Star Realm was one of the 72 Realms in the overworld. Its vast territory greatly exceeded the imagination of rural bumpkins like Gu Nan.
As a realm governed by a federation, Star Realm's Thirteen Regions formed an enormous federation, which ruled over a diverse population numbering tens of billions of people.
Gu Nan planned to head off to Ruby Fish Star, the main star of the Ninth Region. The soaring ship would drop him off in passing, and the local reception center would receive him.
In addition, there was a lot of other data about Star Realm. Gu Nan could only select the more important ones to examine.
The most important information was, of course, two aspects: one was information related to Ruby Fish Star, and the other was about Star Realm's power ranking system.
Different from the Langya World where he transmigrated into before, Star Realm had an unimaginable level of scientific and technological achievements, yet it wasn't a society ruled by science and technology. Instead, it focused on‒
"In XX Continent, the strong reigned supreme..." Oh, got off track there.
Star Realm's entire population practiced martial arts. Martial arts cultivators were divided into five realms according to their levels: Acquired, Innate, Prodigious, Void Cutter, and Star Ruler. Each realm could be divided into several small stages.
"My current level of strength is probably... Innate Realm Third Stage?"
Cultivators' realms would usually be determined by the quality of their internal energy, but Gu Nan didn't have any internal energy, so he had to roughly evaluate his level according to his explosive force.
The Innate Realm had only six stages in total. He was already considered mid-tier, which wasn't bad.
Time slipped away bit by bit while Gu Nan was reading. He eventually fell asleep, but was suddenly startled awake when the entire resting room shook violently.
He turned to look out the window and saw colorful, dazzling, and brilliant lights rapidly flowing by‒ the ascending ship seemed to be traveling through the legendary wormhole.
It's just that… the corners of Gu Nan's mouth twitched slightly, strange ideas popping up in his brain.
"Why does it resemble some third-rate domestic cartoon?"
While Gu Nan was admiring this strange scenery, the Evil God Temple in his head suddenly shook, and a line of unprecedented words appeared.
｢Detecting that the player's main body has arrived at another large-scale dungeon space. Set as second base?｣
Gu Nan stared blankly in shock.
Another large-scale dungeon space… is it talking about Star Realm?
According to the time and the scenery outside the window, they should be crossing the gap between the two worlds and arriving at the outermost periphery of Star Realm right now...
'If Star Realm is "another large-scale dungeon space," then doesn't it mean that… the things I experienced before were also dungeons? Is the so-called overworld made up entirely of dungeons?'
Gu Nan suddenly felt his hair stand on end, as if there was a layer of invisible fog hanging over everyone's eyes, but he accidentally caught a glimpse of the truth because of the Evil God Temple.
After subconsciously choosing ｢Yes｣, Gu Nan slowly calmed down.
It was still too early to make a conspiracy theory judgment based on one sentence from the Evil God Temple.
'It's a fact that dungeons will reset every time I enter one, which is true for all the dungeons I experienced so far. And the Evil God Temple's judgment may not necessarily be correct, and it may also not be the same as my own understanding. Perhaps it just recognizes all planes as dungeons by default…'
[Esteemed guests, the ship will soon reach your destination: Ninth Region, Ruby Fish Star. Please stand by at the reception area.]
Without giving Gu Nan too much time to think, the broadcast reminder came again, and a circle lit up in the room, highlighting the so-called reception area.
Gu Nan didn't think much. He went straight to the circle and was led away from the ship by the beam of light.
But at the next second, he sensed that something was wrong.
He, who should have left together with the little loli, Bai Luoluo, actually had a different woman beside him‒ Qin Xuanji!
Gu Nan suddenly felt his consciousness blur…
- - - - - -
"Fourth Bro, who are these two little fellows? They're merely two Innate Realm weaklings, yet we actually have to use five Prodigious Realm cultivators to snatch them away..."
"One is because of a mission from the West‒ she's most likely a bloodline user. The other is the rebirth karma of the Gu family's girl… so we can't kill these two. We can't afford to offend the West or the Gu family. Once we become directly involved in this karma, the consequences will be unpredictable."
"Then what should we do?"
