The Nightshade Race's Tea Party, Candidate Companions

"Then what do we do?"

Another young Elf in the squad looked at Malz Roche.

"As long as a challenger files a request, no genius on the Prodigy Rankings can refuse."

Malz's expression was helplessly resigned.

He gritted his teeth. "Either way, I can't win. Might as well get it over with quickly."

Malz Roche had already given up on fighting it. He accepted the challenge outright, not even bothering to stall for time.

The moment he agreed, his body dissolved into a pillar of white light and vanished.

The other Elves in the squad were well accustomed to the sight by now.

They all knew: any Prodigy Rankings duel was whisked away by the will of the Land of Origin to an arena in White Cloud City. Win or lose, the combatant would always come back.

The Elves exchanged glances.

The girl in the group who harbored feelings for Malz prayed silently:

*Please, let Malz win.*

No one responded.

Even Malz himself had no confidence — she was the only one left with any.

"Let's wait here. Shouldn't take long."

"Mm."

White Cloud City. Central Plaza.

A Battle Roar rang out.

The Prodigy Arena materialized in the square, and Lu Yuan appeared on one side. A moment later, Malz Roche appeared on the other.

A grand voice resounded:

"Prodigy Challenge — commences in five seconds."

Malz Roche looked at Lu Yuan, a wry smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.

"Didn't expect to run into you again."

Lu Yuan blinked at the Elf, momentarily caught off guard. Then it clicked — this guy had challenged him once before, hadn't he?

He smiled. "Oh, it's you? I didn't realize you'd made it all the way to rank 93. Not bad."

Lu Yuan spent most of his time cultivating and followed the Prodigy Rankings only for Yeye and the names at the very top. Anyone ranked further down barely crossed his radar.

He genuinely hadn't expected the Elf warrior from their first encounter to now be sitting at rank 93.

"Looks like we've got a real connection," he said with an easy grin.

Malz Roche: "..."

His eye twitched. If he had any say in the matter, this was absolutely not the kind of connection he wanted. This was nothing but a curse, plain and simple.

Malz Roche was a Long-range Attack Type warrior clad in leather armor, a longbow in hand. He said no more. Using the last two seconds of preparation time, he backpedaled until he stood near the very edge of the arena.

Even so, there was nothing to anchor any confidence to. He knew Lu Yuan possessed a spatial Combat Technique — and his own trump card was a speed enhancement, utterly useless against spatial movement. There was no angle to work with.

But he was a Prodigy Rankings genius. Surrendering without a fight was simply out of the question.

Even if all he could do was struggle, he would struggle properly.

The countdown ended. The invisible barrier between them shattered.

At the exact instant it disappeared, so did Lu Yuan.

Malz Roche reacted almost on instinct — cyan light blazed across his body and he erupted into motion, his form dissolving into afterimages as he shot forward at blinding speed.

Then, at his flank, Lu Yuan materialized.

A chill seized Malz's whole body — no time to react. A flash of sword light.

His consciousness plunged into darkness.

In that final moment, a bitter weight settled in his chest. Lu Yuan felt even stronger than the last time they'd met.

*Already absurdly powerful, and still getting stronger this fast. How is anyone supposed to keep up?*

Defeat — dull and unavoidable — swallowed Malz Roche as the darkness closed in.

Lu Yuan felt no particular satisfaction from the victory. The Elf warrior wasn't even Innate King Grade — probably Innate Chief Grade or Innate Lord Grade at best. His strength was roughly a notch above Si Tingxue's.

He'd beaten Si Tingxue into the ground so many times that facing Malz felt entirely routine.

The challenge ended. The Prodigy Arena dissolved.

Lu Yuan reappeared at his original position.

The Prodigy Rankings shifted simultaneously.

Lu Yuan rose to rank 93. Malz Roche dropped to rank 98. They had simply swapped places.

If Malz wanted to climb back up, he'd have to start challenging all over again.

With the ranking change came a cascade of reward information in Lu Yuan's mind.

For first breaking into rank 93, he was awarded twenty Purple Heart Fruits and ten Fourth-rank Origin Stones.

He'd heard about Purple Heart Fruits through Yeye when she was climbing the rankings herself — Fourth-tier Spirit Fruits packed with Spirit Power, used for cultivation. Each one held the Spirit Power equivalent of one hundred thousand Fourth-tier Spirit Crystals.

Twenty of them could temper a King Grade Transcendent Gene partway. Since one hundred thousand Fourth-tier Spirit Crystals equaled ten thousand Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals, the full twenty fruits came to two hundred thousand Fifth-tier equivalents. Most weaker King Grade Transcendent Genes only needed a few hundred thousand to just under a million Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals to reach full temper anyway.

