Chương 8: Chapter 8: Main Character? Divine Sword??

The entire arena fell into a stunned silence, each person present was shocked for different reasons.

Lin Feng's words made everyone in the arena direct their eyes toward the girl, leaving the onlookers dumbfounded. Among them were the elders of the sect and the Clan heads, who shared a common thought as they looked at Lin Feng's figure.

'Is fate blind to bestow such talent upon a trash like him?'

They felt as if the gods were mocking them by giving their sect master such a seemingly useless son. While they were glad when he was born and held high hopes for him, as he grew older under the spoiling of the sect master, they resigned themselves to his perceived inadequacy.

Meanwhile, Long Tian, standing afar, was taken aback after hearing these words. His gaze swept over the area where the clan heads were seated and noticed the shift of his grandfather's expression, from composed to being panicked, then turning into disbelief for a moment.

Even the head of the Xiao family wore a look of dismay.

Although he was not particularly fond of this girl, he was further disgusted knowing that she was this low of a person.

After observing the reactions of the two old men, Long Tian understood that they were aware of this matter. He then turned to look back at the stage, a faint smile playing on his lips as he anticipated the drama that was about to unfold. He was not angry with the sudden turn of events. If he was angry, it meant that he cared about the girl or what she did.

Meanwhile, the crowd erupted into chaos as they started murmuring amongst themselves.

"Wasn't she already betrothed to the young master of the Long family?"

"Does the Xiao family intend to deceive the Long family? I never thought she would be the kind of woman to engage in such treacherous behavior,"

"It seems she is this type of woman who deceived everyone and has always been wearing a gentle facade before the public, trying to hide what she really is."

The gossip spread like wildfire with each word piercing through Xiao Mei's heart like a sharp arrow.

Her expression turned cold as a flicker of killing intent flashed through her eyes. Anger and frustration were etched across her face for what she was experiencing. Accustomed to upholding her image, this kind of public humiliation and sudden exposure had shattered her facade in an instant.

Taking a sidelong glance, she wanted to see what kind of reaction would Long Tian have after hearing these words.

But as she noticed him look at the stage with an amused smile on his face, her fury intensified. Clenching her fists and biting her lips strongly enough to draw some blood, she looked away, not wanting to make herself any more ashamed.

She was well aware of the fact that Long Tian didn't have any romantic interests in her, something that had always infuriated her. Accustomed to being pampered and adored by the people as they tried to gain her favor, she liked the attention, even though she hated them as they tried to get close to her.

And though she didn't like Long Tian, Xiao Mei wanted him to pay attention to her like everyone else did. She did not like the feeling of being ignored by him, the feeling of being nothing but ordinary in his eyes and longed to become the center of his world.

While all this drama was unfolding, Lin Feng, who was confused about what was happening, sensed that something was amiss with Xiao Mei's demanor. An unsettling feeling gnawed at him, prompting him to investigate further.

He knew very little about Xiao Mei except for her appearance, which was because she was introduced to him by an elder with the help of her painting and ever since he had already thought of her as his own possession.

Noticing that her eyes were fixed somewhere else, he followed her line of sight and found out that she was looking at a strikingly handsome man who seemingly surpassed him in appearance. Soon, jealousy took over him as his eyes turned cold, his fury simmering beneath the surface as he assumed that the man was her lover or love interest.

This newfound rivalry fueled his desire to eliminate the boy. However, he wisely refrained from taking any rash action out in the open, mindful that he could not afford to look bad in the eyes of the public.

'Just you wait, you damned bastard,' he seethed inwardly, plotting his course of action.

Although he was a spoiled brat, he wasn't that oblivious and knew that a direct confrontation in public won't turn out to be wise and he would need a reason to attack the boy.

For now, he could only bid his time and wait for the opportune moment to make a strike.

'I can challenge him under the guise of testing new recruits and given that he is not a high-ranking member from any clan I will also be able to inflict some ACCIDENTAL INJURIES.' He thought inwardly while praising himself for being smart.

Sensing a gaze on him, Long Tian noticed Lin Feng looking at him with the kind of eyes that he could recognize from miles away. He was accustomed to people scheming against him so he naturally knew what kind of look they would have when they were plotting something against him.

Nonetheless, he chose to ignore it, confident that no matter what the guy was planning, he could not be dumb enough to act in the open.

Meanwhile, Long Chen narrowed his eyes as he noticed Long Tian's lack of reaction, he had been keeping an eye on the boy, waiting for any slip-up.

As tensions rose during the discussion and got more heated as time went by, to prevent any further escalation, the Elders decided to intervene and released their aura.

"Let's continue!"

The elder's cold and commanding voice cut through the atmosphere, managing to redirect everyone's attention back to the stage.

Though the conversation had been temporarily sidelined, an invisible tension still lingered, with the attendees simply waiting to return to the topic.

With a sour expression on his face, Long Bai stepped onto the stage. While he had been in pursuit of Xiao Mei's attention, unlike Long Tian, he knew better that he could not go against Lin Feng, which was also why he did not reveal any discontent outwardly.

Long Bai's talent was similar to that of Wang Ye's, and his elemental affinity encompassed both fire and water, which was indeed a noteworthy feat.

As the event progressed, a few more participants from the top clans took turns getting evaluated along with having their talents assessed. During the evaluation, all kinds of talents were displayed, and there were also some who were talentless.

Now it was the turn of the commoners.

One by one they stepped forward to undergo the talent evaluation.

However, as the process unfolded, it became evident that not everyone possessed the innate talent for cultivation. Many were declared talentless and were asked to leave the area.

This caused the crowd to echo in disappointment as several individuals were turned away, their lack of talent prevented them from proceeding with the assessment any further.

Although there were many talentless children, there were also some talented ones among them.

Among the group of commoners, there was a particular participant named Yuan Ming.

He displayed an orange-colored talent which was on the verge of turning yellow, he defied many expectations and possessed a level of potential higher than most.

Yuan Ming was taller than people of his age, reaching up to five feet. His sharp look could easily sway a young maiden's heart along with his sword-like eyebrows which complemented his facial features.

His physique did not have any excessive muscle mass, which indicated that he had been going through focused training given that this kind of muscular build was a rarity among youths of his background and age.

It was as if someone had trained him properly, but if he had achieved this on his own, then it wasn't wrong to say that he was even more talented.

Yuan Ming's appearance held another layer of mystery besides his physique.

The kind of mature character he possessed was rarely seen in the people of his age while he also had an aura of wisdom and elegance to him, something that usually comes only with age and experience.

These traits attracted Long Tian's attention, causing him to narrow his eyes in contemplation about this guy. But what truly captured Long Tian's focus was the rusty sword that was tied to Yuan Ming's back.

While the sword looked rusty and ordinary, the way he was carrying it made it look suspicious.

Yuan Ming was carrying the sword as if it was some kind of precious treasure. While others seemed to ignore the sword, Long Tian could see some carvings on the sword as well.

After thinking for a while, Long Tian shook his head.

'What am I even thinking? It's not like that is some kind of treasured sword and the boy is the main character of some XianXia novel of a struggling writer…'

He couldn't help but laugh at his own absurd imagination but only time would unravel if it was really just his imagination or he just raised a flag, setting some significant event in motion.

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(A/N: Dear mortals, your author is here. He is going to ask you to listen to him for once, which you probably won't. Yet, he will keep on trying.

"How was the book? Tell me!! Okay~~"

**Runs**

Ah it seems the Author ran away leaving me all alone here. I will go too. Don't forget to add the book in your Library.

See you all in the next one~