Chapter 154

Just after Lei Huanwang and the others entered the mansion, a golden-robed Dragonkin warrior quickly approached them.

"Dragon Horn King!"

Upon seeing the arrival, Lu Qingshan stepped forward two paces with warm enthusiasm: "Welcome to my banquet!"

This Dragon Horn King was a renowned King-Sealing immortal within the Virtual Universe Corporation; though his strength was slightly weaker than Lu Qingshan's teacher Lei Huanwang, he had breached the Twenty-Second Level of the Heavenly Bridge and possessed King-Sealing level combat power.

More importantly, behind this Dragon Horn King stood two Cosmic Venerables.

One was his own teacher, the other the newly ascended and rapidly rising Venerable Tian Shi.

Before Venerable Tian Shi had broken through into an immortal deity, Dragon Horn King had aided him multiple times; after Tian Shi successfully reached the Cosmic Venerable realm, Dragon Horn King directly entered his service and now stands as Tian Shi's top King-Sealing immortal.

Although Lu Qingshan had sent the customary invitation, the fact that he came to the banquet was indeed a great honor to Lu Qingshan.

Just like after Purple Jade King's breakthrough, warriors like Lei Huanwang and Dragon Horn King would at most send subordinates to offer congratulations.

"Wanjie King!"

After sensing Lu Qingshan's warmth, Dragon Horn King smiled warmly: "Congratulations on entering the King-Sealing realm! Now our human race has another King-Sealing warrior!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Dragon Horn King pulled out a pre-prepared gift and handed it to Lu Hongwen beside Lu Qingshan.

"Thank you, Dragon Horn King!"

Lu Qingshan quickly smiled in gratitude: "The banquet is already prepared—please come in and take your seat!"

"Not yet!"

Dragon Horn King waved his hand, then produced another gift: "Actually, I didn't come merely on my own behalf—Venerable Tian Shi has entrusted me to deliver a gift to you, Wanjie King!"

Hearing this, Lu Qingshan was momentarily stunned.

After he breached the Eighteenth Level of the Heavenly Bridge and was granted the title "Wanjie King," he had indeed sent a message to Venerable Tian Shi.

But he had also heard his ancestral master Venerable Yao Guang mention that Tian Shi had recently departed for the Primordial Stars—yet the man still remembered this "small matter" and sent a gift through another.

As Dragon Horn King handed Tian Shi's gift to Lu Hongwen beside him, he continued: "Wanjie King, Venerable Tian Shi originally intended to come in person, but he has other urgent matters to attend to, so he entrusted me to deliver this gift."

"I understand," Lu Qingshan nodded quickly.

In truth, it was better that Venerable Tian Shi did not come in person—after all, the gap between Venerable and immortal was immense; if he had attended, he would have overshadowed Lu Qingshan, the host, and made other guests feel constrained.

This was precisely why Venerable Yao Guang, Lu Qingshan's ancestral master, had not come to the banquet.

"Hahaha, Wanjie King, go ahead and attend to your guests—I'll go inside and chat with Jing Lei Wang and the others!"

After stating his purpose, Dragon Horn King chuckled and followed the attendants into the grand hall.

……

One by one, powerful warriors arrived with their retinues, and Lu Qingshan, accompanied by his disciple Huo Gesi and third son Lu Hongwen, continuously received each guest.

Although this banquet was held in reality, making attendance inconvenient, far more warriors came than during the last banquet Lu Qingshan hosted virtually when Lu Hongwen broke through into immortality—and the overall strength of those attending was vastly higher.

Back then, when Lu Qingshan was merely a Marquis-Sealing immortal, most attendees were King-Sealing immortals from Yanfeng Universe or friends he'd made within the Virtual Universe Corporation; only a few of his senior and junior siblings were King-Sealing warriors.

But those attending this banquet were mostly King-Sealing immortals: not only from the Virtual Universe Corporation's faction, but also from the other four major human factions, and most Marquis-Sealing immortals lacked even the qualifications to be invited.

Moments later…

Lu Qingshan's direct superior in the Transport Department, Lord Heifeng, arrived alongside Qingcang Hou.

And Qingcang Hou did not come with Lord Heifeng—he had received Lu Qingshan's invitation separately.

"My Lord Heifeng!"

