Chapter 1178 – The Slaughter Begins … … … As the Divine Dream Light formed an enchantment that sent everyone to the divine dream space, and as a gold scroll blocked the endless blue skies, throughout the entire Divine Realm and throughout the entire Divine Dream World, the boundless and great voice of Empyrean Vast Universe echoed once more. It resounded like a great bell, ringing like divine drums, reverberating between the heavens and the earth, stirring the hearts of all. “To the 3000 great worlds of the Divine Realm, the First Martial Meeting shall now commence!” “It’s starting, it’s finally starting!” When the audience throughout the Divine Realm’s 3000 great worlds heard this voice, all of them were filled with excitement. However, within the Divine Dream World, all of the participants felt their nerves tighten. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that this First Martial Meeting would be one of the most important events of their lives! Lin Ming also heard this voice. He shook his head in regret. “It has finally begun. My comprehension of the Divine Dream Law has just started and is still improving. If I could have a few more months then that would be great!” As the other participants were intensely preparing for this moment, Lin Ming was actually trying to unravel Empyrean Divine Dream’s transcendent divine might. If this was said out loud, anyone’s jaw would drop. What others would find impossibly difficult to do was actually slowly being understood by Lin Ming. “Now, I shall announce the rules!” Empyrean Vast Universe’s voice rang out once again, cracking upon everyone’s eardrums. “All participants, you shall experience absolute safety in the Divine Dream World. But, once you leave the city, you will encounter… nightmares! These nightmares are condensed from the energy of the Divine Dream World, and they come in all sorts of macabre and strange forms. Some more humanoid, some more like ancient beasts, and some are even energy life forms. They can use Laws, they can control energy, and there are even creatures that are as intelligent as humans. Slay them, and you will gain merit points. Finally, these merit points will be used to decide your results and rank! Three months from now, the first round of eliminations will begin. The elimination rate will be… 99%! In every great world, only those that possess the top 1% of merit points will be able to pass. Six months later, from the 1% of participants that have passed, the second round of eliminations will begin. The elimination rate is 99.9%! In every great world, only one out of every 100,000 of the starting participants shall remain! Nine months later, the third round of eliminations will begin. Of the remaining participants, 99.99% of them shall be eliminated! In every great world, only one out of every billion original participants shall remain!” As this strong and vibrant voice announced the rules, all of the young elites sucked in a breath of cold air. This rate of elimination was far too abnormal! Three rounds of elimination, from 1% to .1% to .01%, finally only one in a billion participants would be chosen! This was what a true cruel and brutal competition was! Lin Ming began to deeply feel how terrifying just the first round of the First Martial Meeting was. But, this was also normal. In the entire Divine Realm, there were 10-20 quadrillion participants. With such a massive base number, then even if only one out of every billion people were chosen, there would still be over 10 million remaining! That was still a terrifying number of participants. “Only an intense and brutal competition is interesting.” Lin Ming whispered to himself. Empyrean Divine Dream’s voice sounded out once more, “In the city there are various weapons, medicines, violet sun crystals, and all other kinds of treasures that can be freely used to restore your energy lost in battle. If you kill nightmares, you can also absorb the energy within them, or even directly obtain weapons and supplies from a nightmare’s body. “At the same time, if the nightmares kill participants, they shall evolve and become stronger and stronger. The merit points of these nightmares will also become higher! “In addition, as long as you leave the city, participants may hunt and kill each other! “If you kill someone you may obtain 60% of the dreamland treasures on their body as well as 0 to 60% of their merit points! After dying, you will be restored after one day and retain 40% of your dreamland treasures and merit points. The number of chances to return to the dreamland battlefield is unlimited.” At these words, all of the participants were shocked. Participants could hunt and kill other participants! That meant that as soon as one left the safety of the city, not only would they have to face the threat from the nightmares but they would also have to face the threat from other participants. And, the threat from other participants was probably the most important factor! After all, if one killed a nightmare they would only be able to obtain the merit points from that nightmare. But, if one killed another participant, they would be able to obtain at much as 60% of the merit points they had accumulated. This number would be much higher than just killing nightmares! However, why was it from 0 to 60%? Was it not a fixed number? Did the proportion of merit points that one would obtain depend on luck? This was a question that many participants were wondering. Lin Ming faintly frowned. This sort of rule would benefit those who brought along other participants to the First Martial Meeting. For instance, Zhong Wenshu and his groupies. He could let his underlings kill the nightmares and then their points would belong to him. Like this, one could accumulate merit points at a ridiculous rate. Zhong Wenshu was a disciple of an ordinary World King Holy Land, so he didn’t have many underlings and they weren’t too strong either. But, there were definitely individuals in the First Martial Meeting that would have dozens or even a hundred subordinates. The speed at which they killed nightmares would be quite considerable too! In addition, there would be some extremely wealthy individuals that could use money to buy over some poorer wandering martial artists. Originally, at least half the martial artists here had come to participate in the fun. If these people were asked, they could easily be won over with the promise of several hundred violet sun stones. Once this began to