Read Novel Full Chapter 1474 Joe's Curiosity!
Chapter 1474 Joe's Curiosity!
The smile that followed was genuine in a way that his earlier expressions had not been, carrying the unguarded quality of someone who had not yet fully finished being surprised themselves. "I myself was shocked when this was announced," he admitted.
"If you want to thank anyone, I suppose you start with the kid who took away the sword of the Sword Sovereign," he said, his tone settling into something more deliberate and weighted than the casual dismissiveness he had been wielding since his arrival. "Even though the Sword God Palace has yet to make their position on this publicly known, I am very sure they have their eyes on this Max just like the entire Divine Realm does."
The implication behind those words was not a small one, and he made no effort to soften it or dress it in anything more reassuring than what it was.
He continued without pause, "From what I have heard, even though your Black Dragon Clan is considered too weak to qualify for this conference under ordinary circumstances, the simple fact that there exists among you a young man capable of wielding the sword of the Sword Sovereign, a sword that has sat in your clan's possession for thousands of years without anyone being able to use it, was enough on its own to earn your force a place in this conference."
He let that settle before adding the rest, his smile returning. "You should already understand what this conference is truly about. At its core it is nothing less than a preparatory stage for the Grand Ascension Conference, and a force with your standing would not under any normal circumstances would receive an invitation to something of this magnitude. You would do well to treat this as a matter of the highest possible priority, because there are very few occasions in the life of a force like yours where fortune presents itself in this form, and those who are wise enough to recognize such occasions for what they are tend to be the ones who benefit most from them."
Mathew and the other family heads turned to look at one another in the brief silence that followed, and what passed between them in that exchange of glances was an entire conversation conducted without words, a shared acknowledgment of the gravity of what they had just been told and a mutual agreement about how they intended to respond to it.
They turned back to Joe as one.
"We thank Elder Joe for delivering this letter of invitation," Mathew said, and the calm that had returned to his voice was the genuine kind rather than the strained variety he had been maintaining earlier in the face of Joe's insults.
The picture was complete now. They understood why an elder of the Violet Star Palace had appeared unannounced at their trial site and inserted himself into the proceedings without warning or prior notice, and with that understanding came the dissolution of any lingering resentment they might have carried toward him for the manner of his arrival or the sharpness of his words.
More than that, there was a quiet and privately felt gratitude spreading through the assembled family heads at the realization that the elder who had been sent to deliver something this consequential to their clan happened to be Joe.
A man with whom they already shared established contacts and familiarity, rather than a stranger from the Violet Star Palace whose intentions and temperament they would have had to read from nothing at all.
"Hmm." Joe said as his gaze drifted toward the Combat Legion Tower, studying it with the appraising eye of someone who had come a long way and intended to extract every possible measure of value from the journey.
Then he turned to the family heads with the ease of a man accustomed to having his curiosities accommodated without question. "Now that I am here, I want to see the disciples of your clan in action," he said, his voice carrying the tone of a casual request that was in practice nothing of the sort. "Tell me, is the Max kid here right now, and if so will he be ascending the combat tower?"
The family heads exchanged a brief look among themselves before Mathew turned back to Joe with the composed steadiness. "He is participating in the trial to ascend the combat tower," Mathew said calmly.
The answer drew a light smile from Joe that carried a different quality than the sharp and condescending expressions he had been wearing since his arrival, something closer to genuine interest surfacing through the layers of practiced indifference.
"This is good then," he said, settling into the satisfaction of a man whose timing had worked out in his favor. "I have come this far, and so I must see for myself what sort of strength the genius possesses who could take away the sword of the Sword Sovereign."
The words were simple enough on their surface, but the weight behind them was considerable, because the sword of the Sword Sovereign was not the kind of object that anyone in the Divine Realm mentioned lightly.
And the fact that an elder of the Violet Star Palace had traveled to this planet specifically to lay eyes on the young man connected to it said more about Max's significance than any formal declaration could have.
As the last of his words dissolved into the air, a chair constructed entirely from condensed divine essence materialized behind Joe with the unhurried inevitability of something being called into existence by a will that expected to be obeyed by the fabric of the world around it. Joe lowered himself into it with the grand and deliberate ease of a man settling into a throne he considered his by right, arranging himself with the complete comfort of someone who had decided that this spot, on this planet that was not his, would serve as his seat for as long as he chose to remain.
The young man with the arrogant face moved to take his position on Joe's left, and the white-haired old man settled into place on his right, the three of them composing a tableau that radiated a kind of authority that the gathered disciples and elders of the Black Dragon Clan could not easily look away from.