After breaking up with my girlfriend, I became a Great Sage of the Demon Clan.

Wuqu Star is a true god after all; surely he shouldn't be restricted by the internal energy cultivation techniques of the mortal realm?

Wu Quxing shook his head.

"Young man, what do you know? I used to practice the Golden Bell Cover and Iron Shirt techniques, until I was as tough as Billy the King. Every time I went out to fight, I could only carry a big sword and swing a mountain-splitting axe, charging ahead and taking all the attacks head-on without even crying out in pain. It was such an ugly sight. After every fight, my female teammates didn't care at all about the cuts on my body; they all felt sorry for their handsome sword-wielding guys whose waists were thinner than my legs."

Wu Quxing snorted, his tone full of dissatisfaction.

"That's why I later switched to practicing Yin-type internal energy cultivation techniques like the Jade Maiden Heart Sutra."

Wu Quxing's lips curled up, his face showing considerable smugness.

"After learning these things, I liked to wear a moon-white scholar's robe, put on a full face of kidney deficiency makeup, carry a sword and go out to roam. Everyone called me a banished immortal. Oh my, that's when I realized that banished immortals were much more popular than brute warriors."

Zhou Yan: "..."

Indeed, Zhou Yan remembered watching a few martial arts movies. Those muscular, tough guys who used hard skills were either villains or cannon fodder. The handsome, dashing young men who looked like their fathers had never beaten them were the pillars of the righteous path.

So much so that in the future, when watching martial arts movies, whoever is good-looking will definitely be the boss. As for the ugly burly men, they are just stepping stones for the handsome protagonist. It wouldn't hurt to see a few of them die, and fans would even shout "Brother is so handsome!"

The Martial Star claps its hands.

"Alright, that's enough. My 'Miss' has been waiting for you for a long time."

The star Wuqu turned around.

"Come with me."

Wu Quxing walked into the audience exit, and Zhou Yan followed with Su Xiaowan in his arms. After entering the audience exit, they turned inward and arrived at the area with stairs and elevators.

Both elevators were on the fifth floor, and it would take some time to get down. Wu Quxing turned around and walked up the stairs.

The first to third floors of the Zhongzhou City Gymnasium are for ordinary people, while the remaining fourth and fifth floors require a VIP membership card. This membership card costs 100,000 yuan a year, which is beyond the reach of ordinary people and is only for rich people to show off.

Zhou Yan followed Wu Quxing up to the fifth floor, and then to the viewing room 521 on the fifth floor.

Wu Quxing knocked on the door and said jokingly.

“Miss, Mr. Zhou has arrived.”

The room door opened automatically, revealing a mummified eunuch dressed in classical official robes. The mummified eunuch bowed and reached out his hand.

"My lords, His Majesty has been waiting for you for a long time."

Wu Quxing walked in confidently.

Zhou Yan followed behind Wu Quxing. This so-called VIP suite was similar to a normal hotel suite, with a small path at the beginning, a bathroom on the side, and the bedroom at the very end. However, unlike other hotel suites, the wall of this bedroom facing the Zhongzhou City Gymnasium competition venue was a one-way glass wall, allowing for a superior view of the competition venue from the best angle.

At this moment, in front of this glass wall that offers a commanding view of the competition venue, Xiao Yanjun, quite ungracefully, has his legs propped up on the chair he's sitting on. Several mummified eunuchs stand quietly beside him, holding snacks and drinks. Only when Xiao Yanjun occasionally turns his head to glance at a particular mummified eunuch will these eunuchs come to his side and offer him the snacks and drinks.

Zhou Yan and Wu Quxing walked to the side of Little Yama. Two mummified eunuchs respectfully placed two chairs over, and Zhou Yan and Wu Quxing sat down.

Little Yama, who was practically sitting with his legs wrapped around his waist, looked at Zhou Yan with curiosity.

"You're here to watch the four-school competition?"

Zhou Yan shrugged.

"Someone invited me out at noon, and I couldn't stay in the hotel this morning, so I ended up coming here to check things out. Sigh..."

Zhou Yan nodded his chin toward the two Demon-level Awakened Ones competing below.

"These two are destined to become members of the House of Commons in the future. Just thinking about how our country's future will be handed over to a group of awakened people who will determine their status by force gives me a headache."

Little Yama was delighted.

"There's no other way. The country is in chaos right now, and all sorts of interests are being redistributed. Countless people across the country want to take a bite out of the pie while things are in turmoil. If Xuanwu wants to quickly quell the unrest within the country, he has no choice but to find a way to divide the pie that everyone can accept."

Zhou Yan echoed.

"For example, whoever has the stronger fist gets to eat more?"

