The Last Three

"Yu Duan has broken into the fourth Trial Tower; his points are rising fast!"

"Kedi is catching up too; the gap between these two is razor-thin!"

"These two little guys—not only is their mastery of the laws astonishing, but they are also terrifyingly young!"

In the plaza's rest area, the various Immortals were primarily focused on Yu Duan and Kedi.

As for Yalunsi, who held the highest ranking, he was a spirit reader by nature and had gained a significant advantage during the Trial Tower phase. Furthermore, he was older, and it was assumed his mental state wasn't particularly exceptional, so he didn't draw much attention.

"One has been cultivating for over thirty years, the other for over sixty. To reach this level of mastery in the laws is simply incredible."

An Immortal team leader from the Ganwu Universe Kingdom sighed with emotion. When would their own universe kingdom produce a genius of this caliber?

However, this Immortal also revealed quite a bit of information.

It turned out that Kedi was older than Yu Duan and had been cultivating for longer. For the first few decades, he had been a very ordinary Star Level fighter, only transforming into a super dark horse after the Genius Tournament began over three years ago.

The fourth Trial Tower, fifth floor.

Black and white light refracted in mid-air, and the trajectory of Yu Duan's flight seemed to defy the laws of physics. With incredible agility and instantaneous sharp-angle turns, he wove through the gaps between countless laser beams and rays.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

On the massive mechanical alloy base, there were over a hundred humanoid mechanical puppets standing over eight meters tall, each covered in various technological creations.

There were laser cannons, railguns, and even release ports for miniature flying mechanical bombs—the most insidious of them all.

"The difficulty of this floor... I estimate fewer than ten thousand people can clear it."

Yu Duan's figure traced an exquisite arc. If a powerhouse who had mastered the laws of time were watching, they would notice that his movement trajectory perfectly synchronized with the flickering of time fluctuations.

Of course, this perfect synchronization was only relative; you couldn't compare it to those titled Marquis or King level powerhouses.

But compared to the vast majority of World Masters who had mastered time-based movement techniques, the level of this footwork was already ridiculously high.

Swish!

Suddenly, a brilliant, extreme white glow emerged on the long sword held in Yu Duan's hand.

Countless silver and white law patterns condensed on the translucent blade, instantly forming a white cone.

The entire process took less than one-hundredth of a second. That white cone suddenly surged, as if transforming into a fired laser, instantly piercing the body of a mechanical puppet at extreme speed.

The next instant, the white spike, which had extended for dozens of kilometers, violently transformed into a dark, flowing light, then completely concealed itself within the space-time, becoming an invisible and lethal blade.

Chirp! Chirp! Chirp...

The invisible blade maintained its length of dozens of kilometers, and although its power had dropped significantly, it still sliced through the bodies of the mechanical puppets in an instant.

A moment later, as the last mechanical puppet was shredded by Yu Duan, his figure was teleported to the sixth floor.

The opponent on the sixth floor was one of the eighteen royal clans of the Monster Race: the Sky Wolf!

As a royal clan of the Monster Race, the Sky Wolf clan's innate genetic level was six times that of ordinary life forms, and they could reach the Domain Lord level upon adulthood, second only to the peak bloodlines of the universe.

However, the Sky Wolf on the fourth Trial Tower had mediocre combat power and posed no difficulty for Yu Duan.

After clearing it smoothly, he reached the seventh floor: the Bug Race Mother Nest.

In every previous Genius Tournament's Trial Tower phase, the opponents on the fifth and seventh floors never changed; only the opponents on the other floors were adjusted.

This was because, to a certain extent, the legion-style tactics of the Machine Race and the Bug Race were not afraid of analysis or counter-measures—at least, not at the Star Level.

While the many Genius Tournament contestants were clearing the levels, the promotional video for the tournament was finally completed.

Across all 1008 great universe kingdoms, the Genius Tournament was currently the hottest news and traffic driver.

There was no telling how many people were paying attention to the tournament's information.

However, the Trial Tower phase was not broadcast. Only the 1008 Immortal gods—the team leaders of each universe kingdom—could watch the live stream.

As for the ordinary citizens of the universe, they could naturally only watch promotional videos, documentaries, and the real-time updates of the leaderboard.

In the Virtual Universe, on the streets of a bustling city on the Beiming Continent.

A young couple from a prominent family was taking a walk when the content on the large screen by the street suddenly changed to a promotional video of the various geniuses from the Beiming Universe Kingdom clearing the towers.

"Look, it's the 'Light God' Yu Duan! He's so handsome!" The girl stared intently at Yu Duan's face.

The boy beside her curled his lip; if Yu Duan weren't his idol, he would have cursed a few times.

"What kind of monster is that? I've never seen it before." The girl looked curiously at the bizarre giant bird being decapitated by Yu Duan's sword on the screen, asking the boy beside her in confusion.

"That's a monster from the fourth floor of the Trial Tower, called a 'Green-Scaled Eagle'."

The boy projected seven virtual screens from the light-brain on his right wrist, showing the opponents for each of the seven floors of the Trial Tower.

The first floor had 10,000 Black-Scaled Mad Bulls, a type of mindless ferocious beast.

The second floor had 10,000 Rock-Armored Crocodiles, a common tribe of the Monster Race that existed in vast numbers.

The third floor had 1,000 Vine Clan warriors, a type of plant-based life form with relatively strong power.

The fourth floor was the Green-Scaled Eagle, a strange flying life form of the universe.

As for the Machine Race puppets, Monster Race Sky Wolf, and Bug Race Mother Nest in the final three levels, there were no detailed descriptions provided.

At this moment, on the various platforms of the Virtual Universe network, the volume of related discussions was skyrocketing exponentially.

"Too strong! Over a thousand Vine Clan warriors, their vine attacks are incredibly bizarre—Yu Duan is completely unfazed!"

"Light God, he is the true master of light!"

"Ahhhhh, why isn't Light God in first place? How does this Yalunsi deserve a score even slightly higher than my Light God?"

"And this Kedi, his score is only a tiny bit behind my idol."

Ever since the promotional video began airing, Yu Duan, Yalunsi, and Kedi have all gained a massive number of fans.

Among them, Yu Duan has the most fans, and as for the reason...

Yu Duan's strength is one aspect, but on the other hand, Yu Duan's appearance is more universally appealing, whereas Yalunsi and Kedi possess some distinct, polarizing traits; those who like them love them, but those who don't find them hard to accept.

The most active young people on the internet are just like this—ninety-nine percent of them are obsessed with looks.

Time continued to pass.

As the difficulty of the Trial Tower soared, more and more geniuses were rapidly eliminated.

In the end, only three people remained in the entire Trial Tower.

They were Yu Duan, Kedi, and Yalunsi; as for the others, they had all been kicked out of the Trial Tower, their scores permanently locked.

Although the Trial Tower had not yet completely concluded, the leaderboard was already out, and only the rankings of Yu Duan and the other two were still subject to change.

Among the top ten on the leaderboard, including Yu Duan and Kedi, there were only three martial artists; everyone else was a spirit reader.

"Currently, the first-place Yalunsi is challenging the seventh level of the sixth Trial Tower!"

"The difficulty of the seven Trial Towers increases sequentially!"

"Any genius capable of clearing the seventh level of the fourth Trial Tower has stepped into the threshold of the origin laws."

"As for the seventh level of the fifth tower, that requires extremely high attainment in higher-order laws; for instance, Kedi and Yalunsi are able to manifest at least nine phantom bodies."

"And the seventh level of the sixth tower has not been cleared by anyone for many years, but Yalunsi, Yu Duan, and Kedi all have the potential to clear this level."

The team leaders of the various universe kingdoms were also explaining to the young youngsters under their charge just how high the difficulty of the seventh levels in the different Trial Towers was.

In the rest area of the Nanhu Universe Kingdom, a young genius looked curiously at their team leader, an immortal.

"Sir, what is the difficulty of the seventh level of the seventh Trial Tower?"

The immortal team leader shook his head: "I don't know either. The highest level I have ever seen cleared was over a thousand epochs ago, when a super genius reached the fifth level of the seventh Trial Tower."

"Today, that super genius has become a supreme existence in the Giant Axe Dojo, as powerful as a Lord of the Kingdom, titled 'Shihuo'!"

"As for the final level of the seventh Trial Tower, perhaps only the true upper echelons of the Virtual Universe Company know exactly how difficult it is."

Just as this Nanhu Universe Kingdom immortal team leader was providing this information, Yalunsi successfully cleared the final level of the sixth Trial Tower.

With the third stage of the Yan Shen Bing and the minor success of his sword domain, the fusion of those four golden swords turned the sword domain into a veritable meat grinder.

He ultimately succeeded in slaying the Mother Nest's central mother emperor, clearing the sixth Trial Tower.

At this moment, everyone was in an uproar, anticipating Yalunsi's next performance.

The first level of the seventh Trial Tower!

As soon as Yalunsi's figure appeared, tens of thousands of black giant beasts condensed into existence.

"Boom!"

An earth-shattering aura surged forth, as layers of nine-fold domains connected into one, the dense fluctuations of origin laws intertwining to form a true torrent of destruction.

"My god, I don't think I could even beat one Black-Scaled Mad Bull!"

"Such powerful origin law fluctuations—is this something a mindless beast should possess?"

"It's the virtual universe, just accept it; there's nothing that can't be programmed!"

"If you picked any one of these at random, it feels like its strength would be close to those geniuses ranked in the top hundred of the entire universe. I wonder if Yalunsi can charge through..."

Before this person could finish speaking, they saw Yalunsi's figure completely swallowed by the black tidal wave.

Despite the third stage of the Yan Shen Bing being at minor success, he had only managed to kill 17 black giant beasts before failing.

"Whoosh!"

In the center of the plaza, a streak of light flashed, and Yalunsi, carrying the dark gold Yan Shen Bing on his back, was teleported out.

However, Yalunsi's first reaction was to turn his head immediately and look at the live-streaming screen.

At this moment, Yu Duan, a martial artist, was clearing levels only slightly slower than him.

On the screen, Yu Duan had just finished slaughtering the 10 Monster Race Sky Wolves of the sixth level of the sixth tower and had arrived at the final level of the sixth Trial Tower.

"As a martial artist, his soul defense is significantly weaker than that of a spirit reader at the same level. Can he withstand the most dangerous first wave of illusion attacks?"

Yalunsi's gaze was fixed on the screen, watching Yu Duan, who had just appeared on the seventh level.

"Hoo!"

A gale howled, whipping up sand that filled the sky and raged across the vast desert.

In the center of the desert, a massive dark-gold sphere hovered in mid-air, from which countless sickly green toxic mists and venoms diffused outward.

The moment Yu Duan's figure appeared, an ear-piercing shriek accompanied by a terrifying illusion erupted instantly.

"Ah--!!"

The speed of the sound wave was not fast, but the mental attack contained within it shot directly at Yu Duan at a terrifying speed.

This was a situation that had not appeared on the seventh floor of the previous five Trial Towers, and it was also the most dangerous one.

Yalunsi, as a spiritual master who had cultivated an extremely high-level soul and mental defense secret technique, had almost been instantly taken out.

However, a scene that shocked everyone appeared.

Yu Duan completely ignored this sudden illusion attack, his white robe instantly transforming into black and white streamers that rippled outward.

The Jing Liuli-like Light and Time Sword was pushed to its limit at this moment, countless black and white halos rippling out like flowing nebulae, before suddenly condensing into a giant black and white sword.

"My god, Yalunsi was stunned for nearly a tenth of a second just now!"

"Yu Duan is actually able to remain completely unaffected and still instantly erupt with his peak state!"

"Just how strong is Yu Duan's willpower!"

My hypoglycemia is acting up, my hands are shaking while typing, I can't take it.