The Great Ming Cultural Research Academy was massive. It had plenty of venues suitable for a fight. But the students here were not as militant as those in Great Xia, so very few fights would happen in this academy. For the most part, the students here preferred competing in other unique skills.

Hundred Skill Hall, the biggest arena in the academy.

This was an arena that could be used to compete in all sorts of fields. At the moment, a large ring could be seen in the area. The ring was surrounded by a stream of water. Further beyond were ring-shaped aisles. The aisles were filled with people.

"I heard Su Yu is in seclusion. Is he still in seclusion?"

"He'll come, right?"

"I mean, it's very common for people to miss their challenge matches..."

"..."

Hearing the words of the locals, the outsiders felt incomparably gloomy. So in Great Ming, it was perfectly normal for people to be missing from their challenge matches? Did they not care about honor and glory?

"I heard Shan Xiong is challenging the Hundred Dao Pagoda. Just yesterday, he was still in it. His name appeared on the 50th floor for a bit, but nobody knows which floor he's at currently."

"50th floor? Are you sure?"

Some of them were surprised to hear that. Clearly, not everyone was aware of Shan Xiong's challenge. At the 40th to 60th floors of the pagoda, one would essentially be facing trials at the level of the Cloudbreach Realm.

The 50th floor was the dividing line for those at the seventh-stage Cloudbreach Realm and below. Previously, Su Yu had given up on the 49th floor. During Wu Qi's challenge, she had reached the same floor as well. And she was already a Cloudbreach.

The trials of the Hundred Dao Pagoda were balanced against regular Cloudbreaches, not genius Cloudbreaches. Even so, it was still a terrifying feat for a ninth-stage Skysoar to reach the 50th floor. He had essentially surpassed his realm by seven levels.

"Can Su Yu do the same? I think he reached the 40th floor previously, right? At the time, he wasn't even a Skysoar. Now that he's a Skysoar, he can probably reach the 50th floor as well."

"Who knows? They are all geniuses. Sigh. Geniuses are indeed different. Compared to them, our Seven Eminents are truly weak."

"Yeah. I don't think there's any genius who is truly impressive in Great Ming. Meanwhile, Great Xia has Huang Teng, Great Qin has Qin Fang, and Great Zhou has Shan Xiong..."

"Nonsense. Isn't Su Yu one of us?"

"Uhm...well, I guess you're right. But it's fine. The experts of our Great Ming are very long-lived. We can simply outlive these geniuses."

"..."

The students continued talking among themselves. At a different section of the ring-shaped aisles was an area allocated for the more prominent individuals among the crowd. People like Zhu Hongliang, Zhu Qingyan, Shang Tianjiao, Bai Junsheng, and Wu Lan were all there. And the atmosphere there was quite tense.

Shang Tianjiao looked at Wu Lan furiously and said, "Were you the one claiming that Big Brother Shan Xiong had defeated Huang Teng?"

Wu Lan completely ignored her. Since she was slightly higher than Shang Tianjiao, with her head raised, she couldn't even see Shang Tianjiao. As for the fact that this was the great granddaughter of Great Shang King...why did it matter?

Shang Tianjiao was still a brand new Skysoar. And she was a year older. With the Source Soul Cultural Art, Wu Lan would reach the Skysoar Realm after one year as well. What was so special about Shang Tianjiao?

This was how she would always behave around those she deemed weaker than her. It wasn't like she had never seen descendants of Invincibles before. Xia Chan and Xia Huyou were both descendants of Invincibles. And she never treated them differently. In fact, Xia Huyou himself was nearby at this moment.

When Xia Huyou noticed what was happening, he tried very hard to stop himself from laughing. Unless Shang Tianjiao decided to beat Wu Lan up, she would only end up infuriating herself to death. This had happened to many people within Great Xia.

His little sister, Xia Chan, had been greatly depressed lately. Before leaving, Wu Lan had ambushed her. Of course, the two had not scratched and pulled each other's hair like the rumors suggested. But Wu Lan was quite ruthless as she had broken Xia Chan's nose and nearly ruined her appearance. Thus, Xia Chan had been furious with Wu Lan as of late. Fortunately, she was in seclusion at the moment. If she was here, a fight would probably break out between the two.

This place was filled with descendants of Invincibles, elite students of the various academies, and descendants of Sunmoons. Thus, Wu Lan's status wasn't that big of a deal here. But she remained the same. She did not deign to pay those she deemed unworthy any attention.

