Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 604 - 36 Zheng and Li Yan

"Actually a tie? Are they going to fight? How could Yang Zheng possibly beat the Mountain Spirit?"

"You’ve got the rules wrong. With Cao Yuanchao absent, there are only five Yan Fu Masters left for the seat. They have to vote again, and it’s impossible for it to actually come to blows."

"I still favor Yang Zheng to advance to the second seat."

"Even if they were to fight, isn’t the Mountain Spirit interested in promoting his darling to the second seat? The rules for this martial competition were initially set to test those who may lack the strength of the Six Ministries and the ability to protect themselves as reserves for the second seat. It wouldn’t make sense for the Mountain Spirit to fight Yang Zheng, would it? It should be Li Yan who fights Yang Zheng!"

"Eight Extremes Peak fight Seven Palaces Peak? If you were the Mountain Spirit or Mr. Li, would you agree to that?"

The meeting hall was abuzz with discussion.

Yang Zheng’s face was expressionless, as if they were not discussing him.

"According to what the Mountain Spirit told me before," Zhao Jianzhong began, and the Yan Zhao Club fell silent involuntarily, "If she is elected, the one to take her place in the second seat should be the Yan Zhao Club representative she designated with the Supreme Three Corpses Talisman, just in case. Mountain Spirit, I’ll ask again in front of everyone, who do you designate?"

Lady Dan remained unflustered, "It’s the person sitting beside me, Li Yan."

Li Yan looked up at the right time.

"I understand."

Zhao Jianzhong nodded, "My understanding of Li Yan, I believe, surpasses that of most of the First Seat holders here. His Wu Zhiqi is a trade I made with him. Like Yang Zheng, he’s a good kid."

Zhao changed the subject, "However, both in terms of strength and popularity, the gap between Li Yan and Yang Zheng is very clear. Setting the Mountain Spirit aside, I believe Li Yan does not have the qualifications to be compared with Yang Zheng within two years. In promoting the virtuous, one should not avoid kin; as the Human Master among the ten classes of Yan Fu, I cast one vote for Yang Zheng."

Hou Tu promptly raised her hand, "I also cast one vote for Yang Zheng."

Lady Dan sighed in slight disappointment, and Li Yan patted her shoulder to comfort her.

"Regarding this, I have a different opinion,"

It was Zhu Jiuyin who spoke.

"If we’re just comparing Li Yan, he joined the Yan Zhao Club today, so of course he can’t be mentioned in the same breath as Yang Zheng, who went head to head with Sifan two years ago. The only reason we’re discussing Li Yan’s chance of making it to the second seat is because of the new Taishuai. The second seat was originally for the Six Ministries Walker. Without an assistant with the strength of the Six Ministries to back him up, could Yang Zheng really hold on to this second seat on his own?"

After pausing, Zhu Jiuyin continued, "I said before, if there are not enough reliable and strong individuals to join the second seat, then leave the second seat vacant rather than filling it indiscriminately. But you all rejected that idea. Now if you force me to choose, I would rather endorse the Mountain Spirit."

"I’ll cast one vote for the Mountain Spirit too, my rationale is similar to Mr. Zhuo’s,"

Su Ling said with a smile.

Two to two, a tie.

The deciding vote fell to Zhan Yuejin.

Zhan Yuejin took a deep breath, "I choose Yang Zheng, as both the Mountain Spirit and Li Yan have been part of Yan Fu for too short a time."

Three to two.

Commissioner Bai breathed a long sigh of relief.

"There’s one more thing, the Feather Lord Cao Yuanchao is absent, but he entrusted his vote to me as his proxy, a fact well known to all here. For a long time, I haven’t exercised this voting right; all meeting outcomes were treated as if the Feather Lord abstained in the past half a year. But due to some special reasons, I will cast this vote on behalf of the Feather Lord for the Mountain Spirit today."

"The reason?"

Zhao Jianzhong asked.

"It’s a promise Yuan Chao himself made before."

Zhao Jianzhong nodded in understanding.

Commissioner Bai shook his head repeatedly, but seemed not to show too much emotion.

"So, the final result is another tie. Let’s have the Mountain Spirit and Yang Zheng come forward."

Yang Zheng stood up without hesitation, while Bai Xiao looked at him with some concern.

"You think I’ll lose?"

Yang Zheng put on a new jacket and a blue scarf, smiling at Bai Xiao as he asked.

