The projected images kept cycling through, and finally zeroed in on which number this heaven-defying genius held.
"Number 8 — number 8... Isn't number 8 Pill King Zhen?"
Other people's rankings, perhaps not all Seven Great Emperors could remember every detail — but when it came to number 8, who could forget?
This dark horse who had rocketed up from the Genius Ranking, challenged the original eighth-ranked Gao Zhan, crushed him off the stage, and forcefully claimed the eighth position.
Pill King Zhen!
That name had long been seared into the minds of the Seven Great Emperors.
Especially after the Great Peacock Emperor had named Pill King Zhen as Young Master of Peacock Sacred Mountain — that had caused a massive uproar, sending shockwaves through the Seven Great Emperors and plunging the entire Glazed Royal City into a frenzy of celebration.
"Haha, Brother Peacock, your eye for talent truly is unmatched. This Pill King Zhen really does seem to be a heaven-blessed prodigy." Great Emperor Zhenyue spoke with undisguised envy.
Beside him, Great Emperor Zhankong also sighed: "Brother Peacock always has a keen eye for spotting the exceptional. First he discovered Young Master Fan, and now he's discovered Young Master Zhen. Each one more outstanding than the last. It really makes this little brother rather jealous. Brother, right now the entire Glazed Royal City is buzzing with talk — that when you originally took in Young Master Zhen, you actually secretly set him up as a chess piece. Is that rumor true or false?"
The other Great Emperors all looked at the Great Peacock Emperor with curiosity, clearly intrigued by this rumor as well.
The Great Peacock Emperor smiled faintly: "True geniuses are born in accordance with the greater trends of heaven and earth. All this emperor did was bring him to light. As for 'cultivation' and 'arrangement' — that's giving me far too much credit."
"I really wonder how you raised him, Brother. This Pill King Zhen — his alchemy talent is outstanding, and his martial talent is equally extraordinary. In all the history of our Glazed Royal City, such a genius is rarely seen."
"More than rarely seen — he's a once-in-an-age phenomenon."
The Great Peacock Emperor smiled subtly: "It's still too early to say all this. After all, this is only the first Glazed Stele. Perhaps the martial principles inscribed on these steles — he's already comprehended them before?"
Everyone considered this and found it reasonable. After all, Pill King Zhen was known for his vast knowledge and dual mastery of alchemy and martial arts — he might well have comprehended the martial principles on these Glazed Steles already.
After comprehending the first Glazed Stele, Jiang Chen did not rest. Pressing on with his momentum, he went straight to the second Glazed Stele.
This second Glazed Stele contained a mental cultivation technique designed to temper the mind. The difficulty of this trial had clearly jumped up an entire level.
It did not merely demand powerful martial comprehension — it also required formidable mental strength, keen insight, and extraordinary powers of visualization.
This Glazed Stele contained a total of nine hundred and ninety-nine variations. Each variation represented a single saber technique.
What the comprehender had to do was find the one saber strike among these nine hundred and ninety-nine that did not belong to the same school as the others.
These nine hundred and ninety-nine saber strikes — every single one appeared to be cut from the same cloth, with no obvious distinction between them.
This dramatically increased the difficulty of identification. What's more, having to pick out the single different strike from nine hundred and ninety-nine was an almost impossibly daunting task.
Jiang Chen activated his Seven Apertures Spiritual Resonance at full power, visualizing these nine hundred and ninety-nine strikes one by one, running them through his mind again and again.
This was clearly a complete saber art — one that could be classified as Earth Grade martial art, the level meant for Emperor Realm martial artists.
Precisely because it was designed for Emperor Realm practitioners, comprehending this saber art and identifying the single different strike was extraordinarily difficult.
However, if he could not identify that one strike, it would mean he had not fully grasped the entire saber art. And without full comprehension, the only way to identify the different strike would be pure guesswork.
And the probability of guessing correctly was vanishingly small.
Given the caliber of the geniuses on the Young Master Ranking, given enough time, they could certainly visualize and identify that different strike. What they were really competing over was time.
Because the total time limit for comprehending all three Glazed Steles was only half a month.
It was precisely this time constraint that made the difficulty seem so much greater.
Most critically, the order of these nine hundred and ninety-nine strikes had been completely shuffled. So trying to deduce the pattern from their sequence was essentially hopeless.
At this point, what was being tested was the depth of one's martial foundation — one's talent and comprehension in the Way of Martial Arts.
And this was precisely where Jiang Chen excelled.
Though these were decomposed individual moves, the speed at which Jiang Chen's mind processed information was far beyond that of his peers.
The vast memories and foundations from his previous life were pushed to their absolute peak in this moment.
Strike after strike poured into his mind, then were endlessly rearranged, endlessly sorted...
Jiang Chen immersed himself completely in this process. Every single strike became crystal clear in his mind.
After roughly three or four hours, the nine hundred and ninety-nine strikes gradually fell into place, as though finding their natural order, forming an intuitive and effortless sequence.
Jiang Chen's eyes snapped open, a look of delight crossing his face: "As I thought — this strike looks similar on the surface, but its intent overlaps with the one before it. Moreover, its transition into the following strike is somewhat stiff and unnatural. If you examine each strike in isolation, the differences might not be obvious. But once arranged in sequence, this strike may carry the previous one forward, yet it cannot lead into the next. Yes, this is the one... it's definitely it. No mistake."
Though Jiang Chen had identified the strike, he was in no hurry. Instead, he ran the entire saber art through his mind several more times in succession.
The complete saber art was repeatedly performed in his thoughts, ensuring there was absolutely no error.