Trials of the Powerhouses

Tan Zhishan stood in the empty assembly hall. Since the Title Challenge Match had begun, his Crown of Supremacy had returned to the source of the space. It would only condense again after someone else seized that position.

He took a deep breath and clenched his right fist.

"Whether it’s Mercenary Tao or Azure Sky…"

He had made up his mind. A faint, illusory ripple emerged as he began to touch upon the essence of that power.

Although Tan Zhishan had always found Heart Light Pulse, a power based entirely on idealism, deeply unreasonable, Azure Sky’s madmen had long proven that this power factor could rival the authorities of gods.

His tangled thoughts gradually settled as he walked slowly toward the enormous door and gently turned the handle. Outside, the child who had long held the title of Mahakala looked over as well.

"Set off."

Tan Zhishan’s voice was cold and hard. His followers and the Finality Empire’s High-tier Reincarnators answered in unison, streams of information shooting into the sky.

At the same time, in a valley in the West District, the knights who had waited for so long were buried in snow, like snowmen, until the emerald-eyed woman rose to her feet.

Only then did the radiance of all sorts of energies and authorities flare to life.

Judging by their bearing alone, these people were several times more formidable than the Finality Empire’s upper echelons.

Although the West District’s top Reincarnators had once fought each other without end, after witnessing this woman’s strength, most had entered her service.

If anyone could ultimately conquer the entire Infinite Dimensional Space and free the Reincarnators from it, then aside from her, there was no better choice.

That was the conclusion reached by most Reincarnators in the West District.

Overwhelming strength, overwhelming charisma—the woman codenamed Ye had never been stingy about displaying her power. Yet behind that immense strength lay an even greater capacity for acceptance.

She possessed the breadth of spirit to accommodate every other Reincarnator.

"My lords, seize the power that belongs to you. In the next era, I shall need that… power of yours!"

The woman’s voice was melodious yet magnetic, deeper than that of most women. It seemed to ring directly in everyone’s cochleae, scraping against the cartilage in their ears and involuntarily rousing their spirits.

The tall woman who had once brought Kaio-ken to Bai Cangshu stood in the front row. Clad in silver armor, her expression turned fanatical upon hearing the woman’s voice.

"Yes!"

Buzz buzz buzz buzz~

Silver-white streams of information shot into the sky.

Only after watching the trailing tails of those silver-white information streams disappear did Ye lower her eyes. A pitch-black card in her palm flickered faintly.

The slight heat made her realize that the last hidden person had appeared. The one holding the card hidden by the mysterious King of Destiny had successfully activated it.

The wager of The Three Supreme Kings, one that concerned whether the world would be destroyed, had begun.

Wisps of white mist escaped the woman’s nose and mouth. Her gaze was indifferent as she looked over everything in the vast snow valley, feeling only that the world was silent and desolate.

Just like in that approaching future: once miracles fell, the world would soon move toward the final end of Silence.

"But I refuse the wager of the Three Kings."

Special Reincarnator EX002, would you like to enter the contest for the Crown of Supremacy now?

"Yes."

The woman’s voice was cold as she transformed into a stream of information and shot into the sky.

The same scene played out throughout the Infinite Dimensional Space.

The formally launched title competition was a grand event that no High-tier Reincarnator could possibly miss.

However, in the unique title contests most people entered, participants would not actually meet during the process. They would only see, through the space’s confirmation procedure, roughly how many people had received invitations and confirmed participation for the title they had entered.

The number of participants would ultimately determine the number of battle rounds.

As for opponent selection, the space decided it based on the Reincarnators’ hidden ratings. The higher the hidden rating, the more likely one was to receive a bye.

Conversely, the lower the rating, the more rounds of combat one had to fight.

The space had never cared about fairness. It only wanted the strong to grow stronger.

When Qiqi’s vision returned to normal, she was already standing amid a vast river of stars, where no gravity seemed to exist.

She stood suspended in the void. The surroundings were cold and silent, and her gaze followed the pitch-black starry sky into the distance, where everything seemed swallowed up.

There was no sound here, nor did direction or distance exist.

This was different from the last contest for supremacy in the agility domain.

Lines of light began to appear before her eyes, each seemingly emerging from one end of the void before vanishing into the other.

The lines crossed one another and formed a gigantic square.

