The voice of the will of the universe sounded once more beside the remaining three hundred participants.

Everyone quieted and listened carefully.

[Notice: All preliminary stages of the Myriad Worlds Tournament have concluded.]

[The later stages will now begin. They are divided into the Promotion Round and the Grand Finals.]

[Before the Promotion Round begins, the tournament will evaluate the performance of all remaining participants during the previous stages and publish a Top Fifty ranking.]

[Every participant who appears in the Top Fifty will receive a reward corresponding to their position.]

[The higher the ranking, the more valuable the reward.]

[After the ranking is fully announced, match assignments for the Promotion Round will begin immediately.]

The eyes of the three hundred survivors brightened.

The rewards were naturally important, but most participants cared even more about the ranking itself. They wanted to know who had truly suppressed the entire field and claimed first place among the countless geniuses of the myriad universes.

Every recognized supreme powerhouse believed himself or herself invincible within the High God realm. Each naturally assumed that the highest position should belong to them.

Yet only one person could stand at the top.

That uncertainty filled the battlefield with tension.

John remained calm.

Based on his performance in the early trials, the preliminary plane battle, and the elimination round, he had consistently occupied the most dominant position. He had cleared stages faster than others, killed enormous numbers of participants, and gathered identity badges without suffering a genuine setback.

In his view, first place should belong to him.

What interested him was not the honor but the reward.

A treasure granted by the will of the universe to the highest-ranked participant could not be ordinary.

Before long, a mass of flickering golden mist appeared before every participant. Yin and Yang circulated within it, shaping the cloud into a vast rectangular screen.

At almost the same time, countless phenomena appeared throughout the myriad universes and innumerable Space-Time Planes.

Above the territories of every supreme faction, golden clouds gathered and Law runes illuminated the void. The ranking was not being shown only to the competitors. Powerhouses across existence could witness it.

The Holy Spirit Sovereign watched with a faint smile.

"The Top Fifty is finally about to appear."

Sovereigns and Peak Sovereigns from every faction focused their attention on the screen. The ranking would reveal more than individual performance. It would also reflect the effectiveness of each faction’s cultivation system, the quality of its resources, and the hidden strength of independent geniuses.

The participants displayed very different reactions.

Some knew that their early performance had been mediocre. They had advanced through caution, fortunate matchups, or team support, and they were unlikely to enter the Top Fifty. Regret filled them. Had they known a ranking would be based on earlier performance, they would have taken greater risks.

Others believed they had fought brilliantly and expected a place with confidence.

At last, the voice of the will of the universe sounded.

[The Top Fifty ranking will now be announced.]

[Rank 50: Layton of the Shadow Divine Court.]

Golden light gathered inside the mist, forming Layton’s name in enormous letters.

Almost no one who reached the Top Fifty was truly unknown. The members of the Shadow Divine Court remained calm, and the other participants showed little surprise.

The announcements continued from fiftieth place upward.

Each name appeared with a golden beam of reward light. Some participants smiled with satisfaction. Others accepted their position reluctantly. Every reward carried the aura of a treasure belonging to the highest level of the myriad worlds.

The list advanced steadily until it reached twenty-first place.

[Rank 21: Lyric, wandering cultivator.]

The moment Lyric’s name appeared, a thick pillar of golden light descended and enveloped him.

This was the exclusive reward granted by the will of the universe to ranked participants.

The surrounding High Gods watched with envy. Anything personally bestowed by the will of the universe was certain to be a treasure of extraordinary quality.

Yet Lyric did not look pleased.

His face turned dark, and his expression revealed that he considered twenty-first place far too low.

Every participant from Group One looked toward him. They had witnessed his true strength and understood that he had hidden a significant portion of it.

John’s expression remained indifferent.

"So the cultivator who enjoys pretending to be weak is ranked only twenty-first. Perhaps his strength is not as extraordinary as it appeared."

John neither liked nor disliked Lyric. He simply found the man’s methods interesting.

A nearby powerhouse shook his head in disbelief.

"Lyric possesses such terrifying strength, yet he is only twenty-first. I cannot imagine how powerful the top twenty must be."

Another participant quickly noticed a deeper implication.

"There were roughly twenty publicly recognized seeded powerhouses. Many unknown dark horses have clearly entered this ranking as well. This list is more interesting than expected."

The will of the universe continued.

[Rank 20: Aldric of the Skyvault Consortium.]

The entire battlefield fell silent.

Then disbelief spread through the crowd.

"What? A recognized supreme powerhouse is only twentieth?"

"Aldric’s master is a peak expert of the Sovereign rank. Can this ranking truly be trusted? Why does it feel so unreasonable?"

The ordinary participants were not the only ones shocked. The seeded powerhouses also found the result difficult to accept.

Aldric belonged to the same publicly recognized tier as many of them. Their estimated strength differed only slightly. If he stood at twentieth place, then numerous other seeds might also be excluded from the top ten.

A thick golden pillar surrounded Aldric.

His face showed confusion and disbelief rather than joy.

The public chat channel exploded.

"Aldric is only twentieth? This is absurd!"

"Now I need to see which monsters occupy the top ten."

"A top-tier expert ranked twentieth. He has lost all face."

"He is the first recognized supreme powerhouse to be announced, and his position is already this low."

"Sovereign Derek will probably be mocked by the other Sovereigns."

"The Skyvault Consortium invested so many resources into Aldric, yet he obtained this result."

"Perhaps the cultivation systems of the Eternal Summit and Evernight Palace are superior. Those two factions are famous for producing the strongest disciples."

One message cut through the argument.

"I only care about first place."

"Everyone says the recognized supreme powerhouses are unbeatable. If the winner is not one of them, this tournament will become truly interesting."

"Impossible. First place must belong to a supreme powerhouse. Anything else is fantasy."

The next name appeared.

[Rank 19: Oscar of the Eternal Summit.]

The High God who had just praised the Eternal Summit’s cultivation system immediately felt his face grow hot.

Someone beside him laughed.

"It appears the Eternal Summit is not much better. One of its supreme powerhouses is also near the bottom of the elite rankings."

A cultivator from the Eternal Summit responded angrily.

"Do not celebrate too early. We still have Shirok. Never underestimate the Eternal Summit."

The golden screen continued shining.

Every announced name increased the pressure on those who had not yet appeared.

The ranking was revealing a truth that the major factions did not want to admit: this generation contained far more hidden monsters than anyone had predicted.