merit Elders, Alchemy Elders, Refiner Elders, and all sorts of other Elders. These Elders were no weaker than the Palace Masters of the 72 branch palaces. There were even some Elders in important positions that were above the Palace Masters in power and authority.

In addition, there were also the Highest Elders. These Highest Elders were all old monstrous fellows that no longer bothered with worldly affairs. They were old Patriarchs or Vice Patriarchs that had stepped back from their position and had wholeheartedly dedicated their efforts to cultivating. Thus they became Highest Elders.

Their cultivations had long ago reached an unimaginable boundary. There were those among them that had stepped back from the position of Patriarch tens of thousands of years ago. Their strength could be imagined!

Thus, let alone Chu Redcloud and Sun Cyprestar, even characters like Xiao Jiuyang and Fairy Feng had to be respectful to those from the Ancient Phoenix Clan Headquarters. In the world of mortals, this was just like an imperial minister visiting a local magistrate!

“Headquarters have sent visitors. All disciples come out and greet them!”

The black-robed messenger issued out an order. For such a serious matter, besides the disciples that were still closed up in Totem Tower, all disciples were required to gather at the 18 Hells of Flame and wait for the review of the headquarters envoys. There were even some disciples still in Totem Tower that had ended their seclusion early to see the glory and majesty of these people from headquarters. After all, this was an extremely rare opportunity.

On this day, red clouds suddenly gathered above Fire Spirit Star. These red clouds surged out for thousands of miles with fiery heavenly winds howling beneath them. Then, ripples began to appear in space, and the sky itself seemed to be ripped apart. A massive golden crow head emerged from the space crack, slowly tearing it further and further apart. Space fluctuations rippled out for thousands of miles.

After the head emerged, a blazingly beautiful crown of feathers appeared, wrapped around a gorgeous neck. This bird had a back like a mountain range and its wingspan extended for hundreds of miles. As its wings unfurled, they were wide enough to blot out the skies and sharp like unrivalled divine weapons. Its claws gleamed with a cold light as if they were pillars that supported the heavens.

This was a massive golden crow with a body several hundred miles long. It had an appearance similar to that of a phoenix. This golden crow’s Ancient Phoenix bloodline was undoubtedly extremely rich. In order to raise this sort of golden crow, the amount of resources necessary was mind-boggling!

As the great golden crow appeared, the endless fiery heavenly wind that blew around Fire Spirit Star suddenly stopped moving. In front of this golden crow, the fire origin energy of Fire Spirit Star was like soldiers bowing to a general, all of them surrendering of their own volition.

And above this golden crown was a male and female envoy. In addition, there were also a number of maids.

Of these two envoys, the man was extremely tall and he wore a red set of armor. His figure was commanding and grand. As for the female, she was more petite: her height only reached the man’s chest. And, what was most peculiar was that she even had a long fox tail. It was clear that she was not a pure human.

This wasn’t strange. There were many non-human races in the Divine Realm. For instance, Giant Demons, Imps, Fey, and so forth. Deep beyond the Divine Realm there were even worlds completely comprised of different races! But because they were so far away, they basically existed independently from the Divine Realm’s 3000 Great Worlds. Although their scale was far from comparing with the Divine Realm’s 3000 Great Worlds, their total size added together was still far larger than a single primary world of the Divine Realm.

This fox-tailed woman clearly had the bloodline of a monster beast within her. She also had a human bloodline and the Ancient Phoenix bloodline, for a total of three different kinds of bloodlines.

However this didn’t matter at all. The Ancient Phoenix Clan considered anyone with the Ancient Phoenix Bloodline as one of their clansmen.

“Envoy Duke Golden Sword! Monarch Sweetyfox! I never thought that those two would come!”

Chu Redcloud instantly recognized the two arrivals. These two were around 10,000 years old and were highly famous and prominent figures within the Ancient Phoenix Clan Headquarters.

To be more specific, they were successors of important positions at headquarters. Without accident, Duke Golden Sword would become the next Disciplinary Elder, and Monarch Sweetyfox would become the Internal Affairs Envoy.

Although the Internal Affairs Envoy wasn’t an Elder, their power and influence actually exceeded most Elders’.

The position of Internal Affairs Envoy was the same as being the majordomo of the entire Ancient Phoenix Clan. They were responsible for arranging storage of resources and distributing them outwards. This was the equivalent of caring for the daily basic necessities for the 100 billion clansmen of the Ancient Phoenix Clan. The authority of such a position could be imagined!

Every single one of the 72 Palace Masters had to be extremely flattering and pleasant to the current and future Internal Affairs Envoy. Otherwise, if any one of them managed to offend the Internal Affairs Envoy, they would find the resources they were given to be reduced by 20-30%, and there would be nothing they could do to change that no matter how much they cried!

Before this, Phoenix Cry Palace’s relationship with the Internal Affairs Envoy was far inferior to Charming Phoenix Palace’s. That was the reason why Sun Cyprestar had been so ornery about the pentatic metal essence and had been severely swindled by Chu Redcloud. He had brooded over this for years.