After Shang Tianjiao said yet another string of provocative words at her, she faced Shang Tianjiao with her nostrils and said, "You sure talk a lot of nonsense. When I become a Skysoar, I'll challenge you. If I can't beat you to the death in three moves, I'll apologize to you."

"..."

Shang Tianjiao's face turned red from anger. She said, "I'm asking if you deliberately did that--"

Wu Lan nodded, "Yes."

"..."

Suddenly, Shang Tianjiao found herself out of words.

"Wu Lan, don't be too excessive—"

Wu Lan continued facing Shang Tianjiao with her nostrils as she said, "Are you sick? You were the one claiming that your Big Brother Shan Xiong is incredible. But is he really incredible if he has never even defeated Huang Teng before?"

"He's younger than Huang Teng!"

"And Su Yu is younger than him." Wu Lan rolled her eyes, "And you're also older than me. Why is an old woman like you accepting my challenge? I'll beat you to death in three moves after entering the Skysoar Realm. Are you going to fight me?"

"..."

The people nearby remained silent and even started moving further away from the two. In a way, these two were the same. Both were completely impossible to reason with. More importantly, they also had the tendency to pester someone endlessly. Nobody wanted to provoke people like them.

Sure, the Wu Family only had a single Sunmoon. Compared to some of the families here, they weren't that big of a deal. But their connections were very complicated. Firstly, they were close to Great Xia. Secondly, they were the descendants of Great Wu King. Sure, Great Wu King was dead, but Great Wu itself was still quite strong even without an Invincible.

Wu Lan once said that Great Wu King was her ancestor eight generations apart. That might seem distant, but one ought to remember that Wu Lan's great grandmother was still alive. And that great grandmother was not as distant from Great Wu King.

Furthermore, the current prefect of Great Wu was also quite close with this branch of Wu Family. Thanks to the Wu Family, the relationship between Great Xia and Great Wu had been rather amicable as well.

During the course of the conversation, Shang Tianjiao nearly coughed blood from sheer anger. She had thought that she was the most unreasonable and arrogant person ever. After all, she was the descendant of an Invincible. But she had stumbled upon someone even more arrogant than her. Why was this Wu Lan so proud? In both status and strength, she was better than Wu Lan!

The surrounding geniuses completely ignored the two. Zhu Hongliang was standing beside Xia Huyou. Both were known as fatties, but when they were standing together, Xia Huyou almost looked slim.

"Brother Huyou, I heard you're quite close to Su Yu?" Zhu Hongliang softly said, "Are you here because you want to be here or is this Great Xia's idea?"

Xia Huyou smiled and said, "I'm only here to watch the match, nothing else. Both of them are from the same generation of us. I'm only here to broaden my horizons. Are you not curious about them, Brother Hongliang?"

"Somewhat, but I'm also not too curious. It's not surprising for either of them to win."

The surrounding geniuses listened attentively as the two spoke, but even after a while, nothing of importance was spoken. The two damn fatties were merely chatting normally.

At this time, Shan Xiong, who was clad in green, walked over with Jiang Tao beside him. Shan Xiong muttered something to Jiang Tao who left promptly. Meanwhile, Shan Xiong did not stop. He continued walking toward the ring in the middle of the arena.

In his flowing green robes, he looked exceptionally handsome and healthy. Standing in the ring, he cupped his fists and greeted the crowd with a gentle smile. Then, he stood there waiting for Su Yu.

"How handsome."

"He's very strong as well. Do you know that he reached the 50th floor of the Hundred Dao Pagoda recently? That's the strength of a seventh-stage Cloudbreach. He's too amazing."

"He wouldn't have been able to defeat Huang Teng and Qin Fang if he wasn't this amazing."

"That's true."

A lot of students started talking among themselves, with the majority being women. Meanwhile, Shang Tianjiao was looking at Wu Lan smugly. However, Wu Lan continued showing Shang Tianjiao her nostril. She did glance at Shan Xiong, but she personally felt that Su Yu was better looking than Shan Xiong. Was Shang Tianjiao blind?

At this time, Su Yu, clad in flowing white robes, slowly walked over with a scholarly aura around him. From afar, his gaze landed on Shan Xiong. Shan Xiong also looked at him. All the whisperings in the crowd stopped.

Su Yu nodded at Shan Xiong with a smile. Those unfamiliar with him didn't think much about that smile. But people like Xia Huyou all grimaced when they saw that smile. The brighter this fellow's smile was, the more terrible the plan he was hatching in his mind. This was a bad guy through and through.