Chapter 446 -446-The Rules of the Top Eight
At that moment, new projections suddenly appeared across the sky of the secret realm.
What they displayed were none other than the temporary secret-realm worlds created by the Will of the Universe.
The perspective shown in the projections was that of an omniscient observer.
From this godlike viewpoint, the situations of the remaining contestants could be clearly seen.
There were eleven projections in total.
That meant eleven contestants were still competing.
Holly suddenly pointed at one of them.
"Look at that projection! Isn’t that Kaine from the Skyvault Consortium?"
Hilt also spoke.
"I can see the contestant from the Tower of Myriad Treasures."
"And Shirok from the Eternal Sanctum."
Odelle looked toward several other projections.
"Is that Cedric from the Shadow Divine Court?"
"There’s Morado from Evernight Palace too."
"And the independent cultivator Li Yanxi."
John spoke calmly.
"There still aren’t enough contestants here."
"We’ll have to wait until four more people among those eleven successfully qualify."
"Only four out of eleven contestants can advance."
"That’s an extremely high elimination rate."
"And most of those eleven have already passed through layer after layer of selection by the Will of the Universe."
"They fought their way out from among hundreds of thousands of the strongest High God-level experts."
"Every one of them possesses the ability to kill a God King despite being at a lower realm."
"To select only four people from among opponents like these..."
"the difficulty is incredibly high."
"And the competition will be extremely brutal."
John turned his attention toward the projection showing Kaine.
A thought crossed his mind.
Kaine belongs to the Skyvault Consortium just like us.
I didn’t expect him to choose a maritime civilization too.
He was simply transported to the Fulika Kingdom instead.
Judging from Kaine’s clothing and the people surrounding him, he appeared to have chosen the merchant guild route.
At this moment, the projection showed Kaine meeting the king.
Normally, anyone meeting a king would be required to bow.
Yet this time...
the situation was completely reversed.
The king was the one bowing to Kaine.
That alone showed just how high Kaine’s status had become within the kingdom.
Just as John had guessed, Kaine had followed the merchant guild route.
Long before John rose to power and conquered the Lather Kingdom, Kaine had already become the guild leader of the most powerful merchant guild in his kingdom.
He was also the richest person in the entire country.
Step by step, Kaine gained control over the kingdom’s economy.
His influence spread into every industry and every sector.
He accumulated countless honors and even established a powerful private fleet of his own.
And yet...
even though he had effectively become the true ruler of the kingdom...
he still failed to obtain the Conqueror’s Proof.
The king remained completely tight-lipped about it.
No matter what Kaine did, the king refused to change his mind.
Kaine had even begun wondering whether military force was the only way to obtain the Conqueror’s Proof.
After John left that world...
Kaine began actively preparing to seize the kingdom by force.
Unfortunately for him...
at that exact moment, John’s successor, Woop, mobilized the combined strength of four Maritime Kingdoms.
More than one hundred thousand warships.
Five million soldiers.
And all of them were sent to invade Kaine’s kingdom.
Woop intended to unify the entire maritime civilization!
He wanted to create the one and only kingdom that would exist across the entire oceanic world.
Seeing this...
John couldn’t help feeling sincere sympathy for Kaine.
At the same time, he strongly approved of Woop’s decision.
John knew perfectly well that no matter how capable Kaine was, there was absolutely no way he could withstand Woop’s invasion.
The kingdom was doomed.
And once the kingdom was destroyed...
Kaine would no longer have any chance of obtaining its Conqueror’s Proof.
As expected...
everything unfolded exactly as John predicted.
Because of Woop’s invasion, Kaine had no choice but to abandon his original plan and cooperate with the king, joining forces with the kingdom to resist Woop.
Unfortunately...
against Woop’s overwhelming strength...
the kingdom was simply crushed.
The royal capital fell.
Every city in the kingdom was occupied.
And in the end...
Kaine had no choice but to give up on continuing the tournament.
He was eliminated!