Lu Qingshan quickly stepped forward with a smile.

"Wanjie King, now that you've broken into the King-Sealing realm, we can treat each other as peers!"

Lord Heifeng laughed heartily: "I always suspected you'd have a chance to reach the King-Sealing realm, but I never expected you'd break through so quickly!"

"I was just lucky," Lu Qingshan replied humbly.

"Hahaha, luck is part of strength too!"

Lord Heifeng chuckled: "Wanjie King, I won't disturb you further—let's chat later!"

"Understood!"

Lu Qingshan nodded slightly, then signaled an attendant to guide Lord Heifeng to his seat.

"Wanjie King, your invitation to attend this banquet has truly delighted me!"

After Lu Qingshan finished speaking with Lord Heifeng, Qingcang Hou stepped forward warmly: "I always knew you had extraordinary potential, but I never imagined you'd become a King-Sealing immortal so swiftly—with your potential, you'll surely reach the King-Sealing peak!"

"Then I'll take your good wishes as prophecy," Lu Qingshan replied with a smile.

At that moment, several streaks of light flew in from afar.

But the aura emitted by these arrivals differed from those who had come before.

For the newcomers were not flesh-and-blood lifeforms—they were rock-based lifeforms.

Seeing this, Qingcang Hou realized Lu Qingshan must attend to new guests and promptly followed an attendant into the banquet hall.

As the streaks of light settled before Lu Qingshan, several towering, muscular figures emerged—all were Jinjiao Clan members, and among them stood none other than King Tawen and Mengdu King, whom Lu Qingshan had met before.

Seeing King Tawen and Mengdu King arrive with several Jinjiao warriors, Lu Qingshan felt a flicker of surprise.

For he had not sent them an invitation.

Still, since they had come to his banquet, Lu Qingshan warmly greeted them: "King Tawen, Mengdu King—long time no see!"

"Hahaha!"

King Tawen's voice boomed as he laughed: "Wanjie King, we've come uninvited—do you welcome us?"

"Of course I welcome you all!"

Lu Qingshan sent a mental command to Huo Gesi to prepare alloy delicacies favored by the Jinjiao Clan, then smiled: "I actually intended to invite you, King Tawen, but thought the distance between the Jinjiao Clan's territory and our human realm too great, so I decided to invite you later within the Hong Alliance."

"Your King-Sealing celebration—even if it lay at the edge of the cosmos, we had to come!"

King Tawen laughed: "Besides celebrating your breakthrough into the King-Sealing realm, I've also come under the orders of our Jinjiao Clan elder, Kelimansi."

"Oh?"

Lu Qingshan's heart stirred, and he quickly asked, "King Tawen, I wonder what instructions Elder Kelmanse has?"

"It's like this!"

King Tawen handed a gift to Lu Qingshan while smiling and saying, "After Elder Kelmanse learned that your comprehension of laws, King of Wan Jie, had stepped into the King-Sealing tier, he not only prepared a gift for you, but also instructed me to invite you once again to visit our Golden Horn race, and the Elder also said he would fulfill his previous promise!"

Hearing this, Lu Qingshan quickly recalled the promise Elder Kelmanse of the Golden Horn race had once given him.

It was that, once he stepped into the King-Sealing tier, the other party would still seriously guide him once!

Although Lu Qingshan now had the guidance of his Ancestral Master Venerable Yao Guang, Kelmanse's guidance was no longer very important to him, yet at the time, Kelmanse's guidance had been a great help to him, even helping him smoothly step into the high-tier Marquis level.

Thinking of this, Lu Qingshan quickly said, "I didn't expect Elder Kelmanse to still remember me. Once I have time, I will definitely visit the Golden Horn race and personally pay my respects to Elder Kelmanse!"

"King Tawen, King Mengdu, and all friends of the Golden Horn race, please come inside and enjoy the delicacies!"

"Good!" King Tawen nodded slightly, then walked into the banquet hall together with King Mengdu. At this time, Huo Gesi also quickly ordered people to prepare alloy delicacies suitable for the Golden Horn race members to enjoy.

The arrival of King Tawen and the other Golden Horn race members also caused waves of discussion to rise and fall in the banquet hall.

"I didn't expect King of Wan Jie to have such powerful connections right after his breakthrough!"

