Cultivate Them to Break Through!

Noah truly let Woz have it, unleashing enough profanity to last a lifetime.

But Woz could only hang his head and quietly listen to his teacher's "earnest instruction."

As for the other three, Peak and Chaos City Lord looked unruffled. Only Giant Axe...

He'd been the first one called out. When his turn came...

"Phew—!" Noah let out a long breath, then opened his eyes again and looked at Woz with an expression of utter disappointment.

"I hope readers will remember our domain: for Taiwanese novels, visit Taiwan Novel Net. Read with ease at tw̴k̴a̴n̴.c̴o̴m̴."

"Teacher, I... I understand!"

Feeling his teacher's gaze, Woz didn't dare argue. After all, Noah was his teacher. Whether he was beaten or scolded, he had to take it.

"Enough. I never expected you to truly feel remorse!

But let's make this clear: if you still can't break through this time... Heh. You can figure out what happens next!"

After speaking, Noah turned his gaze toward Giant Axe, who had already taken refuge behind Chaos City Lord.

Sensing Noah's icy stare, Chaos City Lord casually shifted half a step to the side.

"Senior Noah..."

Knowing he couldn't hide, Giant Axe braced himself and stepped forward.

"Oh, would you look at that! Isn't this our great Lord of Giant Axe?

What's this? Now that you've got that kid Xu Jin, have you started shirking your responsibilities too?"

"Well... I was trying to reach the next level."

"Then why call it the Giant Axe Arena? Change the name tomorrow. Call it the Xu Jin Arena instead!

A life-or-death battle for geniuses? Slave trading? How could you even come up with that?"

"But..."

"But what?"

Noah cut Giant Axe off mid-sentence.

"Over the past million eras, just how many geniuses have died in the life-or-death battles you set up? Fine, let's call them geniuses, at least.

So many of them could have become Immortals if they'd simply survived long enough.

They might not have reached great heights, but at the very least, they would have added to our Immortal-level forces.

And yet? Do you know how much effort I've had to put in behind the scenes to resurrect even a few 'geniuses' from native planets?"

The thought made Noah's blood boil.

When he had first transmigrated here, he'd wanted to bring the slave-trading business within the Human Race under systematic regulation.

As for banning it outright... Did anyone really think that, in a world where the strong preyed on the weak, the powerful would give up their privileges entirely?

Noah himself couldn't do that, let alone anyone else.

But reasonable restrictions were still necessary.

Some native humans had exceptionally strong racial talents, yet once they became slaves, they were usually kept at Universe Level.

They had little chance of ever rising above that!

There was no denying that if a powerful figure emerged from one of these races, he would be among the strongest of his level.

But this also meant giving up on a portion of the fighting force they could have made use of.

Then there were the inherent drawbacks of slavery itself. If slaves rebelled, whether they succeeded or failed, it was ultimately the Human Race that paid the price.

Noah's demand was actually quite simple: develop the enslavement of alien races on a large scale, rather than enslaving the Human Race itself.

That was why, at least among the forces under his command, human slaves were exceedingly rare.

If there were any, they were almost always human prisoners who had committed unforgivable crimes. Once enslaved, they were used as cannon fodder in the pioneering legions.

"But talents selected this way will be much stronger!"

At that, Giant Axe couldn't help objecting.

After all, the talents cultivated by the Giant Axe Arena were generally among the strongest of their level.

"I've seen at least three hundred thousand geniuses fall because they no longer wanted to fight.

Of course, they lacked resolve, so I didn't feel sorry for them. But overly brutal selection methods have their drawbacks too."

Noah didn't argue with him. The Human Race didn't need hothouse flowers or bleeding hearts.

Their disappearance wasn't necessarily a bad thing for the Human Race!

But Noah thought more highly of those who were willing to make sacrifices, even to keep their home worlds from becoming slave planets.

Of course, that was all his regard amounted to.

Only an extremely rare handful among them were worth paying a price to resurrect.

Even so, on the scale of the entire Human Race, that handful added up to an enormous number.

"I see... Senior Noah, I understand! I'll make some appropriate adjustments to the rules, but as for the life-or-death battles...

On that point, I stand by my view! No one can become a true powerhouse without experiencing life and death!"

Giant Axe understood what Noah meant, but as a powerhouse who had risen from the Human Race's days of weakness, he had his own ideas about cultivating talent.

"That's fine. But from now on, all participants in life-or-death battles above the hundred-match level must be supervised by other forces besides the Giant Axe Arena.

I hope you understand. Top-tier powerhouses are important.

But what our Human Race lacks isn't the people standing at the very top of the pyramid.

It's the people who can discover more talent for us and cultivate generation after generation of successors.

Sometimes, they matter more than even me or Yuan!"

Noah laid out his conditions and explained his concerns.

"No problem!"

As long as Noah wasn't banning the practice outright, Giant Axe had no objections to his arrangements.

Noah nodded, then changed the subject. "Then head to the Land of Light as soon as you can, and try to break through within a hundred eras!"

"Yes!" Giant Axe's figure disappeared from the hall.

Only then did Noah turn his gaze to Peak and Chaos, who had been standing silently to the side.

"Chaos!"

"Here!"

At the call, Chaos City Lord immediately answered.

"You two have been handling the Human Race's affairs all these years. To be honest, on that front... my teacher and I really haven't done our part!"

As he spoke, a hint of guilt showed on Noah's face.

"Senior Noah/Teacher!"

"You two managed to break through to Fifth-Order Universe Masters even under these circumstances. The burden of the whole race has held you back far too much!

From now on, you'll enter seclusion just like Giant Axe and the other two.

As for managing the race... leave it to Cold Dragon (Lord of Ice Peak) and Cain!"

"Yes, Senior Noah/Teacher. We understand!"

Chaos City Lord and Peak responded at once to Noah's instructions.

In truth, neither of them lacked talent.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have become disciples of the Original Ancestor and Noah.

It was just that most Universe Masters didn't want to manage the affairs of their race after reaching that level.

The heavy burden had fallen on their shoulders. That was why, although they were strong now, they were still some distance from breaking through.

"Once all of you have returned to the Time Secret Realm, I can teach you some of the methods for breaking through. Then our Human Race will have five Universe Strongest Ones at once!"