Facing an Orthodox Mystic Gate Cultivator

On a banyan branch lit by firelight, more than twenty people huddled together, talking quietly. The three at the front cut imposing figures: while they sat, everyone beside them had to bend forward to speak.

They were Yuan Xian, lord of Cold Moon City; Zhuang Shaoyan, lord of Golden Spear City; and Xu Yan, lord of Ten Thousand Swords City, all from the Western Continent.

Yuan Xian cultivated an Unorthodox Path water secret art. His lineage had made its start by nurturing a Natural Water Spirit called Cold Pool, and the art he practiced could release viciously cold air that froze a person's Qi Sea and Spirit Veins.

Zhuang Shaoyan was an Artifact Cultivator, a city lord who had fought his way out of a heap of corpses. Golden Spear City stood at a western sea inlet, where sea demons regularly invaded. They provided Artifact Cultivators with a steady supply of materials, but also ensured the city's lord changed often.

Xu Yan, meanwhile, had fused with a Demon Armament. Her lineage controlled a secret site that continuously nurtured sword Demon Armaments, and many Xu descendants and collateral relatives lived in the city.

"Shall we try our luck?"

Yuan Xian looked to Zhuang Shaoyan. In a fight, Zhuang Shaoyan was naturally the strongest of the three.

Before Zhuang Shaoyan could answer, Xu Yan spoke. "Don't just swallow that pedant's pretty words. If the prize were so easy to take, why wouldn't he seize it himself? He probably suffered a loss. In their clash with Bright Radiance City, both sides brought over a dozen Third Realm cultivators—almost everyone they could invite."

The pedant she meant was Ma Zhizhi, Ascending City's deputy lord and the leader of one of the two groups Yang Wenqing had ambushed earlier.

"Even with all those people," she