"The Martial Star beside Zhou Yan asked in return."

"Otherwise what? These guys who can get seats in Congress are either good fighters or have powerful backers. The federal government would like to use them to do disaster relief in troubled areas for free."

Little Yama suddenly pointed at a tall, slender, and alluringly beautiful woman in the arena.

"Don't worry so much, little one. Look, this is one of the system hosts I gave her. Later, after she stands out from the four-school competition, she will return to Binhai Prefecture as a savior and save her fellow villagers."

Zhou Yan followed Xiao Yanjun's finger and looked over. The angle of the one-way glass wall in the VIP room was carefully considered. Zhou Yan could easily see the competition venue. He also saw a two-meter-tall strong man fighting with Xiao Yanjun's system host in the competition venue.

The burly man had rough features, and his muscles were so tight that they seemed about to explode, making him look like a cannon fodder. However, judging from his bloodline, he was a Mountain Moving Ape with 54% awakening.

The system host on the other side was a Ghost King with an awakening level of 31%. This Ghost King was an awakened mage, possessing various underworld magic spells. When the two fought, it was like a tank passing through, with overwhelming momentum. When their fists landed, the ground rumbled.

The system host constantly casts various spells, struggling to find an opportunity when facing the Mountain-Moving Ape.

Anyone with eyes could see that the system host's combat power was much weaker than that of the Mountain Moving Ape, but the system host's fans didn't think so. Zhou Yan saw that on one side of the audience, the support group wearing T-shirts with the system host's picture were waving various flags and banners to encourage the system host. Some brainless fans even threw stones, cans, and other things at the Mountain Moving Ape in the arena.

One fan possessed incredible strength, throwing a rock dozens of meters across the distance, which landed squarely on the Mountain-Moving Ape's head. The Mountain-Moving Ape, who was currently beating up the system host, couldn't help but look back, only to find that the fan who threw the rock had vanished without a trace.

Little Yama couldn't help but chuckle, then turned to look at Zhou Yan.

"Little guy, do you think my host will win?"

Zhou Yan shook his head.

"Judging from the current attributes, it's difficult."

Little Yama was delighted.

"I gave this woman a random task: win this match and you'll get a thousand Fate Points; lose and there's no penalty. And then, do you know what this woman did?"

Zhou Yan looked at Xiao Yanjun curiously. Xiao Yanjun put both hands on her little feet, crossed her thumbs with her palms, and did a move that Zhou Yan liked to do when playing computer games—rubbing her feet with her hands.

Yeah, we're all big, burly men who rub our feet.

"This, um..."

Zhou Yan glanced at the system host's attribute panel.

What did Jiang Wanqing do?

This alluring and mature woman is named Jiang Wanqing.

"She exchanged a poison worth 500 Fate Points from me, then found an opportunity to infiltrate the group of young models, and last night she went to accompany this Mountain-Moving Ape."

Little Yama nodded his chin toward the competition venue.

"The poison will take effect in at most half a minute."

As soon as Little Yama finished speaking, the Mountain-Moving Ape, who seemed to have endless momentum and whose fists could pierce through tanks, suddenly changed his expression. Jiang Wanqing's eyes widened, and with a wave of her hand, darkness spread from her hand, and the Mountain-Moving Ape fell to the ground.

The 500 points of poison weren't enough to completely disable the Mountain-Moving Ape, but its physical strength dropped by 80% after being poisoned. Realizing that something was wrong with its body, the Mountain-Moving Ape readily admitted defeat.

This poison was specially made by Little Yama. The Mountain-Moving Ape only felt that its body was weak because of Jiang Wanqing's magic, and never expected that it was poisoned.

Jiang Wanqing's fans erupted in a series of amazing cheers.

Little Yama brought his hands, which had just finished rubbing his feet, to his nose, sniffed them, and then joked.

"These idiots! Their goddess spent the whole night with this mountain-moving ape yesterday. When they went out to eat, she could barely walk."

Zhou Yan stared at the hand that Little Yama had placed on the tip of his nose, his expression somewhat strange.

I also like to smell my feet after rubbing them.

Little Yama saw Zhou Yan's complicated gaze and teased him.

Do you know what this tastes like?

Little Yama moved his hand away from the tip of his nose, his five fingers moving in unison.

Zhou Yan looked disgusted. What else could it be but the stench of sweat and some fermented filth?

Little Yama laughed heartily.

"It smells like hormones. Damn, no wonder he's a kid, even his toes smell like milk."

Zhou Yan was stunned.

"Milk flavor? Really?"

Zhou Yan seemed to have heard that young, virgin girls who had never been intimate had a faint milky scent.

Little Yama pointed to her feet.

"If you don't believe me, come and smell it for yourself."

