Dyon watched these proceedings without much reaction. But, just how intelligent was he? Did he really need someone to tell him it wasn’t a coincidence that his appearance and this rule change coincided with each other? Rules that hadn’t changes in millennia changed for him? How flattering.
The test of title was obviously to verify whether Dyon was lying or not about being a Duke, while the spar was clearly meant to kill him.
Obviously, to these people, if Dyon couldn’t make it into the top 100, they could deal with him however they wanted. Plus, with all of these battles, they thought they would get an accurate gauge of his combat abilities and would then be able to send someone capable of dealing with him easily.
It was too bad for them that Dyon knew he wouldn’t have to use his full capabilities to place first here.
“253 years old, disqualified.” The elders bland voice called out for the 11th time.
“No! Please! I was in my trials, I had no idea how much time I spent inside. Please, I managed to become a Viscount, I’m worthy!”
However, the pleading young man was still forcibly taken away. Of course, many sympathized with him, but there was nothing they could do.
Many entered their trials before coming back to earn an outer disciple spot. The problem was that it was impossible to guess how much time you’d need to finish, so some people often lost count or overshot the age requirements.
Unfortunately, many didn’t feel like they would have the strength to pass selections unless they first earned trial rewards. To miss out by a mere 3 years, it was truly heart breaking.
This same scene occurred many times, but to Dyon’s surprise, even among those who passed, no one was younger than 200 years old so far. If Dyon had the choice, he would make himself older. Unfortunately, life force was among the most difficult things in the cosmos to fake…
He could use his mask to impersonate his cultivation, and he could purposely lower his Presence to impersonate a Duke, but changing his age was something his mask had no ability to do.
Usually, this would be fine because the mask could hide Dyon’s life force, but obviously, in a test like this, it wasn’t useful. Dyon had no choice in the end…
“177 years old, passed.” The elder’s bland voice was slightly livelier after he said this. Clearly, those powerful enough to participate, while being under 200 years old was rare.
“Look, that’s the young master of the Acor family. They’re a young family, but it seems they’re coming up in the world to produce such a young genius.”
“172 years old, passed.”
The clamour of the crowd increased. It seemed they were all too familiar with the young and powerful family of Planet Cathedral. At some point, they seemed more like popular sports stars than they did martial warriors.
“124 years old, passed.”
At this point, Donari’s elder brother completely shattered the record with an arrogant and smug look on his face.
To Dyon, the entirety of these proceedings was far too funny.
“87 years old, passed.”
Donari himself went directly after his brother, as though to prove a point. However, although there was shock, it only took a moment to notice the fact that although he was far younger, Donari was also far weaker.
The problem was that only Donari knew how powerful he was. He had been hiding his true strength all this time… The fact Dyon beat him so easily was a testament to Dyon’s strength, not a dampening of his own. However, others didn’t know this, and Donari wasn’t one to make excuses for himself. All he did was sneer and wait for Dyon’s age test, almost as if to say, “You only beat me because you had more time to cultivate.”
Dyon didn’t bother with Donari’s gloating appearance. Instead, he was thinking about something else.
According to his knowledge, his home universe had about the same expectations for age and cultivation. It was only those with outstanding constitutions who broke through that mold and entered the essence gathering stage around the age of 20 or 30. In all likelihood, Soul Rending Peak might have a couple individuals like that, but greatly dampened. After all, according to Dyon’s understanding, this universe didn’t have anyone with God level constitutions.
After Donari went, many other young geniuses stepped up, not to be out done. Many of them were between 150 and 180 years old, this seemed like a sweet spot for young geniuses and was also a good mixture of power, experience, in addition to youth.
However, seeing this, Dyon also understood why this quadrant had such poor rankings. The trials’ difficulties were chosen based on age, not cultivation. The fact they didn’t reach the high levels of essence gathering until they were well past a century old explained why the Duke stages were pretty much their cap.
“118 years old, passed.” At this point, the elder actually smiled lightly. The string of talent was clearly better than he expected.
No one even noticed that it was finally Dyon’s turn. They were all clamouring about the 118-year-old who was also at the 10th essence gathering stage. Clearly he was even more talented Donari’s elder brother! Even better, he was from an unknown family. Imagine that, a commoner making it so far alone!
Suddenly, the stuttering of the elder cut through all the noise. “Tw…. 29 years old!”