Fierce battles raged throughout World Zone One. Explosions echoed endlessly across cities and wastelands alike, waves of destruction colliding without pause.
Yet Rowan remained completely at ease.
At the same time, across every corner of the Black Dragon Empire, countless eyes were fixed upon this generation's Virtual Universe Genius Battle.
This time, the Black Dragon Empire had officially sent over two thousand selected participants. Rowan was among them.
Hong, Thunder God, and Luo Feng had joined the competition at the recommendation of Immortal Tianxu, so they were not officially listed as representatives of the empire. Even so, their identities were still tied to it. They were, without question, citizens of the Black Dragon Empire.
Within the Black Dragon Sacred Grounds, the grand hall stood solemn and vast.
The Black Dragon Emperor sat upon the throne, flanked by Brolin and numerous high-ranking ministers.
Although the empire had carefully selected over two thousand geniuses for this event, none of them could say with certainty how far those talents would go.
The Black Dragon Emperor himself had not yet entered the Virtual Universe to observe.
He was waiting.
Waiting to reveal a surprise.
That surprise was Rowan.
"Strange," one of the ministers muttered. "Why can't we find Prince Rowan's name on the rankings?"
Several ministers who had aligned themselves closely with Rowan were puzzled. The preliminary selection had already been underway for seventy-two hours.
In World Zone One alone, the original 8.2 billion participants had been reduced to just 160 million after three days of relentless slaughter.
Every survivor left standing was unquestionably formidable.
At the same time, Rowan's communicator received inquiries from members of the Imperial Guard Corps, asking which zone he was currently in.
There were eighteen of them in total.
Rowan ignored every message.
Elsewhere, Thunder God, Hong, and Luo Feng had each begun their own advance in Zones Thirty One, Thirty Nine, and Seventy One.
Strictly speaking, only Hong and Thunder God were charging head-on.
Luo Feng, much like in the original timeline, chose to lie low at the beginning.
His assigned battlefield was modeled after an outer-region planet of the Nalan Universe Nation. Space itself was unstable there, filled with terrifying turbulence capable of shredding stellar-rank armor with ease.
As a result, combatants moved with extreme caution. Some even deliberately lured enemies into the turbulent zones to annihilate them.
Luo Feng hid deep within a massive mountain range, using his Heavenly Saber to drill over one hundred thousand kilometers underground. There, he quietly cultivated the Divine Armament once more.
He was in no rush.
Meanwhile, Hong and Thunder God were like unleashed monsters.
In Zones Thirty One and Thirty Nine, they tore through opponents as though blessed by fate itself. Anyone who encountered them felt as if they had run headlong into a walking calamity.
Take Thunder God, for example.
In less than ten hours, he had already accumulated over 850,000 points.
Now, inside a towering structure, he found himself surrounded by more than two hundred warriors.
"Everyone," one of them shouted, "we kill him together. Otherwise, none of us will ever reach the top one thousand and one."
Thunder God stood calmly among more than two thousand peak ninth-rank stellar cultivators, his gaze sweeping over them indifferently.
Every person present understood the truth.
If they did not eliminate the strongest opponent first, none of them would survive long enough to advance.
They were no match for Thunder God individually.
So they formed a pact.
Better to gamble everything in one desperate assault.
Thunder God, however, looked almost bored.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Enough talking," he said. "If you want to kill me, hurry up. Stop wasting my time."
His disdain ignited their fury.
Psychic attacks erupted instantly. Mental weapons flew through the air. Close-combat fighters charged with blades and heavy arms.
More than two hundred attacks converged at once.
Thunder God lowered his head slightly.
Then he smiled.
"Fourth-layer Domain."
"Blade Intent. Phantom Heaven Thunder Slash. First Form. Thunder Rending the Sky."
The fifth-tier energy weapon in his hand, the Skyfire Thundercloud Saber, burst into blinding brilliance.
The fourth-layer domain expanded outward, crushing all incoming attacks. Thunder God slowly drew his blade.
