24: Chapter 24 A Dangerous World

“Besides this set I’m wearing, I don’t have any other Bronze Rank equipment right now. Once we get out, I’ll give you both a set of Bronze Rank equipment.”

Successfully inviting a powerful teammate, Li Xuefei was in a good mood, a brilliant smile gracing her fair, delicate face.

The outside world was very dangerous. Even with a Gold Rank Talent, Li Xuefei didn’t dare to venture into other dangerous areas rashly. With powerful teammates, she now had the confidence to explore places she wouldn’t dare to go alone.

These were all future considerations. As the mayor of sea city’s granddaughter, she would certainly have powerful guards protecting her in the future.

“Captain, where do you have equipment on you?”

Lin Zhizhi adapted quickly, naturally calling Li Xuefei ‘Captain’.

As she spoke, a hint of confusion rose in her eyes. She hadn’t seen any equipment on Li Xuefei. Shouldn’t a person with equipment be clad in Black Iron armor, like the Inner City trial participants they had encountered earlier?

“These clothes I’m wearing are a set of Bronze Rank equipment. You don’t actually think only those heavy armors are true spirit artifacts, do you…?”

Hearing her words, Li Xuefei pointed to her ancient-style clothing with a chuckle and explained.

After her explanation, Fang Yuan and Lin Zhizhi finally understood the true name for what they called ‘weapons’.

Any weapon imbued with extraordinary Qi was called a true spirit artifact by True Spirit Professionals. Like True Spirit Professionals, their Ranks were divided into Black Iron Rank, Bronze Rank, Silver Rank, Gold Rank… The black iron long saber in Fang Yuan’s hand was the lowest-Rank Black Iron Rank true spirit artifact. As long as it had extraordinary Qi, even an item of clothing could be a true spirit artifact.

And the ancient-style clothing Li Xuefei was wearing was a set of Bronze Rank true spirit artifact with astonishing defense.

This set of ancient-style clothing was also a special type of true spirit artifact, its price several times that of ordinary true spirit artifacts of the same Rank, such as those heavy armors.

Bronze Rank defensive true spirit artifacts could easily defend against all Black Iron Rank attacks, meaning that as long as one was careful, they would not encounter danger in the Haishi Void Realm.

After all, during the nine days, the monsters in the Haishi Void Realm could not reach Bronze Rank, posing little threat to those with Bronze Rank defensive true spirit artifacts.

This was the treatment for Inner City Family disciples. Awakening a Talent was no challenge for this type of person.

“So that’s how it is! I thought you just liked ancient costumes, Captain!”

After understanding the reason, Lin Zhizhi looked enlightened, which greatly changed Li Xuefei’s impression in her mind.

Upon their first meeting, she had thought Li Xuefei had some peculiar hobby.

Being misunderstood like this, Li Xuefei merely smiled faintly, not feeling much. However, if there were modern-style true spirit artifacts, she would indeed like to switch.

But there was no ‘if’. Humans had not mastered the manufacturing method for this type of special true spirit artifact and could only produce bulky, ordinary true spirit artifacts.

“It’s almost dark. Let’s head back to the city to rest first.”

Seeing that the sun would set in about an hour, Li Xuefei immediately exercised her authority as Captain and walked with Fang Yuan and Lin Zhizhi in one direction.

She didn’t have a clear way to distinguish directions. Under her leadership, finally, around 8 PM, the flashlight’s beam pierced through the darkness, and a tall building appeared in Fang Yuan’s sight.

The few of them weren’t picky. Seeing a suitable place, they immediately opened the door and walked in.

Out of her regard for Fang Yuan, and having witnessed how ignorant the two people from the Outer City were, Li Xuefei spent several hours educating them.

It was late into the night. After several hours of talking, she left the two bewildered people and walked into a bedroom alone, closing the door to sleep.

“…!”

Her departure did not bring the two, who were overwhelmed by the massive influx of information, back to their senses.

At this moment, Fang Yuan finally understood a cruel truth about their world.

The dirty Outer City slums, compared to the terrifying and unknown world, might actually be a paradise. After all, the people living there could at least survive.

From Li Xuefei, the two learned that fifty years ago, an unknown calamity descended. Countless monsters suddenly arrived on Tianlan Star accompanied by a thick mist.

This information was consistent with what they had known for the past sixteen years. At that time, the entire world was forced to cut off contact, and no one knew the situation outside.

The people of Sea City only knew that in the year the disaster struck, the entire population of Sea City plummeted by 80%. Through the self-sacrifice of countless individuals, it had only barely recovered to its current state fifty years later.

However, what was even more despairing was that the leading figures, namely Li Xuefei’s grandfather, the mayor of sea city Li Changtian, and other powerhouses, discovered a desperate truth after venturing deep into the mist and other Void Realms.

Countless Void Realms were merging with Tianlan Star. All of this had begun fifty years ago. Initially, only low-Rank monsters descended from other Void Realms.

But as time passed, more and more powerful monsters and intelligent unknown creatures could come to their side of the world.

As the mayor of sea city’s granddaughter, Li Xuefei basically knew everything, and she revealed many secret stories.

Her grandfather, Li Changtian, was a powerful Legendary Rank True Spirit Professional. After many years of exploration, he discovered much information unknown to others.

