From the Metropolis to the Strongest in the Cosmos

Chapter 209: Chapter 209: Panic

A smile covered Lunba Wu’s face. He pointed to the most conspicuous video feed in the palace and said, "Take a look."

Lentz’s gaze followed his gesture, and he immediately saw Li Yang inside the battle space.

Li Yang had previously ranked first in the Golden Moon Empire. During a past genius selection for the Yangyuan Empire, Lentz and Celestial Net had teamed up to forcibly eliminate him, so Li Yang had certainly left a deep impression on Lentz.

Watching the video, Lentz’s eyes showed a trace of confusion.

’In the battle space, everyone else is fighting. Why is Li Yang just standing off to the side by himself?’

Lunba Wu’s gaze was profound as he said, "Lentz, this Li Yang is a peerless genius of our Golden Moon Empire! Just a moment ago, inside the battle space, Jun Mo—who ranked in the three hundreds overall in the first round—fought Li Yang. After just two attacks, Li Yang killed him!"

"The other geniuses don’t even dare to approach Li Yang. According to the judgment of our Golden Moon Empire’s many Star Lords and World Realm masters, Li Yang’s strength might even rank him among the top few geniuses in the entire Yangyuan Star Continent!"

He smiled. "Tell me, isn’t this wonderful news for our Golden Moon Empire? Across the entire Yangyuan Star Continent, with its hundreds of thousands of factions led by Deities and its billions of galaxies, a top-ranking genius has come from our Golden Moon Empire!"

Watching the color drain from Lentz’s face, he felt an immense sense of satisfaction and delight.

’Haha, my dear brother, you must be feeling terrible right now,’ Lunba Wu laughed inwardly.

He knew about Lentz and Celestial Net teaming up to forcibly eliminate Li Yang. Back then, Li Yang was just an ant from Planet Zero that no one cared about.

Even he had thought that Lentz eliminating Li Yang was a trivial matter.

But now, Li Yang had actually reached such a level!

’One of the top few geniuses among all the talents in the billions of galaxies of the Yangyuan Star Continent!’

With such strength, even if he couldn’t enter the Human Race’s Eternal Saint Hall, he would still be recruited and specially cultivated by the Yangyuan Empire!

At the very least, Li Yang would be taken as a disciple by a powerful Deity!

The power gap between Deities could be enormous. The Golden Moon Empire’s own ancestor was just an ordinary Deity. The truly powerful ones were all concentrated in the Yangyuan Empire!

Once Li Yang really became a disciple, his status and position...

Just as Lunba Wu had thought, Lentz was indeed feeling absolutely terrible.

’Li Yang killed Jun Mo in two attacks? How is that possible?’ Lentz’s eyes were filled with shock.

He knew of Jun Mo. He was a genius meticulously cultivated by the Yangyuan Empire, recruited long ago, with strength on par with Celestial Net of the Yuanlan Clan.

Such immense power was something he had always dreamed of obtaining, yet Jun Mo had been no match for Li Yang! He had been killed so easily!

"Li Yang!"

Lentz watched the silent young man on the video, whom no one else dared to approach, and a sliver of panic suddenly bloomed in his heart.

’To be able to kill Jun Mo, Li Yang’s strength has to be at the apex of the Yangyuan Star Continent! If a genius like that doesn’t fall prematurely, reaching the World Realm will be effortless!’

’He even has a chance to become a powerful Deity!’

The top few geniuses cultivated by the Yangyuan Empire held a status and position far higher than even the Emperor of their Golden Moon Empire.

Even their ancestor, Golden Moon, while not needing to curry favor, would still treat such a genius with courtesy.

Because a genius that powerful was bound to be accepted as a disciple by a Deity far stronger than their ancestor, Golden Moon.

Panic, terror, regret—a torrent of emotions flooded Lentz’s mind.

A few years ago, in the selection space for the second round, Li Yang had seen his face.

’Dammit, why did I go with Celestial Net to see that Li Yang a few years ago.’

Celestial Net wanted to eliminate Li Yang, and he... he had only tagged along out of pure curiosity.

It was understandable. Back then, Li Yang was just some youth from Planet Zero, not particularly strong, and with no background whatsoever. He, on the other hand, was a genius meticulously cultivated by the powerful Golden Moon Empire, and the most likely successor to its throne!

Before him, Li Yang was truly like an ant. He hadn’t given him a second thought.

Even if Li Yang saw his face, it meant absolutely nothing.

But now, the matter he had dismissed so lightly had blown up into this.

If he hadn’t shown his face back then, Li Yang wouldn’t even know who he was.

Even with Li Yang’s continuous rise, it wouldn’t have mattered.

Lentz was now filled with immense regret, but regret was useless. Li Yang had already seen his face, and he probably knew his name and identity as well.

As regret washed over him, Lentz cursed Celestial Net in his heart.

’That damn Celestial Net. If he wanted to deal with Li Yang, why did he have to drag me down with him?’

Previously, a favor from Celestial Net had been very important to him. He had gladly accepted it, agreeing to Celestial Net’s request to deal with Li Yang without a moment’s hesitation.

To him, it had been a trivial matter, something he could do with a wave of his hand. Just a small task to earn a favor from Celestial Net—he had thought he’d made out like a bandit.

But now, that decision had turned out to be the most foolish one he had ever made, one that could potentially bring a series of terrible consequences.

As his expression continued to shift, Lunba Wu asked from the side, a feigned look of puzzled curiosity on his face, "What’s wrong, Lentz? You look terrible. Aren’t you happy that such a peerless genius has appeared in our Golden Moon Empire?"

"Or perhaps you can’t bring yourself to be happy because you were eliminated?"

At this, some of the people in the grand hall turned their gazes toward Lentz, including the Emperor of the Golden Moon Empire.

"Lentz, don’t be disheartened by your elimination. You’re still young. Falling behind now doesn’t mean you’ll fall behind in the future."

"That’s right. Learn from this experience, and you might still be able to catch up in the future."

A few people offered Lentz some words of comfort.

Even the Emperor of the Golden Moon Empire spoke up. "Lentz, you are my successor. You need to have a broader mindset. We should all be happy that a peerless genius like Li Yang has emerged from our Golden Moon Empire. This is a tremendously good thing for us!"

His words carried a subtle, instructive tone.

Hearing this, Lentz quickly replied, "Your Majesty, I am also very happy about the emergence of a peerless genius like Li Yang."

"Mm." The Golden Moon Empire’s Emperor nodded slightly, his gaze returning, like everyone else’s, to the feed for the 360th battle space. His eyes were filled with excitement and elation.

’Ranked among the top few geniuses in the entire Yangyuan Star Continent!’

A surprise! An absolutely immense surprise!

In just a few more minutes, when this second round of selections ended, the name of their Golden Moon Empire would be displayed before all the major factions of the Yangyuan Star Continent, and perhaps even before the factions of many other Star Continents!

What a tremendous honor this was!

Never since its founding had the Golden Moon Empire experienced such glory.

After those few perfunctory words of comfort, no one paid any more attention to Lentz. The focus of everyone from the Golden Moon Empire was now on Li Yang.

Lentz also stared at the video feed, not saying a word. He clenched his fists, his heart now completely consumed by panic.

’Looking at how excited everyone from the Golden Moon Empire is right now, what will their attitude be once they find out that I deliberately eliminated Li Yang in the past?’