A Well Frog Speaks of the Sea, a Summer Insect of Ice

Blue Star, Linjiang Advanced Transcendent Academy.

Above the training plaza, the golden glow of the first-stage training rankings remained dazzling.

For Blue Star, these rankings represented not only honor, but also the underlying logic that had governed the entire transcendent system for hundreds of years.

Talent only became strength when exchanged for the resources of major powers.

Thus, they did not approve of Qing Xuan's choice. Some even found it laughable.

Su Qingxue, first on the training rankings.

With her top-tier Martial Soul, she had been directly admitted into the Golden Generation Preparatory Camp by Soul Hall Academy, with an Eight-Ring Soul Douluo personally safeguarding her path.

Zhao Lie, ranked second.

Backed by Blazing Fire Academy, he had exclusive access to a fire-element simulated cultivation ground!

Although Li He, ranked third, was only average in combat strength, he had relied on his academy background to organize Soul Beast archives and received a Grade A evaluation.

In the minds of Blue Star's people, sheltering beneath a great tree made for cool shade. It was an unshakable truth.

That was precisely why, when Qing Xuan decisively rejected the Dragon Race's recruitment in the Primordial World Firmament and even fled with Qing Yi as though avoiding a plague...

While some people approved of Qing Xuan's actions, most branded him as timid and incapable of seizing opportunities.

It was like the Spirit Hall's Pope wanting to name you a Holy Son, only for you to say you wanted to become a lowly independent cultivator instead.

"His reason was that he was afraid the three races would go to war in the future... What kind of excuse is that? What top-tier force doesn't have enemies? Spirit Hall is still locked in a death struggle with the two great empires, and the Transcendent Association sends people to die in high-risk planes every year! You want to eat meat without taking a beating? Where could such a good deal possibly exist?"

"Qing Xuan's talent truly is heaven-defying, but his courage is even smaller than a rabbit's!"

In the channel, countless students risking their lives in other worlds for a few low-grade Soul Bones and scraps of cultivation resources could barely conceal their disdain.

In their eyes, Qing Xuan was not being aloof. He was being cowardly.

How could one person wandering the wilderness like a headless fly in search of opportunities possibly compare to the broad road laid before him by an entire hegemonic race?

At the edge of the plaza, Seven-Ring Soul Sage Zhou Ruolan looked up at the rankings. Her fitted black uniform fluttered faintly in the night breeze.

Listening to the discussions of the surrounding instructors and students, a complicated sigh flickered through her bright eyes.

"I understand his concern about not wanting to be drawn into war, but from the perspective of cultivation, he truly made the worst possible move."

Zhou Ruolan murmured softly, recalling the time she had broken through to the seventh ring.

Back then, all of Linjiang Academy had stood behind her.

An elite soul-hunting squad had cleared the way for her, two high-level healing Soul Masters had protected her, and she had been given three absolutely safe retreat routes.

Without that safety net, she would have died long ago in the depths of Star Dou Forest.

"What top-tier powers provide has never been just resources. It is the confidence to make mistakes..."

Zhou Ruolan shook her head and looked toward the empty sea of clouds within the firmament. "Qing Xuan, you personally tore apart the safety net that could have kept you alive."

Meanwhile, inside a cultivation chamber covered in frost.

The Primordial World Firmament and the training channel floated before Su Qingxue as well.

She had long regarded Qing Xuan as her future Dao companion.

Thus, seeing those comments made her somewhat uncomfortable.

She admitted that Qing Xuan possessed origins, looks, and bearing that even moved her heart.

Yet that was precisely why she found it all the more regrettable.

Because she did not particularly approve of Qing Xuan's actions either.

He possessed such talent, yet was unwilling to rely on a truly powerful force.

Perhaps that was the greatest difference between the Primordial World and Douzhe Continent.

The Innate Divine Beings of the Primordial World were born powerful, yet were accustomed to walking alone.

The top geniuses of Douzhe Continent, however, knew how to make use of academies, sects, and senior experts to truly push their talents to the limit.

At least this time, Su Qingxue believed that her choice had been the more correct one.

And if Qing Xuan continued avoiding everything like this in the future, Su Qingxue felt she might need to consider whether the two of them were truly suited for each other.

At the Unknown Plane Research Center, an emergency meeting had already begun.

The Primordial World Passage was still in the coordinate-analysis stage.

Because the plane's level far exceeded that of any world previously discovered, the originally planned construction time of nearly a year had not been shortened.

But the passage not yet being completed did not mean Blue Star had nothing it could prepare.

Two new agenda items soon appeared on the meeting's light screen.

[Comparison Plan for Primordial Dragon Race Bloodlines and Douzhe Continent Dragon Species.]

[Selection of Key Forces for the First Contact After the Primordial World Passage Opens.]

"The passage coordinates are still anchored to Qing Xuan and cannot be changed for the time being."

The researcher in charge of the passage project spoke:

"But Qing Xuan's whereabouts are uncertain, and he has clearly shown that he does not wish to join any force. He can continue serving as a plane coordinate and observation subject, but he may not be suitable as Blue Star's long-term cooperation target."

"The Dragon Race is different."

"They possess fixed territory, a stable organization, and clear rulers. Whether it is exchanging resources, learning the distribution of Primordial World forces, or establishing long-term interplanar contact, they are more suitable than approaching a single Innate Divine Being."

This judgment was recognized by the majority.

Shen Qinghe looked at the three names on the light screen: Yinglong, Qiuniu, and Ancestor Dragon.

Even now, Blue Star still did not know what level the so-called Great Luo corresponded to in Douzhe Continent.

Nor could it determine what level of power Yinglong and the Ancestor Dragon, who had yet to truly appear, possessed.

But compared to Qing Xuan, who had always traveled alone, the Dragon Race could clearly offer Blue Star far more.

Shen Qinghe ultimately left her spiritual imprint on the plan.

[The Dragon Race is included in the Primordial World's first-contact sequence.]

[Request access to all historical archives on the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, Light Sacred Dragon, Dark Sacred Dragon, and Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King.]

[For the first group of personnel suited to the future passage, prioritize dragon-type Martial Souls, water-element Martial Souls, and Soul Beast researchers.]

Three approvals lit up in succession.

Families with dragon-type Martial Souls, top academies, and Soul Beast research institutions all received data requests from the Transcendent Association at the same time.

From that day onward, the Dragon Race was no longer merely an unfamiliar race that had briefly appeared in the firmament.

It officially became one of Blue Star's first research targets in preparation for contact with the Primordial World.

As for Qing Xuan, who had rejected the Dragon Race's invitation.

A new assessment was added to his latest behavioral evaluation.

[Prudent personality; clear tendency toward risk avoidance.]

[Extremely high personal talent, but lacks the willingness to use powerful forces to accelerate his growth.]

[Continue observation; do not designate as a primary cooperation target for now.]

Like the previous valuation of the Twelve-Petal Creation Azure Lotus, this assessment was formally entered into the Primordial World archives.

No one believed there was anything wrong with it.

After all, the training rankings that Class Seven had just released had already proven how important a mature force could be to a genius.

And what the Dragon Race was willing to offer Qing Xuan was far more than anything any Class Seven student had obtained so far.

In everyone's eyes, Qing Xuan might have avoided a danger that had yet to arrive.

But he had also personally given up the stairway to heaven that one of the Primordial World's strongest races had willingly placed before him.