Chapter 823: Newcomers' Ceremony

In recent days, Wind Pavilion has undoubtedly been enveloped in a festive atmosphere. For the past few years, the position of Wind Pavilion Master remained vacant, leaving the pavilion almost completely disorganized. Without a leader to coordinate, Wind Pavilion's standing among the Four Pavilions was almost at the very bottom.

The other three pavilions, especially Fire Pavilion and Mountain Pavilion, constantly poached from Wind Pavilion, taking away all the talented young prodigies. This was the primary reason Wind Pavilion grew progressively weaker.

Now, a new Pavilion Master has finally arrived, and their strength is quite extraordinary. This is clearly a huge boon for Wind Pavilion.

As for those who originally supported Chen Beifeng, their factions were rapidly disintegrating. Commanders like Jin Teng, who had previously allied with Chen Beifeng, were now in an extremely awkward position. They wisely kept quiet, not daring to stir up any trouble.

They all understood that from now on, Wind Pavilion would be Zhou Yuan's domain. Even if Chen Beifeng fully recovered from his severe injuries, he would likely be thoroughly suppressed, possibly unable to even retain his position as Vice Pavilion Master. If this was the case for Chen Beifeng, what about them?

Jin Teng and the others now wished Zhou Yuan would simply forget about them. How could they dare to cause any more trouble?

At the center of Wind Island was Mirror Lake.

On the small island in the middle of Mirror Lake stood two towering structures. One was the Affairs Tower, where Wind Pavilion members accepted missions and collected their remuneration. The other was the Pavilion Master's Tower, which had been vacant for several years and had only recently been reopened with Zhou Yuan's promotion to Pavilion Master.

The Pavilion Master's Tower had been thoroughly cleaned over the past two days. Zhou Yuan had also moved here from his previous small residence.

In the courtyard on the tower's rooftop, Zhou Yuan stood with his hands behind his back. His gaze swept across the shimmering Mirror Lake, around which numerous training grounds were located. Many Wind Pavilion members were currently engaged in their daily training and sparring there.

A moment later, he retracted his gaze. He glanced outside the Pavilion Master's Tower, where a figure was lingering.

"Is that person called Li Jian? Is he looking for you?" Zhou Yuan turned to Ye Bingling, who was beside him, and asked with a smile.

Ye Bingling scoffed, saying, "There's no need to pay attention to such an ungrateful person. He probably wants to abandon Chen Beifeng now and come back."

When Chen Beifeng used the Soul-Capture Mark to attack them some time ago, Li Jian was the first to defect. If it had been anyone else, Ye Bingling might have understood. But Li Jian had been personally promoted to commander by her, a significant act of kindness.

Yet Li Jian ultimately chose to betray them, which undoubtedly infuriated Ye Bingling.

Seeing this, Zhou Yuan casually said to Yi Qiushui, who was nearby, "Then find an opportunity to relieve him of his commander position."

In the current Wind Pavilion, his word was final. He didn't need anyone's approval, even to remove a commander.

Yi Qiushui nodded slightly, making a mental note. In the current Wind Pavilion, Zhou Yuan appeared to be the Pavilion Master, but she was actually handling most of the affairs. She had initially felt she was overstepping her authority, so she tried reporting everything to Zhou Yuan for his decisions.

However, Zhou Yuan only tried it for less than half a day before his expression changed, and he repeatedly pushed the tasks away. He found that compared to dealing with these trivial matters, he would rather go fight someone.

When he was Vice Pavilion Master, he didn't have so many matters to handle. But now that he was Pavilion Master, he realized that governing a pavilion wasn't as satisfying as he had imagined.

After seeing Zhou Yuan's strong aversion to these matters, Yi Qiushui could only helplessly let him be a hands-off manager.

Commanders like Xiao Hong and Lu Mingyue, who were standing behind them, saw Zhou Yuan casually dismiss a commander. Their expressions turned serious, and a sense of awe for him involuntarily arose in their hearts.

