The Primordial Universe was vast and boundless. Cosmic Secret Realms were as numerous as the stars in the sky, too many to count.
Even among the places recorded in the human database, there were tens of thousands of secret realms suitable for King-level Immortals and ordinary Cosmic Venerables to explore, scattered throughout various regions.
There were the weaker secret realms, which even Realm Lords could venture into. They were the most numerous; Zhang Dong had only to glance through the records to find no fewer than a million.
There were also secret realms where anyone below the level of a Cosmic Venerable was certain to die upon entering. Most of these were explored by High Venerables and even Cosmic Overlords.
Zhang Dong crossed this type of secret realm off his list.
No matter how great the rewards were, he had to be able to claim them. Ganwu Kingdom Master had died only once on a Primordial Star; the other two times, he had died in Cosmic Secret Realms. The competition there was simply too fierce.
Even if Zhang Dong brought the Sun Tree along, giving him a larger divine body and greater energy reserves, his realm still fell short. He was nowhere near a threat to those super-powerful experts.
"The Thunder God Temple Secret Realm, the Illusory Light Sea Secret Realm, and the Vast Sky Secret Realm." Zhang Dong eventually narrowed his choices down to three secret realms.
The Thunder God Temple Secret Realm was within the Zerg Territory, while the Illusory Light Sea and Vast Sky Secret Realms were much farther away, nearly ten billion light-years from the Four Peak Races.
There was detailed information on all three secret realms, compiled by generations of Hong Alliance experts who had ventured inside.
It might seem that powerful experts were scarce within secret realms, but that was only because they were so vast and their environments so harsh that no one dared teleport carelessly.
There were plenty of powerful experts who enjoyed exploring secret realms.
On the Outer Domain Battlefield, strength reigned supreme, and it was exceedingly rare for the weak to obtain a treasure and rise to prominence. But exploring secret realms offered a chance to find treasures far beyond one's own power.
For example, the High King and Peak King experts with Heavy Treasures on the Outer Domain Battlefield.
Most of them had found those treasures while exploring secret realms. Many King Limit experts couldn't even produce a single Heavy Treasure. That was the allure of exploring secret realms.
"The Thunder God Temple Secret Realm is a relatively ancient Cosmic Secret Realm, and it has been extensively explored. The Purple Blue Thunder Glass it produces is a rare material that even Cosmic Venerables would covet."
Zhang Dong carefully analyzed the information.
Nearly everyone who ventured into the Thunder God Temple Secret Realm was after Purple Blue Thunder Glass. A Marquis-level Immortal who got lucky and found a piece could save himself billions of years of accumulating wealth.
It sounded like treasure hunting, but it was really mining. The strong mined rich deposits, while the weak mined poor ones. Finding Purple Blue Thunder Glass meant making a fortune.
In Tomato's worldview, ascenders were a dime a dozen; mining was the norm.
The sacred-land patriarchs who could command the winds and rain in the Primordial Universe could only work as security guards or open restaurants as cooks in the Origin Continent.
An emperor who stood supreme and ruled a great ancient kingdom in the Origin Continent would find it incredibly difficult even to get a job in the Holy Realm.
Zhang Dong didn't want to mine, and he didn't want to make things difficult for those Immortals who went to work as miners.
Having ruled out the Thunder God Temple Secret Realm, where people mined, he was left with the Vast Sky and Illusory Light Sea Secret Realms. These two had been opened up more recently, so the available information was slightly less detailed.
"I'll go to the Illusory Light Sea Secret Realm." After reviewing the information several more times, Zhang Dong finally made his decision.
The two secret realms had roughly the same density of powerful experts, resources, and treasures. But the Illusory Light Sea had one advantage over the Vast Sky Secret Realm.
The largest core region of the Illusory Light Sea was perpetually shrouded in mist, with light and shadow interweaving through it, leaving visibility extremely poor.
