Standing several meters in front of Yun Ling were 3000 humanoid creatures made from stones. They were quite big and imposing. Their size was at least twice as tall as Yun Ling while some have the size of a small building. These creatures were known as Golems. They were a byproduct of a powerful cultivator’s supreme art on the emperor’s side.

“Now, isn’t this just so amusing?” Yun Ling said with a cold smile on his face. “2997 golems are at the Core Formation Realm while the other 3 are in the Four Transformation Realm. Shall we each take on 1000 golems on our own?”

Beside Yun Ling was Yu Shan and the crown prince who was standing in an imposing manner as they faced the golems.

Yu Shan fell deep in thought. It would’ve been much easier if they would just combine their strength to vanquish all these golems together. However, getting Yun Ling and the crown prince to willingly cooperate would’ve been too much of a hassle since they were too prideful and competitive for their own good.

Well, he really wasn’t one to say since he too wasn’t that different from them.

“Alright. Each of us will take 999 Core Formation golems and 1 Four Transformation golem. There’s no problem with that right?” Yu Shan let out an exasperated sigh.

The crown prince nodded, agreeing with them.

This was actually the third stage of the Golden Dragon Election however, unlike the previous stages, the participants who passed the second stage could sit this stage out. This was the emperor’s way of making the competition not too unfair to them. Through this stage, he gave them time to rest and recover their spiritual energy while at the same time, allowing them to watch the three supreme geniuses in action and learn a few things about them.

Had the emperor not done this, it would’ve been totally unfair if he suddenly let the three supreme geniuses join in the third stage with everybody else. It was like sending three fully energized wolves into a flock of sheep. Moreover, most of these sheep were tired. The result would’ve been a total slaughter.

That was why the emperor had to at least tire these three wolves out and let the sheep take some rest. He had to even the playing field somehow.

…

“Papa! Good luck!” Yun Xia yelled out as she looked at her father in the moving image conjured by the emperor. There was pure excitement on her face as she wanted to see her father in action and perform some cool stuff she could use to boast to other people.

She would be like, “See how cool Papa is? That is my papa!”

Li Jing had a far off look on her face as she laid her eyes on Yun Xia. She then said, “Looking at her reminds me of Ling in his childhood… I miss those times.”

“Eh…” Yun Zhan wasn’t sure what she was referring to. Was she referring to their granddaughter’s personality or was it about her looks? She was probably not talking about her personality since Yun Ling didn’t act as cute as this when he was still a child. He might have had his own cute moments but it was nothing compared to Yun Xia.

…

“What? Do you like him or something? I didn’t know you have some strange fetish,” the tall handsome man said when he noticed Yun Yi staring at Yun Ling much longer than necessary. He hadn’t even spared a glance towards the other supreme geniuses, only at that beautiful looking man.

To be honest, he felt some attraction to him at first glance but when he found out that Yun Ling was, in fact, a guy, his attraction disappeared. Well, almost. There was still a small part of him that was attracted to Yun Ling.

He was a little frustrated with that. Why did a man like him have such a face? He was much more beautiful than most women he had seen. That was why although he despised Yun Yi a bit, he couldn’t help but relate to him.

Yun Yi glared at the nature spirit. How dare this guy insinuate something like that? But upon thinking about it, he couldn’t blame him since he knew nothing about the two of them. This guy didn’t even know his name since he didn’t tell him yet.

“He’s my cousin.”

“Oh.”

The tall handsome man didn’t say anything anymore after that. He felt that there was some issue going on between the two and he didn’t really want to pry too much.

“That’s crazy! 3000 golems just for the three of them? It’s impossible for them to pass this stage!”

“I know right? Even if they are the three supreme geniuses, I don’t believe they can deal with this. Heck, I’m sure no one in our generation can. That’s 3000 golems and almost all of them are in the Core Formation Realm! I wonder what the emperor is thinking?”

“Isn’t this a good thing for us then? Without them, we will have a much better chance of getting into the top ten. Heck, we might even get the first place.”

The tall handsome man heard the other participants talking and couldn’t help but scorn them.

These fools thought that it would be impossible for the three supreme geniuses or anyone from their generation to beat this stage…

They were sorely mistaken.

Just because they couldn’t, didn’t mean that others also couldn’t. 3000 might be a large number to deal with for three people only but it wasn’t really impossible to beat.

One had to consider that golems didn’t really have intelligence. They might be able to move and deal damages to others but that was about it. After observing their moves for a few moments, they would become predictable really quick and thus, become easy to deal with.

For these participants who couldn’t even realize something as simple as that, they were of no threat to him.

He dismissed these fools from his mind as he looked towards the moving image showing the three supreme geniuses.

‘Let’s see if you three really deserved that title…’