"Welcome one and all to this banquet! It is a pleasure that you can all join me today!"
This voice came from behind Murong Yue, so Lin Fan was able to clearly see where it came from.
This voice came from someone who had suddenly appeared on the stage with a mic.
The person who had spoken was a young man who was dressed in a pure white suit with windswept chestnut brown hair. His facial features seemed like they had been chiseled out of marble and there was also a pair of piercing golden eyes that perfectly finished his face.
This youth stood there with a smile on his face as he looked over the crowd that was underneath him.
After waiting for a bit, that youth continued by saying, "I hope that you're all having a good time. Now that most of us have gathered, let's start by announcing the reason for this banquet, but before that, let me tell you a few things about me."
As the youth was introducing himself, which also counted as bragging about himself, Lin Fan whispered to Mao Tao, "Who is that?"
Mao Tao was surprised to hear this from Lin Fan since that golden eyed youth on stage was considered a famous person. He was one of the Decagram Geniuses, the third ranked out of the ten of them, so most people knew who this youth was.
Still, since Lin Fan didn't know, Mao Tao explained, "He's Lei Feng of the Lightning Sect, the third ranked member of the Decagram Geniuses and the eldest son of the Lightning Sect's Sect Leader."
Lin Fan was surprised by this Lei Feng's introduction, it really seemed like he was an important person.
Lin Fan didn't recognize Lei Feng himself, but he definitely recognized the Lightning Sect because it was one of the twelve great factions.
However, when he thought about it, he didn't find this strange.
Whether it was Mao Tao, Qiao Yi Fei, or Fu Ling, their grandparents all had important positions in the Hunters Organization. A banquet that could convince even one of them to come would mean that the ones holding it already had quite the status. For all three of them to come, it was certain that this banquet would need to be held by one of the other twelve great factions.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAfter thinking this through, Lin Fan turned his attention back to the stage. He had turned back just in time because Lei Feng had finished his introduction.
Lei Feng took a deep breath after he finished before saying with a trace of excitement in his voice, "Now, let's get to the main topic. I'm sure you're all wondering why we invited all of you today, so let me tell you all. However, before I do that, I want to invite a dear friend of mine on stage to help me with this announcement."
Lei Feng turned to the side of the stage where a spotlight had suddenly appeared, shining down on a person who had been waiting there the entire time.
Even with a different outfit, Lin Fan recognized this person immediately because of his moustache.
It was Shi Yan again!
When he appeared, both Lin Fan and Murong Yue knitted their brows as they had confused looks in their eyes.
What was Shi Yan doing here?
After the spotlight appeared and Shi Yan was introduced, Lei Feng waved his hand to invite Shi Yan to the center of the stage with him.
Shi Yan came to the center and the two of them fist bumped before Lei Feng turned to the crowd to say, "I'm sure many of you recognize my dear friend here, but for those of you that don't, let me give you an introduction. My dear friend Shi Yan here is from the Shi Family of the True Spirit Sect and he's also a well known hunter. He is here on behalf of the True Spirit Sect to announce this matter with our Thunder Sect."
Everyone in the crowd looked at Shi Yan with surprised looks, but there were a few that knew more than the rest that narrowed their eyes to look at Shi Yan with a wary look.
Lei Feng didn't mind this as he continued, "The Thunder Sect is officially announcing that we have discovered an Ancient Era Ruin that we will be partnering with the True Spirit Sect to excavate."
When this was said, everyone took a cold breath.
They all had their different reasons for being surprised, but the biggest reason was the words "Ancient Era Ruin".
The Ancient Era, it was something that they had all heard about in legends before.
Long before this current era, there was an era where gods were all around the world. It was an era of cultivation glory, one where the level of cultivation far surpassed the current level of cultivation.
However, because of an unknown incident, the era had ended and disappeared.
Even though it was gone, there were still ruins that had been left from that era that people would find from time to time. The items that they found in these ruins had almost always been artifacts that could be considered the foundation of an organization.
Now the Thunder Sect was announcing that they had found an Ancient Era Ruin and was sharing it with the True Spirit Sect?
The other twelve great factions wouldn't sit still, but that was also why Lei Feng had called this banquet.
Of course, there were some that had sharper minds that began understanding the deeper implications of this.
Shi Yan was indeed from the Shi Family of the True Spirit Sect, but the Shi Family wasn't one of the two main families that ruled over the True Spirit Sect. There were more qualified people to represent the True Spirit Sect in the audience, but not a single one of them said a thing which meant that this was the will of the entire True Spirit Sect.
As for why Shi Yan was chosen…
Lei Feng could see that everyone was surprised and he gave them a bit of time to react before saying, "Now, now, I'm sure that you're all excited, but it isn't the right time to be excited yet. We will be going over the plan for the excavation of this ruin now."
With a snap of his finger, there were thirteen different people holding pillows in their hands that appeared. Atop each of the pillows were several tokens. There were also some pillows that had more tokens on them compared to the others.
Lei Feng waited until they took their place before turning to look at the audience to say, "These are the tokens that represent quotas in the ruin exploration team. As you can see, there is one for each of the twelve great factions and we've given out quotas already. Those that represent the twelve great factions, please come forward and receive your tokens."
He didn't even bother looking at the others who came up to the stage as he went to one of the pillows. Shi Yan was the same as he came to another one of the pillows.
Both of these pillows clearly had more tokens on them compared to the rest, but this was also natural since the two factions that they represented were the ones leading this ruin exploration.
If they wanted, they could have monopolized this ruin and not shared with the others…Well, they couldn't have completely monopolized this ruin since it was impossible to hide the news of an Ancient Era Ruin, but they definitely wouldn't have had to give out so many spots.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThem giving out all these spots was already them being generous enough.
p
But when Lin Fan thought about it, he realized that this was the best choice since Mao Tao was the president's granddaughter, so she was the one who best represented the Hunters Organization.
The other representatives from the other twelve factions arrived on stage and went over to the pillows as directed. Once they were there, the first thing they did was find out how many tokens that they had been assigned.
When it was over, there were people who had smiles on their faces and people who had displeased expressions.
The first one to speak up was the representative from the Ice Goddess Palace, a beautiful young miss who had hair that was as white as ice. She turned to look at Lei Feng with narrowed eyes and said, "Young master Lei, what is the meaning of this?"
Everyone's attention had been drawn by her words and they all looked at the number of tokens that she had.
It was clear that compared to everyone else, the Ice Goddess Palace had received much fewer tokens.
Lei Feng didn't care at all as he looked right into her angry gaze and said, "Well, it should be obvious, shouldn't it, miss Bing?"
The young miss who had been called miss Bing knitted her brows, but she didn't say a thing in response.
Lin Fan knew the reason since it was one that was quite well known.
For the longest time, the Thunder Sect and the Ice Goddess Palace had been at each other's throats, so something like this was just natural.
The thing worth noting was that the only other faction that received less tokens was the Myriad Sword Hall, but that also made sense since the True Spirit Sect, the Thunder Sect, and the Myriad Sword Hall were all sects, so they competed with each other when it came to disciples. There was no way for them to cooperate in harmony.
The ones that received more tokens were the Assassins Association, the Tamers Guild, and the Alchemy King Hall.
While everyone was focused on the twelve great factions, someone suddenly asked, "What about the thirteenth pillow?"