Without warning, the entire Celestia Universe began trembling violently.

Countless stars, galaxies, and planes disintegrated simultaneously amid the upheaval, silently turning to ash before vanishing from existence.

The surviving High Gods watched in shock as an entire universe marched toward destruction before their very eyes.

It was an incomparably magnificent—and terrifying—sight.

The laws collapsed alongside the cosmic order.

All divine power within the universe dissipated completely, returning to waves of pure Origin energy.

The following day, the voice of the will of the universe sounded once again.

Every remaining participant heard the announcement.

[The elimination stage of the Myriad Worlds Tournament officially begins today.]

[All participants must first listen carefully to the rules of the elimination stage.]

[The rules are as follows:]

[Rule One: All participants will be randomly divided into thirty groups, with one hundred participants in each group.]

[Rule Two: Every group will be assigned an independent number and undergo an uninterrupted series of randomly selected battles.]

[Battle formats will include both individual combat and team combat.]

[Each group possesses only ten advancement slots.]

[Participants who successfully advance will qualify for the following promotion round.]

[Rule Three: All elimination-stage battles will take place within independent secret realms.]

[Each group will be assigned its own exclusive secret realm.]

[Rule Four: Every participant will receive a unique identity badge.]

[Collecting fifteen identity badges belonging to other participants will grant advancement qualification.]

[If more than ten participants within a group meet the advancement requirement, an overtime round will begin until the final ten advancing participants have been determined.]

[Rule Five: The elimination stage has no time limit.]

[Once the required conditions are met, successful participants will be transported directly to the promotion-round arena.]

[Rule Six: Transportation will begin within one minute of this announcement.]

[After arriving, each participant will receive a complete list of the competitors assigned to their group.]

[Rule Seven: Whenever a participant successfully advances, an announcement will be broadcast to every remaining contestant.]

...

John’s gaze sharpened slightly as he listened to the notifications.

The elimination stage had officially begun.

Unexpectedly, it would take the form of a group competition.

"Each group has only ten advancement slots."

"That means at least ninety people will be eliminated from every group."

"Across thirty groups, more than twenty-seven hundred participants will be eliminated, leaving only three hundred to enter the promotion round."

"The three thousand people who survived the preliminary round are all powerful."

"Selecting only three hundred from among them will inevitably result in an exceptionally brutal struggle."

John silently analyzed the rules.

At that moment, dense power from the will of the universe suddenly gathered around John, Holly, Hilt, and Odelle.

The familiar sensation of transportation instantly enveloped them.

In the next second, all four disappeared.

When they reappeared, they had already been separated and transported into four different secret realms.

John had barely steadied himself when another series of notifications sounded.

[Notice: You have arrived in Plane No. 1.]

[You have been assigned to Group One.]

[Notice: You have received the complete participant list for your group.]

[You may inspect the information of participants within your group, as well as the available information regarding the other groups.]

[Notice: The tournament chat channel has been activated.]

[Participants may create private chat groups or send messages through the public channel.]

[Notice: All advancement announcements will be broadcast throughout the tournament.]

[The names of successful participants will be announced to every contestant.]

[Notice: All battles will be randomly assigned by the will of the universe.]

[Battle formats will include both individual and team combat.]

[Thirty minutes remain until the elimination stage officially begins.]

[All participants must wait patiently.]

After reviewing the information, John immediately opened the list of Group One participants.

[Group One Participant List]

[No. 001: John]

[No. 002: Soren]

[No. 003: Kili]

[...]

John quickly skimmed through the one hundred names.

Among the participants in Group One, only one could be considered a true supreme powerhouse—

Soren, the Space-Time cultivator from Evernight Palace.

"Soren?"

"I remember that he is one of Evernight Palace’s Space-Time cultivators."

As John looked at the name, all the intelligence regarding Soren immediately surfaced within his mind.

The Skyvault Consortium had evaluated him as an SSS-rank supreme High God.

He had even received more attention than John himself.

After briefly reviewing the rest of the list, John determined that Soren was the only participant requiring any real attention.

The other High Gods posed no threat whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Hilt had been assigned to Group Two.

Her group also contained a supreme powerhouse—

Kelvin of Evernight Palace.

Odelle had been assigned to Group Three, which similarly contained a top prodigy from Evernight Palace named Alvin.

As for Holly, her luck was remarkably good.

She had been assigned to Group Four, which did not contain a single recognized supreme powerhouse.

John could clearly view all of their group assignments.

"Holly is quite fortunate."

He smiled slightly and felt relieved on her behalf.

Among the members of Valhalla, Holly currently possessed the weakest combat strength.

Now that no supreme powerhouse was competing against her, she should be able to advance safely into the next stage.

At that moment, numerous messages suddenly began appearing in the public tournament channel.

With nothing else to do, John opened it to see what the other participants were discussing.

Thirty minutes remained before the battles officially began.

After examining their group lists, the participants had started discussing their respective situations.

"Hahaha! I was assigned to Group Four!"

"There isn’t a single supreme powerhouse here. My advancement is practically guaranteed!"

One participant spoke with unconcealed excitement.

"I’m so jealous."

"I was assigned to Group Eight, and Cedric is here."

"I’m finished."

Another participant complained bitterly.

Cedric was bloodthirsty and addicted to killing.

His strength also stood at the absolute peak of his generation.

No one wanted to encounter such a monster in battle.

"A moment of silence for you."

"Still, I also encountered a supreme powerhouse in Group One."

"He’s from Evernight Palace."

"I can only hope I survive."

"Your situations are still manageable."

"Each group has ten advancement slots."

"Even if one supreme powerhouse occupies a slot, there are still nine opportunities remaining."

"But can you believe what happened to Group Nine?"

"There are three supreme powerhouses here!"

"That leaves only seven slots for the rest of us."

"I can only pray that I don’t encounter any of those three monsters."

"Otherwise, I’ll have no hope of advancing."

"What the hell?"

"Group Nine has three supreme powerhouses?"

"That really is a group of death!"

"Exactly."

"Aldric, Duran, and Oscar—three supreme powerhouses—all ended up in the same group."

"Ordinary participants like us have already given up on struggling."