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

The secret realm of dry witches.

The majestic palace, entirely constructed of dark gold jade, floated in the air.

In the air above the main hall, a huge holographic projection screen was emitting a faint blue light.

The screen was showing live footage of Zhou Mu's rampage through the 88th World Zone, where he was slaughtering cities like a grim reaper.

Virtual Universe Company maintains extremely tight surveillance over this kind of cosmic-scale event.

As beings at the level of cosmic venerables, the ruler of Qianwu Kingdom and the venerable Leiyu Kingdom naturally possess the highest level of spectator privileges that surpass those of ordinary people. They can even directly lock onto a specific contestant for first-person perspective tracking.

In the projected image, a man with snow-white hair and an eerily handsome face is strolling leisurely down a street filled with metal ruins.

Around him, a total of 729 thin, purple-gold lightning blades, as thin as cicada wings, were transforming into a destructive storm with a radius of 300 meters.

Wherever the storm passed, whether it was assassins hiding in skyscrapers or warrior squads forming an alliance to resist, they were all instantly annihilated into a shower of white light.

There were no screams, no fierce battles, only a pure, one-sided massacre!

"Good! Well done!"

Lei Yu, who was sitting cross-legged and suspended in mid-air, looked at Zhou Mu's ruthless and decisive killing posture on the screen. His eyes couldn't help but burst into extreme admiration, and he even clapped his hands and laughed.

His wild, purple hair danced in the wind, and the surrounding lightning laws became even more violent due to his heightened emotions: "A true strongman should possess this kind of domineering ruthlessness that treats all things as mere straw dogs! Those who dawdle and hesitate, wasting time talking before even killing someone, no matter how talented they are, won't survive long in the life-or-death struggles of the cosmic secret realm!"

"This kid's temperament is just my type! Thunder is the power of divine punishment, the master of destruction! His 'Thunder Domain Style' is not only incredibly powerful, but the decisiveness with which he wipes out all his prey without leaving a trace is exactly the essence of my lineage!"

Seeing that the usually arrogant and aloof Lei Yu was now excited like a fanatical sculptor who had seen a peerless jade because of a little guy of the Hengxing level, the Qianwu Kingdom King sitting to the side couldn't help but shake his head and laugh.

"I was wondering what kind of little guy would make Lei Yu so concerned in this vast universe. Now that I see it, it's exactly what I expected."

The ruler of the Qianwu Kingdom picked up his Star Wine, took a small sip, and gazed intently at the back of the white-haired man in the projection. He quipped, "This kid's unbridled and domineering style is exactly the same as yours when you participated in the Cosmic Peak Genius Battle! I still remember that back then, in this preliminary stage, you directly unleashed your Thunder Domain, causing most of the participants from the world region to collapse and withdraw from the competition. Now this little guy has perfectly inherited your style from back then."

"Hmph, I didn't have his exaggerated mastery of the laws back then."

Although Venerable Lei Yu snorted coldly, he couldn't suppress the smile on his lips. "This little guy not only fused the laws of lightning and time, but his application of the laws of space is also exquisite. If you look closely at the trajectory of his lightning blades, it's not pure brute force crushing, but rather an absolutely precise cut following the texture of space. That's why he can complete the largest-scale clearing with the least amount of primal force consumption."

The ruler of the Qianwu Kingdom nodded slightly. If he could only read one novel about the infinite universe in his entire life, it would probably be "Swallowing the Stars: Paying for Life in His Later Years." His gaze gradually became serious: "He is indeed a monster. Judging from his current rate of point growth, first place in the preliminaries is already in his pocket. Lei Yu, you have truly struck gold this time."

"It's too early to say anything like that." Venerable Lei Yu's smile faded, his gaze sharp. "This is just the preliminary round. Most of the opponents are trash who haven't even touched the threshold of the laws. The real experts, those prodigies hidden away by the ancient cosmic nations and secret forces, are all secretly accumulating power. Whether this little guy can fight his way through these trillions of geniuses and become the number one in the entire universe depends on his performance later on!"

That being said, the way Lei Yu Venerable stared intently at the screen showed that he had completely regarded Zhou Mu as his only personally chosen disciple.

……

Virtual Universe, Preliminary Elimination Rounds, World Zone 88.

More than twenty days have passed since the start of the competition.

However, for the more than eight billion participating geniuses who were assigned to the 88th World Zone, these five days were nothing short of a nightmare from which they could not wake up!

"Boom!"

With a deafening roar of thunder, the central tower of the seventh main city collapsed with a deafening crash. Amidst the billowing dust, a purple-gold lightning storm, like a world-ending tornado, slowly moved toward the city's edge.

"Devil! That white-haired Grim Reaper is here again!"

"Run! Get out of this city! He's not human!"

"Why did Virtual Universe Company put this monster in our region?! This is unfair!"

Countless surviving contestants cried out in despair and frantically fled towards the city's outskirts. But no matter how fast they were, how could they possibly outrun the Purple-Gold Lightning Blade, which had merged with the laws of lightning and time?

"Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!"

Lightning flashed, and blood and white light intertwined to create a cruel scene.

Zhou Mu stood with his hands behind his back, his snow-white hair fluttering slightly in the bloody wind. His handsome face was expressionless, as he coldly watched the points numbers on his wrist jump wildly.

"The seventh city has been cleared."

Zhou Mu casually closed the points panel.

At this moment, his score had reached an incredibly terrifying astronomical number:

Points: 777,770,000

Ranking: 1

For the past five days, he has not stopped at all, like a tireless super killing machine, directly sweeping through seven huge main cities!

Countless geniuses have perished under his 729 purple-gold lightning blades. In this world zone that should have been filled with deceit and fierce competition, he carved out a vast no-man's land!

However, on the very edge of this seventh city, beneath the ruins of a collapsed giant metal overpass, an incredibly fierce battle is taking place.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The deafening sounds of weapons clashing rang out continuously.

A young man dressed in a white martial arts combat suit, with a bald head and wielding a gleaming battle sword, was fighting fiercely with a genius who had four arms, covered in blood.

This bald young man is none other than Thor, one of the three strongest people on Earth and a genius from the same lineage as Luo Feng!

"Hahaha! That was great! Let's do it again!"