"The Middle Three Rings?"
Zixia City Lord was caught off guard by Luo Chen's sudden visit, especially by his question.
She knew better than anyone what it meant.
After a moment's hesitation, Zixia City Lord could not help advising him. "Brother Luo, you've been in the Nine Rings of Annihilation for only ten years. Why not consolidate your realm a little more? Why rush somewhere more dangerous?"
Luo Chen smiled, plainly unmoved.
Zixia City Lord sighed and stopped trying to dissuade him. Instead, she told him what she knew about the Middle Three Rings.
"Chaos Energy decreases in a downward spiral. The lower you go, the thinner it gets; the higher you go, the denser it gets. The demands on a martial artist's realm rise accordingly."
"So anyone who sets foot in the Middle Three Rings must be at least at the Middle Stage of the Unleaking Realm."
"Otherwise, enduring the erosion of Chaos Energy would be difficult."
"But!"
"Realm alone isn't enough. Cultivation Stones in the Middle Three Rings are extremely limited."
"As far as I know, the Sixth Ring has only thirty-six Cultivation Stones in total. The Fifth Ring has just eighteen. And in the Fourth Ring, which rumor says only Late Stage Unleaking Realm martial artists can enter, the number has dwindled to single digits!"
As Luo Chen listened, he recalled Fang Zhibai's earlier warning.
The two accounts largely matched.
In other words, the martial artists in the Sixth Ring were, at minimum, Middle Stage Unleaking Realm experts.
And because the Fourth Ring had so few Cultivation Stones, some Late Stage Unleaking Realm martial artists might have been forced to remain in the Fifth and Sixth Rings.
There was nothing strange about that.
Every cultivation system was the same: the farther one progressed, the slower cultivation became.