85: Chapter 85 Don't Embarrass Yourself

Su Bai did not answer.

He knew that this term had been trending on the heavenly pride list for several days.

"It is not because we are weak," Chu Zhentian said, "it is because no one among us has ever dared to truly compete."

His gaze became sharp.

"Every year, people enter the top one hundred in the star sector, and every year, people get the ticket for the three thousand. But every time, they get eliminated in the first round and then come back to tell me, 'I have done my best.'"

"They did indeed do their best," Chu Zhentian's fingers tapped lightly on his knees, "but their 'best' is a 'best' performed under the premise of 'as long as I don't embarrass myself.'"

"They never thought about winning from the very beginning because they are afraid!"

"They fear failure! They fear their world being defeated! They fear their race getting hurt!"

The carriage was quiet for a few seconds.

Chu Kuangren put down his wine bottle, rarely without his usual playful grin.

"I don't care how far you can go," Chu Zhentian looked at Su Bai and said, word by word, "I only ask one thing of you."

"Speak."

"Stand on that stage, and don't embarrass Qinglin Province."

This sentence sounded like mere polite talk, but coming from Chu Zhentian's mouth, it carried the weight of a thousand jun. Because Qinglin Province had been called the "weakest province" for too long, mocked for too long as "trash piled up by resources," and ignored for too long as a "marginal land."

"Embarrassment?" Su Bai's lips curled up slightly, "Those two words are not in my dictionary, and I don't even have a dictionary."

Chu Zhentian stared at him for three seconds, then nodded.

He took out a dark gold token from his bosom and handed it to Su Bai.

"This is the honor of the province, the highest-specification honorary badge of Qinglin Province, only Creators who represent this province in the national final selection are qualified to wear it." His voice became solemn, "Wear it, and you will no longer be just Su Bai. You are the face of Qinglin Province, the eyes of thirty million people, and the blade sent out from this land."

Su Bai took the token. It felt heavy in his hand, not just in weight, but with an indescribable texture. The surface of the token was engraved with the map patterns of Qinglin Province, and in the center was an ancient-style character for "Lin."

He pinned the token to his chest.

At that moment, a tsunami-like roar came from outside the carriage.

The entire city was shouting the same word.

"Lin!"

"Lin!"

"Lin!"

That was the abbreviation for Qinglin Province. The voices of thirty million people gathered together, shaking the energy shield of the hovering armored vehicle slightly.

Su Bai looked through the car window and saw, among the crowd kneeling on both sides of the street, white-haired old people, women holding children, middle school students who had just finished school, and blue-collar workers in work clothes. There was no flattery or obsequiousness on their faces, only a kind of near-pious expectation.

At this moment, Su Bai felt one thing intuitively for the first time:

One person's body, tied to the fate of a province.

He was not fighting alone.

Behind him were the eyes of thirty million people and the weight of the entire land.

...

Meanwhile, in the Tianxuan Star Sector, in another direction.

Tianshu Star Sector, Cangwu Province.

Cangwu Province was a strong province ranked in the top ten of the Tianshu Star Sector, possessing a complete Creator training system, with at least three to five people entering the final selection of three thousand every year. This year, they had four people shortlisted.

Among them, the one most favored was a young man named Zhao Lingyun.

Zhao Lingyun, twenty-one years old, ranked thirty-ninth in the Tianshu Star Sector, world type: Thunder Emperor Civilization, Tier 6.

At this moment, he was standing on the top floor of the "Tongtian Tower," the tallest building in Cangwu Province, overlooking the entire city.

Behind him, there were no convoys, no banners, no crowds.

Only an old man.

"Are you not going to say goodbye to them?" the old man asked.

Zhao Lingyun didn't even turn his head.

"Goodbye to what?"

"They gave you a grand farewell ceremony," the old man said, "a phalanx of thirty thousand people, one hundred and twenty armored vehicles, and the Governor's personal speech."

"Cancel it."

Zhao Lingyun's voice was cold, like the thunder in his world that never dissipated.

"Not needed."

He turned around, revealing a sharp-featured face without any expression.

"When I come back after getting into the national top thirty, they will naturally remember my name. What is the use of doing these empty things now?"

The old man sighed and said nothing more.

Zhao Lingyun stepped into the teleportation channel. His goal was the top thirty. No, if he was lucky, he wanted to try for the top ten.

The people of Cangwu Province were never satisfied with just "being shortlisted."

...

Tianquan Star Sector, the most remote corner.

A planet shrouded in clouds and mist all year round, an ancient manor hidden deep in a great rift valley.

The architectural style of the manor was completely different from the current mainstream.

There were no floating structures, no energy shields, no automated facilities. There were only paths paved with bluestone, old wooden houses, and an ancient well with no visible bottom.

This was the ancestral land of the Ye family.

The Ye family, once the number one family in the Tianquan Star Sector. Three hundred years ago, they produced a Tier 12 Creator, and during the family's peak, they controlled the devouring rights to thirty-seven Tier 9 ownerless worlds. But after that ancestor fell in a world war, the Ye family declined all the way, and now they had fallen to the point where they couldn't even move out of the provincial capital.

But a lean camel is still bigger than a horse.

The Ye family still had one person this year who got the ticket for the three thousand.

Ye Qingxue.

Nineteen years old, ranked seventh in the Tianquan Star Sector, world type: Chaos World, Tier 6.

She stood by the ancient well, looking down at her reflection in the well.

That was an extremely beautiful young girl.

Her black hair was like a waterfall, her skin was whiter than snow, and there was a calmness between her brows and eyes that did not belong to her age. Her eyes were rare heterochromatic pupils, her left eye as dark as ink, and her right eye as pure white as snow; that was the unique mark bestowed upon her by the Chaos World.

"Seventh," she said softly, as if talking to herself, "not enough."

She raised her head and looked at the light screen in the sky.

On the light screen, the names of the three thousand shortlisted candidates were scrolling. Her name was on the third page, seventh line. But her gaze did not stay on her own name, but instead looked at the position at the very top.

[Champion: Pending]

"What I want is the Champion," she said.

The voice was very soft, but every word seemed carved into the air.

"Let the Ye family be written back into the history of the Great Xia."

She stood up from the side of the well and walked out of the manor. Behind her, the ancient manor loomed in the clouds and mist, like a sleeping old beast, waiting to be reawakened.