This way, the swarm could conserve energy while also sweeping through the areas they passed.

  Since they were inside someone else's divine realm, they wouldn’t be able to absorb the fragments of divine territory that broke off after a contestant was eliminated.

  Naturally, William allowed the swarm to devour freely. The already scarce vegetation on the outskirts of this divine realm was completely consumed. After the swarm passed through, not a single blade of grass remained, leaving behind a barren wasteland.

  At this moment, outside the competition's divine realm, in the vast void, Zous was chatting and laughing with two demigods.

  These individuals all possessed divine realms exceeding a hundred million square kilometers in size—they were university admissions officers who had come to watch the competition.

  One of them, a middle-aged man with a sharp and capable demeanor, was holding onto Zous’s hand tightly, grinning as he spoke:

  “Zous, that student of yours is quite fierce. I didn’t expect that after so many years, your school would produce another promising talent. It’s been less than an hour since the competition started, and he’s already eliminated two contestants.”

  “You could’ve at least given us a heads-up! This kid is impressive—make sure to recommend our university to him later.”

  As soon as he finished speaking, the other demigod let out a mocking chuckle and said, “With his strength, he has a real shot at winning the global championship. If he enters the sector-level competition…”

  “Your university isn’t even in the top tier on a civilization-wide scale. Don’t mislead such a talented student.”

  The demigod who had spoken earlier was immediately displeased and retorted, “Our university is still one of the best in the world! How is that misleading him?”

  “You’re just bitter because you know you have no chance of recruiting a student of this caliber.”

  Seeing that the two were about to start arguing, Zous quickly intervened, laughing, “Alright, alright, you’re both grown men—no need to fight. Let’s just watch the competition.”

  “I just hope William can take the championship.”

  Saying this, Zous turned his gaze to another part of the battlefield—the area where Cedric’s divine realm connected to the competition’s arena. A hint of concern flickered in his eyes.

  There, a massive white tide was slowly advancing toward the central plains—an enormous undead army.

  Like William, Cedric had made nearly the same tactical decision upon entering the divine realm.

  He divided his forces into three groups. Two smaller detachments swept along the edges of the battlefield, clearing out contestants they encountered.

  Meanwhile, Cedric himself led the main undead army—the largest force—straight toward the central plains.

  At the same time, he dispatched large numbers of skeletal bats for reconnaissance, scouring the battlefield for other contestants.

  “Haha, I absolutely love these competition rules! Everyone here is just prey waiting for me to hunt them down.”

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  At this moment, Cedric appeared completely unconcerned about expending divine power. He manifested a massive demigod projection above his army of undead minions.

  Wearing an arrogant grin, he surveyed the battlefield.

  As a demigod who had awakened the Undead Vassal Path, Cedric was one of the top-priority heirs in his family’s current generation.

  He had never lacked resources. From the moment he established his divine realm until now—just seventy years—he had developed his undead army to exceed two billion in number, thanks to the steady supply of resources from his family.

  Although most of his army consisted of low-level skeleton cannon fodder, Cedric had also accumulated a considerable number of high-quality undead.

  Among them were four hundred million skeletal knights and three hundred million skeletal bats, forming the backbone of his forces.

  By his calculations, eliminating every contestant in this match shouldn’t be a problem.

  But even more importantly, this competition provided him with an immense harvest: a vast supply of corpses, the most valuable resource for an Undead Vassal.

  In Cedric’s view, this was a once-in-a-lifetime windfall.

  With 600 contestants participating, the total number of vassal creatures they had brought into the arena was likely in the range of 200 to 300 billion.

  If he could collect a sufficient number of extraordinary vassal corpses during this competition, he could use large-scale rituals to rapidly create elite undead, doubling the strength of his core forces in a short time.

  And that wasn’t even counting the ordinary-grade vassals. Once they died, they could be reanimated as mindless skeleton cannon fodder by necromancers.

  To Cedric, this meant that as time passed, his strength would only continue to grow. This battlefield was nothing less than his personal hunting ground.

  That was precisely why he had no intention of forming alliances with anyone.

  Just then, in the mental map forming within his consciousness, his skeletal bats finally detected the presence of another contestant.

  Cedric wasted no time.

  He issued a divine command from the sky, and with his order, a massive horde of skeletons immediately shifted direction under the control of the necromancers.

  The entire undead army accelerated toward the unfortunate contestant.

  At the same time, large numbers of skeletal knights and skeletal bats separated from the slower-moving skeleton horde.

  Cedric had no intention of letting these high-quality undead engage in direct combat.

  As superior undead, they possessed much greater mobility than the slow-moving skeleton fodder.

  Unless absolutely necessary, they would not engage the enemy directly. Instead, they executed a large-scale flanking maneuver to cut off all escape routes.

  Their role was to herd their prey, forcing them toward the advancing main force of skeletons.

  This was the standard tactic of an undead army—overwhelm the enemy with sheer numbers, then harvest high-value corpses for conversion into elite undead through rituals.

  As for the ordinary-grade vassal corpses, they would be immediately reanimated on the battlefield as mindless skeletal cannon fodder.

  These skeletons would then grow stronger by killing living creatures and absorbing their souls, eventually accumulating enough energy to evolve into higher-tier undead.

  This was why the Undead Vassal Path was synonymous with horde tactics.

  Compared to Cedric’s approach, however, William’s efficiency was on an entirely different level.

  Thanks to his high, mid, and low-altitude reconnaissance network, along with his near and far-range detection system, he had already located seven or eight contestants within this short time.

  If a target was near the path of one of his three main armies, William wouldn’t even bother to inspect them personally.

  He would simply adjust the army’s course via the mental map, ensuring the target was swept up in the swarm’s advance.

  If a target was farther away from his three main forces, only then would William personally attach his divine consciousness to scout the situation.

  Depending on the enemy’s strength, he would dispatch a mobile strike force consisting of a vanguard five times the enemy's numbers, composed of mutant jumpers and flying jumpers, to swiftly eliminate them.

  Additionally, he would send a suicide bomber detachment ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 units, ready to be deployed if needed.