Chapter 229 - 147: Architects’ Conference
"..."
Chen Fan was expressionless, standing there in silence. He didn’t say a word. What could he say?
1+1 had somehow become 444. What else could he say?
Just as he’d thought, the answer was completely impossible to guess.
When 1+1 doesn’t equal 2, it can equal whatever you want it to.
But what he hadn’t expected was that this was apparently a consensus among Architects, meaning the other Architects knew about it too.
"That’s fine."
Chen Fan smiled at Tian Qi. "Go ahead. I’ll allow you to hold the Architect conference in Mortal City. When is it scheduled to start?"
"In three days."
Tian Qi replied respectfully. He hadn’t expected things to go so smoothly.
"Alright, go on."
Chen Fan watched Tian Qi’s retreating figure. He didn’t ask why 1+1=444. Since it was a consensus among all Architects, he was supposed to know it too. If he showed any confusion, it would expose too much.
However, this incident also made him realize that the Architect conference would be very useful to him.
He could use the conference to see how other Architects did things.
He could also learn some basic Architect common sense.
It would prevent the headache of, say, finding an Architect’s legacy in some Ancient Ruins in the future, only to be unable to open the Storage Ring because he didn’t know their shared secrets.
’I need to catch up.’
After that, Chen Fan didn’t linger. He walked down a side street, occasionally squatting in front of a stall to pick up an Exotic Treasure, look at it for a moment, and put it back down.
To be honest, he found the chances of finding a hidden gem were quite low.
There weren’t any particularly good Exotic Treasures; they were all pretty average.
’It’d be great if I could find another Exotic Treasure that could temporarily boost my luck,’ he thought. ’I still have a Yellow Level Fortune Bag I haven’t opened yet.’
...
Soon, night fell.
Another busy day of work ended, and the core members of the Mortal Realm returned to camp.
The camp once again grew lively.
In the past, most members of the Dark Pavilion spent their time in the Yunling Pavilion on their Cultivation. They rarely went out and had little contact with other Mortal Realm Members.
But today, every member of the Dark Pavilion had come out of the Yunling Pavilion. They were dressed in Night Traveling Clothes, nonchalantly toying with daggers, their eyes full of pride.
And they certainly had the right to be proud. Both their daggers and their Night Traveling Clothes were forged entirely from Earth Gold.
To put it bluntly, if any member of the Dark Pavilion were to run off right now, find some corner to hide in, they’d be set for life.
Of course, in a world where the Eternal Night existed, there was no such thing as a truly safe place. Take Ping City, for example—no one even mentioned it anymore, it had silently perished in the recent rainy season.
Few people even brought up Ping City’s destruction. Only after the rainy season ended did the various powers from Jiangnan go there to scavenge what was left.
This was why everyone wanted to join a powerful faction—to at least have a chance of surviving the rainy season.
"Stop showing off. It’s just a dagger, what’s there to show off about? You’ve been at it all day."
A Mortal Realm Member standing on the ground of the Celestial Pit muttered quietly, looking at the dozen or so smirking Dark Pavilion members with a hint of jealousy.
"That’s no ordinary dagger," a member of the Artifact Pavilion said with emotion. "If you tried to sell that thing on the open market, it would be priceless. Forget Jiangnan, even on the Guanxi Plain, it’s not something an ordinary person could ever afford."
This guy used to be Zhao Shengping’s apprentice and had joined the Mortal Realm along with him.
"Well, someone would have to be brave enough to buy it first."
The muttering Mortal Realm Member retorted, "A thing like that is so conspicuous, don’t you think? The second you tried to sell it, the Mortal Realm would find out immediately."
"That’s true."
The Artifact Pavilion member who had spoken nodded in deep agreement. A treasure like that would indeed be difficult to sell.
The camp was especially lively tonight.
At Zhao Shengping’s suggestion, the Domain Lord had organized a celebratory feast. It was to commemorate Qi Yue and Shao Qiu, who had both achieved Tenfold Body Tempering and broken through to the Martial King realm, becoming the Mortal Realm’s only two Martial Kings.
All the Mortal Realm Members, including those who had previously been stationed in Xiyang City and Mortal City, were gathered inside the Celestial Pit tonight.
It made the evening feel exceptionally festive.
There were no tables, so everyone sat on the ground. They breathed in the fragrant aroma wafting over from the Celestial Artifact Pavilion—the smell of braised meats.
Soon, the aroma grew stronger as dish after dish of various braised foods were brought out and placed before the Mortal Realm Members.
"This is really good."
Lame Monkey picked up a braised chicken leg and took a large bite. "I seriously suspect," he said while chewing, "that Pavilion Master Zhao only suggested this celebratory feast because he wanted an excuse to make braised food."
"You don’t have to suspect."
Sitting beside him, Zhou Mo chimed in emotionally, "It’s basically a given. That’s definitely the reason. But you have to admit, Pavilion Master Zhao’s cooking is incredible. I wonder if he has a secret recipe or something."
"Domain Lord, would you like to say a few words?"
Wang Kui leaned close to Chen Fan and whispered.
"..."
Chen Fan, who had been happily admiring the newly lit-up entries in the Building Atlas on his Eternal Night Lord Panel, looked up. He glanced at the crowd of Mortal Realm Members and saw that they were all looking at him, none of them having touched their chopsticks yet. He smiled, stood up, and faced the crowd.
"Tonight is a simple celebratory feast. First, it’s to reward everyone for their recent hard work. I’ve seen the contributions each of you has made to the Mortal Realm. Here in the Mortal Realm, no one’s effort will be ignored, and no one’s sacrifice will be wasted."
"Second, it’s to celebrate the Dark Pavilion’s first successful mission and triumphant return. Shao Qiu led the Dark Pavilion’s members to successfully destroy the Wind and Rain Tower, making a name for the Mortal Realm Dark Pavilion. They suffered no casualties and even brought back 470,000 Ghost Stones. This is worthy of commendation."