Revealing

The fifth floor of the first Trial Tower was a small mechanical experimental base. The floor and surrounding walls were entirely paved with alloy, filled with elements of technology and machinery. Standing on the alloy floor of this experimental base were 100 mechanical puppets, each 12 meters tall and covered from head to toe in silver memory alloy.

Mechanical puppets are combat weapons built by the Machine Race. Within the Machine Race, every individual is an intelligent life form; each one can even be considered a control terminal, capable of forming a kingdom transformed by mechanical technology! And these 'mechanical puppets' are merely quite common combat units within this mechanical kingdom.

"Hum!"

The 100 tall mechanical puppets activated their internal energy sources, their eyes emitting red beams of light as they instantly locked onto Lu Yan'an, who had quietly appeared in the distance!

"Boom!" "Boom!"

In a single instant, all the mechanical puppets charged toward Lu Yan'an with perfect coordination. At this moment, Lu Yan'an retracted his illusions. For Machine Race enemies without conscious souls, illusions were completely ineffective.

With a "whoosh," he advanced instead of retreating, wielding a long blade as he charged straight into the midst of the enemies. His light domain quietly enveloped all the mechanical puppets, and the strength of a warrior bloomed. In less than ten seconds, every mechanical puppet within the light domain had been reduced to a pile of scrap metal!

Lu Yan'an had vividly interpreted the phrase "as swift as lightning"!

A trace of excitement suddenly appeared in the cold, sharp eyes of Marquis Cangming. He stared intently at the screen before him, whispering in a slightly trembling tone: "It seems this little guy, Lu Yan'an, hasn't neglected his training as a warrior at all! His combat rhythm is simply perfect, and his mastery of his domain has reached a particularly profound level!"

To clear a stage that completely immunizes against illusions in a mere ten seconds—what kind of concept is that!

Previously, the only combat performance Lu Yan'an had to show for himself was his duel against Illusion Dream during the qualifiers. But both sides had stopped at the point of contact, never revealing their ultimate strength. Moreover, that was already three years ago; how much progress he could have made in those three years was a complete unknown.

But now, Lu Yan'an's performance while clearing the tower was nothing short of a surprise!

"I hope you can pass this selection; don't let the Country Lord down!" Marquis Cangming hoped in his heart.

As for achieving a high ranking? Ever since the Virtual Universe Company announced the rules for this assessment, Marquis Cangming hadn't even considered it! For this Trial Tower selection, Controllers were the most suited to achieve high scores. As for Illusionists, they were definitely at the greatest disadvantage!

He looked at Illusion Dream again. This little guy had also expanded his own wind domain, spinning the mechanical puppets within it in circles; it was clear he was also handling them with ease!

"It seems these two little guys haven't wasted their potential as warriors. The Ganwu Universe Country still has a chance this time!" Marquis Cangming let go of his worries slightly and smiled.

Seven Trial Towers.

Countless geniuses passed the first and second Trial Towers, yet starting from the first floor of the third Trial Tower, a large number of geniuses were eliminated.

The third Trial Tower eliminated the most people, accounting for nearly ninety percent of the total!

However, the rhythm of Lu Yan'an and the other in the Trial Towers was completely different. Only the fifth floor of each Trial Tower—the mechanical puppets—required significant effort to deal with! They handled the ordinary stages with ease; as long as they cleared the fifth floor, nothing could stop their speed! Even the Zerg Queen on the seventh floor, a master of the soul, was no match for either of them in a single strike.

The first four Trial Towers were passed very simply, but starting from the fifth Trial Tower, as the difficulty soared, things began to change.

The fourth floor of the fifth Trial Tower contained 1,000 "Fei Hou," strange creatures of the universe, a very peculiar type of fierce beast.

"Boom!"

On the vast plains, hundreds of Fei Hou corpses had already fallen. A faint stream of light streaked through the air, revealing the figure of Lu Yan'an as he sped past.

The illusion domain surrounding him continued to envelop the remaining Fei Hou, seeking the most efficient way to kill! But the enemies now were no longer the rigid patterns of the previous Trial Towers; seeing Lu Yan'an expand his illusion domain, they stayed just outside the limit of its range! The Fei Hou had begun to use their brains to analyze the situation!

