The Ancient Inn was quite quiet right now; most of the people here had departed earlier to the competition's inauguration place.
Because An Bing Qing was being nonchalant, they soon reached the inn's side square where the carriages were.
Aside from theirs, there were still around a dozen of carriages parked in the square which only had armoured guards waiting by their sides. The kind of mysterious beasts that pulled those carriages differed according to the family they belonged to; all were majestic and powerful looking beasts.
Even though An Family's clansmen were a little delayed as it was almost eight in the morning, they had more than enough time to arrive on time at the inauguration; still, it would have been better if they had gone out of the inn earlier.
The pair of twins was greeted by their clansmen as soon as they reached their three carriages.
An Bing Qing boarded the biggest one by herself, ignoring An Yu Yong's help.
The people around were surprised by their young miss cold treatment towards their eldest young master.
They had observed the interaction between this pair of siblings and it was more than good. Even if they were angry at each other, it would be a pleasant sight. They knew their young miss had gone missing yesterday night and that their young masters were bound to have some friction but, weren't their standings being swapped? Why was their young miss the one who seemed angry while their eldest young master was the one looking as though he had headaches?
Still, nobody voiced their doubts. Even the Great Elder, who had planned to ride in the same carriage as both of them, decided to be in the one his son was riding instead; the front carriage.
An Yu Yong was breaking his head as he jumped into the central and biggest carriage, 'This sister of me, I have been speaking non-stop and she hasn't even glared at me', he thought.
He took seat opposite her and then looked at her side face with pondering eyes; she was looking out of the window without caring about his presence.
'Sigh, I already thought of many ways to coax her but I must not indulge her; hence, I will wait for her to slowly begin to talk to me'. With his election being made, he crossed his arms before his chest and closed his dark eyes.
Once all the people got into their corresponding carriages, the Armoured White Tigers pulled them towards their destination.
As if feeling the quietness of the central carriage, the front and back carriages also quieted down; and in this silence, they came to an open arena made of hard and smooth white jade blocks in a quarter of an hour.
This place was near the Ancient Inn, towards the North and it was just before the outskirts of the Ghost Forest.
The arena was circular-shaped and had one hundred meters in diameter; there was a grass field surrounding it.
Nine buildings with nine floors each one, were spread around two-thirds of the arena circumference with a green space that separated them from the fighting field by a hundred meters.
The three central edifications were mean for the clans that were participating; the most central one was for the Ancient Clans' people, of course. The three at the right and left were for the people who wanted to watch the show and they needed to pay a certain tax.
Opposite them, in front of the last third of the arena, right at the middle and at twenty meters from the showground; there was a high platform designed like a pavilion. It was the place that belonged to the hosts of the competition and to the honoured guests that came from the sects that were outside of all the empires' reaches; they came here to pick up good seedlings. But they only appeared in the inauguration and at the end of the competition; they couldn't possibly bother with the earlier stages.
An Clan's team came to the Ancient Clans' building but they didn't enter.
They went down from their carriages and a fourth of the guards went to park them.
Captain Xiu Tu along with the rest of the guards dismissed themselves and entered the building to take over An family's place while An's clansmen walked towards the greenery field with An Yu Yong's lead.
Because it was the opening of the competition, the members of the clans participating were required to stand within the sward area.
As they were members of an Ancient Clan, their place was at the foremost part; but because their placing wasn't good amongst them, they were located at the end of that line to the right.
At first, their presence didn't call any attention as they were a small group of twenty people; but as they went forward, the people from the other clans began to shift their gazes towards them.
One must know that the arrangement was as follows: the first line was where the Ancient Clans were located; the Noble Clans were in the second and third rows; and the Neo Clans, as they were tens of times more than the first two, were in the following four rows, the last one was meant to the small Neo Clans.
When they were going through the neatly arranged clans, An clansmen could hear some non-favourable whispers; there were even people who didn't hide the mock in their eyes.
An Yu Yong and An Bing Qing weren't overwhelmed by this along with the Elders and the ones that had assisted before. However, the inexperienced ones had an unease that was impossible to hide for now.
An Yu Yong was walking with his lazy but charming grandeur while An Bing Qing's breath became frostier and detached with each step she took. She wasn't being pretentious but she suddenly remembered her behaviours of her previous life and couldn't help but grew annoyed as she reprimanded herself.
Some of the old people from other clans that swept their gaze towards them sincerely praised the sibling's composure in their hearts while the majority of younglings didn't understand how they could be so full of themselves.
Of course, the young men worth of leading and managing their families' affairs had other thoughts; and in that group was a handsome young man with warm eyes who clad in white with purple patterns, he had caught eye of An Bing Qing's fluttering white robes when she reached the front.
'So, that girl is An Family's young miss. No wonder I didn't recognize her. That pair of twins doesn't tend to go out. I'm actually amazed about the fact that the twin part in the information was accurate, their faces truly look alike but their temperaments are poles apart…' he thought. Clans with enough resources had a network of information regarding families that are of their interest; though the An Clan has decayed, it was still an Ancient Clan.
When the young man clad in white was about to overlap the weird mannered An Bing Qing with her frosty self of today, he heard a mirthful laugh coming from his side, "Oh, Wang Shu, you did come! I thought you said you were feeling unwell but it seems you are better now".
The young man in white recognized the voice. Therefore, he didn't recover his gaze and just said with his pleasant ring, "Li Hao Shan, I give you my thanks for spreading a rumour".
"Ups, my bad", Li Hao Shan who was a young man in his twenties covered his mouth with his dark blue sleeves; it was a funny motion but Wang Shu had his contemplative sight in another place.
Li Hao Shan followed his gaze and saw a young maiden dressed in pure white robes with a pair of gelid eyes. He was taken aback and said with emotion in a low tone, "Didn't know you were into icy beauties".
'This guy…' Wang Shu's mouth almost twitched, but as good as he was he kept his gentle smile.
He was about to turn his head around and speak to his friend but he saw a little girl wearing a pink dress with purple butterflies and a yellow sash striding towards the white-robed maiden.
"Big sister, Qiao Qi has missed you", he was able to hear the tender calling of the pink-robed girl, though he was at several paces from that place.
An Bing Qing hadn't come out from her own rebukes yet; thus, she was shocked when she suddenly heard such a familiar voice.
She turned around her body to where the voice was coming from and was met with a strong hug that nearly made her fall; luckily, An Yu Yong was there to give support from behind.
She lowered her gaze and saw a little girl clad in a familiar attire nestling into her bosom, she hugged her back and softly said, "Qi'er, Bing Qing also missed you".
She really had missed her; she was Ouyang Qiao Qi, the daughter of Ouyang Clan's Patriarch and her and An Yu Yong's childhood friend.