For a Battle Venerable-level genius, that was a lavish haul.

For Lu Yuan, two hundred thousand Fifth-tier Spirit Crystals — converting to a mere twenty thousand Sixth-tier — was a rounding error against what his Emperor Grade genes demanded.

There was simply no helping it. The quality of his Transcendent Genes was just too far beyond what this bracket called for.

He decided to offload the Purple Heart Fruits. He'd sell them cheap to Si Tingxue, Rebecca, and Amy — for those three, they still carried real value. Yeye had personally attested that Purple Heart Fruits absorbed a hundred times more efficiently than raw Fourth-tier Spirit Crystals. Genuinely rare treasures.

The Fourth-rank Origin Stones, on the other hand, were actually useful to him. With this batch, he now had twenty total.

Probably still not enough, he thought. But there was no rush — he could keep challenging.

As for the ranking perks themselves, nothing had changed between rank 93 and rank 98. According to Yeye's experience, benefits only updated every ten ranks.

Back on the plaza, Yeye — who sparred with Lu Yuan regularly and understood his strength better than anyone — showed no surprise at the outcome. It was simply what she expected from him.

Small White, who occasionally watched from the sidelines during their sparring, was equally unsurprised.

The crowd in the plaza, while no longer shocked by Lu Yuan's ease in dispatching Malz, did notice something. His strikes seemed just a touch sharper than before. That only sharpened their anticipation about how far he would eventually climb.

"Keep going?" Yeye asked.

Lu Yuan nodded. "Yeah."

A loss would have barred him from making further challenges during this visit to the Land of Origin. Since he'd won, he could keep filing requests.

He put in his next application. His target: rank 88.

Rank 88 was a Nightshade Race member named Xia Zhi Luoksani.

The Nightshade Race was one of the foremost races of the White Cloud Star Domain. On the Prodigy Rankings, they claimed five spots — the highest being Anastasia at rank 2. Terrifying, by any measure.

This was what it meant to belong to a truly elite race.

Lu Yuan sent the challenge request to Xia Zhi Luoksani through the Gene Battle Mark.

Dark Night City — one of the Nightshade Race's major cities within the Land of Origin.

Inside an opulent courtyard, the breathtakingly beautiful Xia Zhi Luoksani was hosting a tea party.

Every guest was a genius from one race or another, several of them ranked on the Prodigy Rankings.

The gathering was purely social — conversation, pleasantries, the gentle cultivation of connections. No fighting involved.

As was typical of Nightshade Race tea parties, the guests were overwhelmingly male. Beyond a handful of Nightshade women in attendance, nearly every non-Nightshade guest was a man. Female guests from other races were a rarity.

Across the White Cloud Star Domain, male geniuses of almost every race considered marrying a Nightshade woman among the greatest distinctions they could achieve.

For Nightshade women, these gatherings served a secondary purpose: a graceful way to meet and evaluate talented men from across the races — and to consider potential companions. It was Nightshade tradition. They chose their partners this way.

Xia Zhi Luoksani sat at the center of it all. Around her, male geniuses from a dozen races worked to outshine each other, each angling for her attention.

A Cat-kin young man smiled and spoke: "I've had a recent breakthrough in my understanding of Spirit Techniques. Once this tea party is over, I plan to make my move on the Prodigy Rankings — and this time, breaking into the top fifty is all but certain."

Xia Zhi Luoksani turned her languid, alluring gaze toward him. The faintest trace of admiration — precisely calibrated — lit her eyes.

"Prince Ye Jing's strength is truly extraordinary. Xia Zhi is deeply impressed. When the time comes, I'll go to White Cloud City just to witness the Prince's brilliance firsthand."

Ye Jing's lips curved into a satisfied smile. "With Miss Xia Zhi watching, I'm certain I'll surpass myself."

An Elf seated nearby gave a soft, teasing laugh. "Ye Jing — I heard your younger sister is already at rank 22."

The comment drew subtle, sidelong looks from several of the other guests.

Ye Jing's smile froze. He turned a cold look on the Elf.

"If we weren't at Miss Xia Zhi's gathering, I'd make sure you understood the price of careless words."

Xia Zhi covered her smile with one hand and laughed lightly.

"Prince Ye Jing, Lord Keli — this tea party is such a rare occasion. Please keep things pleasant. Allow Xia Zhi to pour you both another cup of tea..."

Her hand stilled.

Mid-motion, she stopped.

Every eye in the courtyard had been fixed on her, and when she froze, concern rippled through the group at once.

