The Venerable's Surprise

At the border between the Human Race and Demon Race territories in the Primordial Universe, a mysterious and perilous Cosmic Secret Realm drifted.

Strange substances that constantly warped floated through the void, some flickering like phantoms, others swallowing everything like quicksand.

Countless spatial tears gaped like the maws of abyssal demons, ready to devour any life that dared enter.

A mysterious palace, shaped like a medieval castle with a thin layer of frost coating its surface and radiating endless chill, swept swiftly through the secret realm.

Inside the palace was none other than Ice Universe Venerable—the presiding Venerable of this Genius War—who had borrowed the Sky Erosion Palace Lord's treasure to venture out.

At that moment, he split off a strand of consciousness into the Virtual Universe's Thunder Island.

"The thirty years in Chaos City are almost up. How are this batch of geniuses doing?"

In a colossal divine hall, the Black-Armored Silver-Horned Man sat high upon his throne, his voice rumbling through the surrounding space as he looked down.

"Reporting to Venerable, of the original 1,000 geniuses, 904 are still alive," Wind King replied, bowing like an elf.

"The most outstanding among them is Feng Hui. He passed the Fourth Layer of Heavenly Bridge as early as his eighteenth year in Chaos City. Next is Guge, who, when he challenged Heavenly Bridge two years ago, was only a hair's breadth from passing the fourth layer. He should now have reached that level."

"Below those two are Kong Ji of the Taichu Secret Realm and two others who have passed the Third Layer of Heavenly Bridge."

The dozen or so Immortals stood respectfully in attendance.

Ice Universe Venerable, seated on his throne, listened and nodded slightly. "Aside from Feng Hui, the rest are within the normal range for new recruits from past Genius Wars."

"As for this Feng Hui..." Ice Universe Venerable said softly. "He hasn't challenged Heavenly Bridge in over ten years. What has he been up to lately?"

"After passing the Fourth Layer of Heavenly Bridge, Feng Hui purchased the second volume of Principles of Space-Time and has been cultivating in seclusion on the rooftop of his residence. He once studied the Cosmic Chaos Stele in between, and occasionally visits Nine Swords King's estate for guidance. He may already have the strength to pass the Fifth Layer of Heavenly Bridge."

"Send me the video of Feng Hui's fourth-layer Heavenly Bridge challenge," the Black-Armored Silver-Horned Man commanded.

"Yes, Venerable." Wind King respectfully transmitted the video.

A screen materialized in the divine hall and began playing. On it, Feng Hui was like a war god wielding a long blade. His dazzling saber light pierced through space and even subtly affected time, ultimately cleaving his similarly blade-wielding opponent in two.

Ice Universe Venerable watched calmly, then frowned slightly, deeply puzzled.

Looking down at the dozen or so Immortals waiting respectfully, he thought for a moment and spoke.

"According to protocol, as the presiding Venerable of this Genius War, I should go to Chaos City to retrieve this batch of geniuses after the thirty-year foundation period ends."

"But I am currently occupied with urgent matters and cannot leave."

"Here's what we'll do," Ice Universe Venerable said. "Wind King, go to Chaos City in my stead and bring back Feng Hui and the others."

"Yes!"

"Alright, all of you may withdraw."

Soon, the divine hall fell into utter silence.

The Black-Armored Silver-Horned Man continued watching the video, utterly baffled.

The Sky Erosion Palace Lord had actually sent him a message, saying he felt a connection with Feng Hui and might take him as a disciple, so he was informing his direct superior Venerable in advance.

That was why he had diverted some attention from exploring the secret realm to monitor this batch of geniuses.

And from what he saw, Feng Hui's performance was indeed impressive—his talent in the Time Law and Law of Space was astonishing, making him a formidable genius.

But that still wasn't enough to warrant a top-tier Universe Overlord like the Sky Erosion Palace Lord considering taking him as a disciple.

After all, based on current performance alone, Feng Hui was far from being a once-in-ten-million-epochs prodigy. He still lagged far behind a peerless genius like Ke Di, who had stirred Chaos City Lord into accepting him as a disciple.

As an ancient existence at the Universe Venerable level, Ice Universe Venerable knew well that so-called geniuses, unless they reached Ke Di's caliber, held no appeal to a Universe Venerable. What was the point of nurturing a genius? Unless one could groom a Universe Venerable, it brought little benefit to oneself.

This was even truer for a top-tier Universe Overlord like the Sky Erosion Palace Lord.

Yet the Sky Erosion Palace Lord had taken notice of a little fellow like Feng Hui—that was utterly baffling.

"There must be a secret. The Sky Erosion Palace Lord is a top-tier Universe Overlord, one of our Human Race's strongest Universe Venerables, second only to the Universe Masters within the race. He must have discovered something."

Ice Universe Venerable watched the video again. With his level of existence, he had already analyzed every detail of the video to perfection; anything he could find, he had already found.

But he had no idea that Feng Hui's true transformation had actually occurred three years ago in Chaos City, and it was only from then on that he had shed his old self and advanced with fierce momentum.

"Why is he paying attention to Feng Hui?"

"What secret is there?"

Ice Universe Venerable pondered for a long time, then could only bury his doubts deep in his heart before withdrawing his consciousness from the Virtual Universe.

His main focus now remained on exploring the Cosmic Secret Realm.

When a Cosmic Secret Realm was first discovered and few strong beings had entered, it held the most treasures and offered the greatest opportunities for harvest.

To explore this newly emerged secret realm as early as possible, Ice Universe Venerable couldn't even spare the time to go to Chaos City and retrieve that batch of geniuses.

Though this place yielded abundant treasures and great gains, it was also exceptionally dangerous. Even with his strength as a high-level Venerable, he encountered peril in many hazardous zones.

If not for that, he wouldn't have made a special trip outside the Blood Luo World to borrow the Sky Erosion Palace Lord's treasure armor.

Now, protected by the borrowed treasure armor, his safety was somewhat assured, but he still dared not be careless.

After all, this was at the border between the Human Race and the Demon Race territories. Besides the dangers inherent in the secret realm itself, the Demon Race experts posed a major threat as well.

As one of the six peak races of the primordial universe, the Demon Race had always been a mortal enemy of the Human Race, possessing super experts no less formidable than those of the Human Race.

Over the years, quite a few Human Race Universe Venerables had fallen to Demon Race experts during battles in Cosmic Secret Realms.

Although Ice Universe Venerable, as a Universe Venerable, would inevitably be resurrected by the higher-ups of his race through reversing time and space, the heavy treasures on his person and the borrowed supreme treasures would all be lost. He would even have to pay a hefty resurrection cost to the race.

Resurrecting a high-level Universe Venerable would injure even a Universe Master, so the cost of performing the resurrection was naturally not small. The race would not bear this cost; it had to be paid by the resurrected individual themselves.

As for the borrowed supreme treasures, those absolutely could not be lost.

Gan Wu, who had fallen three times and, though resurrected each time through reversing time and space, had ended up drowning in debt, was a cautionary example.

Ice Universe Venerable had no desire to end up in the same miserable state as Gan Wu, so he had to be extremely cautious.

As for Feng Hui, although it was unclear why he had caught the attention of Sky Erosion Palace Lord, he was ultimately just a Cosmic Level genius. His talent, at least for now, was not so exceptional as to make Ice Universe Venerable particularly eager to claim him.

If Sky Erosion Palace Lord wanted him, then he would yield the boy to him. Consider it the interest on borrowing the supreme treasure armor.