Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 102 Bloodshed on the Long Street

"Make a move? How do we make a move?"

"This guy is as slippery as an eel, he didn't leave a single trace! We had no evidence; the last time we had a few guys from the enforcement department scare him a little, that was the limit!"

"Even Minister Lian got a severe beating from this ruthless guy while he was in the office. Maybe we should just stay out of it?"

"Big Black was killed outright! Its minced meat is still on its way back to the dorm!"

"Yeah, yeah, I heard those big shots don't have any hard and fast targets, they just want us to make things difficult for them. Why don't we just go through the motions?"

Inside a secluded room, the sounds of debate continued unabated.

"Quiet down! Everyone, be quiet!"

A sinister-looking man slammed his hand on the table, and the secret room fell silent. Everyone turned their obsequious and expectant gazes toward the sinister man.

This gloomy man was also feeling agitated.

It's one thing if three people are injured and unable to work.

That big black guy was actually a security guard hidden inside the review department.

His strength is among the best of all the ninth-tier universe-level beings; he could easily take on hundreds or even thousands of ordinary employees who lack combat experience.

Having great strength naturally breeds arrogance.

He doesn't usually handle the review process, but he always acts like the big brother.

He had a good relationship with the first two victims, so he took the initiative to warn Hunzhen.

After the minister's incident, he even volunteered to take action against Hunzhen.

As a result... he died tragically before he could even send out a distress signal or his final moments.

Crushing, not just ordinary crushing!

"Troublesome!"

The cunning man, acting as the temporary custodian, was both delighted by the potential opportunity to rise in power and, at the same time, frowned at the thought of the troublesome nature of the situation.

As mentioned before, the Domain Lord level is also considered an upper class in the ninth level of the Abyss.

Aside from newborns and teenagers, 99% of the beings in the ninth level of the abyss are cosmic-level life forms, and most of them can reach the ninth level of the cosmic level through the sedimentation and accumulation of time.

Of these, over 90% of the non-combat personnel engaged in production operations were at the first level (with an comprehension level lower than the first level of the Tongtian Bridge).

The security guards on duty who are engaged in various security operations are at level two (around the first floor of Tongtianqiao).

The patrol officer of this central city is a Level 3 (Level 2 of the Sky Bridge Enlightenment).

A very small number of elites within the patrol department are at level four (the third level of the Tongtian Bridge comprehension).

As for the fifth level and even higher combat power, that is almost legendary and not something that people of his level can easily come into contact with.

After all, with such combat power, their understanding of the laws must be sufficient to break through to the Domain Lord level.

Within the abyss, only those who suppress their strength and refrain from improving it in order to participate in the cosmic-level Martial Arts Festival.

The Shadow Man knew that as a plainclothes bodyguard in one of their research institute's departments, Big Black's strength was no less than that of a public servant in the Axis City Patrol Department! He was definitely a Tier 3 combatant.

"That Hunzhen is definitely a fourth-level combatant!"

The sinister man muttered to himself.

As for combat power above level five, he didn't dare to even think about it.

With that kind of strength, you could easily save up some money over ten or twenty years, or join a powerful force to obtain enough resources to break through to the Domain Lord level. Why bother being a servant here?

The frustrating thing is that the fourth-level combat power is already beyond their ability to deal with.

Fortunately, they are not entirely without solutions.

The sinister man tapped his fingers lightly on the table and said, "This guy seems to have special methods to evade surveillance. In addition, he is very likely to have reached the fourth level of combat power. If he attacks us, no one can handle it... Unless someone can upload the situation of the attack to the research institute immediately after it occurs, it will be very difficult for us to obtain evidence that he took action."

They had no choice but to agree with this.

Even though the review department isn't as highly regarded as the individual research labs, it's still a large department.

It is secretly protected by a domain lord-level figure, but what is being protected is not the replaceable auditors, but the documents and files within the audit department.

However, Hunzhen was able to directly attack the minister in the office. Regardless of whether the domain lord-level guardian found out in the end, Hunzhen ultimately achieved his goal and escaped without being caught on the spot.

In terms of concealment techniques alone, it's already at the level of a domain lord.

"Then, what should we do? Isn't this just going back to the problem we started with?"

The sinister man glared at him and questioned, "The security and surveillance capabilities of the research institute actually become a shield for someone as adept at hiding as him. For the time being, let's not interfere with his work. I'll coordinate with other departments to try and find an opportunity to plan an off-site procurement operation soon. Once we leave the research institute, given the speed of patrolling within the city, our people will have enough time to carry out dozens of raids along the way! Besides, we only need to guide him; the rest will be handled by the higher-ups sending people!"

Their eyes lit up.