The Void Realm possessed terrifying assimilation abilities. If it could not be resisted, the entire Tianlan Star would slowly become a massive Void Realm.

At that time, humanity’s situation would become even more difficult, because the Void Realm would breed monsters. Once Tianlan Star fell, then what awaited the humans of Tianlan Star would be an endless horde of monsters.

As for how Li Changtian discovered this cruel truth, it was because he had visited a world (Void Realm) that had largely fallen, and learned this terrifying truth from the struggling creatures there.

Tianlan Star was not the only place with living beings. Unknown regions also contained other worlds or planets.

Fifty years ago, Tianlan Star was a technologically advanced planet, allowing for a general understanding of the boundless and vast Universe outside.

Due to the limited facts he understood, Li Changtian did not know where those beings came from, whether they were from other planets in the Universe or worlds in another dimension remained unknown.

After all, with the emergence of extraordinary powers, no one who had not yet left Tianlan Star could speculate whether those worlds assimilated by the Void Realm were mere points in the cosmic starry sky or parts of an unknown world.

The assimilation of the current world by the Void Realm was still too distant for the two of them. These things only made Fang Yuan and the others surprised and bewildered.

What truly weighed heavily on their hearts was the reality they were currently in.

As time progressed, the Void Realm’s assimilation of Tianlan Star became increasingly severe, and even monsters surpassing the Legendary Rank had already descended.

What was even more despairing was that the appearance of the Void Realm had already fragmented Tianlan Star, severing contact with cities that were once close to Sea City.

It was impossible to travel to other cities. Within the mist, there was one Void Realm after another, stretching the distance between two cities that were originally only tens or even a dozen kilometers apart by dozens of times.

Sea City now stood isolated, clinging to survival in the dangerous mist.

The further they went, powerful monsters constantly threatened the lives of millions in Sea City.

To this end, twenty years ago, Li Changtian, as the mayor of sea city, took out a Void Realm fragment he had obtained, combined with a large number of monster crystal cores, to forge this Haishi Void Realm. It was specifically for the newborns of Sea City to awaken their True Spirit Talents, allowing them to encounter monsters early.

Before this, people who wanted to awaken their Talent could only rely on monster crystal cores to stimulate their bodies and thus awaken their Talent.

Here, everyone’s situation was different. Some could easily awaken their Talent, while others couldn’t awaken even after consuming dozens of crystal cores.

The difficulty of Awakening a Talent did not affect its Rank. Some awakened quickly and might get a useless Talent, or they might awaken a powerful Talent; everything was an unknown.

This Awakening method could require many crystal cores. For those in the Inner City, it was insignificant, but for many Outer City residents already struggling with basic necessities, it was a huge expense.

If only one crystal core was used, it would be fine, but most people needed more than a dozen or even more.

Awakening a Talent wasn’t the big problem; the bigger problem was how to make these newcomers grow quickly.

This was reality, not a game. There couldn’t be an area with very low-Rank monsters for newcomers to level up by fighting them.

Outside Sea City, everything was unknown. Monsters were everywhere. Bronze Rank Professionals could barely protect themselves, let alone newcomers who had just awakened their Talent and were generally only Black Iron Rank One or Two.

For a long time, the death rate of new True Spirit Professionals was very high.

This situation clearly hindered the development of Sea City. In order to enhance Sea City’s overall strength to survive in the increasingly dangerous mist,

Mayor Li Changtian took out a Void Realm fragment he had obtained and imprinted the moment the disaster struck fifty years ago, turning it into a base for cultivating new forces.

The Haishi Void Realm was completely controlled by Li Changtian. It was a semi-real, semi-illusory world that ensured the safety of newcomers while they awakened their Talents.

Furthermore, relying on the principle that the Void Realm could spawn monsters, the Haishi Void Realm also became the best training ground for newcomers.

The same weak monsters allowed newcomers to grow quickly.

All the monsters Fang Yuan had hunted earlier were illusions created by Mayor Li Changtian by investing a large number of monster crystal cores.

Killing these monsters allowed for easy energy gain, just like leveling up in a game.

The outside world was not like this. Killing monsters there yielded no energy. This was a unique advantage of the Haishi Void Realm.

Fang Yuan only knew this now. Earlier, he had thought that killing monsters always granted energy for leveling up, never imagining that this was actually a benefit provided by the mayor of sea city.

After learning that this was a benefit, he finally understood why so many Outer City Professionals with awakened Bronze Rank Talents struggled at the Black Iron Rank.

It turned out they could only rely on their own efforts to hunt monsters, acquire monster crystal cores, and then absorb the energy within to slowly accumulate energy.

Absorbing energy on their own was more time-consuming, unlike in the Haishi Void Realm where killing monsters granted a portion of energy.

The Haishi Void Realm was Li Changtian’s way of selecting qualified warriors. As for those who died there, those who failed to awaken their Talent, they could only become breeding machines for Sea City’s future population.

Although failing to awaken meant losing a Talent, it did not affect their children. Every year, many promising newcomers, including not a few with Silver Rank Talents, were born in the Outer City.

After understanding the true situation of Sea City, Fang Yuan realized that becoming Li Xuefei’s teammate was actually the best choice.

After processing this immense amount of information on the spot, he put away his complex thoughts and walked into a bedroom to rest. Although the world was very dangerous, it was clearly not something he needed to worry about right now…