Chapter 430

A month later, the long-awaited Tea Tasting Assembly and Wine Tasting Assembly were officially held in Wine City.

Those who love tea and wine gathered in Wine City, and a large number of people who do not like tea or wine also flocked to join in the fun. For a time, the city was overcrowded.

After Long Xuan, Shui Lao, and Shui Juanyun squeezed into Wine City, they headed straight for the assembly venue.

The reason why there was an extra Shui Juanyun in the team was because he and Shui Lao were of the same clan, both originating from the great clan, the Shui Clan.

After the two clansmen met, they hit it off immediately and naturally traveled together. Long Xuan could not find a reason to refuse.

After the three entered the city, they headed straight for the city center.

In the city center, there is a Bore River that runs through Wine City. The Bore River is extremely wide, the current is turbulent, and it divides the entire Wine City into two, with bridges of various sizes connecting the two banks.

The Tea Tasting Assembly venue is on the east bank of the river, and the Wine Tasting Assembly venue is on the west bank of the river.

The two assemblies are held simultaneously and end simultaneously. Long Xuan did not want to miss either the Tea Tasting Assembly or the Wine Tasting Assembly, so he decided to participate in the Tea Tasting Assembly himself, while his Yan clone would go to participate in the Wine Tasting Assembly, carrying a wisp of his split soul on his body.

Whether it is the Tea Tasting Assembly or the Wine Tasting Assembly, it is clearly not something anyone can enter.

First, one must be at the Spirit Sea Stage or above, and second, one must submit a pot of good wine or good tea of decent quality as an entrance ticket. Although it cannot stop wealthy Gu cultivators, it is no problem to keep the vast majority of Gu cultivators out.

None of the three went to participate in the Wine Tasting Assembly; they went to the east bank of the river together and chose to participate in the Tea Tasting Assembly. As soon as they arrived at the entrance of the venue, Shui Lao smiled shamelessly:

"Little friend, you also know that my storage ring was shattered in that battle, and I can't take out any tea of decent quality."

"Can you share some with me? After I recover to the peak of the Gu King realm, I will return it to you with interest."

Long Xuan looked at him helplessly; he had heard similar words countless times.

"Let me do it!" At this time, Shui Juanyun laughed: The Shui Clan is skilled in playing with water-related powers and is best at refining wine Gu and tea Gu, so they are not short of good wine or good tea. This time, consider it my treat.

Saying this, Shui Juanyun walked generously to the two guards and submitted three large bags of tea leaves. The two Spirit Sea Stage peak Gu cultivators guarding the entrance took the three large bags of tea leaves, and just by sniffing them lightly, they knew it was good tea, so they let them pass.

Walking into the Wine Tasting Assembly venue, Long Xuan looked around curiously.

The Tea Tasting Assembly was very lively, with people everywhere on the streets and countless good teas.

Especially the number of Gu Kings participating in this Tea Tasting Assembly was simply so many that they were everywhere. Long Xuan was stunned.

With so many Gu Kings, can one still enter the River God Secret Realm?

On both sides of the street, tables were set up, filled with various kinds of tea, being tasted by passersby. Those who love tea lingered at various tea stalls, and after tasting a sip, they commented on the tea at the tea stalls.

For a time, the fragrance of various teas overflowed, and the fragrance of tea was everywhere; this was truly a world of tea.

Long Xuan scanned the various tea stalls roughly and found that the tea in this world is the same as in the ancient times of his previous life. The tea contains not only tea leaves but also many miscellaneous things, such as honey, dates, osmanthus... as long as it is something that can be used for brewing, anything can be put in.

This also leads to different people brewing tea with different tastes. Everyone masters a set of tea-brewing skills unique to themselves, a hundred schools of thought contend, and the tastes have their own merits.

But Long Xuan is different. He likes to pursue the most natural taste of tea, without any embellishment. Except for tea leaves, he puts nothing in.

His tea path belongs to the rebellious in this world and is incompatible with this world.

After the three walked into the Tea Tasting Assembly venue and strolled for a while, Shui Juanyun turned to look at the two and laughed:

"The entrance ticket for the Tea Tasting Assembly only requires submitting some medium-grade tea leaves. Medium-grade tea leaves are not particularly hard to obtain, and I have a lot on hand."

However, they were ultimately a step too slow. Just as they turned, a sheet of lightning rained down upon them.

Except for a young girl who teleported away in an instant and a youth whose body suddenly turned into water and escaped from beneath the soil, this entire group was blasted into smithereens by the incoming lightning, with not a single survivor.

"Son! Quickly see if the culprit who injured you is among these!"

Looking back behind him, seeing that the Fourth-Rank spirit monkey had not caught up, Long Xuan finally let out a long sigh of relief. That was close; who would have guessed that a spirit beast would ride a chariot that only humans possessed, arriving in the blink of an eye.

He was also fortunate that his reaction was fast enough, moving far away from the range of its soul perception early on, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable.

"What happened? What exactly did you see just now? Why was your expression so panicked, and why did you run so fast!" Long Lao asked in confusion.

After all, he lacked Long Xuan's keen eyesight; even with a Gu King's soul perception, Long Lao hadn't been able to detect that spirit beast in the first instance.

Long Xuan did not answer his question, instead turning his gaze toward a patch of ground displaying progress, and immediately spoke out:

"Who is it? I see you, come out!"

As his voice fell, a mass of water flowed out from the ground, slowly condensing into the figure of a person.

Seeing this figure, Long Xuan couldn't help but have a strange expression. Wasn't this person Shui Juanyun? He hadn't expected that these two old acquaintances would meet again; what fate.

This face was exactly the face of the person Shui Juanyun had possessed; he still remembered it vividly, but he hadn't expected that he hadn't died in that battle with the Teng family. His luck was truly good.