"I've heard of that Golden Horn race too. It's one of the many ordinary races within the Hong Alliance, and its leader, Xiluo Duo, has the strength of a Seven-Star Overlord. In the Hong Alliance, it's still quite formidable!"

"It's said that every Elder of the Golden Horn race is a true Universe Venerable. I didn't expect King of Wan Jie to actually have connections with an Elder of the Golden Horn race!"

"What does that count for? Didn't you hear earlier that King Jinjiao even brought a gift from Venerable King Tian Shi?"

"That's right! I once heard my teacher mention that although Venerable King Tian Shi only broke through not long ago, he now already possesses the strength of a Seven-Star Overlord!"

"King of Wan Jie' connections are truly formidable!"

For a time, the many King-Sealing Immortals who had come to attend the banquet also gained a deeper understanding of Lu Qingshan.

After all, before Lu Qingshan broke through to become a King-Sealing Immortal, he had always been working in the Transportation Department. Although his fame was quite prominent among Immortal Army Masters and Marquis Immortals, to most King-Sealing Immortals it amounted to nothing.

As for Lu Qingshan's cultivation speed, which countless Immortal Army Masters envied, it amounted to even less to those King-Sealing Immortals.

After all, many King-Sealing Immortals had already crossed the 17th layer of the Tongtian Bridge, or even the 18th layer, during the Realm Master period, and this cultivation speed was much faster than Lu Qingshan's.

And now, several Universe Venerables had successively sent people to deliver gifts to Lu Qingshan, even including powerful alien beings like the Golden Horn race, which made the many King-Sealing Immortals attach even greater importance to Lu Qingshan.

……

As time passed, most of the powerful beings who had come to attend the banquet had already arrived.

It is worth mentioning that when Hearing Qingping Wang of the Intelligence Department came to attend the banquet, he even brought a gift from the Intelligence Department's leader, Yin Ying Junzhu, and this also made the many powerful beings who had come to attend the banquet attach even greater importance to Lu Qingshan.

However, Lu Qingshan knew very well in his heart……

The reason Yin Ying Junzhu sent Hearing Qingping Wang to bring him a gift was, first, because he had an avatar, allowing him to roam more freely on the Extraterrestrial Battlefield; and second, because he was skilled in soul attacks, giving him the chance to enslave alien powerhouses to serve the Intelligence Department!

At this time, over ten thousand Immortal Gods had already gathered in the banquet hall, among whom the number of King-Sealing Immortals even exceeded three thousand.

Although this could not compare to the human race's ninety-plus thousand King-Sealing Immortals, after all, Lu Qingshan was holding this banquet in reality this time, so many King-Sealing Immortals who could not get away naturally could not attend!

After all the guests who could rush over had arrived, the banquet was finally about to begin.

"Everyone!" Lu Qingshan's senior brother, King Jidian, quickly walked to the high platform at the very front of the banquet hall, then looked at the many Immortal Gods below.

And upon hearing King Jidian's voice, the crowd that had been chatting with each other in the banquet hall all fell silent, then all looked up at King Jidian.

"In our human race, there are many geniuses, and there are also many powerful beings!"

King Jidian quickly said in a loud voice, "Among all of you present, many have even crossed the 15th or 16th layer of the Tongtian Bridge during the Realm Master stage. The 17th layer, or even the 18th layer — breaking through directly into a Marquis Immortal, or even a King-Sealing Immortal!"

"And the person I want to talk about today is quite different from us!"

"When he first began cultivating, his talent was not considered strong, and he even failed to join the core layer of the five great powers of our human race!"

"It was not until nearly three million years ago that he managed to enter the Initial Universe to cultivate, and ultimately smoothly broke through to become an ordinary Immortal!"

"But after becoming an Immortal, he did not give up on cultivating. In less than three million years, he actually charged from the 10th layer of the Tongtian Bridge to the 18th layer, and he transformed from an ordinary Immortal into a King-Sealing Immortal!"

"Such a legendary experience, even looking across the many powerful beings of our human race, is extremely rare!"

"Who is he?"

King Jidian smiled as he looked at Lu Qingshan, then said in a loud voice, "He is the direct disciple of Teacher Lei Huanwang, my junior brother, 'King of Wan Jie' Lu Qingshan!"