"Miss Xia Zhi, is something wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

"If Miss Xia Zhi is tired, we can call it a day — I'll come visit again another time."

"I have a Spirit Fruit that relieves fatigue, if Miss Xia Zhi would like—"

"..."

Xia Zhi collected herself and offered the attentive men an apologetic smile.

"Xia Zhi is perfectly fine — I'm sorry for worrying everyone. I simply received a challenge, that's all."

The moment those words landed, the two strongest men present — Ye Jing and Keli — went cold.

"Someone dared challenge Miss Xia Zhi? They must have a death wish." Ye Jing's voice dropped to something glacial. "Miss Xia Zhi, tell me who it is — I'll handle it personally."

Xia Zhi glanced at him. A flicker of something curious moved through her gaze.

"His name is Lu Yuan," she said softly.

"Lu Yuan?" Ye Jing's brow furrowed. The name sounded oddly familiar — he couldn't place why.

Then his eyes sharpened. Something stirred deep in his chest.

Wasn't Lu Yuan the human that Yeye had been mentioning constantly lately?

Both Ye Jing and Yeye were children of Emperor Yemu. But Yeye's talent far eclipsed his own — she was the one cherished and doted on by both the Tianming Sage and their father, leaving Ye Jing perpetually in her shadow, nursing a quiet, simmering resentment.

Now Yeye's close companion had challenged Xia Zhi. The fact landed on something raw in him, as though his own dignity had been put on the line.

The anger tightened in him. Ice bled through his gaze.

"Miss Xia Zhi, push the challenge time back. I'm going there right now — I'll make sure Lu Yuan understands that challenging you is beyond him."

He rose to his feet and strode out of the courtyard without another word.

The remaining guests exchanged uncertain glances. A challenger not even cracking the high ranks, and Ye Jing was this worked up over it?

Keli raised an eyebrow, his smile easy and unhurried. "Now that looks interesting. Miss Xia Zhi — shall we go watch?"

Xia Zhi's eyes narrowed just slightly. An amused smile played at the corner of her lips.

"He is challenging me, after all. With Prince Ye Jing going to stand up on my behalf, I can hardly stay behind."

As a top-tier race that had spent generations intermarrying with peoples across the White Cloud Star Domain, the Nightshade Race maintained formidable intelligence networks. Xia Zhi already knew perfectly well how Lu Yuan, Yeye, and Ye Jing were all connected.

She also had Lu Yuan on her list — designated as one of her candidate companions.

At rank 98, he had been challenged repeatedly and had never once lost, always by dominant margins. That spoke for itself. His true strength far outstripped what his ranking suggested.

She had already been planning to approach him. It hadn't occurred to her that he would be the one to challenge her first.

That was, frankly, a little irritating — the kind of mild affront only someone long accustomed to being pursued could feel.

What she hadn't anticipated, though, was the sheer intensity of Ye Jing's reaction.

*Yeye really does weigh that heavily on him.*

She moved Ye Jing further down her mental list of candidate companions. Impulsive, quick to anger — she had no interest in that. In her view, it was simply a sign of weakness.

The tea party guests all rose and began making their way toward the teleportation hall, bound for White Cloud City.

Xia Zhi, meanwhile, quietly pushed the challenge time back by two hours.

She'd let Ye Jing test Lu Yuan's level first. Then she'd make her own assessment.

White Cloud City.

Lu Yuan frowned. The golden thread connecting his Gene Battle Mark to the Prodigy Rankings had gone dark.

Yeye noticed. "Delayed?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "Not by long — two hours."

Small White was quiet for a moment, then spoke with uncharacteristic seriousness.

"Young Master Lu Yuan... you're challenging a Nightshade Race member. Honestly, you'd be better off switching to a different target."

Lu Yuan blinked. "Why?"

"Because every Nightshade genius has suitors," Small White explained. "Some of them get extremely unreasonable about it. They may come after you."

A strange look crossed Lu Yuan's face. "...Wait. The Prodigy Rankings exist specifically to be challenged. I'm making a perfectly standard challenge — and their admirers are going to target me over that?"

"These suitors don't care whether it's standard or not," Small White said, expression unmoved. "For them, you're an opportunity — a perfect excuse to show off in front of the Nightshade genius they're pursuing."

Lu Yuan was genuinely taken aback.

Were suitors really that unhinged? Or was the Nightshade Race's pull just that overwhelming?

He thought back to Anastasia — the one he'd glimpsed at the Midnight Tavern that day. That woman's presence had been something else entirely.

But still. Surely it couldn't get *that* bad.

*I'm not that unlucky... am I?*

And yet, even as the thought formed, an uneasy feeling crept steadily into his chest.