He was recognized by Long Xuan at a glance, but Long Xuan was using a different face while out and about, so Shui Juanyun truly didn't recognize him. Seeing that his tracks had been easily discovered, he was slightly shocked in his heart, truly unable to figure out how he had been exposed.

"The two of you, don't misunderstand. I didn't intend to follow you; it's just that the direction I chose while fleeing happened to coincide with yours, and neither of us changed direction halfway, so we ended up walking together."

The person before him made him extremely wary; he dared not offend this person, so he hurriedly explained.

"Do you know what exactly happened in Huiyue City, and what's the deal with that spirit beast wearing a full set of spirit gear?"

"I have never seen a spirit beast that can use spirit gear; it's simply absurd."

Long Lao's curiosity was much heavier than Long Xuan's. At this moment, unable to suppress the curiosity in his heart any longer, he immediately asked.

"I only just arrived here and learned of this matter; I don't know much."

"I only know that a monkey beast named Qi Chi learned human artifact refining techniques and honed them to the point of perfection. No human genius artifact refiner was a match for it, and in the end, this spirit beast even won the championship of the Artifact Refining Competition."

"After this monkey learned artifact refining, unsurprisingly, it immediately refined a massive amount of spirit gear to arm its own tribe."

"A monkey's body is similar to a human's and is the spirit beast most suited to using spirit gear. Once that group of monkeys possessed spirit gear, their combat power soared instantly; their overall combat power could at least triple. They wiped out Huiyue City in the very first battle."

Shui Juanyun revealed a wary expression and said gravely: "A spirit beast that can refine artifacts is simply too great a threat to humans. If artifact refining techniques were to blossom everywhere in the spirit beast world and leave behind a permanent inheritance, the consequences would be unimaginable."

"Even if those transformed Demon Kings each possessed a life-bound spirit artifact, it would be a massive threat to humans."

"Anyone with a brain knows the severity of this matter, so all the major forces in the Western Regions united immediately, dispatching a massive number of Gu Kings to surround and suppress this Qi Chi."

"The number of Gu Kings gathered for this event far exceeds your imagination; even many demonic cultivators and loose cultivators who wanted to seize that divine artifact, the Prison Heaven Staff, came uninvited."

"It is no exaggeration to say that the number of Gu Kings gathered by the Demon Slaying Order doesn't even amount to a fraction of this event. The strongest humans are sparing no cost to eradicate this Qi Chi as quickly as possible; they can't sleep soundly if it drags on for even one more day."

"There will be a show to watch for a while. Even if Qi Chi is successfully eradicated, that Prison Heaven Staff of its, which is hailed as the third divine artifact of the Gu World, will set off a storm of blood. Who knows how many people will die in the process of fighting over this divine artifact."

Shui Juanyun said with great excitement, fearing that the world wouldn't be chaotic enough.

Hearing this, Long Xuan revealed a look of shock. He hadn't expected such a massive event to occur in the Huiyue Empire, and that he had happened to run into it. He was planning to stay in the Huiyue Empire for a period of time, and he didn't know if he would be affected by this event.

His gaze suddenly became thoughtful. A spirit beast that could refine artifacts—he thought of the spirit beast that had come to his shop to trade for alloy bug armor that day. Could it be him?

Could that Prison Heaven Staff, ranked third in the Gu World, have been refined using his Fourth-Grade alloy? No way, right? His expression became strange.

Meanwhile, Long Lao's expression became incomparably ugly, his face as black as could be. He didn't care how chaotic the world was, nor did he care how many people would die; he was thinking of another problem at this moment.

This event had caused a massive number of Gu Kings to gather in Huiyue City, and the dates for the Tea Tasting Assembly and Wine Tasting Assembly happened to be very close to this event.

Once the Tea and Wine Assembly began, would that group of Gu Kings, seeing that the River God Secret Realm was so close to them, stop by to take a look?

How many Gu Kings would gather in the River God Secret Realm by then?

As soon as this thought appeared, he felt his scalp tingle.

The trouble was big. This time, the River God Secret Realm would likely be flooded with a massive number of Gu Kings; the danger level would likely increase tenfold.

Originally, he had absolute certainty about the trip to the River God Secret Realm, but with the appearance of a large group of Gu Kings, there were now huge variables, and the situation had completely spiraled out of his control. (End of chapter)

On the table, besides this wooden sign, there were many other kinds of tea. Among them, the highest quality tea was none other than Ice Heart Tea, which was precisely the cup in Cha Shan's hand.

This old man's eye for quality was truly too sharp; he had actually seen the highest quality tea at the tea stall at a glance.

In order to exchange for the best tea seeds, Long Xuan had long planned to take out a killer weapon like Ice Heart Tea. After being stir-fried with tea-stir-frying technology, the quality of Ice Heart Tea was further improved, and it could almost be exchanged for any kind of tea in this world.

"Hehe, it looks like little friend is preparing to plant a tea garden. Such high-quality tea is surely not something that can be tasted casually. How about I exchange ten cups of tea with you for the seeds of the Earth-grade spirit medicine, Immortal Tea?"

Cha Shan looked at the young stall owner with a smile. The seeds of Earth-grade spirit medicine couldn't be grown anyway, so in his view, if he could exchange them for ten cups of divine tea, it would be a bargain.

It was actually the seeds of Earth-grade spirit medicine. Long Xuan was overjoyed in his heart, but he didn't reveal it on his face, and said calmly: "Deal!"

Saying this, he picked up the teapot containing Ice Heart Tea and poured ten cups of tea for Cha Shan in public.

The tea was clear to the bottom, seemingly cold and seemingly hot, without any impurities... (End of chapter)