First

Qin Zhao was no longer content to hunt in the desert. With a flicker, he pushed his Hundred Line Flow movement technique to its limits. Hundreds, even thousands, of solid Phantom Bodies swept across the sky like a flock of migrating birds, heading for the other regions of the World Zone.

On the desolate Gobi, several Earth-style law prodigies skilled at concealment thought they were hidden deep underground, merged with the rocks. Suddenly, an indescribable pressure descended from above, as if an invisible giant hand had seized the entire earth and squeezed. They were crushed along with the surrounding rock strata into the most basic particles, utterly annihilated before they could even scream.

In a dense "forest" of some kind of hard crystal, a team of Spirit Readers skilled in combined attacks was resting, with layer upon layer of telekinetic force set up as a perimeter alarm. A black-robed figure appeared among them without warning, like a ghost, without causing so much as a ripple in their alarm network.

The next moment, an invisible soul attack swept over them like a storm. The Spirit Readers' eyes instantly dimmed, their consciousness vanished, and their bodies slumped to the ground before fading into nothingness. Qin Zhao hadn't moved a finger from beginning to end.

On a vast plain gleaming with metallic light, two prodigies who had comprehended the Origin of Gold and the Origin Law of Fire were locked in fierce combat. Their Origin Forces collided, erupting in dazzling light.

Suddenly, both combatants froze. To their horror, they discovered that the air around them had grown thick as glue. The terrifying gravity not only bound their bodies but also disrupted the flow of Origin Force within them. Even their thoughts seemed to slow. Then a cold flash of a blade swept past, like lightning cutting across the night sky. Two heads, their faces full of shock and unwillingness, soared into the air.

A deep underground ravine filled with corrosive mists of energy; an icy lake with giant floating icebergs and bone-chilling cold; a shattered plain riddled with warped fields where the structure of space was unstable...

No matter how complex the terrain or how harsh the environment, nothing could stop Qin Zhao or offer the slightest shelter to the prodigies hiding there.

The Black Stone Prison sometimes spread like an invisible canopy over an area, mercilessly erasing every living thing within its reach; sometimes it condensed into a devastating torrent, precisely washing away strongholds that resisted to the last; and sometimes it became an omnipresent field of traps, instantly killing those who thought they were safely hidden.

Qin Zhao's figure became a beacon of death. Wherever he passed, all things fell silent, and his points piled up like a snowball rolling downhill. The gap between his score and that of the runner-up grew wider and wider, reaching a despair-inducing extent.

Virtual Universe, Noah Universe Kingdom's exclusive viewing plane.

King Lanchen, King Bibo, King Jinlan, King Fengyan, Yan Ji, Yinfeng, and the other Immortals were still watching Qin Zhao's performance. But by now, their expressions had gradually shifted from initial praise and astonishment to calm—and even a touch of boredom.

"There's no suspense now." King Jinlan yawned. "This kid's practically picking on the weak. I think the survivors in World Zone 39 are about to be left with psychological scars."

"Indeed, it's boring." King Fengyan shrugged. "I thought that God-Slaughtering Alliance would at least make him work up a sweat. But... sigh. They couldn't even make him draw his War Blade and swing it in earnest."

King Bibo covered her mouth and chuckled. "You all shouldn't expect too much. For Qin Zhao, the preliminaries are just a formality. His stage is the final battle later on. For now, he's just warming up and earning a few points along the way."

King Lanchen gazed calmly at the black-robed figure on the screen, who kept flashing from place to place, each appearance accompanied by a surge in points and a steady ranking. He said evenly, "He's using his overwhelming strength to sweep through the competition, saving time and focusing on cultivation. He's already achieved his goal. First place in the preliminaries is as good as his."

Just as the King-level Immortals had said, the days that followed were more like a monotonous harvest for Qin Zhao.

The number of survivors in World Zone 39 dwindled at an avalanche's pace, and what little resistance remained was practically negligible. Often, Qin Zhao didn't even need to show himself. He could simply unleash the power of the Black Stone Prison from afar and kill his hidden opponents where they stood.

His score had long since passed one billion and was still climbing at an astonishing rate. He held firmly to the top spot, leaving the runner-up with only a fraction of his points.

The days passed one by one.

By the final hour of the preliminaries, fewer than a hundred prodigies besides Qin Zhao remained alive in the entire World Zone 39. Every one of them had either perfected their concealment skills or possessed some special means of survival. Like frightened rabbits, they had scattered to the world's remotest, most inconspicuous corners, trembling as they prayed for time to run out.

Qin Zhao stood at the center of the World Zone, atop the peak of Sky-Propping Rock Mountain, where he had once sat cross-legged for ten days. He didn't go on a final hunt; there was no need. No one could challenge his score or ranking anymore.

He looked down over this world, which he had almost completely "cleansed": the deserts, the Gobi, the crystal forests, the icy lakes... The once-clamorous sounds of slaughter and clashing energy had long since vanished, leaving only deathly silence. The wind still swept over the sands, but it stirred not the slightest sign of life.

The screen on his arm displayed the final results clearly:

Participant: Qin Zhao (Noah Universe Kingdom)

Points: 14936452119

Rank: 1

Current World Zone: World Zone 39

Nearly fifteen billion points! He had taken first by an enormous margin!

"Ding—"

A clear notification rang in the minds of every surviving contestant and echoed throughout World Zone 39.

"Preliminary Elimination is over!"

"Teleportation will begin shortly!"

A flash of light passed. Qin Zhao vanished from the peak of Yan Shan, along with the fewer than one hundred lucky survivors scattered across the World Zone. The World Zone preliminaries officially came to a close. With indisputable, overwhelming strength, Qin Zhao had slaughtered billions of prodigies, amassed an astonishing number of points, and claimed first place in World Zone 39!

Qin Zhao's consciousness returned to reality, and he slowly opened his eyes in King Lanchen's Cultivation Plane. The month of slaughter and cultivation during the preliminaries had left him not the least bit tired. On the contrary, the intense use of laws and tempering of his will had made the Origin Force around him even more refined and condensed. With a thought, he connected to the Virtual Universe Network.

Virtual Universe, Noah Sacred Mountain's exclusive plane—the Noah Sacred Mountain plaza.

Light flashed again and again as figure after figure was teleported back. Compared with the grand scene before the preliminaries began, when hundreds of millions of prodigies had gathered with their fighting spirit soaring, the plaza now seemed much emptier. At a glance, only around a million had returned. These were the prodigies among the Noah Universe Kingdom's own elite who had survived the preliminaries in their respective World Zones.

After a brief silence, a tremendous roar rose from the plaza, filled with all kinds of emotion.

"Hahaha! I made it! Rank 799—by the skin of my teeth!"

"Damn it! I was only seventeen places short! I only needed a few more points!"

"Ugh, bad luck. On the last day, I was ambushed by a hidden prodigy who'd comprehended the laws..."

"I survived... I finally survived..."

Excited cheers, furious shouts of frustration, regretful sighs, and relieved cries from those who had narrowly escaped death mingled together. Everyone standing here was an elite, yet the brutality of the preliminaries had still exceeded many of their expectations. They had fought their way through trillions of prodigies; even among the Noah Sacred Land's elites, the elimination rate had been astonishingly high.