Chapter 1316: Growing Fame! Red Name!

It was no wonder the supervisor was astonished; prodigies were rare in primitive civilizations.

Right now, among the top ten from all one hundred zones, every single one came from the Lingshu Mother Planet!

Even if other empires appeared on the list, they were all only from intermediate civilizations, and their numbers were few.

The reason was simple.

Empires scoured their own territories for geniuses.

How high-civilization and primitive-civilization universes selected talent needed no explanation.

Thus, even if prodigies emerged from primitive-civilization universes, they could never be retained!

And yet under these circumstances,

an obscure "Noah Empire" produced a contestant who broke into the top ten.

One can imagine how astonished this group of observers was.

"This Xu Jingming is likely a genius the empire overlooked!"

Immediately report this intelligence to the Imperial Lord! Focus closely on Xu Jingming's score changes!"

The supervisor immediately ordered.

At the same moment, Noah Empire's virtual network exploded in chaos.

"My god! Someone from our Noah Empire made it into the top ten!"

"I know him—he's Lei Di, who once shone brilliantly at the Lingshu Empire's Sacred Grounds Exchange Tournament!"

"A Lingshu Empire prodigy reached this level?"

"......"

In Noah Empire, countless citizens gazed up at the scoreboard in the sky, trembling with excitement.

Within Noah Sacred Grounds, many prodigies who knew Xu Jingming were equally stunned.

Noah Empire had long been mid-to-lower tier within the Lingshu Empire.

Across the entire Star Torch Empire, few even knew its name.

When had it ever seen such glory?

"Tenth place—Dad made the top ten."

In Yunhai District, Xu Xinghe and Xu Xinglan stretched out their chubby little fingers toward the scoreboard, their expressions adorable.

Song Qiuyun, Jiang Chuxuan, and others had already fallen into boundless shock.

Top ten among one billion people? Jingming was this fierce even in the cosmos?

Inside Noah Imperial Palace, Lu Wen, Niki, and other Immortal Gods were overwhelmed with joy.

Top ten?!

Xu Jingming broke into the top ten!

"Congratulations, Imperial Lord! This Xu Jingming is even stronger than we imagined!"

"For the first time, our Noah Empire is no longer unknown!"

"Top ten in the zone! There's even a chance he'll represent the Star Torch Empire!"

"......"

The several Immortal Gods present all offered their congratulations to the Imperial Lord.

"Haha, this Xu Jingming is truly excellent!"

The Noah Imperial Lord smiled, "I originally only hoped he'd enter the Star Torch Empire's top ten thousand.

Now it seems he has the potential to enter the top one thousand!"

The Cosmic Prodigy Tournament occurs once every five thousand years!

For ordinary强者, this is quite lengthy.

But for him, an Immortal, he had already witnessed countless editions.

Noah Empire's poor performance in the tournament had long numbed him.

Now, Xu Jingming's emergence truly stirred some excitement in him.

"Before the match, Jingming said he'd give me a surprise—this must be it."

Lu Wen, the Immortal God, also wore a broad smile.

Even if Xu Jingming later dropped out of the top ten, his strength was already proven.

"Ding, contestant Xu Jingming, as you have entered the top 10 of this region.

Your status has been updated to 'Red Name' status.

Contestants ranked below 100,000 will receive a notification when you approach within a 10-kilometer range.

Contestants ranked below 10,000 will receive a notification when you approach within a 5-kilometer range.

Contestants ranked below 5,000 will receive a notification when you approach within a 1-kilometer range.

Contestants ranked above 5,000 will not receive a Red Name notification."

Virtual Universe, Zone 65.

Brilliant golden lightning howled and raged across the entire city.

When Xu Jingming entered the top ten, a notification suddenly popped up on his right-arm smart bracer.

"Red Name status?"

Xu Jingming raised his sword-like eyebrows at the message.

This seemed like an anti-bully mechanism targeting top-ten competitors.

But it didn't matter much—if opponents ranked below 100,000 were hard to kill, then don't kill them.

Killing those strong ones? One kill equals wiping out tens of thousands of ordinary contestants.

"However, if you enter the top ten, you may take a rest first."

Xu Jingming transformed into a golden streak of light and casually flew into a building room.

After more than twenty hours of killing, the number of contestants who died directly at his hands alone reached several million!

Even the most basic application of Hao Tian Shenlei consumes immense energy.

"The virtual universe perfectly simulates reality; Yuan energy is not infinite."

"Rest for six hours; after six hours, continue..."

Xu Jingming slowly closed his eyes and internally activated his Yuan energy cultivation technique to restore his condition.

As his killing ceased, his points stopped increasing—just one hour later.

Naturally, his ranking dropped out of the top ten.

"Huh? Lei Di's ranking is starting to fall!"

"Sigh, it seems this is already his limit."

"Still, he's incredibly strong!"

"......"

People outside could only see ranking changes, not point totals.

Upon noticing Xu Jingming's ranking beginning to drop, many in the Noah Empire displayed expressions of disappointment.

Having finally produced a genius who reached the top hundred, they naturally hoped Xu Jingming would go even further.

"Good enough. Hold steady—just making it to the second round is fine."

In contrast to the disappointment among the Noah Empire's populace, inside the Noah Imperial Palace,

a group of Immortal Gods felt regret, yet also exhaled in relief.

They feared he would be a fleeting flash, then get killed and forced to withdraw in regret.

A lower ranking meant less attention—and that made them feel more at ease.

Six hours passed in the blink of an eye; Xu Jingming quickly restored his peak condition.

'Name: Xu Jingming (Noah Empire)'

'Points:'

'Rank: 14th'

'Remaining time: 8 days, 15 hours, 32 minutes'

"Rank dropped out of the top ten."

Xu Jingming, glancing at the smart armband screen, was not particularly surprised.

His gaze shifted to the top position on the overall leaderboard.

'1st place, Steve (Star Torch Imperial Star), Points:'

"This first-place contestant has six million more points than me?"

Xu Jingming raised his sword-like eyebrows.

Logically, his killing speed was already extremely fast—no one should be faster.

"Could he just be that lucky, with more contestants near him than near me?"

Xu Jingming could only think of this one possibility.

In fact, it was exactly that.

Steve appeared in a massive city.

Simply clearing that one city earned him five million points.

But Xu Jingming appeared in only a small city—his starting point was incomparably lower than Steve's.

"Still, this is only the second day."

"As long as I keep killing, I'll eventually meet him."

Sssshhh—!!

Golden lightning flashed; Xu Jingming shot upward and flew toward the northeast.

The total area of Zone 65 is thirty million square kilometers—less than one-twentieth the surface area of Blue Star.

One billion Starlight Stage Nine contestants battling in such a region were inevitably extremely crowded.

The probability of encountering strong opponents next was not low.

And as he resumed killing, his previously stalled points began to surge wildly!