43: Chapter 43 God-level Genius
Ninety-five!
When that crystal-clear sphere finally settled on that glaring number...
The thousands of prodigies from every corner of the Galaxy Star on the plaza, along with the instructors who thought they were well-versed in the world...
Everyone's breath was seized at this moment, as if by an invisible giant hand.
Time stood still.
The air froze.
The plaza was so quiet that everyone could hear their own drum-like heartbeats.
Ninety-five points.
What did that concept even mean?
It meant that this person's affinity for spiritual energy had reached a non-human, almost monstrous level.
It meant that even if he just lay there doing nothing, his cultivation speed would be faster than ninety-nine percent of the geniuses present who were working their lives away to cultivate!
This was no longer a simple genius.
This was a bug!
A walking, humanoid spiritual energy black hole!
"Im... Impossible!"
A sharp, distorted roar broke the dead silence.
The instructor responsible for the test practically sprang out of his chair.
He rushed to the equipment in a few quick steps, slapping and hitting the precision crystal ball tester.
"Replace it for me immediately! Use the backup! The highest precision one!"
He immediately made the arrangements.
His loss of composure finally ignited the powder keg of the crowd, which had already been suppressed to its limit.
After a brief moment of dead silence, the entire plaza erupted!
"Ninety-five? What kind of interstellar joke is this! This thing can actually measure a ninety-five?"
"Cheating! He's definitely cheating! How could someone from a backwater place like Shen City get a score like this!"
"Exactly! Our Galaxy Main City's number one genius, Brother Cold, only scored ninety-one back then! What right does he have!"
"It's been twenty years! In the twenty years of the Xuanyuan Special Recruitment Camp, no monster with a score above ninety-five has ever appeared! I don't believe it!"
Countless gazes filled with doubt, jealousy, resentment, and even malice shot toward Wang Pingan like countless blades.
If looks could kill, Wang Pingan would have likely been sliced into a thousand pieces by now.
Lin Zhan, Su Yue, and the others had long since been stunned into silence.
Their mouths hung open and their minds were blank, as they just stared blankly at that back that stood calmly amidst the storm of the crowd.
Wang Pingan ignored the noisy, malicious din around him.
His Eye of Truth quietly activated, looking down at the faces of the masses like an indifferent god.
He clearly "saw" that among the geniuses, there were about a dozen people whose bodies emitted a purple halo that far exceeded the others, representing the strength of a Third-Rank Martial Artist.
And at this moment, without exception, all dozen of those purple halos were pointed directly at him.
The strongest and most condensed purple halo belonged to a young man with a slender build and a handsome face, but an aura so Cold that people didn't dare approach.
Cold.
The name he had just heard automatically surfaced in Wang Pingan's mind.
He "heard" Cold say to a companion beside him, who was also a Third-Rank Martial Artist, in an extremely contemptuous voice that almost snorted out of his nostrils.
"Just flashy nonsense."
"What's the use of having high spiritual energy affinity? He's just a slightly larger cultivation vessel."
"With an unstable foundation and a flighty temperament, he's ultimately just a useless, pretty vase."
His voice was very soft, but it was captured clearly and without missing a word by Wang Pingan's high Spirit attribute of fifty points.
Wang Pingan's brow twitched almost imperceptibly.
Just then.
"All of you shut the hell up!"
A roar like a bolt from the blue exploded over the plaza!
The voice contained a domineering and unquestionable will, like molten iron being poured into everyone's ears.
The tumultuous clamor of the entire plaza instantly came to a screeching halt.
Everyone subconsciously looked toward the source of the sound.
The bald Chief Instructor, Thunderstorm, who had been standing on the high platform, had appeared next to the testing equipment at some point.
His burly frame was like an iron tower, and just by standing there, a fierce, murderous aura as if he had crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood made it difficult for everyone to even breathe.
Thunderstorm ignored the testing instructor who was still shouting that "the equipment is broken."
His oppressive eyes bypassed everyone and locked onto Wang Pingan.
He said nothing, only walked carefully around the equipment that was being questioned by countless people, checking all the lines and energy interfaces.
Then he walked to the higher precision backup tester that had just been brought up.
He patted the larger, purer crystal ball.
"You."
He raised his hand, and a thick finger pointed at Wang Pingan from over ten meters away.
"Come here."
"Test again."
The gazes of everyone present followed his finger and focused on Wang Pingan once more.
Wang Pingan remained expressionless and calmly walked to the new machine under the watchful eyes of the crowd.
