"In short, you don't need to act rashly. Just continue to play the role of a monitor in the Astral Realm, and report to me promptly if anything happens," the Mother of the Stars said calmly, setting a basic tone for the Lord of Titans's next actions.
"I understand, Mother Goddess," the Lord of Titans said with a slight bow.
"So when will you descend upon the Astral Realm?"
"When the Lord of Nightmares extends his reach into the Fantasy Dimension, that will be the day I depart for the Astral Realm. That time will not be far off."
The words faded away, becoming increasingly ethereal, and the figure of the Mother of the Stars gradually disappeared.
The Lord of Titans respectfully saw the Mother of the Stars off before slowly rising and silently walking out of the great hall.
at the same time.
The Spirit Saint Domain.
In the 1200th year since Logo ascended to the throne of the Heavenly Emperor, a pale golden crack still hung in the eastern sky of the Spirit Saint Domain.
That was the place where three Quasi-Saint fell. Mortals who looked up at that golden mark considered it an auspicious sign; those with deeper cultivation could feel the residual vibrations of the laws within it—that battle shattered the Saint Realm and even the boundary barrier, which has not yet been fully repaired.
Over the course of 1,200 years, the Heavenly Court was established, the Heavenly Net was laid out and gradually improved and strengthened, and the great Heavenly Emperor relied on the Heavenly Net to create the system of Divine Immortal.
From then on, Divine Immortal and Heavenly Immortal beings were separated.
For those at the pinnacle, this is but a fleeting moment; but for the billions of beings in the Spirit Saint Domain, it is a cataclysmic change.
In the Bright Lake Realm, under the jurisdiction of the Yaoguang Divine Realm, on the coast of the East Sea, there is a fishing village called Gravel.
The village is small, with about three hundred households, and the villagers have made their living by fishing for generations. Chen Laoshi, a sixteen-year-old boy in the village, is a big, strong man, but he has this name. His father said that a humble name is easier to raise.
That evening, Chen Laoshi hauled in his net and returned to shore, finding only three or five small fish the size of a palm. He sighed, squatted on the rocks, and stared blankly at the sea.
In the distance, where the sea meets the sky, a faint purple light is gathering.
Chen Laoshi rubbed his eyes. He had seen the purple light before—it was the Legend teleportation array of the supreme Heavenly Court, a sign of its activation. Last year, Wang Ermazi from the east end of the village was taken away by this light. Wang Ermazi was naturally strong and was selected by the Heavenly Court to join the Strongman Camp. When he left, the whole village came to see him off, and his mother cried so much that she fainted three times.
But this time it's different.
The purple light grew brighter and brighter, but it didn't fall on the village. Instead, it spread out over the sea like a giant curtain of light. Characters appeared on the curtain, each one the size of a millstone, gleaming with golden light and visible for miles around.
"The Heavenly Court decrees: A new Void rift has been discovered off the coast of Gravel Village in the East Sea, connecting to the Fantasy World ' Green Grain Realm.' This realm has been initially formed by His Heavenly Emperor through the Incense Votive Power, and has been materialized through the Heavenly Net. We are now recruiting cultivators from all prefectures of the East Sea to open this realm. Anyone with a cultivation level below the Dharma Realm level is welcome to apply. The opening period is three hundred years (time flows a hundred times faster in this realm than outside). Upon successful completion, those who return will be awarded merit, spiritual coins, and initiation with secret manuals according to their achievements. Life and death are left to fate; those who succeed may ascend to immortality."
Chen Laoshi was illiterate, but he could understand the light.
Because the words of the Heavenly Net are directly imprinted in his heart—every living being who looks up can understand their meaning. This is the most mysterious aspect of the Heavenly Net: it does not speak of language or writing, but only of the connection of hearts.
"Three hundred years..." Chen Laoshi murmured, "Only three years have passed outside?"
He didn't understand what Fantasy World or turning the unreal into reality meant, but he understood the last sentence: those who succeed can expect to ascend to immortality.
Ascend to immortality.
These two words were like a fire, burning his heart.
He looked down at his rough hands and then at the tattered fishing net. In the past sixteen years, the most powerful person he had ever seen was the town's Mid Spirit Refining Refinement Inspector—that man could light candles from a distance, and he had performed this once during the New Year, causing the entire village to kneel on the ground.
As for immortals, those are Legend.
But now, the Legend seems to be not far from him.
"Dad!" He grabbed the fish basket and ran towards the village, his tattered straw sandals clattering on the rocks. "Dad! I'm going to clear the land!"
