Chapter 272 The Grand Feast of the Nine Provinces (2)
Upon hearing this voice, Si Nu opened her eyes. She climbed onto the cloud and, upon seeing Qing Pingzi and his party, said, "So it is Senior Qing Pingzi of Yu Xu Palace. Are you going to attend the banquet?"
Qingpingzi nodded without changing his expression and said, "It is the Great Sage Si Nu under the command of the Lord. We were on our way to attend the banquet when we passed by this place and saw a faint golden light shining through. We thought that the new god of the Fulu Palace had been born, so we descended from the clouds to offer our congratulations."
Si Nu shook her dragon head and said, "The birth of a new god is a critical moment, and Lord Xi has specially ordered us to wait here."
If a new god appears, he will appear before the banquet.
Qingpingzi nodded and said, "If that's the case, then we'll take our leave."
As soon as Qingpingzi and his party left, Si Nu quickly climbed to the front of the Fu Lu Hall. She pulled open a corner of the formation and called out, "Has the Divine Lord succeeded?"
The sound echoed inside several times, but there was no response; no one answered.
Si Nu craned her neck and looked inside, only to see a scene of carnage in the temple. Bloodstained skeletons lay or sat scattered everywhere, and not a single one had survived.
On the main seat, the Seal of Prosperity hung low above the divine throne, gleaming with golden light, looking as if it could be easily plucked.
Si Nu immediately examined the surrounding magic array carefully. She did not see any leaks, so she confidently returned to the archway and continued to doze off.
After leaving the Fulushan Mountains, Qing Guanzi climbed back up into the clouds. Qing Baizi, who hadn't been out much, slowly climbed up on her forty legs. She whispered to Qing Pingzi, "Senior brother, we have plenty of time. Why didn't you let Senior Brother Qing Guanzi have a match with that Si Nu Great Sage just now?"
Qingpingzi replied, “Junior Sister Qingbaizi, since Guangyang Palace has sent cultivators to guard Fulu Hall, there must be some problems inside. Your willpower is limited. What if you anger that Si Nu and get lured inside?”
Let's not join in this kind of excitement.
Ji Rong, who was listening to this from the side, seemed to understand but not quite.
Her mind was filled with the image of the Golden Mother lying in that enormous coffin filled with golden energy, splitting into a bunch of fleshy balls, and then peacefully sharing a great authority.
Seeing Ji Rong's stunned expression, Qing Baizi assumed that Ji Rong was frightened by the aura emanating from Si Nu and Qing Guanzi.
She swung her forty legs and climbed up to Ji Rong, smiling at her: "Junior sister, don't be afraid. Don't look down on the Great Sage Si Nu just because she looks ugly. She has a good temper. I can hear her good name even when I'm sitting in the Jade Void Palace. I heard that she never kills indiscriminately. She is a good dragon."
Ji Rong immediately nodded to the hundred princes to show that she was at ease.
Qing Guanzi led the cultivators away from the Fulushan Mountains and arrived at the foot of Guangyang Mountain, where they had no choice but to disembark and leave.
With the Nine Provinces Banquet approaching, the restrictions on flying have been lifted below Guangyang Palace.
Qing Guanzi led them along the road, but the speed did not decrease. Ji Rong looked at her senior brothers and sisters who clearly had claws and tails and could run on their own, and thought to herself that this senior brother was so easy to use, going up to heaven and down to earth.
No wonder they always have Qingguanzi escort them when they go out.
When they arrived at Guangyang Palace, there were only four hours left before the banquet began. Qing Guanzi put the cultivators down at the front gate of the palace and said, "Wait for me a moment, let me cleanse myself of the dust."
As he spoke, he happily wrapped his arms around a large white jade pillar and began to scratch an itch on it.
A gorilla stood to the side holding a piece of spiritual linen and said, "Honored guest, this place has not been cleaned yet."
Qing Guanzi ignored the little ape cultivator. Fortunately, he simply rubbed his scales on the pillar. Once the dust on the scales had settled and they looked a bit shinier, he got off the jade pillar and followed Qing Pingzi and his group into Guangyang Palace.
Guangyang Palace is paved with cool, white jade, which can dissipate cold air and is very refreshing.
Perhaps because the Lord of the Sun resides here year-round, this palace, built of cold white jade, exudes a warm light, making the entire palace resemble a great sun, towering above the cloud platform.
Qingpingzi led the cultivators to the gate of Guangyang Palace, placed the banquet gifts in the ritual trays and implements, and then returned to Yuntai with the attendants.
