Chapter 27: Chicken Stands Among Cranes!

  "It turned out to be Lin Niang and Luo Niang!"

  Xiao Yun stood up, a smile hanging on his face. Lin Chunyin still had long hair covering half of her cheek, with a gentle expression. Luo Qing was still as cute and playful as ever.

  "Xiao Shixiong, how did you also come here? Just now, I and Shijie called you, but you didn't hear." Luo Qing said.

  Xiao Yun apologized and said, "I was just looking for a seat and didn't notice."

  Luo Qing looked at Xiao Yun's position and said, "How did you run to the front? Come with us to the back."

  "I just looked and there's no space left at the back!" Xiao Yun shook her head, asking somewhat puzzled, "Isn't it good here? Why are you all squeezing to the back?"

  Lin Chuoyin smiled slightly and said, "Actually, it's nothing much, just that I suffered a bit from the previous part!"

  "Get taken advantage of?"

  Xiao Yun was taken aback, he had never attended an elite conference before, so he didn't quite understand what it meant.

  Lin Chunyin gently shook her head and turned to Luo Qing, "Sister, let's go get Qin Bao over here and find a spot in the front."

  "What? Not really, Master?" Luo Qing heard this and seemed somewhat unwilling.

  Lin Chunyin smiled and said, "You're not saying that you've made great progress in these few days, right? It's just the right opportunity to test it out thoroughly."

  "Alright!"

  Luo Qing heard this and was still somewhat displeased, but followed Lin Chuoyin to the back of the formation anyway. Before long, they each carried a zither back and sat down in two seats at the rear of Xiao Yun's row.

  "Hey, fellow disciples, haven't we taken a wrong turn? This is clearly the Elite Conference, when did it become something that even lower-ranking people can attend?"

  Just as Xiao Yun was about to ask Lin Chuoyin to dispel his doubts, a very discordant voice came from beside his ear. He turned his head to look, and his eyebrows furrowed, "This guy is really relentless."

  A group of five people walked over, including Qin Yu and Xiao Ming. The one speaking was Qin Yu, who was now looking at him with a strange and ambiguous expression, no doubt referring to him with his previous words.

  The other three people, two men and one woman, were dressed similarly to Qin Yu and the others, and should also be disciples of the Elite Academy. The three of them heard Qin Yu's words and looked at Xiao Yun with a hint of doubt in their expressions.

  Xiao Yun's mouth curved into a slight arc, "You're actually still alive, which is quite unexpected. Seeing you so energetic and lively, are your injuries all healed?"

  "You..." Qin Yu's face, which had just been smiling slyly, suddenly turned beet red like a pig's liver, and a fierce glint appeared on his face. He took a step closer to Xiao Yun and said viciously, "You little brat, you've got guts, let's have another fight, I guarantee I'll beat you so badly that even your mother won't recognize you."

  "The fire is still quite big! I don't know who was beaten by me last time and had a farting and urinating flow!" Xiao Yun smiled slightly, and immediately also used a very cold tone to say to Qin Yu in a low voice, "You want to fight, I'll accompany you at any time, but I dare to guarantee that next time you will not have the opportunity to escape."

  Qin Yu's pupils contracted, and he was actually intimidated by the murderous intent in Xiao Yun's eyes.

  "Qin Shixiong, what's going on?" A round-faced male disciple looked at Xiao Yun with a puzzled expression.

  Qin Yu quickly regained his composure, pointing at Xiao Yun and saying, "This little brat is just a low-ranking member of our Tianyin Sect, yet he dares to attend the Elite Assembly. How ridiculous! I'll tell Master Liu to have him expelled."

  "Haha, Qin surname, who stipulated that the lower class has no qualifications to attend the elite conference? Did you stipulate it?" Xiao Yun suddenly laughed and said.

  Qin Yu's expression turned dark, and he sneered, "The Elite Conference has no rule that says lower-ranking individuals can't attend, but it also doesn't say they can. The purpose of the Elite Conference is to select elites for our Tianyin Sect. You, a lowly and despicable lower-ranking individual, what makes you think you can attend? And yet you have the audacity to sit in the second row, it's simply presumptuous."

  "Yes, even a servant can beat you up so badly that your face is swollen and bruised. If I were you, I would have killed myself long ago. Today, in your eyes, I may be just a lowly servant, but tomorrow, perhaps you won't even be worthy of holding my shoes." said Xiao Yun Dao.

