Chapter 1 An Exceptional Talent

After all, Earth had already entered the information age of 5G. Even though the physical examination process was not broadcast through official channels, and the students did not carry their mobile phones with them during the examination, the news that Hongzhou had produced a transcendent-level genius quickly spread throughout the major academies across the country, simply through professors relaying the information to each other.

If only one professor said this, everyone might have thought it was a joke.

After all, although it was surprising for a student's talent to reach the 100% limit, it was not without precedent. In history, there had been more than a dozen geniuses who had achieved a perfect score, or even exceeded the limit.

But if it was said that the student's talent was not only 100%, but could also affect the hourglasses of other testers around him, and even directly lift the spiritual sand hourglass into the air through the traction of spiritual energy—that would be a bit of a stretch.

Not to mention, advancing to the transcendent stage on the spot was just too exaggerated.

But… similar news was being spread simultaneously by four or five different academies and dozens of different professors.

Three men can make a tiger, let alone dozens? For a time, the entire Zheng Nation's transcendent circle was in a state of shock.

In fact, there were already many geniuses in this physical examination. In the area around Hongcheng alone, there were a total of four A-grade talent Dao bodies and more than a dozen B-grade talent geniuses. Even if the numbers across the country were not evenly distributed, it would not be strange for the number of A-grade talent holders to exceed one hundred or even several hundred.

It was not surprising. Zheng Nation had a population of over a billion, and had long since eradicated illiteracy and universalized education, ensuring that the vast majority of the population was not malnourished. This vast base of high-quality people was the largest resource pool of transcendents during the revival of spiritual energy. No matter how miraculous the aptitude or special talent, it could emerge from within.

But, a transcendent?

This news was too exaggerated… Even those geniuses from the direct lines of the major academies, who had been cultivating the transcendent path since childhood, and now intended to make a name for themselves, were filled with suspicion, shock, and disbelief when they learned of this news.

"If they really advanced to the transcendent stage… then they are simply not in the same world as us."

In the final analysis, they were all geniuses who were able to step into the transcendent path at this age. Even if they were unwilling, they had to admit this point—from awakening to transcendence was a major realm crossing. In this era, where the vast majority of the younger generation had only awakened to the first or second level, and the highest had barely completed the third level, if someone had already successfully broken through, then no matter how much they wanted to compete for rankings, at most they would only be competing for second place.

But even so, there were still some people who were quite restless.

At Tiandu Academy, a young man put down his phone. He took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and thought to himself: "It's just a temporary lead… There are still six months before the Holy Selection Examination. If I progress smoothly, it's not impossible for me to successfully break through and catch up!"

The aura on this young man's body had already reached the third level of awakening. He only needed to hone it for a while longer to achieve perfection, and then begin to try to break through and enter the transcendent stage.

It wasn't just this young man. All over Zheng Nation, there were geniuses who were either struck or inspired by this news, clenching their fists secretly, intending to strive forward.

For genius students of this age, encountering other top students with better grades than themselves, they would never willingly admit defeat, and they would never willingly admit that others were stronger than themselves—they always had to try, to fight for it. This was the struggle of youth.

"Even before the separation of heaven and earth, in the thousands of years of Shenzhou history, a transcendent at this age was extremely rare. Heh, a Holy Selection Examination with a transcendent participant. This is truly unprecedented, and those who come after, I imagine there won't be too many of them either."

A professor sighed with emotion.

At this time, Su Zhou naturally did not know what kind of storm he had caused in the entire Zheng Nation's transcendent circle because of himself.

But he had long guessed, and was very clear about what would happen after he displayed his power.

Just like now.

Escorted by a total of six polite White Emperor Guards, Su Zhou left the team, was protected by layers of strict security, and sent to the central monitoring room.

There, he met an old man who was both young and old.

"Hello, young man."

Dao Sheng slowly stood up from his seat, walked to Su Zhou, and spoke to him in an equal tone: "My surname is Zhang, my name is Qingyun."

He watched with interest the genius in front of him who was said to 'possess dragon blood,' and who had advanced from awakening to the transcendent stage within five months, and whom he had evaluated as 'the best in the world,' his tone amiable: "Although I already know what you are called, I still hope you can answer."

Saying this, looking closely at close range, carefully observing Su Zhou, the old man couldn't help but be secretly shocked.

"Dragon eyes, spiritual blood… Whether it is appearance, talent, physique, or characteristics, this body is perfect. It doesn't even leak a bit of spiritual energy. Even I can't see through his realm at first glance."

Although it could be possible to deduce Su Zhou's current realm through various indirect methods, such as changes in the surrounding spiritual energy environment, that would be too slow and inefficient. Whether in combat or in daily life, it would not be practical at all.

"My name is Su Zhou, the Su of awakening, the Zhou of daylight."

At this moment, after reporting his name, Su Zhou also opened his eyes wide, watching with interest the old man in front of him. One old and one young, they sized each other up in the monitoring room.

