Virtual Universe, Thunder Island.
The tavern at Mid-Mountain.
Dongguan once again came to the Virtual Universe Company's gathering area for Venerables, but things were somewhat different from before.
Whatever they thought privately, on the surface, at least, they now treated Dongguan like any other Venerable. No one said to his face that he "only fought his own side" anymore.
They were, however, asking how Dongguan had managed to raise the bounty on him to such a level.
Dongguan gave a few perfunctory answers, and the others did not press him.
In a corner, Dongguan chatted with a scaled Venerable.
"During that Genius Battle, I thought I would gain a few powerful Underlings. I never expected things to turn out like this," Nine Swords Venerable confided to Dongguan.
The Genius Battle he had presided over could be considered the most outstanding of the past several tens of thousands of competitions.
Yet he had not enjoyed the full benefits of that good fortune.
Bolan had been hailed as a genius who appeared only once in over ten thousand epochs.
Rong Jun, a genius in secret arts, had more Venerables optimistic about his prospects than Bolan's, and Yuan Chen Country Lord had taken him as a disciple.
Luo Feng, the one with the most outstanding performance in the later stages of that competition, had been taken as a disciple by Chaos City Lord.
Zhang Gui had not been outstanding at first, but he had improved step by step. His current progress had even surpassed Bolan and Rong Jun, second only to Luo Feng, and Lord Long Xing had taken him as a disciple.
Of those contestants, Luo Feng and Zhang Gui naturally no longer belonged under Nine Swords Venerable's Moxia after becoming disciples of Universe Masters.
"Zhang Gui became Lord Long Xing's disciple?"