Swallowing the starry sky, my clones can evolve infinitely.

Chapter 70 onwards (it's a bit filler, so I'm posting it for free).

With the selection process within various cosmic nations concluded, numerous geniuses began their final preparations.

On Mars, Shen Mu sat atop a majestic mountain, entering a period of complete seclusion.

Time passed by day by day.

Every day, Shen Mu's understanding and perception of the laws of space will advance further, and he will gain a deeper understanding of the most fundamental mysteries of the laws.

With increasing accumulation and growing strength, the day when quantitative change transforms into qualitative change is no longer far away.

……

In the blink of an eye, it was September 5th, 2070 in the Chinese calendar. More than a year had passed since the end of the Qianwu Universe Kingdom's Cycle Tournament.

The highly anticipated finals of the Cosmic Peak Genius Battle officially began on this day.

In the main hall of the absolutely safe F-class flagship spaceship above Mars, Shen Mu, Luo Feng, and Hong Huiju gathered.

"Big brother, Feng, it's starting." Shen Mu said, a glint of longing in his eyes.

This is a desire to fight against a powerful opponent.

Luo Feng exclaimed excitedly, "The ultimate battle for the entire universe, we brothers are here!"

Hong remained calm: "Keep it up."

After encouraging each other, the three of them entered the virtual universe network.

Outside the spaceship's main hall, the immortal god Hantian sat solemnly at the entrance, and even he wouldn't enter the hall now.

……

In the virtual universe, on a floating island above the continent of Qianwu.

brush!

Shen Mu, Luo Feng, and Hong were teleported over together.

"Your Highness Shen Mu, Mr. Luo Feng, Mr. Hong, please follow me." Next to the teleportation point, a cosmic-level staff member respectfully bowed to Shen Mu and then pointed to a path beside him.

Shen Mu and the other two responded politely, which greatly moved this cosmic-level member. Among the Hengxing-level geniuses he had ever met, Shen Mu and the other two were the three most polite.

Led by the staff, Shen Mu and his two companions arrived at a square surrounded by bizarre and divine plants.

The square was now crowded with people, numbering in the hundreds at first glance. There were men and women of all kinds, but at least a third of them looked very similar to humans.

After all, in biology, humans belong to the largest branch of the ape race within the human population, and the ape race is considered the mainstream among human populations.

"Your Highness Shen Mu."

"Senior Brother Shen Mu!"

The vast majority of people greeted Shen Mu and Luo Feng, while only a few exchanged a few words with Hong, who was standing quietly next to Shen Mu.

Shen Mu and his two companions greeted some familiar geniuses. Half of these 1000 geniuses were members of the Qianwu Secret Realm, and they knew each other almost all of them.

Suddenly, an invisible pressure enveloped the entire square, and the faces of the thousand peerless geniuses turned pale, their bodies trembling slightly involuntarily.

"I am the thirteenth divine general under the command of the King. You may call me Lord Thirteen. By the King's order, I will lead you to participate in the final battle of the universe."

The giant's voice was as loud as thunder, and his gaze exerted immense pressure on those who looked down upon him.

The 1000 geniuses, including Shen Mu, were as small as ants in front of this giant in his scale armor, and fear arose from their biological instincts.

Those who can overcome this fear all possess a strong mindset and will, but even Shen Mu cannot do it at this stage, although he performs much better than others.

Hong, the only one who could do it, also turned into a drama queen, and his performance was utterly terrible.

"Among you, only His Highness Shen Mu, Luo Feng, and Rong Jun have an absolute chance of joining the core group. As for the others, consider it a training experience; there's basically no hope."

Upon hearing this, many proud and arrogant people couldn't help but clench their fists, feeling extremely unconvinced, but no one dared to utter a word of rebuttal and could only silently endure it.

"Heh, it seems you're not convinced!" God General Thirteen coldly swept his gaze over the group of disgruntled young people.

"The rest of you basically have no hope. People like Rong Jun and Luo Feng, who have crossed the threshold of the Space Laws, even had a chance to compete for first place in previous years, but in this year, they can only manage to break into the top ten at best!"

"Of course, there are historical examples of companies that started out quite ordinary but then suddenly pulled off a stunning upset. I hope you can create such a miracle!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the thirteen divine generals looked around at everyone, then waved their hands and said, "Alright, follow me!"

……

The virtual universe is a temporary, brand-new world, a vast continent.

There are 1008 magnificent buildings on the mainland, arranged in a ring, with a dreamlike fairyland square at the center of the ring.

At this moment, many geniuses from other universe countries were strolling around the square, and at a rough glance, there were at least tens of thousands of them.

These 1008 buildings are the residences of the geniuses from various cosmic nations during the finals.

As for which building they will be assigned to live in, that will depend on their overall performance in the previous Genius Battle.

In the previous Genius Battle, the average level of the geniuses from the Qianwu Universe Kingdom ranked 825th, which is among the lowest of the thousands of universe kingdoms. Therefore, they lived in Building 0825. This result made the ruler of the Qianwu Kingdom very angry.

The thirteen generals led Shen Mu and the others to land at the edge of the plaza, and then walked along the road toward Building 0825. The plaza had a dedicated passage leading to each building.

"This group went to Building 0825. They must be geniuses from the Qianwu Universe Kingdom," someone remarked upon noticing the group.

"Yes! It's the team from the Qianwu Universe Kingdom. I watched the battle video of 'God of Slaughter' Shen Mu in the preliminaries. That white-clad youth standing next to the Immortal team leader is Shen Mu!"

"I've heard that Shen Mu is a disciple of the Qianwu Kingdom's ruler, and he was able to unleash the third level of the Frost Divine Weapon several years ago!"

"Monster! The last time a genius at the Hengxing level could unleash the third level of the Nine Divine Weapons was before the Thousand Genius Battles."

In the square, many geniuses from other universe nations watched the team from the Qianwu Universe Nation from afar, whispering among themselves.

The total number of geniuses participating in the Universal Finals exceeded one million, most of whom were not well-known, except for the top geniuses of each universe nation.

Especially for geniuses like Shen Mu, Luo Feng, and Rong Jun who have crossed the threshold of higher-level laws, their combat videos have probably been thoroughly studied, so it's quite normal for them to be recognized.

On the first floor of Building 0825, 1000 geniuses, led by Shen Mu, gathered.

The thirteen divine generals waved their hands: "You are now free to disband. You can rest or go to the square to exchange ideas with geniuses from other cosmic nations."

"When it gets dark, the organizers from the Virtual Universe Company will gather you all together."

[PS: I suddenly realized that this part of the plot was padded out by three or four chapters in the original work. Even with condensation, it's still padded, so I'll release it for free for you guys, focusing on quality. Also, updates might be late tonight, as I don't have any drafts saved.]

(End of this chapter)