Although they had known for a long time that Ling Tian's strength far surpassed their own, Chi Xue and the others still felt somewhat dejected and dispirited when they sensed that Ling Tian had been the first to break through to the peak of the Near-Saint Nineteenth Heaven. After all, they had been rivals for a long time. Now that Ling Tian had left them far behind, it was only natural that they felt awful.
"Hmph, the Lord of the Universe has deliberately favored Ling Tian. For example, he had people like us temper him, and even directly gathered all kinds of strange energies for him. It's only natural that his cultivation realm advanced faster than yours," Shi Ming said coldly. "If we'd been deliberately favored too, who knows, perhaps our strength would be greater than Ling Tian's. At the very least, our realms would be higher than his."
Although he said this, Shi Ming's tone lacked conviction. He knew what it meant to be deliberately favored by the Lord of the Universe: they would have to endure the tempering of many cultivators stronger than themselves. Ling Tian might even attack them. Under those circumstances, they might not have been able to endure it as Ling Tian had; they would likely have perished long ago. How, then, could they have had any chance to surpass Ling Tian in realm or strength?
Shi Ming wasn't the only one who knew this. The others, including Chi Xue, knew it too. But they were proud, and saying it outright would have left Shi Ming utterly humiliated—and all of them with egg on their faces. So they didn't point it out, sparing one another some dignity.
"That's right. Forget about being tempered; if we could also obtain large amounts of strange energies that we