"Just leave them in Radiant Tower. It's best if they die, and even if they don't, it'll still take several years for them to leave, so they won't be able to find us."
In a daze, Gu Nan's consciousness gradually woke up. He vaguely heard their words, but his mind was still exhausted and was soon enveloped by deep darkness again.
When he truly woke up later on, he found himself in a small room with two beds. Qin Xuanji was lying on the adjacent bed.
The words he heard when in his daze clearly emerged in Gu Nan's mind at this time. He knew very well that because his physique was far superior to that of ordinary people, he didn't enter a deep coma.
'Those people probably didn't expect that I would wake up early because of my overly strong physique… Did they attack me because of Gu Nian?'
Gu Nan sat up and pondered quietly.
"I wonder if anything happened to the little loli, but I shouldn't think too much about that, not when I'm powerless to even defend myself right now."
Gu Nan began to look around. It was quite simple, crude, and old-fashioned, but traces of modern civilization could still be seen, indicating that it wasn't too far away from Ruby Fish Star and might even be on Ruby Fish Star itself.
"What would the Radiant Tower be?"
Gu Nan took these questions with him as he got up and opened the door. The outside was simply empty grassland, not a single figure could be seen.
A slight sound came from behind him. Gu Nan didn't even need to think as he turned and swept a punch out. Suddenly, a muffled grunt came‒ the sound of Qin Xuanji being thrown into the air.
Gu Nan smiled silently. He had fought her hundreds of times in the challenge dungeon and was exceedingly familiar with the details of his opponent's fighting style. How could a sneak attack succeed?
But now was not the time for infighting.
"Don't be so quick to attack. I was also brought in from the ship, remember?"
Qin Xuanji stood up with an indifferent expression. Her cold personality didn't mean that she was stupid. After being reminded by Gu Nan, she immediately recalled their situation.
Gu Nan didn't know how much she knew of the situation, but it was probably impossible for her to tell him any information.
Just when the two were standing in silence, a line of small text suddenly emerged from the ceiling and quickly flashed with light.
[Entering Radiant Tower's assessment plane after two breaths: two challengers, please prepare yourselves.]
Gu Nan and Qin Xuanji exchanged a glance, frowning in unison. It was a very bland sentence, but they understood the core information ‒ the two of them had to go to a special plane to complete the challenge.
'What challenge? Is it assessing combat power or other abilities? Are the two of them working together or against each other?'
Gu Nan had even more thoughts. A "breath" was the standard unit of time in Star Realm, or the amount of time it took for an ordinary person to take a breath. One breath was equivalent to about 15 seconds.
'Sure enough, I'm already in Star Realm.' His expression remained unchanged, but his heart made a judgment.
Two breaths passed quickly, and Gu Nan felt his vision go dark. When he regained his sight, he was already in a completely different environment, and only Qin Xuanji still stood beside him.
At that moment, another incomprehensible notice from the Evil God Temple appeared.
｢External mission detected. Incorporate into current mission sequence?｣
Devotee's Game System Inspired Note
» This section of the chapter is a Fan based created system to mock-up or simulate the 'Status Information' of our MC - Gu Nan. This implies that you are free to skip reading this and continue your journey onto the next chapter.
» All catalog data below is a summary of various information achieved by Gu Nan that corresponds till the end of the related chapter and is compiled into a singular 'Status Screen.' Additionally, the invented system below would continue to evolve as we progress and learn more about the novel itself.
MC's Status Information
Name: Gu Nan
Current Location: Radiant Tower, somewhere in the Star Realm
Status: ⟪ Evil God ⟫
Advancement Direction: Agility Type
Current Evil God Rank: Tier 2
Equivalent Martial Art: External Kung Fu Master - Innate Realm Third Stage
Current Quest:
→ None.
◈ Status: N/A
Current Evil Points: 236
Overall Evil Points: 716, Overall Evil Value: 16
Exclusive Skills Acquired:
— Deceitful Steps. ｢Movement Speed increased by 30%. Attack Speed increased by 50%｣
Item/s owned:
→ Four Element Crossbow. ｢A Tier 2 crossbow weapon that can generate four types of elemental arrows—earth, water, wind, and fire—based on the user's needs and does not need to load arrows.｣