Jolyne swallowed hard, looking up at the towering giant that John had become, her voice trembling, “W-What kind of monster is this?”
She finally understood why the Sea King had placed such importance on this human.
John’s current aura was overwhelming, easily surpassing the peak of upper-tier gods in strength.
“Damn, this guy’s power has grown again!” Cand-Dragon stared at the transformed John, his face filled with shock.
The last time they fought, he could barely hold his own against John’s giant form.
But now, there was no contest-he wouldn’t stand a chance.
Boom! Boom!
The ground trembled violently. The tens of thousands of trial puppets crumbled before John like toys, utterly powerless.
One by one, the trial puppets were obliterated by John’s attacks.
Some of the trial puppets managed to slip past John’s strikes, heading toward the rest of the group.
Finally snapping out of their stupor, the others launched their own attacks.
With John taking out the majority of the puppets, they had little trouble dealing with the few that approached them.
Easily smashing them to pieces.
The trial puppets, being mere constructs, didn’t drop any items, nor could John plunder any stats from them. The only reward was points.
But John didn’t mind. He was solely focused on accumulating points.
He periodically unleashed skills to speed up the process.
His Heaven and Earth Transformation consumed 10,000 spiritual power and 10,000 demonic energy per second.
Even with the 99% reduction from his Wrath of the Gods ability, he was still burning 100 spiritual power and 100 demonic energy per second.
His reserves would only last him about forty minutes.
Finally, before his spiritual power and demonic energy ran out completely, John had destroyed every single trial puppet.
John reverted from his Heaven and Earth Transformation, sweat trickling down his forehead.
The vast space around them was littered with the shattered remains of the trial puppets. Each member of the team had racked up 100,000 points.
But John had earned an astonishing 400,000 points.
“Wait… it’s over already?” The group stood in stunned silence, unable to process what had just happened.
Cand-Dragon glanced at Tony, who was still standing there in shock, and asked, “How long did it take?”
Tony gulped and, with some hesitation, said, “F-Forty-three minutes…”
The group exchanged glances, all equally shocked and amazed.
In just over forty minutes, John had slain more than 80,000 upper-tier god-level puppets, a feat that was beyond astonishing.
At that moment, John’s attention was drawn to the broken remains of the puppets scattered across the ground.
Although they didn’t drop any loot, their bodies were made of special materials, comparable to low-tier divine artifacts.
This was definitely valuable stuff.
John smiled with satisfaction and quickly collected all of the remains.
The others approached him.
Jolyne, still trying to calm herself, said, “Godslayer, we’ll allocate all the remaining points to you to help boost your ranking.”
The others nodded in agreement.
John pondered for a moment and then asked, “What if we all try to make it onto the leaderboard together?”
The group’s eyes lit up at the idea. Considering John’s killing speed, it seemed entirely possible.
With his clones earning four times the points of any single person, John was almost guaranteed to stay in first place.
However, Jolyne shook her head and said, “It’s not that simple. I only have three Universal Orders, and the Shadow Clan knows about this secret. They’ve likely prepared Universal Orders as well.”
While John’s speed at killing the puppets might outpace Blood Moon and the others.
But the limited number of Universal Orders put them at a disadvantage.
The points from the remaining three waves of puppet attacks would all go to John, totaling around 2.4 million points, which should be enough to land him in the top ten. “Universal Orders? I have plenty. We can still split the points evenly,” John replied casually. “Really?” Jolyne was surprised, staring at him in disbelief.
He nodded and added, “But I’ll need about an hour to recover my spiritual power.”
In the world of Gods, there were no potions or elixirs to quickly restore spiritual power or demonic energy, so they had to rely on their own natural recovery, which was slow.
“That’s perfect,” Jolyne said confidently. “At this rate, we’ll be able to wipe out a wave of trial puppets every two hours, far faster than the Shadow Clan.”
Since the trial puppets weren’t living beings, the Shadow Clan’s strange attacks, which were highly effective against living creatures.
It wouldn’t give them an advantage here.
After an hour, John’s spiritual power and demonic energy were fully restored.
Jolyne immediately used a Universal Order to refresh the trial space.
Whoosh!
Spatial power surged, and once again, 80,000 upper-tier god-level puppets appeared before
them.
Without a word, John merged with his clones and activated Heaven and Earth
Transformation, beginning another round of slaughter.
Cand-Dragon and the others, no longer as shocked as before, quickly joined the battle, doing their best to assist John in killing as many trial puppets as possible.
This time, their speed improved slightly. In just 39 minutes, they had wiped out all the trial
puppets.
John canceled his Heaven and Earth Transformation, and the group let him rest while they cleaned up the battlefield, collecting the remains of the trial puppets.
They repeated the same process-using a Universal Order, slaughtering the puppets, resting to recover spiritual power, and then using another Universal Order to refresh the trial space.
The routine became mechanical as time passed.
Cand-Dragon and the others were visibly worn out. Their mental and physical energy were nearly depleted. Facing upper-tier god-level puppets, they couldn’t afford even the slightest mistake. Despite having an hour to rest between waves, they struggled to recover.
Toward the end, their slaughter speed slowed down significantly, and it was mostly John
handling the battles on his own.
Oddly enough, Tony had the easiest time.
With his weaker strength, any hit from the puppets would be fatal.
