The Struggle for Ranking

The next morning.

In the central square, 1,000 peerless geniuses gathered.

Lu Yan'an mingled in the crowd, glancing at the green-skinned, bald martial artist in the distance. The warrior looked dazed and remained silent, clearly still reeling from the blow he had suffered yesterday.

"Venerable!"

In the distance, 1,008 immortals bowed respectfully.

"Mm."

Venerable Plain Robe, hovering in the mid-air, nodded slightly before turning to look down at the 1,000 young people. "Today is a good day. Within this single day, we will select the top 100, the top 10, and the champion from among you 1,000."

"Are you all prepared? Then, the decisive battle begins now!"

The Venerable looked down at the crowd and waved his right hand. 100 massive arenas appeared directly in the central square, each rimmed with a black mesh covering. Simultaneously, 200 peerless geniuses, including Lu Yan'an, were teleported into the arenas.

Each arena held two people. The powerful immortals and the elite geniuses who hadn't qualified to fight mostly cast their gazes toward the arenas featuring the top 20 from the Trial Tower!

A youth with messy hair and a wild aura felt a bitter smile tug at his lips as he saw Lu Yan'an standing before him. How was he supposed to deal with drawing a "big boss" by mistake?

If there were any opponents among the participants that everyone least wanted to encounter, Lu Yan'an and Illusion Dream were definitely at the top of the list! How could one fight an illusionist who had comprehended a high-level Law of Space?

With no other choice, he gripped his battle blade, bowed slightly, and said, "I am Carlson, ranked 82nd in the Trial Space. Please, enlighten me."

Seeing this, Lu Yan'an smiled back. "Lu Yan'an, ranked 15th in the trials!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Carlson was enveloped in lightning, charging toward Lu Yan'an with the speed of a thunderbolt!

He swung his blade, a strike with the force of a thunderclap!

Yet, Lu Yan'an, the target of the attack, didn't even change his expression. He simply raised his hand slowly, and the illusion technique Huo Shen was unleashed instantly! Carlson's consciousness and offensive momentum were dismantled in an instant. Lu Yan'an then watched as Carlson, carried by his own momentum, fell toward him. He held his blade horizontally in his left hand and took the opponent out with a single strike!

Carlson, defeated!

Winning the first battle, Lu Yan'an entered the top 100, his prize money rose to 100 Hunyuan units, and he earned the right to enter the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm of the Virtual Universe Company.

"First, on behalf of the Virtual Universe Company, I congratulate you little ones standing in the arenas!" Venerable Plain Robe stood in mid-air, looking down at the 100 young men and women. "At the very least, you are now qualified to enter the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm of my Virtual Universe Company! Now, based on the judgment of the virtual universe system, we will select the best 20 from among you hundred."

"According to the virtual universe system's selection, I will announce the list of 20."

Having learned from the previous lesson, no one dared to question these rules again.

Suddenly, the 100 young geniuses standing in the arenas grew nervous. Although they had won, only 20 of them were qualified to proceed to the next battle, which would determine the top 10!

Venerable Plain Robe began to announce the list of twenty selected by the virtual universe system.

"Xun Kong!" This was the monster who had reached the second floor of the seventh tower during the tower trials!

"Mo Yue!"

"Ming Feng!"

"Yi Ran!"

"Lu Yan'an!"

As the names were called out one by one, those who hadn't been mentioned could not hide their anxiety and urgency. Even though they were all victors, only 20 of them could participate in the next round!

"Fu!"

"Kelvin!"

"The 20 people selected by the virtual universe system are the 20 I have just announced," Venerable Plain Robe said with a gentle smile. "Please, let these 20 rest and recover from the consumption of your previous battles. The next battle will begin in a while. As for who your opponents are? The virtual system will automatically inform you when the battle begins!"

True to the Virtual Universe Company's nature of testing them step by step, keeping the opponents a secret was likely a special test of the contestants' psychological fortitude.

