Chapter 61: The Youngest Guardian General of the Dragon Kingdom!

At this moment.
Outside the Tower of Babel.
Inside the top-floor conference room of the high-rise building, silence prevailed.
That's right, a dead silence.
Everyone stood frozen like stone statues, their mouths half-open in a daze.
Just moments ago.
The ninth floor of the Tower of Babel had suddenly lit up.
As everyone knew, Nie Yuan had headed to the Tower of Babel this time specifically to challenge the perfect class advancement.
Reaching the ninth floor was only to be expected.
Yet, less than an hour after the ninth floor lit up, the tenth floor had actually lit up as well?
People looked at each other in bewilderment, and after a few breaths, turned around simultaneously.
They cast looks of pity toward the head of the Nie family.
At this time, only Nie Yuan was qualified to ascend to the ninth floor of the Tower of Babel.
So the person who had just lit up the tenth floor.
If not that reckless hothead Nie Yuan, who else could it be?
"Patriarch Nie, if I may ask—no offense intended—is your esteemed son carrying any platinum-grade or higher teleportation items?"
Someone asked cautiously.
From the higher levels of the tower onward, once one entered the next floor, the vortex leading to the outside world could only be activated by defeating the floor boss.
To ignore the rules of the Tower of Babel and force a teleportation.
Only platinum-grade or higher items could achieve such a feat.
Hearing this, Patriarch Nie's expression turned ugly, and he remained silent for a long time.
The crowd instantly understood and did not dare to say anything to provoke Patriarch Nie.
To finally produce an SS-grade class holder, only for him to turn out to be a fool.
Yan Xinghong thought with disdain in his heart.
Was that tenth floor something the Nie family could possibly conquer?
The team limit for the Tower of Babel was five people.
In other words, wanting to clear the tenth floor required a five-person team to subjugate a Level 25 Lord-tier monster.
What a joke?
Five class holders wanting to subjugate a Lord-tier monster, unless led by three SS-grade class holders.
If the Nie family could pull together such a team, the Merchant family wouldn't even have a foothold in Azure Sea City anymore.
Not to mention.
Nie Yuan had entered entirely alone.
Idiot.
Did he really think of himself as an SSS-grade class holder?
It looked like the Nie family brat was doomed.
Yan Xinghong wore a sinister and malicious smile.
Losing an SS-grade class holder must hurt the Nie family quite a bit, right?
Losing an SS-grade class holder...
Yan Xinghong's smile abruptly vanished.
Li遥 and the Merchant family had caused the Yan family to lose two successive SS-grade class holders!
Yan Xinghong's heart was bleeding.
He wished he could swap Nie Yuan in the tenth floor with Li Yao!
At this moment, everyone's thoughts were much like Yan Xinghong's.
Given Nie Yuan's strength, clearing the tenth floor was utterly impossible.
Nine times out of ten, he was about to perish in the Tower of Babel.
However.
Amidst the crowd, two people did not think so.
Because they knew that inside the Tower of Babel, Nie Yuan was not the only person qualified to step onto the tenth floor.
Shang Huaimin gazed intently at the Tower of Babel.
The Merchant family was a lineage of merchants.
The thing they excelled at most was investment.
As the head of the Merchant family, Shang Huaimin's investment experiences were countless.
Investments had both gains and losses, but most were within Shang Huaimin's expectations.
Yet this particular investment he was currently making.
Killing a fifth-turn class holder of the Yan family, siding with Li Yao, and supporting the Silver Wolf Guild.
Any single one of these three actions had been unanimously voted down by the Merchant family's management.
Yet who was the family head?
He had gone against the tide to make this investment, and yet even he had no certainty at this very moment.
"Investment is essentially gambling."
Shang Huaimin watched the flickering light on the tenth floor.
"Whether it's a win or a loss depends entirely on whether you can walk out of there."
Immediately afterward, Shang Huaimin gave a self-deprecating chuckle.
Li Yao had stepped into the tenth floor alone.
For him, wasn't that also a gamble?
He truly was growing old; his own daring was actually inferior to that of a raw youth.
Dueling a Lord-tier monster alone.
You really have the nerve!
"Crack!"
At that very moment.
The sound of shattering glass rang out.
The martial-artist-robed woman who had been standing by the floor-to-ceiling window vanished from everyone's sight.
Everyone hurriedly rushed to the window, looking out through the shattered opening of the floor-to-ceiling window.
"Could Senior Xue find us too noisy and unwilling to stay here?"
"I reckon Nie Yuan's actions angered Senior Xue. After all, she probably came here for Nie Yuan's sake."
