"Three hours until arrival. At my current cultivation speed, I’m gaining 25,000 Soul points per minute. That’s 1.5 million an hour," Lance calcuted. "In three hours, I’ll only rack up 4.5 million. It’s still not quite enough to break through into the Great Grandmaster Realm."

  Lance’s brow furrowed slightly.

  During the hour it took to return, he had already boosted his Soul points by 1.5 million, bringing his current total to 4.6 million. Even with the three hours remaining, he would only reach 9.1 million. That meant he would still be short by about half an hour of cultivation time.

  "Screw it. If I have to, I’ll just wait an extra thirty minutes before heading in," he decided.

  The choice was simple. Once he reached the Great Grandmaster Realm, his Undying God-Body and his innate w body would undergo a qualitative leap. His strength would skyrocket, and his cultivation speed would likely increase a hundredfold. At that point, it wouldn't take long to push past Great Grandmaster (Rank 0) and beyond.

  His overall combat power would see a massive surge.

  "Besides, Maya can raid the database of that Rank 9 civilization. They were on the verge of becoming a Rank 10 power—the sheer number of cultivation techniques and War Arts they possess must be staggering. I’ll probably be able to repce my entire arsenal of skills soon."

  He paused, considering his options. "But the difficulty of Rank 9 techniques is insane. Even if I found them now, I wouldn't be able to achieve even basic mastery. I’ll have to wait until I’m out of the Secret Realm. If I manage to obtain the inheritance inside, I might get my hands on Rank 10 techniques anyway, making the Rank 9 ones obsolete. For now, the best way to increase my lethality is to level up my skill masteries."

  With that settled, Lance closed his eyes and activated his Holographic Simution Space.

  As his consciousness drifted into the simution, he felt a heightened awareness of his physical state. Every fiber of his being was under his absolute control.

  Cng!

  Lance reached into the void, and a spear wreathed in bck fmes materialized in his grip.

  Then, he moved.

  Tear!

  The air shrieked as he shed out, the tip of the spear ripping through the atmosphere. He thrust and parried, raining a relentless barrage of strikes upon the empty space. With every movement, a strange, rhythmic aura began to manifest around the weapon.

  If a master warrior were present, they would have gasped in shock. This was the legendary state of "Intent."

  Lance had already reached the threshold. Previously, his spear mastery was at 90,000 proficiency points, with the cap for the next level set at 100,000. Beyond the Master level y the formidable Intent Realm. Reaching it would mean a transformative boost to his combat effectiveness.

  Time blurred as he lost himself in the dance of the spear.

  Cng!

  Suddenly, Lance unleashed a final thrust. The world around him seemed to shudder. A profound, mysterious aura flooded his senses, merging completely with his body.System Alert: You have practiced spear arts for 10 minutes! Mastery +10,000!Congratutions! Your spear skill has reached the Intent Realm (Tier 1, 0/200,000)![Tier 1 Intent]: A powerful ability mastered only by peerless geniuses. Tier 1 Intent grants a 13x multiplier to combat power. Each subsequent tier increases this multiplier by 3x. (Tier 10 Intent provides a 40x multiplier).

  Lance’s eyes brightened as the notification echoed in his mind. His explosive power had jumped from a 9x multiplier to a staggering 13x. The Intent Realm was every bit as terrifying as the legends suggested.

  "Ten minutes for 10,000 proficiency... that means it’ll take another three hours to reach Tier 2 Intent," Lance noted with a wry smile. "Both my cultivation and my skill mastery are going to take the same amount of time. I guess I really am going to be thirty minutes te."

  He shrugged it off. The stronger he was and the higher his potential, the better his chances of securing the inheritance. Without a second thought, he plunged back into his training.System Alert: You have practiced spear arts for 10 minutes! Mastery +10,000!System Alert: Cellur reconstruction active. Constitution (CON) +40,000 per minute!System Alert: Soul reconstruction active. Soul +25,000 per minute!

  The alerts chimed rhythmically in his head, a steady drumbeat marking the terrifying pace of his growth.

  Three hours passed in a fsh.

  Over those 180 minutes, Lance’s Constitution had surged by 7.2 million, and his Soul points had climbed by another 4.5 million. Simultaneously, his spear Intent had reached 180,000 proficiency.

  He was agonizingly close, but he wasn't finished yet.

  In a desote star sector choked with pnetary debris and asteroid belts, hundreds of Tier 6 starships y anchored.

  S+ rank geniuses from over three thousand intermediate human star systems had converged on this single coordinate. Since this particur trial had no age restriction—only a requirement for S+ talent—the turnout was massive. Every system had sent several candidates they had been grooming for years.

  The total count exceeded ten thousand geniuses.

  Almost every person here was a future Great Grandmaster; a lucky hundred or so might even ascend to the Pnetary Css. Had any of the four rival races decided to fire a concentrated volley into this sector, the future of the human race would have been extinguished in an instant.

  However, such an ambush was impossible.

  The human Array Sovereign had already fortified the sector with a Tier 7 Mid-Grade Array. The shimmering barrier enveloped the entire star sector. Even a Stelr Css (Rank 5) powerhouse would need hours of continuous bombardment to crack it.

  The array itself was beyond the normal capabilities of the Array Sovereign, who was currently at the peak of Tier 6. It would have taken him decades to construct a Tier 7 array from scratch. This was a "portable array," a relic discovered by the Martial Paragon in an ancient ruin and left to the Array Sovereign for the defense of the race.

  It was a trump card intended to protect the future of humanity until the Martial Paragon’s return, used only in moments of existential importance.

