Seeing that they had gotten to the main point, Long Chen also became serious. He raised two fingers and said, “I have two goals. One is the Heavenly Fate Divine Pool—”

“What?!”

Everyone’s expressions darkened, fury igniting in their eyes. Someone coldly shouted, “How brazen! Many heavenly geniuses of the Long clan would never get a chance to enter it in their lifetime, yet an outsider like you thinks of touching it?!”

“Did your head rot? Are you planning to keep dreaming?”

“There’s no way you will get it. No need to even say your second goal; you can just scram!”

With one sentence, Long Chen had provoked them, and they started to curse him furiously.

Still with his two fingers raised, Long Chen calmly said, “Can you speak one by one? Don’t be so emotional and rant like a wild mob. I know this is the Long clan’s assembly, but if I didn’t know better, I’d think someone threw a rock into a kennel.”

Long Chen had successfully provoked everyone present, likening himself to a rock and the furious elders to barking dogs in a kennel. The Long clan’s experts grew visibly uncomfortable. They had to admit that their outburst of cursing was truly messy and lacking decorum. Long Chen coldly said, “Don’t play games with me. I’m not here to negotiate; I’m telling you this is happening. There is no room for discussion. Don’t think that making a fuss about the first goal will make me afraid to state the second. You might have lived for countless years, but that doesn’t mean your experience surpasses mine. From the mortal world to the immortal world, I’ve navigated through the twists and turns of life. My experience might be greater than yours combined, so playing these games with me only makes you seem immature and naive. So how about we just talk sincerely and openly, hmm? Why waste time?”

Long Chen was sneering at them. This was a typical negotiation tactic—unbending at the start and then slowly giving concessions in order to win more negotiation chips.

Unfortunately for them, Long Chen wasn’t here to negotiate. He didn't directly say it, but his stance was clear: if you’re willing, hand it over. If you’re not willing, you still have to hand it over.

For his goals, Long Chen couldn’t press the Long clan too hard as he truly needed those two things. The Earth Cauldron had said that they were of utmost importance to him. He could only succeed, not fail. Seeing that their facade was exposed, the clan leader looked pissed and a bit embarrassed. Although they had known Long Chen was difficult to deal with, he was still a youngster. They had expected him to be at the mercy of their group of wily old foxes.

Unexpectedly, Long Chen was the real wily old fox. Now they understood how he became the High Firmament Academy’s youngest dean in history. It wasn’t just based on martial power, but also on intelligence.

The clan leader said, “Long Chen, you’re really forcing us. Since you’ve acknowledged Long Ziwei as your brother, then you should know that the slots of Heavenly Fate Divine Pool are limited. Only those in the top fifty of the Heaven Rankings even have a chance to enter. Furthermore, every time the Heavenly Fate Divine Pool blesses someone, it will exhaust its energy. There are only a few spots left. If I give one to you, another heavenly genius will lose their spot. That’s extremely unfair to them…”

Everything the clan leader said sounded very reasonable, logical, and even moving. As the clan leader, his words left no opening for rebuttal.

“I don’t want anyone else’s spot. Give Long Qingyun’s spot to me. In any case, he’s already dead,” said Long Chen.

Seeing that the clan leader was about to argue, Long Chen said, “Don’t give me that nonsense. On that day, I personally saw that when he died, his Heavenly Fate Ring dispersed and was absorbed by a mysterious power from the rear of the main palace.”

Of course, it was nonsense. The Heaven Overseer had told Long Chen about this. Back then, he had indeed felt something odd, but it was common for a Heavenly Chosen’s energy to be reabsorbed by the Heavenly Daos upon their demise.

Hold it, absorbed?

Recalling a certain matter, Long Chen ignored all the elders and sank his mind into the primal chaos space.

Long Chen examined the Heavenly Dao Tree, walking around it. It was covered in fruit, but he didn’t find the thing he was hoping to see.

It seems that even the mighty Heavenly Dao Tree has its limit. Long Chen mused, his disappointment evident after thoroughly examining the tree.

Could it be that the Heavenly Dao Tree could only produce nine star Heavenly Doyen Fruits and nothing higher? Determined to find out more, Long Chen stubbornly inspected the tree again.

“This is…” Long Chen’s gaze locked onto a tiny little flower amongst the Heavenly Dao Tree’s leaves. This tiny flower emitted a gentle light, distinct from anything he had seen.

The flower had nine petals that were connected by special vein lines. When all those vein lines were connected, they formed the image of a disk.

Long Chen almost cried out when he saw it. This was clearly an image of a Heavenly Fate Disk. So, the Heavenly Dao Tree had not produced a Heavenly Chosen Fruit, but a Heavenly Chosen Flower.

If there was a flower, then it would bear fruit one day. Long Chen quickly understood that it was most likely the result of Heavenly Chosens possessing so much power that the Heavenly Dao Tree could only absorb a portion of their power when they died. Only by absorbing more energy could it bear fruit.

Long Chen was incredibly excited by this discovery but now wasn’t the time to celebrate. He suppressed his excitement, keeping on his icy expression as he had something to do.

An elder shouted, “What nonsense! When people die, heaven and earth will take back their—”

“Swear on it! Do so and I’ll believe you!” Long Chen directly cut this elder off. “I’m just curious, who did you learn spout nonsense from?”

Long Chen looked at the clan leader. He didn’t say anything further, but his meaning was clear. There was no need for more words.

The clan leader was incredibly embarrassed and enraged. Long Chen’s mouth was truly sharp, giving them no room for leeway.

Suppressing his anger, the clan leader said, “Fine, we can discuss this later. What is your second goal?”

“My second goal is to enter the Jiuli Tower!”

Crack.

The clan leader directly crushed the arm of his chair. Like a furious lion, he shot up.

“Absolutely not!”