Finals Begin

The next morning, following the Virtual Universe Company's notice, Zhou Yuan arrived at the exclusive conference hall above Purple Zenith Continent.

He was no stranger to this place. He had come here once after the elimination rounds ended, but this conference hall was much smaller, with only a thousand seats—just enough to accommodate all the contestants who had advanced to the finals.

The moment Zhou Yuan stepped into the conference hall through the teleportation point, the previously noisy hall suddenly fell silent for a moment. Then countless gazes focused on him.

"That's Zhou Yuan, the 'God of Blades'!"

"How is Zhou Yuan so powerful?"

"The intelligence reports say Zhou Yuan has an extremely high chance of taking first place in these finals. I simulated a battle against him and couldn't last ten moves."

"You're doing pretty well. I couldn't even last five."

The discussions rose and fell, but Zhou Yuan seemed not to hear them. His gaze swept across the hall before he headed straight for seat number one in the front row, which had been assigned to him.

The moment he sat down, Karen beside him immediately turned around, a hint of admiration on his face. "Hello, I'm Karen. I saw you watching the arena matches before."

"Hello." Zhou Yuan nodded slightly and gave a simple reply. Although Karen was strong, he was not strong enough to draw much of Zhou Yuan's attention. Still, basic courtesy was necessary.

Amid the crowd's discussions, a tall figure suddenly appeared on the podium. The man stood two and a half meters tall and wore azure combat armor. His entire body exuded a bloody aura, while his eyes swept over the geniuses below like those of a bloodthirsty beast.

In an instant, the discussions in the hall came to an abrupt halt. Struck by such a ferocious wave of consciousness, Zhou Yuan's body instinctively tensed, resisting with all his might.

The other geniuses fared even worse. Many immediately broke out in cold sweat, their bodies trembling slightly, their breathing turning rapid.

"Congratulations!" The man's icy voice echoed through the conference hall. "You are the thousand finest Universe Level elites selected by the Purple Chen Universe Nation. You are qualified to represent the Purple Chen Universe Nation and compete against the geniuses of the other 1,007 universe nations for the pinnacle. But I must remind you that the brutality of the finals will far exceed every battle you have experienced before."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone. "The human race has a total of 1,008 universe nations, gathering the finest elites from trillions of humans. Of all of you, perhaps only a handful will enter the top thousand and qualify to become core members of the Virtual Universe Company."

"Of course, the rest of you need not be discouraged. Those who do not enter the Virtual Universe Company may also choose to join the Purple Dawn Dao Field. We will arrange for you to cultivate in the Purple Zenith Secret Realm."

"Because the selection progress of each universe nation differs, the finals of the human Peak Powerhouse Battle will officially begin one year from now. This year is your final opportunity to improve yourselves. Cherish it well."

After leaving the conference hall, Zhou Yuan immediately returned and once again immersed himself in comprehending the Space Origin Law.

A year passed in the blink of an eye, and Zhou Yuan's progress in comprehending the laws advanced by leaps and bounds. Not only had he completely mastered the essences of the first thirty-six Space Origin Laws, he had also successfully analyzed the thirty-ninth.

Starting from the thirty-seventh, each essence of the Space Origin Law required comprehending twenty-seven secret techniques, using twenty-seven different secret techniques to analyze the essence of the Space Origin Law from different directions.

Though the number of secret techniques had only tripled, the number of angles that needed to be analyzed had become twenty-seven. Compared to the first thirty-six, the difficulty had increased geometrically. Even after cultivating the third level of the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique, which greatly improved his comprehension, Zhou Yuan still needed several months to understand a single essence.

That day, Zhou Yuan temporarily stopped his comprehension and connected his consciousness to the Virtual Universe. Today was the day the Peak Powerhouse Battle finals began, and the geniuses from the 1,008 universe nations were traveling through teleportation points to their respective gathering places.

On a floating island above the Purple Chen Universe Nation, Zhou Yuan appeared beside a teleportation point.

The Universe Level staff member responsible for guiding him immediately stepped forward and said respectfully, "Mr. Zhou Yuan, please come this way. The assembly plaza is on the eastern side of the floating island."

"Thank you." Zhou Yuan nodded slightly and followed the indicated direction.

Before long, he arrived at a vast plaza. Quite a few people had already gathered in the center of the plaza. They were the participating geniuses of the Purple Chen Universe Nation.

They came in all sorts of forms: Winged Humans with wings on their backs, Four-Armed Race members with four arms, Giant Race members over ten meters tall. Yet the most numerous were ordinary human forms like Zhou Yuan's—the mainstream appearance of the human race.

When they saw Zhou Yuan approaching, the crowd stirred once more. "Look, Zhou Yuan is here!"

As the contestant designated by intelligence agencies as having an extremely high chance of taking first place, Zhou Yuan was destined to be the subject of everyone else's discussions.

Zhou Yuan had little interaction with these geniuses. He had acted alone in both the elimination rounds and the arena matches, so he stood alone at the edge of the plaza, waiting for the others to gather.

Soon, all one thousand geniuses had arrived.

Just then, an invisible pressure suddenly enveloped the entire plaza. Other than Zhou Yuan, the faces of all the other geniuses instantly turned pale, their bodies trembling involuntarily.

A man in azure combat armor flew over, his whole body emanating a bloody aura. He was the same man who had stood on the conference hall podium earlier.

His bloodthirsty eyes swept across them as his icy voice rang out. "Geniuses of the Purple Chen Universe Nation, by the command of the Nation Lord, I will lead the team for these finals. You may address me as Blood Fiend Marquis. Do you understand?"

"Understood!" The thousand of them answered in unison without thinking, their voices carrying a trace of awe.

Blood Fiend Marquis's gaze instantly locked onto Zhou Yuan. "Zhou Yuan!"

"Lord Blood Fiend Marquis." Zhou Yuan bowed slightly in greeting.

"You are the strongest genius of our Purple Chen Universe Nation in this competition. The Nation Lord has only one request for you—you must take first place in the finals. Is there a problem?" Blood Fiend Marquis spoke with unquestionable authority.

"No problem. I will not disappoint Master's expectations." Zhou Yuan answered firmly. He had absolute confidence in his strength. Even against the top geniuses of other universe nations, he was confident of victory.

Blood Fiend Marquis nodded in satisfaction, then looked at Karen. "Karen, you have a chance of entering the top ten this time. Seize the opportunity well."

"Yes, my lord!" Karen responded respectfully, a flash of excitement passing through his eyes.

Then Blood Fiend Marquis's gaze swept over several people in the crowd in turn. "Raymond, Meng Wu, Soston, Lunjing, the strength of you four barely reaches the threshold for the top thousand. Whether you can seize the opportunity will depend on your own performance."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the rest as his tone turned cold. "As for the others, don't entertain unrealistic fantasies. Your strength does not even rank among the geniuses of the human race."

His words were like cold water poured over their heads, and many geniuses revealed displeased expressions. Having come this far, which of them had not been a top powerhouse in their respective world zones? When had they ever been looked down upon like this?

"Don't be unconvinced." Blood Fiend Marquis seemed to see through their thoughts, his voice growing colder. "Strength is not something you talk about. It is something you fight for with your fists. When you reach the finals, you will understand what it means that there is always someone stronger."

With a wave of his hand, he said, "All right, it's about time. Follow me."