Chapter 317:

Mysterious Land

Xu Jingming discovered that the surrounding space was distorted and blurry, and his robe had become a loose robe. There was a number on his left chest—230534. At the same time, his figure, hairstyle, and appearance had become identical to his in reality.

Huh? Xu Jingming sensed the changes in his body in confusion.

“Friendly reminder: After entering the mysterious land, please hide your true appearance and information. Your physique cannot be changed.” As the voice echoed, an interface to adjust his appearance emerged in front of him.

Xu Jingming looked at himself. Hiding my true appearance and information?

He began to adjust his appearance, slightly changing the shape of his face, eyebrows, and eyes. His face gave off a much sharper feeling instantly.

After the adjustment—

Whoosh.

The distorted space returned to normal, and Xu Jingming saw a vast wilderness in front of him. A huge spaceship was parked in the wilderness. From the looks of it, this spaceship was more than a thousand meters long, and the ship’s hull was more than 300 meters tall.

Buzz! 

An ethereal figure appeared beside him and said, “No. 230534, please enter the spaceship early. The journey to the mysterious land will officially begin in 172 hours and 51 minutes.”

“172 hours later?” Xu Jingming was stunned.

“Yes, you can log off at any time for the time being.” The virtual figure nodded and said, “We will also send a notice five minutes before the journey to the mysterious land officially begins.”

Xu Jingming came to a realization and walked to the spaceship.

When he came close to the spaceship, he saw a cabin door open silently. At the same time, a wide staircase was lowered, and Xu Jingming walked up the stairs into the spaceship.

After walking along the main corridor in the spaceship for a moment, he quickly saw a hall.

The hall was extremely spacious and was more than 100 meters tall. At a glance, there were more than 10,000 cosmic citizens sitting in the hall—it wasn’t cramped at all!

These cosmic citizens had different physiques and appearances. Some of them were more than six meters tall, and their skin was like rock. Some were less than half a meter tall, petite, and cute. There were also tall giants with four arms, cold three-eyed people, and humans with furry tails…

Humans from all kinds of cosmic civilizations were gathered here.

“What can I get you to drink?” a robot walked over and asked warmly. All kinds of beverage choices appeared in front of it, and it was labeled ‘free.’

Xu Jingming ordered a drink he was familiar with.

Wine appeared out of thin air in the robot’s hand and was warmly delivered to him.

There’s still more than seven days before we set off. Xu Jingming held his wine glass and sat in the hall, silently watching the other cosmic citizens. These 10,000 people are just chatting here?

“No. 230534.” A man with short golden hair walked over with a glass of wine and gestured at his chest. He also had the number 370628 on his chest. “I’m from the Llanwern Star Alliance. What about you?”

“Oohook Star Alliance.” Xu Jingming nodded slightly.

The short-haired man sat down and smiled. “It costs one billion cosmic dollars for a single entry into the mysterious land, so it’s not a mean feat. Let’s exchange information about the mysterious land? Let’s consider it as helping each other?”

“Exchange information?” Xu Jingming looked at him. “Sure.”

“You should know about Planet Number One in the mysterious land, right?” the short-haired man took a sip of wine and said.

Xu Jingming’s expression froze slightly.

“You don’t even know about Planet Number One?” The short-haired man was stunned. He didn’t expect the other party to have such a reaction.

Xu Jingming couldn’t say anything. It was easy to be exposed if he made up nonsense.

“I’m not sure.” Xu Jingming shook his head.

“To be able to spend a billion cosmic dollars to enter, how can your civilization… know nothing about the mysterious land?” The short-haired man was puzzled. “This is Planet Number One. As long as someone from your civilization has been there, there should be some records.”

“Can you tell me a little about it?” Xu Jingming asked.

His own civilization… was an emerging cosmic civilization! Without any history, their intelligence was naturally very weak.

