The Preliminary Round Concludes

"Something is wrong... the sequence of the origin laws of time is not what I understood it to be."

Yu Duan sat cross-legged on the rooftop, frowning, with the Light and Time Sword resting horizontally across his knees.

"Clang!"

A sword hum suddenly erupted. Countless fine lines emerged on the transparent, clear blade, interlocking to form a complex and profound secret pattern diagram.

Rich black and white radiance flowed across the blade, spreading in all directions to form a flickering field.

Yu Duan combed through his own insights into the origin laws of time while simultaneously experiencing the shifts in the laws of time.

Many insights he had previously deemed correct—insights that could trigger the power of the origin laws of time—now appeared entirely wrong.

To be precise, it was not that Yu Duan's understanding was wrong, but rather... it was not precise enough, not accurate enough, and far too narrow.

"According to my previous logic of understanding, the mysteries of the time sequence are indeed like this, but if one changes the method of perception, new discoveries emerge."

Yu Duan was deep in thought, organizing his insights and comparing them against the fluctuations of the laws of time that filled the natural environment, verifying them against one another.

This was the greatest gain brought to Yu Duan by the change in his state of mind: viewing and perceiving the mysteries of the origin laws from multiple dimensions, directions, and perspectives.

The more he perceived, the more Yu Duan felt that his previous self had been like a person peeking at a leopard through a narrow tube, narrow-minded and one-sided. Seeing a single black spot on the leopard through a small hole, he had assumed the entire leopard must be black.

"Sigh... I will study this further after my consciousness returns to the real world."

In the preliminary qualifiers, there was no Silver Pupil to provide guidance, nor was there anyone else who could instruct Yu Duan.

Not only was the efficiency too low, but Yu Duan was also worried that he might misunderstand something, which would be a complete waste of time.

"Having sat here for 12 full days, those who haven't been eliminated yet should have at least some points by now."

Yu Duan stood up, the Light and Time Sword trembling slightly as he gripped it in his right palm.

The next instant, Yu Duan transformed into a brilliant streak of light, appearing at the very front of the 24th floor of the flight base in the blink of an eye.

There was a passageway here that led to the higher levels.

The entire flight base was a long shuttle-shaped, or olive-shaped, massive spacecraft with a total of 72 floors.

Therefore, the largest cross-section was in the middle area, which was the 36th floor.

The number of contestants there should be the highest, and it was also where the greatest number of powerhouses resided.

On the 36th floor of the flight base, inside a spacious and comfortable hall, two figures stood together.

"Ice Demon, have you heard? A super monster has appeared on the 24th floor; it's said that he destroyed the entire 24th floor and turned it into ruins."

A blonde woman wearing golden battle armor spoke, looking curiously at the blue-haired youth beside her who was wiping his broadsword.

Upon hearing this, the blue-haired youth's expressionless face showed a look of astonishment: "Destroyed the entire 24th floor? Is he that bored?"

Even for experts like them who had mastered a domain, they could not casually shatter buildings made of B9-grade materials.

Who would be bored enough to go around hacking at buildings?

"It is said... that he simply expanded his domain, and every building within the range of the domain was instantly pulverized."

As the blonde woman said this, she felt her own words were somewhat absurd.

She had seen geniuses who possessed a level-nine domain and had even stepped into the origin laws.

But she had never heard of anyone's domain pressure having such immense power. The strength of B9-grade materials was far greater than the body of a Star Level nine powerhouse.

If that were the case, would there even be a need to fight in a battle between peers? Just by expanding the domain, the opponent would be killed instantly.

The blue-haired youth pondered for a moment and said, "Is your source of information reliable?"

"This... it's hard to say. It was during a hunt today; someone begged for mercy and wanted to trade information for their life, so I agreed."

The blonde woman continued, adding: "I heard that the monster's domain is a dark domain. When it expands, everything is annihilated, and he is currently killing his way up from the 24th floor."

"If that's true, he must be a genius who has mastered the mysteries of a superior origin law. You are a member of the imperial royal family; have you heard of any geniuses of that level within the universe nation?"

Upon hearing this, the expression on the blue-haired youth's stoic face became even uglier.

"Light Domain, a superior origin law... I might know who it is. There is a high probability that this news is true. Let's go, let's go, run for it first."

The blue-haired youth known as Ice Demon did not hesitate in the slightest and immediately set off to flee toward the upper levels.

Seeing this, the blonde woman hurriedly followed.

The two of them had known each other in the outside world and hailed from a medium-sized universe nation, the Lanting Empire.

Although they had only met at family gatherings previously and were not close, in the preliminary qualifiers, it was at least good to have a teammate whose background was known and who could be trusted.

"Tell me quickly, what is going on?" The blonde woman's voice drifted through the air.

"I'll explain in detail once we reach the top floor."

Just half a day after the two of them left the 36th floor and relocated to the higher levels, Yu Duan arrived at the 36th floor.

"Boom!"

A blazing light domain swept outward, as if a star shrunk countless times had fallen, carrying an unstoppable momentum. In just a few seconds, it spanned the entire 36th floor.

Wherever it passed, countless people were eliminated instantly, not even having the chance to react.

Various high-rise buildings and structures were pierced right through the middle, leaving gaping holes before they came crashing down.

