Flowing Flame Storm

As time passed, one figure after another appeared in the plaza.

Some were shaken, some cried out in alarm, and some sighed regretfully.

They were all Star Level geniuses who had been eliminated.

"Terrifying! I'm clearly a warrior, but my speed can't keep those Telepathic Weapons under control!"

"The pain feels way too real, too... Even if our clan is rich, there's no need to spend so much on pain simulation..."

"My opponent in the fourth round was a Blood Hyena! That's so unfair! Who could possibly get past them?"

"That's just because you couldn't. Look up—someone's already made it to the sixth round."

"Which round were you eliminated in?"

"The fourth."

"I was eliminated in the fifth. I can't believe the Controller in the fifth round was still Star Level Nine. His Mental Power Amplitude must've been over thirty times..."

Kuman appeared in the plaza, his blond hair gleaming. He took a few deep breaths before he finally calmed down.

"Did you make it through the fourth round?"

Prose walked over to Kuman, looking delighted. "I was eliminated in the fourth round. The Illusionist in the third round wasn't hard to deal with, but I didn't expect the opponent in the fourth to suddenly be so much stronger. I was caught off guard and got completely overwhelmed. I was killed before I even had a chance to use my Bloodline Divine Ability."

Kuman sighed. "I didn't have much trouble in the fourth round, but the Controller in the fifth was strong in both willpower and mental power. My illusions were completely useless."

Prose nodded. That was how Illusionists fought. If their enemy was just a little weaker than they were, they took complete control of the battle. Their endless, bewildering illusions, combined with their strange and unpredictable Soul Attacks, could lead their enemies around by the nose.

But if their enemy was just a little stronger, Illusionists would be forced entirely onto the defensive, and sometimes they couldn't fight back at all.

"Prose! Kuman!"

Duomeng hurried over, with a glum-looking Gaichen following beside him.

"Which round were you eliminated in?"

Although he'd been eliminated, Duomeng didn't seem too unhappy. "The fifth. Gaichen was eliminated in the fifth too. That Controller in the fifth round was just too well-rounded. He had no weaknesses in his physical strength, control of his Telepathic Weapon, combat awareness, or use of his Domain."

Kuman asked, puzzled, "You seem pretty happy about it."

"Haha!" Duomeng looked gleeful. "Bancha got eliminated too—in the fifth round as well. Tsk, tsk. His opponent was a Controller with a Sevenfold Domain. Bancha only broke through to the seventh level of his Domain two hundred years ago. He couldn't fight back at all.

"The one who was supposed to take first place in the selection battle got eliminated in the fifth round. Haha, what a disgrace."

Prose chuckled to himself. He had no idea what kind of grudge Duomeng held against Bancha, but seeing Bancha humiliated seemed to make him happy even though he'd been eliminated himself.

Following the gaze of most of the crowd, they spotted Bancha nearby, his face dark with anger.

Most of the people in the plaza were watching the prodigy who had been accepted as the Clan Leader's disciple—whether openly or on the sly. He was the top seed in the Genius Tournament, after all.

If the competition weren't still underway and Realm Lord Kasa hadn't yet announced that the eliminated contestants could go home, Bancha would probably have logged off and left the Virtual Universe Network at once.

But perhaps there was another reason he hadn't chosen to leave the Virtual Universe yet: the battles still playing on the screen.

Less than two hundred geniuses were still fighting and had yet to be eliminated. Of the more than ten thousand contestants, 99 percent had already been knocked out.

Some were fighting slowly and were still challenging their fourth-round opponents, while others had already beaten the Illusionist in the sixth round and moved on to the seventh.

"Are there actually Star Level contestants without a Domain?"

Gaichen frowned, his eyes fixed on the few Domain-less Star Level geniuses challenging their fourth- and fifth-round opponents on the enormous screen.

He didn't say it outright, but he could barely hide his envy.

The eliminated geniuses in the plaza, especially those with Domains, were also complaining. They felt the selection battle was unfair to the strong.

