"I'm not that scary, right?" His words lingered in the atmosphere for a few more seconds.
People didn't know what action to take next. They weren't expecting the young master to enter with a gentle smile and a more casual approach to the situation.
Mixed with the pressure bearing down on them from his slew of titles, each greater than the last, none of which they had the qualifications necessary to offend, coupled with the lack of certified information about his personality, froze them in place.
"Come this way, Young Master Wei, Elder Hu Shan's personal disciple, Qian Jian, wants a word with you," an Elder dressed in simple white robes weaved through the close-knit crowd and arrived in front of him.
"Qian Jian?" said Long Wei.
Elder Bohai leaned towards his ear and whispered a few words. Interest flashed through his eyes. Qian Jian seemed to be quite the character.
To think he had missed out on some of the shenanigans Qian Jian caused after descending into the secular world astounded him.
Spending a full year in secluded cultivation made him miss some wonders of the world, ones he wished he had heard of sooner.
"Tell Senior Brother Jian that I'll see him shortly. Never mind, I'll see him now," Long Wei changed his mind instantly.
Staying on the first level for too long would become boring too fast. People were way too afraid of his status to even utter a single sound.
Perhaps those on the higher floors would make for good conversation. Most importantly, he wondered if there would be someone on par with him in both status and talent.
He had heard that a few talented cousins from the Phoenix Clan planned on joining the same Sect. Most of them should be on the highest floor, exchanging verbal pointers with other talented individuals. Hopefully, they wouldn't disappoint, to say the least.
"Lead the way, elder," Long Wei said.
"Perfect," the elder smiled and took off.
Long Wei exchanged a few last words with Elder Bohai and Elder Cai before following behind the white-robed elder. Various flashes of envy and jealousy appeared within the shivering gazes of the youths after the exchange between the elder and Long Wei.
Qian Jian was a name most of them knew all too well. The young man had single-handedly built himself a legend within a year.
He had gone down to the continent of Parasia, revealing his astonishing cultivation base of the Immortal Realm. He had defeated Lu Sheng of the Dancing Sabre and put an end to the tyranny of a slippery Third Grade Immortal faction. Lu Sheng and the Silver Snake Immortal Pavilion were infamous throughout the Imperial Expanse.
Pointless killing and massacres were his modus operandi. Quite a few forces of a similar level had banded together countless times to put an end to his murder spree but couldn't capture and kill him.
That was until Qian Jian entered the fray. He had single-handedly slain a full-powered Sky Immortal with three strikes of his sword after breaking through to the Earth Immortal Realm, cementing his status as one of the chosen ones of his generation.
Any one of them would pay a fortune just to meet him, yet the young master got that chance for free. It brought them back to reality. Even if they were talents of untold levels and had some background, they still lacked those at the top of the food chain.
"This way, elders," Elder Lang drew the attention of Elder Cai and Elder Bohai. He led them through the crowd to a set of large doors on the far end of the main hall.
The older generation had an entirely separate venue to meet and discuss the event's procedures before it officially started. A few details needed ironing out, especially those concerning the Dao Children of various seventh to ninth-grade immortal factions and god factions.
Every faction within the cultivation world was graded based on the level of cultivators at the top of said faction.
Four primary tiers made up this grading system: Mortal, Immortal, God, and Transcendent. The mortal tier lacked extra divisions since the power gap between each realm within the mortal realm was negligible at best.
The Immortal Grade was divided into nine grades, in ascending order from the weakest to the strongest. The God tier had a total of five divisions, also in ascending order from first to fifth.
Transcendent Grade factions had no divisions either, as there was no accurate way to measure the strength level of a Transcendent expert.
Only seventh-grade immortal factions and higher had the qualifications necessary to command respect within the Imperial Expanse. All factions below that level were no different from ants when considering the bigger picture.
Long Wei followed the elder, climbing various stairs to reach the uppermost level of the main hall, close to the top of the dome, where a giant chandelier spewing bright orange light hung.
As they ascended the stairs, his eyes lingered on the girl who gave him a hateful gaze, still trying to figure out which of his actions had offendedher.
He had no recollection of her whatsoever in his mind, and that spoke volumes.
Never once in his life had he ever forgotten a face, especially those of people he personally interacted with. Someone he had offended must have had some physical interaction with him; otherwise, it made zero sense to him.
Tossing the odd experience out of his mind, he shifted his focus to his next course of action.
One of the core reasons for coming to Spectral Haven Sect was the ability to network with countless talents of a similar level to him. Friends or allies were the only commodities that one could never have too much of in the cultivation world.
Even with his high level of status, he was only one step away from losing it all, and having friends to help him before he messed up was always a positive in his books.
Most of all, cultivation was all about one's ability to procure heaven-defying resources to consolidate one's foundation and tackle the higher cultivation realms. No single faction had it all. That's where allies came in.
"Qian Jian is beyond this door, Young Master Wei," the elder thrust him out of his headspace once they reached the topmost floor of the main hall.
The Spectral Haven Sect paid close attention to detail when they set the venue. From above, the hall looked like two circles of different sizes layered on top of each other. The smaller one was within the larger one.
Each of the three floors was built into the space between the circumference of the larger circle and the circumference of the smaller circle.
Long Wei didn't immediately open the door.
First, he broke away from the elder and walked to the balcony of the third floor and cast his gaze on the people below.
