Chapter 403: God-Killer, Martial Saint, and Celestial Master

The popularity rankings of the Boundless prodigies, and the restlessness and chaos among the spectators of the myriad worlds.

Li Yu knew nothing of it.

At this moment, he was still on the mother planet of the ancient Spirit race, taking advantage of the fact that he had not yet left to try his best to sense and pry into something.

Although he was already the contestant who knew the most about the secrets behind the scenes, this [Gate of Myriad Worlds], created by the Lord of the Curtain in league with the Ancient Sages and other evil gods, truly held too many secrets.

What kind of authority did this divine artifact possess?

Were the world arenas within those crystal wall grids real or fake?

Besides serving as arenas, what else could they do?

How would they push forward the plan to collapse the current world?

……

It was precisely to pry into these secrets, and to cover up his identity as the "True Lord of Food-Bait," that Li Yu had immediately unleashed the full strength of the Son of the Vortex God.

He had displayed all his divine abilities and achieved an incredibly inconceivable battle record.

The original requirement for clearing the level: just survive.

This was something he was not incapable of doing; he could even have completed it quite easily.

But Li Yu did not; instead, he did the opposite and devoured all the sources of malice.

Consequently, the harvest was naturally not small.

Aside from the rewards promised by the Lord of the Curtain on the surface, Li Yu had also glimpsed some of the inner workings of the divine artifact, the Gate of Myriad Worlds:

"The Lord of the Curtain is truly wealthy."

"These fantasy worlds 'generated' by the narrative authority actually have parts of their origin that are real."

"Those ancient Spirit race powerhouses, the nascent evil gods... they can all be considered real."

"No wonder He said there would be rich rewards for clearing the level."

"Could this serve as evidence that, starting from that extremely distant era, many of the major events that occurred in the Boundless Spirit Realm were related to this old thing?"

"He is the director of these events, the mastermind behind the scenes; when those dramas come to an end, it is only reasonable for Him to keep some 'props,' 'stills,' and so on."

"For instance, that portion of the evil god's original divinity was likely one of those props."

"And that temporarily ownerless plane universe might just be a new theater already set up."

"His logic for rewards is aimed at these current Boundless prodigies, the sons of true gods."

"Normally, all prodigies would offer the rewards to their own main god... If I were truly the Son of the Vortex God, then these two rewards would indeed be excellent gifts for the [Vortex God], and He would certainly accept them with joy."

"But once accepted... I fear it would be hard to escape the fate of entering the Lord of the Curtain's backup dramas and becoming an 'actor' or 'character' influenced by Him."

"The reason for the birth of the Myriad Heavens Drama God sequence likely lies right here."

Even for Li Yu.

Upon realizing and deducing these things, he could not help but be startled.

Once again, his perception of the Lord of the Curtain had been refreshed.

He even felt the urge to overturn his previous assessment of the Lord of the Curtain's status.

But could a Sovereign-level entity really do all this?

Counting the other Sovereigns, it seemed they could not?

Although the Lord of Myriad Changes might have some possibility of doing so, there was no empirical evidence yet.

Before Li Yu could ponder more results, images suddenly began to appear before him.

It seemed he had also become one of the spectators.

The only difference from the spectators of the myriad worlds was that he could not see the specific footage of other Boundless prodigies clearing the levels.

That was quite reasonable!

When powerhouses of the same level fight, intelligence is crucial.

Li Yu was the first to clear the level and had no match yet, so he received a little extra benefit.

Although he could not see the specifics, he saw other things.

For example:

Popularity rankings!

A massive amount of tips given to him by spectators from the myriad worlds!

After taking one look at those tips, Li Yu could not help but reveal a look of surprise.

Although Li Yu had both a top-ranked big brother and a top-ranked big sister.

They were incomparably generous with their benefits.

But when all these "little gifts" from the myriad worlds were added together, they were not insignificant.

Moreover, they were all highly unique.

A rough scan revealed many strange items useful to him.

If he could, Li Yu would have loved to open his mouth to thank them for the gifts.

Unfortunately, not only was that impossible, but the Lord of the Curtain also discovered that he had accidentally cheated: the charm ability of the Son of the Vortex God had not only counter-devoured the evil god that was about to crawl out, but had also influenced the spectators of the myriad worlds through the "lens," causing his popularity to soar excessively, which was extremely abnormal.

In fact, if the Lord of the Curtain had not intervened to restrict it at the final moment.

Li Yu's ranking would have been far beyond the tail end of the first tier; it was even possible he would have surged directly into the top ten or top five.

