"Ha ha ha... You trouble me with such a difficult choice... I never thought that my birthday would present me with a tougher situation than my attempted breakthrough. Huang Si. Huang Cixi."
Both women stood up and bowed toward their matriarch.
"This junior listens to the matriarch."
"In my opinion, both of your teas have given me a great peace of mind. You even helped alleviate some of the pain my Soul Embryo had suffered. Choosing between you two is beyond my means. Also, I am sorry. I will let seniority decide this tea competition. I hereby declare that Huang Si is the winner of the tea competition. You may choose any artifact from our treasure room. Elder Huang Jian will bring you there after the end of the festivities."
Full of pride, but hiding it as much as she could, Huang Si bowed even lower.
"This humble junior thanks the matriarch."
The next words of the matriarch calmed her pride though.
"Huang Cixi. You are still quite young. Since you lost this tea competition, I am sure that you will surpass yourself even more when a new occasion arises for you. During my breakthrough, I got the premonition that our human race will soar once more. Spirit Master Xiao and Spirit Master Hua from the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute have brought back a Spirit medicine from the past eras. And now our younger generation reaches such heights in tea brewing before even reaching twenty. Maybe you will be the one to brew the first Spirit tea since the beginning of the Forsaken Dao Era. As a reward for your talent, I will allow you to browse through my personal library."
"This humble junior thanks the matriarch."
Several elders were unsure of what the situation was. Matriarch Huang Yufeng had chosen Huang Si as the winner, but she had then insisted on the future achievements of Huang Cixi. It was difficult to say whether she saw her as a future genius of the family or as the next matriarch. Even Huang Si was not certain of the meaning behind her words. Most likely, she simply didn't want her choice to influence the competition between them. Probably, she hadn't made her choice yet. But deep down, Huang Si could not shut down a small voice telling her that she had lost today.
On the other hand, Huang Cixi was sincerely calm. As long as she kept the support of enough elders, the final decision would be in the matriarch's hands. And right now, the elders would more or less be split in half. Those who were still indecisive after Huang Lü's announcement had now a confirmation that Huang Cixi was not just anyone. The mere fact that almost half of the family heads had chosen her as the victor, plus the tacit endorsement of Elder Huang Jian, and even the ambiguous decision of Matriarch Huang Yufeng were all great reasons to support her. In this competition, she had indeed won. Huang Si was so renown that she had nothing to gain, she only wanted to make her rival lose. On the other hand, Huang Cixi was playing her future.
If she had failed, her ambitions would have taken a serious hit. But she had done way more than she had initially hoped for. And behind the matriarch's words, she saw a silver lining. Clearly the old woman had a very good impression of her. And with her mind cultivation, reading from her private library was probably the best gift she could have asked for. After all, even Heaven pills of the highest tier were nothing compared to the 1-star Spirit pill she had consumed. Maybe a weapon could have been useful, but developing her martial arts was more important. And in the private library of the matriarch, there would be handwritten documents from all past matriarchs. The insights she could gain from such a reading were beyond her imagination.
For several hours, various talks punctuated the birthday celebration. Many young members of the family tried to impress with their art. Some played a fantastic piece with guqin, pipa, erhu and dizi. It was reminiscent of the attempted breakthrough from a few of days ago. In fact, everyone was able to see the scene play out as they were listening to it. A few poets added their own composition to this orchestra.
Then, painters and calligraphers drew in Matriarch Huang Yufeng's honor. A very young girl decided to draw a painting of her own vision of the tea competition she had just witnessed. Both Huang Cixi and Huang Si were charmed by this painting. As it couldn't be gifted to only one of them, Family Head Huang Yi proposed to hang it in the Merit Hall. This was a hall meant to exhibit art that immortalized the great merits of the Huang family.
Finally, the sun was ready to fall and the Dawning Sun pavilion was crossed by beautiful beams of colorful lights. Both the dawn and the twilight were impressive in this pavilion.
Now that the ceremony was ending, it was time for everyone to present their gift to the matriarch. Despite the short time they had, the family heads had already gifts prepared since the moment Matriarch Huang Yufeng had gone into seclusion. After all, they had no idea how long she would stay secluded and they had to get ready for this eventuality at all times.
The gifts were presented in the opposite order of their ranks. Thus, the first family head activated his spatial ring and got a jade sculpture out of it. This was a pure masterpiece. The statue represented a fenghuang, the animal characteristic of the Huang family. Even though the artist could never have seen a True Fiery Fenghuang, he had seen lesser demonic beasts who belonged to the same family. Hence, his sculpture was very spot-on. The audience had the sensation that a true life-like beast was now in their midst.
He then declared how honored he was of being invited by the matriarch and how the Huang family was a pillar for mankind. He then turned toward the three young women who were sitting close by, Huang Si, Huang Lü and Huang Cixi.
"Mankind is lucky to have such extraordinary talents among its younger generation. Just like your name and your blood, you will soar through the skies and bring all of mankind with you. When I see you all, I am ashamed of my own incompetence. But it does seem that the young generation will far surpass the old geezers like me."
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All the family heads, including Governor Leng and Hall Master Fang Shaolong, gave their presents to the matriarch. She only responded politely at every one of them. Half were art pieces while the other half were either rare ingredients or rare artifacts. One woman had even gifted her a precious cultivation method about blood that she had found in the ruins of an ancient temple. This wasn't very useful to most cultivators, but for members of the Huang family who were known for their blood essence, it was of high value.
After all the family heads were done giving their gifts and chanting their praises to the matriarch and her family, Huang Si stood up.
"Matriarch, if I may be so bold and impolite as to ask you to accept my meager gift as well."
