"The thirty years of basic cultivation in Chaos City have ended."
The Nine-Sword Venerable swept his gaze across the 808 young people before him. Everyone lowered their heads, not daring to meet his eyes.
"Your cohort has a relatively poor fatality rate, but in terms of results, you are an excellent group. Especially Luo Fan, Bolan, Luo Feng, Hong, and Rong Jun. Very good."
A commotion rippled through the large group of young geniuses below. Many of them turned to look at these five people.
Luo Fan had broken through the ninth level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge.
This result was far ahead.
Because Luo Fan had been far stronger than everyone from the beginning, the others had grown numb to it.
Among the remaining three, Bolan broke through the seventh level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge.
Luo Feng broke through the seventh level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge.
Hong broke through the fifth level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge.
Rong Jun broke through the fourth level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge.
Among these people, everyone felt numb toward Luo Fan.
They felt envy toward Rong Jun, envying him for having a Venerable as a teacher.
Toward Luo Feng, they felt admiration and respect. He had no Venerable guiding him, yet he managed to reach the seventh level in the end, catching up to Bolan.
The extent of his improvement was truly astonishing.
Toward Hong, they felt shock. Although Luo Feng did not have a Venerable as a teacher, he did have an invincible King-level teacher.
However:
Hong did not even have a King-level teacher, yet he still broke through the fifth level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge.
Yes, up until now, Hong had never explicitly acknowledged a teacher.
But in reality, that was not the case.
Hong was currently undergoing a test.
A great being had sent someone to find him.
As long as Hong, while still at the Universe Level and within three hundred years, could break through the tenth level of the Illusion Sea, he would become a registered disciple of that being.
If he could break through the fifteenth level of the Illusion Sea before becoming Immortal, he would become that being's personal disciple.
Hong had already gone ahead to challenge the Illusion Sea.
Luo Fan had previously given each of the group a clone.
His clones, once transformed, looked exactly like the creature or item they had turned into.
Whether appearance, aura, or soul, all were identical.
Even telepathic probing could not distinguish them.
For example, if one transformed into a special lifeform, as long as it did not battle and expose the lack of innate secret techniques or differences in gene level, it would not be discovered.
Several of Luo Fan's clones had transformed into lightbrains and were placed inside the world rings of Luo Feng and the others.
Whenever they wanted to communicate, they used these to transmit information.
This was how Luo Fan, Luo Feng, and Thunder God learned about Hong's teacher test.
At present, even Hong did not know the identity of that person.
The person who met him back then only claimed to be the Master of the Nether Marquis.
The moment Luo Fan heard this title, he knew who it was.
It was the teacher of the Master of the Nether Marquis. Aside from the Giant Axe and the Original Ancestor, the only great being of the human race who had ever trained a Universe Master disciple: the Lord of Darkness.
The Lord of Darkness must have seen that Hong's illusion talent was extraordinary, so he gave him this test.
The Lord of Darkness was a hidden powerhouse of the human race.
His external identity was that of a solitary Universe Master without a clan.
Thus, everything remained confidential.
Because Hong remembered Luo Fan's advice, he did not break through the fifteenth island of the Illusion Sea.
After all, breaking through the tenth island was enough to become a registered disciple.
Although the Lord of Darkness never told Hong his name and even concealed his appearance while teaching him, he still began personally instructing Hong after Hong broke through the tenth island.
This was the reason Hong could break through the fifth level of the Illusion Universe Sky-Piercing Bridge.
The Illusion Universe Chaos Tablet was created by the Lord of Darkness.
When Hong broke through the tenth island of the Illusion Sea, he pretended to stagnate at the eleventh island.
Even so, the Lord of Darkness was shocked.
Do not think the tenth island of the Illusion Sea is the same as the tenth level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge.
Even if the difficulty is similar, the most gifted genius of this generation, Luo Fan, had only cleared the ninth level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge.
The illusion of the tenth island of the Illusion Sea was equivalent to an Immortal-level illusion.
Even many ordinary Immortal-level experts could not necessarily break through it.
Thus, once Hong cleared it, the Lord of Darkness immediately took him as a registered disciple.
Hong planned to wait until he reached the Domain Lord or World Master level before attempting the fifteenth island.
The fifteenth island corresponded to a Marquis Immortal-level illusion.
Although Hong had not passed it yet, he had confidence.
Hong did not break through the tenth island through sheer willpower.
Although his willpower was extremely strong, his current willpower was only at the peak World Master level.
The reason he could pass the tenth island was his state of mind.
His state of mind was all-embracing and accommodating, and his mental cultivation had reached the third realm.
Thus, when he entered the illusion, he could directly embrace it and accept it as reality.
Of course, even Hong would definitely fail before a Venerable-level illusion.
However, the fifteenth island of the Illusion Sea posed no problem for him.
Even though Hong had not wandered the universe for ten thousand years with the Lord of Time, as in the original story, he still had a strong chance of breaking through the eighteenth island of the Illusion Sea.
That was a King-level illusion.
Because the identity of the Lord of Darkness could not be exposed, Hong had never made public his apprenticeship.
Thus, in the eyes of these young geniuses, Hong was someone who had no teacher, yet could break through the fifth level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge.
Besides Hong, many people were astonished by the progress of Fak and You.
These were all clones of Luo Fan, and all of them broke through the third level of the Sky-Piercing Bridge.
In the eyes of outsiders, these individuals were merely members of the Doomsday Secret Realm.
Yet all of them had broken through the third level.
Naturally, many people were shocked because of them.
…
After passing through the passage where time flowed chaotically, the spaceship finally entered the Original Universe.
"We have left the Initial Universe."
The Nine-Sword Venerable looked down at the group of young people.
"This marks the official end of the safest period of your lives in Chaos City."
"Next, you will be divided into four squads and sent to the Original Secret Realm, the Absolute Beginning Secret Realm, the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm, and the Doomsday Secret Realm."
"From here on, life will not be as comfortable as in Chaos City. I wish you good luck. I hope that next time I see you, at least five hundred of you are still alive."
After the Nine-Sword Venerable finished speaking:
Boom.
The spaceship began to decelerate. Moments later, the hatch opened.
Luo Fan and the others filed out of the spaceship.
At a glance, they saw rolling mountains in the distance, numerous spaceships scattered across the horizon, countless figures flying through the sky, and even many stars shining above.
The Virtual Universe Company's headquarters for the entire universe was an incomparably vast continent suspended in space. Compared to it, stars were as tiny as grains of sesame.
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