Blood Moon opened her eyes, wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, and glanced coldly at Tony. She asked, “What rank are those guys?”
The group was stunned for a moment.
One of them hesitantly replied, “My lord, it seems we didn’t see their ranking?”
“What?” Blood Moon exclaimed, “You mean to say those guys made it into the top ten?”
The group fell silent, unwilling and unable to believe it.
“My lord, maybe we missed their ranking.”
“Yeah, there’s no way those guys made it into the top ten.”
Others quickly chimed in.
“Useless! You can’t even handle such a small task!” Blood Moon cursed in fury.
The group dared not refute her, though internally, they were dissatisfied.
You’re not useless, yet you got so worked up by just a few words that you spat blood and fainted?
At that moment, the rankings flashed again, revealing the tenth place.
[Tenth place: Angel Race’s Lincoln, Points: 310,000; Reward: One essence of each element- wind, fire, water, and earth.]
Everyone looked over at Lincoln from the Angel Race, their gazes filled with envy.
“Only tenth?” Lincoln frowned, clearly displeased with the result.
“It seems like Godslayer, Cand-Dragon, and the others haven’t appeared on the rankings yet. Could they all be ranked higher?” Lincoln glanced toward them.
He had been keeping an eye on the rankings and hadn’t seen John and the others’ names yet. Like the Shadow Clan, he didn’t believe those few could make it to the leaderboard.
Especially Tony, who was only at the demigod level. At most, he could only earn about 10,000 points as a Lifesaver.
“Elemental essences? What are those?” John asked curiously, noticing that Lincoln had received an additional reward.
Jolyne explained, “They’re rare treasures. You can only use them if your comprehension of elemental laws reaches 100%. They enhance your body’s elementalization, reducing true damage from the corresponding elements. If you reach 100% elementalization, you become immune to all magical and true damage from that element.”
“Elementalization of the body? Such a bizarre ability!” John was astonished. If he could fully elementalize his body in all elements, wouldn’t he become invincible?
The leaderboard continued to flash.
[Ninth place: Shadow Clan’s God Wind, Points: 1,370,000; Reward: One essence of each element-wind, fire, water, and earth.]
When the ninth place was revealed, the crowd was abuzz.
The ninth place score had surpassed one million, far exceeding Lincoln’s in tenth.
It was a massive leap.
And as they reached the ninth place, all the names on the leaderboard belonged to the Shadow Clan. Blood Moon and the others wore smug expressions, not forgetting to throw mocking glances at John and his group.
“The strength of the Shadow Clan is really something!” Cand-Dragon couldn’t help but exclaim.
He knew that without John’s help, his points would have been similar to Lincoln’s, and it would have been impossible for him to surpass a million.
The Shadow Clan had a strange power, even when facing the lifeless trial puppets, they had a massive advantage.
[Fifth place: Shadow Clan’s Slash Soul, Points: 4,550,000; Reward: Two essences of each element-wind, fire, water, and earth.]
Soon, the leaderboard reached the fifth place.
Tony furrowed his brows in confusion and asked, “My lord, what’s going on? Why aren’t we on the board?”
The rankings had already reached the fifth place, yet the five of them had all scored over ten million points, and John had even reached over forty million.
They should’ve made the leaderboard by now.
Cand-Dragon and the others were equally puzzled. Could there be an error in The Secret Area’s scoring rules?
“Hmph, you guys think you deserve to be on the leaderboard? Know your place!” Blood Moon sneered from the side, ridiculing them upon hearing Tony’s words.
At that moment, the leaderboard displayed the third place.
Blood Moon’s smile froze instantly.
[Third place: Shadow Clan’s Blood Moon, Points: 11,000,000; Reward: Two essences of each element-wind, fire, water, and earth.]
Everyone was shocked.
Blood Moon had entered the upper-tier gods’ puppet trial space, where each upper-tier god puppet killed earned 10,000 points.
Eleven million points-this meant he had killed at least 1,100 upper-tier god puppets.
Even for a team of ten, this result was impressive.
“Impossible!” Blood Moon couldn’t accept it. He had paid a heavy price to break ten million points.
In tens of thousands of years, he had opened nearly a hundred final Secret Areas in different worlds, and only one other person had ever reached ten million points besides him.
With a score like this, he was sure he’d be first place, but now, he was only third.
This meant two people had scored far higher than him.
Blood Moon couldn’t accept it. He couldn’t help but look at John.
Could this human’s score really be higher than his?
At that moment, the leaderboard refreshed again, and four names appeared.
[Second place: Beast Clan’s Cand-Dragon, Points: 11,250,000; Reward: Five essences of each element-wind, fire, water, and earth.]
[Second place: Beast Clan’s Nine-Tails, Points: 11,250,000; Reward: Five essences of each element-wind, fire, water, and earth.]
[Second place: Beast Clan’s Tony, Points: 11,250,000; Reward: Five essences of each element
-wind, fire, water, and earth.]
[Second place: Feather Race’s Jolyne, Points: 11,250,000; Reward: Five essences of each
element-wind, fire, water, and earth.]
Just as expected!
John saw the rankings and wasn’t surprised.
Cand-Dragon and the others had the same score and were tied for second place.
