Preliminaries

Heavenly Fire Divine Kingdom Sacred Land!

The Heavenly Fire Kingdom Lord, with crimson hair like blazing flames, stood atop the great hall, his voice resounding in all directions: "This battle is your chance to shake the universe with your name! From today onward, all secret realms within the kingdom are unconditionally open to participants. As long as anyone passes the preliminary selection, I will accept them as my personal disciple!"

Below the hall, a group of young geniuses wreathed in flames raised their heads in unison, the fighting spirit in their eyes nearly condensing into tangible infernos.

Yunmo Planet, within a quiet palace!

Hu Yanbo, clad in a black robe, gazed at the proclamation floating in the air and murmured softly to himself: "The Genius Tournament... I wonder if any disciple from my Yunmo Planet can break into the top thousand of the Ganwu Universe Kingdom."

"Master," Babata beside him curled her lips. "Not to rain on your parade, but that's completely impossible. We'd be better off paying more attention to those who get eliminated—maybe we can pick up a few good seedlings."

"You..." Hu Yanbo helplessly rubbed Babata's head. "Can't you let me indulge in a little fantasy for once?"

Babata rolled her eyes and said no more.

Ganwu Secret Realm, within the Floating Divine Palace!

The Ganwu Kingdom Lord, draped in a starry robe, looked down upon tens of thousands of young geniuses below, their auras astonishing. "This battle concerns the face of my Ganwu Universe Kingdom. Among you, half of the preliminary selection slots must be secured. If anyone can break into the top ten of the final tournament, I will accept them as my personal disciple."

With just these words, every genius beneath the hall breathed rapidly, their gazes sharp as blades.

Not only the Ganwu Universe Kingdom, but the other higher universe kingdoms were equally stirred by turbulent winds.

Noah Universe Kingdom, within a temple woven entirely from rays of light.

Ailuos, the peerless genius hailed as the "God of Light," slowly opened his eyes, the birth and death of star rivers seeming to flicker within his pupils. He gazed at the registration interface before him, his expression calm as still water. "Once every ten thousand years... I hope this time, there will be someone who can make me take things a little seriously."

Wild Universe Kingdom, deep within the Blood Arena.

A giant nearly three meters tall, his skin covered in dark red demonic patterns, casually crushed a star beast's skull and licked the blood from the corner of his mouth. He looked up at the proclamation appearing in the sky, bared his teeth in a grin, and revealed a stark white smile. "Fighting? That's my favorite. I just hope those so-called geniuses... have bones hard enough."

Time flowed on. Amid the eager anticipation of countless humans across the universe, registration for the Peak Genius Tournament finally came to a close.

Virtual Universe, Wind Ridge Mountain Island, Qin Family Estate.

This time, over a thousand members of the Qin Family had registered for the tournament. This number seemed massive, but it was actually the result of the family's accumulation over nearly ten thousand years.

In this world, the lifespan of a Star-level warrior was as long as 10,081 years, and the Peak Genius Tournament had no age limit—as long as one's cultivation reached the Star level, they could participate. Therefore, aside from true young geniuses like Qin Ming, the other participants were at least several hundred years old, with many even over a thousand.

However, not a single one among them had comprehended a domain. In this tournament, they were destined to be mere foils and "participants for the sake of participation."

At this moment, the moment Qin Ming appeared at the estate, all members of the Qin Family, regardless of seniority, enthusiastically greeted him with respectful attitudes. In this world where strength reigned supreme, the talent and realm Qin Ming had displayed far surpassed theirs, naturally earning him everyone's respect.

Meanwhile, he opened the tournament email sent out by the Virtual Universe Company:

"Welcome to the 'Universe Human—Peak Genius Tournament'.

In this selection, within the Ganwu Universe Kingdom alone, over 952.7 billion Star-level experts have registered, an increase of 100.8 billion from the previous session.

For this, we at the Virtual Universe Company are deeply delighted.

We guarantee that the entire selection process will be conducted under the principle of 'absolute fairness'.

Given that the strength of registrants ranges from Star-level first-order to ninth-order, to fairly select true geniuses, all elimination battles will take place within the Virtual Universe.

At that time, each participant's physical constitution will be uniformly adjusted to Star-level ninth-order, and their telekinetic strength will be the same.

Participants may freely adjust their appearance and freely choose Force weapons and Telekinetic weapons (up to 10 items; note: high-level weapons require corresponding strength to drive, please choose those suitable for yourself). They may also equip a Force battle suit (no higher than second-order) and a space ring for supplies.

This selection aims to test intrinsic qualities such as 'will', 'domain', 'experience', and 'law comprehension'—all external conditions will be completely identical.

..."

Qin Ming quickly skimmed through it; the content was largely consistent with the rules he remembered.

It was just that the number of people seemed to be about a hundred billion more than Luo Feng's session. He recalled that in the original work, there were over eight hundred billion people divided into 100 world zones, averaging over eighty billion per zone. In this session, the total number exceeded nine hundred billion, meaning each zone would accommodate approximately ninety-two billion participants.

He glanced at his assigned information: World Zone 8.

The countdown voice now echoed throughout the skies of the Virtual Universe.

"Everyone, attention. The preliminary elimination will be divided into one hundred 'world zones'. A collective teleportation is about to take place, sending you to your respective assigned areas. Please make your final equipment checks. Once the preliminaries begin, you will no longer be able to apply for any weapons."

"Group teleport commencing, countdown: 60...59..."

The prompt tone continued, the numbers ticking down: "10...9...8...3...2...1, teleport!"

At that same instant.

Within the virtual universe, across the hundred independent worlds opened within the territory of the Ganwu Universe Kingdom, over nine point two billion figures appeared simultaneously.

The human race—Peak Genius Tournament, the preliminary selections of every universe kingdom, all launched in sync!

This grand event belonging to all of humanity drew every gaze, from the lofty undying existences above down to the ordinary citizens who could access the virtual universe network—no one was indifferent.

For the subjects and experts of the Ganwu Universe Kingdom, their attention naturally focused more on their own kingdom's preliminary battlefield.

Upon teleportation, Qin Ming only felt his vision blur, the scene hazy for about three seconds before gradually sharpening.

He appeared in an ordinary living room, with a bedroom and bathroom adjacent.

"This is the Eighth World Sector? The gravity is intense." Standing in the living room, he clearly felt a gravitational pull far beyond normal, his body sinking slightly.

He looked down at the screen on his wrist guard, standard-issue for the tournament, used to receive real-time information released by the Virtual Universe Company.

The screen displayed dense text.

Contestant: Qin Ming (Windfall Empire)

Points: 0

Rank: None

World Sector: Eighth World Sector

Note: The preliminary elimination will last 30 days. At the end, advancement will be determined by final points ranking.

Annotation: The Eighth World Sector is simulated based on the terrain of the "Old Fortress Planet" in the real universe kingdom. The entire continent has 92 cities, with the rest being wilderness, mountains, and rivers. Total land area is approximately 17 million square kilometers. All objects within this world sector, such as buildings and ground, have a hardness rating of B9.