Another golden-crowned genius had fallen at Max's hands.
Everyone was silent.
Not a single voice rose from the crowd after Mike's body shattered into frozen dust. The wind carried the faint glitter of frost through the air, and for a long moment, that was the only thing that moved.
Shock rippled through the gathered geniuses like a wave crashing against a cliff. Their minds struggled to process what they had just witnessed. Mike—the proud golden-crowned genius who had stood at the very top of his world—had been killed in a single strike. Not just defeated, but utterly erased, without even forcing Max to lift his hand more than once.
They had all believed, even if secretly, that they had caught up.
They had trained endlessly. They had broken through their limits inside the Divine Platform. They had reached the peak of the Divine Rank, something most cultivators could only dream of achieving in a lifetime.
