Compared with the thronging first floor, the second floor was noticeably quieter.
The spacious hall was decorated in subdued tones. A musician played the zither behind a pearl curtain, while a steward of the Mountains and Seas Tower introduced the various treasures on the raised platform in the center:
"This is the scabbard the Martial Ancestor used in his youth, named 'Crossing Calamity.' The city lord happened upon it during his travels in the great desert long ago and has treasured it as a personal favorite for a hundred years. This is its first public appearance-"
The hall could truly be called a gathering of luminaries.
Lü Yan of Five-Spirit Mountain sat sipping tea at a table. After accidentally losing the Yellow Qilin Seal yesterday, he had feared Brat Xie would come knocking to extort him, so he had spent a fortune buying it back. The exchange had cost him a sizable chunk of his wealth for nothing. Now he wore a bitter expression, with no interest whatsoever in bidding.
Several other renowned cultivators were also seated in the hall. Chen Yishan sat not far from Lü Yan, and nearby was a Black-Clothed Cloak Person, utterly motionless and possessed of a rather imposing presence.
Long Boyuan occupied a seat near the front, beside Gu Xuanzun, the Demon Soul Sect's sect leader and a local heavyweight of Dragonbone Shoal. Although he came from a demonic sect, his bearing looked no different from an ordinary cultivator's. Only his gaze occasionally strayed toward a distant tea table.
Several witches in white robes stood around that table. The Northern Darkness Sect Holy Maiden, adorned all over with silver ornaments, sat upright in her chair, discussing something quietly with her companions.
Han Yuemei, the sect leader of Hundred Flowers Grove, had also attended over the