Qingpingzi was positioned very close to the front. He saw the golden dragon attendant holding a fresh green banana leaf covered in dew, and casually fanning it a few times towards the thick clouds and mist. A large jade table and a jade mat appeared before the cultivators.
The waiter invited Qingpingzi to sit down, then placed the banana leaf on the right side of the end of the table before leaving.
As soon as Qingpingzi sat down, he began talking again with the old cultivators he had met at the Yaochi Banquet.
There were 5,125 cultivators attending the banquet. Although the number was not large, the quality of the cultivators was very high, with more than 3,600 of them having reached the Emperor Realm.
Ji Rong stood to Qing Pingzi's left, listening to Qing Pingzi and the others talking while looking around, feeling that all the emperors of the Nine Provinces must have arrived.
The Emperor Xi preferred tranquility, so he chose to hold the banquet on the Cloud Terrace outside Guangyang Palace.
When the banquet began, he could watch the lively scene from afar, feeling quite content.
The many jade tables at the Grand Feast of the Nine Provinces were also circular, arranged in a circle, neither too close nor too far, surrounding and protecting the Guangyang Palace.
The cloud platform of Guangyang Palace was very cold. Ji Rong stood there for a while and felt her feet were icy cold. She secretly pulled one foot back and touched it with her wing claw. Sure enough, there was a layer of frost on the claw.
"It's so cold." Ji Rong thought to herself, and immediately flapped her wings to nudge Qing Guanzi, who was sitting cross-legged to the side. Qing Guanzi lowered her head and asked, "Junior Sister, what is it?"
Ji Rong rubbed one of her paws against Qing Guanzi's belly without any politeness and whispered, "Senior brother, why is it so cold on this cloud platform?"
Qing Guanzi squinted for a moment and said, "Because this is because it is also inlaid with cold jade, and it is because of this coldness that there is never a small banquet before the banquet at Guangyang Palace."
Junior sister, please bear with it a little longer. Once Lord Xi arrives, things will be different.
Although the banquet at Guangyang Palace was cold, the food was consistently quite good. Junior Sister, eat more later to replenish your energy.
Ji Rong asked, "May I walk around a bit?"
Qing Guanzi then leaned out and whispered a few words to Qing Pingzi. Qing Pingzi nodded and said, "Let's go see Qing Baizi and the others too."
Qing Guanzi then led Ji Rong through the cloud platform. The cloud platform was also filled with ice, and the deeper they went, the colder it became.
Qing Guanzi had only taken a few steps into the depths of the clouds when Ji Rong felt the heat on her body being carried away. She had to circulate her spiritual energy to generate heat to maintain it. As soon as she did this, the feathers on Ji Rong's body were soaked, turning her into a bright, wet, colorful chicken.
The other cultivators weren't much better off. Apart from dragon, snake, and insect cultivators, and fire-based cultivators, all the hairy cultivators were soaked to the bone, just like Ji Rong.
Even insects like Qing Baizi had a hard time. When Qing Guanzi found Ji Rong deep in the Cloud Terrace, she was already frozen stiff, and three of the twenty magical artifacts she held in her claws were missing.
Qing Guanzi opened his mouth wide and put Qing Baizi in it. After a while, Qing Baizi angrily said, "Senior brother, some shameless person took advantage of my frozen state to steal my magic weapon!"
Qing Guanzi tossed Qing Baizi onto his back and said, "Junior sister, you have the cultivation of an emperor, can't you circulate your spiritual energy to keep warm like Qing Jizi?"
I remember your seat wasn't this secluded. You were supposed to be sitting with Junior Sister Qingzhezi. Why are you so far away? Where is she?
Qing Baizi said shyly, “She was listening to others talking. I heard the old cultivator Binghu next to me say that this place is very beautiful, so I ran away when my senior sister wasn’t looking.”
Qing Guanzi had Qing Baizi point out the direction and sent her back. He then instructed Qing Zhezi, who was lying on the jade table and whose clothes matched the jade table, and said, "Junior sister, keep a close eye on Qing Baizi. This is a grand banquet. If she dies outside, we senior brothers and sisters will lose face."
Qing Zhezi nodded and immediately placed a small magic circle on Qing Baizi, locking her in place.
Looking at her senior sister Qing Baizi, who was bound in the formation and screaming innocently, Ji Rong felt that this grand feast of the Nine Provinces was indeed not safe enough.
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