Devouring the Stars: Soul Master

Chapter 164 Hong and Thor's Arrangements, Target Pansy
"Countdown to the end of the preliminaries, 60...59...58..."

A majestic voice echoed in the minds of all survivors in the 100 world zones, bringing a sense of relief to many of them.

"It's finally over. That guy is a monster! He easily defeated tens of thousands of top experts from our Ninth World District who attacked him."

"It's more than just defeating them; he didn't even have to lift a finger. He just glanced at them and they all crumbled."

"Haha, this is actually a good thing for me. I was originally ranked 1256th, and now I've jumped to 821st."

"It's finally over. I've been hiding for so long..."

The survivors in the Ninth World District were all cursing under their breath.

This is hardly an assessment!

It was practically a game of hide-and-seek. At first, some people even tried to challenge Qin Ming and make a name for themselves, but unfortunately, after encountering Qin Ming, not a single one of them could force him to take action.

What followed was a massacre!

Qin Ming maintained an extremely high movement speed while hunting in the assessment space, eliminating anyone he encountered, whether they were top players on the leaderboard or ordinary participants.

In fact, almost all of the top 100 players on the leaderboard joined forces to make a move in the final moments.

The ending was still the same.

The other world zones were in much better shape, but in the final moments, every world zone was in chaos.

Qin Ming waited silently.

"3...2...1! Teleport."

All participants in the 100 world zones vanished instantly, and the virtual assessment worlds collapsed and disappeared, turning everything into nothingness.

The final rankings for each world zone are now being released to the public.

Preliminary selection is over!
The candidate has been selected!

……

Qianwu Continent, Qianwu Dojo Headquarters.

Qin Ming's figure appeared.

"62 billion points! Brother Ming, your points are just too incredible."

As soon as I appeared, I heard Luo Feng's voice.

"Since I had nothing better to do, I decided to wander around inside and practice my illusion techniques. You're not bad either, with over 500 million points, you'll take first place."

Qin Ming shrugged. Pulling one or two people into the illusion space was easy for him, but pulling tens of thousands of people in at the same time was actually quite stressful.

Moreover, among these people are some geniuses with unwavering will.

"Hehe, you're nowhere near as good as Brother Ming."

Luo Feng smiled.

He used it as a large killing space to train himself, and after a month of killing, he became much more proficient in controlling the Divine Weapon.

The Virtual Universe Company is quite terrifying; it can simulate all secret techniques within the Virtual Universe.

It can even simulate the fundamental laws!

Virtual Universe Company, one of the five giants of humankind in the universe.

Even their teacher, the ruler of the Qianwu Kingdom, had to hold them in awe and send them to its core to obtain better cultivation resources.

Their teacher is one of the rulers of the 1008 universe nations of humankind!

“I just checked, and among our group of Chinese people, besides us, Hong also passed the qualifiers. It seems that he has made great progress over the years.”

Luo Feng opened the leaderboard and scrolled through it.

"Hong?"

Qin Ming nodded slightly; Hong's talent was beyond doubt.

In the original timeline, they had already entered the arena battle and were defeated in the melee.

After being brought into the Qianwu Secret Realm, he was exposed to a better cultivation environment, resources, and secret techniques, so his strength was naturally stronger than in the original timeline.

He had also tested the strength of Hong and Thor.

Putting aside other aspects, their mental fortitude is truly remarkable.

Illusion magic alone is basically ineffective against it!

Even his illusionary techniques from "Eternal Reincarnation" would be broken by their powerful mental will.

Of course, it's just an illusion.

If it is combined with a soul attack technique, such as the Soul Blade, then it is different; it will also be a one-hit kill.

The fundamental difference in soul cannot be overcome by a strong will.

"Then let's take this opportunity to include him and Thor as official members of the Qianwu Secret Realm. Thor is quite strong, but he couldn't unleash his full potential when he encountered that Rong Jun."

Qin Ming thought for a moment and then said directly.

Given his current status and position, and with Hong and Lei Shen having already demonstrated their strength, it shouldn't be a problem to convert him from a guard to a full member of the Qianwu Secret Realm.

The two of them can be said to have truly been branded with the mark of the Qianwu Secret Realm.

However, Qin Ming was not very optimistic about Hong's chances of making it into the final 1000 core spots in the Peak Genius Battle.

The qualifiers are just the beginning.

The top 1001 in each world zone pass the preliminary selection, and there are a total of 100,010 people in the entire 100 world zones.

The world's number one player will directly qualify for a spot.

Representing the top 1000 of the Qianwu Universe Kingdom in the ultimate battle of geniuses across the entire universe.

Besides the top player in each world region who directly obtains a spot, the remaining 10 people will compete for 900 spots!

Then, these 1008 advanced universe nations, with a total of 1008000 geniuses, competed for 1000 spots to join the core of the virtual company.

The attrition rate remains extremely high.

Hong is a genius who shines in the later stages of his career.

His strong mental state allowed him to forge ahead on the path of cultivation with almost no bottlenecks.

However, the initial training was still too slow.

After all, unlike Qin Ming and Luo Feng, he didn't have clones; he could only comprehend things little by little on his own.

This is why, although his understanding of the laws was much stronger than in the original timeline, he successfully stepped into the threshold of the laws.

However, he will likely continue through the subsequent arena battles and the most terrifying trial tower stages. Ultimately, time is simply not enough for him.

In any case, being able to become a formal member of the Qianwu Secret Realm and enjoy its benefits is far better than wandering with the Realm Lord.