His father was mending a net in the yard. Upon hearing this, he paused for a moment while using the shuttle.
"Do you know what that place is?" Old Chen asked.
"Have no idea."
"Do you know how you're going to die?"
"Have no idea."
"Do you know if your mother will still be there when you come back?"
Chen Laoshi remained silent.
His mother stood at the kitchen doorway, still clutching a spatula in her hand, her eyes already red.
"I want to go." He lowered his head, his voice muffled. "Wang Ermazi goes to the Strongman Camp; he can earn ten taels of silver for his family a year. If I could become an immortal..."
"Become an immortal?" Old Chen slammed the shuttle on the ground. "You're just a fisherman, illiterate, what can you do? Which immortal didn't cultivate from childhood? Which one didn't have techniques and a master? You're just going to fill in their holes!"
Chen Laoshi raised his head, his eyes unusually calm. "Dad, Wang Ermazi can't read either."
Old Chen was stunned.
Yes, Wang Ermazi is illiterate, but Heavenly Court needs his strength. What does Heavenly Court want from its own son?
He didn't know, and neither did Chen Laoshi.
Three days later, thirty-seven young people still gathered at the village entrance, the oldest being in his early forties and the youngest only fourteen. They were all "honest people" from Gravel Village —farmers, fishermen, and woodcutters; none of them had ever practiced qi cultivation, and none of them had ever seen a real immortal.
When the purple light descended again, all thirty-seven people knelt down.
A silver-armored warrior emerged from the pillar of light. His face was young, but his eyes held a terrifying weariness. He glanced at the ragged villagers, his expression blank.
Have you thought it through?
"We've thought it through," the thirty-seven answered in unison.
"He went, and he might not come back."
"Know."
"He's back, but he might not amount to anything."
"Know."
The silver-armored warrior was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed, a bitter laugh, "That's the same answer I gave back then."
He waved his hand, and a golden light enveloped everyone. Chen Laoshi felt his body lighten, the reef beneath his feet receded further and further away, the village receded further and further away, and the coastline where he had lived for sixteen years receded further and further away.
He strained his eyes, trying to catch one last glimpse of the figure standing at the courtyard gate, already weeping uncontrollably.
Then, the clouds obscured the view.
The teleportation process lasted only a dozen or so breaths.
But when the golden light faded, Chen Laoshi found himself standing on a huge white jade platform, surrounded by a vast sea of clouds. In the distance were palace complexes, their golden roofs gleaming in the sunlight, ten thousand times more magnificent than the imperial palaces he had seen in New Year's paintings.
Of the thirty-six villagers, some were vomiting, some were trembling, and some were sitting on the ground, unable to get up.
The silver-armored warrior was gone, replaced by a white-robed scholar holding a jade slip, a smile on his face. His smile was gentle, but Chen Laoshi felt as if all his secrets had been seen through at a single glance.
"Don't be afraid," the scholar said. "This is just a small corner of the Heavenly Palace, specially for receiving newlyweds. You can call me Steward Liu."
He pointed to the golden-roofed palace in the distance. "That's the residence of great figures, including immortal Heavenly Immortal and Divine Immortal live as long as the heavens. You are not qualified to go in yet."
These words were spoken bluntly, yet no one felt insulted. This was because it was the truth; in fact, being able to come into such close contact with Legend immortals was already an immense blessing, thanks to the special status of the Bright Lake Realm, which belonged to the Yaoguang Divine Realm.
Steward Liu took a few steps closer, his gaze sweeping over each person's face. "You all volunteered. Very good. Starting a war requires fearless people; those who come voluntarily are better than those who are captured."
He paused, then continued, "But you must understand, the creation of this Fantasy World isn't a dinner party. Time flows a hundred times faster in that world than outside. Three hundred years will pass inside you, but only three years will pass outside. But you truly have to endure those three hundred years, day by day."
"There are native inhabitants, beings formed by His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor through the Incense Votive Power, and monsters born from the Void. Your task is to survive, establish strongholds, expand your territory, and bring that world completely under the coverage of the Heavenly Net."
"For each completed task, the Heavenly Net will record your merits and exchange them for merit points. Once you have enough merit points, you can ascend to Divine Immortal —from then on, you won't need to cultivate on your own. As long as you have enough merit points, the Heavenly Net will directly bestow cultivation techniques upon you and improve your cultivation level."
Someone asked in a low voice, "Then... what about those of us who haven't practiced..."
