The True Face

The Immortal Realm. Yaoguang had to admit that the Virtual Immortal Realm, powered and projected by the Lord of Yuanxi, was exceptionally useful. Not only could one search for general information on nearly every faction and prominent figure, but it also precisely cataloged the coordinates and locations of every sect. Under these circumstances, the route for Yaoguang’s Shaohua avatar to journey to the Creation Group was crystal clear, with no need to ask anyone for directions. This avatar of his primarily walked the path of Time. Due to the sheer difficulty of cultivating the Grand Dao of Time, very few walked it, which made acquiring shares considerably easier. However, since he intended to act under the identity of Immortal King Yuxiao—and eventually deal with Immortal King Tianyu in the future—walking the Path of the Void was clearly far more justifiable. And that was hardly difficult for him either. *Over the years of my continuous refinement, the River of Time has come to encompass five Grand Daos: Time, Void, Soul, Destruction, and Chaos. Though it cannot compare to the Grand Dao Pagoda, it is barely passable. The only issue is that the grades of these Grand Daos are somewhat low... Even the Path of Time can accommodate at most thirty shares, the Void merely twenty, and the other three only around ten each...* Yaoguang pondered. Adding all the Grand Daos together, they amounted to fewer than a hundred shares. Furthermore, because these Grand Daos were of different types—to put it bluntly, a motley assortment—they could ultimately only exert the strength of a peak True Immortal. At best, relying on his superior realm, he might contest an Immortal Venerable for a move or two. With this level of power, securing an executive position like president in the Creation Group would probably be a stretch, to say nothing of returning to the board of directors. *Time was simply too tight. Back then, I originally intended to leave the time avatar in the lower realm, thinking it would have all the time in the world. As a result, I barely refined the supreme sacred artifact that is the River of Time...* Yaoguang felt a twinge of regret. Still... Considering that Immortal King Yuxiao had only reincarnated three thousand years ago, having the cultivation of a peak True Immortal coupled with the realm of an Immortal Venerable was actually a decent match. In any case, he would first head to the Creation Group to show his face and establish a presence. Having determined his bearing, Yaoguang followed the navigation route provided by the Virtual Immortal Realm and headed straight for the Creation Group. As Yaoguang flew on his sword through the void, departing the region where there was virtually no “interference” from Dao Lords, the surrounding environment gradually shifted. Cities began appearing in his field of vision one after another. Yaoguang had originally assumed that given the strength of the Nine Great Groups and the technological level of the Hunyuan Realm, they would have overhauled the Ancient Immortal Realm with modern landscapes. Yet upon encountering the first city, he realized it still preserved an ancient architectural and cultural style. Naturally, while the lifestyle, architecture, and social hierarchy leaned toward antiquity, the living standards of the people here were by no means low, given that this was the Immortal Realm, a world overflowing with cultivators. At the very least, food and clothing were not an issue. The entire city gave him the impression... Of being a Beihai Star with far stricter worldly laws, where even a Golden Core cultivator could barely manage to fly on a sword. This struck him as rather incredible. *The aura drifting out from the Gate of the Immortal Realm is called immortal qi. On Beihai Star, it was only because the spiritual energy was mingled with traces of immortal qi that alchemists could use it to refine Pure Yang Great Pills. By this logic, the immortal qi capable of condensing into Pure Yang Great Pills should be far denser here in the Immortal Realm. In fact, it wouldn't even be surprising if all the world's spiritual energy had transformed entirely into pure yang immortal qi. Yet in reality... the pure yang immortal qi in the Immortal Realm is only marginally higher than on Beihai Star, nothing more.* Yaoguang mused, casting a glance at the city passing beneath him. The city teemed with people. Not all living beings across the Immortal Realm had ascended from the lower realms. Perhaps in the most ancient era, only those cultivators known as immortals—at the Void Piercing, Void Refining, and Void Shattering realms—could arrive in the Immortal Realm. But across tens of millions of years of survival and reproduction, countless newborns had come into this world. Not every one of these offspring could achieve Void Piercing, Void Refining, or Void Shattering. Over time, they naturally coalesced into the Immortal Realm’s original commoner class. And after vast epochs of evolution, the sheer number of these ordinary people had grown vast enough to cover every corner of the Immortal Realm. They cultivated and grew, holding the achievement of Void Piercing, Void Refining, and Void Shattering as their ultimate life goals. Several million years ago, a great war had erupted between the Hunyuan Realm and the Ancient Immortal Realm. By researching the Ancient Immortal Realm, the Lord of Yuanxi had pioneered the Dao Lord system to counter the Ancient Immortal Realm’s three thousand Dao Ancestors. During that period, immortal spirits seized shares of the Grand Daos by becoming Dao Lords, True Immortals, Immortal Venerables, and Immortal Kings. Oblivious native cultivators followed suit, comprehending the Grand Daos in the same fashion, which only accelerated the collapse of the Three Thousand Grand Daos system. Deprived of the preservation provided by the Three Thousand Grand Daos system, the Ancient Immortal Realm gradually fell under the control of the Nine Great Groups. Although the entire Ancient Immortal Realm had not fallen completely, it was... Only a matter of time. *So, if my guess is correct, immortal qi in the Immortal Realm is not severely lacking; rather, it has been concentrated elsewhere.