"The sky suddenly went dark..."
A contestant hiding inside a building froze. The next instant, an invisible force of law swallowed him and wiped him from existence.
The Source Laws of Time and Light had always complemented each other. Combined, their powers created a special force of annihilation.
Under Yu Duan's control, this force of temporal annihilation merged perfectly with the Ninefold Domain, instantly forming a terrifying "Star-Level Meat Grinder."
"Rumble!"
Yu Duan activated his movement technique and shot toward the area with the most intense and concentrated fighting.
At that moment, on the 24th floor of the World Zone, a miniature black hole appeared, barely a hundred meters in diameter, rampaging in every direction.
Wherever it passed, rooms, buildings, and other structures made of B9 Grade materials crumbled into fine ash and dust.
The contestants hiding in those buildings without joining the fighting were swept away with them, annihilated beneath the destructive force of the Time Domain.
"That's... a domain? Impossible. How could a domain be so powerful? And this isn't even on an outside planet."
A contestant who had mastered a domain had been watching from afar and escaped the disaster. Now, he stared in disbelief.
"Could it be... a bug in the Virtual Universe System? Did it let a ninth-level Universe Level fighter in?"
He had a domain of his own.
At the peak of Star Level, one's strength could easily destroy a city on certain primitive planets. A full-force strike produced a shockwave comparable to a nuclear blast.
A Star-Level Fighter who had mastered a domain could spread it out and wipe out every Apprentice Level life-form within dozens of kilometers in an instant.
But... those were Apprentice Level life-forms and primitive cities!
Spread a domain that far, and even Planetary Level life-forms would be difficult to kill. The domain could only suppress and control them.
Against opponents of the same level, a domain had to be compressed to a radius of no more than a hundred meters to carry enough power.
He had never heard of a Star-Level fighter who could destroy B9 Grade materials through domain pressure alone.
Even a ninth-level Star-Level fighter would struggle to break B9 Grade materials with a full-force strike. This guy had crushed them straight into powder with his domain. It was absurd!
Meanwhile—
The miniature "black hole" rampaged at an inconceivable speed, many times faster than sound.
Before anyone could react, the domain engulfed them, annihilating them completely.
The flying base had 72 floors of space, with an average of over a hundred million people on each floor. This population density couldn't have been more convenient for Yu Duan.
The annihilating force created by the fusion of temporal power was embedded in a domain a hundred meters in diameter. Its might was less than one percent of the third form of the Light and Time Sword, but when it came to slaughtering the weak, its efficiency was off the charts.
In just a few seconds, he could charge from one end of the flying base's 24th floor to the other. Everything in his path was annihilated and crushed, leaving nothing but dust and ruins.
At over a thousand kilometers long, the floor was still a relatively short distance for an ordinary ninth-level Star-Level fighter. Yu Duan, meanwhile, could tear through it several times in a single minute.
After spotting the rampaging "black hole" from afar, the first thing the contestants who had formed temporary teams did was run.
"We can't stay on the 24th floor. Whoever's using that dark domain has definitely crossed the threshold of the Source Law. He's a monstrous talent, most likely one raised by the Beiming Sacred Land."
"Exactly. Even if we teamed up, we'd just be handing him points."
There was no way they were fighting him. Not in this life.
At that moment, a fleet of spaceships circled the base outside.
The spaceships carried spectators who had come to watch the matches.
With over 1.1 trillion contestants in the preliminary round, it wasn't worth the Virtual Universe spending the computing power to provide each one with a dedicated live feed.
So this was the only way to watch.
The flying base's outer shell, which the contestants couldn't break through, was completely transparent to the spectators aboard the ships, as if it weren't there at all.
Those with greater privileges could even see every contestant. All the buildings and surroundings inside the flying base appeared transparent to them as well.
On one of the spaceships, King Qinghuan stood at the front, with King Hui Ming, Marquis Chiyue, and a group of other titled Immortals behind him.
"Wow, our junior brother's ruthless. He's going straight to 'plowing the field.'"
Third Senior Brother Marquis Chiyue clicked his tongue in amazement. His junior brother's understanding of the laws and skill in wielding them were leagues beyond his own at Star Level.
Back then, he... had just been an ordinary Genius Tournament champion, nowhere near the level of a once-in-many-eras super genius.
To be precise, more than a dozen of King Qinghuan's personal disciples had all been Genius Tournament champions.
The only one who hadn't been was Second Senior Brother King Hui Ming.
In his second senior brother's generation, a monstrously gifted super genius had emerged. He'd become an Immortal at just a few hundred thousand years old, immediately gaining King Level strength. Then, after barely a dozen eras, he'd broken through to the Universe Venerable level and taken the title "Undying."
Little Senior Sister Marquis Longxing spoke softly. "It's hard to believe our junior brother isn't even forty yet. I wonder how far his understanding of the laws will go after a few more eras, once he breaks through to World Lord Level."
Marquis Longxing watched Yu Duan's figure, seeming to picture the splendor he would display at World Lord Level.
In the blink of an eye, more than an hour had passed since the preliminary round began.
First World Zone, 24th floor of the flying base.
Across an area of more than a hundred thousand square kilometers, only ruins and a thick layer of dust remained.
In the center of the 24th floor stood an entertainment building resembling a tavern, still mostly intact. Yu Duan sat cross-legged atop it.
"I've killed at least several hundred thousand people, but my score hasn't even reached a million. This is too inefficient."
Yu Duan raised his right hand. His information appeared on the screen.
Contestant: Yu Duan (Beiming Universe Kingdom)
Points: 943541
Rank: 1
Yu Duan's rate of killing was already extremely high.
Even so, with the contestants scattering in every direction, he had killed less than one percent of them.
Even Spirit Readers couldn't be much more efficient than Yu Duan's domain-based killing. He was already at the limit.
If he were in another World Zone with a lower population density, his rate of killing would drop even further.
"I'll wait ten days. Those who survive that long won't be cannon fodder. By then, they should have gathered a decent number of points."
Yu Duan was aiming for first place in the World Zone.
If he failed to take first, the Genius Competition rules meant he would still have to compete in the Arena Group Battle and the Reincarnation Battle, dragging things out for a full three years.
Fighting geniuses at the same level as those in the real world could hardly offer Yu Duan any pressure or gains anymore.
Compared with opponents generated through direct simulations in the Killing Field, the difference was simply too great.
So to Yu Duan, those two competitions were a waste of time.
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