42nd Place Revealed! The Joyful Demon Race

Immediately, Zero began its counterattack.

Its arms simultaneously deformed and reorganized.

The left arm transformed into a slender energy cannon, while the right arm condensed into a serrated combat blade driven by countless micro-algorithms.

Its analysis system locked onto a weak joint on the beast's flank, shielded by a layer of force, and as its fingertip tapped the trigger, the attack angle of the combat blade was already corrected.

One shot and one strike were launched simultaneously.

The beast let out a miserable howl as a wound deep enough to expose bone was torn into its flank.

Yet, what was most shocking were the two rounds of exchanges that followed.

Ignoring its injuries, the beast roared and counterattacked, its claws erupting with three poisoned bone spikes that shot straight toward the joints of Zero's chest.

Zero's right-arm blade suddenly disassembled, rapidly reassembling in mid-air into a small, circular shield with a deflection angle even more bizarre than its outer shell.

In an incredibly short span of time, the shield completed three vector shifts, diverting the force of the three bone spikes in three different directions, ultimately blocking them all well outside the lethal range.

Then, channeling its profound comprehension of laws, it drove the combat blade forward to slay its opponent with a single strike.

The projection continued to play.

In the subsequent battles, Zero displayed extremely calm judgment, profound comprehension of laws, and a formidable will.

It never engaged in a brute-force clash with its opponents; instead, it utilized precise predictions of the battlefield situation to strike at the weakest link of its opponent in every attack.

The output curve of its energy core was clearly visible in the corner of the Sky Screen, with the energy consumption of each round of combat steadily decreasing.

This indicated that it was learning through combat, continuously absorbing battle data to optimize its own offensive and defensive rhythm.

Such a combat style was nearly unsolvable among World Lords of the same rank.

When the combat projection ended, the entire Primal Universe fell into a brief silence. All the powerhouses were deeply shocked by the law application and mental fortitude Zero had displayed.

The Sky Screen's evaluation criteria were clearly not as simple as they had anticipated.

[Machine Race 'Zero'. World Lord, Ninth Rank.]

[Law Comprehension: King-level, Elementary.]

[Will: High-level General-level Immortal.]

[Comprehensive Evaluation: Talent/Comprehension A-grade, Will A-grade, Mental State C-grade.]

[Its comprehension, will, and growth potential are worthy of the tenth place among the top ten geniuses below Immortal rank in the Third Reincarnation Era of the Primal Universe.]

[Ranking concluded.]

[Reward: Divine Power Burning Secret Technique (First Level).]

[Reward: Supreme Attack Treasure · Black Flame Blade.]

The moment the rewards appeared on the Sky Screen, the entire Primal Universe went quiet.

Black Flame Blade.

Another Supreme Attack Treasure!

And the Divine Power Burning Secret Technique appeared as early as tenth place!

During the last Sky Screen ranking of the top ten powerhouses, the tenth-ranked Dream Demon Ancestor had received a Supreme Attack Treasure, the Gold-Shattering Spear.

And now, a World Lord-level Machine Race warrior had received a reward of the same rank as the Dream Demon Ancestor had back then, plus a copy of the Divine Power Burning Secret Technique!

Countless Universe Masters swallowed their envy at this moment.

In the Machine Race Divine Kingdom.

Zero extended its mechanical arm to catch the black combat blade flying out from the Sky Screen, while a point of starlight submerged into its head.

Immediately after.

Zero handed both the Black Flame Blade and the Divine Power Burning Secret Technique over to the Machine Father God.

With its current strength, it could not even activate an ordinary treasure, let alone a Supreme Attack Treasure.

Handing them over to the Machine Father God was undoubtedly the best choice.

Within the Demon Ancestor Secret Realm, the Tremor Demon Ancestor and the Dream Demon Ancestor looked at each other.

They had no intuitive understanding of the combat power of the Machine Race's Zero, but the luster of that Black Flame Blade made them swallow a heavy silence.

