By this point, nearly all five thousand Plane Origins had found their respective owners within roughly the same period.

However, everyone understood that only the first three thousand participants to obtain a Plane Origin would officially qualify for the elimination round.

For anyone ranked below three thousand, possessing a Plane Origin was completely meaningless.

...

Within the territory of the Skyvault Consortium—

Every High God-level powerhouse who had successfully broken out of the preliminary round received a summons from Holy Spirit Sovereign and gathered inside a grand hall.

John arrived together with Holly, Silt, and Odelle of Valhalla.

As he entered the hall, he casually swept his gaze across the surroundings.

Compared to before the tournament began, the number of participants present had visibly declined.

They stood scattered throughout the hall, with more than half of their original number missing.

John blinked and silently calculated the numbers.

He clearly remembered that several thousand High Gods from the Skyvault Consortium had qualified for the Myriad Worlds Tournament.

Yet only a little over one hundred had successfully obtained Plane Origins and escaped their respective planes.

The preliminary round had clearly been extraordinarily brutal.

John did not care much about those numbers.

What truly interested him was the upcoming elimination round.

At that moment, the voice of the will of the universe sounded beside every participant’s ears.

[Ding! Congratulations to all participants who have qualified for the elimination round.]

[Notice: The elimination round will begin tomorrow.]

[The complete rules of the elimination round will be announced at that time.]

John was not surprised by the notification.

He had been the first participant to obtain a Plane Origin, so there was naturally no possibility of him being eliminated.

Holly, Silt, and Odelle had respectively placed second, third, and fourth.

The instant they obtained their Plane Origins, they had also known that their qualifications were secure.

However, among the remaining one hundred or so Skyvault Consortium powerhouses who had returned with Plane Origins, more than half suddenly turned pale.

A completely different announcement had sounded beside their ears.

[We regret to inform you that your ranking was insufficient.]

[You have been eliminated and will not be permitted to participate in the next elimination round.]

After the voice of the will of the universe faded, the eliminated participants released continuous sighs.

"Seriously?"

"Even I was eliminated?"

"This tournament is far too demanding."

"I’m the truly unfortunate one. I missed qualification by only a few places!"

"So what if we were eliminated?"

"The people who advanced are already stronger than us."

"Even if we had barely qualified for the elimination round, we probably wouldn’t have obtained any of the tournament’s resources."

"We might even have died during the next round."

"With our strength, the most likely outcome would have been death on the battlefield."

"That’s right."

"This may not be a bad thing."

"We may have been eliminated, but at least we’re still alive."

The High Gods of the Skyvault Consortium reacted in different ways.

At that moment, Holy Spirit Sovereign, who had kept his eyes closed for a long time, suddenly opened them.

"Since you have already been eliminated, you may leave."

"Do not remain here any longer."

Those who had lost their qualifications were no longer tournament participants.

Holy Spirit Sovereign intended to explain matters concerning the Summit of the Era to those who had advanced.

Naturally, he could not allow the eliminated members to remain and listen.

No one dared to disobey.

Some departed with regret, while others felt relieved.

After respectfully bowing, they left the hall one after another.

Holy Spirit Sovereign looked at the fewer than fifty participants who remained, his eyes flickering faintly.

"Congratulations on successfully advancing to the elimination round."

The High Gods nodded.

Excitement was difficult to conceal on their faces as they instinctively began examining the other people around them.

When their gazes landed upon John and the three Valhalla members beside him, expressions of surprise immediately appeared.

"John is certainly powerful, but I didn’t think his strength was enough to guarantee such a high ranking."

"It seems we underestimated him."

"It isn’t only John."

"Didn’t you notice that all three of his companions advanced as well?"

"Their group must have encountered some extraordinary opportunity."

"That makes sense."

"John was already receiving demigod-grade preferential treatment while he was still at demigod grade."

"If he did not possess genuine strength, the Skyvault Consortium would never have valued him so highly."

"John and his companions are indeed formidable."

"But surely the gap between us and them cannot be that enormous."

Previously, John’s group of four had blended into the enormous crowd of participants and attracted little attention.

Now that fewer and fewer people remained, however, they had naturally become the focus of the hall.

Holy Spirit Sovereign swept his gaze across the crowd.

Only he understood that John and his three companions were far from ordinary.

All four had secured their qualifications almost immediately after the preliminary round began.

Their performances far surpassed even people such as Aldric and Kaine.

Perhaps all of the Skyvault Consortium’s hopes in this year’s Myriad Worlds Tournament would have to rest upon these four.

However, Holy Spirit Sovereign did not reveal his thoughts.

He suppressed the idea and waved his hand.

Dozens of streams of golden light immediately appeared in the air before entering the minds of every remaining High God.

"This is a complete intelligence report on the participants in this year’s tournament."

"I paid an enormous price to gather and organize this information."

"Study it carefully."

"If you encounter any of the opponents recorded within it, this intelligence may become the crucial factor that allows you to turn the tables and kill them."

"Only by knowing both yourself and your enemy can you remain undefeated."

"You must familiarize yourselves with it."

As Holy Spirit Sovereign finished speaking, John sensed an enormous quantity of information appearing within his mind.

The records contained detailed intelligence on participants from every major faction.

They were so thorough that even the locations where some participants had first begun cultivating were included.

John also treated the information seriously and began examining it one entry at a time.

According to the intelligence report, the participants could be separated into numerous tiers based on their combat strength.

The highest tier consisted of the supreme powerhouses who served as the core participants of the major factions.

Although they were all only High Gods, every one of them possessed a record of crossing realms and killing God Kings.

Below the Sovereign rank, there were almost no opponents capable of rivaling them.

John immediately filtered out those names and focused his attention upon them.

The first individuals worthy of particular attention were:

Kaine, a fellow member of the Skyvault Consortium and the personal disciple of one of its deputy leaders. Aldric, another member of the Skyvault Consortium and the final disciple of a mysterious Sovereign. Shirok of Eternal Summit, the personal disciple of a Peak Sovereign.

Apart from those three, there were also Oscar, Duran, Corwin, Cedric, Gudek, Morado, Alvin, Kelvin, Soren, Morn, Morris, and many others.

Every one of them required particular attention.

Without exception, they were famous supreme powerhouses whose reputations had spread throughout the myriad worlds.