"Why are you still being so formal with your senior brother? Come, sit down." Marquis Golden Sword smiled at Lin Yuan.
"When I was chatting with your teacher recently, he mentioned that he'd taken on a new young disciple with exceptional talent. Later, I heard Saiwen mention you, too. He had very high praise for you."
"The Nine Flame Sacred Land's Ranking Tournament is about to begin. Whenever the Sacred Land holds one, some Immortals from the Nine Flames Universe Kingdom come to watch. I thought I'd come meet you before the tournament started."
Marquis Golden Sword spoke warmly. Lin Yuan couldn't feel a trace of the pressure of an Immortal Expert from him.
"Your teacher and Second Senior Disciple will be watching your matches, too," Marquis Yuankun said from beside them.
"Back then, your Second Senior Disciple entered the Genius Battle as the Star Level champion of the Nine Flame Sacred Land. He eventually made it into the Virtual Universe Company's Primordial Secret Realm."
Lin Yuan was surprised. As expected, every Immortal was an outstanding genius.
"Lin Yuan, many of the Universe Level students in the Sacred Land took part in the Genius Battle. They just failed to make the top thousand in the whole universe, so the Sacred Land eventually took them in."
Marquis Yuankun continued.
"The highest-ranked students, for the most part, were born just after a Genius Battle and didn't want to wait thousands of years for the next one, so they broke through to Universe Level instead."
"But no matter what kind of genius they are, very few make it into the Core Layer of either of the two giants. Even fewer go on to become Immortals."
"Among this batch of Universe Level students, in your teacher's view, only one besides you can truly be called a genius: Brian, who's ranked first."
"With his current strength, he has a good chance of making the top ten in the whole universe. So, Lin Yuan, don't be discouraged if you can't beat him yet. How long have you even been cultivating in the Sacred Land? With your talent, your teacher believes it's only a matter of time before you surpass him."
Hearing his teacher's words, Lin Yuan was moved. His teacher made no secret of how much faith and confidence he had in him.
"I'll remember every word, teacher," Lin Yuan replied respectfully.
"By the way, junior brother," Marquis Golden Sword said from beside them.
"Your senior brother also prepared a gift for you. These are some cultivation insights I wrote down while studying the Chaos Stele. You can refer to them as you cultivate."
Before he finished speaking, a secret technique had already been sent to Lin Yuan's Smart Optical Brain.
"Thank you, senior brother!"
Lin Yuan was deeply grateful. His teacher treated him very well, and his senior brother looked out for him, too.
Lin Yuan exchanged a few more pleasantries with Second Senior Disciple, then took his leave.
Over the next year, Lin Yuan's comprehension of the Law of Space Origin deepened considerably. He quickly grasped the third move of the Thousand Mountain Secret Code, "Rift Wave," and fully mastered the third stage of the Burning Universe Flame Wild Axe, "Burning Sky," cultivating it to perfection.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, the day of the Nine Flame Sacred Land's Ranking Tournament arrived.
In the Virtual Universe, within the Nine Flame Sacred Land area, all the Universe Level students stood solemnly inside a towering palace.
Suddenly, an invisible pressure descended. A figure in a black robe appeared in midair above the hall, and many of the students could barely stay on their feet beneath the pressure.
The black-robed figure's booming voice rang out in every student's mind:
"This batch of the Universe Level Ranking Tournament is about to begin. I'll explain the rules."
"The rules are simple. All students who failed the Grade B Assessment will take it again. The assessment system will automatically score each of you based on your performance, and your scores will determine your rankings."
The black-robed figure paused, then continued, his voice distant and imposing:
"Those who passed the Grade B Assessment will compete in a round-robin tournament, with every pair of students facing each other once."
"A total of 259 Universe Level students passed the Grade B Assessment. Each student will fight ten matches per day, with opponents and battle environments chosen at random. There will be 33,411 matches in total, and all of them will be completed within 26 days. Final rankings will be determined by wins and head-to-head results."
"I'll say no more. The Ranking Tournament officially begins!"
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."
Before many of the students could react, they were teleported away one after another, sent either to the Assessment Space or the Battle Space.
Lin Yuan's opponents on the first day were all weak. He took care of almost every one of them in a single move.
"3 wins, 0 losses."
"6 wins, 0 losses."
"10 wins, 0 losses."
The first day's matches were over in no time.
His ten opponents had all reached roughly the eighth or ninth level of Domain, and had crossed the threshold of one Lower Origin Law.
When Lin Yuan had first arrived at the Sacred Land, before he'd comprehended the Law of Space Origin, his strength had been about the same. Back then, he could partially merge his Domain of Earth and Domain of Metal, but his secret techniques and combat skills were still far too crude.
Now, Lin Yuan had no reason to deliberately study Domain fusion.
Once one's Law Comprehension reached a deeper level, Domains played a much smaller role than before.
Only someone like Long Yun in the original story, who could almost perfectly merge the Law of Space Origin into his Domain, would see a marked improvement.
Lin Yuan won every match in the first few days. Even his strongest opponent had only been a little more advanced in Law Comprehension.
On the twelfth day, Lin Yuan was matched against the huge, burly Resk.
By then, both of them had a record of "110 wins, 0 losses."
In the Virtual Universe, inside a luxurious palace, a group of Immortal Experts sat on lavish sofas, watching all the ongoing matches.
Marquis Yuankun and Marquis Golden Sword were among them.
"Oh? Layton, your disciple's been matched against Marquis Yuankun's young disciple. This should be quite a show," an Immortal Expert said with a grin to the man beside him, Layton.
Layton was an Immortal mentor of the Nine Flame Sacred Land, an Immortal Military Lord who had comprehended the Origin of Gold. Several thousand years ago, he'd taken Resk as his personal disciple.
"My disciple has been diligently cultivating in the Sacred Land for thousands of years. Marquis Yuankun's disciple hasn't been here nearly as long, so he lacks a solid foundation. This is his first Ranking Tournament. If he can somehow make the top ten, Marquis Yuankun should be satisfied. Hahaha..."
Layton spoke as he watched the two contestants on the screen prepare to fight.
As he spoke, Layton suddenly felt a gaze fixed on him from not far away. He shuddered and hurriedly fell silent.
A short distance away sat three people: Marquis Yuankun, Marquis Golden Sword, and Marquis Huanyu, all watching the Ranking Tournament together.
"Teacher, that Military Lord was rude just now. Let me teach him a lesson," Marquis Golden Sword said, rising to his feet.
"No need." Marquis Yuankun smiled mildly, unbothered.
"Your teacher isn't so petty as to quarrel with a mere Immortal mentor."
"Wouldn't it be more satisfying to watch your junior disciple teach that man's student a lesson in a moment?"
In the Virtual Universe, inside the Battle Space.
An endless grassland stretched out before them.
When the burly Resk saw that Lin Yuan was his opponent, his eyes lit up as if he'd spotted prey. He stared fixedly at Lin Yuan.
"Lin Yuan! Fight!"
The burly man's voice boomed with high spirits, as if he could hardly wait.
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