"Black Flame Blade... another Supreme Attack Treasure."

The Tremor Demon Ancestor's voice was low, carrying a trace of bitterness he himself had not noticed, "It is not a whit inferior to the Gold-Shattering Spear that Meng Cha received back then."

The Dream Demon Ancestor did not respond, only pinning his gaze firmly onto the Sky Screen.

In the Zerg Queen's palace, the Queen gave a cold laugh: "King-level elementary law comprehension, High-level General-level Immortal will. Does this even deserve a Supreme Attack Treasure?"

But her slender fingers, gripping the Eternal Pearl, turned slightly white, revealing that her inner state was not as relaxed as her tone suggested.

Behind her, Shadow lowered his head slightly, a trace of hidden unwillingness flashing in his eyes.

In the main hall of the Demon Beast Alliance, the Beast Ancestor's fingers, which had been tapping the armrest, paused for a moment: "Zero is only tenth... tenth place already received the first level of the Divine Power Burning Secret Technique and the Black Flame Blade. Then, what will the ninth and eighth places, one step higher, be?"

Blood Fang behind him did not respond, but its tail tightened involuntarily, pressing five shallow grooves into the F-grade metal floor.

Chaos City.

The City Lord of Chaos nodded slightly: "This little fellow from the Machine Race has a shortcoming in his temperament. But his talent, comprehension, and combat instincts are truly worthy of this ranking."

The high-level members of the human Hong Alliance were thinking of something else; during the last Sky Screen Ranking, the Dream Demon Ancestor ranked tenth and received the supreme treasure, the Gold-Shattering Spear.

Yet this time, a World Lord-level genius had obtained a treasure reward of the same level as the one the Dream Demon Ancestor received back then.

If the tenth place was already like this, how astonishing would the reward for the first place be?

If a human genius could take first place, would the inheritance and supreme treasures obtained be able to suppress all other races?

On the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Yang Yu took a sip of fine wine and looked at the Sky Screen spanning the starry sky, a glimmer of anticipation flashing in his eyes.

"The kid in tenth place already got the Black Flame Blade. As for the nine above him, the rewards will only be more exaggerated."

He set down the wine pot, his gaze piercing through layers of space and time to land on Luo Feng, who was on the rooftop in Chaos City, "I wonder if you can take first place."

The void beneath the Sky Screen paused for a brief moment, and then the text began to slowly reorganize itself.

Everyone's eyes were fixed intently on that stream of light.

"I said, tenth place is just an appetizer.

Even the Dream Demon Ancestor, that compressed and withered figure of the Demon Race, once received a reward of the same rank; it's only just my turn."

Zero's voice cut off abruptly in the holographic communication of the Machine Race's God Kingdom.

The name of the ninth place appeared on the Sky Screen.

[TOP 9: Demon Race · Frost Parasite!]

The moment this line of text appeared, the entire Demon Ancestor Secret Realm fell into a deathly silence that lasted for three breaths.

Three breaths later, the Dream Demon Ancestor was the first to react.

Her massive silver snake body suddenly reared up, and a light that had been suppressed for a million years erupted from her snake pupils.

It was not anger, nor hatred, but a kind of ecstasy seen after struggling out of the bottom of a despairing abyss to witness the first ray of dawn.

"On the list! Frost Parasite is on the list!"

The Dream Demon Ancestor's voice was so sharp it almost tore the space apart, carrying a tremor that had not existed for a million years, "Zhen Jiao, did you see! Someone from my Demon Race is on the list!"

The Tremor Demon Ancestor did not answer.

His eyes, beneath his serrated shell, stared fixedly at the four characters on the Sky Screen, as if he wanted to carve them into the depths of his soul, stroke by stroke. His throat moved a few times, and in the end, he only spat out a low, heavy sentence: "Watch first."

But the tip of his tail was trembling slightly.

