Chapter 329: Yangyuan Emperor’s Regret

Li Yang’s figure flickered, and he appeared in the space of the thirteenth step.

There was nothing special about this space. Another demonic beast appeared, and the fluctuations of power it emanated were undoubtedly much stronger than the one on the twelfth step.

’I can’t possibly pass this step, but I can at least get a feel for this beast’s power,’ Li Yang thought, taking a deep breath.

The first form of his Destruction Spear Skill was only enough to get him past the twelfth step.

BOOM!

The battle erupted instantly. In less than two seconds, all fluctuation from Li Yang’s aura vanished. He was dead.

...

"He passed!"

"It took Mixed Void nineteen years to pass the twelfth step, and it took Li Yang thirty-six."

"For the first decade or so, Li Yang’s progress was much slower, but in terms of his rate of improvement over the last twenty years, he’s not the least bit inferior to Mixed Void!"

The crowd of Deities was speechless, staring at the projection in shock.

Who was Mixed Void? A genius ranked in the top one hundred in the history of the Human Race, a prodigy with a sliver of a chance of becoming a Sovereign in the future!

No matter what heaven-defying feats he achieved or how fast he progressed, everyone would consider it perfectly normal.

But Li Yang... he hadn’t been particularly conspicuous before. He had joined the Human Race’s Eternal Saint Hall ranked tenth, no Emperor had accepted him as a disciple, and even several Deities, like the Flame Wave Sect Master, had passed him over because he had comprehended the Fire Element Law.

And now, Li Yang had achieved such a heaven-defying result!

Thirty-six years to pass the twelfth step of the Path of Deities. While he couldn’t compare to Mixed Void’s overall time, judging by his more recent rate of progress, Li Yang was already nearly matching Mixed Void’s pace!

Under the shocked gazes of the crowd, Li Yang entered the thirteenth step of the Path of Deities, lasted for two seconds, and was then killed.

No Deity was surprised by this outcome.

Even Mixed Void had been instantly killed on this step before.

With Li Yang’s elimination, his trial on the steps came to an end.

The crowd of Deities took a deep breath. In less than ten minutes, Li Yang had given them an immense shock.

"Blade Slaughter, congratulations! Congratulations on accepting such a fine disciple."

"Ah, the regrets... When Li Yang first entered the Saint Hall, I considered taking him as my disciple, but I never acted on it."

"Haha, what’s the point of talking about regret now? I think the ones who regret it most are Flame Wave and his cronies. They were only a single step away from taking Li Yang as a disciple, but they gave up at the last second."

"Piss off, Bingpo! If you mock me about this one more time, I’m going to make a move on you."

"Go on, Flame Wave, hit him. That Bingpo has a big mouth; even I want to punch him."

As Li Yang’s assessment ended, the crowd of Deities grew lively once more.

The Deities spoke one after another with smiles, some of them joking around.

Despite their words, these powerful Deities were genuinely filled with regret, especially the Flame Wave Sect Master and his group.

They had missed out on such a powerful genius, all because of a single whim.

It wasn’t just the Flame Wave Sect Master, but many other Deities as well.

For a full five years, Li Yang had been in the Saint Hall without a master. Any one of them could have easily taken such an excellent disciple under their wing, and no one would have even fought them for him.

"Haha." At this moment, the happiest one was undoubtedly the Blade Slaughter Sect Master.

When a disciple achieved such excellent results, their master was naturally overjoyed.

The crowd of Deities was discussing taking on disciples, and surprisingly, so were the Emperors above them.

"Unbelievable. Li Yang actually performed a miracle and passed the twelfth step."

"If I’d known, I would have taken Li Yang as my disciple."

"The way Li Yang is now, there might be a sliver of a chance he’ll attract the attention of our Human Race’s Sovereigns. They might even descend to take him as a disciple."

When Li Yang had first entered the Human Race’s Eternal Saint Hall, his Talent was considered on par with Mute and the others. But even among geniuses of that tier, like Mute, Huo Lie, and Yun Rou, only some were accepted as disciples by the Emperors—not all of them.

Li Yang was the kind of talent powerful Deities would fight over, but few Emperors had paid him any mind.

But now, it was just like when Mixed Void first entered the Eternal Saint Hall, and powerful Emperors had constantly descended to vie for him.

The Li Yang of this moment was now fully qualified to be fought over by the Emperors!

However, since Li Yang already had the Blade Slaughter Sect Master as his master, these Emperors would not intervene.

In terms of strength, the Blade Slaughter Sect Master was only a single step away from the Emperor Level. His guidance would not be significantly different from that of an actual Emperor.

If anyone were to try and take Li Yang as a disciple now, it would have to be a Sovereign.

Of course, that was only a remote possibility.

After all, even with Mixed Void, if a Sovereign had not descended, his master would have remained an Emperor. It all depended on the whims of the Sovereigns.

For beings of that caliber, who were absolute hegemons in the entire Cosmos, taking on a disciple or not was of little significance.

"Haha, Yangyuan, you were smart to befriend Li Yang ahead of time. Now you don’t have to worry about him turning out like Sword Mark."

"That’s right. With the Talent he’s displayed, it’s highly likely he’ll be standing among us in the future."

Several Emperors chatted and laughed with Yangyuan Emperor.

Hearing their words, Yangyuan Emperor could only force a smile.

He couldn’t describe the feeling in his heart at that moment.

’Li Yang... twelve steps...’

A wave of regret finally washed over Yangyuan Emperor. ’If I had only known, I never would have released the Celestial Net.’

Because he had released the Celestial Net, he knew that all his previous efforts to befriend Li Yang had basically gone to waste.

He knew exactly what passing twelve steps represented!

He, Yangyuan Emperor, was probably about to become a laughingstock.

"Li Yang’s assessment is over. Let’s go."

"More and more of the little ones are showing up in the step space."

"I suppose Li Yang’s performance will give these kids some extra motivation."

No one knew what Yangyuan Emperor was thinking. One by one, the powerful consciousnesses withdrew.

And before the massive Path of Deities, one young genius after another appeared. It was Lan Yu, Mute, and the others.

These geniuses had all thought Li Yang was dead and had received no news to the contrary.

But when Li Yang challenged the steps of the Path of Deities and his score changed, the leaderboards on their wristbands sent out a notification. They saw that Li Yang had passed the tenth step, realized he wasn’t dead, and immediately rushed to the space of the Path of Deities.

Just as they arrived, they saw the leaderboard information change again: Li Yang had passed the eleventh step of the Path of Deities.

"Li Yang isn’t dead!"

"The eleventh step of the Path of Deities! He passed two steps in a row!"

"Lan Yu just tested his strength, and he could only last for four minutes on the tenth step."

"Gods, the eleventh step corresponds to a World Lord! Li Yang can actually kill a World Lord now!"

Many of the geniuses—Lan Yu, Dilunxi, Long Zhan, Mute, Huo Lie, and others—appeared, their eyes filled with shock.

They had all thought Li Yang was dead. Now, he had suddenly returned to life and displayed such terrifying strength!

So the geniuses watched, and in less than ten minutes, Li Yang’s score changed once more. He had reached the twelfth step!