Lu Yan'an was completely indifferent to this. He had observed the field earlier, and there was basically no one there who could be his match!

No matter who he drew, it made little difference to him! Among these people, the only ones he paid any real attention to were Illusion Dream and that top-ranked Xun Kong. Aside from the Law of Space wielded by those two, which he was quite wary of, the others posed no threat at all!

He only hoped that he would draw Illusion Dream later rather than sooner. It wasn't out of fear; after all, since they came from the same universe country, it was better for their internal strife to happen as late as possible!

About half an hour later.

"Rumble..." The entire central square began to shake. Ten giant arenas rose from the center of the square, covered in heavy black mesh. Simultaneously, Lu Yan'an and the other nineteen, who had been resting, were instantly teleported into these ten giant arenas.

Inside the arenas.

"Damn!"

"That 'Fu' actually ran into the 'Blade of Severing Space' Xun Kong? What a pity for such a beautiful young lady."

"And Illusion Dream's opponent is the martial artist 'Kelvin'!"

"This guy is also a poor soul. His strength isn't weak; he could truly rank in the top ten, but now he's run into an outrageous illusionist."

"And this 'Mo Yue', even though his trial ranking is higher than that 'Nightmare' Lu Yan'an, running into a disgusting profession like an illusionist is truly miserable! Everyone was guessing who would be unlucky enough to run into Xun Kong, Illusion Dream, and Nightmare. I didn't expect it to be these three, but then again, it makes sense!" Other geniuses watching from afar began to laugh.

On the arena.

With a solemn expression, Fu gripped her slender sword, her eyes cold as she stared at the grey-robed youth in front of her.

Everyone had already guessed the outcome; although Fu herself was a peerless genius who had comprehended both the origin laws of Water and Wind, the gap between her and the Trial Tower's number one, Xun Kong, was indeed quite significant!

As for the arenas of the other two illusionists, there was basically no need to pay attention. In front of two illusionists who had comprehended high-level origin laws, Kelvin and Mo Yue had already lost the initiative in speed, making a comeback basically impossible!

Ten arenas, ten battles.

The peak duels between each arena represented the upper limits that star-level geniuses could reach! It was precisely during this time of shining stars that everyone was fully displaying their own light and heat!

All ten arenas were waiting for the announcement.

"Let the battles begin." The voice of Venerable Plain Robe came from afar, echoing in everyone's ears. Almost at the same moment, battles erupted instantly across all ten arenas!

Xun Kong showed absolutely no mercy, unleashing a secret technique that struck out directly. Before Fu could even react, the duel had already come to an end.

Beside them, the situations for Lu Yan'an and Illusion Dream were largely similar. A single illusionary secret technique controlled their opponents, followed by a single blade strike to end the match! It was as if their attack patterns had been carved from the same mold.

The winners of the ten arenas appeared one after another.

Xun Kong, Ming Feng, Lu Yan'an, Yi Ran, Jiao, Lilan, Liuyun, Aike, Noah, and finally, Sailin!

At this moment.

Venerable Plain Robe flew into mid-air, his invisible pressure naturally drawing the gazes of all 1,000 human geniuses toward him.

"Congratulations to the ten winners. You have entered the top ten; your prize money has increased to 1,000 Hunyuan units, and you may enter the Primordial Secret Realm." The man in the cyan battle robe with purple scales smiled, "This top ten contention was very exciting. The explosive performance of a few little ones even surprised me."

"Xun Kong, Ming Feng, Lu Yan'an, Yi Ran, Jiao, Lilan, Liuyun, Aike, Noah, Sailin, congratulations to you ten!"

"In a moment, we will select the top five from the ten of you, and the first place of the Original Secret Realm will be chosen from those top five."

Venerable Plain Robe said gently, "As for how you ten will be grouped, according to the rules previously established by the Virtual Universe system, your winning times in the previous battles varied. The fastest will duel the slowest, the second fastest will duel the second slowest... and so on!"