The massive body covered under the Black Scale Armor was also trembling slightly.

It was not nervousness; it was that he had not seen hope for too, too long.

The night his territory was split in half by a single axe from Giant Axe, the dawn he was forced to cede a quarter of his territory by the Zerg Queen using the Eternal Pearl, the humiliation of being chased and beaten by the Beast Ancestor for countless years.

Every bit of resolve from the past million years, where he had bitten his teeth and swallowed his bitterness, now brewed into a torrent mixed with scorching heat and bitterness, pouring from his chest all the way to the tip of his tail.

He did not howl; he simply squeezed that breath of foul air, held for a million years, out from between his teeth bit by bit.

In the corner of the great hall, a strange beast covered entirely in ice-blue scales, about a hundred meters long, was crawling quietly.

Its physique was completely different from the typical giant beasts of the Demon Race; it had no ostentatious spikes or bloated shells. Faint frost patterns flowed across the surface of its ice-blue scales, and every corner of the patterns fit the curvature of its joints perfectly, like a winter lake frozen over a layer of skin.

Compared to a demon beast, it was more like an artwork meticulously polished by an extreme cold secret realm.

It was Frost Parasite.

When it saw its name appear on the Sky Screen, a faint ripple flashed in Frost Parasite's deep blue eyes.

It did not let out a deafening roar like the geniuses of its race behind it, nor did it tremble with excitement; it appeared very calm.

At the same time, in the main hall of the Demon Beast Alliance, the fingers of the Beast Ancestor tapping on the armrest stopped for a full breath.

"Frost Parasite... the Demon Race actually made the list too."

His dark gold scales shimmered with cold light in the dim environment, and his tone sounded like he was reading a battle report, but Blood Fang behind him could hear the displeasure within it.

The Beast Ancestor's domain, the Ice Wind Domain, and the Starfall Blade were both obtained from the Sky Screen; he knew the value of the Sky Screen's rewards better than anyone.

The next tier down from ninth place was the level of supreme treasures, and this down-and-out family of the Demon Race, whom he had been chasing and beating for a million years, had actually obtained an admission ticket.

Lie Tianzun's reaction was much more direct than his master's.

This young demon beast, whose size was enough to cover a small part of the starry sky when stretched out, rolled a suppressed low growl in his throat when he saw the name on the Sky Screen: "Frost Parasite... that ice cube I used to chase and beat?"

He had fought Frost Parasite in a trial once; he had spent almost the entire battle crushing it with his physical body, while Frost Parasite could only hide in the extreme cold domain it created, eventually having three scales swiped off by his claw.

Now that the opponent he had been suppressing had stepped into the top ten of the Genius Ranking, Lie Tianzun only felt that his worldview had been hit by some kind of brutal impact.

Inside the Zerg Queen's palace, the Queen gently turned the Eternal Pearl in her palm and said nothing.

In her soul network, Erosion, Shadow, and the others simultaneously received the same command.

"Review all combat records related to the Demon Race's Frost Parasite, all of them."

However, in the Empress's own view, this directive was more a matter of inertia in her intelligence operations.

The Demon Race was not the primary rival of the Insect Race.

Frost Parasite making the list was, to the Insect Race, merely one more hypothetical enemy that required study; nothing more.

"Keep watching," the Empress said indifferently.

Within the human Hong Alliance, the City Lord of Chaos stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the Sky Screen, and nodded slightly.

He was no stranger to the name Frost Parasite.

Humanity's formidable intelligence network had long since archived information regarding Frost Parasite.

"The Demon Race has finally managed to turn things around."

The City Lord of Chaos's voice carried little emotion. "Still, it is only ninth place. There are plenty of positions above it."

Above the Sky Screen, the combat projection of Frost Parasite began to slowly unfold.

It was a scene of a frozen starry sky.

In the background, the light of countless stars was suppressed by the Laws of Extreme Cold into faint, cold-white halos; the entire battlefield resembled an amber block shoved deep into liquid nitrogen.