Bai Xiao rolled her eyes, "I’m not worried about you losing, I’m worried about you dying at the hands of the Mountain Spirit."

Hearing this, Yang Zheng couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

On the other side,

Lady Dan glanced at Li Yan and said with mild annoyance, "Won’t you let go of my hand now?"

Li Yan released her hand, seemingly casual as he asked, "Can you stand up?"

Lady Dan was startled for a moment, then smiled and said, "Of course, no problem."

Li Yan nodded but did not speak.

As Lady Dan stood up and was about to approach the stage, her steps suddenly halted, and her face turned deathly pale.

Chaotic runes flew out from her sleeves, scattering all around, and transparent green mountain fire emanated from her collar and hair, overwhelming her. Her legs gave way, and she nearly collapsed, but Li Yan, who had prepared himself for this, caught her in his arms.

Most of those present, including Yang Zheng, were shocked.

However, one of the First Seats, as well as several of the Second Seats, appeared unfazed. The other Second Seats at first frowned, but it didn’t take long for them to show an expression of sudden realization. Then, they could not help but look toward Zheng Jinghong and Gongshu.

Zheng Jinghong leaned back, glanced at the unsteady Mountain Spirit with an impassive face, and thought to himself as he closed his eyes,

"I promised to vote for the Mountain Spirit and I did. But I also told you, she definitely won’t make it into the Second Seats. Friend, you cannot blame me for that."

"We never intended to kill you. Yan Zhao Club needs Taishuai," Gongshu said, staring at Lady Dan, "but one must fulfill entrusted tasks faithfully. Finding a potent poison that only works on Six Ministries-level Wild Gods through explosion took quite an effort."

With that in mind, Gongshu once again turned to look at Commissioner Bai at the same table.

Commissioner Bai raised her teacup toward her. The implication was clear.

In the Yan Zhao Club’s Second Seats, in the past, only the Proxy Travelers from Six Ministries and above were qualified to sit in this position. This signified that even those who believed in the law of survival of the fittest, like Zhu Jiuyin, acknowledged their capabilities.

Coming from the Gongshu clan, she could, within an hour, construct over a dozen strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear warheads with bare hands, or equivalent levels of military weaponry. The cap on her weapons arsenal could rival the combined arms race of the two superpowers during the Cold War era.

Considering sheer destructive power and war capability alone, Gongshu ranked first among the Six Ministries.

Moreover, the augmentation of her capabilities by the exotic powers of Yan Fu enabled her to endow simple bombing weapons with various targeted effects.

Such as the current state of Lady Dan.

Any delegates with authority recognized by Earth Endurance that ranked above Six Ministries could read a line of text from Lady Dan’s current status bar.

[She Mountain Spirit] (Taishuai) 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Status:

Mortal flesh: Has lost the leakproof body naturally resistant to the world’s essence that a Mountain Spirit, Wild God possesses, but has gained enhanced human senses, including taste, vision, aesthetics, etc.

Prison Color Green: A virulent poison, effective only against Wild God beings, cannot be dispelled in any way, disappears after 24 hours. Causes them to enter a state of magic turmoil, where any vigorous movement could lead to total collapse of the spirit body of the Wild God.

??

??

Overall strength evaluation: Six Ministries

"How did you know?"

Lady Dan asked Li Yan in a low voice.

"Let me do it."

Li Yan didn’t answer Lady Dan’s question. Using his private Earth Endurance, he had an exploratory authority comparable to the Six Ministries. He was more concerned about Lady Dan’s physical condition than others, so he naturally knew that Lady Dan currently had no ability to confront Yang Zheng any longer.

He comforted Lady Dan, then proposed to the First Seat representative on the stage.

"Elder, as you said earlier, this vote involves me, so could I compete with Zheng?"

Zhao Jianzhong looked at Yang Zheng.

"I don’t mind."

Yang Zheng said coldly.

Zhao Jianzhong looked to the other people in the First Seats, and no one raised any objections.

Then he nodded to Li Yan, "It’s allowed."

Hearing the affirmation, Li Yan went straight to the stage, stood alongside Yang Zheng, and Zhan Yuejin took out a paper cup. Without anyone noticing his movement, both Li and Yang were somehow contained within the hand-wide paper cup.

Most of the people at the meeting stood up, craning their necks to look inside the paper cup.