(Minutes ago, before Gong Tieshan's group entered the sword gate portal.)
In an unknown separate dimension, hundreds, if not thousands, of gigantic silver swords statically floated in a cloudy blue sky as if controlled by some invisible force. The thousands of swords pointed downwards, with their hilts being the top floors. In calculation terms, we can estimate the smallest floating silver sword structure to be around 2,500 m long and 800 m wide. But know that these measurements are merely for the smallest sword structures, and these sword structures were in the majority.
Deeper into the unknown realm, there was an enormously wide hovering platform with a golden sword plunged deep at the back edge of the platform; and at the forefront of the wide platform were fifty soldiers, each standing on a floating sword; they all wore yellow male uniforms with golden badges stuck to their left chests; on the golden badges was the name 'Jian.' (mandarin). The fifty men had expressionless faces as they hovered in rows of five. Leading the fifty men was a woman wearing a luxurious yellow uniform with dual swords attached to her back in crossed form.
The group of fifty soldier cultivators hovered at the far end of the platform as they faced the golden sword, which was exactly like the golden sword outside the realm, at the Fengian Sage city. Not long after, the plunged golden sword began radiating with the same blue-ish light as it activated. A minute later, a group walked through the activated sword gate and into the Sacred realm; this group was none other than Gong Tieshan's group.
At the opposite end of the platform, the fifty yellow-robed soldiers saw the arrived group. But instead of immediately welcoming the arrived guests, the leading woman frowned and squinted her eyes as she scrutinizingly stared at the group that had just walked through the gate.
'The Ancient Gong family's Gong Tieshan? How come such a prodigy is here? Of course, I'm not surprised that he is in our Ancient Jian family's Sacred Realm, as he is a powerful cultivator in his rights, and coupled with the backing of his family, there is nowhere he is not welcomed at.
But this year, the auction was said to only be comprised of High-Tier treasures, not even Heaven-grade, nothing special worth the physical presence of the arrogant and powerful Gong Tieshan himself. Could there be a secret treasure not mentioned in the public announcement? That must have been the case.'
The female leader internally monologed as she instantly analyzed the situation; it seemed she was intellectually inclined to be able to analyze and deduct an answer in such a short period. And from her thoughts, we can safely state that the current dimension is none other than the Sacred Realm of the Ancient Jian Family. A realm where their buildings are hovering gigantic sword-shaped and have a heavenly yet disturbing atmosphere.
On the widespread platform, Gong Tieshan stood, hands behind him as he casually spectated the environments, shifting his eyes left to right.
"This servant respectfully welcomes the Ancient Jian family's eighth prince, Prince Gong Tieshan. I hope the Prince doesn't take offense to us welcoming you, as the higher-ups didn't state that a descendant from the ancient Gong family would be participating in the auction. Or else, there will have been proper salutations befitting your reputation."
The female soldier and her fifty comrades respectfully cupped their hands and welcomed Gong Tieshan's group. But instead of acknowledging the soldier's greetings, Gong Tieshan spoke.
"Take me to Jian Mun."
Gong Tieshan ordered as he completely ignored the woman's words of salutations. But even though Gong Tieshan ignored her, the woman soldier still maintained her respectable expression and tone as such rude actions are considered normal for high-ranking nobles and prodigies like Gong Tieshan.
Understanding what Gong Tieshan's orders meant, the female soldier nodded.
"The Young master must be in his private sword realm; I shall personally escort you to him."
The female soldier spoke, then, with a stretch of her right hand, a grey swordboat, the size of a yacht, appeared on the edge of the platform. Not long after, Gong Tieshan's group boarded the swordboat as the female warrior piloted them from the platform and disappeared into the endlessly horizontal widespread Sacred realm.
With their leader being Gong Tieshan's escort, the remaining fifty male warriors maintained their formations as they awaited the incoming cultivators. But not long after, the soldiers saw a bare-footed old man with grey hair and partially bloody robes appear on the platform. Seeing this, the warriors immediately attempted to unsheath their weapons, but before the soldiers could even act, the old man slightly grunted.
"Hmm!"
Simultaneously to the old man grunting, the fifty ancient Jian family warriors froze at their spots with their hands stuck on their sword hilts; they instantly fell from their hovering positions as they landed on the large platform. Sweats began running down some of the warriors' faces as they raised their heads and trepidatiously stared at the old man. While some had fearful expressions and struggled on the platform, some of the warriors had disgruntled countenances as they clenched their fists.
The reason for some of their disgruntled expressions was because this was their Sacred realm, and they are far stronger when they are in this realm, but despite that, this unknown old man walked into their realm and powerfully humiliated them. It was like punishing someone in their own house. The old man stood in the distance, hands behind him as he stared far into the horizon, looking at a golden hovering sword structure, countless times bigger and larger than most of the hovering sword structures in the realm. Then, the old man vanished into the horizon.
Not long after the old man's disappearance, multiple outside cultivators began appearing in the realm as they slowly occupied the wide platform. The welcoming ancient Jian family warriors reassumed their previous formation as they watched thousands of outside cultivators steadily appear through the activated sword gate; not long after, the arrived cultivators numbered in the tens of thousands and increasing.
Suddenly, while watching the accumulating thousands of cultivators, one of the Ancient Jian family warriors assumed a frown as he stared at the arrived cultivators.
"According to our orders, the higher-ups stated that only cultivators beyond the Celestial Emperor fifth-stage were qualified to participate in the auctions, but the majority of the arrived cultivators aren't even Celestial Emperor fifth-stage. Why is that?"
