The challengers scattered throughout the battle space were studying the three Arena Masters with the same care that predators gave to unfamiliar prey.

After weighing their options, many of them reached the same conclusion without needing to exchange a word. Their attention settled on Arena Master No. 2, the man whose pale face and restless eyes made his nervousness impossible to hide.

To the gathered High Gods, the explanation seemed obvious. He was afraid because his strength was insufficient. Among the three Arena Masters, he was almost certainly the weakest.

Arena Master No. 1 presented a completely different impression. The way he stood, shoulders relaxed and posture perfectly balanced, carried the natural confidence of a veteran powerhouse. Even before he released a trace of power, he looked difficult to provoke.

Arena Master No. 3 was equally intimidating. Battle intent burned in his eyes, and every subtle movement revealed his eagerness to fight. Compared with the visibly anxious second Arena Master, he was clearly another hard bone to chew.

Naturally, most challengers began drifting toward Arena No. 2.

John stood among them. His gaze swept across the three arenas, and a faint smile appeared on his face. He did not follow the crowd. In the next instant, his figure rose into the air and flew directly toward Arena No. 1.

At almost the same moment, Soren arrived in the symmetrical battle space. The instant his feet touched the ground, he began observing John in secret.

When he saw John make his choice, golden light flashed through Soren’s eyes. Without hesitation, he flew toward Arena No. 3.

He was deliberately avoiding John.

As long as the two of them occupied different arenas, they should not be matched against each other under the current rules. Soren had no desire to test Lyric’s warning before he secured enough identity badges to advance.

Before long, the remaining challengers also moved. Streams of divine light crossed the enormous hidden space as participants selected their targets.

John became the first challenger to step onto Arena No. 1.

He looked at the High God standing opposite him. The other man was studying him with equal care.

After several breaths of silence, the Arena Master narrowed his eyes.

"I sense something familiar from you," he said. "You are from Blue Planet as well, aren’t you?"

His accent indeed belonged to a human of Blue Planet, but his speech was stiff and carried an unfamiliar cadence. He clearly came from a different nation.

John frowned slightly as he recognized the accent.

"You are from Dominic?"

The two tested each other with a few brief words, then fell silent.

Sharing a home world did not make them allies. Their countries had stood in opposing camps for years, and players from the Dominic region had always been mortal enemies of people from John’s side. Whenever the two groups met, the encounter usually ended only after one side had been completely destroyed.

John had never held any goodwill toward Dominic players. In his previous life, he had once entered the Dominic region alone and suppressed every powerful player he encountered there. That history left no room for hesitation now.

"Die!"

The Dominic powerhouse attacked first.

Golden radiance erupted from his body, and the phantom of a supreme treasure appeared behind him. It was a crystal flowing with seven-colored divine light. Dense, mysterious runes revolved around its surface, each one pulsing with a profound and ancient aura.

The crystal poured divine power into its master without pause. The Dominic player’s presence rose rapidly, approaching the level of the treasure itself. His muscles tightened, his aura sharpened, and the space around him began to tremble.

In the next instant, he transformed into a streak of light and charged at John.

Layers of space fractured along his path. The sight proved that his confidence was not empty. Even among ninth-stage High Gods, his combat strength was formidable.

John watched the attack approach and released a cold laugh.

Golden light appeared in his own eyes.

Two narrow beams shot from his pupils and swept across the seven-colored crystal. Less than half a second later, the treasure phantom was pierced through. The runes surrounding it shattered one after another, and the overwhelming aura of the Dominic powerhouse collapsed as if its foundation had been cut away.

The man’s face changed dramatically.

"Impossible!"

That crystal was his bonded life treasure. A portion of his Life Origin had been fused into it, making it almost inseparable from his existence. Under normal circumstances, even a stronger enemy would need tremendous effort to sever the connection.

Yet John had erased it with a glance.

The Dominic player desperately attempted to reestablish the bond, but he could no longer sense the crystal at all. It was as though the treasure had never existed. Fear finally replaced the arrogance in his eyes.

