I never planned to take a master

By the ninth year, Luo Feng had cleared the third level of the Heavenly Bridge. Thanks to Zhen Yan's earlier maneuvering behind the scenes, Luo Feng had still taken True Yan King as his master and become his disciple.

With a teacher, he would progress even faster.

Naturally, Chen Ao followed close behind and attempted the third level of the Heavenly Bridge.

Outside the Heavenly Bridge, the three King Ranks were already waiting.

"I knew this little fellow would come once he saw someone else clear the third level. Just watch. He'll definitely fail this time!"

"Once he fails, I'll give him a few pointers and set him on the right path. His future should have been limitless!"

They all felt that Chen Ao was very talented, but he kept straying from the proper path, charging down the road of an Illusionist without looking back.

Still, Chen Ao must have realized something. He had stopped studying the law of water quality over the past few years, so he must have understood that road led nowhere.

Seeing Chen Ao turn over a new leaf showed them that he could still be molded.

He knew to adjust his course instead of stubbornly following a dead end. That was excellent!

"Fail!"

"He'll definitely fail!"

The three Invincible Kings kept muttering.

But the result left them sorely disappointed. Chen Ao saw through the Illusionist's illusion in just three seconds and smoothly advanced to the fourth level.

"That defies all logic!"

"It really makes no sense. The Green Shadow Lineage couldn't possibly have an Illusionist!"

"Even Controllers are heretics, let alone Illusionists!"

But all three could only grimace in anguish. This kid was hard to deal with.

More importantly, Chen Ao could now take a master.

At that thought, a hint of wariness flashed through their eyes.

Chen Ao would surely choose one of the three of them, but who would it be?

The last newcomer to the Green Shadow Lineage had arrived forty thousand years ago. Though they had gained someone, his aptitude had been lacking.

Of their most recent disciples, Sword Ghost King's was the newest, and even that had been over three hundred thousand years ago.

King Muqi and King Ke Jian had not taken disciples in over a million years.

Now that someone with good aptitude had finally arrived, none of them wanted to let him slip away.

"Sword Ghost King, you took a disciple last time. You should let me have Chen Ao this time!" King Muqi said. "King Ke Jian, you only took one a million three hundred thousand years ago. And me? My last disciple was a million six hundred thousand years ago!"

Sword Ghost King pursed his lips. Though it might have been a little unkind, he still wanted to point out that the grass on his disciple's grave had grown thick enough for someone to study the law of wood from it.

Many of their disciples had already died, and they had never had many to begin with, so they were eager to take new ones.

Though Chen Ao had taken the wrong path, his talent was first-rate. All three were very pleased with him.

They had decided long ago to take Chen Ao as a disciple.

"Haha, what are you two fighting over? One of you is a fox, and the other is a dog-headed man. I'm the one who resembles Chen Ao the most!"

"Oh, please. With all those scales, how do you resemble him?"

"All right, all right, stop arguing. We're the only three grandmasters of the Green Shadow Lineage anyway. No matter who gets him, he'll still be one of ours!"

At King Muqi's words, Sword Ghost King and King Ke Jian fell silent.

They had known one another for hundreds of millions of years. They would hardly fall out over a single disciple.

"In that case, let the little fellow choose for himself!"

"Right, let him choose!"

The three reached an agreement: Chen Ao would make his own choice.

After that, they began giving lectures at a frantic pace, all on the fundamentals, waiting for Chen Ao to attend and then take one of them as his master.

Traditionally, a prospective disciple would first attend the lectures of the person he intended to take as his master, so drawing Chen Ao to their lectures was crucial.

But they waited a long time-two whole years-and Chen Ao never came out to attend a lecture.

Never mind the three of them; Chen Ao had not attended a single lecture given by anyone.

"What's wrong with this little fellow? Is he still burying himself in his own studies?"

"Doesn't he know a teacher could help him progress ten times as fast?"

The three were speechless. Something was off about this Chen Ao!

At Chen Ao's residence, Luo Feng studied him curiously. "Senior, why haven't you taken a master?"

Chen Ao had cleared the third level two years ago. He could already attend lectures and then take a master.

Luo Feng had been a disciple for over two years now, and his progress was several times faster than before. He deeply understood the importance of having a good teacher.

So, seeing Chen Ao still burying himself in solitary study, he had decided to bring it up.

"Take a master? I never planned to take a master!" Chen Ao replied.

Huh?

Luo Feng was quite surprised. "Senior, don't you know the benefits of taking a master?"

Chen Ao nodded, then shook his head.

Of course there were benefits, but no one could teach him. He could only study and comprehend things on his own.

Of course, he still intended to take the Chaos City Lord as his master. But his purpose was not to speed up his progress; it was that the City Lord would give him Supreme Treasures and keep him safe.

He intended to become a Universe Master before leaving the Initial Universe, so securing the Chaos City Lord's backing in advance was very important.

However, taking the Chaos City Lord as his master would be extremely difficult.

Even if he cleared the twelfth or even the fifteenth level now, it would be of little use.

That would not impress the Chaos City Lord.

To that end, he had already devised a plan. So far, it was proceeding steadily without any problems.

Seeing how firm Chen Ao was, Luo Feng knew he could not persuade him and could only take his leave.

"What?"

The Three Green Shadow Grandmasters were all stunned.

"You're saying that little fellow actually has no intention of taking a master?"

"That's right. That's what I found out!"

Their brows furrowed even more deeply. Since Chen Ao had arrived in Chaos City, they had frowned more often than they had in the previous several million years.

"Is this little fellow truly so ignorant, or does he have something special in mind?"

"Forget it, forget it. Since that's how it is, we won't worry about him anymore!"

Though they belonged to the same lineage, they could hardly force Chen Ao to take one of them as his master. That would be far too embarrassing.

Chen Ao knew nothing of this. He was still working hard to analyze the essence of the space law.

During that time, whenever Luo Feng cleared another level of the Heavenly Bridge, Chen Ao would make an attempt as well.

For almost all the rest of his time, Chen Ao sat in his cultivation chamber, studying the origin laws.

In a meditative state, his comprehension advanced at a blistering pace.

Never mind taking a master-he had only gone to study the Chaos Stele once over all those years.

Time trickled by, and soon, the thirty years in Chaos City came to an end.

"Come see me at once!"

"Come see me at once!"

The voice passed through layer upon layer of space, reaching everyone's ears directly.

Chen Ao was no exception. He soon realized that Venerable Nine Swords had arrived.

Without hesitation, Chen Ao headed straight toward the source of the voice.

Soon, the eight hundred geniuses had gathered beside Venerable Nine Swords.

"Hmph! Nearly twenty percent of you died even in a place as safe as Chaos City. If you were out in the outside world, wouldn't more than half of you have died outright?"

Seeing their numbers, Venerable Nine Swords immediately bellowed in anger.