  "Great!" Qin Yu suddenly turned from anger to laughter. "I'd like to see what you're capable of, thinking you can enter the Elite Academy with your abilities, it's simply a pipe dream."

  "Wait and see!" Xiao Yun said calmly.

  "Everyone, our seniors and masters have arrived, let's quickly find a place to sit!" At this time, the woman beside them said to Qin Yu and the others.

  Someone has already walked onto the front stage, Qin Yu originally wanted to say something else, but had no choice but to hold back, humming heavily at Xiao Yun, and then turned around and sat down directly in the seat next to Xiao Yun.

  "Xiao Shixiong, what's going on?" came Lin Chuoyin's low voice from behind.

  Xiao Yun turned around and saw that Lin Chunyin and Luo Qing were both looking at her with worried and suspicious expressions.

  Xiao Yun shook her head and gave the two women a reassuring look, then turned to look at Qin Yu beside her, but was met with a provocative gaze from him.

  Xiao Yun ignored him and turned to look at the stage, which was not high, only about ten feet tall. The two sides and front of the stage had stone steps, and several old men walked up from both sides. Two old men were walking in the front, chatting about something, one of whom was Mu Tian'en.

  On the high platform, two rows of chairs were arranged. The front row had two chairs and the back row had seven chairs. Mu Tian'en and that long-whiskered and chested old man sat in the front row, while the remaining seven old men all sat in the back row.

  On the high platform in the center, there was a wooden guqin case, and on it was placed a guqin. Mu Tian'en's gaze swept across the crowd below, pausing for a moment on Xiao Yun's body. Xiao Yun happened to meet his gaze, and could clearly sense a hint of surprise in Mu Tian'en's eyes. Just as he was about to exchange eye contact with Mu Tian'en, Mu Tian'en turned away and began talking to an old man with a long beard beside him. Xiao Yun had no idea what they were discussing, but judging from the occasional glances they cast his way, he suspected that Mu Tian'en must be talking about him.

  They were too far away, and he couldn't hear what they were saying. However, Xiao Yun didn't pay attention to these details. Looking ahead at the front row, there were thirty-six seats in total, but only two people sat in those thirty-six seats, one on the left and one on the right. Judging from their silhouettes, it seemed to be a man and a woman, sitting exactly in the center of the high platform, directly opposite Xiao Yun's position. The woman was sitting right in front of Xiao Yun.

  "Are you a bookworm?"

  Because I was sitting in the back, I couldn't see their faces, but judging from their silhouettes, they should be quite good-looking. Moreover, I could even smell a faint fragrance in the air, and I didn't know if it came from the front or the back.

  Maybe this is the legendary academic tyrant, I remember when I was in college, it was like this too, the first row, that's the seat of the academic tyrant, and the second row, nearly half of them are sitting there, looking at their attire, they should all be disciples of the elite school, Xiao Yun is mixed among them, and it really has a feeling of a chicken standing among cranes, as if something strange has been mixed in.

  Several elderly people went on stage, and the noise below quickly disappeared. A slightly short and stout old man with a yellow eyebrow walked to the front of the stage, looked down at the audience in a circle, and it was silent.

  "In the year 8372 of the Great Xia calendar, on July 25th, I, Liu Yuanquan, the elder of the Precepts Institute, together with the elders of the Gongyuan Temple and the Jingying Institute, jointly convened this gathering of elites. The three halls will examine you, and I have personally appointed Tiancai Zhenren to preside over the examination. You must perform well, do not disappoint your predecessors." The old man with yellow eyebrows spoke loudly to the people below, his voice was not loud, but it spread throughout the entire square, entering into everyone's ears.

  "Yes, Master!"

  The disciples under the stage shouted in unison, their voices shaking the clouds and heavens.

  Liu Yuanchen smiled in satisfaction and slowly retreated, sitting down beside the long-bearded old man next to Mu Tian'en. The old man stood up, adjusting his clothes, and among all the disciples present, except for Xiao Yun, every single person's face was filled with the same expression - reverence, admiration, extreme excitement and agitation. For this old man was none other than Xie Tianxi, the contemporary leader of the Tianyin Sect, who had attained the legendary Early Heaven Realm.