When approaching the monitoring room, Su Zhou had already sensed that there was a powerful source of spiritual energy there, slowly stirring the surrounding spiritual energy like a huge vortex.

The closer he got, the more he felt an instinctive sense of danger, and this sense of danger was exactly the same as when he was still in the awakening stage, facing the National Preceptor, facing the Demon Emperor!

The old man in front of him, wearing a pure yang scarf, with pure black hair under the scarf, squinting his eyes and smiling amiably, although there were still some wrinkles remaining on his face, and his long beard was also a mixture of silver and black, it could be clearly seen that the vitality of life was overflowing from all parts of his body—on the surface, this slight appearance of old age was the most obvious evidence of the remnants of the 'rejuvenation' phenomenon.

Gazing at the other party, in Su Zhou's eyes, the old man's surrounding spiritual power was almost transformed into deep blue armor. In addition, with the unique and obvious mutual perception between thunder law users, he could be one hundred percent certain that the person in front of him was clearly a transcendent-level thunder law user!

If that was the case, then the answer was almost without a doubt.

The other party was very likely the current Dean of Zhengyi Academy… the contemporary Dao Sheng!

The Central Committee of the Thirty-Six Sages, in power, basically never used their real names, but instead used the relevant Saintly Seat as a title, and the name of the academy dean was also a state-level secret of the Zheng Nation, which basically would not be known to those who were not relevant personnel.

And Zhengyi Academy seemed to specialize in electrical engineering, and Professor Zhang Fucheng, who came from Zhengyi Academy, was even more skilled in the Five Thunder Law. Dao Sheng's proficiency in this would only be even greater.

"I didn't expect that what Uncle Shao said was actually true… A big shot really came to inspect!"

After confirming this, Su Zhou was instead interested. Having experienced the Divine Wood World and met and exchanged views with the high-level figures of the Hundred Schools of another world, he naturally would not be frightened by this title: "Does this count as being received by a Central Committee member? But there's no special feeling… Well, at least, the pressure I feel from Earth's Dao Sheng is stronger than that of the Demon Emperor!"

"Even much stronger!"

"Hey, you little fellow, it's okay to use spiritual vision to examine other cultivators, but such a gaze is a very impolite thing."

Zhang Qingyun looked at Su Zhou's behavior of using spiritual vision to examine himself without any fear, and even with a very relaxed attitude, and couldn't help shaking his head and smiling, thinking in his heart: "This little fellow is very arrogant in his heart… Just now, his gaze was clearly examining my strength."

"Interesting, is he treating me as a target, or as prey? Is this the instinct of dragon blood, such a powerful aggressiveness, and offensiveness? He has none of the reverence and restraint that ordinary people would have in his heart."

Thinking this in his heart, he only gave a light reminder: "Although this old man's realm is not much higher than yours, show a little respect for your elders."

"I'm sorry, I'm not very clear about these rules, I was indeed impolite."

And Su Zhou also withdrew his gaze and simply lowered his head to apologize—just now his gaze was indeed a bit impolite. But then, he excitedly raised his head and directly asked: "I wonder if Saintly Seat Lord summoned me here, is there something you want to tell me?"

"I wanted to see with my own eyes what kind of outstanding talent the most remarkable genius since the founding of Zheng Nation is… Now it seems that he is indeed remarkable, and there will be another fellow Daoist in the future."

Zhang Qingyun laughed, and without much further ado, he turned his head and gestured to the secretary behind him. Seeing the gesture, a middle-aged man wearing a dark ink Daoist robe came to his side carrying a small bag.

Casually taking out a small jade bottle from the bag, Zhang Qingyun handed it directly to Su Zhou, saying: "Originally, the purpose of this inspection was to personally meet the local student with the best talent, and personally award him the first place reward… Of course, those rewards are nothing more than some pills that are useful to the awakening stage, which can accelerate cultivation, but are useless to you who are already in the transcendent stage."

"But now, seeing that you also possess thunder power, and may be the Heavenly Dragon bloodline that can summon wind and thunder, so after thinking about it, I simply give you this pill that I usually take. I hope that you can continue to work hard in the future and reach even greater heights!"

"This… is too precious!"

Taking the jade bottle, Su Zhou could tell at a glance that the jade bottle in his hand contained a spiritual pill that condensed a large amount of high-density spiritual energy, as well as various thunder-attribute transcendent characteristics, and the pill quality was very high!

This kind of pill, not to mention the craftsmanship and channels, just the required spiritual materials and procedures would probably be so precious that they could not be calculated with money!

"Can you see its preciousness? Not bad, it seems that I still underestimated your spiritual vision."

Zhang Qingyun did not expect that Su Zhou could see the power contained in the pill through the sealed jade bottle, but he did not care, and just smiled calmly: "As for precious, for an eighteen-year-old transcendent-level genius, this is not precious."

"After all, in the coming chaotic world, you are the real hope for the future."

"Chaotic world?" Hearing this word, even Su Zhou, who was surprised in his heart, couldn't help but raise his head, and he repeated it with confusion.

"Chaotic world?"