The sky overhead was a dark, grayish-blue, with clouds pressing down so low it looked as though it were about to rain. The ground beneath his feet consisted of hard, grayish-brown soil, where sparse tufts of grass grew out of cracks in the earth, flattened in swathes by the wind. In the distance, a few low hills were visible, topped with artificially constructed watchtowers. Luminous energy crystals were embedded into the tower walls, making them stand out sharply beneath the gray-blue daylight.
The air was filled with a scent he was unaccustomed to—not the faint sweetness emitted by energy crystals, nor the scorched smell typical of metal smelting plants, but rather a fragrance belonging to an agricultural society, redolent of damp mud and livestock manure. After entering this star realm, his senses took several breaths to automatically adjust and adapt to the new environment.
He stood in place without moving. His perception spread outward at a slower pace than it did within his territory, because the spatial structure of this star realm was much cruder than the modified regions of the Second Astral Battlefield; the paths of energy flow were irregular, and the air was mixed with a large amount of unpurified, coarse energy particles. Yet his Order Tree still completed its environmental adaptation within several breaths, extending its perception range to the entire core region of T-09.
Seven locations with energy concentrations significantly higher than their surroundings lit up in sequence within his perception—the core settlements of seven clans, each dominated by a Divine Intent Grandmaster. The nearest settlement was about three hundred kilometers away, located in a castle built against a mountain, where that grandmaster's aura was steady and heavy, resembling a physical body tempered in high-concentration energy year-round.
He lifted his right foot and took a step