happen, the competition itself would lose all significance. As Lin Ming was thinking, Empyrean Vast Universe continued to speak, “Upon killing another participant, the merit points and treasures you gain will depend on the difference in merit points between the killer and the slain. If the killer has fewer merit points, then they will obtain the full 60%. If the killer has more merit points, then the merit points they receive will be reduced by half if they have two times the merit points of the slain, and continue to be reduced by half beyond that! And after being killed, regardless of what your merit points were, you will lose 60% of your merit points and dreamland treasures!” “I see…” Lin Ming was suddenly aware. Such a rule was also quite severe. If one’s merit point total was three times higher then they would only be able to obtain 15% of the merit points from whoever they killed. If their merit points were four times higher, this would drop to 7.5%. As for having merit points that were five times or 10 times higher than someone, killing them would be negligible. If one had merit points several times higher than someone, killing them would give only a few percent of their measly merit points. In that case, going out and killing a few nightmare beasts might be a better use of time instead. Thus, even if someone brought in many subordinates, these underlings also wouldn’t be useful in gathering points. This was because, generally speaking, the strength of these underlings was far weaker than their master and their merit points would soon be far outpaced by their master’s. Even if their master was killing them, the amount of merit points gained wouldn’t matter. Moreover, once these underlings were killed, they would lose a fixed 60% of their own merit points no matter what their master gained. If these underlings died one or two times, they would soon be eliminated in the first round. If they were forced to leave like this, the role they would play would be zero. This was an extremely fair killing field! The result would all depend on one’s own strength! “How interesting!” Sacred Yueping licked his lips. With his proud and arrogant nature, he hadn’t been planning on using such a cheating method to begin with. “Hehe, then, grudges will be finished and hatred resolved. The feeling of controlling the life and death of others in your palm is truly tantalizing!” Zhong Wenshu excitedly smiled. Although he couldn’t fight in Immemorial City, everyone he found displeasing to the eyes could be dealt with outside! “Now, the first round of the First Martial Meeting officially begins! The first eliminations will begin in three months!” As Empyrean Vast Universe’s voice spoke to here, it completely disappeared. At the same time, at an extremely great distance from Immemorial Imperial City, an earth-shaking roar flooded outwards without end, like the roars of countless ancient giant beasts. “It’s the nightmares!” “Haha, brothers, what are we waiting for! Let’s go in and happily kill them!” A crowd of Eightfall Divine Sea participants enthusiastically cheered. Each of these people appeared to be a vicious and savage individual. In fact, their previous job was consistent with their looks. They were a group of interstellar pirates that specifically murdered and robbed martial artists that were making long journeys across the stars. For them to work as robbers at only the late Divine Sea, this was proof that they had some ability. This group of pirates naturally only allowed the most extraordinary of individuals to join their group. By working together, as long as their target didn’t surpass the Divine Transformation realm, then it was simply impossible to escape. Thus, they joined the First Martial Meeting in order to test out their skills and try to make a claim to fame. “Haha, what boss said is right! We just obtained some top grade saint artifacts and now I really want to try out this saber! Really, as soon as I wanted to sleep someone sent me a pillow!” “Good, then let us brothers compete and see just who can kill the most!” The crowd of interstellar pirates took various kinds of weapons and rushed out of the city. These weapons were all top grade saint artifacts taken from the weapon shops around Immemorial Imperial City. To these pirates, these were rare and valuable treasures. This group of pirates mingled in with the many other participants, rushing out of the city like a swarm of locusts. “I’ve found it! That is a nightmare beast! Ah, I’ve been frustrated for too long!” A pirate pointed towards a crowd of dark creatures in a canyon. They looked to be some sort of goat-like creature. Their aura was weak and they didn’t seem to pose any threat at all. “Those should be low level nightmare beasts, good for a starting snack. Brothers, let’s kill them and then go kill some high level nightmare beasts!” At the boss’ orders, the other pirates all hurtled forwards. But at this moment, those dozen plus goat-like nightmare beasts seemed to discover the pirates. Their hooves bent and struck out, suddenly causing the rock beneath them to explode. The goats turned into black beams of lights that rushed out at an unbelievable speed, crashing into the pirates! “Ahhhh!” On the scene, there were seven or eight pirates that were broken apart by the collision, their flesh and blood flying through the air! “What!?” The few surviving pirates were left bewildered. How could these goats be so powerful!? “Everyone be careful! Form the array!” The boss wanted to gather his remaining brothers in a bid to turn this hopeless situation into a victory, but at this time another bunch of miserable cries echoed in the skies. Another round of attacks occurred and the rest of the boss’ little brothers all instantly died! Then, the black goats all rushed towards the pirate boss! The pirate boss was utterly horrified. “What the fuck situation is this…” With these last few words, the pirate boss was torn apart by a black light. His body was torn apart as he turned into a mass of pure soul energy that flew back towards Immemorial Imperial City to be reborn. As for these goat-like nightmare beasts, after killing the pirates, their bodies began to emit crackling popping sounds. Bone spikes began to appear over their bodies, their eyes turned bright red, and their auras deepened. They were evolving. This same situation was happening in places all over. The great strength of these nightmare beasts has surpassed everyone’s imaginations!