This chapter has been brought to you by me and WanderingGummiOfDoom.

Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty Eight – Public Challenge

“Have you gone to see the Wasteland Beast Chessboard?” a student excitedly asked his cla.s.smate.

Another student hurriedly took up the topic. “Of course, how can I miss it? They are really strong! They say it is a very young yao. I wonder which yao art house this monster came from.”

“There are yao beyond yao, bro!” Student A said emotionally.

“Right? I had a.s.sumed before that all the geniuses were part of the Genius Alliance. Didn’t think there would be people outside.” Student B felt it was slightly impossible to believe.

“Ha, I’ve long found that group of lily-white faces an eyesore. They take away all the girls based on their strength, and leave us with nothing. A hero finally comes down from the Heavens. Hero! He definitely has to strike a blow against their arrogant aura and save all of us!” Student A spread out his arms and shouted.

At the side, a snort suddenly came. “Delusional!”

Student A was enraged and suddenly turned around his face. However, he instantly faltered when he saw who had come. He dejectedly pulled Student B and fled.

Mu Wu Shang disdainfully stared at the two fleeing figures, but a shadow came over his mood. His steps grew slightly faster. He quickly reached the lecture room. When he stepped into the room, a wave of noise blew into his face. He unconsciously frowned.

The terms of prison-breaking battle, and Wasteland Beast Chessboard continuously appeared. His mood became even more terrible. He noticed that when some students saw him, they purposefully increased their volume and made expressions in secret.

Mu Wu Shang unconsciously clenched his fists. He snorted coldly, turned and walked out of the lecture room.

“Che, what Genius Alliance, that is a true genius … …”

“Yes, yes … …”

The sounds of discussion behind him burrowed into his ears. His face was blackened.

In a depressed mood, Mu Wu Shang flew to Daytime Peak. Right now, it was cla.s.s time and there were not many people on Daytime Peak. Standing on the six thousand chi Daytime Peak, he looked into the distance. Mu Wu Shang’s depressed mood instantly eased greatly.

“Haha, I guess you were here.” A familiar voice came from behind him.

Without needing to turn his head, Wu Mu Shang knew who had come. Jin Ling, his best friend from childhood. The two were from large clans, and had close relations. The two of them had played together from very young and could be considered childhood sweethearts. However, the two of them had developed a platonic friends.h.i.+p, and were like siblings rather than the more intimate relations.h.i.+p their parents wanted.

“Why concern yourself with these people.” Jin Ling urged, “It seems that we suppress them too much usually.”

Mu Wu Shang did not speak, but his heart eased.

There were two members of Genius Alliance in Bright Might Yao Art House, one was Mu Wu Shang, the other was Jin Ling. Genius Alliance was a loose organization among students. It was established  four hundred years ago and was created by the twelve top genius students from the many yao art houses of the yao world.

The Genius Alliance only recruited those with outstanding students. After developing for more than four centuries, the influence of Genius Alliance was much greater than it started with. In four centuries, each generation’s alliance leader of the Genius Alliance was the undoubted leader of their generation of students. When these geniuses finished their schooling, if they would enter the important systems of the yao world or they were managing major areas. In its four century history, nine Sky Yao had appeared among their numbers. This was almost seven-tenths of the Sky Yao that had appeared over this four century period.

Each student thought it an honour to enter the Genius Alliance, and the scheduled exchanges inside the alliance was fatally attractive to these people who were cultivating maniacs.

If they could enter the Genius Alliance, they would definitely have a bright future.

However, these great talents also garnered much ire. On one hand, due to thinking highly of themselves, they were very brazen in their actions, and naturally did not attract favor. On the other hand, the elders that had already left the Genius Alliance liked to take care of their younger juniors in the Genius Alliance. This meant that the Genius Alliance was given a great amount of resources, and caused many yao to feel it was unfair.

The reason that this prison-breaking battle was related to the Genius Alliance was that the Genius Alliance had been planning on a prison-breaking battle recently. They were used to being high-profile and so this plan had been made public early on so everyone knew.

But at this time, the sudden prison-breaking battle that appeared caused the Genius Alliance’s position to be very awkward. Those students that disliked the Genius Alliance before were naturally happy. The Genius Alliance that had never been in a reactive position before finally tasted what it was like to be roasted on a fire.

However, these young geniuses were all very proud. How could they swallow this?

Mu Wu Shang was also the same.

Jin Ling’s tone was light, but she also had a fire suppressed inside.

Suddenly, the spirit imprint on Mu Wu Shang’s arm lit up. Mu Wu Shang noticed the “Ancient” character inside the light, and a blush came onto his black face. His eyes became excited.

A ball of light floated from the spirit imprint and a face that they were very familiar with showed up. He said excitedly, “Great, both of you are here. Saves me from making another trip. Quick, come to the Wasteland Beast Chessboard now!”

Mu Wu Shang and Jing Ling exchanged looks. They were excited. The Alliance was going to act!

The two did not waste words and instantly stood to fly with their greatest speed to the cultivation seclusion rooms. The two each rented a seclusion room, and entered the Wasteland Beast Chessboard. They quickly found the Alliance.