Looking from afar, a "trench" had suddenly appeared in the center of the various building districts, both large and small.

"Whoosh!"

"Swish!"

"..."

In an instant, streams of light erupted from every corner of the 36th-floor zone. They were dense and countless, like a meteor shower flowing in reverse, surging in all directions before fleeing rapidly toward the passages at the far ends of this level.

Even though more than ten days had passed since the start of the qualifiers, over a million people were still gathered in this largest level of the 72-floor world zone. Those capable of remaining in this level were basically experts who had mastered a domain.

However, these so-called experts were now fleeing for their lives in a frenzy. Only a very few figures did not run, shouting instead, "Senior Brother Yu Duan, I am also from the Beiming Sacred Land!"

Unfortunately, Yu Duan did not know them.

Boom!

In the blink of an eye, that brilliant meteor shot over from the other end once again, leaving a blazing white trail of light in mid-air.

Yu Duan arrived before them despite starting later. Even though the Star Level peak experts were fleeing at extreme speeds, over a hundred thousand contestants still failed to react in time and were blocked by Yu Duan right at the entrance of the escape passage.

In the process, any contestant who was even grazed or brushed by Yu Duan's Time Domain was left either dead or missing limbs.

"Is he even human? He's like a humanoid B9-grade Orbital Cannon."

Someone looked at Yu Duan blocking the exit with a look of despair, their voice trembling as they spoke.

Under the shroud of the blazing light domain, one could only vaguely see a figure suspended in mid-air, appearing like a god who had descended into the mortal world.

"We can't outrun him! We have a sliver of hope if we join forces for a combined attack!"

Someone shouted, and a brilliant Crimson Treasure Wheel spun madly in their palm; this was an extremely powerful telepathic weapon.

The next instant, this telepathic weapon shot out, spinning and cutting with terrifying speed, emitting a piercing sound.

"Kill!"

"Break for me!"

"..."

That telepathic attack seemed to sound the charge. In an instant, thousands upon thousands of attacks bloomed, as if they were the final roars of trapped beasts, erupting with the desperation of a last stand.

"Hum!"

At this moment, the blazing light domain suddenly transformed into a pitch-black Domain of No Light.

In an instant, it felt as if all light had been swallowed by that invisible darkness; for Star Level experts, it reached the point where they couldn't even see their own fingers.

At this moment, endless fear and panic gripped the hearts of the many contestants present.

When they could see Yu Duan, they still had the courage to launch attacks in their desperation.

But once completely shrouded in darkness, they lost all courage, thinking only of fleeing.

However, before they could even make a move, almost as the darkness spread, fine starlight patterns rippled through the dark domain like ripples on water.

In an instant, everyone felt a tingling sensation throughout their bodies.

Those fine starlight patterns easily penetrated their bodies, and the power of the Origin Law of Light and Time proved invincible within their fragile cells, easily destroying their cellular vitality.

Accompanied by a gust of wind, countless figures turned into flying sand and dust, drifting away into the world.

A moment later, the dense Darkness Domain began to shrink.

Yu Duan's figure appeared behind them, behind those tens of thousands of Star Level contestants, having easily dodged the tens or even hundreds of thousands of full-force attacks they had unleashed.

Their speed was too slow.

So much so that the speed of the weapons, secret techniques, and various other attacks they unleashed was far inferior to Yu Duan's movement technique speed.

For Yu Duan to use his domain to directly annihilate experts of this level, he needed to shrink his domain to within a hundred meters, as he could not cover too large an area.

Being able to almost instantly kill everyone within a range of several hundred kilometers was also because his movement technique allowed him to fly fast enough.

In particular, his instantaneous burst speed was the most important factor.

Taking a Universe Level 9 as an example, the general top speed in space is around 1,500 kilometers per second.

But they need to fly for a period of time to accelerate to their top speed.

Yu Duan, having mastered the entry level of the Time Flow Shadow movement technique, only needed a few seconds to accelerate to his peak speed.

"My current points are definitely enough to maintain the first-place ranking in this world zone. There's no need to hunt deliberately anymore."

Yu Duan raised his right hand, and his information appeared on the wristband's light screen.

Contestant: Yu Duan (Beiming Universe Kingdom)

Points: 173,246,845

Ranking: 1

"Swish!"

With a flash of light in his palm, the Light and Time Sword was slung across his back.

"For the remaining dozen days or so, I'll focus on training my movement techniques. If I run into people, I'll kill them; if I don't, then so be it."

A blazing white radiance swirled around Yu Duan's body, instantly transforming into a streak of light that tore through the air.

The one-month duration of the preliminary round could hardly be called long.

From the 12th day of the preliminaries onward, the departments within each major universe nation responsible for gathering intelligence on geniuses all discovered Yu Duan's existence.

In just a single day of frenzied slaughter, his points had surged from less than a million to a staggering 170 million.

It could be considered the record for the fastest point increase in this preliminary round, bar none.

Naturally, Yu Duan had become the most monstrous talent to emerge in this genius competition's preliminary round.

Countless people meticulously analyzed Yu Duan's battle record, desperate to know just how strong he truly was.

Yet from beginning to end, until the preliminary round finally concluded, Yu Duan had never once fought with his full strength.