"It's getting harder! These Fei Hou are actually thinking about how to solve problems just like humans." Lu Yan'an sighed silently in his heart. These Fei Hou were extremely peculiar; their intelligence was among the top tier of fierce beasts. Although the Fei Hou in the previous Trial Towers had intelligence not inferior to human trial-takers, their base strength was lacking. It wasn't until this fifth Trial Tower, where their base strength was supplemented and they even possessed their own domains, that their terror was truly revealed!

Even for Lu Yan'an, while preserving his Law of Time, he still had no good solution. "Forget it, I'll just hold out for ten days! Once these guys pay a price to figure out the range of my illusions, it will be hard for the illusions to have any effect!" He wisely chose the method most beneficial for him to pass!

On the other side, Illusion Dream began to truly exert his power! Facing the Fei Hou, he no longer held back; the Law of Space he had hidden for so long was revealed to the world for the first time!

With a "whoosh," hundreds of Illusion Dream's spatial clones suddenly appeared on the field, every one of them a physical entity! The Illusion Dream clones, wielding long spears, began to slaughter the Fei Hou on the field! In an instant, the Fei Hou on the field were wiped out completely—terrifying! Afterward, he wasted no time and rushed to the next floor...

With a "slap," Marquis Cangming, who had been sitting in his chair, stood up abruptly.

"Hahahaha, this rascal Ming Feng has actually comprehended the Law of Space!" Marquis Cangming felt as if he were floating. When he saw Illusion Dream display the Law of Space, he felt a sense of lightheadedness from being struck by such a surprise!

"Congratulations, congratulations, Cangming! Your Ganwu Universe Country has just locked in a spot in the top ten! This is the standard of the third level of the 'Hundred Line Flow' technique! With this little guy's talent, the possibility of him taking first place in the finals is not small at all!" A nearby Marquis Immortal immediately offered his congratulations.

The "Ten Thousand Line Flow" technique is divided into:

The first level, "One Line Flow," can create one to nine physical spatial clones.

The second level, "Nine Line Flow," can create ten to ninety-nine physical spatial clones.

The third level, "Hundred Line Flow," can create one hundred to nine hundred physical spatial clones.

The fourth level, "Ten Thousand Line Flow," can create one thousand to ten thousand physical spatial clones.

Legend has it there is also the highest level: "Teleportation."

"Who would have thought this little guy Ming Feng could hide so much! His comprehension of the Law of Space has actually reached the level of the Hundred Line Flow technique. Can he still be called an Illusionist? Hahahaha!" Marquis Cangming looked proud. He had always held Illusion Dream in high regard, even more so than Lu Yan'an!

For no other reason than that Marquis Cangming's title, "Cangming," came from the Cangming Kingdom, a subordinate kingdom of the Ganwu Universe Country, and Illusion Dream was a peerless genius from the Cangming Kingdom. It could be said that Illusion Dream was one of Marquis Cangming's own! How could he not be proud that a junior from his home kingdom had produced a genius capable of competing for the number one spot in the entire universe?

"Cangming, you're having a great time! Our universe country is miserable this time; we don't even have one person in the top twenty. I don't know how the Country Lord will punish me when I get back!" An Immortal God with red skin next to Marquis Cangming said with a bitter smile.

"Liehuo, don't worry! This is the first Universe Genius Selection Battle; no one has any experience. The Country Lords won't make things difficult for us; at most, they'll just scold us a couple of times!" Marquis Cangming patted Marquis Liehuo on the shoulder to comfort him.

"You're just lucky! I don't care, you have to treat us to some 'Cold Spirit Wine' today!" Marquis Liehuo acted shamelessly.

As a treasure of the universe, Cold Spirit Wine was a treasure sufficient to allow an ordinary Universe-level individual to comprehend a trace of the Water Law, with a transaction price of tens of thousands of Hunyuan units; even ordinary Immortal Gods couldn't afford to drink it! But the "civilian experience price" in the virtual universe was one hundred Hunyuan units, which was enough to satisfy one's cravings. Although it couldn't provide the transformation of power, the taste was exactly the same!

"Hahahaha, I'm happy today, I'll treat, I'll treat..." Marquis Cangming laughed, the pent-up frustration in his chest swept away!

"Little guy, you have to keep it up!" he thought to himself, his gaze also shifting toward Lu Yan'an on the other side!