* Yaoguang observed. When most immortal spirits entered the Ancient Immortal Realm, they did not choose to descend to the lower realms, but arrived directly in the Immortal Realm. Between the cities governed by the Nine Great Groups and those inhabited by native cultivators, there was likely an extreme polarization. After a brief look, Yaoguang accelerated once more. Wherever his streak of light passed, every native inhabitant of the Immortal Realm bowed their head in terror, not daring to look up, seemingly terrified that their gaze might desecrate the majesty of a True Immortal and bring down horrific disaster upon themselves. *Hardly any cultivators at all,* Yaoguang noted internally. Of course, he was referring to cultivators at or above the Heavenly Fire realm. The world laws of the Immortal Realm were unforgiving, leaving no room for mortals to survive. An ordinary person reached the Foundation Establishment level simply upon reaching adulthood. With just a little training, they could attain the Unity or Core Formation levels. However, reaching the Heavenly Fire realm above that required specialized methods to ignite the energy settled within the body, forming the first wisp of immortal power. Only upon cultivating immortal power was one considered to have truly stepped onto the path of cultivation. Once they embarked on that path, these individuals would leave the small towns where they were born and head for larger cities. Yet before forming a Golden Core and gaining the ability to fly on a sword, it was difficult for them to leave the borders of their home nations in their entire lifetimes. Only when they achieved the Golden Core and gained the power of flight could they truly venture abroad and carve out a path for themselves. Only after reaching the Void Piercing realm would they travel to farther domains and the core cities of the great continents, seeking opportunities for Void Refining, Void Shattering, and even Dao Integration to ascend as true immortals. *Small towns... Continent-level factions establish arrays to siphon the surrounding immortal qi, while domain-level factions establish further arrays to siphon whatever immortal qi is left from the continent-level factions, and so on... Under this tiered absorption, it's no wonder there are virtually no cultivators left in the small towns, nor is it any wonder that cultivators flock toward the great cities, great sects, smaller corporations, and the mega-conglomerates.* By now, Yaoguang had arrived at the outer periphery of the Creation Group’s territory. The successive immortal cities he had passed along the way allowed him to gradually piece together the social fabric of the Immortal Realm. This structure... Felt somewhat familiar to him. The small towns were like rural villages, leaving behind only the elderly who had failed to step onto the path of cultivation to await death. The small sects were like county towns. Although young people equivalent to cultivating practitioners were present, there were no factories, incomes were low, and developmental potential was virtually nonexistent; they could only muddle through their days. Only when one reached the immortal cities established by small and medium-sized corporations was there a glimmer of opportunity. Yet those immortal cities could only attract Golden Core cultivators and a handful of Void Piercing, Void Refining, and Void Shattering cultivators. Just as ordinary cities struggled to attract true talent and major enterprises. The truly capable talent, the elite university graduates—the Void Piercing, Void Refining, and Void Shattering cultivators—would all make their way to the top-tier immortal cities developed by the Nine Great Groups. There, they cultivated with relentless discipline, regarding achieving Dao Integration and entering the Nine Great Groups as their supreme honor. Such an Immortal Realm... *Is essentially an indigenous civilization ruled by an advanced civilization, even though both worlds are roughly comparable in their energy levels... What's worse, due to relentless propaganda from the Hunyuan Realm, the cultivators of this world have actually accepted the rule and colonization brought by the Hunyuan Realm, believing that only they can lead the Ancient Immortal Realm to greater glory, while viewing the resistance as enemies.* Yaoguang sighed inwardly. *What they do not realize is that the moment all the resisters are thoroughly eradicated, they too will vanish. The entire Ancient Immortal Realm will cease to exist, devoured clean by the Hunyuan Realm.* He had no room to pass too much judgment. Nor did he rush his journey toward the Creation Group. Instead, he used the travel time to observe the state of the Immortal Realm, cross-reference it with the data he possessed, and familiarize himself with his surroundings, all while buying time for his true body in the lower realm to deepen its understanding of Immortal King Yuxiao through ongoing interactions. By the time he truly reached the immortal city belonging to the Creation Group, a hundred years had already passed. *** *Indeed, the more powerful the conglomerate, the more magnificent the city it builds, and the more immortal qi it commands.* Even before entering the Creation Group’s city, Yaoguang could already see with the naked eye the pervasive, curling wisps of immortal qi that enveloped its perimeter. This was a metropolis steeped in futuristic design, yet seamlessly harmonized with nature. The entire city was sheltered beneath a colossal transparent dome of light, a barrier that spanned across more than ten million li. Through the dome, one could faintly discern towering skyscrapers soaring into the clouds, majestic mountain peaks piercing the heavens, crystal-clear rivers winding across the terrain, and vast lakes sprawling over hundreds of thousands of li. At the very summits of a select few sky-piercing towers and peaks, floating islands ranging from ten thousand to several tens of thousands of li in diameter hovered serenely in the air. Every single one of these islands served as an array nexus for the city, gathering the surrounding immortal qi. Were a Golden Core cultivator to set foot on such an island, every breath they took would be equivalent to refining a Pure Yang Great Pill. For a Void Refining cultivator living in such a place, the process of accumulating raw energy could be traversed in an extraordinarily short time. It was no exaggeration to say that for cultivators below Dao Integration, this environment was akin to an infinite-resource cheat. As long as their comprehension of the realm was sufficient, anyone could reach the peak of Void Shattering, even without active cultivation. A place like this truly lived up to the name of an Immortal Realm. Regrettably, the privilege of this “true” Immortal Realm had now been wholly monopolized by the Nine Great Groups.