Chapter 826: Clear the Area

"The Scorching Flame Divine Lord..."

Heavenly Emperor Liu Ying glanced at the contestants, Emperor Ara and Yao Ji, then at the Divine Martial Emperor, seeming a bit hesitant.

The Divine Martial Emperor remained calm. "Go on."

"I don't have detailed information about him. He's... very mysterious. But compared to Bloodslaughter, he should be stronger," Liu Ying said seriously.

Emperor Ara and Yao Ji narrowed their eyes slightly. "Stronger?"

Stronger? If Bloodslaughter was rumored to have reached the ninety-second step of the Supreme Ladder. Then Scorching Flame... the ninety-third step? Or... like Li Pin, the ninety-fourth!?

At that moment, Heavenly Emperor Tai Yi asked, "What do you mean 'should be'?"

"That's normal," the Divine Martial Emperor replied calmly. "The Divine Race is keeping him as their trump card. That alone shows he has more potential than Bloodslaughter."

"Not necessarily," said Heavenly Emperor Gu You, glancing at Li Pin. "Maybe they just put their strongest up front."

"No, he really is stronger. And not just by a bit—he's at least a whole level above," Liu Ying said, his tone firm.

Seeing that the Divine Martial Emperor wasn't dismissing Emperor Ara and Yao Ji, he continued, "Just a few days ago, the Divine Race's Divine Emperor Tai Yuan brought the Scorching Flame Divine Lord to visit dozens of other races.

"One of those races' Heavenly Emperors happens to have some ties with me and secretly passed along a message..."

He paused briefly. "To protect humanity's vitality, the suggestion is that we withdraw from the Ten Thousand Tribes Dominion War."

Heavenly Emperor Tai Yi and Heavenly Emperor Gu You both shouted in anger.

"He's ridiculous!"

"Nonsense!"

Even the Divine Martial Emperor frowned. "What kind of intention does that Heavenly Emperor have, trying to use such a low tactic to ease the pressure of the competition?"

Heavenly Emperor Liu Ying watched their reactions and knew exactly how they would respond.

"That Heavenly Emperor and I are sworn life-and-death friends, and... his sect was wiped out by the Divine Race. The entire star system under his control, eighty trillion lives, were all absorbed into that Divine Race's Divine Kingdom and refined into Sacred Spirits," he explained.

His implication was clear: that Heavenly Emperor actually wanted to see the Divine Race and humanity fight to the death.

This explanation made the Divine Martial Emperor and the others' expressions grow more serious.

Liu Ying continued, "I also learned something else. The Divine Race put great effort into designing the championship format, especially the preliminaries. They even wanted all participants to fully engage, so only a few survivors would emerge to compete. But the Chaos Clan rejected this."

He added, "If you analyze the current preliminary format closely, you'll see that if the Chaos Clan hadn't refused, the preliminaries would have broken away from the one-on-one matchups between races. It would have allowed strong fighters to strike freely before ascending the Supreme Pillar, slaughtering the weaker..."

At this, the Heavenly Emperors immediately made the connection. In the knockout round, the matches were one-on-one. But before the thirty-three spots were secured, it was a free-for-all, mass brawl among all races.

Though the Chaos Clan refused the Divine Race's proposal and prevented the knockout round's contestant number from depending solely on prelim survivors, the prelim battles still often turned into one against three, one against ten, even one against a hundred.

Likewise, contestants often faced being attacked by multiple opponents at once.

"I get what you mean," Ji Shun said. "You're saying... the Divine Race is so confident they can wipe out all our human contestants in the preliminaries, so they want the Chaos Clan to change the rules. That attitude alone shows their absolute confidence?"

Liu Ying nodded. "Exactly."

"Arrogant!" Ji Shun snapped. "Even if the Scorching Flame Divine Lord really is a level above the Bloodslaughter Divine Lord, how could he possibly take down all dozens of our human contestants in one sweep? Who does he think he is?"

"First, he's not alone. He has dozens of teammates with him. Second..." Liu Ying paused, his face serious, "well, what I mean is, the Scorching Flame Divine Lord is at least one level stronger than the Bloodslaughter Divine Lord."

The crowd of Heavenly Emperors was shocked by this revelation.

At least one level!? That means the Scorching Flame Divine Lord could be more than one level above the Bloodslaughter Divine Lord—maybe two or even three levels!? Just like the difference between Yue Shu, Xuan Chengming, and Li Pin?

Heavenly Emperor Dong Xu frowned. "What kind of power would that be? If he really surpasses by more than one level, he should be called the Sacred Monarch Scorching Flame."

The others exchanged uneasy looks.

The Divine Martial Emperor couldn't help but glance at Li Pin.

