Xueluo World

"Ding."

A chime sounded in the room.

Then a voice came through.

"Li Dui, the ship is about to arrive at the Primordial Secret Realm. Space-time transition in twenty minutes."

Opening his eyes, Li Dui couldn't help but shake his head. The universe was too vast. Just going somewhere random meant sitting on a ship for fifteen months.

And this was an F9-Grade Spaceship, capable of fifty times the speed of light. If he had used his own E9-Grade Spaceship, which could only reach a little over eight times light speed, the trip would have taken over ninety months.

He got up and walked to the ship's control cabin. A tall woman with a lightning mark on her brow nodded calmly in greeting.

Li Dui, however, bowed slightly and addressed her, "Your Highness."

Yes, this was a World Lord-level member of the Mad Axe Secret Realm. Her identity and status were both above Li Dui's.

Her task in escorting Li Dui was also part of her mission.

After waiting a moment, the ship vibrated faintly.

The tall female World Lord said softly, "External view, virtual."

The scenery around them shifted. In the distance, suspended in the void of space, an incomparably majestic and enormous palace hung in the air.

Li Dui could hardly conceal the shock in his eyes. Having been in this world for so many years, he considered himself somewhat experienced.

But a palace of such immense scale delivered a crushing impact. Those massive cities and floating continents were impressive too, yet they couldn't match the sheer, visceral shock of a single structure like this.

"This is the Heavenly Eclipse Palace. A great being of the Virtual Universe Company cultivates here in seclusion, suppressing the Xueluo World."

"You're going to the Xueluo World for your mission. If you encounter a crisis you can't withstand, try to escape outward. If you can fly out of the Xueluo World, someone will naturally keep you safe."

"I'll see you off here. Take your own ship to the Xueluo World."

Though her attitude was cold, the tall female World Lord still said what needed to be said.

The cabin door opened.

Li Dui smiled and said, "Thank you, Your Highness."

He turned and flew out of the cabin. After letting out another sigh of admiration at the magnificent palace, he looked down at the boundless continent below, shrouded by clouds, various meteors, and debris, its end nowhere in sight.

The Xueluo World was, of course, larger than the Heavenly Eclipse Palace. But a palace was clearly a man-made structure, giving a different impression from a continent, which felt more like a celestial body.

Li Dui waved his hand, releasing his ship, and entered it.

"Activate camouflage. Disguise it as one of the meteors floating around here," Li Dui ordered Xiao Le.

"Yes, Master. Changing now. Shall we depart immediately?"

"Let's go. Call me when we get close to the outer cloud layer." Li Dui closed his eyes to steady his emotions.

Before coming to this world, he had never even killed a chicken. At most, he had crushed a few bugs.

Since arriving here, though he hadn't actually killed any living being, he had the original body's memories to fall back on, plus countless battles in the virtual universe. He had chopped off heads, stabbed hearts, severed hands, broken legs, split opponents in two—and been killed by them countless times himself.

He thought that when the time came, he wouldn't fear killing or danger. But now, at this very moment, facing it all for real, he felt an inexplicable hollowness in his chest.

Yes, not fear, just a hollow feeling. That hollowness only strengthened his resolve to face it all.

This world was extremely dangerous. To live freely, one had to become strong. And to be strong, one had to get used to surviving in dangerous environments.

About three hours later, Xiao Le woke Li Dui. The ship was about to approach the outer cloud layer.

The ship flew a little further, then Li Dui told Xiao Le to stop. He flew out himself, stored the ship in his space ring, and plunged directly into the clouds.

A tremendous pull dragged Li Dui downward at high speed.

According to the information, the Xueluo World had eighteen cloud layers. The higher the layer, the greater the pressure. Only those at Universe Rank could fly into the eighteenth layer.

After more than ten minutes, Li Dui began to resist the gravity, slowing his descent.

When he finally broke through the lowest cloud layer and truly entered the Xueluo World, he looked like a warrior returning from cultivation in the clouds, seeking a quiet place to rest.

Li Dui leisurely lowered his flight altitude.

Below him, a calm river flowed. On both banks stretched lush, verdant forests.

He descended to about three hundred meters above the river, already lower than the tops of most trees on either side. Li Dui planned to follow the river's current. Eventually, he would run into a human settlement.

His heart was both tense and excited. Most of all, he felt a sense of freedom.

In Chaos City and the Battle Axe Secret Realm, it was safe.

But there, he was always under the watch of big shots. He couldn't stretch his limbs, afraid of exposing his secrets.

Here, no one knew who he was. If necessary, he could do whatever he wanted.

Then just run away.

What if he couldn't escape? Run like hell!

If he really couldn't make it, then die. Exciting, right?

Damn exciting!

As reckless as Li Dui's thoughts were, his actions were quite prudent. From the moment he entered the cloud layer, he had maintained a connection with the "Ring." It had taken him considerable time and experimentation to achieve this.

When he was up high earlier, Li Dui had taken a look—this forest spanned about twenty to thirty thousand kilometers in every direction.

Desolate beasts of all kinds roamed the forest from time to time. Most were ordinary desolate beasts, but there were also Planetary-level ones. The gravity on the Xueluo Continent was immense; only Star-level beings could fly.

He flew unhurriedly for over ten minutes without running into any desolate beast stupid enough to jump out and pick a fight. He was just thinking about whether he should take the initiative to kill a few desolate beasts to practice his skills. Thirty years of hard training, learning a whole set of fine abilities, and he had never once put them to use.

Suddenly, he heard a commotion coming from far off in the forest to his right front.

Curious, Li Dui picked up speed and veered in that direction. As he drew closer, he could faintly make out people speaking, using one of the common languages of the Xueluo World that he had studied. The Xueluo World was vast, with dozens of commonly used languages. Li Dui had learned twenty-two of them.

It turned out to be a hunting team that had come into the forest to hunt desolate beasts. They were locked in battle with a pack of them.

Li Dui flew over and landed on a large tree not far from the battlefield, watching the fight below with interest.

On the human side, there were over twenty people. Two were Star-level nine—ah, here they should be called Sky Rank. One was Sky Rank, seventh stage. There were also over twenty Earth Rank, meaning Planetary-level, youngsters.

Their opponents were over a dozen desolate beasts, each with a ring of mane around its head but a face that leaned more toward that of a civet cat.

The noticeably larger desolate beast was being besieged by the two Star-level nine fighters. The pair coordinated well—one took the lead with a long spear, attacking, while the other held a large shield, defending. The beast already had several wounds, bleeding profusely.

The twenty-odd youngsters were tangled in a melee with the dozen or so desolate beasts. A Star-level seven expert was also on the sidelines, keeping the situation under control, and they held the upper hand.

Li Dui's arrival caught the attention of the three Star-level fighters. The relatively idle Star-level seven expert shot him a wary look and edged slightly closer to Li Dui's direction.

Li Dui smiled.

He knew they were worried he might steal their prey, but he didn't mind. He was pondering another question: Should I save them, or watch them die?