"Qiushui, you're truly a treasure." Zhou Yuan saw how Yi Qiushui managed the Wind Pavilion's affairs so meticulously and couldn't help but praise her. Without Yi Qiushui, he had no idea how overwhelmed he would be right now.

Yi Qiushui gave him an exasperated look. However, although the Wind Pavilion's matters were somewhat complicated and troublesome, for her, who had secretly managed Xiao Xuan Province before, it wasn't a big deal. So, she handled them with ease.

"I can handle these minor matters for you, but you'll have to attend tomorrow's Four Pavilion meeting," she said.

At the mention of the Four Pavilion meeting, Zhou Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly. He said, "I have a feeling they're not coming with good intentions."

"Do you know what this Four Pavilion meeting will be about?"

Ye Bingling pondered for a moment before saying, "I think it's probably related to the upcoming Newcomer Ceremony."

"Newcomer Ceremony?" Zhou Yuan blinked.

Seeing Zhou Yuan's bewildered expression, Yi Qiushui couldn't help but lightly massage her forehead. Biting her lip, she asked, "Didn't I collect all the information and put it on your desk yesterday? Didn't you read it?"

Zhou Yuan looked a bit awkward and let out an awkward laugh, looking up at the sky.

Yi Qiushui was speechless at the Pavilion Master's irresponsibility. She said, "Every year, new prodigies from various places arrive at the Tianyuan Region. After being vetted, they come to the Four Pavilions. This is the Newcomer Ceremony."

"The Newcomer Ceremony is extremely important to the Four Pavilions because it represents new blood, and there are always good prospects among them. If we can recruit them, it will greatly enhance Wind Pavilion's strength."

"Therefore, during every Newcomer Ceremony, the Four Pavilions fiercely compete over the allocation."

"However... Wind Pavilion is not included in this."

Zhou Yuan was taken aback and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Originally, according to the rules, each of the Four Pavilions had a 25% share, which could not be exceeded. However, later, Wind Pavilion didn't even have a Pavilion Master, naturally disqualifying it from participating in the Pavilion Master meetings. As a result, Lu Xiao and Han Yuan teamed up and swallowed most of Wind Pavilion's newcomer allocation," Yi Qiushui explained.

Zhou Yuan frowned and asked, "How much did they take from us?"

"Almost all of it," Ye Bingling interjected. Her pretty face looked grim.

"During the annual Newcomer Ceremony, Fire Pavilion and Mountain Pavilion were the quickest to snatch up recruits, leaving only the dregs for Wind Pavilion... It was as good as nothing. That's why Wind Pavilion's foundation has steadily deteriorated over the past two years."

Zhou Yuan's mouth twitched slightly. Lu Xiao and Han Yuan's methods were simply too predatory.

Zhou Yuan thought for a moment, then said calmly, "I don't care how they acted in the past, but since I am now the Wind Pavilion Master, everything that belongs to Wind Pavilion must be returned."

"I won't take advantage of anyone, but no one should even think of taking advantage of me."

Now that he was the Wind Pavilion Master, this place was his base. Even though the members were currently only in the Divine Dwelling stage, some might hold high positions in the Tianyuan Region in the future. Thus, he naturally had to protect this foundation.

Yi Qiushui and Ye Bingling exchanged glances. If this was the case, then tomorrow's Pavilion Master meeting would likely be quite eventful.

"There's one more problem."

Yi Qiushui bit her red lip lightly and mused, "Even if we get our share back, I'm afraid we still won't be able to outcompete Fire Pavilion and Mountain Pavilion at the Newcomer Ceremony. The excellent talents will, more likely than not, choose them. In that case, we'll still only end up with the newcomers they've rejected."

"Why?" Zhou Yuan asked.

Ye Bingling sighed helplessly, saying with a heavy voice, "Because of the benefits."