Zhou Yan turned his head away in disgust.

Jiang Wanqing's match ended after the referee announced her victory. After a ten-minute break, the second match began.

One of the contestants in this match is Sword Ape, who is also an old acquaintance of Zhou Yan and Xie Xin, the best friend of Wu Shanfu from White Tiger Academy. Xie Xin's opponent is a man from Indiana with the bloodline of a Blue-eyed Tiger.

Zhou Yan opened the attribute panels of the two people.

Judging from their attributes, Xie Xin and the Blue-Eyed Tiger man have similar levels of awakening. However, Xie Xin possesses the advanced immortal technique "Heart Sword," while the Blue-Eyed Tiger is the king of the Indian Arena, a man who has killed countless people, and has extremely rich one-on-one combat skills.

The probability of Zhou Yan winning against the "All Things Are Illusory" rule is only 48% for Xie Xin.

The little Yama King beside him tilted his head slightly towards Zhou Yan.

"The high castes in Indiana have always had great ambitions. In this four-school competition, the high castes in Indiana searched for all kinds of high-level awakened individuals in the state and managed to assemble a team of more than a hundred demigods and demon-level awakened individuals."

Zhou Yan's expression was solemn.

The combined number of members in the upper and lower houses should be a little over 1,200, but less than 1,300. If more than 100 awakened individuals from Indiana could enter Congress, then the power of the high-caste groups in Indiana would establish a very stable foundation in the federal government.

Ironically, the high caste in Indiana is a group that reveres theocracy but masquerades as a democratic group, giving them considerable influence in Congress...

Zhou Yan decided to help Xie Xin.

Chapter Four: Things Not to Do

On the sidelines of the stadium in Zhongzhou City.

The host, holding a microphone, smiled professionally at the camera lens of Zhongzhou TV station.

“My dear audience…”

"The competition to win seats in Congress by force has officially begun today. What you see now is a contestant from Sumatra, Indiana, and Xie Xin from White Tiger Academy..."

The camera focused on a close-up shot of Xie Xin, the beautiful young woman, and Sumatra, the blue-eyed tiger, inside the competition venue.

The camera then returned to the host, who continued speaking.

"Now let's begin interviewing these two contestants."

The camera then switched to the television station showing footage of Blue-Eyed Tiger participating in an interview yesterday.

The man in the video, named Blue-Eyed Tiger, is staying in a hotel suite. He speaks to the camera in an extremely gentle and humble manner.

“I want to become a member of the House of Commons…”

Most of the Demon-level Awakened can only become members of the House of Representatives (lower house), and only the top three are qualified to become members of the Senate. As for demigod Awakened, after passing the four-school competition, they can basically become members of the Senate (upper house), and then the federal government will take advantage of their combat abilities.

"The blue-eyed tiger said with deep emotion."

“I come from a poor family. I didn’t do well in school. My teachers often said that a child like me would only be able to become a sanitation worker when I grew up…”

Fifty years ago, a trend of intellectual shunning suddenly emerged in the Eastern Xia Federation. This meant that if you were a social elite, highly educated, and intelligent, the lower classes would automatically distance themselves from you and dislike you. But if you claimed to be an idiot, verbally abused by teachers since childhood, and failing every subject, the masses would like you and perceive you as simple and kind.

They certainly won't lie like those shameless social elites.

The reason for this abandonment of intellectualism is that the capitalist elites of the Eastern Xia Federation are too good at deceiving people. Those professors with frighteningly long titles and experts in various projects often swindle people out of their property, houses, and stocks. Large numbers of people are left homeless, and sometimes a family even needs the wife and daughter to go out and earn money to support the family.

In addition, the increasingly severe class divide in the Eastern Xia Federation has led to the upper-class elites and the lower-class people almost becoming two different species living in two different environments.

Given this contradiction, the lower classes have completely lost faith in the elites, believing that they are all liars and that their words should never be trusted.

Therefore, many professions in the Eastern Xia Federation that do not require intelligence, such as celebrities and sports stars, will say how stupid, mentally challenged, and incompetent they were in the past, because they are afraid that if their status as social elites is exposed, people will boycott them.

"But fortunately, when I was fifteen, I awakened my bloodline..."

The blue-eyed tiger began to smile.

“My life has been different ever since then, but I haven’t forgotten what I should do or where I come from. I’ve seen too many tragedies in our state, where some talented kids can’t afford to go to school, and some wealthy kids who don’t want to study have private universities to teach them. I think that’s unfair…”

The blue-eyed tiger clenched his fist in his chest.

"I want to change this environment..."

Blue-eyed Tiger launched into a long, rambling speech about education reform.

The scene then shifts to a gym.