Forty six yao.

Mu Wu Shang and Jin Ling were all greatly shocked, and then they immediately became excited. It was possible to see how much the Alliance prioritized this matter when so many alliance members were present. When they saw the youth that looked very honest at the front, they couldn’t help but become excited again.

He had an very interesting name, Huai Boy. He was one of the supervisors of the Genius Alliance. Those that had roles inside the Genius Alliance were those that were very powerful, more powerful than normal members.

Huai Boy’s appearance was very normal. He always had a smile on his face, appeared to be harmless, and honest. But today, the smile on Huai Boy’s smile disappeared. The narrowed eyes were lit up.

“Just received news that the master of the Wasteland Beast Chessboard has challenged us directly!”

Mu Wu Shang’s excited expression froze on his face. He looked dazedly at Huai Boy, his mouth gaping. The other student members all had shocked and disbelieving faces.

Challenging the Genius Alliance!

Was this guy crazy?

“This has already been broadcasted by all the major yao channels.”

“We do not know if someone is scheming and pus.h.i.+ng their agenda from the shadows, or if it is the person’s challenge. But this is not important.”

“Because we will use reality to tell everyone that doubts us.”

“Who is truly the geniuses!”

———

Like usual, Nan Yue entered the Wasteland Beast Chessboard.

However, today seemed … …

She looked strangely at the surrounding yao. She noticed that they all seemed to be very excited. Has something major happened?

Did someone activate the prison breaking battle again? She shook her head and smiled, and felt amused that she would have such an absurd thought.

“I heard that the Genius Alliance are coming to break the Wasteland Beast Chessboard!”

This sentence burrowed into Nan Yue’s ears. Nan Yue shook and felt a basin of cold water had been poured over her head. What? Genius Alliance wanted to break Daren’s Wasteland Beast Chessboard? She focused and listened closely.

“Ah? Why is Genius Alliance at odds with the Wasteland Beast Chessboard? I remember now. They seemed to have said they were going to break a prison before. Had their goal also been Vast Water Clear Skies?”

“Ha, you definitely do not know. The one making the challenge is the mystery person!”

“Mystery person? The owner of the Wasteland Beast Chessboard?”

“Just that one! Go watch the news, they’re broadcasting it everywhere.”

Nan Yue wasn’t in the mood to cultivate and immediately left the Wasteland Beast Chessboard. Her room was just four walls, where would she have the yao news tree? She hurriedly put on an outer garment, pushed open the door and flew up. She recalled that the center of the city had an enormous yao news tree.

She saw the yao news tree that reached up to the clouds from a long way off, and adjusted her direction to fly towards it.

This yao news tree was the largest of the three closest cities. The enormous crown of the tree was like a small mountain with innumerable forts. Countless vines drooped down from the tree branches and were heavy with pod-like fruits.

Yao filled all of the yao news tree.

Nan Yue picked a place with few people and landed. When she just steadied her body, her consciousness wrapped on a thin vine in front of her.

With a pop, the fruit of the yao news tree exploded and turned to a multi-coloured mist.

The rainbow mist quickly changed and became a beautiful female yao. The female yao’s expression was very excited, and spoke very quickly.

“The mystery young expert that just finished the prison breaking battle and reconstructed the Wasteland Beast Chessboard has publicly challenged the Genius Alliance. We are now doing a special report about this matter. Up until now, the Genius Alliance has not made any formal statements about this matter, and the new master of the Wasteland Beast Chessboard has not been seen. However, this matter is definitely not unsubstantiated. Maybe we will soon see a spectacular struggle … …”

Nan Yue’s head rang.

Impossible! This was impossible!

Daren definitely would not challenge the Genius Alliance!

This thought was so strong that Nan Yue did not doubt it. She had not spent much time with Daren, but she did not feel that Daren, from any perspective, would be such an arrogant and impulsive yao.

There definitely was someone spreading fake information!

Nan Yue was not dumb and instantly understood. However, her expression did not turn for the better but became even worse. No one was ignorant of the power of the Genius Alliance!

Almost all yao knew what those geniuses were like. Regardless of whether this information was real, with the conduct of the Genius Alliance, they definitely would not rest!

Why was it like this … …

———

“s.h.i.+xiong, move faster,” Gongsun Cha said, unsatisfied.

In the fiendish mist, Zuo Mo’s face instantly fell. After absorbing the soul base source of the fiend souls, Gongsun Cha’s speed had increased which caused Zuo Mo’s “fis.h.i.+ng” to be unable to keep up.

Zuo Mo was discontent. “So noisy! It’s good that you even have something to eat!”

Tenth Grade flew up and down at the side, his little face slightly distressed.

“No, s.h.i.+xiong, you have to be responsible for satiation since you are responsible for the food!” Gongsun Cha’s face was rascally.

The corner of Zuo Mo’s eyes twitched. He forcibly suppressed the impulse to kick Gongsun Cha away. Suddenly, his gaze focused and he stopped all movement. Raising his face, he looked towards the deeper parts of the fiendish mist.

Sword essence!

Translator Ramblings: More about yao society beyond what Pu Yao has shown since he was gone for these “modern developments.”