Ten Million Eras

This was at least a monster who appeared once every ten million eras!

He was the most precious asset of all Humanity, a super-being with an excellent chance of growing into a pillar of the race in the future!

And before such a being could truly mature, he was also a "threat" that other races had to eliminate at any cost!

In the Primal Universe, Humanity was one of the Six Great Peak Races, but it was not without enemies.

The Zerg, the Monster Race, the Machine Race, and other peak races, along with various powerful factions, had never stopped assassinating Humanity's geniuses.

Throughout history, countless dazzling geniuses had fallen into darkness before they could truly shine.

To protect Qin Ming, they had to start concealing his true talent as much as possible right now!

Especially on the stage of the Peak Genius Tournament, which the entire universe was watching: the more attention he attracted, the greater the risk.

Fortunately, those who could watch the events inside the Seventh Trial Tower in real time were mainly the million geniuses gathered in the Central Plaza, along with some Immortal Gods and higher-ups who had the necessary access.

Compared to the countless beings across the entirety of Human Territory, that was not an especially large audience.

The Virtual Universe Company had the highest authority to control and seal the information. There was still time.

"All broadcasts from the Trial Space are temporarily suspended. The rankings and results will be announced together at a later time."

A cold, unquestionable system announcement echoed above the Central Plaza.

The commotion gradually died down, replaced by a solemn understanding shared by all.

Everyone understood what this meant.

Meanwhile, Qin Ming knew nothing of the changes taking place outside the Trial Space.

At that moment, he was already on the second level of the Seventh Trial Tower.

Before him were another ten thousand Nine-Headed Pythons.

Compared to the Blood-haired Mammoths on the first level, they were markedly more intelligent. Their attacks were more cunning, and their coordination was far more sophisticated than that of the mammoths, who knew only how to charge. Together, they formed layer upon layer of an almost seamless strangulation network.

But in terms of individual strength, they were about on par with the Blood-haired Mammoths on the first level.

In the face of overwhelming strength and flawless movement techniques, even the most sophisticated teamwork was futile.

In fact, their intelligence worked against them. Faced with Qin Ming's ten thousand clones, they were bewildered and didn't know which one to pursue.

Qin Ming's figure moved through a sky filled with venom, coiling snake bodies, and snapping jaws as casually as if he were strolling through a courtyard.

Each flash of his sword landed precisely on the most vulnerable part of a snake's body.

The ten thousand Nine-Headed Pythons' assault did not leave him looking the least bit disheveled. Instead, they gave him a stage on which to display his ultimate control over power.

On the third level were a thousand Metal Lifeforms known as Tuoluo Race Warriors.

They had no souls and were immune to mental attacks, making them the nightmare of illusionists.

But against Qin Ming's physical attacks, which were fused with the power of laws, their defenses were useless.

As for countering illusions?

Before the crushing force of absolute power and laws, so-called "natural counters" meant nothing.

The fourth, fifth, and sixth levels.

Various strange creatures that had appeared in the lower levels of the Trial Towers, Mechanical Puppets, and even Starry Sky Behemoths reappeared with the tower's despair-inducing standards of strength, yet none of them could slow Qin Ming down for even a moment.

In fact, this was only natural.

In each of the seven Trial Towers, the strength of the opponents on each successive level followed a certain "gradient" established by the Virtual Universe Company.

The main purpose was not to block geniuses with an absolutely insurmountable challenge, but to test their limits comprehensively and progressively, while giving them early familiarity with the various enemies they might encounter in the universe.

As long as someone could pass the first level of a given tower, proving they had the strength to handle its "baseline difficulty," they had a decent chance of clearing the remaining levels too, provided they didn't have any obvious weaknesses that their opponents could completely exploit, such as an illusionist facing Metal Lifeforms.

The Metal Lifeforms placed on the third and fifth levels served precisely this purpose: to weed out "one-sided" geniuses who had reached the pinnacle in one field but had fatal shortcomings in others.

A true peerless genius, one who was entrusted with great hopes, had to be free of obvious weaknesses as much as possible.

Qin Ming clearly met that standard perfectly. Laws, close combat, movement, defense, soul—what he had demonstrated was the skill set of a nearly flawless all-rounder.

The real trouble lay on the seventh level.

The guardian of the Seventh Trial Tower's seventh level was still the Zerg Hive.

The Zerg were one of the Six Great Peak Races of the universe, a strange race on par with Humanity and, in some respects, even more terrifying.

They were a race that had taken "numbers" and "absolute obedience" to the extreme.

They had a population so vast it was staggering. A single Mother Nest could produce countless Zerg Warriors, forming a terrifying tide capable of engulfing a sea of stars. They waged war across the universe by relying on those seemingly endless numbers.

And yet they had a pitifully small population, because the Zerg Warriors fighting on the front lines had extremely low intelligence, possessing little more than a battle instinct. Only the Mother Nests themselves could be considered fully intelligent life-forms.

Counting the Mother Nests as the unit, the Zerg "population" was shockingly small.

Even the weakest true Zerg Hive rivaled a World Lord, while the most powerful could contend with Immortal Gods.

A single Mother Nest, together with its nearly infinite supply of troops, was enough to occupy a star system or even rule a vast stellar region!

Of course, the Zerg Hive in the Trial Tower had been greatly weakened. Otherwise, no Star Level genius could possibly clear the seventh level of even the first tower.

Even so, the Zerg Hive in the Seventh Trial Tower remained a trial that could only be described as "despair-inducing."

Every Zerg Warrior it produced was powerful enough to rival one of the top ten super-geniuses in this tournament's finals!

Even more terrifying was its "troop-spawning" mode: it could produce three thousand of these fearsome Zerg at once!

If the challenger couldn't kill all three thousand Zerg Warriors within a mere twenty minutes, the Mother Nest would receive energy and produce another three thousand!

The cycle would repeat endlessly.

This meant the challenger needed not only the terrifying strength to face three thousand opponents on the level of the tournament's top ten finalists at once, but also an extremely high killing rate, clearing them all within twenty minutes.

Otherwise, the swarm would keep growing until it exhausted even the strongest fighter, wore them down, and completely overwhelmed them.

This was no longer merely a test of strength. It was an all-around, hellish final trial of endurance, explosive potential, energy control, combat intelligence, and willpower!

Standing at the entrance to the seventh level, Qin Ming gazed at the enormous nest in the distance, slowly writhing as it emanated a heart-stirring mental fluctuation. For the first time, his expression grew serious.

The challenges before this had been effortless. He couldn't afford not to take this one seriously.