When Qian Renxue asked this, everyone on the Douluo Continent outside the Sky Screen, along with all the Soul Masters, pricked up their ears in unison and even held their breath.
This was the Great Thousand World's cultivation system!
This was the true key to the Great Dao!
Yun Gugu glanced at Qian Renxue, then, making no attempt to conceal anything, began explaining in her measured voice.
"The Great Thousand World is boundless, and the path of cultivation is even longer and more arduous."
"The very foundation is sensing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and entering the Spirit Movement Realm, followed by the Spirit Wheel Realm, the Divine Soul Realm, and the Three Heavens Realm..."
"Those are merely mortal realms for laying one's foundations, hardly worth mentioning."
Mortal realms?
Everyone on the Douluo Continent swallowed.
They had watched with their own eyes as that youth named Mu Chen casually killed Zhao Wuji, a level seventy-six Soul Saint, in an instant while only at the late stage of the Spirit Wheel Realm.
Power like that was merely a mortal realm for laying one's foundations?!
Then Yun Gugu's voice continued echoing through the Sky Screen.
"After shedding one's mortal body comes the Supreme Realm."
"Upon becoming a Supreme, one can condense a Supreme Dharma Body and gain a sliver of power to protect oneself in the Great Thousand World."
"Above Supreme is Earthly Sovereign."
"It is divided into lower, upper, and great perfection."
"Upon reaching Earthly Sovereign, one can establish a sect and rule over a region, destroying an entire continent with a wave of the hand."
Hearing of an Earthly Sovereign's power, everyone on the Douluo Continent immediately recalled those old men kneeling and kowtowing before the Martial Realm Matriarch.
So they were mighty Earthly Sovereigns who could destroy continents with a wave of the hand.
"And above Earthly Sovereign lies the true pinnacle of the Great Thousand World."
At this point, a trace of reverence involuntarily entered Yun Gugu's tone.
"Heavenly Sovereign."
"Heavenly Sovereigns are divided into three grades: spirit grade, immortal grade, and saint grade."
"All who become Heavenly Sovereigns are favored children of fortune between heaven and earth. Their every word and deed is enough to influence the workings of the Great Thousand World's laws."
Qian Renxue listened, spellbound, her eyes filled with longing.
She swallowed and asked cautiously:
"Then... what realm is our Great Desolation Divine Realm's supreme Divine Lord in?"
At the mention of the Divine Lord, Yun Gugu's gaze instantly became utterly fervent.
Then she turned toward the divine mountain shrouded in chaotic mist in the deepest reaches of the Divine Realm and bowed deeply.
"The Divine Lord possesses breathtaking talent. He broke through space from a lower plane and swept aside everything in his path."
"His realm is naturally Saint Grade Heavenly Sovereign, the very pinnacle of the Great Thousand World!"
"Moreover, the Divine Lord's foundations are unfathomable. I fear he has long since touched that legendary realm of the supreme Ruler, which stands above saint grade!"
Saint Grade Heavenly Sovereign!
Half-Step Ruler!
Although everyone on the Douluo Continent could not visualize just how powerful this realm was, merely hearing those titles made them feel a suffocating pressure rush toward them.
Qian Renxue drew a deep breath and continued asking.
"Then, Gugu, in this vast Great Thousand World, how many Saint Grade Heavenly Sovereigns like the Divine Lord are there altogether?"
Yun Gugu smiled faintly.
"Although planes converge in the Great Thousand World and geniuses gather like clouds,"
"existences such as Saint Grade Heavenly Sovereigns are as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. Even tens of thousands of years may not produce one."
"Aside from our Divine Lord, there are only a handful, such as the Martial Realm's Martial Ancestor, the Endless Fire Domain's Flame Emperor, and the Sword Domain's Green-Robed Sword Saint."
"Even counting every last one, the saint-grade powerhouses in this Great Thousand World probably number no more than the fingers on two hands."
Hearing this, Qian Renxue nodded inwardly.
That made sense. If Saint Grade Heavenly Sovereigns were everywhere, this world would be far too terrifying.
So she mustered her courage and asked one final question.
"Since Saint Grade Heavenly Sovereigns are so rare,"
"then, Gugu, as one of the Three Great Giants, how many Heavenly Sovereign powerhouses does our Great Desolation Divine Realm have overseeing it besides the Divine Lord?"
Qian Renxue thought that since saint grades were so few, Heavenly Sovereigns were probably rare as well.
For a top-tier faction, having five or six Heavenly Sovereigns should be the limit, right?
She was not alone. Yu Xiaogang and the others outside the Sky Screen thought so too.
