Yellow Maple Valley's Guest Reception Hall had been renovated. New brass studs adorned its vermilion gates, and a memorial tablet for the "Star-Magnetic Patriarch" stood on the incense altar inside. Before it lay three sacrificial animals and a bronze star disk-the "Star Palace guardian artifact" Mo Chenzi had brought from the Chaotic Star Sea. It slowly revolved, refracting the autumn sunlight outside into tiny golden flecks that scattered over the cultivators filling the hall.
Han Li sat in the seat of honor, dressed in the silver-patterned robes of the Star Palace Master, the Water-Magnetic Sword hanging at his waist. To his left stood Wu Jiuzhi, Master of the Seven Mysteries Hall; to his right stood Zhou Tong, sect leader of Yellow Maple Valley and Master of the Yellow Maple Hall. Below them, the three factions stood separately: the Star Palace cultivators formed squares according to their original sects, the remnants of the Seven Mysteries Sect stood to the east in worn Daoist robes, and the Yellow Maple Valley disciples stood to the west in yellow cloth tunics. In the shadows at a corner of the hall, Mo Chenzi watched silently, his white beard hanging to his chest, his nascent soul late stage spiritual power as still as an ancient well.
The Magnetic Essence Griffin crouched below the steps leading to the seat of honor, his golden feathers gleaming in the sunlight, nascent soul middle stage pressure radiating from his body. He had been formally invested as the guardian divine beast of the Heavenly South Star Palace.
"Today, on the old grounds of Yellow Maple Valley, the remnants of the Seven Mysteries Sect and the elites of the Star Palace gather together." Han Li's voice rang like a great bell, carrying throughout the hall through the Star-Magnetic Transmission Art. "The Blood