So he stayed in the back and helped clean up the battlefield.
John lost track of how many waves of trial puppets they had faced, but he vaguely recalled
using the Universal Order over ninety times.
[The second trial has concluded, trial spaces are closing…]
The announcement finally came, and everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
The trial puppet that John had been fighting vanished into thin air, and unable to keep going
any longer, he deactivated his Heaven and Earth Transformation.
Buzz!
With a ripple of spatial power, Tony didn’t even have time to finish cleaning the battlefield before being teleported out.
Outside, many powerful beings had already gathered. From time to time, someone would be expelled from a trial space, collapsing weakly onto the ground with pale faces, clearly
exhausted.
John and his group didn’t look much better, having pushed themselves to their limits with
sheer willpower.
“Heh, you lot think you can compete for the leaderboard?” A mocking voice called out from the side. It was Blood Moon, sneering at them.
He recognized that they had been teleported from the upper-tier gods trial space and quickly
figured out their intentions.
“What’s the matter? Seven days weren’t enough for you to kill all the trial puppets? Got kicked out before you could finish?” He grinned arrogantly and continued, “Remember this, kid- Shadow Clan is the strongest! Anyone who dares challenge the Shadow Clan will die!”
He shouted the last words, his face twisted in fury, startling a few nearby onlookers.
John frowned but didn’t respond. He and Jolyne were too tired to bother dealing with this
loudmouthed fool.
[Points have been tallied. The leaderboard will now be displayed.]
[157th place: Toyo of the Evil Demon Race, 8,831 points, eliminated.]
A massive screen appeared in the sky, showing the rankings from the bottom up.
“No…” A mid-tier god from the Evil Demon Race, Toyo, let out a horrified cry, but it was cut short as his body exploded into a cloud of blood mist, erased from existence.
A few onlookers nearby, witnessing the scene, collapsed to the ground, their faces pale and
their bodies trembling uncontrollably.
Clearly, these unfortunate souls hadn’t accumulated enough points either.
[156th place: Magtis of the Barbarians, 8,875 points, eliminated.]
Boom!
Another explosion of blood mist as yet another warrior was erased from existence.
The leaderboard kept updating.
Not until the 133rd spot did the scores finally break 10,000.
This time, 24 individuals were wiped out at once.
“Human, I don’t know whether to call you lucky or unfortunate, but you’ll soon fall into my
hands,” Blood Moon taunted John again, sneering as the points continued to be revealed.
“Will you shut the hell up, already!” a sudden angry shout startled everyone around.
John was equally shocked-it was Tony who had shouted.
He couldn’t help but wonder, when did the old man get so feisty?
Blood Moon stood frozen, utterly stunned. It took him a few moments to process that a lowly
demigod had dared to insult him.
“You… you dare to insult me?” He glared at Tony, feeling utterly humiliated.
It was one thing for John and Jolyne to insult him-John was as strong as an upper-tier god at
his peak, and Jolyne herself was an upper-tier god. But Tony? He was just a demigod, someone Blood Moon normally wouldn’t even bother to look at.
“Master, please calm down,” one of the Shadow Clan warriors hurriedly reminded Blood
Moon, fearing he would lose control again.
But Tony wasn’t done. “Of course I’m insulting you. Look at you, with your sharp chin and
rat-like face. You’re a disgrace! If I were you, I’d crawl back into my mother’s womb and get a proper remake so I wouldn’t embarrass myself like this.” Jolyne added the perfect jab, “He doesn’t have a mother.”
“I’ll kill you all, I swear!” Blood Moon roared, lunging to attack.
But the Shadow Clan warriors were ready. They quickly tackled him to the ground before he
could make a move.
John ignored Blood Moon’s outburst and turned to Tony, surprised. “Old man, where did you
learn to talk like that?”
Cough, cough. Tony cleared his throat, suddenly adopting his usual gentle demeanor again.
“A momentary lapse, forgive me.”
Cand-Dragon, who was clearly embarrassed by Tony’s behavior, took a step back, trying to distance himself. “This is just embarrassing.”
But Tony wasn’t fazed. “Master, you should try it too. There’s something incredibly satisfying about pissing this guy off-watching him froth at the mouth, wanting to attack but
completely helpless.”
Thud! Blood Moon, already enraged, coughed up blood again and fainted on the spot.
“Master, wake up!” The Shadow Clan warriors panicked, scrambling to revive him. Nine-Tails, watching the scene unfold, smiled, a deep sense of satisfaction washing over her as though years of being tormented by the Shadow Clan had finally been lifted.
She looked at Tony and said, “That does look fun. You’ll have to teach me how to do it.”
Cand-Dragon, unable to take it any longer, scolded them, “You need to be careful. In the final round of the trial, combat is allowed. If you provoke them too much, I won’t be able to protect you.”
Tony was about to retort, but the warning silenced him immediately.
The leaderboard continued flashing, now reaching the top thirty.
Nearly all of the top fifty ranks were held by Shadow Clan warriors.
[11th place: Beelzebub of the Demon Race, 230,000 points.] Beelzebub looked at his ranking and sighed. He hadn’t made it into the top ten.
Only the top ten received additional rewards.
“Master, wake up! The top ten are about to be announced,” one of the Shadow Clan warriors
said, finally managing to wake Blood Moon.