He was the first person on Earth to come to Blood Rain World! Even the hidden opportunities in Blood Rain World were told to Xu Jingming by Pang Ze.

“Sorry.” The short-haired man got up and turned to leave. He didn’t want to help an opponent.

Xu Jingming silently watched the other party leave, feeling helpless.

Moments later.

“What? You don’t know anything?” A tall woman—who was nearly five meters tall but had an excellent figure—looked at the tiny Xu Jingming in confusion. “You don’t know, and the same goes for your homeworld? Nobody from your homeworld’s civilization has ever entered?”

Xu Jingming only shook his head.

“And you spent a billion to enter?” The tall woman left. “If you’re unwilling to communicate, just say it. Don’t waste my time.”

…

“The information on Planet Number One in the mysterious land is the most basic. If you aren’t willing to share, there’s no point in our exchange.” A cold three-eyed man chatted for a while before turning to leave.

…

Xu Jingming sat there for half an hour.

Eight cosmic citizens came to chat with him, intending to exchange information. However, Xu Jingming couldn’t even say anything about Planet Number One, so the others naturally didn’t want to say anything else.

This made Xu Jingming mutter to himself. After the sacrifice, I realize… that I have the least information among all these cosmic citizens. 

Xu Jingming was a little helpless. It can’t be helped; I’m the first from Earth to explore this place.

His homeworld’s civilization didn’t have much knowledge built up, and he knew too little about the universe’s secret information. There was nothing he could do about it.

“No. 230534.” A dwarf sat opposite Xu Jingming.

“I know nothing about the mysterious place.” Xu Jingming looked at him.

“I noticed. You really don’t know anything,” the dwarf said with a smile. “How about this? I’ll sell you information about the mysterious place! How about one billion cosmic dollars?”

“One billion for a piece of information?” Xu Jingming looked at him. “I don’t even know if your information is worth this price.”

“Of the seven planets in the mysterious land, I can sell you the basic information about the first three planets,” the dwarf replied. “The competition between countless civilizations in the universe is intense! It is in their interests to block the information on Blood Rain World’s ‘mysterious land.’ It’s very difficult for you to buy it outside. I don’t even dare to sell this information at the Myriad Worlds Group. I only dare to tell you the details face-to-face in the spaceship.”

Basic information about the first three planets? Xu Jingming fell into thought.

“A billion isn’t expensive at all,” the dwarf enticed. “If you foolishly and blindly enter, you might gain very little. But if you enter while being informed, the gains might be much greater! You only have one chance in your life to enter the mysterious land… It’s very worth spending more money to buy information.”

Xu Jingming shook his head. “But I don’t have money.”

“You can buy less if you’re lacking money. For example, basic information on Planet Number One will only cost 100 million,” the dwarf continued.

Xu Jingming shook his head.

“You’re still so stingy at the critical moment.” The dwarf scoffed and got up to leave. “You’ll understand the hardships of not having information when the journey begins.”

“There’s no need to go over. That newcomer doesn’t even know about Planet Number One.”

“How dare he enter without knowing anything?”

“Who knows? It’s also possible that he knows a lot of information and doesn’t want it to be leaked.”

“From my observation, he really doesn’t know anything!”

Xu Jingming heard the discussions of some cosmic citizens not far away. With his mental realm, he could sense the hostility of some people.

Many people are hostile toward me. Xu Jingming was a little puzzled. I don’t know them, and those who are here aren’t ordinary cosmic citizens. They shouldn’t be that deranged. Could it be that… there’s some competition?

Xu Jingming was just guessing. This was because he knew nothing about the mysterious place.

After staying in the hall for a moment, he went offline.

******

In his personal space in the virtual world.

Information is very important. Xu Jingming sat on the sofa and thought to himself, With information, I can do things in a targeted fashion. I can also avoid many detours and gain much more. But clearly, none of those cosmic citizens are willing to do good and give me the information for free.