By Qiqi’s estimate, each side was over forty kilometers long.

More lines converged within the square, eventually dividing the giant grid into countless smaller grids.

Streams of information continuously gathered within the grids. In the end, what appeared before Qiqi was an enormous chessboard.

Unlike a chessboard in reality, this was an entirely three-dimensional chessboard—or rather, something resembling a Rubik’s Cube.

Half of its cells were filled with streams of information, while the rest remained void.

Special Trial · Crown of Supremacy · Agility Domain

Venue: Luminous Chessboard

Participants: 11

Trial Rules: Enter the Luminous Chessboard and survive until the end.

Warning: Whenever the number of people within the Luminous Chessboard decreases, the rules inside the chessboard will change.

Qiqi looked up and discovered that figures had begun appearing throughout this strange space.

The distance was too great, and Qiqi herself possessed neither Magic Eyes nor Pupil Techniques, so she could not identify the others through their Avatars.

Yet her heart was still as water. Clear Sword Heart had already emerged.

The sound of a sword rang through the void from nowhere, circles of illusory ripples flowing outward behind her.

With her eyes closed, she sensed an incomparably terrifying sword intent compressed within a demonic blade. That sword intent proliferated and faded within its sheath, as though replaying all its previous battles at every moment.

The woman holding that demonic blade merely rested her hand lightly on its hilt. No aura leaked from her body, but in Qiqi’s perception, this person was terrifying beyond measure.

This was likely Sen Xia, who had previously held the title God Dream One Sword—the Super Assembly’s second strongest combatant, Azure Sky.

At the peak of Swordplay System Reincarnators in the previous cycle, she was said to possess the power to severely wound or even directly kill Supreme Experts even without a Crown of Supremacy.

Qiqi remained calm. It was entirely expected that Sen Xia would come to intercept her. After all, compared to intercepting Mercenary Tao, choosing her was the safer option, wasn’t it?

Qiqi’s blood red hair fell behind her back as she calmly accepted the fact that, in everyone else’s eyes, Mercenary Tao was more dangerous than she was. Clear Sword Heart did not waver in the slightest.

She continued sensing the others. Farther away, a small-statured Reincarnator stood in place—no, standing in place was not an accurate description. The other party seemed to be vibrating at high speed.

Their entire body shook violently without pause, as though they might vanish the next moment. This was likely some special ability related to extreme speed.

Qiqi had no mind to inspect them one by one. Relying on the instincts of Clear Sword Heart, she immediately identified the other most threatening competitors here.

Aside from Sen Xia, who concealed that terrifying sword intent, someone more than twenty kilometers away was also nurturing a dreadful sword strike.

That person sat on the ground, holding a katana in both hands in an iai stance, seemingly ready to unleash that sword strike they had been accumulating for so long.

This person was likely another victor from the previous competition—North District’s supreme combatant, Instantless, codenamed Sword Demon.

Buzz~

As the Luminous Chessboard gradually stabilized, someone suddenly stepped forward with unhurried ease and landed in a white cell.

Boom!

Illusory ripples surged and swept outward as though they had substance.

Qiqi’s eyes snapped open. Clear Sword Heart had already been affected.

She stared ahead. At that moment, her gaze seemed to passively pierce through dozens of kilometers, clearly seeing the woman with golden hair cascading down her back. With both hands resting on her sword, she stood within the chessboard.

Countless streams of light erupted across the chessboard in an instant. The woman merely stood there, and every stream that struck the illusory ripples emanating from her shattered apart.

"Come, let us begin today’s feast!"

The woman’s voice appeared directly in everyone’s ears.

Qiqi, Sen Xia, Sword Demon, Flash, Hermes, and the others all looked grim.

That woman… she had indeed chosen the agility domain…

Her tyrannical bearing struck everyone almost like Conqueror’s Haki. She was someone who could reach such a level without relying on abilities, using nothing but her own sheer presence.

Although in the previous contest, Ye had only been one or two places ahead of Qiqi and Sword Demon, and the three had jointly become supreme in the agility domain—

Because they excelled in different areas, the outcome of an actual fight had been uncertain.

But after a full cycle, this woman had already opened up a tangible gap.

