The Frontline
The Heaven-Slaying Martial God calmly swept his gaze over the name that stood out from the crowd on the Heavenly Dao Stele, without any emotional fluctuation, and then gently waved his hand.
Buzz!
Chen Fan, Xiao Wuming, Luo Shenyue, Lei Pojun... all the Prodigies ranked in the top 1,000 felt an irresistible force enveloping them at this moment.
The next second, space shifted.
They were simultaneously transported to a massive platform in front of the Heaven-Slaying Martial God, where a thousand people gathered in complete silence.
The calm voice of the Heaven-Slaying Martial God rang out at this moment.
It wasn't loud, but it clearly reached the ears of every Prodigies and even every viewer in the live stream.
Congratulations on passing the first two rounds of selection.
"But I have something to tell you."
He paused, his gaze sweeping across the entire room. Every Prodigies whose eyes met his felt a shiver run through their very soul.
"The third round is not an assessment."
"It's war."
After he finished speaking, the entire room fell silent.
Ignoring the astonishment of the crowd, Heaven-Slaying Tianwu T God continued in his emotionless tone, "Your battlefield will be the true Starry Sky Frontline, your enemies will be real Alien Races, and your deaths will be true deaths."
"Now, you have ten seconds to choose to quit."
No one will laugh at you for this. Being alive is more important than anything else.
The ten-second countdown began to echo in everyone's hearts.
There was a deathly silence on the platform.
Those Prodigies who were just moments ago elated or saddened by their rankings now had expressions of struggle and horror on their faces.
However, ten seconds passed.
Not a single person backed down.
After a moment of deathly silence, Lei Pojun, who had been keeping his head down, suddenly raised his head.
The flames that had been almost extinguished by Chen Fan's attack reignited in his eyes. It wasn't a desire to challenge Chen Fan, but a purer, warrior's yearning!
"War!"
He let out a long-suppressed roar, his fighting spirit soaring to the sky!
"War!"
"War!!"
One man's roar ignited the fighting spirit of a thousand.
Their indomitable will converged into a torrent, washing away all fear and confusion. They are the Prodigies, and they have their own pride!
Heaven-Slaying Martial God watched this scene, a faint hint of approval finally appeared in his usually calm and unwavering eyes.
He nodded.
"Very good."
After he finished speaking, he said no more, but simply raised his ordinary hand again and waved it sharply into the Void.
"Boom!!"
A spatial force ten thousand times more powerful than before instantly enveloped the entire platform, forcefully tearing apart the barrier between the virtual and the real world with unparalleled brutality!
In a violent, dizzying spin that could tear apart the Divine Soul, the figures of a thousand Prodigies, along with the entire platform, vanished completely into the [Star Domain].
The excruciating pain of space being torn apart felt as if it were ripping one's Divine Soul into pieces.
When the dizzying sensation finally subsided and the thousand Prodigies regained consciousness, the air flowing into their nostrils was no longer the pure, almost unreal, aura from the [Star Domain].
Instead, it was a cold air mixed with ozone, metallic corrosion, and a faint smell of blood.
Beneath my feet was a massive Alloy deck that gleamed with a dim, eerie light, covered with scratches of varying depths.
In the distance, the Milky Way still shines brightly, as magnificent as an eternal painting.
But nearby lies hell.
Countless shattered warship wrecks, like carelessly discarded trash, floated silently in the dark Void.
On some of the wreckage, one can even see the skeletons of both Alien Races and Human Races, long since lifeless and with stiff bodies, forming a vast and silent forbidden zone of death.
This is a massive war fortress suspended in the endless Void.
"This is... Starry Sky Frontline No. 73."
Prodigies from a military family recognized the place.
The figure of the Heaven-Slaying Martial God remained ordinary; he wore his faded military uniform and looked like just an ordinary old soldier.
He ignored the crowd's horror, simply raising his hand and pointing to the pitch-black expanse of space directly in front of the fortress.
There, a shadow, too vast to be measured by sight, was slowly approaching.
It was a massive fleet formed by the fusion of countless twisted biological tissues and deformed metals, densely packed like an endless locust plague, exuding an aura of chaos and hunger that devoured everything.
"Star-Devouring Demon Locusts."
Luo Shenyue's clear, cold voice also carried a hint of solemnity.
A notorious predator race in the universe, they feed on planets and civilizations, leaving nothing but desolation in their wake.
Under the almost suffocating gaze of all the Prodigies, the Heaven-Slaying Martial God finally announced the rules for the final assessment.
"I will establish Divine Laws on this battlefield."
He spoke in a flat tone, as if he were talking about something trivial.
"The maximum strength of all Star-Devouring Demon Locusts will be forcibly suppressed to the late Golden Body Realm."
"Assessment criteria: Hold this position for seven days, or defeat the enemy within seven days."
"The ranking will be based on kill contribution. The final ranking will determine what rewards you will receive from the Human Federation."
The words had barely left his mouth.
The Heaven-Slaying Martial God slowly raised his ordinary hand and gently pressed it against the boundless starry sky, across a vast distance.
Buzz!!
An indescribable, supreme power descended instantly!
The Prodigies present could not see the chains of law, nor the changes in the rules, but they could clearly sense that the terrifying aura emanating from the distant Demon Locust fleet, which was enough to make even Golden Body Realm expert despair, had been forcibly reduced by a large portion at this moment!
It was as if an invisible hand had brutally and forcefully capped the fleet's potential at a predetermined level.
Words become law!
Modify the rules of heaven and earth!
For the first time, they witnessed firsthand the true power represented by the title "Martial God."
This made them feel more insignificant and trivial than any earth-shattering battle.
In the eyes of the truly supreme being, so-called wars and so-called powerful enemies are nothing more than a game with rules that can be set at will.
A profound sense of awe, coupled with an even more fervent desire, ignited within them simultaneously.
Only Chen Fan.
He still had that lazy, half-asleep look on his face.
His gaze did not linger on the distant enemy forces; instead, he looked the Heaven-Slaying Martial God up and down with great interest.
The Heaven-Slaying Martial God glanced at them one last time, his calm, still eyes lingering on Chen Fan for a moment without any expression.
He didn't say another word, leaving only one sentence.
"Let's begin."
As soon as he finished speaking, his ordinary figure vanished without a trace, like a wisp of smoke scattered by the wind.
It was as if he had never existed.
The next second.
"Beep!!"
A piercing, ear-splitting alarm, loud enough to tear eardrums, suddenly blared throughout the deathly silent steel fortress!
All the defensive turrets and energy nodes inside the fortress were activated simultaneously, emitting a dull rumble.
Distance.
The boundless army of Star-Devouring Demon Locusts, having lost the last trace of restraint from the Martial God aura, instantly erupted into chaos!