Steward Liu glanced at him. "You're not even cultivators yet. But once you're inside, the Heavenly Net will give you basic cultivation techniques. As long as you're brave enough to fight and earn enough merit, you can Spirit Refining in three years—I mean the three years inside. Thirty years to reach the Golden Core, three hundred years to the Dharma Realm —it's not a dream."
"Of course," he smiled slightly, "You might also die after three days inside."
silence.
Chen Laoshi clenched his fists. He remembered his father's words. "You're going there to fill in someone else's hole."
Maybe.
But he remembered even more clearly last winter when his mother fell ill and his family couldn't afford medicine. It was Wang Ermazi's family who lent him five taels of silver, which saved his mother's life. Those five taels of silver were earned by Wang Ermazi in the Strongman Camp.
Let's just fill in the gaps.
As long as we can find a way to survive.
Seeing that no one backed down, Steward Liu nodded, took out a jade talisman from his sleeve, and tossed it into the air.
The jade talisman exploded, transforming into countless golden rays that entered the center of everyone's forehead.
Chen Laoshi felt a sudden boom in his mind as countless pieces of information flooded in—there was a cultivation technique called "Primordial Unity Qi: Basic Chapter"; there were instructions for using the Heavenly Net, telling him how to check his merits, how to exchange for resources, and how to accept missions; and there was also an overview of that world: the Green Grain Realm, spanning 30,000 li, with seventeen human kingdoms, most of which had been occupied by Void monsters. The Heavenly Court had initially deployed 3,000 cultivators, and their current survival rate...
Forty-three percent.
Of the three thousand people, more than 1,200 survived.
Chen Laoshi swallowed hard.
"Now, collect your equipment." Steward Liu pointed to a row of light portals at the edge of the platform. "Go inside, Heavenly Net will automatically match you with the most suitable initial magical artifact. Remember, each person only has one; if you lose or break it, you'll have to exchange it for merit points."
Thirty-seven people lined up and walked toward the gate of light.
Chen Laoshi's turn, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and stepped in.
In that instant, he felt as if he were being watched by countless eyes—the eyes of the Heavenly Net, cold, precise, and devoid of emotion. His body, his aptitude, his Fate were being scanned, analyzed, and evaluated by invisible waves of energy.
This process lasted only a breath.
Then, an iron axe fell into his hands.
It was a very ordinary iron axe, with a chipped edge on the blade.
Chen Laoshi stared blankly at the axe, then at the gleaming longsword in the hand of the villager in front of him, and even at the bronze mirror in the hand of the villager behind him—it was said to be a magical artifact that could reveal the true form of monsters.
Why am I an axe? And why is the blade blunt?
He walked out of the portal with a somewhat aggrieved expression, but Steward Liu glanced at him, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.
"The ' Primordial Unity Qi: Basic Chapter ' focuses on physical strength," Steward Liu said calmly. "An axe suits you."
that's all?
Chen Laoshi dared not ask any further questions and bowed his head in agreement.
Unbeknownst to him, at the very moment he stepped out of the portal, somewhere in the Heavenly Palace, in front of a massive golden light screen, a man in white robes suddenly exclaimed "Eh!"
"What's wrong?" someone asked from the side.
"This newcomer..." The man in white robes pointed to a flashing dot on the screen, "Heavenly Net gave him a 97% match rate."
"97%? What does that mean?"
"This means that his Fate, physique, and temperament are 97% compatible with the ' Primordial Unity Qi ' cultivation technique. This technique was created by His Heavenly Emperor a thousand years ago, directly pointing to the path of Divine Immortal. In the past three thousand years, only one technique has achieved a compatibility rate exceeding 90%..."
He paused. "Seventeen."
"What about the seventeen present moments?"
"Thirteen died in battle, and the other four have already become Golden Immortal."
"Golden Immortal?!"
The person who heard this looked very surprised.
What is Golden Immortal?
A being far more terrifying than Heavenly Immortal being, previously known as a great being, capable of anything.
Could this honest, unassuming mortal possibly become Golden Immortal?
Thinking of this, the man's eyes darted around, as if he was pondering something.
"Don't let your mind wander. Everything is under the surveillance of the Heavenly Net; any random thoughts will cause problems."
The man in white spoke casually.
His words struck the man's heart like a heavy hammer.
He forced a smile, "How... how could that be..."
The man in white gave him a deep look and then left.
at the same time.
The moment Chen Laoshi stepped into the teleportation array, he finally understood what a "Fantasy World" meant.
It was a blood-red sky.
