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Silence fell. Most of the thousand peerless geniuses were puzzled. What did the four great secret realms—the 'Apocalypse Secret Realm,' 'Heaven and Earth Secret Realm,' 'Primeval Secret Realm,' and 'Original Secret Realm'—truly signify? Yet, everyone could tell that the 'Original Secret Realm' was clearly the best among them.

“Among you 1000 individuals, there are still differences in strength, so it’s impossible for everyone to receive the same resources.”

“Starting tomorrow, the arena battles will commence to determine the final rankings.” The purple-scaled man in green robes spoke, his voice ethereal and vast, echoing in everyone’s mind. “The rules for the decisive battles have already been sent to each of you. Rest well today.”

Boom!

After speaking, the purple-scaled man in green robes vanished. It was then that the 1008 powerful Undying beings began to converse.

“The Original Secret Realm is accepting two this time!”

“I thought the spot in the Original Secret Realm would definitely go to that young fellow, Bolan. I never expected there to be an extra spot.”

“The Virtual Universe Company is being generous for once.”

...

As the great Undying beings discussed, Luo Feng and the other 1000 individuals lowered their heads, looking at their wrist screens, which had just received the transmitted rules for the decisive battles.

“Hmm?” Luo Feng’s brows furrowed as he read.

“Rules are as follows:

In the three rounds of elimination battles that just concluded, 900 geniuses were selected. From these 900 individuals who secured a spot, the Virtual Universe System will select the top one hundred based on their performance in the trial space and the three elimination rounds. These are Jialaixi, Carpenter, Lasha, Leishi, Uteweisike...

These one hundred individuals, along with the top 100 from the trial space who initially secured spots, totaling 200 people, will engage in one-on-one battles!

The 100 winners will be eligible to enter the 'Heaven and Earth Secret Realm.' All other 900 will enter the 'Apocalypse Secret Realm.'

Among the 100 winners, the Virtual Universe System will determine and select the top 20, who will then engage in one-on-one battles to determine the top ten.

The top ten will be eligible to enter the 'Primeval Secret Realm.'

From the top ten, the first and second place will ultimately be selected to enter the 'Original Secret Realm.'

Detailed battle lists are attached.”

“These rules... are quite arbitrary,” Luo Feng mused. “To have the Virtual Universe System select 100 out of 900 to battle the top 100. It seems the Virtual Universe Company has absolute faith in their Virtual Universe System. Anyway, it doesn't affect me much; I’m eligible for the decisive battles.”

“How can this be?”

“They won’t even give us a chance to fight?”

“This is too much!”

“This... this is putting too much trust in the Virtual Universe System.”

In the central plaza, the other peerless geniuses erupted in an uproar. These battle rules effectively excluded 800 of the 1000 individuals, not even giving them a chance to display their strength! Naturally, this left many of the geniuses present feeling extremely displeased and frustrated.

“Virtual Universe Company!” A sharp, piercing voice suddenly rang out, making Luo Feng’s ears uncomfortable. He couldn't help but turn to look.

He saw a youth in the crowd, over five meters tall, lean and muscular, with a vertical eye on his forehead. His three eyes gleamed with madness as he shrieked furiously, “I am 100% confident I can break into the top 100, even the top 20! Why, why am I directly excluded by the Virtual Universe System? I refuse to accept this! I refuse to accept this!!!”

“Unfair! This is unfair!” Others nearby also shouted.

“This isn’t fair!”

“A real fight, where the loser is eliminated, that’s fair! Otherwise, we won’t be reconciled!” Immediately, more than a dozen young people from various Cosmic Nations began to shout.

Luo Feng, the savage Rongjun, and the other 200 individuals on the list remained relatively calm. The other 800, aside from the agitated and furious three-eyed youth, were mostly also unwilling to accept it.

“Silence!”

“What are you doing?”

“All of you, be quiet!”

Many of the 1008 powerful Undying beings in the distance roared in anger. Simultaneously, a terrifying conscious pressure spread out, directly pressing down on the 800 individuals. The faces of the 800 young geniuses from various races turned pale, their bodies trembling slightly, their legs shaking uncontrollably. “Thud!” Finally, someone couldn't bear it and collapsed to their knees, followed by “Thud!” “Thud!” “Thud!”... one after another, they all knelt on the ground, unable to resist.

All 800 knelt.

Booming sound~~~

The 1008 powerful Undying beings appeared before the group of geniuses, looking down at the kneeling crowd.

“I refuse to accept this! I refuse to accept this!!!” Among the kneeling crowd, the three-eyed youth propped himself up with his arms, his muscles bulging like writhing earthworms, and roared with his head held high.

“Idiot!”

Among the 1008 powerful Undying beings, the giant in scaled armor gave the three-eyed youth a cold glance.

At this moment, a majestic and ethereal voice resonated: “If you have objections to the Virtual Universe System’s battle rules, you may choose not to join my Virtual Universe Company. My Virtual Universe Company will not force anyone to participate.” The voice echoed between heaven and earth, causing the faces of the 800 geniuses prostrate on the ground to change.

