While Darren was in his quiet reverie, several people appeared on the platform of the training ground. They were elders of the Chu Clan. Besides them, Toby, the Captain from the Governor's Office, was seated in the middle of the platform.
"Everyone, silence," one elder announced, gesturing for the crowd to be quiet.
The noisy din died down quickly.
"Thank you for coming here. As you know, today we are going to elect our chief. Please allow me to introduce our honored guests. The Elder of the Yun Clan—Will Yun; the coach of the Wen clan—Cary Wen...
Of course, the Captain of Governor's Office, Toby Yun honors us with his presence."
After introducing these important guests, the elder announced the rules for the election. "There are three battle rings on the training ground. Anyone from our clan who thinks himself a perfect candidate for the chief can walk onto the stage and receive other people's challenges. As for our young generation, they can get one helper from their relatives considering their age."
The rules were simple. The wives of the former chief had invited strong cultivators from their maiden families to assist their children who intended to join the selection.
For such elections, young people usually went onto the stage first. To avoid exposing their real strength, the powerful cultivators would wait to show up as the election was about to close.
"I'm Nicholas. Who dares to challenge me?" Nicholas asked, glancing around.
He was the first to head onto the ring battle. 'If a respectable elder comes onto the field, I will graciously surrender. But if weak young cultivators want to challenge me, I will teach them a lesson, ' he mused.
"Blake, go teach that guy a lesson."
"Got it!" Blake replied, springing into action.
But suddenly, a maiden walked through the crowd, heading towards the field.
"It turns out the genius of the Chu Clan is a ridiculous clown," she said defiantly, an expression of fierceness on her face.
"Who are you? How dare you stir up trouble here?" an elder of the Chu Clan shouted at the girl with a stern expression.
"Good question!" the girl took another step forward and threw a token at him. She nonchalantly replied, "As a part of the Chu Clan, I'm qualified to run for the chief!"
The elder took the token, and his face changed instantly as he saw the characters on it. Hurriedly, he handed it to the Chief Elder.
"This is Gavin's token. He mentioned her and her mother before. She is his illegitimate child," the Chief Elder confirmed, displeasure written all over his face.
"Even though you have the blood of our clan, you're not qualified to attend the election. Your mother is an unvirtuous woman and she brought shame on our clan. You have been exiled. Just leave," the Chief Elder said gravely, staring sternly at the girl.
When she heard this, the maiden's face darkened with rage. 'How dare he have the nerve to call my mother an unvirtuous woman!'
"Old man, how dare you insult my mother?" she said menacingly, glaring at the Chief Elder.
The Chief Elder snorted, dismissing her with a wave of his hand. "You best behave yourself here. That woman was caught sleeping with a servant in the storage room soon after she was married into our family. If Gavin hadn't shown her any mercy, we would have already thrown her into the lake. You should be grateful that we only exiled you and your mother. If you don't want to get in trouble, get lost right now."
"Screw you! You're a liar. You're cowards. You're afraid I will take the chief's place, so you're making up lies to fool everyone! Are you blind? Look at that loser on the stage. You even call him the most promising cultivator in the young generation! That's ridiculous!" the maiden screamed, a resentful sneer on her face.
Her remarks made Nicholas lose his temper. His face turned dark in an instant.
"How do you have the guts to scold me, you little bitch?" Nicholas said, glaring at the maiden. With his chest rising and falling, he turned to the elders and demanded, "Please allow this pathetic bitch to fight with me on the field. I will end my life myself if I fail to defeat her!"
Nicholas had made up his mind to murder that arrogant maiden. His pride had been wounded.
"Your mother is a whore and so is your grandmother!" the maiden retorted, as she took a leap onto the battle ring.
The elders of the Chu family remained silent, granting Nicholas' request. 'This girl is about twelve years old. There is no way she will even come close to matching Nicholas. We should let Nicholas teach her a lesson so that she will leave here obediently, ' they reasoned.
"Your mother is an unvirtuous woman. I'll beat you to death," Nicholas declared angrily.
Once he had lobbed this insult, the maiden suddenly vanished into thin air.
He looked around but saw no sign of his opponent.
Out of the blue, he got slapped. Before he could realize what was going on, someone had landed dozens of slaps on his face. He was stunned, for the maiden was still nowhere to be seen.
"How could it be? She has reached the Spirit Realm!" the Chief Elder exclaimed in disbelief, narrowing his eyes. He rose from his seat instantly and shouted hurriedly at Nicholas, "Get out of the battle ring!"
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