Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 118 Silver City, Fourfold Erosion

"It seems that the tree may wish to remain still, but the wind will not cease," Your Highness.

Hunzhen casually took the envelope and gave Milirat, who was in a wheelchair, a helpless smile.

As soon as Hunzhen spoke, the waiter seemed to notice Milirat's presence and showed a look of fear and trepidation.

"The Princess in the Wheelchair," as a servant of a knight family, responsible for external communication and trivial matters, how could he not recognize the face of this lady?

"You don't mind if I come to the gathering with my guest, do you?" Milirat smiled slightly at the waiter.

"certainly……"

The waiter nodded in agreement with a smile that looked more like a grimace.

Hunzhen watched this scene with a mischievous smile.

They could have just barged into someone's house, but they made a point of asking first.

She really made me cry...

Knights are fourth-rank nobles in the Abyss Society. Above them are third-rank, second-rank, first-rank, and so on, until they reach the Royal Blood. There are four ranks between them.

Valent was naturally devastated by the uninvited arrival of the princess.

The imposing middle-aged man, who even wore full armor at home, smiled obsequiously, constantly inquiring about the princess's well-being and expressing his support for her cause.

He showed absolutely no arrogance befitting an eighth-level expert.

Hunzhen watched this scene with great interest, then suddenly interjected, "Are you afraid, Mr. Valente?"

"Fear?"

Valente maintained his stiff smile and asked in confusion, "Young friend Hunzhen, what makes you say that? Although you accidentally killed my son, swords have no eyes on the arena. I warned that kid Shunaida that he wasn't cut out to participate in the Grand Martial Arts Festival. He still threw his life away for nothing, which is entirely his own fault..."

"No, no, no, there's no need to be so alarmed as to distance yourself from your son, Mr. Valente."

Hunzhen leaned back lazily in his chair, a mischievous smile on his face. "After all, it's useless. What you're really afraid of is that I'll stay here too long and die of poison in front of Her Highness the Princess, right?"

Valente's expression changed drastically, and his pupils contracted.

Hunzhen couldn't help but recall an experience he had seen in a simulation record long ago: the knight had ambushed and poisoned the simulated human, ultimately forcing the simulated human to reveal a portion of its strength and crush it.

He could imagine the expression on the other party's face when they thought their scheme had succeeded and victory was in their grasp, looking at the Sim with the eyes of someone looking at a lamb to be slaughtered, only to have their facade easily shattered by the Sim.

As a successful individual from a lower race who rose to the top of the class and established a knightly family, Valent naturally had more than one son, Valent Schneider.

However, aside from his lack of cheerfulness, Valenteshuneda, whose talent was no less than his own, was clearly of a different status.

Among his hundreds of children, she was arguably his only beloved.

Having been killed by Hunzhen on the arena, he naturally harbored immense resentment.

Furthermore, Valente was granted the title of King Bloodlust Giles, who had been rejected by Hunzhen. Naturally, he took the initiative as a subordinate and spent a great deal of money to bribe a nobleman of the Human Council, successfully poisoning Hunzhen.

Despite being nobles in Milirat's camp, they seemed so easily bribed, and the reason was quite simple.

First, there's the conflict of interests; everyone can see how much Milirat values ​​Hunzhen. Instead of being on the front lines, she's wasting manpower and resources developing the Humanity Committee. Milirat could be considered one of the "poorest" among the royal bloodline members.

The cake was already small, and now an inferior race wanted to get a piece of it, which fueled discontent.

Secondly, Milirat is more approachable than authoritative. It's likely that most of her supporters believe that even if something happens, there won't be any severe punishment.

"She already has few capable people under her command; she needs me, so how could she possibly treat me harshly?"

That's roughly the idea they had.

"Your Highness, it seems your subordinates are quite restless."

Hunzhen turned to look at Milirat, whose expression was uncertain, and waved his hand, saying, "As the victim, I can entrust you with the disposal of this person to repay your kindness and support during this time. How about it, am I generous?"

Milirat remained calm, the immense spatial pressure seeming to crush Valente.

She demanded in a low voice, "Tell me, who was involved in this?"

Large beads of sweat dripped down Valent's face like raindrops. Faced with Wang Xue's interrogation, he had no choice but to conceal anything from the very beginning.

After that, the Valente family still could not escape its doom. The nobles involved were given minor punishments, and the one who directly arranged the poisoning was executed by Milirat in front of the Humanity Council.

