Praises

The sky seemed to suddenly sink lower. The dim yellow light warped, and the space within the area grew blurry. The earth groaned under the strain, sand dunes flattened beneath an invisible force, and the ruined buildings collapsed with a crash, ground to dust!

Gravity throughout the area became chaotic and terrifying! In some places, it was tens of thousands of times stronger than normal, enough to crush a Star Level fighter into a pulp in an instant. In others, there was no gravity at all, leaving people floating helplessly. Most terrifying of all, an invisible pressure that targeted the soul spread through the area, as if countless heavy mountains were pressing down on everyone's hearts. It filled them with fear and despair, and those with weaker wills could even suffer a complete mental breakdown!

Black Stone Prison—mastery-level, with Material Binding (primarily based on the mysteries of Gravity Space), Soul Assault (guided by the nascent mysteries of Life Force), and the fighter's own killing techniques—all three united and unleashed in full! After Qin Zhao's constant refinement, this move was no longer a simple restrictive domain. It had become a true, mobile prison of death!

"Ugh!"

"What's happening?!"

"I... can't move!"

"My soul... it hurts!"

Almost the instant Black Stone Prison took shape, every Star Level contestant lying in ambush, traveling, or even fighting within a thousand-kilometer radius of Qin Zhao turned deathly pale!

Those "ambushers" who had been waiting for a chance to act were instantly crushed to the ground by the terrifying gravity. Their bones creaked painfully, and even lifting their heads became nearly impossible! The geniuses locked in combat fared even worse: their movements were badly distorted, their attacks missed, and their defenses opened up with gaping flaws. At the same time, they had to resist the omnipresent Soul Assault, leaving their minds in disarray!

"It's a Domain Type secret technique! And a powerful one!"

"Run! Get out of here!"

"We can't! The gravity's too strong—we can't even pick up speed!"

Panic spread like a plague through the prison zone, which stretched a thousand kilometers in every direction.

Qin Zhao stood at the heart of Black Stone Prison, like a Deity in command of life and death. He didn't need to move. His powerful Spiritual Force, combined with the domain's perception, allowed him to clearly "see" every struggling figure in the area.

He brought two fingers together like a blade and casually swept his hand.

"Shhk!" "Shhk!" "Shhk!" ...

Within Black Stone Prison, the chaotic and terrifying gravity itself became the sharpest of blades. Sometimes, a suddenly condensed gravity sphere crushed a contestant to pieces. Sometimes, invisible ripples of gravity swept through like scythes, slicing several contestants in half. Other times, Soul Assault directly scattered an opponent's mental awareness...

The slaughter proceeded with horrifying efficiency.

The points on the screen strapped to Qin Zhao's arm began to climb wildly!

10... 50... 100... 500... 1,000...

His ranking shot upward like a rocket, rising from nowhere into the top hundred million in an instant, then continued to climb without pause!

He didn't even bother to check his exact ranking. He simply maintained Black Stone Prison, making small adjustments to ensure its range and power. Only when someone exceptionally strong managed to endure the domain and even tried to force their way out did Qin Zhao use his movement technique. He would appear before them in an instant and swiftly finish them off with his War Blade or with punches and kicks infused with the mysteries of Pulse of the Earth.

And so Qin Zhao became a gigantic, mobile meat grinder, carving out his hunting ground in the desert of World Zone 39 and rapidly accumulating points in an almost unstoppable sweep.

The desert wind remained scorching, but it couldn't disperse the aura of death that hung over the thousand-kilometer radius around Qin Zhao. From the very beginning, his run in the preliminaries displayed a level of dominance that left the other contestants in his zone utterly despairing.

Virtual Universe, a special spectator plane.

A vast starry sky stretched across the backdrop. A massive ring-shaped screen floated at its center, divided into dozens of views that broadcast the fierce battles in the preliminary rounds of the Noah Universe Kingdom's World Zones in real time. One section had been enlarged in particular, fixed on World Zone 39: the land of endless yellow sand, and the black-robed figure at its center, who had unleashed a Death Domain with a radius of a thousand kilometers—Qin Zhao.

Several comfortable chairs stood before the ring-shaped screen. King Lanchen sat in the central seat, his expression calm. Beside him sat several figures, each radiating a powerful, sharp, or ethereal presence. They were all Immortals who had befriended King Lanchen in the Noah Secret Realm. At that moment, they were all watching Qin Zhao's screen with keen interest.

"Tsk, tsk, Lanchen, your little disciple sure is ruthless." A female Immortal, her figure shrouded in a faint mist and her voice gentle and warm, chuckled softly. She was King Bibo, who had become a King-level Immortal through the Water-Space Law. "Once this Black Stone Prison opens, he leaves nothing standing. At this rate, his points are about to pass half a million, and the competition hasn't even been underway for an hour. He's already made the top ten thousand."

On the screen, the number representing Qin Zhao's points continued to climb at a startling rate. His thousand-kilometer-radius Black Stone Prison was like an efficient purifier. Wherever it passed, contestants in hiding, those fleeing, and those putting up a desperate fight were quickly eliminated by the chaotic gravity and invisible pressure on their souls.

"Haha, Bibo, that's not quite right." Another Immortal, King Jinlan, laughed loudly. He was a burly man in armor that looked as if it had been pieced together from countless metal fragments, and his entire being radiated a keen edge.

"How is this just leaving nothing standing? It's a thorough sweep! Look at those youngsters—they don't even have time to react. The domain closes in, crushing them with gravity and assailing their souls. Three forces working as one, and they vanish into nothing. Clean, decisive, and incredibly efficient! I like it!"

He pointed at a scene on the screen: more than a dozen contestants, who had been fighting or hiding in different places, all stiffened almost simultaneously as the edge of Black Stone Prison expanded over them. Some were crushed by the sudden change in the terrifying gravity; others' eyes went dark as their souls scattered. Not one of them managed a full scream before they all vanished in flashes of light.

"Truly domineering." A handsome man in a green robe, with a trace of sinister charm, nodded. He was King Fengyan, a King-level Immortal. "This Black Stone Prison secret technique makes exceptionally deep use of the mysteries of Gravity Space from the Law of Earth. More impressive still, it incorporates the beginnings of a Soul Attack. To create such a secret technique at Star Level and refine it to this degree... Lanchen, your disciple's talent in the Law of Earth is truly frightening. It seems the rumors that he might contend for the top spot overall aren't baseless."

King Lanchen listened to his old friends' comments, his expression still calm, though a trace of satisfaction flickered deep in his eyes. He spoke evenly. "Qin Zhao's method may look domineering, but it's the best choice. The Preliminary Elimination will narrow trillions of contestants down to a hundred thousand. The competition is brutal. If he pursues so-called 'fair duels' at every turn, he'll waste time and might even be caught off guard. Defining his hunting ground with overwhelming strength, swiftly clearing out the weak, and forcing the true experts to show themselves is the most rational strategy."

He paused and pointed at Qin Zhao on the screen, who was strolling leisurely through Black Stone Prison. "Look. He hasn't tried to maximize the domain's range. Instead, he's kept it to a radius of a thousand kilometers. That ensures an extremely high rate of elimination without exhausting his mind and Origin Force."

"At the same time, he doesn't rely entirely on the domain. His Spiritual Force remains intensely focused, sensing every subtle change within it. If anyone manages to barely withstand the domain, he immediately closes in and kills them, giving them no chance to catch their breath. That control over the battlefield, and that decisiveness in killing—that's what I value most."