Chapter 72 - 69: Let the Wind and Waves Rise

Chapter 72: Chapter 69: Let the Wind and Waves Rise

From then on, geniuses were divided into two categories.

One was the standard genius, and the other... was the Thousand People Slash genius!

Those who accomplished the Thousand People Slash were regarded as the absolute geniuses among geniuses! Being a regular genius was nothing special, but being a Thousand People Slash genius... now that was badass!

Achieving the Thousand People Slash was incredibly difficult. However, the world was vast. Geniuses had their own fortuitous encounters and their own freakish talents, so there would always be someone capable of pulling it off. There would always be those who possessed things ordinary people couldn’t comprehend, and there would always be those whose lives seemed as if they were using cheat codes.

People like Xiao Ting and Chen Huangbei were prime examples!

Looking broadly, almost all the capable geniuses on the Era Leaderboard had completed the Thousand People Slash challenge. As for the less capable ones—who previously had rumors claiming they possessed the strength to enter the Era Leaderboard—the emergence of the Thousand People Slash challenge revealed their true colors, completely eliminating them from the competition to be top-tier geniuses.

Of course, some didn’t undertake the challenge, yet their strength was still acknowledged by the public. Take "One," the top ranker on the Era Leaderboard, for example. Although he never showed his face and remained completely anonymous, no one thought he was weak.

On the contrary, even some geniuses who had completed the Thousand People Slash challenge would wear solemn expressions when bringing him up.

"He... is very strong!" Xiao Ting said.

"That person... didn’t complete the Thousand People Slash challenge simply because he has no interest in such empty titles," Chen Huangbei commented.

"The number of Cultivation Method Manuals one possesses doesn’t necessarily represent their strength. Although Tanzi has now taken the number one spot in Cultivation Techniques on the Era Leaderboard, I don’t think his talent is greater than One’s. When others enter the Cemetery of Cultivation Techniques, they must specifically comprehend the Dao or take out special items to resonate with the Secret Manuals just to obtain a single Cultivation Technique. But that person... he just casually walked through the Cemetery of Cultivation Techniques, and those Cultivation Techniques automatically flew out and acknowledged him as their master. It’s safe to say he never actively sought them out. If he wanted to, let alone a few hundred Cultivation Techniques, he could obtain a thousand or even ten thousand of them!" Murong Nan said.

To earn the acknowledgment of so many arrogant geniuses, the sheer weight of One’s reputation could easily be imagined.

After the wave of Thousand People Slash challenges ended, the situation was finally no longer dominated by Su Tan alone. Even Su Tan’s ranking was no longer first; he had actually fallen behind Chen Huangbei.

According to "reliable" sources, Su Tan’s Thousand People Slash lacked finesse, in terms of both combat skills and composure.

However, they might have forgotten one thing. What Su Tan engaged in was akin to a life-and-death battle, whereas these people? They were merely participating in challenges—challenges organized by their own people!

Which held more weight? That depended entirely on how one chose to judge it!

But one thing was for certain: in that battle, Su Tan’s original intention was self-preservation and defense. He never intended to use that battle to compete with anyone, nor did he want to prove he was stronger than anyone else! He also never expected that after he completed the Thousand People Slash, it would become the definitive benchmark for determining a true powerhouse.

Su Tan didn’t participate in the entire Thousand People Slash commotion. In fact, he was completely unaware of it.

Since leaving the Void God Realm, he knew very little about what was happening inside. He had even made up his mind! For a while, he wouldn’t go back to that place. The people inside were far too violent and lacked any sense of harmony. They resorted to killing and fighting at the drop of a hat. It was a very bad environment.

Celestial Fragrance Empire.

White Cloud City.

A small village nestled between two massive mountains.

Night had fallen, and the scenery was picturesque. Scattered lights added a touch of mundane vitality to the village. Up in the Tianyu, the moon was bright, and the stars were sparse, while in the mountain forests, the chirping of insects was endless.

