After checking the rewards he obtained from the Stairway Tree, Lin Huang searched the entire plaza on top of the tree thoroughly. He only logged out after confirming there was nothing else there.
Just when he logged out, a couple of messages popped up on his Emperor’s Heart Ring consecutively.
In just a glance, Lin Huang saw that they were sent by people he knew. Apart from Jian Fei and the rest from the Heaven Alliance, the siblings Yi Zheng and Yi Yeyu had sent him messages too. Clearly, all of them saw the notifications sent by Stairway Tree system.
The messages were basically congratulating him for breaking through the Stairway Tree. He sent a short reply to those messages.
The sense of exhaustion only kicked in when he was done replying. It had been over 60 hours since he last slept. Because he had to kill the monsters to break the checkpoints, he was in a tensed mode all the time. Finally, he could relax now.
Lin Huang did not fight the exhaustion that overcame him. Instead, he allowed himself to fall asleep.
In his deep slumber, he had no idea that the entire Genius Union was stirred because of his feat of defeating the entire Stairway Tree.
Not only did the number of online members on the Stairway Tree break the past record, but there were also countless topics created on the Stairway Tree forum. Almost all the topics on the first ten pages on the forum were about Lin Xie’s breakthrough.
Even the forums including the Union Government, the Hunter Association, and the black markets were talking about Lin Xie.
The headlines on the media for the next day were changed as soon as they gotten the news. Lin Xie’s name was the No. 1 topic on the social media sites that cultivators frequented.
Lin Huang only woke up past six next morning. After washing up, he realized Mr. Fu had called him last night. After checking the time, he did not call back because he thought it was too early.
He headed out for breakfast and went straight to the Emperor Palace. He only took the time to look at the news on the sites.
As soon as he launched the news page on his Emperor’s Heart Ring, he saw the photo of him disguising as Lin Xie on the headlines. The title was ‘The No. 1 Genius of the New Era — Lin Xie!’.
When he noticed that the number of clicks had surpassed 300 million, he realized he was famous again.
Had it been before, there would have been a aggresive debate about whether someone could be named the No. 1 genius.
However, now that the title was used on Lin Huang, there was not much opposition on all the social media sites and forums.
From Divisions 1 to 12, most people knew about the Genius Union as long as they came from cultivation clans or major organizations. They knew what kind of organization the Genius Union was.
Apart from the three core zones, the eligibility of entering the Genius Union was less than 1% even for those cultivation clans and major organizations’ core members in the nine safety zones. Most of the young talents who were somewhat popular in the safety zones had insufficient ability to join the Genius Union. Therefore, being a Genius Union member, even just a normal one, would prove a person’s ability.
As for the sockpuppet named Lin Xie that Lin Huang had been using, he had been a celebrity before he had even joined the Genius Union. Many people doubted him in the beginning due to his low combat strength. However, most people in the Genius Union were confident in his ability since he dismissed many doubts along the way. Those who loathed him had to admit that he had ridiculously powerful abilities since he broke through the 72nd checkpoint.
Some of the young talents in the safety zones who were not in the Genius Union were friends with the Genius Union members. Naturally, they would not dispute about Lin Xie since they basically heard the news about him from the Genius Union members.
Most of those who opposed him did not know much about him. In fact, some had never heard of the Genius Union. Those who claimed to have broken through a hundred checkpoints deleted their posts and went silent after seeing the content of the assessment.
The cultivators who did not know much about the Genius Union found out about it through the content of the Stairway Tree checkpoints on the Internet.
Many people began discussing and wondering how many checkpoints they could pass if they were to enter the Stairway Tree.
“I’m on immortal-level rank-9, but I think the most I can break through on the Stairway Tree would be over 30 checkpoints. I must admit that those who managed to break through the 63rd checkpoint are the real bosses (ó﹏ò｡)”
“I’m on immortal-level rank-7, but I don’t think I can even pass the 29th checkpoint. That checkpoint is so difficult that I’m trembling ༼༎ຶᴗ༎ຶ༽”
“I’m on immortal-level rank-6. I don’t think I can even pass the 23rd checkpoint, but I heard some of them from the Genius Union who have the same combat strength as me managed to pass more than 50 checkpoints (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)”
“I’m on immortal-level rank-3. I don’t think I can even pass through the worm stage on the 4th checkpoint. I’m sorry. I’m a loser o(╥﹏╥)o”
…
After looking at the Heart Network, Lin Huang looked at the other social media sites and forums. He realized that almost all the topics were about him. He only read the threads with the most clicks. By then, it was past nine in the morning.
It was 9.08 a.m. when he closed the black market forum page. Lin Huang looked at the time before tapping the communication page open and calling Mr. Fu.
The call only rang for less than three seconds before the video call got through.
Mr. Fu wore a black top that looked similar to a traditional Chinese shirt. There were pale blue patterns printed on it, and he looked a little like an underground boss.
“My dear disciple, I heard you’ve broken through the Stairway Tree, eh?” Mr. Fu asked while smiling.
“Yes, I did,” Lin Huang confirmed as if he had done something insignificant.
He thought Mr. Fu would ask him what kind of benefits he had obtained from his feat. However, Mr. Fu did not ask anything related to that.
Instead, he proceeded to say while smiling, “You’re worthy of being my disciple. You deserve the title as the The No. 1 Genius of the New Era!”
Although Lin Huang had thick skin, he could not help but feel bashful when he was given such a direct compliment.
“Your combined ability is comparable to demigods since you managed to break through the Stairway Tree. So, what do you plan to do next?” Mr. Fu asked again.
“I’m planning to go into closed-door cultivation to advance all the way to imperial-level! I’ll spend some time clearing what I have on my plate later on and head to the great world! After that, I’ll head back to the gravel world before disaster strikes!”
Mr. Fu fell into silence for a moment and only spoke again a long time later, “Stay in the great world if you can’t find any solutions to end the disaster.”
He only opened his mouth when he wanted to say ‘don’t come back seeking for death’. However, he did not say it out loud as he was afraid that would backfire.
“I’ll find a solution,” Lin Huang promised with determination.
“If you’re confident, then go ahead and do it!” Mr. Fu nodded while smiling and subsequently added with all seriousness, “But if you can’t, don’t force it.”