A terrifying blade intent surged skyward, like a divine weapon piercing the heavens.
Boundless lightning condensed into a massive blade of thunder over a thousand meters long. Ancient runes on the saber ignited as Thunder God's lightning power multiplied dozens of times through the weapon.
With a single flash.
The thunder blade swept forward.
Already suppressed by the domain, the two hundred attackers stood no chance.
They were erased instantly.
The lightning blade continued onward, flying tens of kilometers before finally dissipating.
Along its path, three unfortunate bystanders were caught at the edge of the strike and reduced to nothing by the residual lightning.
A massive ravine, over ten kilometers long, was carved into the battlefield.
Thunder roared.
The sky itself seemed to tremble.
Thunder God stood amid cascading lightning, looking every bit like a god of legend.
In that instant, his ranking in Zone Thirty One surged to eighty-eight.
Elsewhere, in World Zone Thirty Nine, the environment was entirely different.
The sky was dark and oppressive. Scalding sulfuric rain poured endlessly from above.
This was a newly formed high-density planet undergoing an extreme atmospheric transformation.
Ordinary metals would dissolve within moments under such rain.
Fortunately, participants could select appropriate equipment upon entering the Virtual Universe.
Most chose familiar weapons rather than experimental ones. Advanced energy weapons carried intricate law inscriptions and multiple forms, but mastery required time.
A weapon unfamiliar to its wielder was often worse than a lower-tier one they knew well.
Thus, most invested in high-grade armor instead.
Fifth-tier battle armor could disperse roughly half of incoming damage, making survival far more likely.
Even so, against Thunder God's universe-level blade strike, no amount of mitigation would suffice.
In this acidic storm, peak stellar cultivators endured without issue thanks to their armor.
The battlefield itself was pure carnage.
Shockwaves from combat swept across millions of kilometers. Entire regions vanished in seconds.
Amid this chaos, one figure stood unmoving.
Hong.
Silver spear in hand, he moved like a dragon emerging from the sea. Every enemy who approached was torn apart instantly.
"Do not get close to that monster!" someone shouted as fighters fled from him.
Hong activated his fourth-layer domain and stood calmly, thrusting his spear with absolute precision. He did not chase enemies.
He waited.
If anyone entered his range, they died.
Slowly, the area around him became forbidden ground.
Hong closed his eyes.
"Mind Illusion. Shadow Illusion. Heaven Illusion. Demon Illusion…"
His aura shifted constantly, murderous one moment, eerie the next.
Then a massive figure descended from the sky.
Five meters tall, clad in dark crimson armor, wielding twin massive blades, radiating overwhelming killing intent.
"You seek death!" the warrior roared. "But you are strong. Worthy of my full strength!"
He was a Karman warrior, a race famed for monstrous physical power. This one was a rare prodigy, capable of solo-killing a second-rank universe-level opponent.
His blades fell.
The temperature skyrocketed. Acid rain evaporated instantly.
His fifth-layer fire domain crushed down upon Hong's domain, warping it severely.
Still, Hong did not move.
"Demon Slaughter Blade. Sever!"
The strike descended.
At that instant, Hong opened his eyes.
Blood-red pupils flashed.
His spear trembled.
Countless spear shadows erupted, accompanied by a terrifying killing intent that manifested as an invisible mental assault.
The Karman warrior's mind shattered.
He was dragged into an illusion.
In it, a World Lord killed him, slaughtered his family, erased his clan.
He roared in defiance, knowing it was false, yet unable to escape.
When he awakened, he was back in the waiting area.
Defeat.
"So strong," he murmured bitterly. "A warrior who uses illusion techniques…"
His companions comforted him.
"You survived one exchange. That alone is incredible."
Hong's ranking rose to seventy-one.
Back in the Black Dragon Empire, the entire population watched.
One hundred world zones. One hundred projections.
And among them, two figures burned brightest.
Hong.
And Thunder God.