Corresponding to this were even worse consequences.

That was that the "spectators" of the myriad worlds were all charmed by the Son of the Vortex God that Li Yu had transformed into; if the duration had been any longer, Li Yu would have possessed a massive, terrifyingly powerful group of crazy fans.

The Vortex God would also have welcomed a batch of fanatics.

Even if Li Yu and the Vortex God personally preached and taught, they could never have achieved such an effect.

But through the [Gate of Myriad Worlds], it was different; the effect was ten or a hundred times greater.

This was equivalent to the official authorities in his past life on Earth, who held terrifying traffic, conducting individual, targeted traffic injection into a certain "livestream room."

Need one even ask about the speed of gaining followers?

Because of Li Yu!

This loophole was discovered in time by the Lord of the Curtain and directly plugged.

So he became the first, and also the last, to enjoy it.

Li Yu also realized this and had a faint guess: "Is the Toad God's [Luck Halo] still in effect?"

……

While the little benefit was still active, Li Yu did not delay at all and carefully looked at the popularity ranking.

Except for Li Yu, this anomaly!

The authority of this ranking was quite sufficient.

It was chaotic for a moment at the beginning, but as all the Boundless prodigies used their various methods to clear the levels, it gradually stabilized.

Basically, it was equivalent to a ranking of strength.

Without exception, those ahead of Li Yu were all at the demigod level.

And the number was far greater than the demigods Li Yu had seen before, and they were not all Sons of the World.

This was also easy to explain!

There were too many latecomers.

The ones Li Yu had targeted at the beginning were the Boundless prodigies invited by the Ancient Sages, and later the Lord of the Curtain issued a public invitation.

Naturally, there were many more, whether they were of the legendary level or the demigod level.

For instance, the six demigods from the True God faction.

Without surprise, they immediately attracted Li Yu's gaze.

Even if he could not see the specific footage of them clearing the levels, their name characteristics were obvious enough.

"God-Killer Bai Qi, currently ranked third, must be a demigod under the Red God; he should already be a Sequence 2 Fluorescent War Immortal. Such an existence could carve out a path to survival even if thrown into the plane of the Blood God in the Chaos Universe."

"Martial Saint Guan Tie, currently ranked fifth, is likely the [Heaven-Reaching Martial God] of Sequence 2 under the Demon-Quelling Heavenly Venerable. I wonder how strong a demigod who enters the Dao through martial arts can be? Time-Stop King, currently ranked sixth, was mentioned by Hong Dou; he is a demigod-level existence from the headquarters of the Heavenly Craftsman Sect, already a Sequence 2 [Ancestor of a Hundred Crafts] of the Craftsman God path. The divine ability he refined, as the title suggests, is indeed time-stopping."

"Nirvana Venerable, currently ranked eighth; judging by this title, he is likely a Luo Han under the Buddha, or perhaps even a Bodhisattva?"

"Zhang Tianshi, currently ranked ninth; this doesn't even need guessing, he must be a [Celestial Master] of Sequence 2 of the Heavenly Lord path under Haotian."

"Yue Gu, currently ranked tenth; I have heard this lady's name mentioned by Qing Nü. She is the daughter of the Spirit-Response Yuanjun under the Earth Mother, and also a genuine Sequence 2 [Lord of the Vast Cold Star]."

"The True Gods knew this grand martial competition was a trap, yet they each sent a powerful demigod to participate; sure enough, they were all confident and did not believe the current world would be overturned."

"I originally thought that my previous fishing was a great success and that I could borrow strength in the subsequent competitions to cleverly snatch the championship... now it seems that is likely impossible."

Li Yu sighed as he watched.

This could not be blamed on him!

Indeed, there were too many sudden changes.

The Lord of the Curtain, this "Number One Dramatist of the Boundless," had a narrative style that was simply like some clumsy web novel authors from his past life, always arranging abrupt conflicts and changes.

It was not just Li Yu who was schemed against; the one played the most miserably was His partner, the Ancient Sage.

Whether it was the scale of the arenas, the attention, or the number of contestants, it was several times, or even ten times, larger than what had been agreed upon beforehand.

Li Yu stared at the dozens of demigods ranked ahead of him.

His confidence in winning the championship kept falling.

"I could exert subtle influence and very light control over [First Corrupt Head], [Morning Star], [Undying Blade], [Calamity Daoist]... these few demigods."

"This could allow my combat power to also leap to the demigod level."

"But there are still dozens of powerful competitors."