After a moment's thought, he said, "Li Pin, what do you think? Maybe you shouldn't compete in the preliminaries. Instead, send someone skilled in agility. Someone like Zi Zaitian."

"Fight fire with fire, block water with earth," Li Pin said calmly. "Maybe this is all just the enemy's psychological warfare, trying to make us lose our focus."

He glanced at Liu Ying. "I'm not doubting your friend, but could it be possible that he's also been tricked by the Divine Race?"

"That's impossible. How could a Divine Lord fool a Heavenly Emperor?" Liu Ying shook his head. "Don't deceive yourself."

"Deceive myself?" Li Pin chuckled. "If it's not self-deception, even better. Two levels above Bloodslaughter? Bloodslaughter's strength ranks at the ninety-third step of the Supreme Ladder. Two levels higher means at least the ninety-fifth step... I really want to see if his power will truly live up to the rumors when the real competition begins."

He paused. "That is, assuming he even takes part in the preliminaries to qualify."

Liu Ying frowned.

The Divine Martial Emperor smiled and said, "Liu Ying, you might not know, but Li Pin is the lead commander of the Human Race."

"Lead commander?" Liu Ying was slightly taken aback. He quickly turned to Yao Ji. "Isn't the lead commander..."

"

Cough, cough

... It's a special case. Our lead commander isn't the main commander in the top-priority dispute category," the Divine Martial Emperor explained awkwardly.

Out of absolute trust in Liu Ying, he added, "Li Pin has reached the ninety-fourth step on the Supreme Ladder, but the Myriad Astral God Hall has kept that secret tightly locked."

Liu Ying's pupils dilated sharply. "Ninety-four!?"

A Tyrant reaching the ninety-fourth step?!

"The Divine Race may have their ace, but so do the humans," the Divine Martial Emperor said with a confident glint in his eyes. "Who will have the last laugh remains uncertain."

Hearing this, Liu Ying couldn't help but glance at Li Pin again and gave a slight nod.

Then, an idea struck him, and he suggested, "Strike the first blow to avoid facing a hundred later. The Divine Race has been visiting other races recently with that exact intention, showing their strength to intimidate and prevent attacks during the preliminaries. Should we humans try the same?"

The Heavenly Emperors didn't answer immediately. Instead, their gazes shifted toward Li Pin, leaving the decision to him.

"If I'm not mistaken, the Overlord Competition comes after the Prodigy Competition." Li Pin smiled faintly. "After the Prodigy Competition, I believe the other races will make the right choices."

"The Prodigy Competition?" repeated Liu Ying, astounded. "You've been cultivating for less than a thousand years!?"

Ji Shun chuckled. "Liu Ying, Li Pin is the one who redefined the supreme prodigy standard for humans. His glorious achievements could fill three days and nights. We'll talk more when there's time. For now, let's have our contestants fully understand their opponents."

Liu Ying suppressed his curiosity and began sharing the latest intelligence he had gathered.

It wasn't just the humans. The other Sovereign Races also spent this time studying their opponents carefully.

The Ten Thousand Tribes Dominion War has been held many times and has developed a relatively complete set of rules.

Before the official start, no contestant from any race dared to provoke others recklessly. Otherwise, the so-called "alliances" within the Existence faction couldn't hold.

***

𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

As a Sovereign Race, especially one of the top four, humans arrived almost exactly on the day the Ten Thousand Tribes Dominion War was about to begin.

The Divine Race, the Intelligent Lifeform Race, and others had all arrived early.

Two days later, the Astral Beast Race arrived, and the tournament's start was within reach.

During this time, the Heavenly Emperors of the various races hurried about, forging alliances and making promises. They declared plans to join forces and eliminate certain races during the preliminaries.

Nearly every one of the Nine Sovereign Races had gathered their own allies. Humans were no exception.

On the day before the Prodigy Competition, the Divine Martial Emperor found Li Pin and handed him a list. "These are the races pledged to serve us humans. If you meet them in the competition, remember to go easy."

Li Pin glanced at the list. "There are too many. Cut it down to thirty-two."

"Cut it down?" The Divine Martial Emperor frowned as he looked over the list, then suddenly realized something. "Wait, thirty-two!? You want to clear the field in the Prodigy Competition?"

"Flying isn't like traveling on foot," Li Pin said. "The core layer spans thirty thousand li. Without a flying vessel, even I would need one to two hours to cross that distance. The Ten Thousand Tribes Dominion War involves all 9 Sovereign Races, 432 top-tier races, and 10,300 first-rate races..."

Li Pin smiled. "The first-rate races are mostly fillers, mostly at the Solar Flare level. The real threats are only the Sovereign and top-tier races. Besides those on this list, I won't face more than a thousand opponents."

He looked at the Divine Martial Emperor. "With my strength, defeating fewer than a thousand contestants in one to two hours won't be difficult."