Venerable Qie Qiong

The human race's Core Land, the Initial Universe!

Chaos City had existed longer than most Universe Countries! It was jointly managed by the five great factions of the Human Race: the Virtual Universe Company, the Giant Axe Arena, the Universe First Bank, the Universe Galaxy Bank, and the Universe Mercenary Alliance.

Above Chaos City, space would occasionally crack open, then mend itself amid wisps of chaotic airflow. A figure emerged from deep within the rift and the currents. His eyes were like stars, and he wore ancient-looking silver-gold battle armor and battle boots.

He stood in the void, quietly watching the rifts in space and the strange threads of secret markings.

"Ah, had his talent reached its limit? No matter how much more he cultivated or observed, he couldn't make any further progress."

He looked down at the group of people below.

"Another batch of little fellows. Number 11 is receiving them, so they must be little fellows from my Virtual Universe Company. Let's see if there are any familiar names in this Universe Genius Battle."

Thinking this, he opened the Virtual Universe and looked up information about this year's Genius Battle. He hadn't expected to find a pleasant surprise this time.

"Is Lian Luo part of this year's batch? That means it's very close to Luo Feng's generation. Since he's a familiar face, this time I'll..."

As he thought this, he suddenly appeared in front of this year's team of geniuses.

"Lian Luo, would you be willing to take me as your master?"

Lian Luo looked around. Chaos City contained many small buildings, and on the balconies of many of them, he could see all sorts of humans sitting quietly in meditation. Some were carving something on their balconies, while others murmured to themselves. Their powerful auras were far stronger than those of World Lords.

Lian Luo looked up at the sky.

High above, near the deepest reaches of the rifts in space, he could faintly see figures standing in the void. From time to time, some of them would look down at their group.

Suddenly, Lian Luo saw that one of the figures in the sky seemed to disappear. Then he heard a voice beside his ear.

"Lian Luo, would you be willing to become my nominal disciple?"

Lian Luo looked at the person who had suddenly appeared, hesitating.

"Senior..."

Before Lian Luo could finish speaking, Number 11, the receiving envoy walking at the very front, bowed to the figure.

"Greetings, Venerable Qie Qiong."

The other geniuses hadn't yet come to their senses. A few who had some background and understood what those words meant respectfully bowed to the figure in silver-gold armor. "Greetings, Venerable."

Only then did the other geniuses bow to the figure.

Hearing the receiving envoy's words, the question Lian Luo had yet to ask turned into:

"Your disciple Lian Luo pays his respects to Master."

Lian Luo looked at the figure in silver-gold armor before him and knelt in a disciple's formal bow without the slightest hesitation.

He had very little information at his disposal, and his understanding of the ranks of powerful beings in the universe came from his World Lord teacher.

Although he didn't know the person who had suddenly appeared before him, he could tell that this person was powerful from the respect shown to him by the receiving envoy, who was even stronger than his previous teacher.

"Rise."

Qie Qiong used divine power to help Lian Luo to his feet. Looking at him, his heart was filled with emotion.

He had waited a full ten thousand eras. Seeing someone mentioned in the original story, he knew that the plot was about to begin.

He had been transported to this world exactly ten thousand eras ago. In the first era, he had embarked on the path of cultivation on a planet where even the strongest were only at Star Level. He had also displayed remarkable talent in the Gold Law and Space Law. In the end, in the five-thousandth year of the second era, he comprehended the Gold Law, broke through his Internal World, and became an Immortal. Then, in the fifth thousandth era, he comprehended one of the upper laws, the Space Law, and became a Universe Venerable.

(ps: In Swallowed Star, one era is ten thousand and eighty-one years.)

But after becoming a Venerable, like most Venerables, no matter how he studied the Time Law, he made no progress. Even his secret techniques were only top-tier Universe Venerable secret techniques. Even now, he was merely an Intermediate Universe Venerable.

When he became an Immortal, he had always thought that, after being transported into this world, he was its new protagonist. Luo Feng? He was nothing but a remnant of the old era. By the time Luo Feng appeared, he would at the very least have become a Universe Supreme Master renowned throughout the Universe Ocean. But when he spent a full five thousand eras comprehending the Space Law, those fantasies in his heart had long since vanished.

"In the original story, Lian Luo went from the Genius Battle, where he ranked first in the universe, to creating 'Drifting Snow' after tens of thousands of years, then becoming an Immortal and receiving the title 'Blood-Robed Marquis,' before falling in a Cosmic Secret Realm. The whole thing took less than a hundred thousand years. The insights he recorded hadn't been cleared away by Luo Feng's era, which means that era isn't far away." Qie Qiong silently calculated in his mind.

"After you've chosen your Chaos Stele, come see me in the Virtual Universe tomorrow."

Qie Qiong said a few words, then vanished from before everyone's eyes.

Before long, the news that Venerable Qie Qiong had taken a disciple spread through Chaos City like a gale.

The first-place winners of most Universe Genius Battles might have some talent, but most hadn't taken a Universe Venerable as their master. Even taking a Limit King Rank as their master was exceedingly rare, because to these Immortals, who possessed endless lives, geniuses were nothing new.

But even the several figures in the sky with powerful auras paid close attention after Qie Qiong took a disciple.

Geniuses were uncommon, but a genius who was taken as a Universe Venerable's disciple right from the start was even rarer. For example, in the original story, at the beginning of Luo Feng's generation, only "Savage" Rong Jun was taken as a Universe Venerable's disciple.

Rong Jun was taken as a disciple by a Universe Country Lord only because of Giant Axe.

The strength of Immortals varied enormously. There were Immortal Army Lords, Marquis Immortals, and King-level Immortals, with considerable differences in strength between each level. The geniuses among World Lords who could easily rival Immortals were matching Immortal Army Lords.

Generally speaking, the several figures in the void didn't care about ordinary geniuses. After all, even the first-place winner of an ordinary Genius Battle could at most reach Peak Marquis. But this Lian Luo seemed a little different, considering that a Universe Venerable had taken him as a disciple in person the moment he appeared.

"Hmm, this Lian Luo..." One of the figures in the void entered the Virtual Universe and found his information, then quickly forgot about it.

To them, Lian Luo was really no different from the geniuses of previous Universe Genius Battles.

As for Qie Qiong, if Lian Luo hadn't been a character mentioned in the original story, an anchor point, seeing him today and feeling quite pleased would have been the extent of it.

There was a Genius Battle every five thousand years, at least twice in an era. Over Qie Qiong's ten thousand eras, how many so-called first-place geniuses had there been, and how many had achieved what he had achieved?

The first-place winner of the Genius Battle in the same generation as him had already fallen. Since he became a Venerable, fewer than three Universe Venerables had appeared in the Genius Battles.

Besides, Qie Qiong had long known what Lian Luo's fate would be without him.