Seeing the expressions on everyone's faces, the sinister man revealed a satisfied smile.

He can't command domain lord-level bigwigs on his own, but he can achieve the same effect through departmental coordination and by issuing orders from higher-ups.

However, before the man with the ulterior motives could even begin coordinating things, the situation took an unexpected turn.

Before he could carry out his plan, which was ostensibly "going out to buy supplies" but was actually "tricking someone into going out to be slaughtered," Hunzhen, whom he thought would stay at the research institute and not go out, had already left the institute on his own the next day, a holiday.

The man's expression shifted between anger and uncertainty.

Hunzhen's decision to leave the research institute, which acted as a protective shield, seemed rather strange.

Perhaps it was because of Dahei's intervention that they anticipated the crisis and, taking advantage of the time before they were completely targeted, managed to find a loophole to seek help from outside the Star Luo's hidden network of connections.

"Plans changed!"

So what if no domain lord-level expert makes a move for the time being?

No matter what, we can't miss such a golden opportunity that's practically given away for free.

"Even a fourth-level combatant isn't invincible! With a well-planned ambush, we still have a chance to take him down!"

In this wave, the shady man is on the third floor.

Unfortunately, Hunzhen was in the basement.

The Shadow Men always acted as a reactive force; by the time they made their decision, Hunzhen had already arrived at the first destination of this trip.

The largest bank in this central city.

……

Hunzhen's idea was very simple.

His current goal is to participate in the Grand Martial Arts Festival.

Through the intelligence gathering over the past few days, he has confirmed that there will be a centennial celebration a year from now, and the next two celebrations will coincide with the grand millennium celebration.

That is, more than two hundred years later, the Wannian Grand Celebration and the Grand Martial Arts Festival will begin.

The Grand Martial Arts Festival is not like the Cosmic Peak Genius Battle, which only requires a virtual mind helmet and has almost no entry barriers.

On the contrary, his threshold is incredibly high.

There are only two ways to qualify for the Grand Martial Arts Festival.

Firstly, the winners of the ninety-nine Lesser Martial Arts Festivals over the past ten thousand years can directly apply for and qualify to participate. The Lesser Martial Arts Festival is divided into Domain Lord level and Universe level events. There are ten winners for the Domain Lord level, while the Universe level competition is extremely fierce, with only one winner.

Secondly, the competition is by invitation only, with specially invited participants making up the majority of the participants in the Grand Martial Arts Festival.

More than 90% of the invitation slots are held by Abyss Nobles.

Every first-class Abyss Noble can freely choose to participate or not.

Only if they themselves and their subordinate nobles forgo the competition will this spot fall to a lower race that has sided with various abyssal nobles.

The remaining less than 10% of the spots are reserved for the top 100 advanced individuals in the ninth level of the Abyss, as announced by Axis City.

Those who rank among the top 100 of the lower-class races in the ninth level of the vast abyss are all of a status no less than that of ordinary abyssal nobles.

They are either from knightly families, leaders of major business associations, or researchers at the forefront of technology for millennia...

These top 100 spots are non-transferable; participants can only choose to participate or withdraw.

Therefore, strictly speaking, if Hunzhen wanted to take the second invitation route, besides joining the Abyss Nobles, he could only transform himself into a top-tier figure in the ninth level of the Abyss within two hundred years.

The latter is not even as feasible as the former.

Choosing the former, the best course of action for Hunzhen is naturally to rely on Xingluo's connections and get in touch with the Abyss Nobles behind Xingluo.

Other strategies became difficult to implement precisely because he bore the mark of the Star Luo faction.

Seeking Xingluo's help directly to get that Abyss Noble to transfer his spot to him is a huge favor that, regardless of whether it will work out, cannot be repaid by simply working as an assistant in the research institute.

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Moreover, judging from the numerous instances of exclusion and obstruction Xingluo faced within the research institute, this path was essentially impossible to succeed through.

Therefore, the only feasible path facing Hunzhen is to become the winner of this or the next Small Martial Arts Festival.

However, the path to participating in the Grand Martial Arts Festival is fraught with difficulties, and the Small Martial Arts Festival is not something that everyone can participate in.

At least as a Level A research assistant, Hunzhen shouldn't expect to get promoted.

Given his current status and position, there is only one quickest way for him to qualify for the competition—join the army.

Descend to the tenth level of the abyss, become a common soldier in the war between the Silver Demon Clan and the Black Demon Clan, accumulate enough battle merits, and after retiring, you can directly exchange them for the qualification to participate in the competition.

Before joining the army, Hunzhen had two things to take care of.

Firstly, it is naturally to help Xingluo gain a foothold in the research institute, at least to prevent incidents like the recent resource bottleneck from happening again.