Some ancient Jian family warriors also noticed the cultivation bases of the arrived cultivators. But just when they were about to unsheath their swords to attack the cultivators, "ALLOW THEM." a loud voice sounded in their heads as they instantly halted their actions. Knowing well who the order came from, the warriors sheathed their weapons as they assumed their orderly formation. (Standing in rows of five)
On the gigantic hovering wide stone platform, the thousands of arrived cultivators stood in clusters as they occupied almost the entire platform. Those who arrived in groups maintained their parties as they stood, waiting on the fifty warriors standing in the distance. Standing with his group, Lian Zu stared far into the distant horizon as he watched the magnificent realm of the Ancient Jian family.
'Looks like the Ancient Jian family's Sacred Realm has changed greatly in the last thousand immortal cycles. I only hope the sudden presence of the 'Bored Immortal' doesn't disrupt much of my plans. But I still can't fathom who those hovering beings in the sky were; could they perhaps be descended 'gods?' that's impossible-.'
"Welcome to the Ancient Jian family's Sacred realm. For most of you, this may be your first time visiting our ancient family's Sacred Realm, so I will have to explain our basic rules. First, your safety entirely depends on you; second, daring to initiate any conflict is equivalent to death, as the sword laws in the Sacred Realm are meant to eradicate any identified enemies. And third, you must pay a participation fee of fifty law spirit stones per individual. After paying the fee, we will escort you to the 'Sword Saint City."
Listening to the soldier's words, some cultivators immediately realized that the Jian family was strategically taking advantage of the situation. If thousands of people were going to participate regardless of the realm, then making them pay a participation fee would be the best profitable thing to do.
Moments later, some cultivators paid their fees as they were then escorted to the Sword Saint City by the warriors on large space ships capable of carrying thousands.
Deep within the Sacred realm, millions of miles away from the sword gate platform where the cultivators had arrived, there was a hovering golden sword structure; this particular golden sword architecture was countless times bigger, larger, and wider than most swords in the realm or more precisely, the word was millions of miles wide and millions of miles long. But unlike most swords in the realm, this golden sword hovered horizontally, and a city was situated on top of the enormously gigantic golden sword. The city had countless imperial buildings and architecture that permeated heavenly golden sword energy, with its constructions piercing deep into the skies.
This magnificently constructed city, on top of the never-ending widespread golden sword, is the 'Sword Saint City,' home of the powerful and wealthy, ranks third among the twelve ancient families, the Ancient Jian Family. The legendary sword masters of the Immortal Realm.
Deep within the city, inside a royally designed residence, a young man with short black hair and a slim pale body, around the age of twenty-six, leaned on a large, luxurious sofa with his left hand supporting his jaw while holding a gold cup in his right. The man sat on a high-level platform as he watched six women wearing revealing clothing and mouth-covering masks dance for his amusements. Some women had little to nothing on as their breasts were completely exposed to the young man.
The young man amusingly smiled as he stared at the sexually dancing women; while occasionally sipping from his gold cup.
Suddenly, as if noticing something, the young man lost his amusing smile as he sat down the gold cup; steadily rising from his seat, the man waved his left hand, signaling the women to excuse themselves. With the women gone, the young man remained in the spacious living chamber as he stood with an authoritative persona, completely different from the amused smiling young man earlier. The man stood with an opened-chested robe; one could see his shredded chest muscles.
Suddenly, the double doors to the royally designed chamber opened, and walked in was none other than Gong Tieshan. With an exciting smirk, the young man stared at the arrived Gong Tieshan as he placed his hands on his hip; he then arrogantly spoke.
"Haha, would you look at that? My most arrogant friend has come to visit me."
"It's been a while, Jian Mun."
Somewhere in the underground locations of the Sword Saint City, the previously bare-footed old man hovered in the space with folded arms. The underground location was like a massive hall, but no pillars existed. Within the spacious underground, there were five human statues; each statue stood holding a sword stuck into the ground with its hands on the sword hilts.
"Overlord of the West, you know it creates a poor image of my Jian family when people see my commands being overridden-
Yeah, yeah I know, so stop with the whining. I will compensate your Jian family with a favor; happy now?"
"Owning a favor from the Overlord of the West, there is no better compensation. So why has the Bored Immortal visited our ancient Jian family? I know you are not here for the auction since you can have anything you want but an order."
An unknown male voice sounded within the spacious hall. Listening to the unknown voice, the bare-footed old man, now known as the Overlord of the West, replied.
"I strolled by the entrance of the Desolate Realm, and things aren't looking good; it won't be long before the seal is broken."
"The seal breaking is old news, Bored Immortal; what's your point?"
"I can sense that this time, things will be completely different from the previous times. You will get a temporary alliance from me, and your Ancient Jian family will perform their part when that time comes. And besides, having an Overlord on your side significantly increases your status among the other eleven families; because I don't count the Jun family anymore."
"...! Please give me time to think about your words. Such decisions must be thoroughly thought out."
"That's fine with me, but you don't have long to consider; there is the news of the death of an Ancient Gong family member, causing the entire Gong family to be enraged and overly cautious towards the other ancient families; I don't think it would be long before war breaks out between the ancient families."
"...! Very well, I shall consider your words. Is there anything else?"
"Yes, I want you to increase the grades of artifacts you will be selling, and I will also be participating."
"Very well, but why bother with the auction? I could give you the artifacts you want."
"No need; I am merely satisfying my curiosity."
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