Chapter 1317: Lei Di Xu Jingming! T6-Level Thunderstorm Art!

On the fifth day of the preliminary round, Zone 65.

The sky above the zone city glowed a dark red, as if soaked through with countless streams of blood.

The surfaces of the city's tall and short buildings were covered in cracks and scorch marks from battle.

Several unextinguished flames danced among the ruins, casting twisted, distorted shadows onto the fractured streets.

Boom!!

A fireball over a hundred meters in diameter suddenly exploded in the northwest direction.

The terrifying shockwave crushed three skyscrapers.

Amid the dust, two figures collided at near-supersonic speed.

The surging energy storm plowed dozens of meters deep gashes into the ground.

"Hand over your points!"

A muscular green-skinned man with wings roared, slashing a hundred-meter-long arc of energy from his light blade.

"Dream on!"

His opponent, a tall woman, sneered.

Hundreds of diamond-shaped light shields instantly unfolded before her.

The energy wave struck the shields—blinding light flooded the entire district, brighter than daylight.

This was the norm by the fifth day of the preliminary round.

The weak had long been eliminated; those still alive.

Were almost all galaxy-level prodigies, one appearing per hundred million life-bearing planets.

Once they clashed, it took hours before a victor emerged.

At this moment, in the southeastern part of this Zone 65 city.

Tens of thousands of competitors were killing each other.

Suddenly—

Didi-di!

Piercing alarm sounds blared simultaneously from the smart bracers on everyone's wrists.

A crimson holographic projection forcibly erupted, a cold mechanical voice seeming to echo across the heavens:

"Warning! Red-name powerhouse, ranked fifth in the zone, Xu Jingming, has entered the ten-kilometer radius northeast!

Repeat, zone sixth-ranked..."

The entire city fell into absolute silence.

Whoosh—!

The next second,

Countless figures burst wildly from building ruins, underground tunnels,

Even from disguises disguised as garbage piles, fleeing in all directions!

Some opponents, already blood-mad, immediately broke off combat and chose to flee!

"It's that lightning user!"

"Lei Di Xu Jingming! Damn it, why is he here?!"

"Hell! Why does he always sweep through densely populated areas?!"

"..."

After over five days, the strongest competitors in Zone 65 had gradually emerged and become known to all participants.

Among them, Xu Jingming, ranked sixth and known as "Lei Di," was unquestionably the biggest dark horse of this competition.

After all, they had heard of the "Star Torch Emperor Star," and names of some mid-tier civilization universes.

But never had they heard of any powerhouse from a low-tier civilization universe called "Noah" making it into the zone's top ten.

And his power was undeniably terrifying.

Even with the red-name system in place,

The number of people who had ever escaped from him was vanishingly small!

Ten kilometers away, Xu Jingming stood mid-air.

His black battle suit flapped violently in the gale, golden lightning coiling around his body, making him appear like an emperor.

His cold, sharply defined black-and-white eyes gazed ahead.

There, countless ant-sized black dots spilled out from the city's silhouette, like a startled swarm of bees.

"You run fast."

He sneered, clenching his right hand slightly toward them:

"But it's useless."

Boom—rumble~~~

A deep thunderclap suddenly erupted from the sky; thick dark clouds instantly blotted out the entire heavens.

Brilliant golden lightning writhed through the clouds like coiling dragons.

The violent energy from the arcing bolts ionized the air, filling it with a sharp, acrid stench of burning.

Crack—!!

With a deafening explosion,

A colossal golden Lei Zhu, over ten meters in diameter, tore through the sky and slammed down!

Boom—!!

The instant the Lei Zhu struck the ground, blinding Lei Guang consumed everything.

A terrifying lightning shockwave expanded radially at incredible speed!

"Aaaah!!"

The hundred or so contestants closest to the Lei Zhu were obliterated in blazing Lei Guang before they could even scream.

Those slightly farther away managed to raise defensive shields in time, yet were still pierced through by the furious lightning.

Their battle robes shattered like paper under the gnashing of golden lightning serpents.

Their skin carbonized instantly; their bones cracked and popped under the high-voltage current.

Contestants farther out fled in panicked disarray.

But were still caught by the spreading lightning shockwave!

"No… not… please…"

Screams rose and fell as they were swallowed by lightning, ultimately reduced to charred corpses.

The stench of burned flesh filled the air; what had once been a bustling district was now a lightning hell.

Only the golden Lei Zhu, piercing heaven and earth, continued to blaze—like divine retribution descending from the gods.

"H-How terrifying its power is!"

"This guy… really only ranks fifth?"

"Is this real? Even a Starlight Rank elemental master couldn't do this, could they?"

"……"

Farther away, many contestants who barely escaped the lightning's spread stood in the sky, stunned by the sight.

Before them, nearly ten kilometers at the heart of the modern city had been utterly flattened!

You know,

the buildings and objects within the arena had been specially reinforced.

Precisely to withstand the battles of Starlight Rank Nine contestants.

A typical Starlight Rank Nine could barely destroy such structures, let alone obliterate them on this scale.

Tier-T6 Lightning Technique—Thunderstorm Art!

This was a mass-attack technique Xu Jingming learned after returning to the Noah Sanctuary, by spending system points.

It could be cast from tens of kilometers away.

He had rarely used it before, but its effect now was quite impressive.

"Tier-T6 techniques drain too much Yuan energy.

If there weren't so many contestants in this city, I wouldn't have dared use it."

Xu Jingming raised his right hand and looked at the smart bracer on it.

'Name: Xu Jingming (Noah Empire)

Points:

Rank: 5th

Time Remaining: 5 days, 12 hours, 11 minutes'

"That last blast earned me over six million points, yet my rank hasn't changed."

Xu Jingming frowned slightly.

The later the competition, the lower the reward for eliminating ordinary contestants.

He still needed to kill the strong ones and steal half their points.

But his luck was poor; over these past days, he had encountered only one contestant ranked eighth.

He defeated that one, and his rank rose to seventh.

But after that, he hadn't encountered any other top-ten contestants.

"Fortunately, the arena has a shrinking rule."

Xu Jingming looked at the bottom of his smart bracer's notice.

Notice: When the competition enters its final day, arena gravity will gradually decrease, and the arena area will shrink. All top-100 contestants will have their coordinates displayed.

"If I'm truly that unlucky and can't find the top-ranked contestants, I'll just wait for the final-day shrink."

Xu Jingming remained calm.

This was the confidence absolute power granted him.

Of course, if he could secure first place sooner, that would be best.

At that moment, a shrill alarm suddenly blared from his own smart bracer:

'Warning! The arena's fourth-ranked Lei Kuang has entered the 10-kilometer range southwest of your position! Repeating…'

"Looks like my luck's turned—I've finally encountered the fourth-ranked contestant."

Xu Jingming was not alarmed—he was delighted.

After defeating Lei Kuang, his points should be enough to rise to second place!