Cai Ying walked past Huang Si and knelt while presenting a golden box. At her side, she was trying to ignore the burning gaze of Huang Lü. She knew the temper of her old mistress and, to be frank, she sincerely felt bad now that she was out of the competition. But deep down, she knew she had chosen the right mistress. Even if Huang Si didn't become matriarch, she would undoubtedly obtain a very influential post.
The box rose up in the air and slowly went toward the matriarch's seat. With her spiritual senses, she could see what was in the box without any problem but she still opened it. She knew that Huang Si had brought a gift so that everyone else could see it.
The moment she opened the golden box, a blinding orange light came out of it. And then, a subtle fragrance. Within the box were three orange pills laced with glints of deep yellow. Immediately, the family heads recognized those pills, 5-star Heaven pills, the highest tier in the current era. They were Golden Blood Essence pills. Among the family heads and the high elders of the family, everyone knew what it was and they were impressed. But Huang Si needed everyone else to know as well.
"Matriarch, these Golden Blood Essence pills were refined by Spirit Master Hua. I personally went to fetch them a few months ago. Two of them have reached the Pure stage and one is on the verge of being a True Essence pill. By consuming them, a cultivator will promote the production of blood essence."
Blood usually only contained Qi. The Qi in human bodies went both through the meridians but also through the bloodstream. Obviously, it was stronger and denser in the meridians though. On the other hand, blood essence was a very special kind of blood that contained a bit of Jing, the vital essence of someone. And what was usually called blood essence was in fact a tiny portion of this. This was only the blood that contained the prenatal Jing, the essence given by the parents at the conception. Such an essence was extremely difficult to regenerate and was the foundation of life in the body. For example, it promoted the creation of Qi.
Someone who had consumed all of his prenatal Jing would simply die, as if his lifespan was over. And blood essence, as it contained this prenatal Jing, was essential. Every member of the Huang family had traces of the blood essence of the True Fiery Fenghuang. This blood essence, depending on its purity, would produce more blood from the legendary beast and give abilities to its owner. That was why the Huang family put so much emphasis on bloodline, because they wanted to preserve this blood essence from generation to generation. Their blood cultivation could increase its quantity and its quality of course, but that was extremely difficult.
Those pills could maybe help somewhat condense a True Fiery Drop very easily as they promoted blood essence. Even the matriarch was touched. All the gifts she had received were just external means or pieces of art. Right now, the pills she had under the eyes could maybe help her reach the complete version of 'Nine Chambers of Life Fire', a feat only the ancestral matriarch had accomplished. Even she didn't know what laid beyond this, or how powerful she would become. To tell the truth, she wasn't sure if those three pills would be enough for her to succeed. And in her mind, she was wondering whether or not she should keep them or gift them to younger members of her family who had a better chance to reach this stage one day. But, on the other hand, condensing this final True Fiery Drop could be what she lacked for her breakthrough.
No matter what she would decide, this gift was indeed incredible. And she could imagine how much Huang Si had paid to have it refined. The ingredients alone were not something anyone could buy with just money. Most likely, she had used a lot of favors. Huang Si was very good in the trading business and she owned a lot of commerces in the Wu Province and outside of it. Through this prosperous business, she had created many relationships with a lot of people, from modest families to even some governors. Despite her young age, this early Mortal Warrior was already an influential citizen of the Hongchen Kingdom.
"This humble one also brought a modest gift for the matriarch. This humble one is ashamed to present it to her after Sister Huang Si."
All the attention went over to the person who had just talked, Huang Cixi.
As soon as she was done speaking, Bao Zhong walked forward with a big wooden box. Deep down, he was terrified. Even among the servants, Bao Zhong was the weakest. He had never left the 1st-grade Mortal stage even though he was already in the middle of his life. But, as he entirely trusted his young mistress, he was confident that so long as he did what he was told, everything would be alright. No matter how much he trusted her though, he was literally surrounded by people he considered immortals. For someone so close to being a mere mortal, someone who could fly and live for a couple of millenniums was a god, and even more, an immortal.
From his shaking hands, the box also rose into the air and reached the matriarch.
Huang Si was a bit apprehensive. Huang Cixi was not an idiot. Even if her gift wasn't as precious as hers, it should still be incredible. And when the box opened, she had confirmation. Everyone sensed the presence of Qi in the air. The box contained eight crystals, eight 9-cores. Those were obviously the demonic cores Elder Ying had ripped out of the Star Mole Dragon.
9-cores were not something one could obtain easily. First of all, just finding a 9-core demonic beast was rare. In the entire Hongchen Kingdom, there should be less than a hundred demonic beasts as powerful as that. And they mostly stayed in their own territory. In order to kill them, this was the effort of many late Spirit Warriors. Of course a 9th-grade Spirit Warrior like Matriarch Huang Yufeng could have probably dealt with the Star Mole Dragon herself, but only three cultivators had reached this level in the whole kingdom. As such, those hunts were rare and dangerous. And considering the number of hunters required, each one would receive at most one 9-core, and not necessarily. Sometimes they would only get resources from the corpse of the beast, not the cores themselves.
Matriarch Huang Yufeng knew that the young woman had received those cores from Elder Ying but she wasn't expecting her to gift all of them but one.
This gift was not as precious to the matriarch as were the pills. However, it was precious for the entire family. Considering her cultivation level, she didn't need more Qi, but those 9-cores could help hundreds of younger members break through or even promote a few elders. The Huang family could maybe obtain a few 7th-grade and 8th-grade Spirit Warriors in less than a decade or two. Qi was not essential for them at this stage, but it could still help them considerably.