Yet Yun Gugu's next words struck like a bolt from the blue, leaving everyone's head on the Douluo Continent ringing.
Yun Gugu casually smoothed back the long hair beside her ear and considered for a moment before speaking:
"How many Heavenly Sovereigns does our Divine Realm have?"
"If we only count the consecrated elders cultivating in seclusion in the Inner Sect, probably twenty or thirty."
"If we include the Outer Sect's stewards, the Sect-Protecting Divine Beasts affiliated with our Divine Realm, and even the mounts pulling carriages,"
"adding them all together, there would be some more."
???
Although she had already prepared herself mentally, Qian Renxue's expression still froze instantly upon learning the actual number.
T-twenty or thirty?
Outside the Sky Screen, Yu Xiaogang's eyes rolled back. Unable to catch his breath, he fainted on the training field on the spot.
Dozens of Heavenly Sovereigns who could destroy planes with a wave of their hands were all packed into a single sect?
How were they supposed to compete???
Seeing Qian Renxue's stupefied expression, Yun Gugu continued adding nonchalantly:
"Actually, you needn't think those elders are so mysterious."
"What our Great Desolation Divine Realm values most is the younger generation's potential."
With that, Yun Gugu pointed toward the depths beyond the sect gates.
"Take the Divine Lord's two direct disciples, the Divine Son and Divine Maiden, for example."
"They have just returned from tempering themselves in the lower realm. Judging by their bone age, they are only in their twenties at most."
"But just a few days ago, both broke through their shackles and entered the realm of Spirit Grade Heavenly Sovereign."
In their twenties? Spirit Grade Heavenly Sovereigns?!
At these words, Qian Renxue stood rooted to the spot, completely stunned!
The jade water dipper she had been holding slipped uncontrollably from her fingertips.
"Clack."
The dipper struck the bluestone paving with a crisp sound, splashing a few crystalline drops of spiritual liquid and breaking the blankness in her mind.
In their twenties.
Heavenly Sovereign.
Those two terms, which should have been poles apart, now weighed heavily upon her spine like an insurmountable divine mountain standing through the ages.
Qian Renxue lowered her head and looked at her fair hands, stained with a little soil from farmwork, and felt her mouth go dry.
She, too, was in her twenties.
On the Douluo Continent, she was Spirit Hall's lofty Young Master, an unparalleled prodigy with level-twenty Innate Full Soul Power, and the successor personally chosen by the Angel God.
She had once believed that her talent would let her look down on all other heroes wherever she went.
Yet after arriving in the Great Thousand World, even after being thoroughly transformed in the Marrow-Washing Pool, she had only barely touched the threshold of the Spirit Movement Realm and become the lowliest sweeping maid here.
And what about them?
At the same age, they had already entered the realm of Spirit Grade Heavenly Sovereign, becoming supreme powerhouses who could command the laws of this world and look down upon all living beings!
Qian Renxue found this despair-inducing gulf somewhat impossible to accept.
"Yun Gugu..."
"Is talent like that really something humans can attain?"
Seeing how hard Qian Renxue had been struck, the white-robed maid shook her head as though this were nothing unusual.
"What's so strange about that?"
"The Divine Son and Divine Maiden were personally selected and brought up from the lower realm by the Divine Lord, who poured countless efforts into teaching them."
"As his direct disciples, if they couldn't achieve even this much, that would truly disgrace our Great Desolation Divine Realm."
With that, Yun Gugu gently patted Qian Renxue's shoulder and offered an earnest admonition.
"Enough. Put away those laughable lower-realm notions of yours."
"In this Great Thousand World, as long as you know your place and fulfill your duties, the Divine Realm naturally won't treat you poorly."
"If you're fortunate enough to win an elder's appreciation and receive even a scrap of instruction in the laws of the Great Dao, it will benefit you for a lifetime."
Only then did Qian Renxue nod silently, forcibly suppressing the shock in her heart. She picked up the jade pendant from the ground and once again became that obedient, deferential maid.
Meanwhile.
Outside the Sky Screen, on the Douluo Continent.
The entire training field at Shrek Academy was so quiet that only everyone's heavy breathing could be heard.
Flender, who had just fainted from anger at Yu Xiaogang, slowly came around as Oscar pinched the spot beneath his nose.
But the moment he opened his eyes and heard the words "Spirit Grade Heavenly Sovereigns in their twenties" from the Sky Screen, another wave of dizziness washed over him, and he nearly fainted again.
"In their twenties, Heavenly Sovereigns..."
Flender slumped on the dirt-covered ground, his face filled with disbelief.
As one of the Golden Iron Triangle and the dean of Shrek Academy.