As everyone saw Envoy Duke Golden Sword and Monarch Sweetyfox, Chu Redcloud, Sun Cyprestar, and the rest of the Elders of the three branch palaces came to respectfully welcome them, their faces all covered with smiles.

This was something they couldn’t help. The difference in status was simply too great!

The statuses of the Disciplinary Elder and Internal Affairs Envoy were just above those of the 72 Palace Masters. As successors, their futures were already decided, and thus they had a status far higher than Palace Master candidates like Fairy Feng and Sage Jiuyang.

But as for Chu Redcloud and Sun Cyprestar, one was a Palace Elder of Charming Phoenix Palace and the other was even worse: he was only a Vice Hall Master of Phoenix Cry Palace’s Phoenix Hall. Their status was not just different by a little bit, there was simply no comparing them.

The black-robed messenger in charge of Fire Spirit Star appeared undisturbed. He calmly said, “Golden Sword, Sweetyfox, I never thought that this Fire Spirit Star smelting trial would be enough to bother the two of you.”

“Hahaha, Blackwood, it’s already been 3000 years since we last met, right? You came to Atlas World’s Fire Spirit Star to cultivate, but our ambitions have always been different. Me and Sweetyfox here have always wanted to serve the clan from within and hold positions. From Protectors, we will become Elders and continue trying to crawl upwards. If we can become Vice Patriarchs then even our laughs in our dreams will wake you up. As for you, you have wholeheartedly committed your life to cultivation. I’m afraid that your cultivation has already surpassed ours now!” Duke Golden Sword laughed gaily as he saw the black-robed messenger.

With these words, Chu Redcloud, Sun Cyprestar, and the rest all felt their hearts jump. They looked at the black-robed messenger with incredulity in their eyes. They never imagined that such a low-key, ordinary-looking Fire Spirit Star guardian would actually have such a great background. Could this person have regarded Fire Spirit Star as a wonderful place to cultivate and thus applied to be the guardian of this place?

“Golden Sword, what sorts of jokes are you making now? I was originally inferior to the two of you to begin with, and during the selection process I was eliminated. I wasn’t able to compare to you, thus I didn’t receive the key focus from headquarters like you did. Your future is far better than mine. But, the truth is whether I chose to cultivate in seclusion here or chose to hold a position in the clan like you do, both of us are only trying to walk as far as we can on our road of martial arts. We are both travelling to the same goal with different roads.”

The black-robed messenger casually said.

Monarch Sweetyfox brightly laughed and said, “Okay, okay, we can reminisce about the past some other time. We’ve come here for a reason, and that is to see that so-called Yan Littlemoon with her perfect Ancient Phoenix bloodline. I heard that this young woman already comprehended the phenomenon of Lotus Blooming Step by Step. That would make her far stronger than I was in the past!”

Monarch Sweetyfox had not comprehended Lotus Blooming Step by Step and had only formed a perfect Blue Lotus Domain. This proved just how rare the Lotus Blooming Step by Step phenomenon was – it clearly deserved to be called a legend!

“This young girl Yan Littlemoon surprised me. She doesn’t come from the three great family clans and only has a background of Charming Phoenix Palace’s Yan Family. Her life experience can’t be regarded as too rich but she was still able to have such achievements. This is a result of her great destiny; it isn’t easy at all! We’ll have to have Fairy Chu explain this one to us.”

As Blackwood spoke, he turned to Chu Redcloud.

Chu Redcloud was usually a very intelligent and scheming person with multiple contingency plans. She had even managed to trick someone like Sun Cyprestar several times. But Facing Monarch Sweetyfox, Duke Golden Sword, and this Blackwood, who seemed ordinary but was actually just as powerful as the two arriving envoys, she couldn’t help but be nervous!

It wasn’t a surprise for her to be nervous. In a mortal kingdom, this was just like a countryside magistrate suddenly learning that an imperial envoy was visiting to assess her work. How could she not be nervous about this? This was a question that concerned her future and whether or not Yan Littlemoon could obtain a drop of phoenix blood essence!

That was phoenix blood essence! Let alone her, even a great figure like Charming Phoenix Palace’s Palace Master couldn’t obtain it!

Phoenix blood essence was only bestowed upon the unparalleled greatest genius of the Ancient Phoenix Clan!

And the Monarch Sweetyfox in front of her was the future Internal Affairs Envoy. She had the authority to control almost all resources within the Ancient Phoenix Clan! Of course, that didn’t mean she had the jurisdiction to assign something like phoenix blood essence. However, she could apply to headquarters for a drop and have the Patriarch or the Council of Elders decide!

Chu Redcloud took a deep breath and calmed her racing heart. She said, “Reporting to Lord and Lady Envoy, our Littlemoon once traveled for fun and adventure abroad and managed to stumble upon a phoenix blood pond, achieving a perfect Ancient Phoenix bloodline. But, besides Littlemoon’s destiny being excellent, her perception is also outstanding. That is the only reason she managed to comprehend the Lotus Blooming Step by Step phenomenon during this Ancient Phoenix smelting trial. Littlemoon will easily become the top disciple of this Ancient Phoenix smelting trial!”