Lan Zaitian had frozen on the spot, unable to argue back or fight, truly at his wit's end, with a stifling frustration that he couldn't vent.
Hou Niao paid him no attention, having said what needed to be said, and was unable to wake someone feigning sleep; his gaze shifted beyond Lan Zaitian, toward the back of the Qinglong Festival Hall,
"Elder sirs, I wonder whether the junior has made himself heard?"
The back of the hall fell silent for a long while before three elderly Daoists each with long beards covering their faces and eyebrows reaching their shoulders emerged. The only differences among them were the colors of their beards: one black, one silver, and one mottled. These were the traditions of the Ancient Langzhong Sect, which had a fondness for growing beards, not to mention that within those beards lay some secrets of cultivation not to be spoken of to outsiders.