  The gathered geniuses waited with bated breath. They were all looking toward the direction of the Imperial Hub, waiting for the arrival of the elite of the elite: the students from the Vanguard Elite Institute.

  In the hierarchy of human talent, the students of top academies like Soris Academy were idols to most, but those students, in turn, viewed the Vanguard Elite Institute as a holy nd. Every single person there was a monster among S+ geniuses.

  Despite the wait, there were no compints. There was only excitement.

  "The Vanguard Elite Institute..." Selina murmured, standing among the contingent from Terra.

  Her expression remained cold and distant, but there was a flicker of unmistakable anticipation in her eyes. "Does that mean Lance will be there too?""Looks like someone is in love! I told you, if you had just revealed your SS-Rank talent, you could have stayed by his side every single day!"

  Sovereign Gcia’s voice echoed inside Selina’s mind.

  "No. I’ve said it before—the next time I see him, I must surpass him!"

  Selina spoke with absolute gravity, her expression firm as she responded to her teacher.

  Looking at her headstrong disciple, Sovereign Gcia felt a wave of helplessness. If she were to reveal Lance’s true strength right now, that goal would likely turn into nothing more than a pipe dream. After all, reaching the Great Grandmaster realm at the age of fifteen meant his talent was no longer just SS-Rank; it was undeniably SSS-Rank.

  Furthermore, the boy was actually cultivating a technique as ruthless as the Eternal Soul Protocol. With those two factors combined, Lance might actually reach the World Lord Css one day relying solely on his own talent.

  One had to understand that the World Lord Css was a realm Sovereign Gcia had only dreamed of reaching during her prime.

  "Fine, fine. Just work hard then. This secret realm might contain some decent treasures. From what I can see, the owner's level was at least Universal Css, perhaps even a Domain Lord. If it truly is a Domain Lord Css inheritance, you might actually have a chance of catching up to him!"

  Sovereign Gcia didn't want to discourage Selina too much, so she offered words of encouragement instead.

  "I will! I’ll give it my all!"

  Selina nodded repeatedly, completely failing to grasp the subtext in Sovereign Gcia's words. The implication was that Selina would need the inheritance of two Domain Lords just to have a chance of catching up to the current Lance.

  The sheer terror of Lance’s talent was clear to the Sovereign, but unfortunately, Selina remained blissfully unaware.

  "Buzz!!!!!"

  Suddenly, a massive ripple distorted the distant sky.

  A colossal spaceship with a staggering diameter of several thousand kilometers tore through the void, hurtling directly toward this chaotic star system. In that instant, the ten thousand human geniuses gathered there all snapped to attention.

  "It’s the ship! The High Guardians are really here!"

  "Fantastic! That means the juniors from the elite training camp have arrived too, right? I haven't been back to the institute since I graduated!"

  "I really want to meet Cyrus. I heard his swordsmanship has already reached the Master level, and he's supposed to be incredibly handsome!"

  "Hmph, Cyrus is nothing compared to Gideon. A few years ago, that guy survived an attack from a Pnetary Css powerhouse. He’s being hailed as the strongest body cultivator our race has seen in ten thousand years!"

  "By the way, didn't they say an SS-Rank genius appeared? I wonder if we’ll get to see him!"

  "So what if he’s SS-Rank? Right now, he’s probably just a Grandmaster. Any of us could defeat him."

  "That may be true for now, but there’s no doubt he’ll be the number one genius of the human race in the future!"

  The crowd was filled with S+ Rank geniuses, almost all of whom were in the Great Grandmaster realm. Many looked on with curiosity, eager to see the "super geniuses" of the Vanguard Elite Institute. Since these were all S+ talents, at least thirty percent of them had once been students at the institute themselves. To outsiders, the institute's geniuses were untouchable icons, but to this crowd, they were merely juniors.

  "Buzz!!!!!"

  With another pulse of energy, the massive ship glided into the protective range of the formation.

  "Cng!!!!!"

  The hatch slowly hissed open.

  Hundreds of geniuses cd in Vanguard Elite Institute combat suits flew out of the vessel. Leading the group was a young man in a bck combat suit with bulging, explosive muscles, and a swordsman in long white robes, surrounded by nine Tier 6 swords.

  These two were the top talents of this generation’s Vanguard Elite Institute: Cyrus and Gideon. Both had already reached the Great Grandmaster (Rank 9) realm.

  As the institute geniuses merged into the crowd and saw the many generations of seniors surrounding them, their hearts skipped a beat. Many of the older students recognized familiar faces and rushed forward to greet their former schoolmates.

  However, the mood quickly shifted as people began to notice something was wrong.

  "Wait... eight hundred and seventy-seven? Why is one missing?"

  "Where is Lance, the SS-Rank genius?"

  "He didn't come? Is he actually afraid?"

  "Don't be stupid. He’s an SS-Rank genius. If he died here, it would be a catastrophic loss for the human race. It's better that he didn't come."

  "But if a talent like that is afraid of death, how is he supposed to lead us in the future?"

  The entire assembly broke into heated hushed discussions.

  "Lance didn't come?" Selina froze, stunned.

  Lance wasn't in the crowd. Had he really stayed behind out of fear? But was Lance truly the kind of person who would be afraid?

  "That kid? Afraid?" Sovereign Gcia spoke with immediate disdain upon sensing Selina’s thoughts. "His strength might not be the absolute highest here, but he is far stronger than those youngsters."

  She knew very well that Lance possessed the power of a Great Grandmaster, and that the boy certainly didn't ck courage. Hearing her teacher's words, Selina finally felt a sense of relief.

  "Geniuses of the human race!"

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