Chapter 2510: Venue for the Divine Paragon’s Banquet |
"Welcome to the Demon Sealing Clan! If you have gifts for the Divine Paragon, please hand them over to the attendants stationed at the red-clothed table over there!"
"And if you did not bring anything, please proceed to the blue-clothed table to check in! The venue has not officially opened yet, but it will be ready soon!"
The Demon Sealers enthusiastically greeted the arriving guests.
"Where is the Divine Paragon? I’d like to pay my respect to him before the banquet begins," inquired one of the guests.
"I apologize, but the Divine Paragon is not present at this moment."
"What about the new leader of the Demon Sealing Clan?"
"The Clan Leader is currently not accepting any guests due to her tight schedule."
Meanwhile, the Demon Sealers working inside the courtyard would glance at the new guests from time to time out of curiosity.
"Wow! That’s the current head of the Array Masters’ Association, Ye Chen!"
"Who’s that veiled woman beside her?"
"Isn’t that the Holy Maiden, the number two genius of the younger generation? I heard she’s the kind of genius that only appears once in a billion years."
"Surely, that must be an exaggeration. From what I’ve heard, nobody even knows what she’s capable of and is questioning her position in the ranking."
"Didn’t the Heavenly Son fight her and acknowledge her strength?"
The Demon Sealers continued chatting about the Holy Maiden for several minutes before another recognizable figure arrived at the venue.
Meanwhile, the guests passed the time by observing the newly arriving attendees as they waited for the venue to officially open.
Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the guests who arrived were influential and widely renowned figures.
Of course, there were also attendees with little to no reputation whatsoever. Under normal circumstances, such people would have been ridiculed or outright chased away from a gathering of elites. However, since the Divine Paragon had personally declared that anyone was allowed to attend, the other guests could do nothing but tolerate their presence.
"Do you think the Celestial Emperor will show up?"
"Who knows? But if he wants to, it won’t take any effort, since he can still travel between the realms even without the Stairway to Heaven."
"He clearly already possesses the technology to create treasures capable of teleportation between realms. I don’t understand what’s taking him so long to replace the Stairway to Heaven."
"I bet he doesn’t even want to replace the Stairway to Heaven. There’s a reason he restricted access to the Stairway to Heaven not too long ago."
A week passed in the blink of an eye, and before long, the venue for the banquet officially opened, with the Demon Sealing Clan finally allowing guests into the grand courtyard.
However, due to the overwhelming number of attendees, those with the greatest influence and status were given priority entry first.
"There’s still a month until the banquet, but there’s already tens of thousands of people here... I can only imagine how much more crowded it’ll get later."
"Do they even have room for all of us?"
"I doubt it... Hell, most of us will probably have to watch from outside the venue altogether."
Soon, another week passed, and as the banquet drew nearer, even more people began arriving from all directions.
Despite the venue being located within the Starry Sky, nearly everyone who was capable tried their best to attend the banquet.
Before long, the number of guests exceeded the venue’s capacity, forcing many attendees to remain outside the venue entirely.
However, since such a situation had long been expected, hardly anyone voiced any complaints about it.
As for the guests within the courtyard, they were all served food and drinks while they waited.
"I’ve never seen such an enormous gathering of influential figures before. I doubt even the Celestial Emperor could gather this many people at once for nothing more than a banquet," one of the Demon Sealers remarked with a dazed expression.
"The Divine Paragon is a legend amongst legends, after all. They’re all so intrigued by his existence that they’d come to a place like this just to see him."
Suddenly, the atmosphere around the venue shifted, and a loud voice echoed throughout the area.
"Make way for the Celestial Family!"
A path was swiftly opened through the massive crowd gathered around the venue, allowing an extravagant carriage to pass through.
"The Celestial Family? I suppose the Celestial Emperor won’t be attending personally and has sent his family in his stead..."
"I bet one of his daughters is inside that carriage..."
"Hah... I guess even someone as powerful as the Celestial Emperor isn’t above resorting to such tactics..."
Such whispers could be heard from the crowd.
Once the carriage arrived at the venue, its door slowly opened, and two figures stepped out.
"Heavens! It’s Madam Jun and the First Princess! To think he’d send his most precious daughter! The Celestial Emperor must truly value the Divine Paragon to send her to him!"
The people there were shocked to see the First Princess, who was not only the eldest but also the most influential within the Celestial Family, appear at the banquet.
Shortly after their arrival, a figure flew out from within the courtyard and approached them.
"Welcome, Madam Jun and Lady Jun. I am Yan Hara, the current leader of the Demon Sealing Clan."
Madam Jun then spoke, "While we would like to participate in the banquet, our time is unfortunately limited. We were wondering if it would be possible for us to meet the Divine Paragon directly."
An apologetic expression appeared on Yan Hara’s face as she responded, "I’m terribly sorry, but the Divine Paragon is not present yet."
"Do you know when he’ll arrive?"
"Unfortunately not..." Yan Hara shook her head.
"What a pity..." Madam Jun muttered softly before turning to look at the veiled figure silently standing beside her, seemingly waiting for the First Princess to speak.