"Let us all welcome Junior Brother Qingshan up! I hope his strength in the future can become even more powerful, and that he can make his name shake the countless races of the universe!"

Under everyone's anticipation, Lu Qingshan quickly walked up to the high platform.

"Everyone!"

Lu Qingshan looked at the crowd below, then smiled and said, "What King Jidian said is really a bit exaggerated. But even though my strength may not compare to all the King-Sealing Immortals present, I will definitely shoulder the responsibility of a powerful being of the human race, fight for our human race, and absolutely will not disgrace the prestige of our human race!"

"That's all I have to say. I hope everyone can happily enjoy this banquet from here on. Huo Gesi, prepare the banquet."

……

Next, the many guests all began to enjoy the delicacies, but eating was just a pretext — chatting was the real business!

After all, those who could come to attend this banquet were either famous big figures or powerful beings with relatively good relations with Lu Qingshan, and they rarely met each other in reality on ordinary days.

For example, some Marquis Immortals and Immortal Army Masters normally found it hard to even meet a single King-Sealing Immortal, yet now there were more than three thousand King-Sealing Immortals in the banquet hall.

After Lu Qingshan finished his speech, he also quickly began to accompany his disciple Huo Gesi and his third son Lu Hongwen in receiving the more important guests one by one.

After Lu Qingshan walked over to where some high-ranking members of the Transportation Department were and finished greeting them, Lord Heifeng directly stood up and began to converse with him.

"King of Wan Jie, I wonder what your plans are after becoming a King-Sealing Immortal this time?" Lord Heifeng asked with a smile.

"I am planning to go to the Initial Universe to cultivate for a period of time next!"

Lu Qingshan said somewhat embarrassedly, "So I'm afraid I won't be able to continue the work in the Transportation Department, so I plan to leave the Transportation Department!"

"Brother Qingshan!"

Lord Heifeng directly switched to secret voice transmission: "Even if you want to go into secluded cultivation in the Initial Universe, there's absolutely no need to leave our Transportation Department!"

"Our Transportation Department still offers quite a lot of benefits to King-Sealing Immortals, and the requirements are also very low!"

"As long as you can keep your name registered in our Transportation Department, even without participating in daily work, every hundred thousand years you can directly obtain a reward of ten thousand points. This is entirely a benefit the Transportation Department offers to King-Sealing Immortals — it would be foolish not to take it!"

"Besides that, every time you complete a task there will be corresponding rewards, and if you have things to do, such as secluded cultivation in Chaos City and so on, you can completely refuse the tasks the company arranges for you!"

"So that's how it is!" Lu Qingshan nodded slightly and said.

Lord Heifeng's meaning was actually very clear to him — he just wanted him to stay in the transport department and "draw a phantom salary"!

Every hundred thousand years there was a free reward of ten thousand points, which for a Hei Fengwang-level Undying was already quite decent — one only needed to be nominally attached to the transport department for a few billion years, and that would be enough to accumulate the entire fortune of an ordinary Hei Fengwang-level Undying.

If Lu Qingshan were really just an ordinary Hei Fengwang-level Undying right now, this would naturally be very attractive to him.

But with his current strength, coupled with the method of clones, he had already completely lost interest in this bit of reward.

Moreover, as a powerhouse, constantly fleecing the company wasn't much fun either.

Thinking of this, Lu Qingshan quickly transmitted his voice: "Heifeng, I understand your kind intentions! But this time I'm heading to Chaos City, and I may end up staying there for quite a long stretch, so it's still better to leave the transport department first and then go into closed cultivation inside Chaos City!"

"Alright then!"

Lord Heifeng nodded and transmitted: "Since you've made up your mind, Qingshan, I'll handle the rest of the matters for you!"

"Heifeng, sorry for the trouble this time!" Lu Qingshan said with a quick smile.

"Hahaha, it's nothing but a small matter!"

Lord Heifeng laughed heartily: "Whenever you want to come back to the transport department, Qingshan, just come find me — the benefits I just mentioned will remain unchanged!"

"No problem!"

Lu Qingshan nodded quickly, then immediately took Huo Gesi and Lu Hongwen with him and headed over to the other powerhouses.

(End of chapter)