"AI, what a pity."
"Indeed. To be favored by Senior Xue means Nie Yuan could directly become her disciple after the martial arts examination. For such a heaven-favored prodigy to die in the Tower of Babel is simply too much of a pity!"
"In any case, let's follow her down first."
The crowd hurriedly leaped down through the shattered opening of the floor-to-ceiling window.
Before they even reached Senior Xue's side, Senior Xue's sharp voice rang out.
"The tenth floor of the Tower of Babel is of paramount importance."
"I give you ten minutes."
"Destroy all photography tools in the vicinity and disperse everyone."
"Huh?"
For a moment, the crowd failed to react.
The tenth floor was indeed of paramount importance, but one had to be able to clear it first!
Could it be...
Did Senior Xue believe Nie Yuan could successfully clear it?!
The crowd instantly grasped the crucial point.
Of course Nie Yuan's strength wasn't enough to clear the tenth floor, but having Senior Xue's favor was a different story.
Who was Senior Xue?
Xue Jiulan, the youngest dean of Jingyu Martial Academy, the youngest Nation-Guarding General of the Dragon Country.
If Senior Xue had given him some heaven-defying item before Nie Yuan entered the Tower of Babel...
Clearing the tenth floor was entirely possible!
The most excited person in the crowd was none other than the head of the Nie family.
He hurriedly summoned his Nie family subordinates and began dispersing the surrounding crowd.
Everyone looked at Patriarch Nie with envy.
To be favored by Senior Xue was equivalent to being favored by the Federation; the Nie family was about to produce a true dragon.
" Dumb luck!"
Yan Xinghong cursed resentfully under his breath.
Mindful of Xue Jiulan's face, he also began setting about dispersing the surrounding crowd.
Right.
Why hadn't those brats like Yan Yue come out yet?
Killing a little girl who hadn't even undergone her second turn had actually taken this long.
It seemed he would have to train them thoroughly once he got back.
And right at that moment.
A burst of brilliance flashed at the base of the Tower of Babel.
Several figures appeared before everyone's eyes.
Aside from a few members of the Merchant family, there was also a spear-wielding youth in a disheveled and battered state.
"Nie Yuan? You came out so soon?"
Patriarch Nie ran over to Nie Yuan with an astonished expression, grabbing his hand excitedly as he said:
"How was it? What was the reward for the tenth floor? Hurry and show me!"
"And what did Senior Xue give you? Take it out together so we can return it to her later. After all, since she helped you clear the tenth floor, a person must know how to show gratitude."
"Huh?"
Nie Yuan looked at his father with a blank expression.
Why did not a single word of what you just said make any sense to me?
However, none of that mattered.
Nie Yuan's mouth drooped with a tearful expression: "Dad, I've let you down. The perfect class advancement failed again!"
"What?!"
"What did you say?!"
At this moment.
Shang Yana trotted over to Shang Huaimin's side.
Shang Huaimin affectionately rubbed her head.
"How did the class advancement go?"
"Hehe, got lucky... perfect class advancement."
"That's good, truly worthy of being my daughter." Shang Huaimin laughed heartily, then his expression shifted as he asked in a low voice, "Did you run into anyone from the Yan family?"
"Yes."
Shang Yana nodded, and the image of Li Yao embracing her flashed in her mind, causing her face to instantly flush with shyness.
"Thanks to classmate Li Yao... otherwise Dad might not have seen me anymore."
Shang Huaimin didn't notice the blush on his daughter's face, catching only the latter sentence.
In an instant.
The tyrannical aura of a sixth-turn class holder enveloped Yan Xinghong like a violent storm.
Yan Xinghong was at best only the younger brother of the Yan family head.
He himself had yet to complete his sixth-turn breakthrough mission.
Under this aura, his throat inevitably tightened, and he put on a brave front as he said harshly:
"What do you want to do?"
"Don't forget, this is inside Azure Sea City!"
Shang Huaimin grinned broadly.
"I'm not doing anything."
"I just want to tell you, you don't need to wait for those people from the Yan family anymore."
"That kid Li Yao has already sent those people off to keep Yan Gaojie company!"
"What do you mean?"
Yan Xinghong's face turned ashen.
Li Yao was inside the Tower of Babel?
Yan Yue and the others had all been killed by Li Yao?
In a daze, Yan Xinghong seemed to understand everything.
Could it be...
The person on the tenth floor of the Tower of Babel was Li Yao?
The person favored by Xue Jiulan.
Was also Li Yao?