“Your Majesty, why did you suddenly decide to give out the title of supreme geniuses to Yun Zhan’s son, my son, and Your Majesty’s son, His Highness as well?” Yu Yinyi asked the emperor after he gave Yun Ling, Yu Shan, and the crown prince the title of supreme geniuses in front of many of his subjects in the capital.

The emperor looked at his trusted subordinate and raised a brow as he asked, “Suddenly? I have already thought about this since a long time ago. It isn’t a sudden decision on my part. With how many years you’ve served at my side, are you still not familiar with what type of person I am? I am not someone who would impulsively do things like that.”

Yu Yinyi let out a frown.

“Then, why?” he asked. It wasn’t as if he was dissatisfied that his son was given the title of a supreme genius by the emperor. Far from it. In fact, he was quite proud and happy for his son. The reason he asked him was that he was just curious about the emperor’s reason for giving them that title when no one in the history of the Jin Empire was given that title ever.

The emperor gave him a mysterious smile.

“I wanted the next generation to surpass us, and I don’t mean for them to surpass us by just a bit. I wanted them to surpass us greatly. In order to achieve this, Yun Ling’s existence is crucial. As a Divine Being, Yun Ling’s talents are too great. I have given both our sons the same title as Yun Ling so they would start seeing him as their rival. With that, they would strive harder in order to surpass Yun Ling, making them break through their limits to achieve just that,” the emperor said.

From what the emperor had observed from his experience as a ruler, the people who were born in poverty would work hard to get out of poverty; the people in the lower class would aim to get into the middle class; the people in the middle class would aim to get into the upper class; while the people in the upper class would aim to get above that.

With these observations, the emperor applied this to his and Yu Yinyi’s son.

If left to their own devices, both their sons might not accomplish much even with their extraordinary talents. However, by making Yun Ling as their rival who was a lot more talented than them, they would try hard to surpass him or at the very least, try to be on his level.

In short, by setting Yun Ling as their rival and goal, they would reach much greater heights than if they were to use someone less talented as their goal.

For example, if they made a cultivator in the Core Formation Realm as their rival and goal, their sons might aim to get just that. Core Formation Realm. They might get a little bit above that realm but it mainly would just be around that realm.

“I still don’t understand,” Yu Yinyi’s head ached when he heard the emperor’s explanation.

The emperor smiled and said, “Just wait and see.”

…

A few weeks after that, Yu Yinyi found his son, Yu Shan in their training grounds, sweating as he kept performing the basic sword moves taught to him by his father.

“Son… it’s already six in the evening. You started doing that at six in the morning. It’s already been twelve hours and you’re still doing that?” Yu Yinyi asked.

Yu Shan stopped for a moment as he replied to his father, “Yesterday, I asked Yun Ling and the crown prince to spar with me. Yun Ling easily defeated me in swordsmanship even though he was younger than me. As for the crown prince, he was better than me but he was also defeated by Yun Ling. I can’t accept it. I’m going to keep training so I can defeat them in our next spar.”

Yu Yinyi looked at his son’s hands which were shaking, probably from the nonstop training he just did.

“Even so, overworking yourself to this extent isn’t good. You’re only harming your body this way.”

Yu Shan frowned.

“If I don’t work hard, then how will I be able to defeat those two? I can’t allow myself to fall this far behind them. I am also a supreme genius like them so I won’t allow myself to be left behind by those two.”

Yu Yinyi saw the fire in his son’s eyes. Yu Shan wasn’t this determined before. When he was training his son before, he would do just the bare minimum required of him and be done with it. Now, however…

‘I see, so this is what you meant, Your Majesty,’ Yu Yinyi closed his eyes as he thought.

He then let out a smile as he told his son, “Take a rest for now. Tomorrow, I’ll change your training schedule to a more intense one in a way that wouldn’t harm your body and at the same time, productive.”

“Okay, father.”

…

In the crown prince’s training ground, the crown prince kept punching a stone golem with his fist repeatedly until they were bleeding.

“Damn it, I’m not strong enough!” the crown prince said as he finally broke the golem into smithereens with his fist.

Unknown to him, the emperor was looking at him with a look of approval from afar.

His plan was indeed working, however, it might be counterproductive if his son continued training unsupervised since he would probably harm himself in the long term.

“I guess it is time to teach him myself,” the emperor muttered to himself.

He had assigned teachers to the prince and princesses that would teach them things regarding cultivation and other stuff like swordsmanship, unarmed combat, medicine, etc. Rarely would he teach his children himself since he was way too busy with the empire’s affairs. Now, however, he decided he would teach him exclusively so he wouldn’t fall behind the other two supreme geniuses.

…

Yu Shan and the crown prince had serious expressions on their face as they looked at Yun Ling who was floating above them in the distance.

He was clad in an exquisite purple dragon-inspired armor with bright purple wings on his back looking as if he was some sort of Divine Being…

No, he was indeed just that.

A Divine Being.