Open up and break into another world

On the isolated island, more and more geniuses gathered.

Each batch consisted of a hundred geniuses participating in the selection battle; for each batch, the number of geniuses who could survive the selection battle was also uncertain.

After all, only the top ten thousand geniuses were qualified to advance to the assessment phase; other geniuses, even if they didn't die in the selection battle, would face a very miserable end—under such circumstances, besides Xu Ming, which genius would dare not to risk their lives?

In the end, only over two hundred thousand geniuses survived the selection battle.

“Heh heh heh heh…” A gray-clothed figure appeared in the sky above the isolated island, laughing sinisterly, “There are so many!?” This is a bit too much! Only ten thousand people can advance to the assessment phase!”

The geniuses on the isolated island immediately became nervous—they knew that even after arriving here, they still didn't dare let others know exactly how many high-grade Domain Lord puppets they had defeated!

The gray-clothed figure thought for a moment and said, “I won’t announce the scores of these ten thousand people one by one! I’ll just announce the score of the ten thousandth place—those with scores above this will advance to the assessment phase; those below this will stay here for now!”

Staying here obviously meant awaiting judgment!

Instantly, the faces of most of the geniuses on the isolated island turned ashen—obviously, the number of opponents these geniuses had challenged was less than five hundred puppets! Their fate probably wouldn't be much better than “death.”

The faces of ten thousand geniuses, however, instantly erupted with ecstatic joy—they had passed the selection! Not only could they survive and participate in the assessment, but they might also have unlimited possibilities!

“Great!” Zhang Mu, while ecstatic, was also covered in cold sweat. He knew that his challenge score was exactly five hundred puppet opponents; obviously, the one ranked ten thousandth was him!

It had to be said that Zhang Mu's luck was really too good!

However, at this moment…

Boom!!!

Zhang Mu saw in horror that, near him, four crazed geniuses simultaneously attacked him—these four geniuses had all been eliminated in the selection; they had noticed the ecstatic expression on Zhang Mu's face, so they wanted to drag Zhang Mu down with them!

And the same situation was happening in many places on the isolated island.

“Hmm?” The gray-clothed figure's face immediately darkened. With a mere wave of his hand, those crazed geniuses who had attacked were all frozen in place.

Seeing this scene, Xu Ming's pupils suddenly constricted.

“Time Stop!”

What the gray-clothed figure had displayed was precisely “Time Stop”! Moreover, he was different from Xu Ming—he had truly relied on his own strength to display “Time Stop.”

Moreover, effortlessly, he had simultaneously put tens of thousands of geniuses into a “Time Stop” state; this strength was definitely much stronger than the “Number One Expert on the Primordial Myriad Things Ranking” that Xu Ming had defeated before!

“This gray-clothed figure's strength is definitely very strong!” Xu Ming thought to himself, “I'm afraid… he's an existence at the Supreme level!”

However, Xu Ming wasn't too worried.

Supreme?

So what? Anyway, Xu Ming had the “Undying Imprint” buff, he was an existence who wasn't afraid of death and wouldn't die!

“Let’s go!” The gray-clothed figure scoffed disdainfully, and a peculiar force enveloped Xu Ming and the other ten thousand selected geniuses, directly disappearing from the isolated island.

Xu Ming only felt a shift in scenery before his eyes. When he saw the scene in front of him again, he found that he was already in the sky above an ancient city.

“Where is this…?” Xu Ming secretly observed.

This ancient city stood on a barren land. The surrounding land seemed to have been drained of its spiritual energy by the ancient city, and the ground was endlessly cracked.

The clouds above the ancient city were also incomparably gloomy. A ray of golden light shone through the thick clouds, illuminating the ancient and majestic divine city.

Other geniuses couldn't help but speak: “Could this ancient city have something special about it?”

“It must have something special about it, but… this ancient city’s range isn’t very large! It’s only the size of one realm!”

“Is the assessment here?”

…

The gray-clothed figure ignored these voices, only smiling faintly: “This ancient city comes from… the True Universe!”

Whoosh!

Instantly, all the talking geniuses shut their mouths!

From the True Universe?

They had to know, for the geniuses of the Mirage Universe, the True Universe was an incomparably mysterious place! For example, the “Cosmic Flower Sea” that all the experts on the Heavenly Ranking strived for was only able to grow True Self Flowers because it contained special soil from the True Universe, making it incomparably mysterious!

Although there were also geniuses from the True Universe in the First Heaven World!

However, those geniuses from the True Universe were all very aloof, seemingly not putting the geniuses of the Mirage Universe in their eyes at all; even less would they tell the geniuses of the Mirage Universe why they had to enter the First Heaven World.

Even Xu Ming was a little shocked—after all, Xu Ming knew that even ordinary Supremes wouldn't find it easy to go to the True Universe! Yet now, an ancient divine city from the True Universe had been brought here; what great divine power was this!

The gray-clothed figure continued to say: “This ancient city was used to nurture geniuses when it was in the True Universe!”

“Nurture geniuses?”

“That’s right! Nurture the geniuses of the True Universe!” The gray-clothed figure said, “Do you know why those geniuses from the True Universe who appear in the First Heaven World are all incomparably powerful?—Even the weakest are comparable to the Primordial Myriad Things Ranking; the stronger ones can even challenge the first place on the Primordial Myriad Things Ranking without difficulty!”

The geniuses from the True Universe in the First Heaven World were indeed incomparably powerful—if they weren’t unable to challenge the Primordial Myriad Things Ranking, then perhaps the entire Primordial Myriad Things Ranking would be filled with geniuses from the True Universe!

The gray-clothed figure added: “The reason why the strength of the geniuses from the True Universe is so formidable is because of genius nurturing grounds similar to this ancient city!”

To put it bluntly, this ancient city in the True Universe was equivalent to a “school.”

The gray-clothed figure continued to say: “Actually… there are quite a few geniuses who come from the Mirage Universe whose aptitudes are no weaker than those of the geniuses from the True Universe! However, being born in the Mirage Universe is already a disadvantage; moreover, the Mirage Universe, after all, doesn’t have the same environment as the True Universe, and can’t build that kind of genius nurturing ground! In this way, the gap in strength between the geniuses of the Mirage Universe and the geniuses of the True Universe will naturally become larger and larger!”

“And now…” The gray-clothed figure retracted his gaze from the ancient city and turned it towards Xu Ming and the other ten thousand geniuses, “I will give you the same nurturing environment as the geniuses of the True Universe!”