There was no day or night within the Heavenly Ascension Ceremony venue. Aside from the timer during challenges, time's passage was almost impossible to feel.
As the challenges continued, newcomers joined the ceremony every moment. Though the elimination rate remained high, the number of contestants in the Advancement Zone was indeed steadily growing.
"Come on, let me count..."
After one challenge, Dias suddenly turned around, his translucent giant face looking towards the contestants in the Advancement Zone. Though it was merely a Holographic Projection and did not look ferocious, it carried an invisible pressure. Even the many Ascended Experts who had already advanced could not help feeling tense. Was this the oppressive presence of the number one beneath a True God...
"One, two, three, four..." Dias's gaze swept over every qualifier before he finally counted them all. "Forty-three in total... Thirteen Godhoods and forty-three people—not easy to divide. How about this? I'll limit the finals to fifty-two people. Four people competing for one Godhood—just right!"
The moment those words came out, everyone who had yet to take the challenge grew tense.
During this time, Ascension-level powerhouses from the major worlds had arrived one after another. Aside from oddball worlds like [Natural Disaster], which had not a single Ascension-level existence, every other world had more or less produced Feather Transformation beings.
The worlds with more of them, such as [Myth] and [Deep Space], each had several dozen intelligent Ascension-level beings. The worlds with fewer, such as [Wasteland], had also sent several fifth-stage mutants that had evolved intelligence.
As for the other worlds, [Martial World] alone had six or seven Feather Transformation experts openly known in the Central Plains. Including those overseas powerhouses, gathering over a dozen Feather Transformation experts was no problem. Though [Utopia] looks like it had no top experts