"What do you think of Central Earth?"
Ji Jue looked up in puzzlement.
Under the noon sun, Lü Yingyue sat upright, the faintly warm smile gone from her face. Rare seriousness filled her expression as she waited for his answer.
"A mud pit, hell, a battlefield, plague, slaughter, a graveyard."
Ji Jue thought for a moment, then shrugged and added, "—the source of turmoil jointly created by the Federation and the Empire."
The continent at the center of the world, once the very heart of the Eternal Empire, produced over seventy percent of the world's fuel and nonferrous metals, along with other precious materials. Its area was twice that of the Federation and Empire combined, yet its population was less than one-fifth of the Federation's.
The world's most extravagantly indulgent tycoons and its most destitute paupers shared the same heaven—an artificial heaven and an artificial hell, the most luxurious Paradise and the bleakest desert, all gathered there...
Or rather, such places existed everywhere. Only in Central Earth had they never been covered by a veil of disguise.
Lü Yingyue nodded in understanding and asked again, "What about the situation?"
"Unclear, but it's obviously already a powder keg, isn't it?"
Ji Jue shook his head.
The land was vast, yet disasters ran rampant. Upon a land that had lost the order of Celestial Origin lay a genuine Era of the White Deer, a lawless region. Seven or eight loose states, fifteen or sixteen completely different cities, more than a dozen religions, and peoples whose customs, bloodlines, and even disparities between rich and poor differed to an unbelievable extent.
Countless slaves and untouchables baked beneath the yellow sands, while the lofty Priests and state lords basked in sunlight. Amid their endless schemes and infighting, the Federation kept adding fuel to the flames.