Su Xin held the Jiangnan Association's invitation in his hand, but his face revealed a surprised expression. He had almost forgotten that he was currently ranked 23rd on the Ranking List of Young Masters and was qualified to be invited by the Jiangnan Association.
The so-called Jiangnan Meeting was a grand meeting of the martial arts world held by the Xiao Clan of Jiangnan, one of the Six Great Families.
Although Jiangnan's Xiao Clan was not as old as Runan's Shangguan Clan, it was one of the six big clans, but it was the strongest among the six big clans. Moreover, its background was astonishing.
It was said that thousands of years ago, when the world was in chaos and the former hegemon, Jin, was just a small country, the Xiao clan was already the king of Jiangnan, and the country was called Great Liang.
However, as the world contended for hegemony and the rise of the Jin Kingdom, all the small kingdoms were destroyed. Naturally, Great Liang was destroyed as well. The descendants of the Xiao Clan wandered the Jianghu and became one of the Six Great Families, the Xiao Clan of Jiangnan.
The Xiao clan of Jiangnan was born in the royal family of Jiangnan, and their status was beyond words. When Eastern Jin became the overlord of the Central Plains, they were also afraid of the remaining power of the Xiao clan, fearing that they would perish together. Thus, they conferred the title of Marquis Ping to the Xiao clan, which was hereditary.
Now that the Zhou Kingdom dominated the Central Plains, they also had to appease the Xiao family. Thus, they conferred the title of Marquis An to the Xiao family, which was also hereditary.
It was precisely because of this that Xiao Huang, who was ranked second on the Mortal Ranking List, had the nickname 'Little Marquis An'.
His father, the head of the Xiao clan, was this generation's Marquis An. His strength was also ranked second on the Ranking List of Young Masters. No one in the younger generation of the Xiao clan could compete with him. The next head of the clan was almost certain to be him, which was why he was called 'Marquis An Junior'.
However, in Su Xin's opinion, these so-called Marquis of Peace and Marquis of Peace were more of an irony than an honor.
Whether it was the Eastern Jin Kingdom or the Zhou Kingdom, look at the titles they gave: Marquis of Peace and Marquis of An. It means that although the Xiao Family used to be a royal family, it is no longer their turn to make decisions in the world. They will give them the title of nobility. Just stay in Jiangnan and don't go out and cause trouble.
Of course, in the eyes of the pugilistic world, this title was a symbol of strength. Even the imperial court wanted to win over the Xiao family.
In the beginning, the Jiangnan Gathering was a tradition for the Xiao Clan to recruit guests. Later, it evolved into a grand gathering that all the young warriors of the Wulin world could participate in.
The development route of the aristocratic families was completely different from that of the martial arts sects. Although the family bloodline could ensure the loyalty and unity of the family, and the cohesiveness was stronger than that of the sects, how many geniuses were there in a family? The Wulin sects were the young talents of the entire Jianghu.
Because of this, these large aristocratic families all had the tradition of recruiting guests. The Xiao family took a different approach and held the Jiangnan Gathering, recruiting young martial artists with talent and potential who did not belong to any sect or small sects to join the Xiao family and carefully nurture them.
This kind of hanger-on that was nurtured from a young age was undoubtedly much more loyal than the hanger-ons that were recruited later on with a large sum of money.
Moreover, they could also marry the children of the Xiao Clan. After a few generations, they could completely integrate into the Xiao Clan and become a member of the Xiao Clan. It was precisely because of this strategy that the Xiao Clan gradually became stronger and became the leader of the six great clans.
In the beginning, this was the purpose of the Jiangnan Gathering. However, later on, the Xiao Clan also invited some famous young talents of the Jianghu to come to the Jiangnan Gathering to comment and appreciate. As more and more people came, some changes occurred in the Jiangnan Gathering.
With the establishment of the Ranking List of Young Masters by the Six Fan School, the young talents of the Jianghu fought more and more fiercely.
However, the Wulin world of the Central Plains was so big. Sometimes, even if you wanted to step on the other side and challenge them, you might not be able to find them. There were not many warriors who secluded themselves in sects all year round.
Therefore, some warriors gathered at the Jiangnan Gathering. When the Xiao Clan recruited their hanger-ons, they would let them fight. If the experts of the Ranking List of Young Masters wanted to fight, they could also go to the Jiangnan Gathering to try their skills and update the rankings.
Later on, the scale of the Jiangnan Gathering grew larger and larger. More and more warriors of the younger generation came. The Xiao Clan found that this was an opportunity to enhance the Xiao Clan's reputation, so they made the Jiangnan Gathering a grand gathering for the younger generation of the Wulin world.
All the warriors of the Wulin world under the age of thirty-five could participate. The top three would receive a great gift, regardless of whether they joined the Xiao Clan or not. The remaining warriors in the top ten would also be eligible to be recruited by the Xiao Clan.
If the warriors of the Ranking List of Young Masters wanted to fight, there was a special arena for them to compete in. The top thirty warriors of the Ranking List of Young Masters were eligible to be personally invited by the Xiao Clan to the Jiangnan Gathering. They would become one of the judges who evaluated the Rogue Cultivators. Their status was the same as the Xiao Clan's Primordial Soul Realm elders.
In Su Xin's opinion, this move was really clever. It had cleverly captured the minds of some warriors.
Why was the competition for the warriors of the Ranking List of Young Masters so fierce? It was all for the sake of the word "name."
Now, they were the judges of the Jiangnan Gathering. They were all warriors of the younger generation. The people below fought in the arena just to attract the attention of the Xiao Clan and become their hanger-ons.
