Swallowing the Stars: Only in my later years did I come to the life-spending panel.

"boom--"

With a brief moment of mental disorientation, the gears of fate for trillions of geniuses in the vast universe began to turn with a roar!

The preliminary elimination rounds of the battle of the universe's top geniuses have officially begun!

When Zhou Mu's vision cleared, a head of snow-white hair flew wildly in the hazy wind, and his handsome face remained expressionless. He found himself standing in the middle of a wide, metallic street. Towering skyscrapers surrounded him, and the hazy sky exuded a chilling atmosphere.

"drop!"

The wristband screen lit up automatically, and the preliminary competition rules and basic information issued by Virtual Universe Company instantly flashed into my mind.

"World Zone 88. This zone is divided into 91 main cities, with a total of 8.221 billion participants!"

"Preliminary Round Rules: Defeating an opponent earns 1 point, and you can also steal half of their points! The tournament lasts for 30 days. After 30 days, the winner will be determined based on the final rankings!"

"Environmental Restrictions: Within this world zone, the hardness of all materials—including the earth, buildings, and ordinary objects—is uniformly set at B9 level, sufficient to withstand the full force of a typical ninth-tier Constant Star-level attack. Simultaneously, the physical attributes of all participants will be absolutely equalized, uniformly set at ninth-tier Constant Star-level! All Force suits and weapons are perfectly simulated 1:1 by the virtual universe based on real-world data!"

Zhou Mu casually turned off the screen, a cold smile curving his handsome face.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

In the few seconds that he was looking up information, three ghostly figures suddenly darted out from the shadows of the two surrounding buildings.

The three were clearly well-coordinated assassins, their Force weapons gleaming with a deadly cold light as they stabbed fiercely at Zhou Mu's vital points in a triangular formation.

"Die, you newbie!"

However, Zhou Mu didn't even turn his head in the face of this thunderous sneak attack.

"Sizzle—"

Three extremely faint streaks of purplish-black lightning shot out from Zhou Mu's fingertips, so fast that they completely exceeded the limits of a Hengxing-level nerve reaction. Before the ferocious smiles on the faces of the three assassins could even fade, a charred blood hole appeared on their foreheads at the same time, and their corpses crashed heavily onto the metal street, turning into white light and dissipating.

"[Kill a participant, +1 point]"

"[Kill a participant, +1 point]"

"[Kill a participant, +1 point]"

Looking at the numbers flashing on his wristband, Zhou Mu shook his head, a hint of boredom flashing in his eyes: "Thirty days is far too inefficient to kill people one by one like we do in this city."

"I didn't come here to play hide-and-seek with you guys!"

boom!

Zhou Mu took a sudden step forward, and an incomparably violent aura, like an ancient ferocious beast awakening, instantly surged into the sky from his body!

"Divine Weapon of Annihilation—Charge!"

With a crisp sword cry, a purple-gold spear instantly appeared in front of him, and then disintegrated with a bang!

"The third level—Thunder Domain Style!"

A total of 729 thin, purplish-gold lightning blades, under the command of Zhou Mu's terrifying understanding of the laws comparable to a peak world lord, were like 729 bloodthirsty thunder dragons, instantly weaving together to form an absolute death domain with a radius of 300 meters!

"Let's begin clearing the area."

With his hands behind his back, Zhou Mu strolled leisurely through the air towards the city's central area.

Around him, the 729 purple-gold lightning blades transformed into a death storm that swept everything away!

Wherever they went, they swept away everything in their path!

The walls of a B9-level building? They were easily pierced like paper before the lightning blade imbued with the laws of lightning and time!

Those geniuses hiding inside buildings, deep underground, or trying to join forces to resist?

Whether they are mentalists or martial artists, no matter how exquisite their defensive techniques are, once they are swept into that purple-gold storm, they will be instantly cut into a cloud of blood mist and eliminated by white light before they even have time to scream!

One-hit kill!

They were all one-hit kills!

The entire city of the 88th World District seemed to be beset by a natural disaster that defied all reason! The white-haired youth with his hands behind his back, with unparalleled handsome appearance, was like a mortal god of death walking among mortals, reaping the lives of nearly 90 million geniuses in this city in an extremely tyrannical and unreasonable manner!

In just half a day, this once bustling city was completely engulfed by blood and white light, turning into a dead city.

until--

"boom!!!"

In a ruined square in the center of the city, Zhou Mu's indestructible storm of purple-gold lightning blades was suddenly met with an extremely powerful resistance!

"Hmm?" Zhou Mu stopped and raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Amidst the ruins, a violent, earthy-yellow light shot into the sky, violently distorting the surrounding void like ripples in water.

A tall, barefoot, and disheveled young man, resembling a wild man, was gripping an exaggeratedly large battle sword with both hands, desperately resisting the onslaught of more than a dozen purple-gold lightning blades!

The young savage was covered in hideous bloodstains, but his eyes, as wild and untamed as a lone wolf, burned with boundless fighting spirit and indomitable will.

"Interesting." Zhou Mu looked at the wild young man in front of him, and a name immediately popped into his mind.

In the original work, the top genius in this year's genius battle is Rong Jun, a wild man who is worthy of being ranked among the top ten in the entire universe!

"He's only at the beginner level of the laws of space, and his understanding of the fundamental laws of earth is extremely profound, perfectly combining the weight and distortion of the earth and space." Zhou Mu saw through Rong Jun's true strength at a glance, and a smile of admiration appeared on his lips. "No wonder he was able to withstand the edge of my 'Thunder Domain'."

At this moment, however, Rong Jun's heart was already filled with turbulent waves!

Rong Jun, having grown up in the brutal environment of the Wilderness Universe Kingdom, believed himself to be among the most talented in the vast universe. He thought this preliminary round was just a formality, but who knew he would encounter a monster today! A monster that was completely unreasonable!

The mere edge strangulation of the opponent's domain, released casually, forced him to use all his trump cards, and even his internal organs were churning violently!

"You're strong!" Rong Jun stared intently at Zhou Mu in mid-air, spitting out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his muscles bulging. "But I, Rong Jun, will never stand here and wait to die! Take this!"

boom!

Rong Jun roared, like a raging cosmic beast. His massive battle blade carried a heavy force that seemed capable of cleaving stars. Wherever the blade passed, visible cracks appeared in space, and it slashed straight toward Zhou Mu's head!

Faced with this deadly strike that would make even ordinary universe-level powerhouses temporarily retreat, Zhou Mu's face only showed a faint smile, and his snow-white hair was not even messed up in the violent wind.

"Commendable courage. In that case, I'll use three moves to test your mettle."