At noon, the blazing sun hung high in the sky as mist and clouds drifted about.
Cao Dezhi walked alone across the grasslands, an ancient longsword rippling with deep, icy-blue light in his right hand. Five-Word Battle Armor covered his body, while a Domain Halo flickered beneath his feet, symbols intertwining as one spatial layer after another vaguely emerged.
His divine consciousness rapidly spread outward. The Heartless Sword trembled as he prepared to use its repulsion with the Sentimental Sword to rendezvous with Zang Xin first.
But things did not go as smoothly as he had hoped. He was soon intercepted.
More precisely, surrounded.
Several hundred Soul Beasts of the grasslands had encircled him. Needless to say, they were all god-level Soul Beasts—or rather, divine beasts.
Most were Horned Scale Horses, creatures so low-ranking that even thousand-year-level ones were rarely seen. There were also a handful of Soul Beasts capable of reaching the Second Tier. Even so, they were god-level Soul Beasts, not much weaker than him individually, and they held an overwhelming numerical advantage.
A faint glow flickered in Cao Dezhi's eyes as he entered the state of Heartless Ice Heart.
Without another moment of hesitation, the divine power he had been suppressing abruptly surged. His cultivation swiftly entered the level of a true god and continued to rise.
In the real world, they needed to consolidate their foundations. But in the Virtual World, there was no such need. Rather, using the Virtual World's Simulation to experience higher levels of power in advance was even more beneficial to them.
The greater one's talent, and the more ruthlessly one had suppressed oneself in reality, the greater the temporary breakthrough one could achieve in the Virtual World.
Of course, some chose not to break through. They were still concealing their strength,