His greatest pride in life had been founding this academy, which claimed to "accept only monsters, not ordinary people."
Looking at his pride and joy, the Shrek Seven Devils, these children who had reached Soul Elder in their teens, he had always believed they were the world's finest geniuses.
Yet now the Sky Screen had not only crushed his pride but trampled the dignity of the entire Douluo Continent into the mud.
"What kind of monsters are we..."
At the thought, Flender shook his head with a bitter smile.
"Compared with them, our Shrek Academy is nothing but a joke."
"Dozens of Heavenly Sovereigns stand guard, and even their carriage-pulling mounts can destroy planes."
"Here we are, smugly congratulating ourselves in this palm-sized place. We're the ultimate frogs viewing the sky from the bottom of a well."
Hearing the dean's self-mockery, Oscar let his hands drop weakly.
He looked at the restorative Big Sausage he had just made and suddenly felt how unpresentable it was.
He was a food-type Soul Master and had always thought his Martial Soul rare and powerful.
But in a higher-dimensional world where destroying heaven and earth and reshaping laws were commonplace, what could a sausage do?
Insult someone?
Could it fill the gaps between the teeth of those sun-devouring monsters? Or could it withstand a single finger from one of their Heavenly Sovereigns?
"It's over. It's all over."
Oscar plopped onto the ground and casually tossed away the sausage in his hand.
"Boss Dai is done for. He was thrown into a place like that."
"Rongrong is trapped there too."
"Even if we survive by luck, if this Sky Screen chooses us someday, we'll only end up as fertilizer in a place like that."
Beside him, Zhu Zhuqing cast a cold glance at the despairing Oscar.
Although her face was just as pale, her cool eyes held an unusual calm.
"Rather than blaming heaven and everyone else here, we'd be better off thinking carefully about what to do next."
Zhu Zhuqing's voice was quiet, yet it reached everyone's ears clearly.
"The Sky Screen has already laid bare the cruelty of that world."
"Without strength or backing, we're nothing but ants there."
"The only thing we can do now is forget our identities on the Douluo Continent. If we really are chosen, even if we have to become menial servants or beggars, we must find a way to survive."
At the center of the crowd, Tang San also nodded in agreement.
Although he, too, struggled to digest it all for the moment, he was no fucking idiot, and Zhu Zhuqing's words made even more sense.
Because once he established a firm foothold in that world, he would surely far surpass the likes of the Martial Ancestor, Flame Emperor, Divine Lord, and Heavenly Sovereigns.
He would even bring glory to the Tang Sect in that so-called Great Thousand World!
And just as everyone at Shrek was questioning their lives under the impact of this enormous flood of information.
Thousands of miles away, within the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, an entirely different scene was unfolding.
Inside the magnificent main hall.
Ning Fengzhi sat upright on the sect master's throne, originally holding a cup of exquisite fragrant tea.
But when he heard Qian Renxue and Yun Gugu's conversation through the Sky Screen, especially the words, "Even counting every last one, there are only a handful of saint-grade powerhouses in the Great Thousand World,"
He stared blankly at the Sky Screen overhead as though struck by lightning.
"Sect Master, are you all right?"
Seeing this, Bone Douluo Gu Rong, standing beside him, was startled as well.
He thought Ning Fengzhi had been scared out of his wits by the Great Desolation Divine Realm's dozens of Heavenly Sovereigns and hurried to reassure him.
"Sect Master, there's no need to worry too much."
"A godlike faction like that is a hundred and eight thousand miles removed from us. As long as we don't provoke them, they won't be so bored as to come looking for trouble with us."
Yet Ning Fengzhi seemed not to have heard Gu Rong at all.
He abruptly rose to his feet and said excitedly:
"Uncle Gu!"
"Did you hear clearly what that lady in the Sky Screen just said?"
Gu Rong was startled by Ning Fengzhi's crazed demeanor and nodded, somewhat bewildered.
"Yes, I heard her clearly. That maid said there were very few Saint Grade Heavenly Sovereigns in the Great Thousand World, only a handful."
"Besides the Divine Lord of that Great Desolation Divine Realm, there seemed to be the Martial Ancestor of some Martial Realm, and the Flame Emperor of the Endless Fire Domain..."
"Right! There was one more!"
At this point, Ning Fengzhi abruptly raised his voice, cutting Gu Rong off.
"There was also the Green-Robed Sword Saint of the Sword Domain!"
As he spoke those words, Ning Fengzhi felt as though his heart was about to leap out of his throat.
The Sword Domain! The Green-Robed Sword Saint!
"Wasn't that the very place Uncle Jian was transported to!"
Before you continue