Chapter 236 - 198: Collaboration in Progress, the Forbidden Sea

Chapter 236: Chapter 198: Collaboration in Progress, the Forbidden Sea

The royal capital of Orielle.

A massive Starship advanced slowly, its shadow eclipsing more than half the city.

On either side of the Starship, four law enforcement shuttles flew as escorts.

The Starship eventually came to a stop above the royal capital. Its main doors opened, and a host of cultivators and Spirit Puppets formed an honor guard on either side. In the void, modified unmanned flying swords arranged themselves into a staircase, extending down to the royal palace.

Under the watchful eyes of the Seven Sages, Zhang Ji revealed himself.

He calmly stepped onto the flying sword staircase, followed by Dugu Yunfeng, Gu Jie, Balder, and the others.

This level of pomp was already the simplified version.

Zhang Ji didn’t want to make too much of a fuss. Otherwise, according to the etiquette of the Celestial Essence Realm for a Venerable One’s official visit, there would have been all sorts of flashy performances mixed in.

For Zhang Ji, a small display of power was sufficient. Anything more was unnecessary.

After Zhang Ji arrived, the President of the Seven Sages, Celestia, holding a scepter, personally came forward to offer her greetings.

"I am Celestia, President of the Arcane Federation. I greet you, Supreme One. The Arcane Federation welcomes your arrival," Celestia said.

The very moment she saw Zhang Ji, she could clearly sense the power of the being before her.

His strength far surpassed that of a Legendary, and she feared he had already stepped into the domain of the gods.

Let alone the Arcane Federation, even if all the top powers of Lan’er were to unite, they likely couldn’t stand against his might.

In an age where the gods resided in the Divine Realm, unable to interfere in the mortal world, he was, without a doubt, the Supreme.

"Don’t be nervous. We come in friendship," Zhang Ji said with a slight smile, reaching out to help the bowing Celestia to her feet.

This gesture made the other Legendaries of the Arcane Federation breathe a sigh of relief.

Although the message from Dugu Yunfeng had spoken of cooperation, Zhang Ji’s grand entrance had left them unable to relax.

"Please, this way. We have prepared a grand banquet," Celestia said.

Zhang Ji nodded and led Gu Jie and the others inside, entering the palace court.

Discussing business over a meal—this process seemed to be universal among many intelligent civilizations.

During the banquet, Zhang Ji ate while occasionally exchanging a few words with Celestia.

In his past life, he’d quite liked this white-haired woman.

But now, he found her lacking. ’Feels like one punch and she’d be gone. Too weak. No substance, and therefore, no appeal.’

These days, he preferred and admired beings who possessed great strength.

A beautiful shell alone was meaningless.

To be blunt, things like physical appearance were very easy to change.

Zhang Ji appreciated substance more.

He felt Celestia’s strength was relatively average; she couldn’t even compare to Dugu Yunfeng or Ling Xuzi, and she was a far cry from being on the same level as Zhuge Mingyuan.

It was true that an Extraordinary being who developed to the extreme in the End of the Dharma Era would completely crush Extraordinaries who grew up in an affluent environment.

Of course, this didn’t mean that this world’s Extraordinary System was poor.

This world’s Extraordinary System was actually quite well-developed. It had even produced more than one SSS-rank True God in the past, and there were still Demigods in existence today. The upper limit was quite high.

From a certain perspective, it was not much different from the Celestial Essence Realm.

In the ancient times of the Celestial Essence Realm, there were also SSS-rank Immortals and Super S-rank Tribulation Transcendence mighty beings.

The current Lan’er World was roughly equivalent to the middle ages of the Celestial Essence Realm.

It could produce Super S-rank Demigods, but producing a True God was considerably difficult.

The last one to nearly achieve godhood was the Divine Emperor of the Su Ya Empire.

But that was also a million years ago, a very long time indeed.

Apprentice, Official, Elite, Professional, Master, Legendary.

The path through these ranks wasn’t overly complicated; it was all about continuously accumulating one’s personal energy level and growing stronger step by step.

But for a Legendary to advance to a Demigod, this world’s path began to diverge.

They followed a system of faith.

They started to gather faith to obtain energy.

This was somewhat similar to that group of monks from the Bodhi Temple.

The advantage of this system was that it was like building a tower from grains of sand; it could significantly reduce the impact of the external environment.

But the disadvantage was an over-reliance on the number of followers, and the believers would, in turn, become a constraint.

For a Legendary to ascend to Demigod, one needed to perform their own great deeds, create a true Myth or legend, and spread it to gain faith and condense a Divine Format.

When the power of faith within the Divine Format became sufficient, it would naturally compress and give rise to a flame, igniting the Divine Flame, much like how the great sun undergoes fusion under immense pressure.

Faith would transform into Divine Power, and the Divine Format would become the Demigod’s energy source.

The power wielded by a Demigod originated from faith, and the Divine Format condensed from that faith also had its own principles.

A Divine Format has attributes. The so-called ’authority’ is the essence of its Divine Power.

Whatever power believers think a god possesses, the god then gains the corresponding authority and masters the associated abilities.

Under the shaping force of this belief, aether particles would naturally change, transforming into the corresponding power of faith.

For example, take the God of Fire in the Lan’er World, "Ash-Eye Yanside."

His authority is over [Fire], and by extension, he can dabble in things like [Culinary Arts] and [Forging].

When performing these actions, his authority would provide a boon, making it easier for him to accomplish the corresponding tasks.

The Lord of Entropy’s original form, the God of Light, wielded the authority of [Light], possessing related abilities like [Hope], [Healing], and [Dispelling Negative Effects].

