There were three parts to registering for the Grand War Games. The first was filling out personal information to verify that the applicant was a legal citizen of the Divine Civilization.

The second involved confirming the applicant had a War Aspect—Han Wu also had a Peace Aspect, the opposite of war, but chose not to reveal it in case the screening system flagged him.

The third step was detecting each participant’s rank. This was used to separate those of different levels into different brackets.

The rules allowed anyone with a War Aspect to participate, but the eligible ranks spanned a wide range: Demigod, God, Major God, and even God King.

God Kings almost never participated due to their pride. Rather than entering the War Faction’s event, they would rather establish their own faction and be their own boss.

That left three tiers: Demigod, God, and Major God. These three would compete in separate brackets before being combined for a final showdown, eliminating the luck factor that could dilute the Three Armies’ prestige.

Once, a mediocre Major God had gotten through the bracket through sheer luck, fighting only Demigods the entire way, and accidentally earned a Three Armies seat. His combat ability was so lacking that he was killed in battle shortly after earning the title.

The embarrassed War Faction was forced to hastily organize another Grand War Games. Thus, the third screening step came into being.

After passing all three steps, Han Wu became one of several hundred thousand contestants. The registration closed, and three days later, the day before the Imperial College’s new semester commenced, the preliminary rounds began.

Several hundred thousand contestants had to survive five consecutive ten-to-one elimination rounds. After making his preparations, Han Wu was transported into the arena.

It was a vast region with ten contestants scattered across its corners. The preliminary rounds had no rules. Contestants could use any method to eliminate the other nine.

“No rules? I like that.” Han Wu smiled, summoning his Origin Microcosm.

A swarm of locusts poured out. Ordinary locusts made up half, with the rest being various specialized branches. As this was only the preliminaries, Han Wu did not release his Locust Dragon legion, Epistian legion, or Great Dragon legion. He didn’t want to scare the other contestants.

The locusts fanned out across the arena, searching for the other nine contestants. Through the information relayed via the strands of faith, Han Wu quickly identified the nine contestants’ positions and units.

Han Wu ordered his locusts to directly target the contestants, not wanting to waste time battling their units.

The locusts activated their newly acquired totem power. In an instant, totems bearing Han Wu’s image appeared behind every locust. The sky was filled with Han Wu!

One by one, clones of Han Wu leaped from the totems and charged the nine contestants in suicidal attacks. Some wielded Divine Weapons, some activated Black Dragonification, and some used Seal Arts.

The nine Major God contestants were not weak by any means. It was merely that they were unfortunate enough to face Han Wu. While each individual clone was not particularly strong and couldn’t break through their defenses, the barrage of attacks from ten billion clones was impossible to endure.

All nine soon forfeited, and Han Wu advanced to the next round. In the next round, Han Wu used the same strategy of seizing the king first. He ignored the other contestants’ units and focused solely on hunting down the contestants themselves.

The other contestants weren’t fools. They could think of the same tactic. The problem was the execution. Any units sent to assassinate Han Wu were instantly destroyed.

Han Wu continued to advance. Across four consecutive rounds, he ended every battle in record time and broke through.

In the fifth round, Han Wu encountered a formidable opponent with an extremely powerful talent that allowed him to absorb all his units and gather their strength into his own body.

Absorbing every last one of his units allowed his power to break through to the World rank. Han Wu’s locusts alone weren’t enough against an enemy of this caliber.

When Han Wu received this information, he charged straight in for a head-on fight. In the end, Han Wu used the Divine Authority greatsword to shatter the man’s defenses and claim victory, thus winning the final preliminary round.

Han Wu had deployed 800 billion locusts across the five preliminary rounds, yet their casualty rate was below 1%!

Even Han Wu found the results outrageous. This astonishing result could be attributed to the totem’s power. The locust army barely needed to engage in close combat at all, relying instead on long-range burst attacks to overwhelm their opponents.

Unbeknownst to Han Wu, the image of him engraved on the totems had actually become one of the biggest highlights of the preliminaries.

Clearing the preliminary rounds meant Han Wu had advanced to the top 64. He only needed to win six more battles to claim the Three Armies seat.

Unfortunately, his standout performance had caught the attention of the War Families. The rules of the Grand War Games were set in stone. Even the War Families could not change them. Outside the tournament, however, there were no rules.

The War Families quickly dug up Han Wu’s contact details from his registration and sent a call request. Han Wu had just finished the preliminaries and was preparing to head back to Imperial College for the opening ceremony the next day when he received the call from an unknown channel.

After a brief hesitation, he decided to answer.

“I need you to withdraw from the Grand War Games voluntarily. Otherwise, the consequences will be more than you can handle,” the voice on the other end threatened.

Han Wu was amused. “I’m curious. What consequences can you possibly make me face?”

“Your family—”

“Sorry, I’m an orphan. If you can find my parents, I’ll actually thank you.” 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

“Your school—”

“I’m the top student at Imperial College. If you can get Imperial College to expel me, I’ll be impressed.”

“Your life—”

“I just cornered the Slaughter God King into killing himself. Come and try me.”

The line went dead.[1]

“You didn’t even look up my background before trying to threaten me?” Han Wu chuckled. “You’re going to need more than that.”

1. Fear the man who has nothing else to lose, or is too strong to lose anything ☜