Clearly, the number Gan Ning had announced was more than a little jaw-dropping.
There was an unspoken protocol when reporting trial results — the member with the fewest contributions always reported first, followed by the second-lowest, and so on. The squad leader, who typically had the best haul, always reported last.
Now Gan Ning, the weakest performer in the group, was claiming twenty trial beads. That alone surpassed Lu Mingye's entire team.
Lu Mingye's squad shot him a sharp look, but even the teams waiting behind them suddenly fell silent, all turning their gazes toward the front.
Gan Ning's booming voice had seized everyone's attention in an instant — he'd gotten exactly the reaction he wanted.
"Not bad, not bad." The examiners inspected Gan Ning's trial beads one by one, nodding in approval and confirming they were genuine.
The participating geniuses, however, were in an uproar. Among these sixty elite cultivators, Gan Ning was practically invisible — if you ranked them by actual strength, he'd barely scrape into the upper-middle tier at best.
And yet this middling genius had just handed over twenty-eight trial beads in one go. That number was absolutely staggering. Many three-man squads combined couldn't match what Gan Ning had accumulated on his own.
The other geniuses found it nearly impossible to swallow. Who did Gan Ning think he was? Twenty-eight trial beads? Were the heavens blind?
At the end of the day, the world of martial cultivation was still a world that worshipped strength.
Gan Ning had never possessed the kind of overwhelming power that commanded respect. Yet here he was, holding more trial beads than many of the top-tier geniuses — and that left more than a few people feeling sour, even jealous.
"Looks like this kid got lucky and picked the right squad leader. I heard he was captured by Hu Lei early on, and Jiang Chen turned things around to save him. Who would've thought he'd end up with so many beads?"
"Can't be helped. Even Poison Consort Shi Qinglu couldn't compete with their squad — their strength is just too overwhelming."
"Overwhelming? That's all Jiang Chen. I know Gan Ning — his strength is nothing special. If I'd joined their squad, my results wouldn't be any worse."
"That's true. Without Jiang Chen, they'd be nothing."
Gan Ning's haul, while enough to make people green with envy, was generally attributed to Jiang Chen's generosity. The true weight of his contribution wasn't enough to convince anyone on its own.
But this was a team-based trial — the whole point was collective performance. If Gan Ning had impressive numbers, it simply meant his team really was that strong.
"Wu You, Eternal Sacred Land. Thirty-two trial beads in total." Wu You stepped forward to report his count. His haul exceeded Gan Ning's by a good margin.
Of course, given his strength and status, that was only natural.
The moment Wu You's number dropped, the crowd erupted again. Between just the two of them, they'd amassed sixty trial beads.
That was a truly staggering figure.
Before their submission, the other squads had performed poorly — only Lu Mingye's team had posted a respectable number.
But now Gan Ning and Wu You alone had already surpassed the combined trial bead count of Lu Mingye's two lieutenants.
That left only one question: how many trial beads did Jiang Chen hold? Had he exceeded even Lu Mingye's personal total?
Lu Mingye's gaze turned venomous. He could feel it — Jiang Chen's squad was mounting a serious challenge to his lead.
*Impossible. Impossible.* Lu Mingye refused to accept it. *Could Jiang Chen possibly have gathered a hundred trial beads?*
As for Jiang Chen himself — what did he care about what anyone else thought?