On Yanggao Terrace

The Xie clan, together with the Huang and Zang clans, were known as the three great families of the Zhanglong Sect. They ranked among the foremost of the Nine Great Clans. In terms of sheer numbers, they fell short of the Huang and Zang clans, but in the past fifty years, the experts within their clan had steadily overshadowed both, because they had always had a Golden Core cultivator, without interruption.

The one celebrating his birthday today was this Old Ancestor Xie, a Golden Core cultivator in the early stage, at the venerable age of one hundred and eighty!

A three-jiazi birthday celebration was something any family would host on a grand scale, so Liu Xiaolou was far from the only guest invited. Nearly every sect and family of the Zhanglong Sect had come.

For instance, Sect Master Zhao of the Changshan Sword Sect, from whom they had parted only two days earlier, nearly collided head-on with Liu Xiaolou beneath the grand archway of Xie Manor. "Haha, Sect Master Liu, we meet again! What fate!"

Elder Guo and Elder Wang, who had come with him to offer congratulations, clasped their fists in unison. "Fate, fate!"

Liu Xiaolou hurriedly returned the salute as well. "Fate, fate!"

Lingxi was truly lively today. They had barely finished exchanging greetings when the three old men of the Changshan Sword Sect all turned left and looked toward the woods. A group was approaching from that direction: Ba Tianyou, Bo Buping, Elder Qin, and the others from the Lingqiu Sect.

"Long time no see. Has Sect Master Ba been well?" Zhao Tiangang called out to Ba Tianyou.

Elder Guo and Elder Wang chimed in without missing a beat. "Been well, been well?"

Ba Tianyou threw back his head and laughed. "Very well, very well! Sect Master