"The qualifiers weren't much of a challenge for us. The key is the final competition; we wonder what kind of geniuses the other universes will have!"

Luo Feng nodded; he naturally had no objection to Qin Ming's idea.

"Next, I will continue my cultivation."

"I hope that once my clone is formed, I will have a deeper understanding of the laws of space, be able to analyze their essence, and master the third level of the Divine Weapon!"

Luo Feng's eyes were filled with anticipation. In another year or two, his clone should be ready to be formed.

"Cultivation? I plan to go out for a while; I have some things to take care of."

A smile appeared on Qin Ming's lips.

In fact, this was all thanks to Luo Feng, who allowed him to acquire an astonishing amount of resources ahead of time.

……

Panxi is one of the eighteen high-ranking members of the "Fire Phoenix" group, a slave trade organization in the "Cuilang Star Region" of the Qianwu Universe Kingdom.

In the original timeline, this was the first stage of Luo Feng's highest-scoring mission at the Domain Lord level.

This involved the trial of eighteen high-ranking members of the Fire Phoenix Group.

While hunting Pansy, Luo Feng discovered a lake-sized amount of Locke Divine Water on his body!

A full 712 cubic kilometers, valued at 63.37 billion yuan!
With this sum of money, it would be enough to purchase rare metals and minerals for the Mountain Giants, as well as divine weapons, armor, and even the corpse of the Zerg Queen, a peak-level Zerg lord.

Even the flesh and blood corpses of the Myriad Soul Banner after it has advanced to the sixth rank might be enough.

Even purchasing ten million peak-level Zerg corpses from the nine garbage star regions would only cost 100 million Chaos Yuan!
How could Qin Ming not be tempted by such an astonishing fortune?

It's not just about wealth.

When Qin Ming opened the intelligence data on Pan Xi's Fire Phoenix Group, an inexplicable anger welled up in his heart.

"These people deserve to die!"

Qin Ming sighed.

No wonder that in the original timeline, virtual universe companies that allowed the normal slave trade were specifically brought out as trial missions.

Because what they did exceeded the permissible limits.

With the protection of many powerful human beings, the 1008 human interdimensional nations are relatively peaceful.

In such a life, not everyone would be willing to endure hardship.

Especially those whose strength has reached a certain level, such as the Domain Lord level or the Universe level, once they have acquired a certain amount of power and money, they will do many unimaginable things without any clear goals.

For example, abusing one's own kind to satisfy a perverse desire.

From slaves to citizens of the universe, the pursuit of thrills and the wanton killing of others are commonplace.

Even cannibalism and eating babies are nothing new.

The 'Fire Phoenix' group was an organization established to satisfy the perverse desires of these people.

The darkness inside is unimaginable.

"If it weren't for Huyanbo's legacy, Earth probably wouldn't have fared much better, would it? Slavery, this system that enslaves one's own kind, should never have existed."

Qin Ming's eyes flashed with murderous intent.

Thanks to their apprenticeship under Master Qianwu, Earth was completely sealed off by a spatial magic spell, so the Nolan Mountain family's exploration spaceship was naturally unable to pass through the wormhole to enter Earth.

The subsequent series of crises were naturally resolved.

Of course, with China's current strength, even if the Norlan Mountain family's spaceship went in, it would only face bombardment from E-class mechanical race spaceships.

Qin Ming didn't really have much of a feeling about Nuolanshan.

Given the cosmic environment, even without encountering Mount Noran, others would have come to plunder it.

"Alex, did you leave any teleportation coordinates in the Cuilang Starfield?"

"Summon Alex, the captain of the Immortal Guard," Qin Ming asked.

"Cui Lang Starfield?"

Alex pondered for a moment and nodded.

“Your Highness, yes. I have carried out missions in most areas of the Qianwu Universe and left my coordinates.”

Qin Ming nodded slightly. Having coordinates made things much easier and saved a lot of time.

He could have simply assigned Alex to take down Pansy.

As an immortal, Alex could easily capture Pansy, but as the captain of the guard, he would definitely need to search all of Pansy's belongings before handing her over to Qin Ming.

Otherwise, if there are some dangerous items hidden inside that pose a threat to Qin Ming, then he's finished.

As a professional bodyguard, Alex would never make such a mistake.

But the value of the Locke Divine Water on Pansy is too astonishing. Even ordinary kings would be tempted by the 63.37 billion mixed yuan, so there's no need to use it to test Alex.

"Get ready, we're leaving the Qianwu Secret Realm and heading to the Cuilang Star Region. I have some things to take care of."

Alex was somewhat puzzled, but still nodded respectfully.

"Yes!"

As the captain of the guard, this was his job.

Unlike others, because he followed Qin Ming closely, he knew that Qin Ming had an avatar, a terrifying mountain giant avatar located in the Guiyan Stone Mother Mine at the core of the Qianwu Secret Realm.

A six-armed giant that is thousands of kilometers tall!

That kind of power was enough to make even an immortal like him tremble.

This is still at the cosmic level. Add to that Qin Ming's soul talent and understanding of laws, and if he were to reach the level of World Lord or Immortal, he wouldn't even dare to imagine how strong Qin Ming would be.

He was very clear about Qin Ming's strength.

Moreover, with the clone, the Qianwu Kingdom ruler was much more at ease about Qin Ming's safety and would no longer restrict him from leaving the secret realm.

Soon, a top-tier E-class spaceship carrying Qin Ming and a whole squad of guards set off.

It disappeared in a wave of divine teleportation.

(End of this chapter)