More than twenty hours had passed, the fourth stage had finally reached its conclusion.

Among the 320 participants in the fourth stage, only 56 were able to defend an arena for an hour and thus, were eligible to proceed to the final stage of the Golden Dragon Election.

“It’s finally time,” the crown prince said upon seeing the staffs in the coliseum get much busier than before. It was not only them, even the audiences in the coliseum had gotten noisier. There were also more people in the audience now that the Golden Dragon Election had reached its final stages, and if one were to look outside the coliseum, many people were flocking there as they looked at the moving image conjured right above the coliseum.

Yu Shan merely smiled as he looked at the audience from his position and said, “In the previous Golden Dragon Election, I was just one among the many people watching the competition from their seat. I wonder how many exceptional individuals will rise in the future from the audiences who are currently watching us now? It feels quite strange but in the future, some of the tiny children out there will one day be competing in the next Golden Dragon Election.”

Yun Ling and the crown prince couldn’t help but reminisce about the previous Golden Dragon Election when Yu Shan said that. Back then, Yun Ling was also watching his elder brother’s performance from the seat reserved for their clan together with his family. It was really amazing but unfortunately, he didn’t get into the top ten because of some unfortunate circumstances.

Now, he was in the very stage that his elder brother had once stood on but unlike Yun Hui, he would be taking the first place one way or another even if all the remaining participants ganged up on him.

‘In the future, my daughter might even stand here and compete with the people in her generation,’ Yun Ling couldn’t help but let out a smile as he thought that. He looked at where his daughter was and saw her cheering for his name. Seeing that really made him more determined to win this competition just to make her proud.

…

Outside the coliseum, the boy and the rest of his friends who had been taken in by Yun Ling after Yun Xia helped them were watching the moving image with excitement among the crowd. They had seen Yun Ling’s performance in the third stage and fourth stage of the competition and it really made them be in awe. Although they had heard a lot of things about Yun Ling, seeing how strong he really was with their own eyes was something else.

“Senior Yun Ling is really quite something! How awe-inspiring!” one of the children said eagerly.

“Call him Young Master Yun Ling. Our parents are now working as his servants so we should address him that way,” his friend reprimanded him but he too shared the same opinion as him about Yun Ling.

“Still, Young Master Yun Ling really is too strong. Only Senior Yu Shan was able to force him to retreat.”

“Bah! What do you know? Young Master Yun Ling is much better than that. He just got too unlucky because his sword broke.”

While his friends were arguing, the boy which seemed to be their leader looked at the proud participants displayed in the moving image with a passionate gaze. He thought determinedly, ‘One day, I’m going to stand in that stage. I swear on it.’

…

“Before we begin the final stage, let me say a few words,” the emperor rose from his seat as he spoke, his voice reaching everybody’s ears loud and clear.

Every single person within and outside the coliseum went solemn as they focused their attention on the emperor in silence.

“To start things off, let me congratulate all the participants who had taken part in this competition. Among the 3109 participants in this competition, only 56 were able to get into the final stage. That was to say, only less than two percent had managed to reach the fifth stage.”

What the emperor said really showed just how difficult it was to get into the top 10 of the Golden Dragon Election. With more than three thousand participants, less than two percent of them had gotten into the fifth stage. These people could be considered the strongest among their generation in the Jin Empire.

“But that doesn’t mean that those ninety-eight percents are failures. You might have failed today but that isn’t the end of your journey. Throughout the history of the Jin Empire, many successful people had experienced failures after failures in their lives before. These people were once considered failures in the eyes of society before but they got past those failures and instead, rose from the ranks. One might ask, why did those failures become successful?” the emperor paused as he turned his gaze towards the participants. “Some would say they got lucky, some would say it was because of their connections. And yes, they might be lucky, yes, they might have good connections, and yes, those things would certainly be a big help to one’s success. But you know what? Only real failures would keep making excuses.”

Many people looked down in shame.

“The one quality that all these successful people had was their unique mindset. Instead of viewing their failures as something bad, they would instead view it as a valuable lesson they could use in their life. With their failures, they learned. With their failures, they improved. And from their failures, they became what they were today. They kept bettering themselves from each failure they had and as a result of those accumulated improvements, they became successful,” the emperor stopped as his gaze turned sharp. “I’m not going to lie to you and say that doing so was easy. These people had sweated, had bled, had tortured themselves to get into where they were today. One could only imagine how much they had sacrificed to get that success.”

The participants looked at the emperor with bated breath, his words resonating deep into their hearts.

“But if they didn’t do anything, nothing would have changed for them. They would still be failures in the eyes of the society,” the emperor let out a sigh in the end. “That is why to those ninety-eight percent who failed, do not be discouraged! Take this failure of yours as an opportunity to improve yourselves! Treat is a valuable lesson! Look back on your experiences and make sure you won’t repeat the same mistakes from happening again! If even then, you still failed, then try again! As long as you’re still alive, there are endless possibilities that await you!”

After the emperor had finished speaking, most of the audience stood up from their seats as every single person inside and outside the coliseum gave a big round of applause.

“Now, without further ado, let us proceed to the final stage of the Golden Dragon Election!”