Prose had been eliminated early and had watched some of the fights. Hearing this, he said, "You can't put it like that. Their opponents may not have Domains, but the warriors have terrifying physical strength, and the Controllers all have a Mental Power Amplitude of over thirty times. The opponents faced by Illusionists and those of us with Domains aren't much different."

What Prose said made some sense, but it only convinced a few people. A selection battle with simulated opponents really was more disadvantageous to the strong.

The stronger someone's Domain, the more profound techniques it involved and the greater the maximum power it could unleash. The gap between contestants at the same level also grew wider. Even someone like Bancha, a master with a Sevenfold Domain, had nearly failed to get through the fourth round.

Among the geniuses who hadn't been eliminated, hardly any had Domains above the fourth level. Most were only at the first level.

With a first-level Domain, a powerful Bloodline Divine Ability, strong combat awareness, a high Mental Power Amplitude, and great willpower, it wasn't difficult to match someone with a Third-Stage Domain. And their opponents all had first-level Domains.

But matching someone with an Eighth-Level Domain when you had a seventh-level Domain was far more difficult. A person like that could place among the top thousand in a World Zone during the Genius Tournament's preliminary elimination rounds, and among the top hundred thousand across the entire Xuanshang Universe Country.

Prose looked toward one corner of the screen. "Jiang Yao made it through the fourth round."

In fact, even without him pointing it out, Jiang Yao's fight was already one of the main attractions for the tens of thousands of people in the plaza.

"Raising his Domain from the first to the fourth level in just over a decade is already insane. And he's mastered so many profound techniques too? That's just..."

"He spent over a decade on Yuluo Island. What's so strange about him learning a lot of profound techniques?"

"Tsk—if you want to be jealous, fine, I'm jealous too. But don't let your brain turn to mush. You're two thousand years old this year, right? How far have you gotten with the Luowen Sword? You haven't even mastered a single technique, yet here you are, running your mouth."

"The fourth-round opponent already took him so long. The fifth round will probably be too much for him."

"Just making it this far with a Fourth-Level Domain is impressive. Look at the rest—they're mostly at the first level."

Kuman looked up at the boy on the screen, whose expression remained calm, as if the powerful opponent in the fifth round hadn't fazed him at all. Unable to resist, he asked, "How many rounds do you think he can make it through?"

"Through the first six, no problem," Prose replied without hesitation.

As the others stared at him in surprise, Prose sighed. "Take a close look at how he's fighting. It's obvious he's treating this selection battle like training. His combat awareness and control of his Telepathic Weapon are improving right before our eyes. He's enjoying the fight."

Prose hadn't tried to lower his voice. Among the more than ten thousand geniuses in the plaza, some agreed with him, but even more doubted him or scoffed.

The Controller in the fifth round had left so many geniuses helpless, unable to fight back. And yet, to Jiang Yao, it was just a game?

Of course, most of the geniuses found that hard to accept. Some even felt instinctively annoyed by the claim.

But before long, the arguments died down.

Jiang Yao had somehow escaped the one-sided beating he'd suffered at the start, and done so at a startling speed.

The fourth-tier Telepathic Weapon, the Red Shadow Blade, had a dark red glow flowing along its blade. It suddenly broke apart, transforming into thirty-six flying knives with edges as thin as cicada wings.

The Controller in the fifth round manipulated one golden needle after another. They flashed like a golden waterfall as they swept toward Jiang Yao.

Jiang Yao, meanwhile, controlled thirty-six crimson blades that formed a fiery tornado. Like a blazing storm, it weaved through the golden torrent, tore apart the opponent's waterfall of needles, then swept it all up.

Jiang Yao himself moved with unpredictable footwork, narrowly dodging the needles that slipped free from the golden waterfall.

"Was that Sufeng?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm sure it was Sufeng. I'm cultivating that technique myself."

"Is he a warrior?"

"And that fiery tornado was the Red Shadow Blade's fourth form, Flowing Flame Storm. The Red Shadow Blade's manual says you need at least a Sevenfold Domain to master it."

"He's a Controller and a warrior?"