"Put your hand on it," Thunderstorm's command was short and Cold.
Wang Pingan did as he was told.
However, just as his palm was about to touch the Cold crystal ball...
Thunderstorm suddenly moved.
His figure appeared behind Wang Pingan in an instant, like a ghost.
A massive hand like a palm leaf fan, carrying a hot wave of air, pressed heavily onto the center of Wang Pingan's back.
"I'll give you a hand."
Boom!
An indescribably massive and violent surge of Blood-qi Energy, like a bursting flood, charged brutally into Wang Pingan's body through Thunderstorm's palm!
That power was domineering, chaotic, and full of destructiveness.
It wasn't helping Wang Pingan guide spiritual energy; it was destroying Wang Pingan's control over his own body!
This wasn't help at all!
It was a test!
And even more, a show of force!
Thunderstorm wanted to use this method to personally tear away all of Wang Pingan's disguises and see what kind of trickery lay behind his shocking talent!
A sharp pain instantly spread through Wang Pingan's entire body.
He felt as if his meridians were about to be burst by that external violent power.
In this situation, anyone else would have been unable to even stand steadily, let alone guide spiritual energy!
But Wang Pingan's face still didn't change in the slightest.
Under that inhuman pain and pressure, his high Spirit attribute of fifty points acted like a pillar of strength, firmly maintaining his mental clarity.
His Eye of Truth operated to its limit at this moment!
Thunderstorm's violent Blood-qi Energy was no longer a chaotic torrent in his eyes.
Instead, it was a series of crystal-clear data streams composed of countless energy particles that could be analyzed and decoded!
Analyze!
Simulate!
Assimilate!
Wang Pingan didn't try to resist that power head-on.
He made a response that even Thunderstorm hadn't anticipated.
Not only did he not resist, but he actively gave up part of the control over his body, using his mental strength to follow that violent power and simulate an even more perfect resonance that was completely in sync with the spiritual energy in the surrounding space!
He wasn't guiding it.
He was "becoming" it!
He used Thunderstorm's destructive power as a super amplifier, a lever!
He used this lever to move the spiritual energy of the entire plaza!
Buzz—!
A hum louder and more piercing than any before it suddenly erupted from the high-precision tester!
The crystal ball, which had only been emitting a soft light, shone as brightly as a small sun at this moment!
The number inside it jumped upward at a speed that completely defied the laws of physics, like a teleportation!
Eighty!
Ninety!
Ninety-five!
The number didn't stop!
In Thunderstorm's suddenly constricted pupils, and in the eyes of everyone present that were almost popping out of their sockets...
That number gave a gentle jump upward.
And finally settled steadily.
Ninety-six!
Thunderstorm's large hand on Wang Pingan's back suddenly retracted as if it had been shocked.
He stared fixedly at the bright red "96" on the screen, then looked down at his own palm, which was still slightly numb.
For the first time, an emotion called "shock" appeared on the face of this man known for his ferocity and brutality.
The entire plaza was dead silent.
A silence more absolute than any before.
If ninety-five points had subverted their understanding...
Then to be able to measure an even higher ninety-six while Chief Instructor Thunderstorm personally intervened and used violent means to interfere...
After a long time.
Thunderstorm slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.
He looked at Wang Pingan again.
His gaze had completely changed.
From the previous scrutiny, suspicion, and inquiry, it had turned into an almost fanatical light, like someone who had discovered a peerless treasure.
He turned around to face the thousands of completely petrified geniuses on the plaza and solemnly announced in an unprecedentedly loud voice.
"Talent verified!"
"Rating: God-Level!"
Boom!
The crowd erupted for the third time.
But this time, there was no more questioning.
Only endless shock, fanaticism, and a madness of jealousy growing in everyone's hearts.
Thunderstorm didn't give them much time to digest this news.
He gave Wang Pingan a deep look, and the fanatical expression on his face suddenly shifted into a curve full of cruel meaning.
"Talent is just the ticket that qualifies you to stand here."
"Next is the strength test."
"I want to see if your god-level affinity can hatch a true dragon..."
"Or if you're just a pretty vase that shatters at a touch!"
As his voice fell.
The countless complex gazes of the entire plaza once again fell uniformly on Wang Pingan.
Only this time, in those gazes, besides jealousy, there was also a hint of playful, gloating, and cruel anticipation for a good show.
After all, the higher one is held up, the louder and more spectacular the crash when they fall.