Secondly, it was only natural that he "broke through" to the Domain Lord level.

The breakthrough here refers to gathering the minimum basic resources required to become a domain lord on the surface.

To achieve the ultimate goal, encountering the Silver Demon King is inevitable.

Hunzhen had no confidence in concealing his true strength from such an existence.

Therefore, it's only a matter of time before one's strength transitions to the Domain Lord level.

According to the information he gathered, although the military merit required to exchange for the qualification to participate in the competition as a domain lord was slightly higher, this improvement was negligible compared to the efficiency with which a domain lord could obtain military merit.

It is foreseeable that the number of participants at the cosmic level will far exceed that at the domain lord level, while the domain lord level will have ten times more winning spots.

The difficulty of competition has been greatly reduced.

This is only natural.

After all, those who have obtained the qualification at the cosmic level will have no problem breaking through to the domain lord level.

The reason they remain at the cosmic level is mostly because they believe they cannot compete with those domain lord-level participants even if they reach the domain lord level.

Those who are capable of breaking through but choose not to, all staying at the cosmic level to compete for a single spot, naturally intensifies the competition.

Hunzhen was confident that he could secure a spot, whether it was at the Domain Lord level or the Universe level.

Moreover, if someone with the true strength of a Domain Lord participates in a cosmic-level competition, the consequences would be unimaginable if they were discovered.

In addition, he still needed to demonstrate his Domain Lord level strength in the end, so he decided to make a show of breaking through to Domain Lord in the near future.

The "reasonable source of resources" he chose was "bank loans".

As Xingluo's only assistant, relying on this background guarantee, his credit is extremely high, and he can borrow money in a single transaction that is unimaginable for ordinary people.

In the ninth level of the abyss, a wristwatch pierced into the flesh of an arm serves as proof of identity.

Unlike the outermost layers, which require direct transactions using Moro Fruit, the currency equivalent to a normal research institute assistant's annual salary of 10,000 yuan is now included in the ID card.

Having just completed the credit transaction, Hunzhen walked out of the main entrance of the Central Bank, intending to go to the nearest large exchange to purchase universal cultivation resources for Abyss residents to break through to the Domain Lord level.

In the blink of an eye, he noticed more than a dozen pairs of eyes watching him.

Hunzhen suddenly accelerated.

"You noticed?"

"They clearly sensed it, but didn't choose to hide inside the central bank?"

"This guy is far too arrogant!"

As Hunzhen accelerated, the hidden observers set off.

call out--.

Just as they left the bank's main entrance, several metallic blades descended from the sky.

This is a long-range strike from thousands of meters away.

Ding!Ding!Ding! ...

Hunzhen quickly drew his sword, the dark red blade vibrating at a high frequency like a vibrator, intercepting the psychic weapons in mid-air.

At the same time, he suddenly rubbed his free left hand together, a cold light flashing, as he tracked the source of the telekinetic energy release and instantly killed the enemy thousands of meters away.

The telekinetic weapon, deflected by Hunzhen's longsword, struck the walls of surrounding buildings, causing considerable damage.

The vast Axis City is like a huge palace of flesh and blood, with each building tightly connected like an organ.

Like a domino effect, on the top of a building in the distance, a dark red tube connected to an eyeball suddenly extended, locking onto the area where the conflict had erupted.

Neighbors and passersby alike avoided or hid, or directly contacted the street patrol team via the hotline.

If the standoff lasts for just a few minutes, an inspection team will arrive to handle the situation.

But the group that assassinated Hunzhen clearly didn't intend to let Hunzhen survive until then.

The mere seconds gained by the deaths of several companions were enough for the ambushers positioned along Hunzhen's escape route to surround him.

Ten, twenty, thirty...

Hunzhen glanced around and found himself surrounded by over a hundred ninth-tier cosmic-level experts.

Whether standing on rooftops or covering streets, they filled all the gaps in the area, completely bringing the surrounding area under their control.

Those qualified to participate in this encirclement and suppression all reached the third-level combat power level of Dahei, who was previously killed by Hunzhen.

There was no attempt to persuade him to surrender on the spot; these ambushers were planning to bury Hunzhen directly.

Under the command of the leader, more than a hundred skilled fighters launched an attack on Hunzhen at the same time.

Whoosh—.

At this moment, Hunzhen finally revealed a tiny bit of his true strength.

Ten illusory figures suddenly appeared, instantly killing over a hundred people.

Blood stained the long street, and the flesh and blood of the corpses were devoured by the dark red fleshy ground and writhing buildings, and the cleanup was completed in the blink of an eye.

(End of this chapter)