"Sigh. It’s only human nature, human nature,"
he said, then picked up his teacup and took another sip. His posture screamed, ’I’ve said all I can say. You’ll have to figure out the rest for yourselves.’
An eerie silence fell over the high platform.
All the instructors looked at one another, their expressions a magnificent spectacle.
First, they were stunned. Then, they were suspicious. Finally... they nodded in contemplation.
’The descendant... of a distant relative of a distant relative?’
The man, Senior Brother Zhang, furrowed his brow, mulling over this tongue-twister of a relationship in his mind.
’Lord Zhou Xiong has been upright and impartial his entire life. He’s incorruptible. That’s precisely why it’s impossible for him to go to such lengths for a genius with no connection to him.’
’But on the other hand, it’s also because he has been selfless his whole life, never once thinking of himself. So in his later years, out of a sliver of sentiment for his family line, he might want to provide some care and compensation within his means for his only possible living descendant, however many generations removed...’
Senior Brother Zhang found himself sighing.
The other instructors also came to their senses and began to chime in.
"So that’s how it is!"
"No wonder."
"So he’s a distant relative of Lord Zhou Xiong."
A glint flashed in the instructors’ eyes.
They all understood.
After all, everyone knew that Lord Zhou Xiong’s home planet, located in a remote star system of the Empire, had been ravaged by a war with the Alien Race ten thousand years ago. The entire planet was ultimately wiped out.
Zhou Xiong’s journey from the Star Realm Army, to finishing his service, to wandering the stars and gradually becoming a Black Hole Level Powerhouse—it was a widely-told story, one that all of them, as Constant Star-level Powerhouses, were familiar with.
The reason Yu Han would rather fabricate such a flimsy lie than tell the truth was simple.
The truth could not be spoken!
Speaking it would attract the prying eyes of the Evil Gods!
’The Emperor’s Chosen!’
’Qin Feng is the Emperor’s Chosen!’
If this secret were to leak, the resulting shockwave would far surpass the outcome of a mere freshman tournament.
The instructors all understood.
They shared a tacit understanding and asked no more questions on the matter.
"Sigh."
Yu Han let out a sigh.
He hadn’t wanted to hint at this to the instructors, but an image resurfaced in his mind: the day Qin Feng was purifying the pirate camp and was targeted by that foul, tyrannical Will from Subspace.
—The God of Slaughter.
Simply by revealing an endless killing Intent, he had attracted the covetous gaze of that Blood God.
If Qin Feng caused any more trouble, those omnipresent, greedy, and malevolent gazes wandering the Subspace Dimension would instantly cross the endless Star Sea to focus on him.
At that point, it wouldn’t be just the God of Slaughter who came knocking.
Instead, it would be all four great Evil Gods, gathered as one!
Just imagining that scene made his scalp tingle and sent a chill down his spine.
’If he really becomes the chosen of four gods, won’t he just be torn apart?’
’Wouldn’t Lord Zhou Xiong beat me to death?’
Yu Han felt that with his strength alone, he probably couldn’t protect Qin Feng.
That was why he had hinted at the situation to the dozens of instructors present.
Of course, the instructors at Canaan Star Martial Arts University were all trustworthy individuals—Constant Star-level Powerhouses with resolute Wills who had served the Empire for over ten thousand years.
Yu Han’s hint had not been misplaced.
The instructors understood his meaning and began to pay closer attention, dedicating a sliver of their focus to watching over Qin Feng.
-----------------
The final champion of the Level 6 "Soaring Realm" division was decided in a world-shaking duel of Mental Power. With that, the decennial grand event—which had lasted a full week and captivated the hearts of hundreds of millions of students and teachers at Canaan Star Martial Arts University—finally, slowly, drew to a close.
The massive Energy Dome of the Glory Colosseum returned to its simulated blue sky and white clouds.
The clamor, the fervor, the fierce battles, the roaring crowds... everything subsided, like a receding tide.
「That night.」
Activity on Canaan Star Martial Arts University’s private forums was several times higher than it had been during the competition!
The Level 4 Martial Artist section of the forums was completely dominated by two words: "Qin Feng."
A single glance at the hot topics list showed that eight of the top ten posts were about him.
All sorts of posts, filled with shock and hyperbole, sprang up like mushrooms after a rain, refreshing at a dizzying speed.
[HOT #1: The Ultimate Deep-Dive Analysis! From 0 to 1000, How the ’Uncrowned King,’ Qin Feng, Walked a Century-Long Path in Ten Years and Airdropped onto the ’Hidden Dragon Leaderboard’!]
This long-form analysis, personally written by the forum’s most famous "Data Emperor"—"Keyboard Martial God"—surpassed three hundred million views and a million replies in less than an hour.
The post meticulously listed every single one of his seemingly insignificant improvements from public records.
This was followed by a frame-by-frame, slow-motion analysis of his four "Control Realm" killing techniques.
From the swiftness of [Flowing Light Chasing Shadow] to the weight of [Thousand Soldiers Guarding], from the restrained explosive power of [Hidden Dragon] to the earth-shattering, mid-battle breakthrough of [Wind and Thunder Chasing Shadow] during his battle with Xiao Beichen!
Every single killing move was dissected in depth by "Keyboard Martial God" using the most professional terminology.
And the end of the post was a word-for-word interpretation of that "Hidden Dragon Leaderboard" analysis report that had detonated the entire arena.
Focusing especially on the "Starry Sky Giant Beast" potential level, the author cited over a hundred ancient texts about Starry Sky Giant Beasts and public papers from the Imperial Institute of Biology, ultimately reaching a conclusion that made everyone’s scalp tingle: