The Last Three

"Yu Duan's broken into the Fourth Trial Tower! His points are climbing fast!"

"Kedi's caught up, too! Those two are neck and neck!"

"Those two youngsters are astonishingly talented in the laws, and frighteningly young!"

In the plaza's rest area, the various Immortal Gods were mainly focused on Yu Duan and Kedi.

As for Yalunsi, who was ranked first, he was a Spirit Reader to begin with and had a considerable advantage in the Trial Tower stage. He was also older, and his temperament probably wasn't anything special. Not many people were paying attention to him.

"One's been training for more than thirty years, the other for more than sixty, and they've reached this level of mastery in the laws. It's incredible."

An Immortal God leading a team from Ganwu Universe Kingdom sighed. When will our Universe Kingdom produce a genius of this caliber?

But the Immortal God had also revealed quite a bit of information.

Kedi was older than Yu Duan and had trained for longer. For the first few decades, he'd been an ordinary Star Level fighter. It wasn't until the Genius Tournament began more than three years ago that he'd turned into a phenomenal dark horse.

The Fourth Trial Tower, fifth level.

Black-and-white iridescence refracted through the air. Yu Duan's flight path seemed to defy the laws of physics, turning at astonishingly sharp angles with incredible agility as he threaded through the gaps between countless laser beams.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

On a massive mechanical alloy base stood more than a hundred humanoid Mechanical Puppets, each over eight meters tall. Their bodies were covered with all manner of technological devices.

They had laser cannons, railguns, and even launchers for miniature flying bombs. Those were the nastiest of all.

"Fewer than ten thousand people will probably clear this level."

Yu Duan's figure traced an elegant arc through the air. Had a powerhouse who'd mastered the Law of Time been watching, they would have noticed how perfectly his movements matched the fluctuations of time.

Of course, "perfectly" was only relative. You couldn't compare him to a Marquis Level or King Level powerhouse.

But compared to most World Masters who'd mastered movement techniques based on time, his skill was already absurdly advanced.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, brilliant white light shone from the longsword in Yu Duan's hand.

Countless silver and white law-patterns gathered across the translucent blade, instantly forming a white spike.

The whole process took no more than a hundredth of a second. The white spike abruptly swelled, turning into a beam of light that shot forward at incredible speed and pierced straight through a Mechanical Puppet.

In the next instant, the white spike—which had extended for dozens of kilometers—suddenly became a dark streak of light. Then it vanished completely into spacetime, turning into an invisible, deadly blade.

Slash! Slash! Slash...

The invisible blade remained dozens of kilometers long. Its power had diminished by who knew how much, yet it still sliced through the bodies of one Mechanical Puppet after another in an instant.

A short while later, as the last Mechanical Puppet was cut to pieces, Yu Duan's figure was teleported to the sixth level.

His opponent on the sixth level was one of the Eighteen Imperial Clans of the Monster Race: the Sky Wolf.

As an imperial clan of the Monster Race, the Sky Wolf Clan was born with a Gene Level six times that of an ordinary life-form. Its members could reach Domain Lord Level upon adulthood, making them second only to the pinnacle bloodlines of the universe.

However, the Sky Wolves in the Fourth Trial Tower were rather weak. They posed no challenge to Yu Duan.

After clearing the level without a hitch, he moved on to the seventh: the Zerg Mother Nest.

In every Genius Tournament, the opponents on the fifth and seventh levels of the Trial Tower remained unchanged. Only the opponents on the other levels were adjusted.

To a certain extent, the Machine Race and Bug Race's army-based tactics were impervious to analysis and countermeasures, at least at Star Level.

While the many Genius Tournament contestants battled their way through the Trial Towers, promotional videos for the tournament were finally completed.

Across all 1,008 Universe Countries, the Genius Tournament was by far the hottest news and biggest draw at the moment.

Countless people were following the latest news about it.

However, the Trial Tower stage wasn't broadcast live. Only the 1,008 Immortal Gods leading teams from their respective Universe Countries could watch the livestream.

Ordinary Universe Citizens could only watch promotional videos and documentaries, or check the constantly updating leaderboard.

On a busy street in a city on Beiming Continent, Virtual Universe.

A young couple from two prominent families were out for a walk when the giant screen by the roadside suddenly switched to a promotional video featuring the geniuses of Beiming Universe Kingdom.

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

The boy beside her pursed his lips. If Yu Duan weren't his idol, he'd have had a few choice words to say, too.

"What kind of monster is that? I've never seen one before." The girl watched the strange giant bird Yu Duan had decapitated with a single strike. Curious, she turned to ask the boy beside her.

"It's a monster from the Fourth Level of the Trial Tower, called a Green-Scaled Eagle."

The boy projected seven virtual screens from the Optical Computer on his right hand. Each screen showed the opponent on one of the Trial Tower's seven levels.

The first level: ten thousand Black-Scaled Mad Bulls, a kind of mindless ferocious beast.

The second level: ten thousand Rock-Armored Crocodiles, a common group within the Monster Race, known for their huge numbers.

The third level: one thousand Vine Clan warriors, a kind of powerful plant life-form.

The fourth level: Green-Scaled Eagles, a strange species of flying life-form in the universe.

The opponents on the last three levels—the Machine Race's Mechanical Puppets, the Monster Race's Sky Wolves, and the Bug Race's Mother Nest—weren't described in detail.

At that moment, the number of related discussions across the major platforms of the Virtual Universe Network was growing exponentially.

"Too powerful! The attacks of over a thousand Vine Clan warriors are so bizarre, but they can't do a thing to Yu Duan!"

"Light God—the ruler of light!"

"Argh! Why isn't Light God in first place? How is Yalunsi's score even a little higher than my Light God's?"

"And this Kedi's score is only a little behind my darling's!"

Ever since the promotional video began airing, Yu Duan, Yalunsi, and Kedi had all gained huge fan bases.

Yu Duan had the most fans by far. As for why...

His strength was one reason. Another was that his looks appealed to a wider audience, whereas Yalunsi and Kedi had more distinctive features. People who liked them really liked them, but those who didn't might not be able to accept them.

The young people most active online were like that: 99 percent of them were looks-obsessed.

Time continued to pass.

As the Trial Towers grew more and more difficult, an increasing number of geniuses were quickly eliminated.

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

Yu Duan, Kedi, and Yalunsi. Everyone else had already been kicked out of the Trial Towers, their scores frozen.

The Trial Tower challenge hadn't ended yet, but the leaderboard was already up. Only the rankings of Yu Duan, Kedi, and Yalunsi could still change.

Among the top ten on the leaderboard, only three were Fighters, including Yu Duan and Kedi. Everyone else was a Spirit Reader.

"Currently, Yalunsi is in first place and is attempting the seventh level of the Sixth Trial Tower!"

"The difficulty rises with each of the seven Trial Towers!"

"Any genius who clears the seventh level of the Fourth Trial Tower has crossed the threshold of the Source Law."

"As for the seventh level of the Fifth Trial Tower, that requires a very high level of mastery in the Upper Law. For example, Kedi and Yalunsi can each create at least nine Phantom Bodies."

"And the seventh level of the Sixth Trial Tower hasn't been cleared in many years. But Yalunsi, Yu Duan, and Kedi all have a chance of making it through."

The team leaders from the various Universe Countries were explaining to the young geniuses they'd brought along just how difficult the seventh level of each Trial Tower was.

In the rest area of Nanhu Universe Kingdom, a young genius looked curiously at his team's leading Immortal God.

"My lord, how difficult is the seventh level of the Seventh Trial Tower?"

The leading Immortal God shook his head. "I don't know, either. The highest I've ever seen anyone reach was over a thousand eras ago, when a super-genius made it to the fifth level of the Seventh Trial Tower."

"Today, that super-genius is a powerhouse of the Giant Axe Dojo, just as powerful as a Universe Country Lord. His title is '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 the leading Immortal God of Nanhu Universe Kingdom was explaining all this—

Yalunsi cleared the final level of the Sixth Trial Tower.

The third form of the Yan Shen Armament, Sword Domain at the Small Success stage: when the four golden swords fused, the Sword Domain became a true meat grinder.

In the end, he successfully slew the Mother Emperor at the center of the Zerg Mother Nest and cleared the Sixth Trial Tower.

Everyone was in an uproar, eager to see how Yalunsi would fare next.

The Seventh Trial Tower, first level!

As soon as Yalunsi appeared, the figures of ten thousand black beasts took shape around him.

Rumble!

An earth-shattering aura surged forth. Ninefold Domains linked together, and dense Source Law fluctuations intertwined, forming a true World-Destroying Torrent.

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

"That's an incredible fluctuation of the Source Law. How can a mindless ferocious beast possess something like that?"

"It's the Virtual Universe. You know how it goes—there's nothing they can't set up!"

"Each one of those things feels almost as powerful as the top hundred geniuses in the entire universe. I wonder if Yalunsi can make it—"

Before the speaker could finish, Yalunsi's figure was swallowed by the black tide.

His third form of the Yan Shen Armament had only reached the Small Success stage. He managed to kill just seventeen black beasts before failing.

Whoosh!

A streak of light flashed through the center of the plaza, and Yalunsi appeared with the dark golden Yan Shen Armament strapped to his back.

But his first reaction was to turn around and look at the screen broadcasting the event.

Yu Duan, despite being a Fighter, was advancing only slightly slower than him.

On the screen, Yu Duan had just finished killing the ten Sky Wolves on the sixth level of the Sixth Trial Tower. He was now arriving at the final level.

"As a Fighter, his soul defense will be much weaker than that of a Spirit Reader at the same level. Can he withstand the first, most dangerous wave of illusions?"

Yalunsi fixed his gaze on the screen, where Yu Duan had just appeared on the seventh level.

Whoosh!

A fierce wind howled, whipping up a sky full of sand and raging across the vast desert.

At the center of the desert, a huge dark golden sphere hovered in midair, releasing clouds of sickly green miasma and poison.

The instant Yu Duan appeared, a piercing shriek erupted, accompanied by a terrifying illusion attack.

"Ah—!!"

The sound waves themselves weren't fast, but the mental attack they carried shot toward Yu Duan at terrifying speed.

Nothing like this had appeared on the seventh level of the first five Trial Towers. This was the most dangerous situation of all.

Yalunsi was a Spirit Reader who'd trained in an extremely advanced soul-defense technique, yet he'd nearly been killed on the spot.

But what happened next stunned everyone.

Yu Duan completely ignored the sudden illusion attack. His white robes instantly turned into a streak of black-and-white light that swept outward.

The Light and Time Sword, pure as Jing Liuli, was driven to its absolute limit. Countless black-and-white halos rippled outward like flowing nebulae, then abruptly gathered together, forming a colossal black-and-white sword.

"My god, Yalunsi was stunned for almost a tenth of a second!"

"Yu Duan wasn't affected at all, and he was still able to unleash his peak power instantly!"

"How strong is Yu Duan's will?"

My blood sugar's low, my hands are shaking while I type. This is rough.