Chapter 1225 - 1225: This Vast Amount of Reputation

All around him came incredulous exclamations.

"This is way too insane!"

"Who is that guy, why does his face look so unfamiliar?"

"A newly popped-up peerless swordsmanship genius!"

"He seems to only be in the Celestial Venerable Realm…"

"My god, doesn't that make it even more terrifying?"

"A Celestial Venerable actually suppressing so many Daoist Venerables—his swordsmanship talent is even scarier!"

Listening to the thunderous cheers and applause from the whole venue, Brother Cheng was a bit dumbfounded.

What just happened?

Why does it feel like he suddenly became the center of attention, spotlights fully locked on him, and the whole thing is like welcoming a war hero back home?

He even started suspecting whether he'd fallen into some new trial, like hallucinating inside a certain Mental Realm.

He quickly opened the system to check the records.

One look, and he almost couldn't hold back from bursting into song.

The entire crowd was in shock; some people had even started worshiping him.

Inside the Reputation Value System, that long string of digits, after conversion, actually amounted to a full 19.5 billion Immortal Yuan Points!

This was a number he'd never managed to get before, despite all those times he'd "worked hard" fighting and gambling on the side.

And now, he'd gotten this much just by showing his face.

Honestly, it was quite reasonable.

The Emperor Sword Star selection assessment was one of the biggest events in the entire Celestial Palace.

Other than the departments that weren't into fighting, most of the rest would come over to watch the fun.

There were over a million Immortal Officials present!

And among these Immortal Officials, most were above the Venerable level, with the average at Celestial Venerable.

With that many people shocked at once, of course the system would spit out a terrifyingly high number.

But Brother Cheng was still pretty confused.

Why were they reacting this hard?

Did he just accidentally act cool?

He hadn't prepared anything at all!

"Life is like this, full of surprises everywhere."

The guy had directly shifted into philosopher mode.

However, within the cheering crowd, different voices gradually started appearing.

"Something's off here!"

"This guy isn't among those 225 Experts participating in the selection, right?"

"Yeah, I didn't see him enter earlier—who is he?"

"He didn't even make it into this final round of assessment at all, did he?"

"This person is way too unfamiliar; where did he pop out from?"

If you treated this Second-class Star Monarch selection as a competition, then Jiang Cheng was basically someone who hadn't registered but still showed up to compete.

In that situation, his results should be invalid.

"But he really was the first one to rush out!"

"Right, those Seven-layer trials down below aren't going to stop attacking just because you didn't sign up."

"If he managed to break through to the top, that means he's stronger than those 225 shortlisted Experts!"

"That's true…"

"Hmph! There must be something fishy going on here!"

"He's merely a Celestial Venerable—it's impossible for him to have such a high level of Sword Dao attainment."

"Exactly, there's no way he could get that kind of result."

"Got any evidence?"

In the blink of an eye, two groups of people had started arguing, and the quarrel got heated fast.

Brother Cheng didn't really care; he'd already gotten all the shock and worship, and the Immortal Yuan Points had been converted.

The system wasn't going to claw them back.

Plus, he was still the focus of the entire venue, the spotlight still fully on him.

That was enough—who cared whether people supported him or doubted him.

"Jiang Cheng?"

"Holy crap, Sect Leader Jiang?"

From within the crowd, a bunch of people suddenly cried out in surprise.

Then, at least a thousand people flew over from all directions, heading straight toward Sect Leader Jiang.

Brother Cheng focused his gaze; he didn't know most of them.

But there were still a few he recognized.

Some of these people had Ascended from the Lower Realm together with him back then, and others had been Immortal King Quasi-Emperors during the Ancient Immortal Realm era.

To him, this definitely counted as "meeting old acquaintances in a foreign land."

"Hahaha, so it's you guys."

Having just earned a massive pile of Reputation Value, Brother Cheng was in a great mood, and seeing these "old friends" made his smile even wider.

Those people were equally excited.

"My heavens, it really is you, Senior!"

"Oh my god, after not seeing you for so many years, we kept wondering where you'd gone."

"How come you're still at Celestial Venerable Cultivation?"

"Yeah, I thought you'd already be shoulder-to-shoulder with the Celestial Emperor by now."

Those words made Brother Cheng feel pretty melancholy.

He deliberately tilted his eyes, face full of displeasure, and shot back, "What, my current Realm is disappointing to you?"

"No, no, not at all!"

They all hurriedly shook their heads and waved their hands, denying it.

"We wouldn't dare, wouldn't dare!"

This old bro had left far too deep an impression on them; it was impossible to erase.

Even though some among them had reached Supreme, none dared act up in front of him, nor did they dare feel any sense of superiority.

"Sect Leader Jiang's Celestial Venerable is naturally not an ordinary Celestial Venerable."

"Exactly, exactly!"

A few who had come up together from the Lower Realm Ten Thousand Realms started bobbing their heads, smoothly laying on the flattery.

"If you ask me, Sect Leader Jiang doesn't even need a second move to cut down a Supreme!"

"What, you look down on Sect Leader Jiang that much?"

"In my opinion, Sect Leader Jiang's Celestial Venerable is equivalent to someone else's Daoist Venerable!"

"Has to be!"

"I was originally wondering how a Celestial Venerable could take first place; now that I see it's Sect Leader Jiang, it couldn't be more normal!"

"Exactly, whatever miracle Senior creates is perfectly natural."

"Sect Leader Jiang showing up in this assessment makes the entire Emperor Sword Star shine with glory!"

This familiar flattery and bootlicking, while still a bit rough around the edges, already made Brother Cheng feel comfortable all over.

As expected, only these familiar faces really understood him!

However, while they felt their compliments were perfectly reasonable, to the other surrounding Immortal Officials, it all sounded extremely bizarre.

What the hell?

Just a mere Celestial Venerable, and you're hyping him up this much?

Instantly killing Supremes, on par with Daoist Venerables?

How do you even say that with a straight face?

Utter nonsense!

"Haha, I was wondering who it was—turns out to be you, Jiang Cheng!"

"Just now I thought I'd mistaken you for someone else."

From the back of the crowd, someone else suddenly stepped forward.

Only, this person's tone wasn't delighted, but dripping with sarcastic Yin Yang Monster vibes.

Brother Cheng turned his head to look; it was a "familiar face" too—Wenren Sihai.

Seeing this Sudhana who'd constantly opposed him in King Jia's Dojo back then, yet got shut down every time and had even "brought him gifts," Brother Cheng instantly felt amused.

"Yo, President Wenren, they let you out?"

Last time, Wenren Sihai had been forcibly dragged into the Law Enforcement Department by Venerable Cang Luo.

Brother Cheng hadn't seen him since.

Now, seeing several attendants behind him, including two Supremes, it looked like the Wenren Family still had plenty of clout.

Not only had they fished him out of the Law Enforcement Department's prison, they'd even brute-forced him into becoming an Official Immortal Official.

Otherwise, Wenren Sihai wouldn't have had the qualifications to show his face here at all.

Hearing Brother Cheng deliberately bring up what he least wanted to mention, Wenren Sihai, who'd been sneering nonstop, almost turned pale with anger.

He still held a grudge about being arrested by the Law Enforcement Department to this day.

"Jiang Cheng, I didn't expect you to still be putting on an act; others may not know your past, but I know it very well!"

He looked like he'd caught some huge dirt on Sect Leader Jiang, which left Sect Leader Jiang quite puzzled.

Brother has been acting cool all the way here—when did I ever have any black history?