Jinlan Secret Realm.
The residence that had once belonged to Venerable Jinlan had been remodeled on its original foundations.
Across the Void Continent, which spanned over ten billion kilometers, there was nothing but a series of luxurious palace complexes.
These palace complexes looked magnificent from outside, but their interiors incorporated extremely advanced technology. Aside from being too large to move conveniently, they could unleash power comparable to a high-grade supreme treasure. Of course, that required a Universe Venerable to control them.
In the thousand-plus years since the remodeling, the main hall of the palace complexes had stood empty most of the time.
Only two auxiliary halls issued orders.
Rumor had it that these were the soul slaves of the Universe Country's new ruler.
Now, a white-robed figure occupied the throne in the main hall.
"How have things progressed lately?" Dongguan asked, looking down at Calamity Mistress.
"Reporting to you, Master. Since the first Little Genius Battle, the frequent competitions and rewards have prompted all the major factions in the Universe Country to put greater effort into cultivating and selecting geniuses. However, seven Little Genius Battles have been held in just a thousand years, and previous successful participants are barred from entering again. The quality of those 'geniuses' has now declined considerably."
Dongguan nodded.
Cultivating "geniuses" took time. Repeated selections over such a short period had already picked out the outstanding ones.
The main reason there were still "geniuses" in the later competitions was that more specialized categories had been added with each successive event.
The first had featured only thirteen categories, covering the ten great laws and three major schools. By the seventh, that number had risen to twenty-seven, including potion masters, Secret Pattern Masters, mechanical flow, biological flow, and various other schools.
"In that case, reduce the frequency from