Swallowing the Stars: 100x Return for Teaching Apprentices

Chapter 174 The End of Thirty Years

time flies.

In Chaos City, none of the cosmic-level geniuses who joined the Virtual Universe Company through the Genius Battle are letting their guard down.

Especially with Lu Ming as a prime example of someone who rose to prominence later in life, the geniuses were all inspired to unleash amazing motivation!
Especially for the other geniuses in the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm, since they and Lu Ming are all members of the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm, if he can do it, why can't they?
Being weaker than your opponent now doesn't mean you'll always be weaker in the future.

These people are all ranked in the top 100 in the entire universe; which one of them would willingly consider themselves mediocre?

What use is the greatest talent if you don't have a fighting spirit?

Each of these geniuses displayed immense enthusiasm for cultivation, and began a frantic pursuit of their goals.

As the rivals being chased, the top-ranked geniuses naturally dared not relax easily and put in even more effort to widen the gap.

In this atmosphere of everyone striving for excellence, geniuses are constantly making breakthroughs.

In the 21st year since arriving in Chaos City, Bai Wuming of the Primordial Secret Realm has passed through the third level of the Bridge to Heaven.

In the 25th year since arriving in Chaos City, in the Primordial Secret Realm of Dongyang Jade Sea, Vittorio of the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm passed through the third level of the Bridge to Heaven. Vittorio's comeback has ignited a new wave of cultivation enthusiasm among these geniuses.

After all, Vittorio is different from Lu Ming. At least Lu Ming was originally ranked among the top in the group in the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm. During the Genius Battle, he was one of the 20 people who entered the final arena battle. Everyone felt that his outstanding performance was acceptable.

However, Vittorio, who was clearly a nobody among the 90 people in the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm, has now unexpectedly passed the third level of the Bridge to Heaven and is now on par with Bai Wuming and Dongyang Yuhai, who are ranked high in the Primordial Secret Realm. How could this not make them envious!

And soon after, something even more surprising and enviable happened—

Vittorio, for the first time, also chose to go to the mansion of the King of Destiny, and after the class, he also successfully became the King of Destiny's disciple!

A person who was originally ranked at the bottom among the members of the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm has now not only surpassed some members of the Primordial Secret Realm in the progress of crossing the Heavenly Bridge, but has also successfully become an apprentice of a Grandmaster among the Immortals. This is definitely a typical case of a successful comeback!
Spurred on, the group of geniuses all strive to catch up and conquer the Heavenly Bridge.

In this atmosphere of constant competition, the 30-year deadline is fast approaching.

……

Inside the Chaos City, in the Wonderful Fate Mansion.

"You two, you have ten days left before you leave Chaos City."

Qi Yuan smiled as he looked at Lu Ming and Vittorio before him.

“The core members who join the company through the Genius Battle must undergo a series of training and honing according to the company’s arrangements. I cannot shirk these responsibilities for you. Of course, even if I could, I would not do so. Geniuses who do not undergo honing cannot truly grow.”

"There's only one thing I can guarantee—"

Qi Yuan smiled and said, "I will try my best to provide you with resources that are no less than those of the members of the Primal Secret Realm. You don't need to worry about secret techniques, points, weapons and armor, or cultivation supplies. Your only task is to continuously cultivate and become stronger, strive to break through to the Immortal Realm as soon as possible, and become a King among the Immortals!"

"is teacher!"

Although they vaguely felt that their teacher's expectations of them were a bit too high, Lu Ming and Vittorio still responded respectfully.

Compared to when they first came to Chaos City 30 years ago, these two little guys have lost their naivety.

Especially Lu Ming, who successfully passed the fourth level of the Bridge to Heaven in his 22nd year in Chaos City, truly surpassing Sarom of the Primal Secret Realm, and becoming the first person among this group of geniuses to pass the Bridge to Heaven.

Over the years, through continuous comprehension of the fundamental laws of the universe and frequent instruction from Qi Yuan, his cultivation progress has steadily increased, and he has developed an unparalleled confidence and composure.

"Ah."

Qi Yuan smiled and nodded; he was quite satisfied with his two newly accepted apprentices.

She is talented, ambitious, and respectful to her teacher.

He was naturally willing to invest a lot of resources in cultivating such a disciple.

"Alright, you don't need to stay here anymore. In the last ten days, go and try to cross the Heavenly Bridge if you want, or study the Chaos Stele if you want. Who knows when you'll be able to come back to Chaos City again!" Qi Yuan waved his hand.

"Yes, teacher, this disciple takes his leave."

Take care, teacher!

Lu Ming and Vittorio bowed respectfully to Qi Yuan before reluctantly leaving.

"Hehe, you two little ones, leaving Chaos City is like leaving the starting village. From now on, how far you go is up to you."

Qi Yuan smiled faintly and quickly returned to his quiet cultivation.

The virtual universe Tongtianqiao plane.

In the center of that beautiful island, figures appeared rapidly.

With less than ten days left before leaving Chaos City, the young geniuses naturally seized the time to cross the Heavenly Bridge.

As long as they could advance to the next level, they would get another chance to comprehend the Chaos Stele, so the geniuses were naturally very eager to do so.

"There are so many people."

Lu Ming and Vittorio, who had left the Wonderland, also appeared on this island.

"Lu Ming, are you still going to try and cause trouble?"

Upon seeing Lu Ming appear, Dongyang Yuhai of the Taichu District let out an exaggerated, strange cry.
"Are you trying to kill us? We're already so far ahead, and you still have to provoke us!"