By the western route into the mountains, near the village entrance, lay the path leading deep into the mountain range. Unlike the eastern exit, this area appeared rather desolate. The eastern side was the main road leading into White Cloud City. During the day, it was bustling with people coming and going. Apart from these two main roads, the village had other narrow, winding trails leading up the two big mountains, but those were rarely used.

On the western side, a small courtyard stood quietly. It was spotlessly clean, with flowers and grass filling the yard, creating a quiet and peaceful atmosphere.

"Mountain Lean Strike!"

At midnight, an explosive shout suddenly rang out from the owner of the house inside the courtyard.

RUMBLE!

Looking down from above, one could see a figure crashing out of the room. Like a human cannonball, he smashed a massive hole through the back of the house, kicking up a cloud of dust and sending wooden splinters flying. He didn’t stop until he slammed into a large boulder behind the house, striking it hard enough to crack the stone.

SWISH!

A creature looking like a little puppy darted out of the room right on his heels, scurrying through the broken hole and running up to the human. It slid to a halt. Initially looking worried, its expression quickly shifted to speechlessness upon seeing that the human was perfectly fine.

"Oh my god... This is the third time! You’ve completely smashed the house for three days in a row," the Little White Wolf complained in a milky voice. It covered its little face with its paws, unable to bear looking at the destruction.

"Dreaming about fighting people again?"

Who else could this be but Su Tan and the Little White Wolf?

"Is it really necessary? It was just a petty little brawl..."

CRACK!

Su Tan climbed out of the large boulder he had fractured. He shook off the broken pebbles clinging to his body and shrugged.

He felt quite helpless about this too.

Three days ago, he had fought against a thousand people in the Void God Realm. Perhaps he had been too invested and hot-blooded at the time. As a result, whenever he dreamed at night, he would return to that scene, and his body would instinctively unleash the Mountain Lean Strike.

He had experienced something similar in his previous life. When he was in junior high school, he loved playing video games and was obsessed with a game called *Counter-Strike*. Because he was so invested and loved it so much, he would often dream at night, hearing lines like, "He’s coming, they’re coming..." He would even see zombies leaping at him. Several times, he fought zombies in his sleep and unconsciously fell out of bed.

Back then, it happened because he was young and his willpower was relatively weak. He never expected that at his current age, such a thing would happen again.

It was a bit embarrassing!

He knew the reason, though. A blind man’s life was monotonous.

Ever since Su Tan transmigrated, there were very few things he could participate in firsthand. Other than cultivating, his daily routine consisted of cleaning his room, watering the flowers, and basking in the sun. Even the number of times he could enter the Void God Realm was limited.

This battle was indeed his first major physical exertion since going blind. Because it was a huge ordeal, the first of its kind, and one of the few blood-pumping events in his monotonous life, its impact on him was naturally profound.

Fighting a thousand people.

Although it had taken place in the Void God Realm where people wouldn’t truly die in the real world, the killing inside was practically identical to real-world combat. The visceral collisions. The flying flesh and blood. The stench of gore... The agonizing screams...

Every scene continuously echoed in his ears. In a sense, to Su Tan, it was no different from actual murder!

The screams of those people, those heart-wrenching shrieks—they were still fresh in his memory! No one could remain calm after killing someone for the first time. Let alone killing a thousand people!

Su Tan was a man of flesh and blood, not a cold machine. How could he remain unaffected? Therefore, it was entirely understandable that he frequently dreamt of that battle and inadvertently executed the Mountain Lean Strike. It was well within the bounds of reason.

"I’ll have to find someone to fix the house again tomorrow," Su Tan sighed.

The Little White Wolf’s face darkened, leaving it utterly speechless. This guy’s train of thought was truly something else... It was clearly trying to talk about his recurring dreams, yet he brought up repairing the house.

"If you ask me, this house should have been replaced a long time ago. It’s totally dilapidated. You aren’t short on money anyway, so wouldn’t it be better to just build a new one?" the Little White Wolf suggested.

Regardless of the storm brewing outside, Su Tan and the Little White Wolf continued to live their peaceful, mundane lives in Chen Family Village.