Yuan Huang

Hu Yanbo soon received a reply.

"Glory Sacred Mountain, Yuan Huang Hall."

Without hesitation, Hu Yanbo immediately connected his consciousness to the Virtual Universe and appeared directly inside his private palace on Glory Sacred Mountain.

The moment his figure materialized, he shot out through the palace gates in a streak of light without pausing, speeding straight toward the mountain's deepest reaches-the core district where the Universe Venerables resided!

His departure immediately drew the attention of many powerful figures on Glory Sacred Mountain.

"Hmm? Isn't that Hu Yanbo? He's flying straight toward the Venerables' district?"

"Doesn't he know the rules? How can he barge in without being summoned?"

Some King-level Immortals murmured among themselves in puzzlement.

"Surely no Venerable would stoop to taking a King Rank as a disciple?" A well-informed King Rank shook his head with a chuckle, finding the idea utterly absurd.

Most of the King Ranks present had Venerables as their teachers, but they had all been taken as disciples when they were young.

Yet when Hu Yanbo continued at full speed, passing straight over the outer palaces of ordinary Universe Venerables and flying toward the innermost palaces, whose oppressive auras inspired dread, everyone watching froze.

"He... why is he still flying farther in?!"

"That direction... he's heading for Yuan Huang Hall!"

Some Universe Venerables who had initially found the matter merely amusing also swept their senses over him, scrutinizing him with a hint of displeasure.

But when they saw Hu Yanbo finally stop before the gates of the most imposing palace of all, Yuan Huang Hall, their displeasure turned to shock and disbelief!

"Yuan Huang Hall! He went to Yuan Huang Hall!"

"Could it be... Yuan Huang wants to see him? This..."

"Yuan Huang hasn't taken a disciple in ages. How could this be?"

Under countless shocked and bewildered gazes, the immense, menacing gates of Yuan Huang Hall silently swung open.

Hu Yanbo remained calm, ignoring every probing consciousness around him as he darted into the hall.

The gates closed behind him, shutting out all prying senses and discussion.

All that remained on Glory Sacred Mountain were a group of King Ranks and Immortals left dumbstruck by the sudden turn of events, along with several Universe Venerables whose consciousnesses still carried traces of shock.

The news spread instantly.

Inside Yuan Huang Hall, Hu Yanbo found himself in an incomparably magnificent chamber that seemed to form a universe of its own.

Endless dark-gold currents churned throughout the space. Within them, countless phantoms of divine weapons seemed to rise, sink, and clash, ringing out in soundless metallic cries.

A terrifying aura filled the entire space-savage, ancient, and utterly domineering.

Hu Yanbo's gaze was instantly drawn to the figure at the far end of the hall, and he froze in place!

The figure was not towering in stature, merely the height of an ordinary human. He sat casually upon a dark-gold throne carved from the skull of some unknown colossal beast.

He wore a suit of battered, dark-blood-red battle armor, covered in countless deep claw marks and weapon scars, as though recounting the endless bloody battles its owner had endured.

His features were archaic, his age impossible to discern. His eyes were pure dark gold, and within them, galaxies formed, endured, collapsed, and vanished!

As that gaze swept over him, Hu Yanbo felt as though everything about him had been laid bare. Even his soul trembled faintly beneath it.

Simply sitting there in silence, he seemed to be the center of the entire battlefield, the origin and endpoint of all slaughter and conquest!

Yuan Huang!

A living legend who had fought his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood!

Suppressing his shock, Hu Yanbo stepped forward and bowed respectfully. "Your disciple, Hu Yanbo, greets you, Teacher!"

Yuan Huang's dark-gold eyes, which held the birth and destruction of universes, settled on Hu Yanbo. He nodded slightly, his voice deep and calm as it resonated directly in the depths of Hu Yanbo's soul.

"Mm."

"Hu Yanbo, you came from humble, mortal origins, yet your heart reached for the skies."

"Rarer still, you broke through two realms within a thousand years in Chaos City, reaching King Rank."

"That tenacity forged through desperate struggles, and that resolve to seize an opportunity and soar, remind me very much of my younger self."

Hu Yanbo's heart trembled, and he held his breath as he listened.

"Now that you have entered my tutelage, you must know the rules governing my disciples."

"Over these long ages, I have taken three Immortal Gods as disciples."

Hu Yanbo's heart trembled, and he held his breath as he listened.

"Your eldest senior brother, Hong, is a special lifeform. He is now a Universe Overlord, guarding an important secret realm on our race's frontier."

"Your third senior sister, Zhu, comes from humanity's Shadowman Race. Renowned for her mastery of assassination, she is now a high-level Universe Venerable."

"Your seventh senior brother, Pan, is the most like you. He, too, is a lone wanderer, known for his defensive and soul techniques. He is now an Invincible King, only a step away from becoming a Venerable, and is currently roaming the outside world to temper himself."

Yuan Huang's gaze seemed to pierce straight through Hu Yanbo. "All three were like you. None were raised from childhood by a major power. They emerged from lives of slaughter and solitary wandering, caught my attention as Immortal Gods, and entered my tutelage."

"And those three have achieved more than any of my other disciples."

"Even your seventh senior brother, Pan, has the strength to escape from a Universe Venerable."

Hu Yanbo immediately understood.

Just as I thought!

What this great being valued was not necessarily those so-called "core geniuses" raised in the sheltered environments of superpowers, enjoying the finest resources and advancing through prescribed stages.

He admired true powerhouses who, like his younger self, struggled to survive amid blood and fire, relying on their own will, opportunities, and abilities under the universe's brutal laws to carve a bloody path forward, step by step, until they finally distinguished themselves!

"Hu Yanbo," Yuan Huang said with a note that brooked no doubt, "you are the fourth."

With those words, Yuan Huang flicked a finger.

A streak of dark-gold light, condensed to the utmost and seemingly imbued with endless slaughter and the will to destroy, instantly sank into Hu Yanbo's brow.

Hu Yanbo felt his soul tremble slightly. A vast torrent of information poured into the depths of his consciousness, swiftly condensing into an extraordinarily complex, mysterious rune mark that seemed woven from countless spatial rifts.

"This is the 'Yuan' seal." Yuan Huang's voice rang out again, branding itself directly into his soul. "When I fought my way through endless bloody battles to become a Venerable, my understanding of the essence of space law's three great mysteries-Strangulation, Sealing, and Teleportation-condensed into this overarching framework."

"This seal is profound, though in breadth and systematic structure, it may fall short of the Nine Universes Chaos Stele in Chaos City."

"But studying it will certainly provide a deeper understanding of space law than the Space-Time Essays!"

Although the Space-Time Essays was an excellent work, it was ultimately something the creator of the Nine Universes Chaos Stele had written casually. Otherwise, why call it a collection of essays?

As such, it was certainly inferior to Yuan Huang's understanding of the very essence of the law.