(Thanks to Janosch and many others who donated gifts; they sponsored this chapter.)
Wang Wei scanned Xiao Tiandi's body with his Divine Sense and almost smacked his lips. He could feel a terrifying power preventing anyone from accessing Xiao Tiandi's physique. The power protected his blood and even his hair and teeth.
Ignoring the latter's attempt to get rid of his seal, Wang Wei looked at Lord Spirit, who happily announced he was the winner. Finally, Wang Wei released Xiao Tiandi from his grip.
As the winner of this battle, he won a great deal of Destiny–even more than he anticipated. Furthermore, Wang Wei could feel that a vision was about to appear due to his Innate Paragon Soul defeating the Innate Dao Source Physique.
He quickly calculated that it was one of the reasons he acquired so much destiny from Xiao Tiandi. Nevertheless, this was unimportant since he did not want the vision to appear as it could reveal his soul.
So, he quickly denied its appearance. He could sense some odd gaze from Lord Spirit, but he did not look back or explain anything. Instead, he looked directly into Xiao Tiandi's eyes and said:
"I know why I dislike you. You reek of laziness and depression. Despite having supposedly the greatest talent for cultivation, your Willpower is so weak that it's pitiful."
"You know nothing about me," roared Xiao Tiandi. "So, don't act as if you do."
"I don't need to know anything about you to know you seem to have given up."
"Shut up," he roared again, this time even louder as his voice echoed throughout the entire miniature world.
"Do you know what I've been through? Do you know how much I suffer, how much pressure I'm under," Xiao Tiandi replied with clenched hands.
"Before I started cultivating, life was beautiful. I was born with the most remarkable talent under Heaven and Earth, making everyone in my family proud and looking forward to my future.
"I was lucky to meet my master, who cared for and protected me; she was the only one who saw the real me, not the Xiao Tiandi with the Innate Dao Source Physique.
"However, everything changed when I began my cultivation journey and learned about the world. My talent was not a gift–it was a curse. Every time I made progress, every time I made an achievement, every time my reputation soared, I could feel it:
"The gaze of the 2 Suns and 7 Moons. And it was not a friendly gaze. They saw me as nothing but a nuisance, a problem that had to be dealt with eventually. They saw me as an eventual threat to their reign."
"So, in response, you made yourself smaller to not get their attention? You wasted your potential by wailing in self-pity, cursing at unfair the world was?" asked Wang with a sneer and great disdain.
He finally understood why Xiao Tiandi did not even attempt the Nine Extremity Foundation or even try cultivating an Outlaw Dao. Wang Wei guessed this was the excuse he used to not even enter the Duyi Realm since he could not sense its power on the latter.
"I had no choice," quickly replied Xiao Tiandi, his voice raised to the point of roaring again.
"This was the only way to survive and protect me, my family, and my master. I had to look unthreatened to them; I had to waste my potential."
Wang Wei looked down at the other upper seeded-players. He could sense fear, frustration, and unwillingness in Shi Ruolan and Xi Shangyan. Even Ao Tianyi–who managed to regain some bearing–felt some emotions similar to this.
Meanwhile, Zhang Yucheng gloated despite his face looking peaceful and normal, and Monk Wuzhi lowered his head, showing shame and regret.
"I finally understand why the upper and lower dimension is separated," Wang Wei said calmly. "In the Endless Void, there can only be 3000 Great Emperors in each generation. Ans quintillion upon quintillion of races competes for these spots.
"And usually, only the best of the best gets to sit on the throne. Only the best have a chance at achieving eternity and escaping the shackles of death.
"Meanwhile, Heaven Wills is probably so common on the upper dimension that you treat it as an ordinary resource. With this mindset, without the pressure to be the absolute best, without the threat of death, the Emperors you cultivate are ordinary, weak, underachievers, complacent, and weak-willed.
"Unfortunately, that zeitgeist has been passed down to you, the younger generation."
"What are you trying to say?" asked Xiao Tiandi with gritted teeth.
