Heaven and Earth Secret Realm

However, he had over three thousand years in Chaos City this time. He was using the Jinghong Chaos Stele to thoroughly organize his comprehension of the Laws. The forces he was joining now, and the teacher he needed to choose, could both help him with that. So there was no rush to challenge the Heavenly Bridge. He could wait until he had fully absorbed his current insights before studying the Chaos Stele again.

So...

A Black-Robed Envoy slowly approached the gray-white building. The next moment, after the building's AI alerted him, Ye Muxuan looked down from the rooftop, where he had been studying the Law Secret Patterns, and spotted the Black-Robed Envoy in the street.

Inside the quiet room on the building's second floor, Ye Muxuan silently browsed the piles of videos and written materials floating before him.

What the Black-Robed Envoy had brought was an authorization granting Ye Muxuan permission to access these materials. Even a World Lord General like Ye Muxuan, who had spent over a hundred thousand years killing on the Outer Battlefield, lacked access to plenty of information in the Virtual Universe. Ordinary people had even less access. Either they were denied permission and could not find the information at all, or they could only find material that had already been "filtered."

Ye Muxuan browsed the masses of detailed information before him. At last, a strand of his consciousness connected to the Virtual Universe, entered the lakeside cottage, and sent an email.

About an hour later, three purple-robed envoys entered the building.

Those on the rooftops who had been watching from afar the most dazzling newcomer among this batch of World Lords returning from the Outer Battlefield now understood. The newcomer called "Muxuan," a cosmic warrior who had fought on the Outer Battlefield for over a hundred thousand years and a peerless World Lord who had once killed an Alien Race Immortal Expert in a head-on battle, had ultimately joined the Virtual Universe Company. He had become a Core Member of the Virtual Universe Company and officially entered the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm.

From this day forward, the Virtual Universe Company's Core Layer had one more World Lord Level member in the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm, bringing the total from 8,464 to 8,465!

What was more, the next "World Lord Level" Qualification Battle for the Virtual Universe Company's Core Layer was still over ten thousand years away. It would take place just over two hundred years after they left Chaos City!

Of these newcomers, eleven World Lords had passed the eleventh level of the Heavenly Bridge. Three had joined the Virtual Universe Company, four the Giant Axe Dojo, and two the Cosmic Mercenary Alliance. The remaining two had joined the Cosmic Galaxy Bank and the Cosmic First Bank, respectively. Muxuan was the only one among them to have passed the thirteenth level!

Just as Kong Yan, Zhendan, and the others had said, Ye Muxuan had signed an agreement with the Virtual Universe Company. He joined the company's Core Layer as an official member of the Heaven and Earth Secret Realm, gaining the privileges and status of a Core Member. He also received a reward of 100,000 points, along with a free allowance of 100 million points to spend on Secret Techniques from the company's internal treasury; he only had to pay from his own points for anything beyond that. The company promised to assign him a mentor who was at least an Immortal Expert of Peak King Level. During his over three thousand years of study in Chaos City, he would earn 100,000 points for passing the fourteenth level of the Heavenly Bridge, another 100,000 for passing the fifteenth, and so on!

They had no fear that he would refuse to challenge it. As long as Ye Muxuan could pass more levels, the Virtual Universe Company would immediately credit him with every point he earned, no matter how far he got!

There were plenty of other details, but Ye Muxuan merely skimmed them and paid them little attention. They were much the same as what Kong Yan, Zhendan, and the others had told him.

Besides signing an agreement with Ye Muxuan on behalf of the Virtual Universe Company, the purple-robed envoys had also brought information about several masters of the Jinghong Lineage currently teaching in Chaos City.

These were powerful King Level experts who had reached at least the eighteenth level of the Heavenly Bridge in the Jinghong Lineage and were qualified to found their own schools. Six King Level masters of the Jinghong Lineage were currently teaching in Chaos City. As for whether any Venerables of the Jinghong Lineage would come to teach, Ye Muxuan had received no word of it so far.

The materials specifically advised that if Ye Muxuan intended to take a particular master as his teacher, he should attend that master's lecture first.

Yunmeng Lake, lakeside cottage, third-floor study. After skimming through the materials, Ye Muxuan looked at the new teleportation point on the screen before him.

Yuxiang Mountain, Heavenly Region!

Yuxiang Mountain was where Core Layer members of the Virtual Universe Company lived in the Virtual Universe. The Primal Region had manors over a thousand kilometers in diameter, each practically a kingdom. The Taichu Region also had manors, though they were much smaller than those in the Primal Region. The Heavenly Region had villas, while the End Times District had high-rise buildings, with one apartment in each building assigned to every member.

At that moment, the blue glow above Villa 009726 in the Heavenly Region flared to life. For thousands of years, the villa had been shrouded in a motionless white glow, but now it changed to blue.

Villa 009726 had a new resident!

Joining the Core Layer of one of the Five Great Powers and becoming an official Core Member did not guarantee survival! Once they reached the World Lord Level, the heirs of the Five Great Powers all had to undergo World Lord Level "life-and-death trials," choosing between the Outer Battlefield and a Universe Secret Region.

Among the Core Members of the Five Great Powers, many geniuses did break through to Immortality at the World Lord Level. After reaching Immortality, many of them also grew quickly, becoming Marquis Rank and then King Rank far faster than World Lords from within the Universe Kingdoms. But the dangers they faced increased by countless times as well!

However, joining one of the Five Great Powers did not guarantee a breakthrough to Immortality. It was true that the Core Members of the Five Great Powers had no shortage of talent for reaching Immortality, but talent alone was not enough. Nor did all the dangers come from the Outer Battlefield and Universe Secret Regions. Thus, even among the Core Members of the Five Great Powers, only the first three Secret Regions were full immediately after a Qualification Battle.

Take the Virtual Universe Company's Core Layer, for example. The Primal Region had 100 World Lords, 10 Domain Lords, and 3 Universe Rank members. The Taichu Region had 1,000 World Lords, 100 Domain Lords, and 30 Universe Rank members. The Heavenly Region had 10,000 World Lords, 1,000 Domain Lords, and 300 Universe Rank members!

Of course, those were the maximum numbers. As for the End Times District... all the members who lost in the Qualification Battle were eliminated, one group after another, until they were all relegated to the End Times District!

In practice, the first three Secret Regions were only fully populated after a Qualification Battle. Take the Heavenly Region where Ye Muxuan now lived: it had originally had 10,000 World Lords, but only 8,464 remained. Ye Muxuan was the 8,465th!

The only ways for someone to take one of those vacant spots were for a Heavenly Region Domain Lord to break through to the World Lord Level, for a World Lord genius from the End Times District to pass the Heaven and Earth Tongtian Mountain and advance directly to the Heavenly Region, or to enter through a special channel like Ye Muxuan. Otherwise, in the hundred thousand years after a Qualification Battle, the number of World Lords in the Heavenly Region would only dwindle. Nearly ninety thousand years had passed since the last Qualification Battle, and over 1,500 Heavenly Region World Lords had already fallen!