# Chapter 159: A Nameless Nobody
The door was kicked clean off its hinges.
Jiang Wang turned to look and saw a richly dressed man with an aquiline nose glaring at him with fury. Two lackeys of the tavern stood beside him, wanting to bar his way, yet not daring to lay hands on him.
"Is it you? A mere half-old man like you? Half buried in the ground and still you haven't opened the Heaven-Earth Gate! And you'd contend with me for a slot?"
He shoved aside the ones who blocked him and forced his way in, as if he could not believe it, seething with shock and rage.
"Get out."
Chongxuan Sheng spoke the words flatly. The kindliness was gone from his fat face; his voice was not loud, but his eyes narrowed to finer slits than ever.
The aquiline nose stiffened. "Elder Brother Sheng, do you truly believe this half-old man is bound to be stronger than I? Cultivation is not a matter of measuring years!"
Jiang Wang could not help speaking: "My good brother, do have a look. White hair does not mean I am old."
The man dared not talk back to Chongxuan Sheng, but to Jiang Wang he showed no mercy: "Who is your brother? Look at yourself in a puddle of your own piss first!" Jiang Wang would not be angered by so deliberate a provocation, yet he could hardly call the mood pleasant. Just then, Chongxuan Sheng patted his shoulder.
"Brother Jiang, you shouldn't be so polite to every Tom, Dick, and Harry." The fat man said, half in reproof. "Is he worthy?"
The aquiline nose could no longer maintain his composure: "Elder Brother Sheng, be clear about your family name! For the sake of some outsider of unknown origin, you'd insult the Chongxuan clan?"
"Chongxuan Xin, you are not yet qualified to teach me lessons." Chongxuan Sheng eyed him lazily. "You are you, and I am I. Even I cannot represent the Chongxuan clan—what claim could you have to represent anything?"
"Very well!" Chongxuan Xin gnashed his teeth. "Let that be. I have come only to ask: we are family, and you take away my slot and give it to an outsider! Do you think that is fitting?"
Chongxuan Sheng rose slowly, once more patting Jiang Wang's shoulder to set him at ease. Walking to Chongxuan Xin, he said: "For this expedition into the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm, I stand at the core, everything serving my locking down of a divine-power Inner Prefecture in advance—the highest ruling of the clan elders. Whoever I judge can help me most is whom I may choose; in other words, whoever I wish to give the slot to is who I give it to.
"Now tell me—why is it not fitting? Where does it not fit?"
Chongxuan Xin's eyes shifted, yet he stiffened his neck: "In any case, I am more trustworthy than some outsider, and stronger than him! Would I not help you better? If not, let me fight him, and see who is stronger, and more worthy of this slot!"
"Chongxuan Xin, I will say this one last time." Chongxuan Sheng could no longer be bothered with idle talk, and reached out a fat finger to poke his chest, in a perfectly calm voice: "Get out."
Chongxuan Xin's expression twisted with shame, fury, and a thousand tangled things, but he dared say nothing; he backed away from the outstretched finger, turned, and strode off, his heavy steps drumming upon the floorboards.
"Master Sheng." A lackey of the tavern bent low in apology. "Young Master Xin insisted on forcing his way in; we..."
Chongxuan Sheng said nothing, only flicked his hand to wave them away. The door was drawn shut, and the lackeys left in silence.
Jiang Wang gave a smile. "To be honest, a fight would not have been out of the question. I should not lose."
Ten thousand li of travel, and a single sword honed. Even Jiang Wang himself did not know how mighty his sword would be once drawn; but he could be certain that against any cultivator of his own realm he was qualified to fight, and had a chance of victory. That included Chongxuan Sheng before him—even with both secret arts in full play, he judged his odds fifty-fifty, allowing that Sheng, having advanced to the Heaven-Access Realm, must possess new means. As for Chongxuan Xin, clearly far inferior, there was no need to speak.
"Naturally it would not be out of the question." Chongxuan Sheng sat back down. "But why should it be? Who is he, that a friend of mine should prove himself to him?
"Brother Jiang, look around this Heavenly Treasury City. How many yearn to squeeze into the Secret Realm? How many are bitter and resentful? Am I to have you prove yourself to them one by one?" He lifted the jug and filled two cups: "It was I who invited you; your only duty is to come. Nothing else should fall to you to resolve. That was my oversight—let me make amends."
Great families have the complexities of great families, and Jiang Wang understood it perfectly. Even a small clan like the Fang family of Fenglin City had never ceased its scheming—how much less the Chongxuan clan, a veritable giant within the Qi Kingdom, itself a great power of the age counted among the six great powers of the world alongside Jing, Qin, Chu, Jing, and Mu. A clan rooted so deeply in so strong a kingdom could not avoid internal strife.
Jiang Wang accepted the cup and drained it in one, for he did not mind such affairs in the least.
On the seventh day of the third month came the time when the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm opened, at the very center of Heavenly Treasury City.
It was a deep pool of perfect roundness, named the Full Moon Pool, also called the Pool of Heaven's Treasury. On ordinary days it held no marvel—its water was limpid, piercing to the bottom at a glance; men had examined it times without number and found nothing unusual. But every twelve years, when the Secret Realm opened, the whole pool would turn deep and somber, losing all bottom one could see; none had ever pierced its depths in this state.
The entire Full Moon Pool was guarded by a great formation, and beyond it rose high walls ringed with a gallery of long corridors—all of it the doing of the Qi government, to keep those without slots from stirring up trouble and interfering with the exploration. Heavenly Treasury City had been built about the entrance to the Secret Realm in the first place, so the city center was the very hub of everything.
The Qi Kingdom kept a standing army here all year round, so that Heavenly Treasury City stood firm as a mountain; all the heretical fiends who came seeking trouble over the years had died. The ten slots released by the Qi officials this year had long been settled, bound by no restriction of nationality, origin, or school, making no account of good or evil. Only the strong might win one.
The fierce selection battles of those days had been one great cause of Heavenly Treasury City's prosperity, and now that the dust had settled, the gravest moment had finally come: the Secret Realm would open this very night.
Jiang Wang followed Chongxuan Sheng and arrived early outside the Full Moon Pool to await the hour—nor were they alone, for most had come early to wait, since none could know what would happen within. Which also meant that whatever one did within was permitted; every participant could be a rival, so it was necessary to observe in advance and be somewhat prepared. From this, too, one could see how much importance Chongxuan Sheng attached to this expedition.
Most of those present were cultivators taking part in the Secret Realm, by and large of the Heaven-Access Realm—the ceiling imposed by its restriction. In truth, many Qi cultivators who held slots had suppressed their cultivation at the Heaven-Access Realm, refusing to push open the Heaven-Earth Gate precisely to wait for the opening. The fortunate waited a year or two; the less fortunate, twelve. Whether it was worth it remained a matter of opinion.
Many elders of the great families also waited here, nothing more than aiding their young to judge the rivals before the battle and offering a word of counsel, while the Qi officials' cultivators held the perimeter, keeping order. People chatted with those they knew.
In the bustling crowd, one heard of a sudden a fierce and sinister voice call out: "The Zhang family—what manner of clan is that? How comes it to hold a slot in the Heavenly Treasury, and without need to compete? Those celebrated houses I can abide, but I have never heard the Qi Kingdom has any Zhang family!"