However, they could sit on the high platform and comment on these warriors with the Xiao Clan's Primordial Soul Realm elders. This vanity was something that many warriors would want to try.
Therefore, it was an honor in itself to be personally invited by the Xiao Clan for the Jiangnan Gathering.
However, the Jiangnan Gathering this time was different. The imperial court was also involved. They asked Gu Donglai, the Jiangnan Military Chief, to join forces with the Xiao Clan to organize the Jiangnan Gathering.
He wondered if the imperial court was jealous of the large number of young warriors with potential that the Xiao Clan recruited every year. That was why they suddenly intervened.
However, this had nothing to do with Su Xin now. He had already planned to go to the Central Plains.
Now that he had broken through to the pinnacle of Spirit Aperture, he still needed a certain opportunity to break through to Divinity Level. The Central Plains was undoubtedly a good place to go.
After keeping the invitation and sending Chen Qiao away, Su Xin decided to set off for the Central Plains. However, the news of Su Xin's appearance in the Lingzhou Prefecture had already spread.
When Su Xin killed Zhu Zefang and the others, everyone thought that Su Xin must have found a secluded place to recuperate. However, no one expected him to be so daring as to recuperate in the Lingzhou Prefecture, which was not far from the scene of the incident.
Although he had killed Zhu Zefang and the others, it was hard to guarantee that the other Shaolin Temple's secular disciples would not seek revenge on him. Moreover, there were still people from the Zhu Clan. This Su Xin was too daring.
When the news that Su Xin was still alive and well spread to the other Shaolin Temple's secular disciples, they did not say a word.
Just like how some warriors mocked them for bullying the weak and fearing the strong, they were afraid of Su Xin's beating.
The layman disciples of the Shaolin Temple were a group, but it was not a close-knit group. Unless there was something that threatened their entire group, they would find a few close friends or take out some things to invite their fellow disciples to help them if something happened.
For example, this time, Zhu Zefang looked for Duan Tianya and used a Yellow-grade weapon to invite Zhou Changxin.
Indeed, the secular disciples of the Shaolin Temple would unite against outsiders, but only if they were united against outsiders. Even if they could not benefit from it, they could not harm their own interests.
With Su Xin's current strength, it was obvious that four to five Divinity Realm warriors would not be able to do anything to him. Who would be willing to die if there was no benefit?
Unless the leaders of the Shaolin Temple's secular disciples who had broken through to Primordial Soul Stage spoke, they would not take action.
However, it was a pity that the few Primordial Soul Stage beings did not say anything. Hence, the secular disciples could only pretend to be deaf and dumb and pretend that they did not know about the news.
The secular disciples of the Shaolin Temple could pretend that they did not know about it, but the people of the Zhu Village could not.
In the past six months since Zhu Zefang's death, the Zhu Village could be said to be extremely miserable.
The Zhu Village was not very strong to begin with. It was only until Zhu Zefang returned from the Shaolin Temple, coupled with his Divinity Realm cultivation base that the Zhu Village was able to rise from Hannan Road and was considered a small force.
However, now that Zhu Zefang was killed, many other secular disciples of the Shaolin Temple from Hannan Road came to pay their condolences. All of them were Innate Stage warriors, but what happened in the end?
After paying their condolences, they did not even say a word and just left. This made the people of the Zhu Village gnash their teeth in anger.
You should have left some cultivation methods and elixirs behind to take care of the descendants of your fellow disciples. Why did you leave just like that?
However, it was a pity that their resentment was useless. Although they were all secular disciples of the Shaolin Temple, their relationship with Zhu Zefang was not as close as Duan Tianya's. At most, they only had a little bit of kinship with Zhu Zefang. It was already good enough that they came to pay their condolences. What kind of joke was this?
It was also because of the attitude of these people that the Zhu Village was currently in an extremely bad situation.
In the past, under Zhu Zefang's influence, the people of the Zhu Village had occupied a lot of land and businesses around the Zhu Village.
The other martial arts forces had given Zhu Zefang face, or rather, they would give face to the collective group of secular disciples of the Shaolin Temple behind him. Therefore, they had all taken a step back.
Now that Zhu Zefang was dead, looking at the attitude of the other secular disciples of the Shaolin Temple, it was obvious that they had no intention of continuing to help the Zhu Village. Therefore, what were they hesitating for? Over the past six months, the land and businesses of the Zhu Village had almost been nibbled away.
The people of the Zhu Village could no longer tolerate it. Therefore, the only remaining elder of the Zhu Village, Old Master Zhu, came out of seclusion and gathered all the second generation disciples of the Zhu Family together for a discussion.
Old Master Zhu was already in his seventies or eighties. As someone who was not a Xiantian Stage martial artist, he was already old. Ever since Zhu Zefang returned to the Zhu Family more than ten years ago, he had stopped managing the Zhu Family.
However, in this situation, he had no choice but to step up. The current Zhu Village Head, Zhu Qifang, could not support the Zhu Family at all.
Even if it were the other second generation disciples of the Zhu Family, it would be the same. Although they were also in the Xiantian Stage, whether it was in terms of strength or courage, they were far inferior to the dead Zhu Zefang.
Although Old Master Zhu was not in the Xiantian Stage, he had cultivated Zhu Zefang, Zhu Qifang, and several other Xiantian Stage martial artists. This was no easy feat.
Moreover, in terms of prestige, Old Master Zhu was the highest existence in the Zhu Family. Therefore, when this Old Master Zhu spoke, Zhu Qifang and the others could only obediently stand at the side and listen to his instructions.
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