At this moment, Luo Feng and Qianshui were about to fight for the third spot to enter the Original Secret Realm.
However, everyone could already tell who was stronger.
Luo Feng's strength was clearly far beyond Qianshui's.
When he fought against Luo Fan and Bolan earlier, he had lasted much longer than Qianshui did.
Very soon, the final two matches were about to begin.
All eyes were focused on the arena where Luo Fan and Bolan stood.
In truth, everyone could already tell how this would go.
Luo Fan's strength was most likely above Bolan's, unless Bolan had been hiding some secret power.
What people really wanted to see now was just how strong Luo Fan had become.
Luo Fan took the opportunity to create a new system mission for himself during this Cosmic Genius Tournament, something he absolutely couldn't forget.
[Mission: Win first place in the Cosmic Genius Tournament]
Reward: Luck +10,000,000, Comprehension +3,000,000, Insight Crystal ×1
Ten million luck points!
Three million comprehension points!
Luo Fan's heart instantly leapt with excitement.
He hadn't expected the reward to be this high, and there was even an Insight Crystal included.
Just hearing the name alone, he knew it couldn't be anything ordinary.
He even tried to create a side mission just to "defeat Bolan," but the system rejected it.
Soon, the final match began.
With a single command, the arena filled with a thousand identical Bolans.
Each one was a perfect illusionary clone.
But in the next instant, several Luo Fans appeared beside every single Bolan!
Almost immediately, all the Bolan clones vanished into thin air.
Only the real Bolan remained standing at the center of the stage.
His pupils contracted sharply.
He had been defeated in the very field he prided himself on most, illusions!
Raising his sword, Bolan unleashed a flurry of slashes.
Sword light cut through the air, sharp enough to tear the space apart.
Each strike was swift as lightning.
Each strike's trajectory was impossible to read.
They came one after another, strange as the wind, unpredictable and merciless.
But Luo Fan had no intention of wasting time.
All his clones raised the Tide God Blade and swung together.
In an instant, countless blades formed a vast ocean of blade light that engulfed the entire arena.
A blinding flash filled the air.
In just one moment, Bolan was blasted off the platform.
He stood outside the arena, his eyes filled with shock and unwillingness, and beneath that, a hint of confusion.
He had never imagined that one day, he would be defeated by someone of the same level.
All his life, Bolan had crushed every opponent of equal rank.
He had always believed himself to be invincible among his peers.
Yet today, he had been completely overwhelmed... instantly.
He couldn't help but feel lost.
Meanwhile, the other battle also ended.
Qianshui ultimately could not stand against Luo Feng.
…
At this moment, 1,008 Immortals and 1,000 young geniuses stood together in the central plaza, listening to the man in the blue battle robe with violet scales, the Nine Sword Sovereign.
He slowly opened his mouth, and his voice echoed directly in everyone's minds.
"From first to third place."
"From fourth to tenth."
"From eleventh to one hundredth."
"From one hundred and first to one thousandth."
"The rankings of all four tiers of geniuses have now been decided."
"The Human Cosmic Peak Genius Tournament of this era has officially come to a perfect end."
The Nine Sword Sovereign smiled as he gazed down at the thousand youths before him.
"You are an exceptional generation."
"I believe that tens or even hundreds of eras from now, many among you will become names known throughout the universe."
Then his eyes briefly lingered on Luo Fan.
"Soon, our staff will contact you and escort you to the headquarters of the Virtual Universe Company."
"You will all assemble there, and from there, you will be sent into the 'Initial Universe.'"
"From this moment on, your path is no longer ordinary."
"The Virtual Universe Company will give you every resource and opportunity you need."
"But whether you become a legendary being, a common powerhouse, or fall midway—"
"That will depend entirely on yourselves."
"Work hard, young ones. Your journey as true powerhouses has only just begun."
His voice reverberated in everyone's hearts.
The tournament had come to an end.
As soon as it was over, the Nine Sword Sovereign and the 1,008 Immortals all departed.
The thousand young geniuses were preparing to leave as well, when suddenly, a group of staff members stopped them.
"Please wait a moment. There are still matters to discuss regarding your transport to the Virtual Universe Company's main headquarters."
…
On the second floor of Central Plaza's Restaurant No. 2, the thousand geniuses were seated in a large meeting hall.
"Allow me to introduce myself," said a tall man standing at the front, he was about 2.7 meters tall, with dark stripes along his neck and a warm, friendly smile.
"My name is Mana."
"Since the Virtual Universe Company will be sending ships to pick you all up, please write your exact planetary address on the paper in front of you so we can arrange pickup."
Luo Fan immediately wrote down the address of Black Meteor, one of the places he frequented most.
Luo Feng and his two friends wrote the addresses of their own territories: the Starfield Universe Nation, the Flowrock Universe Nation, and the Myriad Leaf Universe Nation.
Then, some of the geniuses began to question it aloud.
"Why don't we just go ourselves? Wouldn't that be faster?"
"Yeah, isn't it a hassle to pick up everyone one by one?"
Mana seemed completely unfazed, he had clearly heard this same question many times before.
Smiling, he patiently explained:
"Because the journey spans countless universe nations and covers an extremely vast distance."
"Ordinary ships are slow when traveling through the Dark Universe."
"To reach our main headquarters directly would take a very, very long time."
"So, to save you all that wasted time, the Virtual Universe Company will send its fastest ships to pick you up."
He paused, then added, "For reference, the furthest of you here is about 1.5 billion light years away from the headquarters."
"In the Dark Universe, where distance is reduced by roughly a ratio of 1 to 1,008,100, even traveling at the speed of light would still take around 150 years."
The entire room fell silent.
One hundred and fifty years!
For these geniuses, that was an incredibly long time.
Most of them had only cultivated for a few hundred years in total.
To waste 150 years just traveling would be absurd... especially since the Dark Universe was a poor place to comprehend laws.
Meaning, the journey would be pure lost time.
"One hundred and fifty years?!"
"I'm not even 150 years old yet!"
"The longest flight I've ever taken was three months!"
Cries of disbelief filled the hall.
Only a few people remained calm, among them, Luo Fan and his companions.
After all, the universe was vast beyond measure.
Even in the original story, when Luo Feng traveled to Horned Black Dragon Star, the trip had taken nearly ten days.
And that was just within the same starfield, the Black Dragon Mountain Starfield.
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