Milirat was not a saint. Through this excellent opportunity, she made an example of someone to scare others and reformed the atmosphere of the Humanity Council, which slightly improved the cohesion of the nobles under her command.

This minor incident passed quickly, the group stage of the Grand Martial Arts Festival has ended, and the finals are about to begin.

A nobleman died tragically at the hands of Hunzhen, and another player, Tebeo, who was even stronger than Tronaldo, was also suspended. In a one-on-one situation, who dares to say they can defeat Hunzhen?

To die heroically in battle is one thing, to bring shame upon oneself is another.

However, Hunzhen's weakened state when he killed Tronaldo gave them a glimmer of hope for victory.

The schedule for the rotation matches is tight, and no matter what, that level of exertion cannot be recovered in just one or two days.

A war of attrition tactics can be used.

When they meet each other, they make the other side admit defeat. They only unleash their full power when they encounter Hunzhen.

Perhaps one person alone cannot defeat Hunzhen, but one or two battles in succession would probably exhaust his strength.

Unfortunately, Hunzhen's weakness was feigned.

During the cycle of reincarnation, he went on a killing spree, slaughtering all the nobles he encountered.

Millila gave him a thorough dressing-down.

But Hunzhen will not regret it.

Regardless of strategy, anyone who wants to take your life must be prepared to have their life taken from them.

Even if it makes more nobles hate and fear him, he doesn't care as long as it doesn't directly affect his ultimate goal or trigger a bad ending.

Several months after the preliminary rounds, with almost no obstacles, Hunzhen won the Grand Martial Arts Festival crown without any suspense.

Since the nobles were all killed by Hunzhen in the Reincarnation Battle, all eleven winning spots in this year's Grand Martial Arts Festival ultimately went to lower-class races, just like the results of previous competitions in recent years.

As the winner, Hunzhen was supposed to join the other ten winners on a special feather ship for the dive.

However, considering that Hunzhen had made too many enemies, Milirat took the initiative to take on the matter. She had been in the ninth layer of the abyss for countless years without returning to her ancestral land, but this time, because of Hunzhen, she finally returned home.

Within the vast void, a top-tier feathered ship, qualified only to ride by those of royal blood, stubbornly resisted the breath of the abyss and sank straight down.

On the feathered ship, Milirat and Hun Zhen sat facing each other.

"Let's be clear, I'm personally escorting you down this time not to blackmail you for anything in return."

Millirat solemnly said, "Mr. Hunzhen, as you know, I don't participate in the war. Without war spoils, I naturally have no additional resources. The 'Life Core' I mentioned before is essential if you join another royal bloodline, but it's a non-issue for me. I... cannot provide the resources for your growth. So, please don't worry about my reputation. If a royal bloodline recruits you, you should agree as much as possible; that's the fastest way to grow. However... that guy Laujars is an exception. If you join him, I'll still be somewhat angry!"

Seeing Milirat become angry again at the end of the conversation, Hunzhen casually said, "Alright, alright, why should I care about you? Your Highness, you're more narcissistic than I thought."

He turned his head away, gave a soft snort, and said, "It's none of your business. Even if it's just a formality, I will only carefully consider it and choose what I think is the best option. That's all."

Milirat smiled gently. "That's good."

Click, click, click.

The food cart pushed open the door and a waiter called out softly, "Your Highness, Mr. Hunzhen, it's lunchtime."

Time slips away quietly in these ordinary days.

Five years later, they finally arrived at their destination: Silver City, the core territory of the Silver Demon Clan on the seventeenth level of the Abyss.

This is undoubtedly a city of giants. Unlike the ninth level, which is only magnificent in its walls, the city gates, houses and other buildings here are designed and built for use by giant creatures hundreds of meters tall.

The latest novel is first published here!

Countless enormous feathered ships moved in and out of the city's gates, both large and small.

Hunzhen discovered that there was not even the aura of cosmic-level life here; all the life forms that passed by had reached the level of domain lord.

Milirat's feathered ship sailed straight into Silver City, heading directly for the enormous central palace, the "Silver Temple."

On almost the same day, the feathered ships carrying the other ten winners arrived at the main gate of the Silver Temple.

The gate was closed and it seemed unlikely to open anytime soon.

Everyone flew out of the feathered ship.

Starting from the eleventh level, one enters the deepest abyss, where the corrosive force known as Deep Dive Pressure will constantly erode living beings.

Without the protection of the feather ship, the pressure during deep diving instantly increased to more than ten times.

From afar, Hunzhen saw that the only cosmic-level winner had just disembarked when foul black blood flowed from all seven orifices.