With the naked eye alone, a King-level Immortal could only see a few hundred thousand kilometers, while a Cosmic Venerable could see a few tens of millions.
Even human experts couldn't record videos from a great distance and upload them to the Virtual Universe, so it was very safe to use his abilities there.
In the Illusory Light Sea, he didn't have to worry about being exposed at all.
Having settled on his destination, Zhang Dong used the Divine Kingdom Teleportation of an Immortal from the Primordial Realm to reach a desolate region.
The Illusory Light Sea was extremely far away. Even after Divine Kingdom Teleportation, one normally still had to fly through the Dark Universe for some time.
But as a first-level World God, Zhang Dong had naturally mastered the Space Divine Heart.
Whoosh!
Once the Immortal who had performed the Divine Kingdom Teleportation had left, Zhang Dong began using Teleportation.
Teleportation with the Space Divine Heart was naturally inferior in speed to the proper laws of space, but each jump still carried him tens of trillions of kilometers, and he could jump at an extremely high frequency.
Teleportation frequency was tied to the strength of one's will.
After tens of thousands of consecutive jumps, a vast secret realm appeared before Zhang Dong.
The Illusory Light Sea had a maximum diameter of 370,000 light-years, making it a small Cosmic Secret Realm of moderate danger. It was usually explored by Kings or some Elementary Venerables.
Occasionally, Marquis-level Immortals came to try their luck. As long as they didn't go to the very center of the Illusory Light Sea, they would almost certainly be fine.
The Illusory Light Sea was an extremely dangerous region. Many King-level Immortals had perished there, and even Cosmic Venerables had fallen.
Entering from the outskirts, Zhang Dong didn't pause for a moment. He teleported repeatedly, heading straight for the Illusory Light Sea. The ordinary regions on the outskirts held no appeal for him.
After teleporting for 100,000 light-years, a distance equivalent to the diameter of a galaxy, he finally reached the Illusory Light Sea.
Ahead, the mist grew denser, and light and shadow swirled.
The sea stretched as if without end. It spanned 4.6 light-years in diameter, was 1.9 light-years across at its widest point, and reached depths of tens of trillions of kilometers. Its waters were blue throughout, and countless islands floated on its surface.
Some islands might yield Heavy Treasures, while others held the remains of those who had come before.
"According to the records, when the Illusory Light Sea was first opened up, it actually had native inhabitants." Zhang Dong recalled the information.
Unless a Cosmic Secret Realm was extremely dangerous, it usually had native races.
The Outer Domain Battlefield was itself a Cosmic Secret Realm, opened up by super-powerful experts as a battlefield. Naturally, its native inhabitants had been slaughtered.
The same had happened on the Blazing Sacrifice Continent, where countless natives had been easily wiped out.
The Illusory Light Sea was no different. Its natives had been even more unfortunate. The first to discover the secret realm had been a Crystal Clan Universe Master.
After entering and finding the natives there, he had begun a massacre.
Nearly ninety-nine percent of the natives had died, and most of the entire race's wealth had been seized.
The few who remained had scattered to various places and thus escaped complete extermination. After committing that bloodbath, the Universe Master had also explored the secret realm.
The Illusory Light Sea produced only a few Heavy Treasures, which held little appeal for him. He explored a little, then left.
Later, the Illusory Light Sea Secret Realm was discovered by the great races of the universe. Large numbers of Immortal Gods and Cosmic Venerables came to explore it. The surviving natives retaliated furiously, and over time, they used their home-field advantage to kill many powerful experts.
"This is the cruelty of the universe." Zhang Dong sighed inwardly.
What had those natives done wrong? Nothing at all. The Universe Master who slaughtered them wouldn't face any punishment, either. It was simply the law of the jungle. It was unrealistic to expect the Heavenly Dao to strike him down with divine punishment.
Unless the Origin Continent were within Minghuang's world group. In that case, this Universe Master would definitely be a supreme fiend and would have to be executed.
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