Chapter 14: The Genius Tournament? Wouldn’t That Mean a Lot of Top-Tier Traits?

He did not say any of this to Mu Xiying, of course. After all, in her eyes, his strength was still rather weak. If he said it outright, she would probably think he was joking.

“I’ll sneak over when the time comes. Then, once the finals begin, I’ll give Mu Xiying a surprise!”

With that thought, Xiao Xuan made up his mind.

“Come eat first.”

Mu Xiying’s voice interrupted Xiao Xuan’s train of thought.

The two of them headed to the dining room.

But at the table, Mu Long and his wife kept sweeping their gazes back and forth between Xiao Xuan and Mu Xiying.

Mu Xiying simply ate in silence and paid no attention to her parents.

As for Xiao Xuan, he was getting rather speechless from being stared at.

“Uncle Mu, why are you two staring at us like that? Aren’t you going to eat breakfast?”

In the end, Xiao Xuan could not hold back any longer.

“It’s nothing. I just wanted to ask...”

Mu Long was just about to speak.

“Nothing, nothing! Ying’er just came back, so we wanted to look at her a little more. We haven’t seen her for a year, and Ying’er has gotten thinner!”

Su Qian hurriedly cut her husband off.

Mu Xiying’s hand paused slightly as she ate.

She looked toward her parents as well. Seeing those familiar faces, her eyes gradually reddened for reasons she herself could not quite explain.

If she had not returned this time, she might not even have seen her parents one last time.

“Xiaoying, what’s wrong? Why are your eyes red? Did something spicy get in them?”

Su Qian noticed something was off with her daughter and hurriedly asked.

“Yes, it is a little spicy.”

Mu Xiying quickly lowered her head.

At the same time, her face reddened a little as well. She was an Empress who had ruled Earth for thousands of years, yet she had nearly cried just now. If those human experts who followed her in later ages ever found out, where would she put her pride?

And no one doubted her explanation.

After all, no one would ever suspect that Mu Xiying, who had never cried, would suddenly cry.

“Mom, Dad, I’m going out for a few days. I probably won’t be coming back. I’ll just head straight to school afterward.”

After finishing her meal, Mu Xiying left behind a single sentence and rose to her feet.

“What? You only came back yesterday. Why are you leaving again already?”

Su Qian immediately grew anxious.

“Aunt Su, Huaxia’s Hundred-Province Genius Tournament is about to begin. Sister Ying is going to take part in it. If she places in the top hundred, she’ll be able to enter Imperial Capital University!”

Xiao Xuan quickly explained.

“What? Imperial Capital University?!”

The moment Mu Long heard those words, he shot to his feet in shock.

Imperial Capital University was not something that Tsinghua or Peking University from the twenty-first century could even begin to compare with.

How many people had existed on Earth back then?

And how many people were there on Earth now?

Now, even the smallest province had a total population hundreds of times greater than the entire Earth of old.

And yet, from the combined genius pools of all those hundreds of provinces, Imperial Capital University only selected one thousand students per year!

Its prestige was simply unmatched. Anyone who graduated from Imperial Capital University would reach at least the Martial Emperor level in the future, or even higher!

“Should your mother and I go with you?”

Su Qian hurriedly asked.

“There’s no need, Mom, Dad. I’m not a child anymore. Oh, right. This is some of the money I earned refining pills at university. Dad, don’t go outside the city for the next few months.”

Mu Xiying seemed to remember something. Then she casually swiped across her Smartwatch.

Very soon, a transfer of ten million was sent directly into Mu Long’s account.

“Ten million? Xiaoying, that’s too much. You still need money yourself in your daily—”

Mu Long hurriedly tried to refuse.

“Take it!”

Yet Mu Xiying’s single sentence made Mu Long shrink his neck at once, not daring to say another word.

When Xiao Xuan saw this, he could not help laughing.

Looking at Mu Long like this, anyone would think he was the son instead.

“You little brat! What are you laughing at?”

In the next moment, Mu Long shot Xiao Xuan a glare.

“Nothing. I just thought of something funny.”

Xiao Xuan quickly shook his head, but the smile on his face still would not go away.

“That’s all. I’m leaving.”

After saying that, Mu Xiying turned and walked straight toward the balcony.