John raised one hand.

"Space-Time Domain. Spatial Lockdown. Die."

Tribulation lightning gathered around him in vast quantities. In only a moment, the scattered arcs condensed into a colossal bolt thick enough to resemble a heavenly pillar.

Within John’s Space-Time Domain, every layer of space and time surrounding the Dominic powerhouse was sealed. Unless the man possessed a treasure specifically capable of countering the Space-Time Law, he could not move even half a step.

He had nowhere to evade.

The giant bolt descended with a deafening roar and struck him directly. His body exploded on the spot, scattering into countless fragments of flesh, bone, and divine light.

John did not stop.

He knew better than to mistake a destroyed body for a dead High God. At this level, life force was terrifyingly resilient. As long as the core Life Origin remained, resurrection was still possible.

"Great Sound Art!"

Terrifying waves of sound spread from John and connected with the Origin power of the universe. The ripples passed through the scattered fragments and began scouring the Dominic player’s Life Imprint.

The invisible mark resisted fiercely. It tried to gather the broken flesh, rebuild the divine body, and escape into a deeper layer of space. However, every attempt was crushed by the Space-Time Domain.

The Great Sound Art continued washing over it.

Bit by bit, the Life Origin faded.

The remaining divine light dimmed, the fragments stopped moving, and the final trace of consciousness disappeared completely.

At the High God level, once the Life Imprint was erased, there would be no second resurrection.

The original Arena Master had been utterly defeated.

A series of system notifications sounded beside John’s ears.

[Ding! Congratulations on killing a ninth-stage High God-level powerhouse!]

[Experience gained: +58,383,737,735.]

[Gold Coins gained: +7,277,383,829.]

[Fame gained: +408,237,384,883.]

[High God Sources plundered: +6,192,738,849,481.]

[High God-level items obtained: +17.]

John barely glanced at the rewards. He extended a hand, and a small streak of light flew into his palm.

It was the fallen man’s identity badge.

This was John’s sixth badge.

[Your status has changed to Arena Master.]

[Successfully endure four additional rounds of challenges to win this arena battle.]

After killing Arena Master No. 1, John had taken his place.

His battle had only just ended when Arena No. 3 also produced a result.

Soren had crushed its original master with overwhelming strength and claimed another identity badge. The challengers who had not yet selected an arena immediately began avoiding Arena No. 3. No one wanted to draw Soren’s attention.

He was a famous supreme powerhouse of Evernight Palace and the only publicly recognized top-tier expert in Group One. Challenging him was no different from volunteering to die.

As a result, the remaining participants shifted their attention toward Arenas No. 1 and No. 2.

John looked toward Soren as well. Based on the surrounding whispers and the man’s aura, he finally recognized the stranger who had secretly observed him earlier.

"So that is Soren of Evernight Palace."

Then John’s gaze moved toward Arena No. 2, and a trace of surprise appeared in his eyes.

"They are still fighting?"

The battle on the second arena had not ended.

The nervous Arena Master had appeared weak and cowardly, causing challengers to form a long line for the chance to face him. Yet both the first and third arenas had already changed masters while his opening match continued.

The scene looked strange.

Arena Master No. 2 exchanged attacks with his challenger in what seemed to be an evenly matched struggle. The challenger repeatedly gained the upper hand, while the Arena Master staggered, retreated, and narrowly avoided defeat.

But John saw through the performance immediately.

The second Arena Master was deliberately suppressing his strength.

From beginning to end, he had not suffered a single genuine wound. He made the battle look difficult, but its rhythm had never left his control. Every retreat invited another attack. Every apparent mistake guided his opponent into a trap.

The nervousness, the pale face, and the trembling hands were all part of an act.

John’s smile deepened.

Among this generation of High Gods, the most dangerous person was not always the one who displayed the strongest aura. Sometimes, the finest hunter was the one who made everyone believe he was prey.