’You could say that this world’s Extraordinary System really has a bit of an "it works because we believe it does" feel to it.’

The creation of Magic Potions was like this, and so was the faith system.

Of course, this didn’t mean they were truly omnipotent.

Even if someone fabricated a myth of an omnipotent creator god for themselves and ascended to Demigod status through it, the strength of their Divine Power would still be limited. It wouldn’t lead to an exaggerated performance; at most, it would manifest as their Divine Power having multiple or even simulated characteristics.

But one must always remember one thing: omnipotence often means being a master of none.

You’d expend more energy only to achieve, at best, forty to fifty percent of the effect of the original.

Moreover, faith still originates from believers. If the world cannot imagine your omnipotence, then your omnipotence will always have its limits.

’In any case, I have no intention of gathering faith to become a god.’

’Before reaching the absolute peak, this path has too many restrictions; it isn’t what I want.’

’What I want is absolute individual extraordinariness—the ability to exert sufficient power in any environment.’

Of course, this world’s Extraordinary path still had many aspects worth learning from.

At the very least, Zhang Ji found Magic Potions to be very useful.

He could even directly state a need, like asking Balder to create an [Iron Shirt Magic Potion], and Balder could actually produce a Magic Potion that enhanced the effects of practicing the "Iron Shirt" martial art.

The effect was far stronger than the medicinal liquids normally used for training.

Even Alchemy Technology and Alchemy Skills fell a bit short when it came to fulfilling such specific, targeted demands.

During the banquet, Anty also flew out from Gu Jie’s person, and Celestia arranged a separate seat just for her.

Creatures like pixies were rather popular throughout the world.

Most people were happy to be close to them.

"Your disciple is truly fortunate. I’ve heard that those favored by a pixie are destined for great achievements," Celestia said.

"I don’t expect him to reach any great heights. As long as he can live a happy and fulfilling life, that’s enough," Zhang Ji said.

These were Zhang Ji’s true feelings.

He would accept Gu Jie whether he achieved greatness or not.

’In any case, no matter how great his achievements, they’ll certainly never surpass my own.’

"You are truly magnanimous. With a teacher like you, he will surely not fare poorly," Celestia said.

"I’ll take that as a good omen," Zhang Ji said with a smile.

The banquet proceeded smoothly. Zhang Ji and Celestia chatted about local customs and culture, and it concluded with them taking a photo of their handshake.

This symbolized the official start of their cooperation.

As for the remaining details, those were not for Zhang Ji and Celestia to discuss.

Balder was fortunate enough to be entrusted with this important task by Zhang Ji and now held partial representative authority.

Once factories were established and resources began to flow in large quantities, he was destined to reap rewards a hundred, or even a thousand times greater than what his previous status afforded him.

...

Less than half a day after the formal intent to cooperate was confirmed, Zhang Ji learned the location where the capital of the Su Ya Empire had sunk through the Arcane Federation’s information channels. It was much faster than Balder’s investigation.

The Forbidden Sea.

Just as its name implied, this sea had been designated a forbidden zone.

Over a million years ago, the Su Ya Empire was destroyed. Along with it, its citizens and countless believers were burned to death by Divine Flame.

After death, those beings transformed into endless vengeful spirits that now inhabited this sea.

As a result, the yin energy in this stretch of sea was unimaginably dense.

It was said that it had even spawned demonic soul monsters capable of killing Legendaries.

Even a Legendary risked death if they tried to cross the Forbidden Sea.

Zhang Ji, however, was completely fearless. He set out the same day he received the information.

However, to avoid getting lost, Zhang Ji brought a good luck charm with him.

He tossed Gu Jie into the "Ship of Hope" and brought him along.

To be precise, it was Gu Jie and that pixie.

The pixie was very much against it, but she couldn’t argue since Gu Jie was Zhang Ji’s disciple, and she didn’t want to leave his side. Thus, she endured her discomfort and came along.

Following the map’s information, Zhang Ji immediately engaged his full-speed flight mode.

In his current state, he no longer needed to elementalize. With a single thought, his body would naturally enter a quasi-energy state, using void particles to move through space as if he were blinking.

A distance of thousands of miles required only two or three blinks.

In total, it took less than a second.

Setting off from the capital of Orielle, Zhang Ji reached the Forbidden Sea in less than half a minute.

"Suddenly, this world feels so small," Zhang Ji remarked with a sigh.

The world, of course, was not small. In terms of sheer size, it was even larger than the Celestial Essence Realm.

It was just that, compared to Zhang Ji’s travel speed, getting anywhere he wanted was a matter of one or two minutes.

Zhang Ji’s Spirit particles scanned the Forbidden Sea, and he could sense the presence of numerous Spirit Body Particles within it.

Their intensity was off the charts, basically all C-rank or higher.

From playing the game before he transmigrated, Zhang Ji was quite familiar with this place.

It was a spot for players to farm Soul Crystals. On large servers, some people even made a living by farming Soul Crystals here.

However, he hadn’t expected that the royal city of Su Ya had transmigrated to Origin Star from this very place.

Flying rapidly over the sea’s surface, Zhang Ji completely ignored the Ghosts. At his speed, they couldn’t even catch a glimpse of his figure.

His spiritual probe swept out rapidly, and soon, Zhang Ji detected a spatial anomaly on the seabed.

This spatial anomaly was extremely well-hidden. If he had been a moment earlier or a moment later, he likely would not have found it.

But, as it happened, he found it.

"A pixie’s luck is quite useful. A Divine-Created Race, indeed!"

A satisfied smile appeared on Zhang Ji’s face. His figure then plunged straight into the sea. After descending more than fifty thousand meters, he suddenly blinked and vanished from the spot.