Even John hadn’t expected Kaine’s tournament run to end in such a manner.
But at the same time...
perhaps it was inevitable.
John had already laid an overwhelmingly powerful foundation before leaving.
As long as Woop didn’t lose his mind and make some catastrophic mistake, unifying the entire maritime civilization was practically effortless.
In short...
Kaine was simply unbelievably unlucky.
"One eliminated."
"Ten left."
John turned his attention toward the remaining projections.
...
Within the universe ruled by the Master of Sacred Mountain.
A weary and dejected figure suddenly appeared.
His return was immediately detected.
"Kaine has been eliminated?"
When the Master of Sacred Mountain learned that it was Kaine who had returned, he couldn’t help sighing.
Up to this point...
every contestant from the Skyvault Consortium had already been eliminated.
That included several seed-level experts.
If not for John and the other three...
then in this final Myriad Worlds Tournament, the Skyvault Consortium might very well have stopped at the Top Fifteen.
It would have been the worst result in its history.
"The results for advancement from the Top Fifteen to the Top Eight still haven’t appeared."
"The Golden Ranking manifested by the Will of the Universe hasn’t updated either."
"We can’t see what’s happening inside the tournament."
"I wonder how John and the others are doing..."
The Master of Sacred Mountain silently hoped that John could maintain his invincible momentum.
Remain ranked first.
And suppress every other High God-level expert.
"As for Kaine..."
"The rewards from reaching the Top Fifteen may allow him to break through to God King with relative ease."
"But it will be extremely difficult for him to obtain an opportunity capable of helping him break through to Sovereign rank, let alone Peak Sovereign."
"Sometimes, fate simply decides things for you."
The Master of Sacred Mountain shook his head.
...
Kaine returned to the Sacred Mountain universe.
He immediately went back to his cave residence and temporarily sealed it off.
He rejected every visitor.
Inside his cave residence, Kaine sat cross-legged and began tempering his Dao Heart.
Only on the eighth day did he finally eliminate the effects that his defeat in the Myriad Worlds Tournament had left on his state of mind.
"Top Fifteen..."
"I stopped at the Top Fifteen."
At this moment, Kaine’s Dao Heart had once again become clear and tranquil.
There was no sadness.
No joy.
No emotional fluctuation whatsoever.
"John and the others still haven’t returned to the Sacred Mountain universe."
Kaine thought quietly.
"That means they haven’t been eliminated."
"The Skyvault Consortium’s performance in this Myriad Worlds Tournament..."
"depends entirely on them now."
Thinking this, Kaine smiled faintly.
"If I’m not destined for the Top Eight, then so be it."
"I’ll simply cultivate honestly."
"One day, I’ll still reach the summit."
"I..."
"still have a chance!"
...
Inside the Top Eight secret realm.
The projection belonging to Kaine disappeared.
Eleven projections became ten.
The remaining contestants inside the worlds created by the Will of the Universe...
were all approaching the final stages of their respective trials.
The moment when they would obtain their Conqueror’s Proofs was drawing closer and closer.
John turned his attention toward Alvin’s projection.
In the image, Alvin had already risen to the position of Grand Marshal.
He controlled all military power within the God-Creation Kingdom of the continental civilization.
He stood beneath only one person and above everyone else.
Moreover, his reputation was exceptionally good.
Everyone praised him for his wisdom and virtue.
But just as Alvin was preparing to depose the king and take the throne for himself...
war suddenly erupted.
The ones who launched the war were—
Philip.
John.
Cedric.
And Gurok.
Philip had chosen the nomadic civilization’s Baiske Kingdom, which directly bordered Alvin’s God-Creation Kingdom.
And Philip wasn’t the only one whose territory bordered Alvin’s.
There was also the Sukre Kingdom of the continental civilization chosen by John.
The paths taken by these top-tier experts were all extraordinary.
But one thing was obvious—
every one of them had successfully become the true ruler of their respective kingdom.