Seems I'm Quite the Catch

"Beep, beep! Destination confirmed: Imperial Capital Star, Rongbing Starfield, Ganwu Universe Country."

"Optimal route confirmed. Estimated arrival in 122 standard days."

"The spaceship is ready for transition. Entering the dark universe in three seconds. Three, two, one..."

More than two months later, Li Che finally finished his discussions with Military Lord Chenliu, returned to his spaceship, and set off on the route back to his own Rongbing Divine Kingdom.

In Li Che's view, his conversations with Military Lord Chenliu had been quite pleasant. Although he had not committed to joining the Universe Galaxy Bank, he had learned a great deal from him.

As a gesture of goodwill, Li Che had also accepted invitations to several of this Undying Deity's private receptions, where he met the Divine Master of the Ice Sea Divine Kingdom in the Black Dragon Mountain Starfield. He had even spent several days instructing Military Lord Chenliu's disciple—a youngster at the ninth stage of Domain Lord who had grasped a tiny fraction of the Space Origin Laws.

"122 standard days... That seems like plenty of time."

In the spaceship's lounge, Li Che lay back in thick, constantly bubbling spring water and let out a contented sigh.

Before him, his intelligent assistant Bai Yue projected five illusory screens, each displaying an email from an Undying Deity of one of the five major powers.

Army Master Manlin of the Virtual Universe Company, Army Master Yanpo of the Giant Axe Battle Arena, Army Master Fuluo of the Universe Mercenary Alliance, the representative of the Universe First Bank...

They were all the Immortal-level representatives of the five major powers in Li Che's home region, the Rongbing Starfield. Every message was warm and sincere, inviting Li Che to join their respective powers.

The reason was that the representatives of the five major powers had noticed footage of Li Che's recent battle against a simulated Marquis-level Immortal in the Virtual Universe's Slaughterhouse.

After all, in a backwater like the Rongbing Starfield, simulating a Marquis-level opponent in the Slaughterhouse was exceedingly rare. With the challenger's simulated parameters set to those of a standard Ninth-Level World Lord, the battle had soon caused quite a stir among the Rongbing Starfield's upper circles.

No one had expected that the First Prince, whom the Divine Master Rongbing had once devoted all her efforts to nurturing, would gain Marquis-level combat power capable of overpowering a Marquis-level Undying Deity head-on after only five epochs.

The scenarios simulated by the Virtual Universe Company's Slaughterhouse were absolutely standardized. Without using any particularly special treasures, Li Che had accomplished the feat of fighting a Marquis-level Immortal at World Master Level.

Li Che had barely had time to process the enthusiastic invitations from the five major powers. Every Undying Deity had promised to help him apply for the highest-tier talent contract possible.

Even Li Che himself was unsure which power to join for the moment.

Through his discussions with the Undying Deities, Li Che had gained a fairly thorough understanding of his current situation.

As a World Lord with Army Master-level-no, Marquis-level-strength, he discovered that he had considerable leverage when joining the five major powers.

Across human territory, Li Che could no longer be defined simply as a "genius." He was someone who had genuinely cultivated his way to the World Lord level, step by step-a "powerhouse" with extensive experience surviving in the vast universe.

A World Master Level expert like him had already proven his talent through his actions and survived his weakest period. He no longer needed the meticulous care of the five major powers.

If those youngsters at the stellar level or universe level who had merely demonstrated the potential to become powerhouses were the ones being selected by the five major powers, then someone like Li Che already had, to a certain extent, the right to choose them just as they chose him.

After all, Li Che was young enough and had already proven his strength. The Immortals of all five powers' Rong Bing Branches believed that once he became an Immortal, he could easily become a King-level Immortal.

If they brought such a powerhouse into their respective organizations, these representatives in the Rongbing Starfield would receive extremely generous internal rewards-generous enough to make even ordinary Marquis-level Undying Deities envious.

Naturally, competition had arisen among these Immortals. They all hoped that higher-ranking figures would recognize Li Che's potential and offer him better terms to entice him into joining.

Li Che understood this, of course.

In their emails, the Army Masters of the five major powers all stated that they had submitted Li Che's battle footage to their superiors, hoping some great being would take an interest in Li Che. It was even possible that he might become a great being's disciple directly.

Thus, Li Che remained perfectly calm and had no intention of joining any of them just yet.

He had already decided on his future course: after returning home, he would spend some time in the Rongbing Empire, both to help his Divine Master win that Marquis-level Undying Deity's inheritance and to wait.

If a Universe Venerable or even a Universe Master was willing to give Li Che a chance to become their disciple, he would gladly join the power to which that being belonged.

If no being of that level showed an interest in taking him as a disciple, Li Che would choose between the Virtual Universe Company, the Giant Axe Battle Arena, and the Universe Galaxy Bank, then continue demonstrating his strength on the Heavenly Bridge.

Compared to when he had defeated the simulated Marquis-level Immortal in the Slaughterhouse, Li Che was now steadily growing stronger as he inherited the legacy of the Mountain Sea Realm's Li Che. Whichever power he joined, he would rise within a very short time.

After inheriting the legacy of the Mountain Sea Realm's Li Che, Li Che had gained a systematic understanding of how the Human Race assessed its geniuses.

For instance, before his death, the Mountain Sea Realm's Li Che had reached the level of the Heavenly Bridge's eighteenth floor in both his comprehension of laws and his development of secret techniques, equivalent to a King-level being.

Among that generation of World Lords in the Primal Secret Realm, this had already placed him above average.

Someone like Kedi, the genius whom the Chaos City Lord had valued so highly and who had passed the Heavenly Bridge's twentieth floor at the peak of the World Lord level, was a supreme genius who might not appear even once over countless epochs.

Notably, the Mountain Sea Realm's Li Che had been no weaker than Kedi in direct combat in the real universe. After all, he had cultivated the Nine Tribulations Manual and was empowered by the General Soul Pearl, a product of the supreme treasure Origin Soul. His soul power had reached a full ten thousand times that of a World Lord, allowing him to destroy the soul of a peak Marquis-level Undying Deity in a direct confrontation.

Before inheriting the legacy of the Mountain Sea Realm's Li Che, Li Che's true body had applied the origin laws in a highly distinctive way, but his level was probably only around the Heavenly Bridge's sixteenth floor, approaching the seventeenth. There was still a considerable gap between him and the very best geniuses in human history.

What made him so valuable, however, was that Li Che had never received systematic training from those supreme powers. The fact that he had raised his comprehension of laws to the Heavenly Bridge's sixteenth-floor level almost entirely through isolated study was enough to demonstrate Li Che's potential.

With such outstanding potential, Li Che's greatest hope for joining the five major powers was to find a sufficiently powerful teacher.

He did not really expect Li Che to become a disciple of the Giant Axe Founder, the Human Race's only Universe Supreme Master.

But when it came to becoming a Universe Master's disciple, Li Che felt he had a good chance.

Only a sufficiently powerful teacher could provide him with the guidance and treasures he needed. Treasures, in particular, were crucial in the current chaotic climate, when many major races were sparing no effort to kill the geniuses of hostile races.

After all, once he rose as one of the Human Race's very best World Lord geniuses, he would inevitably draw the attention of the Demon Race, the Zerg, the Machine Race, and even other top races and super alliances.

Throughout history, many geniuses of the Human Race had been killed before they could advance beyond the World Lord level.