"Let alone me, these six demigods from the True God faction, even among the demigod group, are considered outstanding, yet they failed to dominate the top six, with most in the latter half of the top ten."

"The first stage was easy to pass!"

"The second stage begins, and now it is time to test true strength."

"Moreover, I am still unable to borrow power."

"Unless I am lucky enough to be matched with a 'Child of the World' I have already hooked, and they cannot be a demigod."

"Is this possible?"

Just as Li Yu asked himself this, he seemed to have a premonition and scanned the rankings behind him.

Following him, the first to pass, other successful participants began to appear, and their rankings all started to soar without exception.

Of course, there was a corresponding number of failures.

The rewards for this first Infinite Grand Tournament are incredibly generous.

But the price of failure is not small at all; it is certain death.

The sign of this is that their names become dim, and the grid they occupy turns gray.

Li Yu only glanced at it a few times before catching another secret, and a cold sneer could not help but curl the corners of his mouth.

In his heart, he unceremoniously mocked:

"That old thing, the Master of the Curtain, is not only plagiarizing, but even pulling strings."

"Not all those who passed are Children of the World."

"But all the Children of the World I see now have passed; not a single one has died."

"Hmm?"

"Is this the way it's activated?"

"Is one of the functions of the Gate of All Worlds a grand gathering of Star Gates?"

Just by looking at the popularity rankings and the changes in those blurry grids, Li Yu confirmed another secret he had long known.

The Children of the World were all allowed to pass through rigged results.

The grids they occupy are distributed across every face of this object that looks like an Infinite Rubik's Cube.

Although Li Yu had not activated his Truth Soul Body, nor had he glimpsed the future.

Even, he was just speculating.

But at this moment, a blurry image was being pieced together in his mind:

The Infinite Rubik's Cube-like [Gate of All Worlds] is rotating, its power tentacles spreading across the heavens and myriad worlds, broadcasting signals.

The coordinates of the worlds refined by the Ancient Sages are perfectly divided on each face of the cube; once all the world engines are activated, those worlds will be attracted and swept toward the present world, crashing into it.

During this process!

The Infinite prodigies, whose numbers far exceed those from before, including all six demigods such as the Killing God, the Nirvana Venerable, and Moon Maiden, as well as countless spectators... will all become helpers, making its power even greater?

"This is slightly different from the plan I knew before."

"The authority and power of the Gate of All Worlds are clearly much stronger than those of individual [Star Gates]."

"So, the Master of the Curtain's plan is not just to hold a grand tournament that attracts everyone's attention, but to destroy the present world in front of these countless spectators?"

"One link after another; this old thing really loves to show off and has a penchant for grand spectacles."

Even Li Yu himself did not realize that although he had not activated his Truth Soul Body, what he had deduced seemed to be the future.

And as he muttered about the terrifying schemes of the Master of the Curtain, there was not much fear in his heart.

Instead, there was an inexplicable sense of excitement, an eagerness to play a game against it.

"I am still a 'small character' now."

"If it were the [Master of Myriad Changes] orchestrating such a grand scheme, I should choose to hide and watch, because the Master of Myriad Changes has no bottom line and will do anything to win; attacking a mortal is a trivial matter to it."

"But the Master of the Curtain's style of scheming is different from the Master of Myriad Changes, the Foolish God, and the Spirit Venerable; it is a script-like arrangement."

"That is to say!"

"Everything in the future has been written into the script by it."

"No matter what happens, it will not interfere."

"If it proceeds smoothly according to the script and ends perfectly, it will feel pleasure."

"If a character loses control or the plot goes off-track, it will feel surprised."

"As for whether I have room to intervene, the answer will be revealed soon."

"The second stage is a slaughter mode; if I can match with an Evil God's follower who has been refined into a Child of the World, and then slaughter them, I can verify whether I can interfere in this grand play...?"

Not long after this last dangerous thought crossed Li Yu's mind.

Suddenly, the Infinite Rubik's Cube, which had been rotating slowly, accelerated its rotation abruptly.

Amidst the flashing rainbow crystal light, the oracle of the Master of the Curtain, carrying a hint of excitement, sounded:

"The first stage is over."

"The second stage, [Slaughter Mode], is about to begin. World matching in progress..."

"All contestants, please show your strength to the fullest; you represent the face of your respective main gods."

"The number of spectators is skyrocketing."

"The gods are all watching."

"The winner will receive massive rewards, and the glory will belong to your main god."

"The loser will implicate their main god and make them a laughingstock."

(End of chapter)