"Exactly, leave us a way out! You're making us look like useless trash..."

"Manlong," a burly young man who was also a member of the Primordial Secret Realm, sighed.

"Haha, with you guys chasing me so closely, of course I dare not let my guard down," Lu Ming said with a laugh.

"Ok?"

Lu Ming, Dongyang Yuhai, and the others all looked at the tall, strong young man with curly golden hair who had suddenly appeared beside them, wearing silver-gray armor.

"Sarom, he's here too?" Lu Ming looked at Salom, who had just appeared.

The young man in silver-gray armor saw Lu Ming and nodded slightly to him: "Lu Ming..."

The moment the two met, the hundreds of geniuses who had gathered around immediately began to discuss amongst themselves.

"These two have run into each other again."

"The two of them passed through the third level of the Sky Bridge almost one after the other. After Lu Ming rushed through the fourth level first, Salom immediately came to try, but ultimately failed. I wonder if the two of them will make a breakthrough today?"

"The Bridge to Heaven isn't that easy to cross. We haven't even made it past the third level yet..."

"How did these two train? Especially that Lu Ming, he seemed so ordinary before... how come he's even trampling Salom underfoot now?"

"There's nothing we can do. They have a grandmaster among the immortals guiding them, how could their progress not be fast?"

……

Amidst the whispers of the young geniuses, Lu Ming and Salom exchanged only a glance without speaking, yet both harbored a burning desire to fight.

"Lu Ming, you can enter the Cosmic Bridge now."

Baffin, the guardian of the Skybridge plane, quickly arranged the geniuses who needed to take on the challenge in order. "Sarom, there are people at the Skybridge with the Giant Axe. You are first in line below."

Lu Ming glanced at Sarom, and Sarom looked over as well.

Whoosh!
Lu Ming streaked across the sky like a streak of light and flew directly toward the distant Cosmic Bridge.

A short while later, a smile appeared on the face of the watchman, Baffin.

"Everyone."

He suddenly raised his voice, "I have good news to tell you all. Just now, Lu Ming successfully defeated the guardian of the fifth level of the Cosmic Bridge and is now heading to the sixth level."

"What! It really passed?"

The surrounding geniuses were all incredibly surprised.

Although they had seen Lu Ming arrive at the Tongtian Bridge dimension, they never thought he could actually get through!
After all, there was an eight-year gap between Lu Ming crossing the third and fourth levels of the Heavenly Bridge.

Logically, the difficulty of the Sky Bridge increases with each level, and it should take more time to cross it.

Now, only eight years have passed, and Lu Ming has already passed the fifth level of the Heavenly Bridge. This speed of progress is truly unbelievable!
"He passed? Why? Why is his progress so fast?!"

In a corner of the crowd, the blond, golden-armored youth Igor stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

As a genius who also chose the Cosmic Chaos Monument, he naturally knew the difficulty of the Cosmic Chaos Monument.

Even if Lu Ming chose the relatively simpler path that prioritizes time and uses space as a secondary factor, he shouldn't have been able to pass the fifth level so easily!

He hasn't even passed the third level yet!
"Did I really persist in the wrong direction? But my talent is clearly more suited to the path of cultivating both space and time on the Cosmic Chaos Monument."

"Did we pass? He was quite a formidable opponent. It seems we can't let our guard down even after entering the Primal Realm."

On the other side, Salom, a tall and strong young man with curly blond hair, looked serious.

"Sarom, the Skybridge with the Giant Axe is empty now, you can go in."

The voice of the Watcher, Baffin, echoed across the island.

"We've arrived in Salom!"

"I wonder if Sarrom can successfully pass the fourth level?"

All the geniuses looked towards Salom.

"This time, we must pass!"

With a firm gaze fixed on him, Sarom swiftly disappeared into the distant giant axe-shaped skybridge!

Chaos City, inside an ancient building.

The two pinnacle figures are conversing.

One of them was the host of this year's Genius Battle, a powerful Universe Venerable named 'Yan Xuan Venerable' from the Virtual Universe Company, while the other was the ruler of the 'Nofeng Universe Kingdom' who had been cultivating in seclusion in Chaos City.

"what?"

During the conversation, Venerable Yanxuan's eyes suddenly flickered.

"Hehe, is there some good news?" King Nuofeng asked with a faint smile.

"Yes, just now, among this group of genius battle members, that little guy named 'Lu Ming' passed through the fifth level of the Heavenly Bridge."

Venerable Yanxuan smiled.

"The fifth level? It seems the quality of this year's Genius Battle is quite good. In the past, it was not easy for even one person to pass the fifth level in many years. You are lucky."

The King of Nuofeng smiled and praised him.

Virtual Universe Company holds a Genius Battle every ten thousand years. In each battle, only a handful of people pass the third level, and on average, only about one person passes the fourth level!
If the overall level of a particular cohort is slightly lower, no one will pass the fourth level; if the overall level is high, two or three people may pass the fourth level.

Those who were able to pass the fifth level of the Bridge to Heaven within 30 years of Chaos Chen's reign were extremely rare, even among the thousands of previous genius battles.

"Haha, I never expected a deer to appear."

Venerable Yanxuan's expression shifted again as he spoke, "Eh? Salom has also passed the fourth level? Haha, one on the fourth level, one on the fifth level, good, very good."

"In the previous Genius Battle I hosted, there weren't many outstanding talents, and some guys even mocked me. Hmph, let's see what they have to say this time!"

(End of this chapter)