Virtual Universe, Journey.
The handover ceremony for the lordship of Lost City had just ended. Tang Ping ran his fingers across the translucent permissions panel floating before his eyes, unable to hide his surprise.
The permissions list on the panel was extensive. He could set shop tax rates, adjust the entrance fee, recruit NPC guards, designate city defense zones, and even issue citywide bans.
Put simply, in this isolated desert city surrounded by endless dunes, where even birds refused to linger, he was the one who called the shots. The tens of thousands of players and millions of AI NPCs in the city all had to obey his rules. If he wanted to line his pockets, he could make a fortune just by exploiting loopholes in tax rates and resource allocation.
But Tang Ping glanced at the Black Dragon Coins in his account and found himself utterly unimpressed. To a cultivator like him, who had long outgrown the need for basic resources, a few hundred million or even a billion game coins were no better than scraps of paper.
Annoyed, he closed the panel and headed for the city gate.
The heavy alloy gates slowly swung open, and a hot, sandy wind blew in. Beyond lay a boundless desert. The setting sun glowed like molten gold, bathing the dunes in warm red—a scene that truly brought to mind the line, "Smoke rises straight over the vast desert; the long river meets the round setting sun."
The sight was breathtaking at first, but Tang Ping knew that facing the same monotonous yellow day after day would eventually wear thin.
Then he suddenly remembered that he had never really flown freely through the desert.
With that thought, Tang Ping wasted no time. He pushed off and shot through the city gate like an arrow, heading for an uninhabited stretch of dunes dozens of miles away.
After confirming that there were no players or NPCs nearby, he focused his thoughts. A pair of translucent Wind-Thunder Wings unfurled from his back, their surfaces threaded with pale-green Wind patterns and their edges crackling with fine purple lightning. They beat with a hollow whoosh.
"Let's go!"
Tang Ping tapped the dune with his toes. The Wind-Thunder Wings beat hard, and he shot forward as a streak of blue-green and purple light, speeding across the vast desert sky.
At times, he skimmed just above the dunes, kicking up clouds of sand; at others, he shot into the sky and swooped beneath the clouds. When the mood struck, he even activated his domain power. Wind and lightning intertwined, whipping up a massive tornado dozens of meters across.
Sand whipped up with flashes of lightning, raging wildly between heaven and earth in a terrifying display.
The Virtual Universe's simulation was flawless. The resistance of the wind, the feel of the sand against his skin, the chill at high altitudes—all were indistinguishable from the real world.
This was also Tang Ping's first time flying through such a boundless wilderness. With no buildings in the way and no terrain to hold him back, only endless sky and desert stretched out around him. The feeling of freedom was so exhilarating that he couldn't help but shout, "Woohoo!!!"
Humanity's age-old dream of flying had finally come true.
Tang Ping's blood raced as energy surged through his body. His Wind Domain expanded to its full extent, a pale-green field of energy enveloping him and reducing air resistance to a minimum. His Spiritual Telekinesis spread outward, precisely sensing every change in the air currents. Then his Thunder Domain layered over it, purple lightning merging with the wind field and sending his speed soaring even higher!
"Faster! Faster!"
"Higher! Higher!"
He moved faster and faster, becoming little more than a blur as he carved a long blue-green and purple streak across the sky. The extreme speed brought an intense rush, making him forget everything else for a while, until only pure excitement and exhilaration remained.
Just then.
"BOOM!!!"
A deafening crash split the sky. A mass of black thunderclouds suddenly gathered high above, and a brilliant bolt of lightning as thick as a barrel, brimming with destructive force, struck straight down at Tang Ping as he blazed arrogantly across the sky!
Tang Ping didn't even have time to react before the lightning hit him head-on. His blue-green and purple Wind-Thunder Wings shattered instantly, and his body turned to ash in the flash, vanishing above the desert.
The next second, a cold system notification rang out in his mind:
[You have died!
Option One: Spend 100,000 Journey Coins to revive immediately with all stats restored.
Option Two: Wait for natural revival (countdown: 71 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds). Upon revival, you will retain only 50% of your stats.]
Tang Ping's consciousness lingered in a void of darkness, his face full of helplessness.
"Sure enough, you can trust what you read in novels: act cocky, get struck by lightning. I didn't think it'd be this accurate in a game, too." He grumbled, choosing option one without hesitation.
100,000 Journey Coins were only worth 100 Black Dragon Coins to him. It wasn't worth wasting time waiting for a natural revival.
