Chapter 42: The Fate of an Ordinary Genius

"If you, Master, hadn't stopped me from breaking through to the Universe Level back then, I never would have joined the Virtual Universe Company's core layer, let alone break through to Immortality!" Huo Gesi said with immense gratitude.

Back then, after participating in the first Peak Genius Battle, although he failed to break into the top thousand across the universe, he quickly cultivated to the peak of the Star Level and could break through to the Universe Level at any time.

However, after he became Lu Qingshan's disciple, Lu Qingshan had him stay at the Star Level for a while longer before participating in the next Peak Genius Battle five thousand years later.

As many geniuses of his age broke through to the Universe Level and roamed the universe, Huo Gesi had once harbored doubts about Lu Qingshan's instructions.

But fortunately, he finally followed Lu Qingshan's orders and waited for the next Peak Genius Battle, after which he directly rushed into the End Times Secret Realm within the Virtual Universe Company's core layer, and from then on soared to new heights!

You must know, merely becoming a member of the End Times Secret Realm granted him a reward of 10 Hunyuan units, which was completely comparable to the entire fortune of an ordinary Boundary Lord, let alone the numerous benefits that subsequent core members of the Virtual Universe Company could enjoy.

Now, millions of years have passed; most of the geniuses who were Huo Gesi's age back then have already perished, with only a very few still struggling for various resources at the Boundary Lord Realm, and those who could break through to Immortality are even fewer.

This proves that his becoming Lu Qingshan's disciple back then was undoubtedly a very fortunate thing.

Therefore, even though Huo Gesi's strength has long surpassed Lu Qingshan's, he still respects Lu Qingshan immensely!

"Huo Gesi, your becoming Immortal is primarily because your own talent and comprehension are truly astonishing!"

Lu Qingshan said with a smile: "I have taken so many disciples in the past, but to this day, you are the only one who has become Immortal!"

"Master, the Trial Tower challenge has already begun!"

Huo Gesi reminded him, then waved his hand, and images of numerous geniuses challenging the Trial Tower appeared before Lu Qingshan and the other person.

Under normal circumstances, such challenge footage is not broadcast to the outside world; most people in the universe can only see the ranking changes.

However, since both Lu Qingshan and Huo Gesi are Immortal Deities under the Virtual Universe Company, they naturally have the authority to view the challenge scenes inside the Trial Tower.

In fact, the Virtual Universe Company granting them this authority was also to give them the opportunity to select suitable disciples.

After all, besides the top thousand geniuses across the universe who can join the Virtual Universe Company's core layer, other geniuses are also quite good; if they can be taken as disciples by an Immortal Deity, their future possibility of becoming a powerful being will naturally be higher.

Lu Qingshan casually browsed the footage of a few top-ranked geniuses, then asked calmly: "Huo Gesi, do you know if there are any particularly outstanding geniuses in this generation?"

Hearing Lu Qingshan's words, Huo Gesi quickly replied: "Master, I did collect some data earlier, but this generation of the Genius Battle should be relatively ordinary; the strongest among them have just crossed the threshold of the Shi Shi Jian Ben Yuan Law or the Time Origin Law, though we cannot rule out that some among them are conserving their strength!"

Among that batch of geniuses who joined the Virtual Universe Company at the same time as Huo Gesi, someone had once conserved their strength before the finals, only to defeat others with an overwhelming advantage at the very end, winning first place in the Genius Battle, and thus joining the Primordial Secret Realm.

Unfortunately, that peerless genius who was originally expected to become a Hei Fengwang Immortal ultimately perished in the Outer Battlefield at the hands of an alien powerful being!

"Then, does the Yanfeng Universe Kingdom have any outstanding geniuses?" Lu Qingshan asked again.

"No!"

Huo Gesi shook his head and said: "Actually, I have been thinking about taking a few disciples to cultivate well in these last tens of thousands of years, which is why I paid more attention to the Genius Battle and the Stronger Battle. However, in this Genius Battle, the strongest one from our Yanfeng Universe Kingdom will likely find it very difficult to break into the top thousand across the universe!"

"Besides that, there is a little fellow who crossed the threshold of the Lightning Origin Law after cultivating for less than a hundred years, but this little fellow comes from the Yanfeng Universe Kingdom's imperial family and was taken as a disciple by a Marquis Immortal long ago; he would definitely look down on an Immortal Army Lord like me!"

"Huo Gesi, you are underestimating yourself too much!"

While watching the battles of the crowd of geniuses inside the Trial Tower, Lu Qingshan said: "With your comprehension and talent, as long as you continue to cultivate hard for a while, becoming a Marquis Immortal should not be difficult!"

"Master, you are really overestimating your disciple too much!"

Huo Gesi said with a bitter smile: "Since I successfully broke through to the Immortal Realm tens of hundreds of thousands of years ago, my comprehension of the Time Origin Law has seemed to stop completely, with no progress at all for tens of hundreds of thousands of years!"

"If I had known this, I should have stayed at the Boundary Lord stage for a longer time; perhaps I would have had a chance to break through directly to a Marquis Immortal!"

In fact, before breaking through, Huo Gesi also knew that the speed of comprehending the Origin Laws would slow down after breaking through to Immortality.

But at that time, he had already been stuck on the fourteenth floor of the Sky-Connecting Bridge for a very long time, so he decided to break through to Immortality.

He never expected that after becoming Immortal, the speed of comprehending the Origin Laws compared to the Boundary Lord stage was practically one in a hundred, which made him feel somewhat regretful.

"My greatest wish now is to perfect my secret techniques as much as possible, striving to elevate them to the top tier!"

Huo Gesi said again: "Once my secret techniques break through to the top tier, my strength will be able to rank among the front lines even among High-level Army Lords!"

"Besides that, I will work hard to accumulate some wealth; perhaps in the future I can purchase some high-power Mechanical Race weapons, and also cultivate a few disciples like you, Master!"

Hearing Huo Gesi's words, Lu Qingshan could not help but sigh in his heart.

If he had not joined the Myriad Heavens Chat Group, his future life would roughly be as Huo Gesi described.

At most, he would wait until Luo Feng rises in the future to invest in him, thereby making his own life more comfortable lying flat within the Human Race in the future.

Fortunately, with the existence of the Myriad Heavens Chat Group, he can still try to struggle on a bit more!

In the following days, Lu Qingshan watched the Genius Battle finals together with Huo Gesi; however, upon discovering that this year's Genius Battle had no significant difference from previous ones and seeing no suitable disciples, they soon stopped paying attention.

Huo Gesi's consciousness returned to reality to continue completing the mission he had accepted, while Lu Qingshan also quickly bid farewell to his family and piloted a starship towards the Virtual Universe Company headquarters.

After all, the Thousand-year break granted by the company was about to end, and he also needed to report to the Virtual Universe Company.

(End of this chapter)