Chapter Ten: The Gathering of the Noble Families

When the two venerable gentlemen, Xu Minghuang and Xu Mingyao, finished their discussion and stepped out into the courtyard, they saw Xu Yucheng, whose appearance had drastically changed.

To say his appearance had changed was not quite accurate; rather, he had returned to how he looked before his spirit awakening.

“Yucheng, have you resolved the backlash from your spirit awakening?”

After his initial shock, Xu Mingyao took a quick step forward, crouched down, and thoroughly examined his grandson from head to toe.

“Yes,” Xu Yucheng replied, brushing his grandfather’s hand off himself and glancing at Xu Zhao before continuing, “The eldest’s mutated spirit is incredibly powerful. It helped me fully master the Dark Demon Scythe and fundamentally solved the backlash issue.”

“Eldest?”

Xu Mingyao was momentarily puzzled but quickly understood that “eldest” referred to Xu Zhao, the grandson of his elder brother Minghuang.

“Yucheng, did you lose badly in that earlier duel?”

He knew his grandson well—proud and ambitious, especially after awakening the Dark Demon Scythe spirit. If not for being thoroughly defeated in that duel, even with Xu Zhao’s help in resolving the backlash, Xu Yucheng would never acknowledge someone younger than him by two months as his senior.

Xu Yucheng raised an eyebrow and said, “Grandpa, could you please not bring that up?”

“All right, all right, I won’t mention it,” Xu Mingyao said, having understood the answer, then shifted the topic. “Mastering the Dark Demon Scythe completely is unprecedented in the history of Douluo Federation. Yucheng, this is a tremendous achievement that deserves a grand celebration.”

“It should be celebrated,” Xu Zhao suddenly spoke up, “Grandpa Mingyao, I awakened a mutated spirit, and Yucheng has fully mastered the legendary Dark Demon Scythe. This is a matter worth celebrating for both branches of the Xu family.”

“Then why not hold a banquet at my house and invite some people to liven things up?”

Banquets held by the Xu family were attended only by prominent figures in Mingdu—either from long-established spirit master families or high-ranking federal officials such as members of the Federal Council.

Since the banquet was to celebrate these two six-year-olds, attendees would tacitly bring along their own young ones.

This was precisely Xu Zhao’s intention.

In today’s fast-paced metropolis, chances to gather peers from most of Mingdu’s leading families together were rare—not because it was hard to gather the people, but because it was difficult to find a suitable reason.

After the four of them discussed, the banquet was quickly scheduled for seven days later at the Xu family’s main estate.

News of the banquet spread rapidly that afternoon throughout Mingdu’s high society.

The two stars of the banquet:

One was Xu Zhao, the young master of the main Xu family;

The other was Xu Yucheng, the young master of a branch family.

The banquet’s two highlights:

One child awakened an unexpected yet plausible mutated spirit: the Twin Pupils of Sun and Moon;

The other awakened and fully controlled the legendary super spirit: the Dark Demon Scythe.

At first, many thought the news was a rumor.

But as invitations were sent out by the Xu family, people had no choice but to believe it, marveling at the Xu family’s exceptional fortune in producing two top-tier prodigies simultaneously.

At the Spirit Selection Tower that day, the black-robed elder who had chosen Xu Zhao’s spirit stood by the window, holding the gilded invitation. Inside, besides the invitation to the banquet seven days hence, there was a small note that read:

“I promised to treat you to a meal—I won’t go back on my word. —Xu Minghuang.”

“That old fellow…” The black-robed elder folded the note neatly and placed it in a special box.

“Really, a meal invitation and a banquet invitation—are they the same thing?”

“Whatever, food is food; better than always hearing, ‘Next time!’”

...

Seven days later, the banquet commenced as scheduled.

In the Xu family estate’s parking lot, a rare sight—an array of top-tier spirit vehicles—were parked aplenty.

Among the guests, the more prestigious their status, the rarer the license plates on their spirit vehicles. Such plates were not merely bought with money; they symbolized status.

For instance, a black spirit vehicle with the plate “Ming M00001” belonged to the current president of the Federal Council.

Not all guests arrived by spirit vehicle; a few came piloting mechas.

For example, the president of the Mingdu Mecha Association arrived in his own Red-grade mecha.

These mechas had specialized spirit storage devices and were therefore not parked in the lot.

The banquet was held on an island in the middle of a lake on the south side of the Xu family’s picturesque estate, divided into two main areas:

Adults’ area;

Children’s area.

Xu Zhao and Xu Yucheng should have been in the children’s area, but as the stars of the event, they had to stay in the adults’ area to complete the formalities and thus could not leave immediately.

Among the adults, Xu Zhao stood at the center of the crowd, but his gaze was fixed on a corner of the banquet hall where a man in his forties sat.

“Mo Wu…” he recalled the man’s earlier self-introduction.

Governor of Tiandou City and concurrently a member of the Federal Council.

Since he happened to be in Mingdu for a meeting, he received an invitation due to his position as a council member.

If Xu Zhao remembered correctly, this man was the biological father of Mo Lan, the future “Mother of the Federation.”

Mo Lan, due to the cursed fate that anyone traveling on the spirit vehicle train with Tang Wulin was bound to meet an accident, was tragically brain-damaged by an evil spirit master, causing her life to change dramatically.

Her father, husband, and child all perished in a terrorist attack launched by the Holy Spirit Church in Tiandou City.

Only Mo Lan survived, thanks to her close relationship with Tang Wulin’s older sister, inheriting her father’s seat in the Federal Council and becoming a new council member.

She even received covert protection from Chen Xinjie, the Lord of the God of War Palace, enabling her to survive the political intrigues until the final resolution.

In fact, seats in the Federal Council were always elected, never hereditary.

Even powerful forces like the Spirit Selection Tower manipulated elections behind the scenes to secure a fixed number of seats.

Yet, with Mo Lan, it turned into a case of daughter succeeding father.

This was the Douluo Federation, not the Douluo Empire—a modern democratic society.

And yet, a hereditary system somehow took root in the power-concentrated council.

Hence the saying: the protagonist is the most unreasonable thing of all.

Anyone linked to the protagonist inevitably embarks on an unreasonably miraculous path to success.