A flash of light appeared, and Tang Ping reappeared on the same dune, all his stats restored. But before he could even stretch, another system notification suddenly rang out, its tone mechanically cold:
[Beep! Newly discovered skill combination: Wind-Thunder First-Level Domain "Perfect Level" "Fusion" (unregistered skill).
Would you like to contribute it to the Journey game system?
Option One: Make a one-time, permanent contribution and immediately receive 1 trillion Journey Coins.
Option Two: Grant authorization for 10,000 years and immediately receive 1 billion Journey Coins. For every subsequent player who purchases this skill, receive a 1 million Journey Coin share.]
Tang Ping's heart sank, and a cold sweat instantly broke out across his back.
Only now did he truly feel how terrifying the Virtual Universe was. Even a brand-new skill he'd formed by temporarily fusing domains could be detected by the system in an instant. The system was probably monitoring everything that happened here.
His thoughts raced. Countless races and life-forms across the universe used the Virtual Universe every moment, including many Universe-Level and Immortal Level powerhouses. They studied laws and sparred within the Virtual Universe, generating astronomical amounts of data, yet it had never suffered so much as a single slowdown or malfunction.
"The Mechanical Race Universe Master's computing power is just ridiculous, isn't it?" Tang Ping marveled to himself, feeling a little relieved at the same time.
Luckily, he was playing a game run directly by the Virtual Universe Company, with everything managed automatically by the system. Since the game had launched, no human or member of an Alien Race had ever been able to access its backend data. If this had been one of those privately run games, his ability to fuse domains would probably have been exposed long ago.
"Ah, well. Someone as dazzling as me can't hide that brilliant light wherever I go." Tang Ping cleared his throat, quickly regaining his composure.
He had considered the risk of his skill being exposed from the beginning, which was why he'd deliberately used it in an uninhabited stretch of desert outside Lost City. It looked like he'd made the right call.
Without further hesitation, he said, "Option one."
[Beep! Skill successfully contributed. 1 trillion Journey Coins have been credited to your account. Please check your balance.]
Watching the number in his account skyrocket, Tang Ping's mood immediately brightened, and his frustration at being struck by lightning vanished.
Journey was an immensely popular hit throughout the Human Territory. Its game currency could be exchanged in real time for the common currencies of the various Universe Countries, and the exchange rate was stable.
1 trillion Journey Coins could be exchanged for exactly 1 billion Black Dragon Coins—the entire fortune of a peak ninth-level Star Rank powerhouse!
"I'm rich!" Tang Ping's lips curled up, excitement filling his eyes.
With this money, he and Luo Xiaoyu wouldn't have to worry about the resources, techniques, or weapons they needed for their future cultivation.
What excited him even more was that this was only a Perfect Level fusion of first-level domains, suitable only for Planetary Rank and Star Rank cultivators.
If he could one day raise the level of his domain fusion—or even achieve a fusion at the level of laws—wouldn't the system's reward be a hundred or even a thousand times greater?
Why hadn't he chosen the revenue-sharing option? In the long run, the total earnings from revenue sharing would probably be far greater than a one-time contribution, but a 10,000-year authorization period was simply too long.
At the rate he was cultivating, he'd probably have reached Universe Level in a few hundred or thousand years. By then, a 1 million Journey Coin share would be a drop in the bucket. There was no point wasting time waiting for it.
"Nice!"
In high spirits, Tang Ping opened the game's official exchange platform and deftly registered an anonymous, unregistered account, then exchanged all 1 trillion Journey Coins for Black Dragon Coins.
Once he was done, he could no longer contain his excitement and immediately logged out.
His consciousness returned to reality. Tang Ping sprang out of the Nutrient Pod, not even bothering to change out of his protective suit, and rushed into Luo Xiaoyu's Cultivation Room next door in three quick strides.
Inside, Luo Xiaoyu sat cross-legged, cultivating within the Energy Crystal Array, a faint white glow surrounding her. Hearing footsteps, she slowly opened her eyes, their usual clarity sharpened by her cultivation.
Before she could speak, Tang Ping dashed forward and pulled her into a tight embrace. His voice brimmed with barely contained excitement and joy. "Honey! We're rich!!"
Luo Xiaoyu's cool expression turned helpless, but she still grabbed his vital parts.
I get you!
Tang Ping: ...
No naughty stuff!
Before you continue