Cacophony strangled the atmosphere once more as the chatter exploded. Most of them forgot he was there a few seconds ago as they thrust out animated gestures in their conversations.
Placing an elbow on the iron bar, he rested his chin in an open palm and watched the youths mingle with each other, trying to make connections with their peers.
Everyone on the first floor had cultivation above the Nascent Soul realm, with ninety percent of them being in the Heavenly Step Realm, the realm above it.
A few of them had already reached the Heavenly Door realm, and only three were Mortal Transcendents. Two of the three Mortal Transcendents were his age, which forced a smile from him. He noted them as talents worth looking into.
Unconsciously, his gaze shifted to the young lady who killed him with her eyes. Her life aura signaled she was a year older than him, yet her cultivation level was lacking, being only in the Heavenly Door realm. Clearly, she wasn't someone from one of the Ninth Grade Immortal factions, leaving him with few words.
He wouldn't call her appearance pretty in any way.
Her thick eyebrows and gaunt face made sure of that, let alone her pale and pasty skin paired with bright pink lips too soft to kiss comfortably.
Her shape was abysmal, resembling a straight stick more than a woman in her late teens. If it weren't for her blue dress complete with pink floral embroidery around the waist, she would have looked way worse. The markers of someone he'd never spare a glance at.
He simply wanted to know the reason she hated him so much.
Should he simply approach her and ask?
Nah. He left the balcony and went back to do what he came here for: to get his meeting with once-in-a-trillion talent, Qian Jian going.
"I'm needed elsewhere and will take my leave now," the elder said, turning around and rushing down the stairs.
Long Wei opened the door shortly after, revealing a room decorated in gold and black detail, completely different from the brown and white scheme chosen for the hall. The curtains near the balcony were black as the night with bright gold tie-backs.
Brown spirit wood spread from one end of the floor to the next. Chairs, tables, and couches were placed upon a black and gold fur carpet made from a Golden Lion, a vicious beast that terrorized mortal planes every few millennia.
A soft piano played in the background, sending gentle vibrations through the air that calmed the spirit.
A lady sat behind an archaic piano placed just outside the gold and black carpet's perimeter, playing the gentle music that soothed his spirit.
Six other people were in the room: two sat on the chairs around the table, another two on the couch, and the last two sat near the bar counter, savoring some immortal liquor. One of the men drinking the immortal liquor stood up.
The man's skin was as dark as the life-giving soil during the farming season. Thick lips and a pair of bright golden eyes elevated his mostly average facial features to an otherworldly level.
Lone Cutter was the name of the sword strapped neatly to his waist. A smile bloomed across his face when he noticed Long Wei. Eagerly, he approached with his left fist placed against his palm.
"Thank you so much for responding to my offer. We have so much to discuss," he said in a jovial tone.
Long Wei found it hard to believe. Based on the achievements Elder Cai told him, he expected to see a cold young man, far too arrogant for his own good. He returned the bow with similar enthusiasm and smiled.
"It's not a problem. Making friends is the main reason we are all here today. I can't be too arrogant in front of Senior Brother Jian," Long Wei said.
"Oh. You know me. Wonderful. Wonderful," Jian couldn't stop smiling. "Would you like some liquor, Junior Brother Wei? I have an entire collection from the Wine God Clan with me. Immortal Bliss, Night Strikes Thunder, and my personal favorite, Her Woes."
"I'd rather have a juice, Senior Brother," Long Wei said.
"Oh. Right. Dragon. Silly me," Jian flicked his forehead and laughed. "Having too much wine is killing my brain. Have a seat,Young Master Wei. Let's discuss our plans and get to know each other better."
Long Wei briefly thanked Qian Jian and began searching for an empty seat. He silently greeted everyone else in the room. Choosing a chair positioned in front of the piano, yet still a few paces away from the bar, he settled down. Jian returned to his previous seat, grabbed a cup of liquor, and downed it in one gulp.
"So, junior brother, I invited you here simply to get to know you. I've heard so much about you and couldn't wait to see you in person. Pardon me, I forgot to introduce myself and my friends formally," Qian Jian interrupted himself, realizing his oversight.
He rose from his seat once more, shaking his head in a daze, and held onto his waist while chuckling.
"Alright, my friends. The two individuals on the couch next to you, that's Young Lord Lu, the Junior Master of Golden Expanse Pavilion. If you're looking for an artifact not found on the market, he's your guy. And next to him is the Young Miss of Neon Conglomerate.
"She holds a few minor stakes in the Alchemy Association, so if you need pills, find her and she'll have them," Jian gestured with his hands as he introduced them.
"Those two on the chairs, we've known each other since we were little. Best friends for life, as I like to call it. Almost fate.
" The pretty lass is Jasmine. She's from a neighboring realm and came to the Spectral Haven Sect as part of a diplomacy deal, basically an exchange member or something like that. I don't recall these things very well.
" Consider her a nominal core disciple here. Her father is one of the core elders of the Mortal God Sect. And the sword-browed dude is Zhong Wenqian, the mighty heir of the Zhong Clan. He's a simple guy, in all honesty, but his sword... Dang."
"My drinking buddy over here is my junior brother, same master. There's not much to say about him, besides the fact that he's an idiot. And the lady playing the piano is the daughter of the First Elder of Frost Sect. Don't mind her, she barely talks. Lastly, I'm Qian Jian, a personal disciple of the Third Elder. I'm nothing special myself."