Wearing a special bodysuit, transparent fleshy buds rapidly pierced through it, wriggling and waving like arthropods.

In just a few seconds, the granulation tissue grew rapidly, becoming a fully formed, armor-like silver flesh and blood.

Ten seconds later, he was still making "woo-woo" sounds, but his body had become completely stiff like a zombie, turning into a silver column of flesh with a metallic sheen.

This top-tier expert at the cosmic level, comparable to a genius at the level of an ordinary domain lord, was transformed into non-living flesh and blood by the pressure of deep diving less than half a minute after disembarking.

Fortunately, the other nine Domain Lord-level winners were in much better condition, at most only looking pale and dazed.

"Good heavens, it seems there's a reason why there's only one spot for the Cosmic Level. Those who can survive peacefully in the seventeenth level of this abyss for a period of time are probably the most outstanding geniuses."

One can imagine that the young genius who came here for the cultivation mission was excited about the extra task, hoping to continue his cultivation afterward. He was overconfident and did not break through to the Domain Lord level, but in the end, he did not even see the path to becoming a knight, and died tragically in front of the temple gate.

"Just like nobles must break through their bloodline level at the cosmic level, perhaps becoming a knight at the cosmic level has other advantages, which is why such a quota was set up."

"However, that's not my main purpose, so it doesn't matter."

Faced with the constant pressure that assaulted his soul and body, Hunzhen was clearly the most composed among the winners.

At these seventeen levels, the effects of deep-diving pressure extend beyond those at the shallow levels.

The "flesh erosion" that just occurred, which caused the cosmic-level winner to continuously lose blood, grow flesh buds on his body, and be assimilated into non-living flesh and blood, is one of them.

There is also the "will impact," which is hundreds or thousands of times greater than the shallow layer and constantly washes over the soul.

The third is the peculiar hallucinations that appear every now and then, causing mental frenzy and rage, known as "mental pollution."

The fourth is "sensory distortion," which involves confusion in time perception and spatial sensory dysfunction.

Any one of these would pose a challenge to an ordinary domain lord-level being.

With all four elements intertwined, let alone daily life, simply standing here evokes a chilling sense of impending doom at all times.

Hunzhen learned from Milirat that only the first two factors would be added to the outer perimeter of the deep layer, while a third factor, "sensory distortion," would be added to the inner deep layer. This last factor, "sensory distortion," was a unique deep-diving pressure specific to the seventeenth deep core area.

The Grand Martial Arts Festival is merely the first screening channel for the Imperial Guards. In front of the Silver God Temple in Silver City, the second screening channel is to withstand the deep-sea pressure of the core area until the gates open.

"Mr. Hunzhen, I'll leave you here."

Milirat glanced at Hunzhen, who remained composed, waved her hand, and said softly, "Well then, goodbye for now."

Hunzhen nodded slightly with a serious expression: "Thank you for seeing me off, Your Highness."

Before the Silver Temple, no noble or even royal blood dared to act recklessly, so Milirat naturally no longer worried that any noble would harm Hunzhen.

"I hope... your wish will come true."

Pushing her wheelchair, Milirat glanced one last time at Hunzhen standing in front of the Silver Temple's main gate before boarding the feathered ship and sailing into the Silver City district.

The ten Domain Lord-level winners stood at least a hundred meters apart from each other, and as if by unwritten rule, each of them kept a distance of several hundred meters from Hunzhen.

Indeed, even these victors, who considered themselves elites, dared not provoke such a ruthless and murderous figure.

After passing the first screening hurdle, they are no longer competitors. In order to pass the second hurdle, it would be more appropriate for them to support each other and benefit each other.

If they weren't in front of such a sacred building as the Silver Temple, they probably would have just sat down and chatted to relieve their mental stress.

Hunzhen, however, did not have such enthusiasm. He closed his eyes and waited silently.

Two years have passed in the blink of an eye.

The first winner who couldn't withstand the pressure of deep diving became a dead man.

Then, in the third year, one of the winners went berserk and attacked the others, dragging four other winners into the fray, resulting in the sudden deaths of three of them.

The remaining survivors spread themselves out to be more than a kilometer apart.

In just three years, nearly half of the population had died.

With no one knowing when the gates of the Silver God Temple would open, everyone except Hunzhen couldn't help but show signs of anxiety.

Fortunately, the fifth year had just begun, and no new victims had yet been found. The temple gates finally opened amidst a thunderous roar that shook the heavens and the earth.

(End of this chapter)