Chapter 257: A Sense of Urgency

The geniuses were utterly shocked.

All three thousand geniuses had just checked their results, and the complete rankings now appeared before them.

Rank 1: Mixed Void — Result: 8th step of the Path of Deities

Rank 2: Lan Yu — Result: 5th step of the Path of Deities

Rank 3: Long Zhan — Result: 1st step of the Path of Deities

Rank 4: Dilunxi — Result: 1st step of the Path of Deities

Rank 5: Mute — Result: 1st step of the Path of Deities

...

Rank 10... Li Yang — Result: 1st step of the Path of Deities

...

Out of three thousand geniuses, only fourteen had passed the Path of Deities. Twelve of them had only managed to clear the first step.

Meanwhile, Lan Yu had passed five steps, and Mixed Void had passed eight!

The gap... everyone saw just how enormous the gap was!

"Lan Yu and Mixed Void are too strong. The fifth step, the eighth step... even Long Zhan, who’s ranked third, only passed the first step of the Path of Deities!"

"Monsters! They’re both monsters!"

"Lan Yu received five inheritance opportunities, and Mixed Void got eight!"

"The Land of Inheritance is so effective, and it’s incredibly hard to earn even a single opportunity. Now Lan Yu and Mixed Void have gotten so many at once! On top of that, Mixed Void was already taken as a disciple by the Black Inference Dominator, a being more powerful than any Emperor!"

"That’s right. With guidance from the Black Inference Dominator and all those inheritance opportunities, Mixed Void’s progress will be even faster!"

A being more powerful than an Emperor was guiding Mixed Void, whose talent was already heaven-defying. With so many inheritance opportunities on top of that, how powerful would he become?

The other geniuses felt completely demoralized. A new sense of urgency gripped them.

They were at the foot of the Lianyun Mountain Range, where the effectiveness of comprehending the law patterns in the sky was already at its lowest. Their previous inheritance opportunities were all used up, and now they couldn’t pass the steps of the Path of Deities to earn any more.

The only other way to get an opportunity was to wait twenty years for the next one to be issued.

...

’The fifth step... the eighth step...’ Li Yang mused, also looking at the rankings.

He knew firsthand how powerful the beasts inside those spatial steps were. He had managed to kill the beast on the first step, but the one on the second had nearly insta-killed him!

The power of the beast inside each step must increase dramatically!

’They’re so strong,’ Li Yang thought to himself.

’Once my Fire Nether Divine Beast avatar is fully developed, will my rate of progress be able to match Mixed Void’s?’

Mixed Void was, after all, a peerless genius ranked in the top 100 in the history of the Human Race.

"What a monster!"

Beside Li Yang, Mute’s face was also a mask of shock. "I can kind of understand Lan Yu passing five steps," he said, "but for Mixed Void to pass eight! The gap between him and Lan Yu is even wider than the gap between us and Lan Yu!"

It wasn’t just the lower-ranked geniuses; even top contenders like Li Yang were stunned.

’The eighth step... so he’s three steps ahead of me?’ Lan Yu stared at Mixed Void’s name, his eyes burning with a competitive fire.

He had always been number one, but this genius, Mixed Void, had completely crushed him.

While everyone else was in shock, surprisingly, only the youngest among them, Dilunxi, seemed relatively unfazed.

’Good. He’s this far ahead of me. That just makes the chase more interesting!’ Dilunxi thought.

Previously, everyone’s relative strength had been unclear, and no one knew who was progressing fastest. But the Path of Deities had laid it all out for them to see.

’Mixed Void, Lan Yu, enjoy your moment in the spotlight. I’ll be catching up to you soon!’

Dilunxi had a baffling level of confidence in his comprehension speed, firmly believing he was the fastest at understanding laws among all the geniuses of his generation.

Even though Mixed Void and Lan Yu were so far ahead of him, it was only because they had been cultivating for far longer than him.

Under the gazes of the crowd, Mixed Void’s expression remained calm as he became the first to depart.

Lan Yu followed suit, also vanishing.

"Let’s go, time to cultivate!"

"The gap is too huge. If we don’t get serious about cultivating, Mixed Void and Lan Yu will leave us completely in the dust!"

"Exactly! Mixed Void has a Dominator-level powerhouse teaching him, and Lan Yu has an Emperor backing him. We need to find masters, and fast!"

SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

With looks of intense urgency, the geniuses logged out of the Virtual World one after another.

Everyone had known there was a gap, but they never knew how vast it was. Now, the Path of Deities had laid bare their individual strengths for all to see!

Urgency, pressure... every single genius was feeling it.

They were all peerless geniuses, the number one prodigies of their respective Star Continents. Each of them had wanted to make a spectacular showing on the Path of Deities rankings!

"Li Yang, I’m going to cultivate too!"

Mute looked at Li Yang, his face clearly showing a renewed and intense fighting spirit.

"The fifth step, the eighth step, I will definitely be able to reach them in the future!"

He, too, had been fired up by Mixed Void and Lan Yu’s achievements.

"Oh, by the way, Li Yang," Mute added. "It won’t be long before powerful Deities start contacting you, wanting to take you as their disciple. Don’t be in a hurry to agree to anyone.

From what I know, there will definitely be more than one who’s interested. You can wait a bit. Those powerful Deities will each offer to guide you for a trial period."

"During that time, you can see which Deity’s guidance benefits you the most. Then you can choose that one to be your master," Mute advised.

"Oh? Several powerful Deities will want to take me as a disciple?" Li Yang was taken aback by Mute’s words.

"Haha, Li Yang, with a result like yours, you would have been first place in the last batch at the Human Race’s Eternal Saint Hall. Traditionally, the first-place winner always has powerful Deities vying to take them as a disciple, and usually more than one," Mute said with a laugh.

He came from an extraordinary background and had long been a disciple of Emperor Kui Lang, so he was privy to information that far surpassed what Li Yang knew.

Few would care about an ordinary genius, but when it came to someone truly powerful, there would always be a scramble to take them as a disciple.

"I see."

Li Yang nodded and looked at Mute. "Thanks for the heads-up."

"It’s nothing."

Mute grinned. "I have an Emperor for a master, while you don’t have one yet, Li Yang. That’s not fair. I’m hoping to surpass you fair and square, you know."

Hearing this, Li Yang laughed. "Maybe I’ll be the one surpassing you."

"Haha, then let’s just see who’s stronger in the end!" Mute boomed with laughter.

"I’m off."

With that, his figure vanished as he logged out of the Virtual World.

Mute was carefree and straightforward, and among this batch of geniuses, he was the one Li Yang got along with best.

’Log out of the Virtual World.’

Li Yang didn’t linger in the Virtual World. Right after Mute left, he logged out as well.

"Master, you have a message."

The moment he logged out, the voice of his intelligent assistant, Number Six, sounded.

"It’s from the powerful Deity, the Flame Wave Sect Master," Number Six added.