"I bet there is a revolution against the so-called 2 Suns and 7 Moons you mentioned, and the main lead of it are the Emperors from the lower dimension, am I right?"
Xiao Tiandi did not answer, so Wang Wei sneered before continuing:
"These people know their struggle is futile, but they never give up. Even if they knew there was no hope, no future, and even if they knew they would suffer terrible consequences for their actions, they did not give up on trying to break the current situation.
"But you gave up. No, even worse, you didn't even try."
The sneer on Wang Wei's face was simply disgusting to look at at this point. And he had his reason to despise Xiao Tiandi so much. The moment he learned about these 7 parasites, and even the other two who might have surpassed the Paragon Realm, he did not give up.
Instead, he began to plan out how he would deal with the situation and find a way to break the game. His current words and actions were part of his plan. He wanted to instill the idea of rebellion into these people, hoping they could make some changes when they returned.
As such, when he ascended, he would have allies and did not have to start from scratch. Even if these geniuses did not publicly revolt, his plan would succeed as long as they secretly supported the rebellion.
And his target was also the lower dimension geniuses as they were potential allies after they proved the Dao and ascended to the Eternal Ascension World.
The only issue was his words would bring more attention to himself from these parasites. However, after calculating the pros and cons of the current situation, Wang Wei decided the risks were worth it.
"You don't understand," yelled Xiao Tiandi, his voice full of despair. "I had to protect my master."
"Did she ask you to protect her, or was that one of your many excuses?"
Xu Jinyao was the most beautiful woman in the Eternal Ascension World. Wang Wei did not believe for a second that one of the parasites did desire her beauty for herself. But from what he knew from Ao Tianyi's memory, she was perfectly fine and still had no partners.
As such, he knew she must have her ways of protecting herself.
"You ignorant fool. You have no idea the power they have. You cannot fathom the difference in power between Tier 12 and 11. Paragons reign supreme; they are almighty."
Wang Wei internally sighed as he could sense the other upper seeded-players agreed with this sentiment; he could tell these kids were brainwashed to believe such a thing.
Meanwhile, with a quick check of the lower seeded players, he could sense they were all sneering–some openly while most were secret. To these people who had to fight their entire life to sit on the throne, they would never let anyone stay in their way to power.
And many of them would rather die than bend their heads to give in to any authoritarian figures. They will respect powerhouses but never cower in fear before them.
"That may be true," replied Wang Wei. "But there are many ways to fight a war. Is the enemy too powerful? Okay, I'll hide and cultivate until I reach the same height as them.
"The solution is not working? Alright, I'll leave to search for allies that could deal with my enemy–even if this meant I could be inviting a wolf into the nest.
"Anything is better than just giving up and accepting my fate."
"You don't understand, you don't understand," Xiao Tiandi repeated nonstop. Wang Wei looked at him intensely, sensing the agitated mood he emitted.
"Whatever. I'm done wasting my breath with a weak Will individual like yourself."
Wang Wei shook his head before sighing.
"The Heavens is truly blind to give someone like you such a powerful physique," he said before flying back to his seat. Many people nodded in agreement with him. They could see despite how strong Xiao Tiandi was, he was a person with a terrible state of mind and a weak Dao Heart.
His current state was barely enough to bear the Heaven Will, and a tiny change could lead to him becoming a Pseudo Emperor.
"Hehem," softly coughed Lord Spirit, trying to look as if he did not just hear things that would be considered blasphemy in the upper dimension.
"The combat aspect of the trial is officially finished. We will regroup a few days from now for the final competition."
'This Lord Spirit did not even care about points for the combat aspect of this trial. So, what are the criteria he is using to choose the final inheritor?' thought Wang Wei with squinted eyes.
He then gazed at Zhang Yucheng, who was secretly fuming and trying his best to hide his intense killing desire. Without saying anything more, he flew to his mansion before leaving a secret message to someone through Divine Sense.
'Come see me. I have something important to give you."
