Kingdom Lord Mingyou

"Once you arrive at the Virtual Universe Company Headquarters, follow the staff's instructions. I won't be escorting you into the Initial Universe. A Venerable will take you there personally," Demon Blade King said. Then he turned and headed back to his quiet room.

Hundreds of thousands of eras ago, he had been one of them. When he entered the Initial Universe, his outstanding performance attracted the Five Great Powers, and he ultimately chose to join the Giant Axe Dojo, becoming one of its Core Members. After breaking through to Immortality, he was taken as a disciple by a Kingdom Lord. He later returned to the Outer Battlefield to temper himself, gradually rising to King Rank and eventually reaching Limit King Level.

Of the World Lords and Immortals who had been in his cohort, the weakest of those still alive had reached Marquis Rank, and several had even become Kings. They were only Initial King Level, but there were very few of them left by now.

Whether on the Outer Battlefield, in a Universe Secret Region, or even within a Universe Kingdom, danger came not only from the Alien Races, but also from all kinds of environments—and even from within the Human Race!

The road to the pinnacle of power was paved with corpses!

A mountain might look close, yet take ages to reach. In truth, even looking at this continent could wear out a spaceship. The ship had flown through space at nearly the speed of light for almost thirteen hours before it finally approached the continent.

At one of the entrances to the Virtual Universe Company Headquarters, the ship was permitted to fly at sublight speed for several minutes before gradually slowing down and finally coming to a stop on a landing platform.

The hatch opened, and the one hundred and twenty powerful warriors, including Ye Muxuan, disembarked. Eleven male and female attendants in blue-and-white uniforms were already waiting outside.

When Ye Muxuan and the others stepped off the ship, the leading attendant, a middle-aged man in a blue battle robe, came forward and said, "Fellow cosmic warriors, by order of the Venerable, please proceed to the hall and assemble."

Ye Muxuan and the other one hundred and nineteen powerful warriors exchanged glances. Having just arrived, they clearly had no choice but to follow the staff's instructions!

The other ten attendants formed two rows and led the way. As they walked, the middle-aged man in the blue battle robe explained, "Warriors, travel to the Initial Universe is centrally coordinated. Departures take place once a certain number of people have gathered or when the scheduled time arrives. Unless anything unexpected happens, your group will only need to wait another seven days."

"The hall is up ahead. Everyone traveling to the Initial Universe gathers there. However, they all won their slots at auctions held in the various Universe Kingdoms. You earned yours with Military Merit on the Outer Battlefield. The last three groups will arrive within seven days, and then a Venerable will personally lead you to the Initial Universe."

Everyone in this group was at least a World Lord Level powerhouse, and each stride carried them dozens of kilometers. A few minutes later, they reached a lavishly decorated hall. Figures filled it, and at a glance, there were nearly a thousand people.

Just like the slots earned on the Outer Battlefield, the Five Great Powers issued a number of slots in each of the 1,008 Universe Kingdoms across the universe every era, then auctioned them off. Generally, each Universe Kingdom received only one World Lord slot per era, while Immortal slots were much rarer, with one usually allocated to every two or three kingdoms. As a result, World Lord slots were typically bid up to thirty or forty thousand, sometimes even fifty thousand Hunyuan Units. The winning bids usually came from Immortals buying slots for their subordinates. Immortal slots, meanwhile, could fetch three or four hundred million Hunyuan Units, or even five hundred million. Ordinary Immortals—even Marquis Immortals—weren't qualified to buy one! So many Marquis Immortals had no choice but to take another route: spend hundreds of thousands of years fighting Alien Races on the Outer Battlefield, then exchange their enormous Military Merit for a slot.

Of course, the Outer Battlefield was extremely dangerous. Even an Immortal couldn't be sure he would survive hundreds of thousands of years of fighting. World Lords were no different—not every World Lord could fight for fifty thousand years and still accumulate two billion Military Merit. New World Lords, in particular, died even faster.

Inside the hall, some sharp-eyed powerhouses had spotted the group of more than a hundred approaching from afar. When they saw the ten attendants leading the way, their eyes lit up, then filled with wariness.

Every attendant was at least a World Lord whose mastery of an Origin Law had been acknowledged, while the blue-robed middle-aged man giving the explanations was an Immortal! When they had first arrived from their respective Universe Kingdoms, they had been greeted by only a single World Lord attendant. Now an Immortal was leading the way, accompanied by all ten World Lord attendants. Anyone with half a brain could tell these people had significant backing.

"Number One came in person to greet them. Looks like the Outer Battlefield warriors have arrived." Some of the powerful figures in the hall noticed Ye Muxuan and the others, and even staff members on the second floor began discussing them.

"The Outer Battlefield..."

"Those are the real powerhouses. Quite a few of them are Madmen, too!" The staff worked there and clearly knew what it took for World Lords and Immortals to earn slots through Military Merit.

"For a World Lord to survive at least fifty thousand years of fighting on the Outer Battlefield, they need more than strength. They need luck, too!" one staff member remarked. "More than half of the World Lords who enter the Initial Universe go on to become Immortal Deities. As for the others, even if they enter the Initial Universe, their chances only improve by one or two tenths."

No matter the era, the battlefield was the best place to temper the strong. Word had it that a Peak World Lord who entered the Initial Universe had a fifty percent chance of successfully breaking through to Immortality. In reality, World Lords who had come from the battlefield far surpassed those from within the Universe Kingdoms in every respect. Their chances of breaking through were far higher, too.

For an ordinary World Lord, even reaching the peak meant their chances of breaking through to Immortality were practically zero. Entering the Initial Universe wouldn't help much, either. But World Lords who earned slots on the Outer Battlefield had survived one life-or-death trial after another. The strength of their wills was beyond what World Lords from within the Universe Kingdoms could match!

The most important thing for breaking through to Immortality was willpower!

"Notify the Venerable. The Outer Battlefield warriors have arrived, so the time to enter the Initial Universe is drawing near."

"Sure. Does anyone know which Venerable will be leading them this time?"

"No idea."

"I heard it was supposed to be Venerable Lijian?"

"How come I heard it was Kingdom Lord Mingyou?"

"It should be Kingdom Lord Mingyou."

"Kingdom Lord Mingyou of the Mingyou Universe Kingdom?" one staff member exclaimed. "He's an incredibly ancient Kingdom Lord. I never expected we'd get to see him here."

"Let me check... Oh, I see." Another staff member looked up the records. "It was originally arranged for Venerable Lijian to lead them, but Kingdom Lord Mingyou happens to be going to the Initial Universe this time, so there's no need to trouble Venerable Lijian."

"I see. Then send a message to request instructions from Kingdom Lord Mingyou."

The staff didn't need to know much. They only needed to find out which Venerable was leading the group, then request instructions when the time came. What that Venerable was going to do in the Initial Universe wasn't something they were qualified to know.