The earth was scorched black, and in the distance were mountains whose shapes were constantly changing—sometimes like swords piercing the sky, sometimes like giant beasts crawling, and sometimes like a distorted human face. The air was filled with the pungent smell of sulfur, and an indescribable sweet and fishy odor.
"The new guy?"
A hoarse voice came from the side. Chen Laoshi turned his head and saw a middle-aged man in tattered clothes leaning against a rock. His left arm was severed at the elbow and was haphazardly wrapped in a rag. His eyes were cloudy, but when he stared at people, there was still a sharpness that made people's hair stand on end.
"Yes... yes." Chen Laoshi nodded quickly.
Which village are you from?
"Bright Lake Realm East Sea Gravel Village"
"Fishermen?"
"Yes."
The middle-aged man chuckled and pointed with his remaining right hand to the ever-changing mountain in the distance, "Do you know what that is?"
Chen Laoshi shook his head.
"That was a mere thought of His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor. This world was created by His Majesty based on his imagination, using the Incense Votive Power. Mountains can change, rivers can flow backward, and what was flat land yesterday can grow into a bottomless Abyss today."
He withdrew his hand and closed his eyes. "Here, don't trust your eyes, trust the Heavenly Net."
As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Laoshi felt a slight heat between his brows; a message had arrived:
Current Location: Southeast Region of the Green Grain Realm, Outpost No. 17. Outpost Commander: Lin Tiannan (Late Golden Core). Current Mission: Report to the outpost within three days. Distance: 130 li. Suggested Route: Avoid the area covered by blood-red clouds to the southwest, as the density of Void creatures in that area is too high.
Chen Laoshi was stunned.
One hundred and thirty li.
The furthest he ever went in his life was a town thirty miles away.
But the route of Heavenly Net was already clearly imprinted in his mind, even marking the danger level of each node, suggested rest locations, and water source locations.
"What are you staring at?" The one-armed middle-aged man kicked him. "Let's go. If we don't reach the next safe point before dark, you'll be food for the Void Beast."
Chen Laoshi gripped the dulled axe tightly, gritted his teeth, and took a step forward.
He asked as he walked.
What is Void?
"That's the intermediate region where chaos meets our world. It's not as Berserk as the Chaos Sea, but the spiritual energy there is far more complex and volatile than in our world. It's an ideal place for training, provided you don't die there. It's said that this name was bestowed by His Majesty the Heavenly Emperor, which is quite fitting."
This departure lasted for three days.
In three days, he witnessed what a "Fantasy World" truly was.
There was a forest where the trees looked like people, that could walk and cry. He was almost entangled by a willow tree spirit, but the Heavenly Net between his eyebrows warned him in time, causing him to detour three miles.
There was a river with golden water that looked like flowing Lava, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be countless tiny specks of light moving around— Heavenly Net told him that these were "fragments of incense," one of the most precious resources in the world, but collecting them required specialized tools, and for now he could only watch.
There was a village where, from afar, wisps of smoke rose from chimneys, but upon closer inspection, it was found to be deserted. Rice still sat warm on the stoves, and tea steamed on the tables, but no one was there. The Heavenly Net message arrived belatedly: the village had been devoured by Void creatures seven days prior, and all villagers had been transferred to Heavenly Net space, awaiting their return after their new bodies were reconstructed.
Chen Laoshi stood at the empty village entrance, holding the bowl of warm tea, speechless for a long time.
This is how war begins.
When a person dies, their physical body can be reborn—if you have accumulated enough merit.
But if one's merits are insufficient, then one will truly die.
On the evening of the third day, he finally spotted Outpost No. 17.
It was a fortress built of black boulders, with walls thirty feet high, the tops of which were densely covered with runes that glowed constantly. Within a ten-mile radius of the fortress, the land was a normal black, without distortion or change—that was the area covered by the Heavenly Net, where "reality" was fixed.
Chen Laoshi staggered to the door, and just as he was about to speak, everything went black before his eyes, and he collapsed to the ground.
When he woke up, he was lying in a stone house, covered with a thin blanket, with the dulled axe on the bedside table.
"Woke up?"
A woman's voice. Chen Laoshi turned his head and saw a woman wearing leather armor and a sword at her waist sitting at the table, looking down at a scroll of bamboo slips. She looked to be in her early twenties, but her eyes were more weathered than his mother's.
"I..."
"Don't move. You've been unconscious for three days, dehydrated and exhausted. If you had arrived any later, we would have had to reconstruct your physical body—you just arrived, your merits are negative, and we can't afford to reconstruct it."
Chen Laoshi lay there obediently, not daring to move.