Too... too... this was too ruthless!

The other 200 individuals standing nearby, including Luo Feng, the savage Rongjun, and Death God Bolan, were also greatly astonished.

“Such a response,” Luo Feng thought, secretly shocked.

The 800 geniuses couldn't believe it, and the three-eyed youth also wore an expression of disbelief. Indeed, he was a truly peerless genius; in his home Cosmic Nation, he was the number one! He had always been a favored son of heaven, even the Cosmic Nation Lord valued him greatly, and many Undying beings took his opinions seriously.

In his view, these rules were simply outrageous, and his demands should have been met. But the Virtual Universe Company’s response was...

If you disagree, you can leave. No one is forcing you to join!

It was that simple!

“Truly foolish!” Among the 1008 Undying beings, one powerful Undying with long black hair flowing freely looked at the 800 kneeling individuals and said coldly, “Do you really think you little fellows can change the battle rules decided by the Virtual Universe Company’s high-level executives? How presumptuous!”

“If it were that young fellow, Death God Bolan, offering an opinion, it might receive attention. Because he has long been recognized as capable of entering the Original Secret Realm, he is an Original Secret Realm member!” An elder with a head covered in silver scales, shrouded in white robes, looked at the three-eyed youth. “As for you... at the outer layer of the core, you dare to say you refuse to accept?”

“Youngsters, remember this! You might be the absolute top geniuses in your respective Cosmic Nations, but in the Virtual Universe Company... the Virtual Universe Company holds a genius battle for Star-level practitioners every ten thousand years, and also a strong practitioner battle for Universe-level individuals. Within the Virtual Universe Company, there are countless geniuses and experts as numerous as clouds... it’s better for you to be more humble!”

“Defying the highest-level decisions is a grave taboo!”

...

The 1008 Undying beings clearly understood that while these geniuses were indeed exceptionally talented, most of them possessed arrogance and unruly dispositions. The path to the pinnacle was incredibly arduous, and such arrogance often led to failure and downfall. Therefore, severely tempering these geniuses was beneficial.

...

On the first floor of Building No. 0825.

Luo Feng and Rongjun both sat on chairs. As for their original three teammates, they had all been eliminated in the previous three rounds of elimination battles.

“Before, I couldn’t help but feel a bit proud, but that scene just now... I understand that in the eyes of the Virtual Universe Company, we are merely one batch among many ‘seeds’ they absorb,” Luo Feng said with a shake of his head and a smile. “The Virtual Universe Company has accumulated countless, countless geniuses.”

“Different statuses naturally mean different influence!” the savage youth said in a low voice. “The four great secret realms represent the hierarchical distinctions of core members within the colossus that is the Virtual Universe Company. Didn’t you hear an Undying just say that if Death God Bolan offered an opinion, it might receive attention?”

Luo Feng nodded slightly.

“The Original Secret Realm has extremely few spots,” the savage youth continued. “For an organization as vast as the entire Virtual Universe Company, it’s said there are only about a hundred Sector Lords in the Original Secret Realm!”

“A hundred?” Luo Feng was greatly astonished.

Sector Lords have incredibly long lifespans; even the Ganwu Universe Nation has over a million Sector Lords... So how many Sector Lords would a Virtual Universe Company, a hundred or even a thousand times more powerful, have?

Yet, there were only a hundred Sector Lords who entered the 'Original Secret Realm'!

“So, you should understand how special it is for the ‘Original Secret Realm’ to accept two members this time,” the savage youth said. “The Original Secret Realm... as the ‘core of the core’ of the Virtual Universe Company, someone like Death God Bolan, even if he’s only Star-level or Universe-level, his status is extremely, extremely high. Even the Emperor of your home Black Dragon Mountain Empire cannot compare to him.”

“Huh?” Luo Feng was startled.

The status of an Original Secret Realm member is even higher than the Emperor of the Black Dragon Mountain Empire?

That makes sense!

There are only a hundred Sector Lords in the Virtual Universe Company’s ‘Original Secret Realm’! This shows how special the status of an Original Secret Realm member is. It’s not strange for them to be more noble than the Emperor of a star domain.

“And I heard that Original Secret Realm members have dedicated guard squads,” the savage youth added. “The leader of the guard squad is an Undying, and the squad will include ten Sector Lords and a hundred Domain Lords.”

Even Luo Feng, usually calm, couldn't help but widen his eyes.

“Holy crap!”

“Is that for real?” Luo Feng couldn't help but lose his composure.

An Original Secret Realm member having a guard squad wasn't strange, but for the leader of that guard squad to be an Undying being! This, this, this was too terrifying.

“Don’t be surprised. As one of the five giants, the ‘Virtual Universe Company’ even has Undying beings... many of whom are merely in the ‘Primeval Secret Realm.’ In terms of status alone, they are still slightly inferior,” the savage youth said. “You should understand how noble Original Secret Realm members are. Every single one is the Virtual Universe Company’s most important elite. The resources alone spent on them, converted into money, amount to an unimaginably vast sum.”

Luo Feng was completely stunned.