“In fact, according to that information broker, some powerful civilizations in the universe are deliberately blocking information on the mysterious land.” Xu Jingming also understood this very well. There were countless cosmic civilizations in the universe—they competed with each other.

Civilizations naturally tried their best to block out key information that affected their foundations, making it difficult for new cosmic civilizations to collect them.

Pang Ze has never entered the mysterious land either. Pang Ze had suggested Xu Jingming come to Blood Rain World, and he had told the latter everything he needed to know.

There’s one person who might know a lot. Xu Jingming thought of someone.

Ambassador Tejano! Xu Jingming sat on the sofa and fell into thought.

Perhaps Ambassador Tejano will despise me and think that I’m too thick-skinned… Xu Jingming got up. However, the information about the mysterious place is very important to me. It’s also very important to the generations of evolvers on Earth.

Even if I get derided for being thick-skinned, I’ll have to suck it up. Xu Jingming made a decision.

He knew his limits. He had never been willing to make things difficult for others since he was a child.

Ambassador Tejano treated him really well and even gave him the Redmond Medal. Xu Jingming was very grateful to the other party, and he had always been very proper when facing Ambassador Tejano.

This time… It was also at the critical moment of the evolutionary path! It was even of grave importance to Earth’s future, so he decided to be thick-skinned for once!

Buzz.

Xu Jingming tapped gently and contacted Tejano.

…

In the virtual world.

Tejano was gathering a large amount of information.

It’s not easy to be a boss, and it’s even harder to be one of the top bosses in the entire Cosmic Human Alliance. Tejano discovered that this path wasn’t easy after he decided to establish his career and officially began preparations.

Managing people was a form of knowledge. How to manage a corporation and money was all knowledge.

Tejano had received the best education since he was a child. Over the years, his educational level had reached Lv. 22, and he was much better than Xu Jingming! He naturally wasn’t a fool who only knew how to spend money.

Huh? Tejano received a call. Xu Jingming wants to see me?

Tejano was a little curious.

Tejano had a different attitude toward Xu Jingming. On the one hand, Xu Jingming was the number one genius Tejano had encountered on Earth and was the only one who had defeated him. On the other hand, Tejano had been in charge of protecting Earth’s civilization for more than 30 years. In fact… Xu Jingming wasn’t even born when he first arrived on Earth! Therefore, he could be considered to have watched Xu Jingming grow from an infant to this day…

At Tejano’s age, 30-plus years was nearly half his age!

He had encountered such a genius after such a long time, who had even defeated him! Therefore, Tejano gave him a Redmond Medal back then.

With his status, why would he take the initiative to give a gift?

Whoosh.

With a light tap, Xu Jingming appeared from the void and arrived in Tejano’s personal space.

“Ambassador Tejano.” Xu Jingming was extremely respectful.

“Have a seat.” Tejano looked at him. “It’s rare for you to come to me.”

“I usually wouldn’t want to disturb you, Your Excellency.” Xu Jingming sat down.

Tejano smiled at him. “If I’m not wrong, a martial arts fanatic like you must’ve encountered something very important for you to suddenly come to me.”

Xu Jingming was slightly stunned.

“Speak,” Tejano said.

“After becoming a cosmic citizen, I mainly trained in Blood Rain World,” Xu Jingming said. “I recently sacrificed 10,000 gold and entered the mysterious land. After entering, I discovered… that I knew nothing about the mysterious land.”

“As for the other cosmic citizens in the mysterious land, they are my competitors. Nobody will tell me information either. I don’t even know anything about Planet Number One in the mysterious land,” Xu Jingming said.

“There are a total of seven planets in the mysterious land. There’s no need to gather bits and pieces of information on the seven planets,” Tejano commented indifferently. “They’re all useless.”

Xu Jingming was stunned.

“To go to the mysterious place, you first have to understand what it’s for,” Tejano said. “The mysterious place in Blood Rain World is actually the only public recruitment channel for the 17 top human factions in the universe.”