A Great Age Approaches, the Ping'an Water Bureau (Second Update)

Inside the main hall, the tension pressed down like the low air before a storm, leaving everyone's chest tight.

Fine benzoin burned in a Xuande incense burner. Its smoke curled straight upward, but could not dispel the murderous chill filling the room.

The roll-call officer was a pale, beardless middle-aged man. His voice was thin and shrill, yet it carried with piercing force. He was clearly trained in martial arts.

He held a yellow-silk register. Each name he read out came with a sharp call that rang like metal striking stone.

"Miaojiang Five Immortals Sect, Blue Phoenix!"

Silver bells chimed from a corner.

A woman in indigo homespun, her hair covered in silver ornaments, lazily raised a hand.

She said nothing, but a little scarlet snake coiled around her wrist hissed and flicked its tongue. Several martial wanderers nearby instinctively edged their chairs away.

"Snowland Great Wheel Temple, Master Jingangzhi!"

Heavy breathing sounded like a bellows being worked.

A lama in red robes, built like a bear, held one hand upright before his chest and murmured a Buddhist invocation.

He spun a Purple-Gold Sutra Wheel in his hand. Each turn seemed to carry a faint rumble of wind and thunder.

"Daoist Human Sect, Daoist Miaoxuan!"

An elderly Daoist with white hair and beard, an ancient sword on her back, gave a slight nod. Her eyes remained half-lidded, as though nothing around her concerned her, but the occasional flash in them made others afraid to meet her gaze.

"Chief of the Mount Wutai Discipline Academy, Daoist Tongyuan of Mount Longhu—"

As name after name was called, the expressions around the hall grew increasingly varied.

Qin Geng sat among his senior brothers, his eyelids lowered, though waves were rising in his heart.

Today's gathering had brought in the Great Xin Dynasty's strongest