The figure of Frost Parasite flickered within it. Within the range of its Extreme Cold Domain, the very flow of space itself slowed to a degree visible to the naked eye.

It was not a simple spatial lockdown, but a more subtle interweaving of laws, merging the Law of Ice and the Law of Space into a single, flowing chill.

Its opponent was a peak World Lord-level demon beast from the Second Reincarnation Era, its body as massive as a mountain, burning with dark purple demon fire.

The heat of that demon fire was enough to melt F-grade alloys into molten iron, but within Frost Parasite's Extreme Cold Domain, the fire shriveled rapidly the moment it was exhaled. The edges of the flames quickly condensed into a layer of frost-white ice crystals, only to shatter into rustling ice powder in the air. Frost Parasite's mouth curled slightly.

That was its unique way of sneering.

Frost Parasite did not engage in a head-on clash.

Relying on its Extreme Cold Domain, it darted back and forth, its movement technique dense and fluid, like a blue-white phantom gliding across ice.

Every one of its dodges landed precisely on the outer edge of its opponent's attack range, and every forward thrust was timed to the gap in the opponent's recovery.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that, in terms of raw frontal power, it was no match for that dark purple demon fire.

In terms of speed, it could only barely claim a three-tenths advantage.

But it was precisely this ingenuity—fusing the Laws of Ice and Space into every step—combined with the patience honed during thirty thousand years of solitary freezing, that allowed it to incrementally stretch the countdown to death across the long timeline of a war of attrition.

When the opponent finally exhausted its patience and, in a fit of rage, exposed a hidden wound on its flank that had been repeatedly frozen and cracked, Frost Parasite moved.

The spiral ice-crystal horn on its forehead suddenly lit up, and a beam of ice-blue light, condensed to the extreme, shot out silently, piercing that hidden wound with unparalleled speed and precision.

The opponent's body was instantly frozen by the chill; even the burning demon fire turned into a solid blue ice relief before exploding into a sky full of shattered ice.

The entire process was crisp and clean, without a hint of hesitation.

No unnecessary roars, no flashy combos.

One strike to kill, retract the horn, and leave.

The World Lord geniuses watching the projection drew a collective breath after a moment of silence.

The ninth genius, truly living up to its reputation!

The projection continued.

In the subsequent combat sequences, the fighting style Frost Parasite displayed could be described with one word: cold.

Calm, cold-blooded, indifferent!

It never clashed head-on with any opponent, utilizing the fusion characteristics of the Law of Space and the Law of Water to perfection, delivering a fatal blow at the most unexpected moments.

In one segment of the projection, it even voluntarily shattered half of its own scales, using the exploding ice-crystal particles to set up an impassable cold-current shield before itself.

At that moment, its opponent had just exhaled a long-charged innate demon fire. Fire and ice collided violently against the shield, and the entire battlefield was swallowed by billowing white mist.

When the mist dispersed, the figure of Frost Parasite had already vanished from its original spot, appearing five zhang behind its opponent the next second, a trace of undried blood clinging to the tip of its horn.

As the combat projection slowly dissipated, the text on the Sky Screen continued to emerge.

[Demon Race 'Frost Parasite'. World Lord, ninth stage.]

[Law Comprehension: Early-stage King.]

[Willpower: High-level Army Lord Immortal.]

[Comprehensive Evaluation: Talent and Comprehension A+ grade, Willpower A grade, Temperament C grade.]

[Its comprehension, willpower, and growth potential are worthy of being the ninth of the top ten geniuses below the Immortal level in the Primal Universe's Third Reincarnation Era.]

[Ranking concluded.]

[Reward: Divine Power Burning Secret Technique (First Level).]

[Reward: Supreme Treasure Armor · Mist Veil Armor.]

When the six characters "Supreme Treasure Armor" appeared on the Sky Screen, the entire Primal Universe shook once again.