His first close friend: Tantai Lingyun of the Tantai Clan

Holy crap! The record has really been broken!

"The Nine Deaths Martial General, it really is him!!"

"95th Floor, taking 23 years, 8 months, and 24 days, directly reaching the top of the world's number one! Awesome! Now we Yanhuang can finally hold our heads high!"

"Hahaha... Do you think those foreigners from the Bai Ou Freedom Association still dare to be arrogant in front of us? We'll slap them in the face in no time!"

"It's a pity that this record wasn't set by our Dragon Martial, but by Qing Martial University... Otherwise, that would have been truly exhilarating!"

"Qing Martial University is truly something else! Look at this record of 95th Floor —out of the 12 people in the Yanhuang clan, Qing Martial University has 7, more than half! On the other hand, our Dragon Martial has only had one person reach this level so far, and he's ranked 11th, not even making it into the top ten... It's tough!"

"It's just a ranking, what does it matter? They're all geniuses from our Yanhuang family anyway. As long as those foreigners don't put us down, it doesn't matter who goes!"

"Never mind all that, Qing Martial University is awesome!! Nine Deaths Martial General is awesome!!!"

"It's everyone's responsibility to kill those foreigners!!"

"..."

The crowd was cheering and jumping for joy, while Su Zhan listened to the gist of what was said.

Qing Martial University, Nine Deaths Martial General, 95th Floor. Qing Martial University's record is far ahead of Dragon Martial's... From this, we can tell that Dragon Martial is not just weak among the Four Greats, but is completely crushed.

As for foreigners, Su Zhan was quite familiar with this.

There are currently five Core City in the world.

As the world's Five Great Strongest Organizations, they firmly control all regions of the world.

Yanhuang refers to the land where Su Zhan lived.

Next up are Bai Ou, Giant Battle, Carved Shadow, and Silver Eagle.

For the people of Yanhuang, any Human Race other than Yanhuang is considered a "foreigner"... This shows that the competition between them is quite intense.

However, to Su Zhan's surprise...

In his memory, Yanhuang is not the strongest force at present. Bai Ou Giant Battle both ahead of Yanhuang... Yanhuang is just at the center of the balance.

However, this time, a genius from Qing Martial University surpassed all the other geniuses and reached the top!

"This Nine Deaths Martial General... is quite a character."

Su Zhan commented in this way.

But that wasn't his biggest concern.

What truly caught Su Zhan's attention and puzzled him were several records he mentioned... which took 23 years, 8 months, and 24 days.

Will the next dungeon run take this long?

No, there's definitely something fishy going on here.

"My friend."

Su Zhan glanced at the excited students nearby, found the most excited boy among them, who was shouting until his face was red and his neck was bulging, and smiled as he spoke, "I'm new here, could you tell me about that record? Why did it take so long?"

"That's the Cycle Tower. A year inside is only an hour outside, which isn't long."

Before the boy could speak, a girl on the other side of Su Zhan spoke up softly to explain.

Su Zhan turned around.

She was a graceful woman with a veil, a hairpin in her hair, and dressed in white... her attire was like that of an ancient female knight-errant.

Although her white dress concealed her figure, the subtle curves revealed that her figure was incredibly alluring, almost as stunning as Jiang Yin Yue's!

Not only that.

Although her face was obscured by her distinctive veil, one could tell from her sparkling eyes that she was an absolute beauty!

She might even be able to rival Jiang Yin Yue.

"Thank you so much for your guidance, senior!"

Su Zhan behaved very modestly.

"I'm not your senior, I'm a freshman too."

The veiled woman glanced at Su Zhan, and in that single glance, her beautiful brows furrowed instantly. "You are... Su Zhan?"

"You recognize me?"

Su Zhan surprised.

"Heh, now almost every freshman in the world with a bit of inside information, including the upperclassmen, recognizes you," the veiled woman said indifferently. "A Monster can Tier 2 Transcendence before the College Entrance Examination —with such talent and strength, you rank in the top five among the super geniuses born in the history of Human Race."

Top five?

Su Zhan became interested upon hearing this, "What about the first four? What achievements have they made?"

Lin Fanlong never mentioned this part... He always believed that he was the only one of his kind throughout history.

"Achievements? The lowest Advanced Martial General, Tier 4 Transcendence; the highest rank of Limit Martial Marshal, without any rank gaps."

"That shouldn't be the case... With their achievements, they should at least be at the Martial King Rank, right?" Su Zhan, puzzled.

"Yes, if nothing unexpected happened, the minimum would have been Martial King. Unfortunately, all of them met with unexpected events."

"They're all dead?!"

Su Zhan raised an eyebrow.

"Otherwise, what did you think?"

The veiled woman said calmly.

"May I ask one more question? How did they all die?"

Su Zhan pressed for an answer.

I have to ask.

One person's death could be attributed to coincidence.

Two deaths could be explained as the heavens being jealous of talent... but four are all dead, not a single one survived. If this continues, I'll become the fifth one sooner or later!

"Want to know?"

The veiled woman said, "Show me your Dragon Mark."

Su Zhan extended his wrist.

The veiled woman also extended her slender, snow-white wrist, revealing a faintly glowing dragon Dragon Mark, and then pressed it against Su Zhan's Dragon Mark.

"User ID 94882939 has sent Close Friend request. Do you accept?"

Note: Close Friend are different from Friends. They allow for more interaction and messages cannot be blocked. With your current permissions, you can only make three Close Friend. Once you make three Close Friends, if you want to unilaterally remove them, the slot will not be restored for 365 days. Please be careful!

Information from the Dragon Mark entered Su Zhan's mind.

"What are you doing...?"

Su Zhan was about to ask what was going on.

"I come from the Core City, the Tantai Clan, Tantai Lingyun... My clan's status within the Core City, to be modest, is among the top."

"If you have any questions in the future, feel free to ask me."

"If you need help, please feel free to ask me for it."

Tantai Lingyun interrupted him and said softly.

"No problem, please guide me in the future!"

Su Zhan agreed without hesitation.

Joke.

To rank among the top in the Core City, and that's an understatement... that background is absolutely terrifying!

The key was that what the other person said moved him.

Asking for help is fine, he probably won't need that... but as for help, that's definitely a must, things like opening up various channels for buying and selling treasures, letting him snowball his fortune, the more the better!

Congratulations on making your first Close Friend!

As the message arrived, number 94882939 appeared at the top of Su Zhan's friend list... He quickly changed the nickname to Tantai Lingyun.

As for Tantai Lingyun, although she has many friends, she only has Su Zhan Close Friend, and he is also pinned to the top of her contacts, ranking first... However, Tantai Lingyun's contact name is not Su Zhan.

Instead, it's "Peak Transcendence - Su Zhan"!

If Su Zhan were to see these two words, he would be Peak Transcendence shocked... He knew that if Tier 4 Transcendence was called an unparalleled talent, then the Peak Transcendence was Tier 5 Transcendence, the highest talent!

"Those four were all killed by the Alien Race."

As soon as Tantai Lingyun finished making the notes, she spoke directly and revealed the answer.

"Alien Race?!"

A sharp glint flashed in Su Zhan's eyes.