“Four second places? 11,250,000 points, and one of them is at the demigod level? How is that
even possible?”
“When did the Beast Clan become so strong?”
“Wait, one of them isn’t Beast Clan-Feather Race? What kind of race is that?”
The crowd erupted into discussion, unable to believe their eyes.
“Feather Race? You’re one of the Feather Race?” Blood Moon exclaimed, staring at Jolyne, a
flicker of dread crossing his eyes.
“Impossible! The Feather Race was wiped out, not a single one survived. You can’t be from the Feather Race,” he swallowed hard, unwilling to accept the truth.
The Feather Race specialized in soul magic, their power was terrifying. Their soul force was so strong it could even obliterate the Hunters’ brood mothers, making them a natural counter to
the Shadow Clan.
Fearful of the Feather Race’s abilities, they had slaughtered all of the Feather Race’s warriors and completely destroyed their planet. There shouldn’t be any survivors left. “Hmph!” Jolyne snorted coldly, her aura radiating deadly intent as she said icily, “Shadow
Clan, you’re all going to die!”
Blood Moon frowned, sensing something was off. He snapped angrily, “What is your
connection with the Sea King?”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Jolyne replied, unwilling to elaborate.
“Damn it, you’ve been plotting against me all along!” Blood Moon cursed. He had entrusted
his Hunters’ brood mother to the Sea King.
If the Sea King had killed his brood mother, and with the Feather Race’s bizarre soul attacks,
it was very possible they could all perish here.
He gritted his teeth and threatened, “If we fall here, the Lord God won’t spare you or the Sea
Clan!”
Jolyne only gave him a cold glance, completely ignoring him.
Feather Race?
John looked at the information on the leaderboard. This was his first time hearing about this race, so he glanced curiously at Cand-Dragon and Nine-Tails.
Both of them shook their heads, equally confused. They had never heard of this race either.
At that moment, the points leaderboard flashed again, revealing the first place—and it was displayed in gold.
[First place: The Immortals (Human) Godslayer, Points: 45,000,000; Reward: Ten essences of
each element-wind, fire, water, and earth.]
The crowd erupted once more.
“Forty-five million? How is that possible?”
“The Immortals? I remember Godslayer teamed up with the Beast Clan. Could it be that they
helped him rack up so many points?”
“It’s possible. Especially that Feather Race warrior-we’ve never even heard of them before.”
“There’s actually someone more terrifying than the Shadow Clan…”
Everyone was whispering among themselves, assuming that John’s sky-high points were
entirely thanks to Jolyne.
“Impossible!” Blood Moon looked deranged, like a clown having a meltdown, glaring
furiously at John.
The Shadow Clan members around him were on high alert, worried he might lose control
again, ready to subdue him at any moment.
The others might not understand the Feather Race’s abilities, but Blood Moon did.
The Feather Race’s greatest strength was their soul attacks. Against the lifeless trial puppets,
they were likely less effective than other races.
“Human, how did you manage this?” He stared coldly at John, demanding answers.
He suspected there were deeper secrets hidden within John and his companions.
John couldn’t be bothered to respond to him.
At that moment, The Secret Area announcement reappeared.
[The Exchange Monument has appeared. You may exchange items freely based on your rank.]
[The third trial has begun: Aptitude Test.]
[Anyone with an aptitude score below 10,000 in seven days will be eliminated.]
The message flashed, and the sky rumbled. A massive shadow loomed overhead, and with a
deafening crash, a colossal stone monument descended.
Shaking the entire ground.
“Is this the Exchange Monument?” John wondered, curiously examining the gigantic stone.
The surface was covered with dense, unfamiliar inscriptions, unlike any language he had ever seen. It seemed to pulse with an enigmatic, otherworldly power.
“Godslayer, focus on exchanging your points, especially for the Creation Stone!” Jolyne quickly reminded him.
“Creation Stone? What’s that?” John asked, confused.
Jolyne shook her head. “I don’t know exactly what it does, but once, an Overseer obtained a
Creation Stone and experienced a massive boost in power, strong enough to kill a Lord God- level being.”
“Lord God!?” The group was shocked.
A Lord God was a being far more powerful than upper-tier gods, an invincible existence.
Could becoming an Overseer allow someone to challenge a Lord God?
None of them had ever heard of such a thing.
John, intrigued, hurried to the monument and reached out to touch it. As expected, a menu of
exchangeable items appeared before him.
Apocalypse Stone, Soul Essence, Talent Upgrade Stone, Basic Talent Stone, Basic Elemental
Spirit Stone, Skill Stones…
All were rare cultivation resources, available for points, but with limited quantities.
John quickly found the Creation Stone Jolyne had mentioned. There was only one, and the price was a staggering 10 million points!
Aside from him and Cand-Dragon’s group, only Blood Moon would have enough points to
afford it.
A treasure worth that many points had to be something extraordinary.
Without hesitation, John exchanged his points.
[You have spent 10 million points and obtained the Creation Stone.]
A seven-colored gemstone appeared in his hand. John examined it closely but couldn’t detect
any specific properties or feel any energy radiating from the stone. Beside him, Blood Moon watched with a dark, brooding gaze, his thoughts unreadable. John, unbothered, stored the gemstone in his space storage, not wanting to dwell on it.