The moment Su Mo stepped down from the carriage.
The entire square instantly exploded like a wok of hot oil splashed with cold water.
"He's out—!"
"Su Mo—!"
"Su Mo is out! That young man in the dark combat outfit is Su Mo!"
"He's so young! He looks barely over twenty, doesn't he? Even younger than the notice said!"
"Nineteen! It said on the notice that he's only nineteen!"
"A Soul Saint at nineteen? When I was nineteen, I was still stuck at level ten!"
"Who's the one beside him? That girl looks so young too!"
"Su Mo's girlfriend! Her name is Xiao Wu! She's a Soul Saint too! A seventeen-year-old Soul Saint!"
"What?! A seventeen-year-old Soul Saint?!!"
The crowd surged forward like a tide. Two rows of Platinum Deacons braced desperately against the barriers, veins bulging across their foreheads.
On the streets farther away, those who had failed to squeeze into the square climbed roadside trees, the roofs of buildings along the street, and every place from which they could see that young man.
"Let me see! Let me see!"
"Stop pushing! The barriers are going to break if you keep pushing!"
"Su Mo—! Su Mo—!"
"Seven years! I've been trapped at level thirty for seven years! Su Mo! Please, you have to make the Ring Condensation Technique public. You're my benefactor!"
The man shouting those words was a bearded Soul Master in his forties, his eyes bloodshot from sleepless nights.
He stood at the very front of the crowd, gripping the barrier with both hands as his voice turned hoarse and ragged. No one laughed at him. Because those beside him, those packed behind him, and those perched in the trees were all much the same.
Within the crowd, a beautiful woman in a blue robe stood on