“Xiaoying, that isn’t the door—”

Su Qian was instantly baffled. For a moment, she even thought that after being away from home for a year, her daughter had forgotten where the front door was.

But who would have thought that the moment Mu Xiying reached the balcony, she would jump straight down?

“BOOM!!!”

In the next instant, golden flames erupted from Mu Xiying’s entire body, and she shot off into the distance at high speed!

That sight made Mu Long’s eyes widen in utter disbelief.

“Flying? Xiaoying can fly? Has she reached the Grandmaster Realm?”

Mu Long cried out in shock.

“What? Grandmaster level? Isn’t that equivalent to a Fourth-Tier Ferocious Beast? Since when did Xiaoying become this powerful?”

Su Qian was stunned as well.

“Uncle Mu, you didn’t know? Last night, that mysterious expert who killed the Great Grandmaster-level Fifth-Tier Ferocious Beast was Sister Ying!”

Xiao Xuan smiled as he explained.

Since Mu Xiying had already displayed her immense strength in front of her parents, then naturally she did not mind letting them know about it.

Besides, Mu Xiying had not concealed anything during last night’s battle.

She was probably not afraid of her strength being exposed.

Or perhaps, the power she showed last night had not even been her full strength, only the tip of the iceberg.

But the moment those words left Xiao Xuan’s mouth, Mu Long and Su Qian both stared with their eyes wide open in utter disbelief.

For a while, neither of them could say a word.

…………

…………

After Mu Xiying left, Xiao Xuan first returned to his room and searched for information about the Hundred-Province Genius Tournament.

Top-tier events like this were never broadcast, so they were not widely known.

Only people qualified to come into contact with them would pay attention.

That did not mean they could not be found, however.

Very soon, Xiao Xuan learned the rough details of the tournament.

As long as one had not yet graduated from university, one could participate no matter their age.

Of course, the older the participant, the lower the relative difficulty. After all, they had had more years for their talents to awaken and more time for their strength to grow.

As long as one made it into the top hundred of the competition, one would qualify to transfer into Imperial Capital University.

However, in this era, university lasted a full ten years.

That meant the oldest participants were already twenty-eight.

Among those twenty-eight-year-old geniuses, many who had awakened several Silver Traits, or even Gold Traits, had already reached the Great Grandmaster Realm!

In fact, in several past tournaments, there had even been Martial King-level contestants.

And once one reached the Martial King level, that was an entirely new realm.

“Damn, this challenge really isn’t ordinary! To make it into the top hundred, you’d need at least the strength to fight Great Grandmaster-level experts who possess at least two or three Silver Traits!”

Even Xiao Xuan could not help marveling.

He had only just reached the Innate Realm. He was not even in the Grandmaster Realm yet, much less the Great Grandmaster Realm!

“If just the Hundred-Province Genius Tournament is already this insane, then how powerful are the Heaven Ranking geniuses of Imperial Capital University?”

Then Xiao Xuan remembered that point as well.

The Heaven Ranking was the list of the top one hundred students selected from the finest geniuses across all of Huaxia over an entire ten-year university cycle.

One could say that they were the hundred people with the greatest talent and strength in the entire Huaxia student generation.

Even the strongest champions in the history of the Hundred-Province Genius Tournament had only barely touched the threshold of the Heaven Ranking.

“But then again, if the challenge is this difficult, doesn’t that also mean there’ll be a huge number of geniuses taking part? And if that happens, won’t I be able to get a huge number of top-tier Traits?

If even a few Silver or Gold Traits drop at random, won’t I strike it rich?”

The moment Xiao Xuan thought of that, he became excited.

I’m doing it! If I don’t go, I’ll regret it for sure!!

“But I don’t have any money!”

Suddenly, Xiao Xuan felt a headache coming on.

It was not cheap to go to the Imperial Capital. The plane ticket alone would cost three or four million!

That was right—three or four million.

An ordinary person would never earn that much in their entire life!

The main reason was that, in this era, going to the Imperial Capital was not a matter of traveling a few thousand kilometers, but tens of millions of kilometers.

And one had to go to the provincial capital first, then transfer to another flight after arriving there.

That was also the main reason Mu Xiying had to leave now.

Suddenly, Xiao Xuan thought of something.

“Right... can I sell the cultivation arts Mu Xiying gave me?”