Sen Xia’s expression was complicated. She too stepped onto the chessboard. The sword intent of her self-transcending swordsmanship erupted in an instant, and her entire body seemed to transform into a sharp sword. Merely pressing one hand against her sheath made her impossible to look at directly.

Ye saw Sen Xia enter the field as well. She nodded, then strode toward her. No matter who she faced, no matter what feelings lay between them—

A battle was a battle. Victory and defeat were victory and defeat.

Sword Demon and the others entered the field afterward.

Only Qiqi remained at the edge, observing the surroundings one last time. She did not sense that person’s presence.

Mercenary Tao had not joined this battle.

The battle she had expected between two monsters did not take place.

She did not know whether she should feel delighted or disappointed.

Buzz!

The instant she stepped onto the chessboard, Sen Xia drew her blade.

An enormous blade light spanned dozens of kilometers and arrived in an instant, terrifying sword intent erupting with unstoppable force.

Qiqi raised both hands as countless scarlet Battle Aura blades erupted in an instant.

A gigantic library, as though it had never been built for a species of humanity’s size.

The library was over a thousand meters tall, and the books inside were several meters high. All kinds of magical and barrier radiance flickered across the shelves.

Dangerous restrictions filled the entire library. Touching one even once would trigger a barrage of spells.

Tan Zhishan walked through it, black mist continuously spilling from his hands. He was attempting to cast a regional curse. Though the chances were slim, if he could turn this venue into cursed ground, it would greatly benefit the battles to come.

As Tan Zhishan walked, he suddenly saw someone leaning against a dangerous bookshelf, flipping through one of those enormous books.

That person’s hair was disheveled, their energy aura faint, and their face filled with sorrow. It was An Zhiyuan, who had barely appeared throughout the entire cycle.

The other man had been stronger than him in the previous cycle, but he had done little this cycle. Theoretically, his improvement could not possibly have been as great as Tan Zhishan’s.

For top-tier Reincarnators, any lapse would leave them behind.

Black flames ignited around Tan Zhishan’s hands. The sight would almost make one think he had not lost the title Great Sun of Finality.

An Zhiyuan seemed to turn his head only then.

"You’re relieved because you didn’t see that guy?"

Tan Zhishan frowned. Battles in the Mental Domain were unlike those in the strength and agility domains. While there were also magnificent destructive abilities, strange and unpredictable powers emerged without end.

Prophecy, divination, fate interference—those were precisely what this man before him excelled at.

He truly had felt a secret thrill upon discovering that Mercenary Tao had not appeared. Before entering, he had already confirmed that the monster was not among those competing for the Mental Domain.

But being called out on it to his face still displeased Tan Zhishan.

With a bang, An Zhiyuan shut the book before him. Then, before Tan Zhishan’s widened eyes, his hair began to grow, turning half-black and half-white.

His physique changed as well, while his sorrowful face gradually became extraordinarily handsome.

"You…"

An Zhiyuan turned around. Golden energy ignited around his body, and scarlet Satsui no Hado began to emerge.

His eyes fixed on Tan Zhishan as a teasing curve formed at the corner of his mouth.

"If that’s all you’ve got, then this cycle’s Crown of Supremacy can’t be handed to you~"

An Zhiyuan raised his hand. Amid a piercing roar, the Dodon Ray tore through the air.

Boom!

The Dodon Ray did not hit Tan Zhishan. Instead, it struck the bookshelf. In an instant, lightning flashed and thunder roared as every restriction was triggered.

Tan Zhishan vanished in an instant and turned to flee.

Bai Cangshu sat steadily atop a high platform. This was an enormous arena, and blood stained every corner of the jade-white arena.

The gigantic spectators above screamed themselves hoarse in languages no one could understand.

Twenty-four candidates sat around the White Jade Arena.

Special Trial · Crown of Supremacy · Constitution Domain

Venue: Arena of the Gods

Participants: 24

Trial Rules: Enter the arena in sequence and survive for as long as possible.

Note: In this trial, participants will revive on the spot after death, but they will lose the chance to continue the trial.

Bai Cangshu studied the rules and the arena intently, then saw someone on the far left leap down impatiently.

This was a trial to see who could survive the longest. Everyone else could attack the defender below as much as they wished.

The corner of Bai Cangshu’s mouth curled up as malice began to show itself uncontrollably.