253: Apart from those two, the rest are all garbage!

Upon the platform, divine flames swirled.

Luo Tianfei's proud Phoenix-like eyes stared fixedly at Lu Sheng, her chest heaving violently, clearly incensed.

She had fought with everything she had to climb up here, only for this bastard to have an annoying expression that said, "I've been waiting for you for ages." It was more mentally taxing than the pressure of the Ascension Road itself.

“Hahaha! Good girl!”

Elder Xing Tian was delighted to find such talent. His bell-like eyes gleamed as he raised his palm, as large as a cattail leaf fan, intending to clap Luo Tianfei’s seemingly delicate shoulder. “The Undying Divine Phoenix Bloodline! Powerful! Follow old Xing from now on, and I guarantee you’ll walk tall in the True Sea!”

“Xing Tian, stop.”

A calm but unquestionable voice rang out.

Li Xiaoyao swept his wide sleeve, and an invisible soft force caught Xing Tian's wrist. He glared at the brute with annoyance. “That is a Divine Phoenix, not one of your thick-skinned disciples or grand-disciples. Can you afford to pay for it if you break her? Mind your decorum as an Elder!”

Xing Tian sheepishly withdrew his hand, rubbed his red-bearded chin, and muttered, “I was just excited. Good grief, what day is it today? First a True Dragon, then a Phoenix. Since when did Divine Beast Bloodlines become as common as wholesale cabbage?”

Wholesale?

Luo Tianfei's lips twitched slightly. Her rising fury was stifled by this "rustic" description.

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to maintain a cold and aloof posture. She gave a slight nod to the three Elders as a greeting, then remained silent, quietly standing three meters away from Lu Sheng—a distance she considered safe.

Buzz—!

Just then, the white jade stairs below the platform trembled again.

The time limit for the Ascension Road had expired.

There was no world-shaking phenomenon like Lu Sheng’s, nor the brilliant divine fire of Luo Tianfei.

With a dense flicker of teleportation light, several hundred people appeared out of thin air on the massive white jade plaza.

Nine hundred and seventy-eight survivors.

The state of these people could only be described as tragic.

Some were missing arms, using spirit source to seal their wounds; some were covered in blood, their armor shredded into rags; there were even a few being carried up by companions, breathing more out than in.

But without exception, those who survived had faces filled with frantic joy and insufferable pride.

“I made it! I actually made it!”

“Hahaha! The Ascension Road is nothing more than this! I am the Child of Destiny!”

“The spot is mine! There will surely be a place for me in the future of the True Sea!”

The noisy cheers instantly shattered the silence of the plaza.

They supported one another, their eyes fervently scanning their surroundings. When their gazes swept over Lu Sheng and Luo Tianfei standing at the very front, although they still held a degree of awe, that awe now contained a subtle change.

It was an inflated sense of "I am standing here too."

In their eyes, although Lu Sheng was ridiculously strong and Luo Tianfei’s Bloodline was Heaven-Defying, everyone was now standing on the same platform and had passed the trial.

What did this mean?

It meant they were all Prodigies of the same caliber!

A young Sword Cultivator from a Grotto-Heaven wiped the blood from his face and straightened his back. He looked at Lu Sheng with burning eyes, thinking to himself: “Since I could also reach the top, it shows this Ascension Road isn't insurmountable. As long as I'm given resources, I might not be unable to catch up to this monster's footsteps!”

This kind of thinking spread through the crowd like a virus.

Lu Sheng watched these self-important "Prodigies" with cold eyes.

A playful arc curled at the corner of his mouth as he couldn't help but complain internally: “Do these guys have some kind of misunderstanding about themselves?”

“They got a perfect score because the test only had that many points; I got a perfect score because the test only went up that high.”

“Silence.”

The moment Li Xiaoyao turned to face the crowd, the kind smile he had shown Lu Sheng vanished without a trace.

In its place was a face as cold and hard as ten-thousand-year-old ice.

He stood with his hands behind his back. No world-shaking Aura erupted from him, but the moment those two words were uttered, the plaza that had been as noisy as a wet market suddenly became as silent as a choked duck.

“Look at yourselves now.”

Li Xiaoyao’s gaze was like a blade, sweeping over these self-important survivors one by one. His voice was flat, but every word pierced their hearts.

“Disheveled clothes, unstable Qi, and turbulent Divine Souls.”

“It was just climbing some stairs, yet you were reduced to such a pathetic state? And you even have the face to stand here feeling smug?”

Li Xiaoyao let out a cold laugh, one filled with undisguised contempt.

“Put away your ridiculous pride.”

“In my eyes, except for those two...” He pointed at Lu Sheng and Luo Tianfei, “All the rest of you are—trash.”

Boom!

These words were like a bucket of ice water poured into a vat of boiling oil.

The faces of all nine hundred and seventy-eight experts instantly turned the color of pig liver.

Humiliation!

This was blatant humiliation!

They had all fought through a narrow escape to get here; why should they take this?

A suppressed rage quietly brewed within the crowd.

On the white jade plaza, the sea breeze howled.

Li Xiaoyao's word, "trash," echoed in the air, lingering for a long time.

For these Geniuses who ruled their respective sea regions and were normally placed on pedestals by countless people, this sentence was more painful than being killed.

“Elder, those words are incorrect!”

Within the crowd, a Drowned One youth wearing magnificent blue-scaled battle armor suddenly took a step forward.

He had an extraordinary appearance, and although his Qi was heavily depleted from the climb, he still possessed the foundation of a tenth level expert.

He was the Prince of North Sea City, a well-known figure even in the Dragon Country sea region.

He looked directly at Li Xiaoyao, his eyes full of defiance. “I am the Prince of North Sea City, commanding an army of a million Drowned Ones, with peerless talent! Even if I am not equal to those two in the extreme realm, I am certainly not trash! We fought to the death to reach the top for the future of the Drowning Clan. Does the Elder not feel that treating us with such contempt will chill the hearts of the people?!”

“Exactly! We got here on our own merit!”

“A tenth level expert cannot be insulted!”

With someone leading the way, a chorus of agreement immediately rose from the crowd.

Lu Sheng raised an eyebrow, looking at the impassioned North Sea Prince as if he were watching a fool about to perform a sword-swallowing act.

Trying to reason with an old monster who had lived for hundreds of years?

This guy's brain probably hadn't finished draining the water it took in.

“Chill the hearts?”

Li Xiaoyao looked as if he had heard a massive joke. He didn't get angry, but simply made a light stroke against the Void Realm.

Sizzle—!

A massive light screen appeared out of thin air.

In the image was a vast and boundless deep sea region—the depths of the actual "True Sea."

There, giant waves reached the sky, each one containing terrifying power sufficient to shatter mountains.

And on this violent sea surface, several figures were engaged in a life-and-death struggle.

Someone crossed the Void Realm with their Physical Body, a casual punch tearing pitch-black cracks into space.

Someone spoke True Words, their words becoming law, a single character suppressing and killing ten thousand hundred-meter sea beasts.

There was even one who transformed into a ten-thousand-foot Dharma Image, covering the sky with a single hand and uprooting an entire island!

That level of power completely exceeded the limits of everyone present's understanding!

PS: Thanks to Roland, who loves eating chicken juice fried rice, for the Inspiration Capsule. Here is an extra update!!