Chapter 257

Chapter 257: Provocation

It was a very powerful one-use teleport talisman. The price was terrifying. A single Cross-Continent Teleport Talisman cost one hundred thousand Merit Points. That meant one talisman would take Li Shuang at least two years of effort.

This was already because she carried the Heaven and Earth Furnace and hunted Soul Beasts with special efficiency. For others, who knew how many years it would take to gather that many points.

There was also something even scarier: the Transcontinental Teleport Array Blueprint. Buy the blueprint and you could build a large formation on another continent. Anyone who entered that array could instantly reach the Central Continent.

But just the blueprint cost five hundred thousand Merit Points. That didn’t include the resources to build it. To gather all the materials needed would take at least another five hundred thousand Merit Points. A cross-continent Teleportation Array could not be done for less than one million Merit Points.

[One million… Even You Lan, number one on the Genius Ranking—does she have that many points?] The number made Li Shuang’s scalp tingle.

She paused on the blueprint for a moment, then checked the other goods. The resources the City Lord had opened to her weren’t all priceless, but they were all very rare, the kind that couldn’t be mass-produced.

Right now, Black Abyss needed further tempering. She could buy some ores to store. Even if she didn’t use them later, she could convert them with the Heaven and Earth Furnace. For her, nothing would go to waste.

She hesitated, but in the end she didn’t buy anything. [I have a strong feeling I’ll be short on Merit Points in the near future.] If she could save them, she would. One day they might be vital.

In the days that followed, she left the Wanfa Eye and settled into her chamber for closed-door training.

Then, one day, she felt a tug. In an instant, her soul stepped into Myriad Arts City. She looked up at the sky, shaken. When she left last time, she had been in the Hall of Myriad Arts. Normally she should have returned there. But now she found herself near the city wall.

The golden board that had hung on the wall now unrolled in the air like a scroll. Golden names flickered across it. Figures began to appear out of thin air under the list.

“The Golden Soul Altar! The Golden Soul Altar is opening!” someone shouted in delight.

“This time I’m breaking into the second layer; nobody try to stop me!”

“Hahaha, I scraped together enough Soul Points at the last moment. My luck is insane!”

More and more people appeared until the ground below the golden list was packed.

“Who do you think will take first this time?”

“Do we even need to guess? It’ll be You Lan.”

“Not so sure. Haven’t you heard? Li Shuang is a peerless genius trained by the City Lord herself. She might not be worse than You Lan.”

“That sounds nice, but she’s still too young. When she reaches You Lan’s age, sure, she can beat her. But right now…”

“True.”

Voices rose and fell—then, suddenly, someone went rigid and clamped his mouth shut. People followed his gaze and fell silent at once.

A black-clad woman was looking at them without expression.

“You Lan Senior Sister, they’re just talking nonsense; don’t mind them,” someone said at her side.

“Right. Even if Li Shuang could match Senior Sister, that would be in the future…” a Devil Heaven Sect disciple started to say, but another elbowed him hard. Realizing his mistake, he blurted, “No, no, even in the future she could never surpass You Lan Senior Sister.”

You Lan’s face stayed calm, her voice edged with cold: “Be quiet. Li—”

“She just got lucky,” someone cut in.

You Lan glanced at him and said without expression: “Stay away from me.”

“???” The man froze as a small vacuum opened around her. No one dared stand too close.

You Lan stood at the center, cold light flickering in her eyes. She had just come out of seclusion when she heard about Li Shuang. A super genius who cleared the sixth mountain at thirty-five—fine. But Li Shuang was also personally taught by the City Lord.

That was the City Lord of Myriad Arts City. One person who cowed the Five Super Sects. Rumor said a peak expert of the Human Race had defected to the Heaven Severing Lands and, using the power of a True Devil, committed countless crimes. The Human Race’s experts hunted him down, and he hid in the Heaven Severing Lands, afraid to come out. The City Lord of Myriad Arts City went in alone, broke three forbidden zones in a row, and dragged that traitor out. Now he still suffers in the Soul Prison.

The City Lord was truly the strongest in the Human Realm, the backbone of all the Human Race.

You Lan admitted it: the City Lord was her faith. Her goal was to become The Strongest, like the City Lord. She trained hard, thinking that if one day she stood on the peak, maybe she could meet the City Lord even once.

But Li Shuang… how did she deserve the City Lord’s personal guidance?

You Lan took a deep breath. Her gaze swept the crowd, then stopped on Li Shuang.

She stepped forward.

Li Shuang had been studying the golden list, curious, when the crowd around her suddenly grew noisy. She turned, puzzled.

“It’s You Lan.”

“Quick, make way!”

“Yikes, that expression is scary.”

People scattered, forcing a path open right down the middle.

Seeing this, Li Shuang tried to step aside to give space. But the moment she moved, the crowd jumped farther away from her. She took another step back; they all retreated again.

[What is happening?] she thought.

“Sis, stop backing up. It’s obvious You Lan is headed straight for you!”

“Yeah, gods fight gods; don’t drag the rest of us into it.”

Everyone kept retreating.

[She’s coming for… me?] Li Shuang blinked, stunned. Beneath the golden list, where people had been packed tight, a clean aisle had been carved out.

You Lan walked up to Li Shuang and stopped.

Li Shuang looked at her, confused. As far as she knew, she’d had no dealings with this number-one genius.

You Lan said in a flat voice: “I will make her see that she chose the wrong person.”

Her gaze turned razor sharp as she added: “I will surpass you and crush you, so she can look past you and see me. I hope you won’t be too weak.”