Tragic

A psionic cultivator deployed into the Artificial Divine Realm as part of the War Zone.

What had the first Artificial Divine Realm trial been like?

The standard answer was: miserable.

There was no need to mention someone like Lan Yi, who had not only been reborn but also came with a psionic furnace. Even other reborn people, during their first visit to the Artificial Divine Realm, would probably have to tread carefully if they lacked good ways to use psionic energy. They could not revive the spiritual energy in such a grand and magnificent fashion as Lan Yi had.

If even the reborn were in such a state, ordinary people had it even worse.

Thirteen billion people across the world.

As long as they possessed independent thoughts.

They could all take a free, spontaneous trip to the Artificial Divine Realm. This kind of spontaneity and freedom was far beyond what human power could control, and that directly resulted in countless people charging into the Artificial Divine Realm as soon as the War Zone descended, for all sorts of reasons.

Modern society was a technological society.

The division of labor was clear, and supplies were abundant.

Many people working in cities had never mastered the various skills needed to survive in the wilderness. Some of them could barely survive even in cities. Once supplies and a stable environment were gone, going hungry was the least of their problems. If their sub-healthy bodies then encountered some illness, it was essentially a slow death.

The first Artificial Divine Realm trial.

Even with the identity arranged by the War Zone.

Unless they were extraordinarily lucky, had made ample preparations for survival, behaved cautiously and appropriately for their surroundings, and their Life Cluster happened to be useful, a psionic cultivator's fate could be called beset by every imaginable disaster.

Some were burned to death after being mistaken for demonically possessed. Some were forcibly treated as mentally ill. Some vanished without a trace. Some were poisoned or murdered because others coveted their rare treasures. Some tried to change something, offended vested interests, and were killed outright. And many more simply could not assimilate into their surroundings or change the Artificial Divine Realm, so they began wandering aimlessly.

This was the cruel truth of the first Artificial Divine Realm trial.

If they were women.

Their fate was even more miserable.

In any Artificial Divine Realm, as long as the level of civilization was insufficient and they lacked enough power to protect themselves, what business empresses, what phoenixes dominating the harem, what heroines of their own stories—before systems that could devour people, one wrong sentence could send their status plummeting and reduce them to playthings.

After all, women from modern cities were highly refined.

Even if they were not peerless beauties in the Artificial Divine Realm, they were still attractive enough to make middle-ranking men covet them.

If Lan Yi had not possessed overwhelming power.

Based on everything he had done.

The foreigners would have been the first to demand his life, while the Qing Imperial Court would have had him executed by slicing. Whether an enemy was major or minor, as long as they were an enemy—once they had been hurt and their flesh cut away, they would all want to grind his bones to dust! Hatred like that could not be changed by some lighthearted talk of civilization or the times!

After living in civilized cities for too long and growing accustomed to acting by civilized rules, it was easy to be educated until nothing remained of them in the Artificial Divine Realm.

It was easy to imagine.

How many of the psionic cultivators who had first flooded into the Artificial Divine Realm had paid a dreadful price, and how many had remained there forever, becoming one of the missing.

Especially psionic cultivators from relatively peaceful regions.

During the early stages, they fought desperately, shedding blood and tears as they struggled, rapidly completing their transformation under the crushing pressure of cruel reality.

Only after the pangs of the Chaotic Era had passed, after psionic cultivators became an unstoppable emerging class, seized society's resources, and began receiving standardized training and weapons, did conditions gradually improve.

Before that.

Most psionic cultivators had been miserable.

Take Xiao Hongzhuan, for example.

As one of those deployed into Artificial Divine Realm 1909, his identity was that of an impoverished scholar from a poor family, traveling to Jinling to make a living. Penniless and possessing nothing of value, he had originally planned to rely on knowledge beyond his era to find work as a bookkeeper or something similar, then think about the War Zone's mission.

At first, Xiao Hongzhuan had felt that.

With his abilities beyond the times, he could never starve to death.

In the end, merely submitting applications had stumped him. In this era, if you wanted to be a bookkeeper, who would trust you with their accounts without someone to introduce you? Without bookkeeping, he had no capital for a small business. His university major was electronic information, which was completely useless here. That left only manual labor.

Hey!

You want to do manual labor?

Have you figured out the rules of the various guilds and their circles? Do you know how invisible territories are divided? Which noblemen must not be offended? Have you figured out the favors and tributes needed to keep working long-term? If you have not understood any of that, what gives you the right to do manual labor? Even as a beggar, you have to follow the rules.

If you do not follow the rules.

Heh, the one thing this land never lacked was fertilizer.

Xiao Hongzhuan sucked in a sharp breath.

Wasn't this damn black society?

What about the authorities? Where were the authorities? Save me! Oh, so officials were also included among those who needed favors and tributes. Never mind, then.

Because he kept hitting dead ends, Xiao Hongzhuan cursed angrily and spoke without restraint. Combined with the problem of his hair, this got him beaten half to death by a pack of ferocious constables as fierce as wolves and tigers.

After suffering a bloody head wound, Xiao Hongzhuan went hungry for three days before abandoning his dignity and casting aside the bearing of a transmigrator. He began begging. Because he knew a few bits of English that he had not forgotten, he could beg from foreigners and avoid starving to death, but he still had to face the constant competition and malice of his fellow beggars.

As well as the rule that even begging required tributes.

In such an environment.

Make a grand mark? Even staying alive was a luxury.

Several times, Xiao Hongzhuan—who had learned street fighting, reading people's expressions, and running for his life—nearly died in the streets, becoming a fresh, stinking corpse. He felt he was about to break, that he might not last even a week, and could die in this Artificial Divine Realm.

He had also heard.

A demon named Lan Yi had appeared in the south.

He was stirring up storms and creating demon creatures impervious to swords and guns, beating the foreigners until they fled with their heads in their hands. But the Imperial Court's heavenly army would soon press in and surely execute that demon and the rebels on the spot!

Xiao Hongzhuan felt that Lan Yi ought to be from the same hometown as him. Even if they were not, at the very least, Lan Yi represented an opportunity.

Yet from Jinling to Puhai.

How could a frail beggar possibly make it there safely?

Hope was replaced by despair. Xiao Hongzhuan, already beginning to stink, begged in a daze and struggled along the line of survival.

Until...

One day, when Xiao Hongzhuan jolted awake from a feverish sleep, he stared wide-eyed at the sky. A blue-white pillar of light shot into the heavens. Soon, the city descended into chaos, while figure after figure resembling Superman raced through the streets and alleys, effortlessly crushing the ferocious soldiers and constables before beginning to distribute printed martial arts materials for free.

Psionic energy, Innate Qi, martial arts.

As Xiao Hongzhuan's body miraculously healed, he realized that his opportunity had come.

According to the War Zone's information.

He seemed to possess not only Innate Qi, but also a Life Cluster.

Xiao Hongzhuan finally had the qualification to feel humiliated. He no longer wanted to live like this. He wanted to gamble his life once!

Chapter 47 under review