Chapter 7: Strength After Advancement (Part 2)

Qi Wu Zhen smiled and said, “No, my wish is to enter the Sacrificial Star. As for the greater world, I won’t go there.” Glancing at everyone, she casually added, “I plan to leave. Before you leave the Sacrificial Star, you can send me a message token. If I have time, I’ll come… to see you off. If not… you don’t need to wait for me. Go ahead on your own.”
Li Ran said, “Xiao Zhenzhen, don’t rush to leave so soon…”
Qi Wu Zhen rolled her eyes at him but didn’t argue, merely watching him quietly. Li Ran cleared his throat and said, “It’s not the time to part yet. After all, this place is quite large. Let’s stay together for now. Once we’ve learned more about the Sacrificial Star and gotten to know the experts here, it would be better to separate.”
In truth, Li Ran also knew that with Qi Wu Zhen’s extraordinary strength, anyone who provoked her would suffer misfortune, so safety wasn’t an issue. Yet he still felt reluctant to part with her. Since they first met, they had been constantly fighting, but now they not only shared a tacit understanding but also felt reluctant to part. Even though each of them had their own principles, they weren’t averse to helping each other along the way.
Qi Wu Zhen thought for a moment before nodding. “Okay.” More people meant greater strength—she agreed with this, as it had been proven throughout their journey.
Those who had originally planned to act alone also began to consider changing their minds. Aizek and Meili had already gone to the Fengtai Continent, which was said to be the best place for professionals from the Spellcraft World. Although those two weren’t professionals, they still needed an environment suited to them.
Goha and Yingbei had already reached an agreement: as long as Yingbei provided him with the materials needed to advance to the tenth-tier altar, he would live in Yingbei’s manor and help defend it for a long time. The others hadn’t thought about parting for now.
Guo Shier asked, “Where shall we go next?”
Yingbei said, “I can suggest a place. I wonder if everyone agrees?” Everyone’s attention turned to him. He smiled and said, “Let’s go to the Fengtai Continent. That place… every professional would go there, because there are materials to obtain, and many professionals to meet. If you go, you’ll gain a lot of information.”
Bo Riguang said, “The Fengtai Continent is much livelier than here. There, ordinary people live as well, with many cities and villages.”
Yingbei nodded. “Yes, it’s one of the few continents in the Sacrificial Star with ordinary people. Well, let’s plan our next move.”

Guo Shier knew that battles between professionals, like the one between him and Bo Rijigong, would cause heavy casualties if ordinary people were slightly involved. As for why ordinary people shouldn’t be killed, although he didn’t understand the reason, he fully agreed—professionals’ pride and bravery didn’t come from killing ordinary people.
Yin Bei said, “I have a friend on the Fengtai Continent. You can go to him. Hehe, at least you can learn a bit more and have him arrange accommodation and such.”
Li Ran asked, “Oh, is your friend a professional?”
Yin Bei nodded. “Mm, he’s a pretty good expert—much stronger than me. He’s an expert at the 16th-level altar. His name is Jiang Hua. He’s a veteran professional who’s been in the Star Sacrifice for a long time. On the Fengtai Continent, he owns a city—Hehe, Jiang City is his territory and control area.”
A 16th-level altar—truly a top-tier professional. By inference, his physical altar must be at least eight layers high to reach such a level, and it’s more likely that his physical altar has nine layers while his virtual altar has seven. So, just by calling it a 16th-level altar, his strength is definitely outstanding.
Halechi was overjoyed. After advancing to a nine-layer physical altar, he was truly full of confidence. His recent training had allowed him to successfully advance two layers on his virtual altar, reaching an 11th-level altar—something he had never imagined. So he agreed to go to the Fengtai Continent, hoping to gather more resources to rise to a higher level as soon as possible.
Zhen Wuji and Yao Zebusong also agreed. Even Ge Ha planned to go, though he would only collect materials before returning. By this point, everyone had almost run out of the materials they had. Aside from Guo Shier, the collecting maniac, even Li Ran and Qi Wu Zhen were short on resources.
In this sparring match, Guo Shier didn’t achieve the results he wanted. Although he won, he still hadn’t truly understood the level of experts in this world. He didn’t think Bo Rijigong could represent the strength of experts in the Star Sacrifice, so even though he defeated Bo Rijigong in one strike, he wasn’t overly excited.
Everyone already had the map to the Fengtai Continent. Li Ran said, “Since that’s the case, let’s go to the Fengtai Continent together. What do you all think?”
Qi Wu Zhen said, “I have no problem.”
Zhen Wuji said, “I heard there are many materials that professionals can use there. Hehe, I agree we should go there first.”

The others also said they wanted to go to the Fengtai Continent. Yingbei said, “Since that’s the case… well, I’ll take you all there, hehe.” Seeing that Goha was also going, fearing that a skilled fighter he had painstakingly won over might leave, he simply decided to go with them.

Borijigong originally wanted to go as well, but he wasn’t a professional. The Fengtai Continent was a gathering place for professionals, and the presence of outsiders could easily lead to conflicts. After hesitating for a moment, he shook his head with a wry smile and said, “I’ll return to the manor first. Maybe we can meet again if there’s a chance in the future.”

The group returned to the manor and rested for a few days before setting off together. This time, there was no need for long-distance flight. In the World of Spells, magic gates were used extensively, and even many outsiders made use of them. There were three common methods of long-distance travel in the World of Spells: large magic gates and personal magic gates, which were provided by professionals in that world and were the fastest and safest ways to travel long distances.

The second method was the steel serpent ships of the Mechanical Clan. Although they weren’t as fast or convenient as magic gates, they could carry a large number of people, came in many models, and were inexpensive.

The third method was various fixed light screens, which existed naturally. As long as one reached in front of a light screen, they could see the world behind it. By stepping through it, they could enter another continent. Just like entering secret realms in the World of Spells, there were such passages here, only to access different continents.

Some powerful individuals had tried to take control of these light screen passages, but without exception, they were either quickly killed or forced to flee desperately. After all, this world was a gathering place for skilled fighters from many small worlds—who could guarantee they could defeat their opponents? Professionals in the World of Spells had no interest in this, as their own skills allowed them to reach any place they wanted.

So, it was easy to go to the Fengtai Continent without long-distance flight. Yingbei told everyone several coordinate points on the Fengtai Continent, and each person recorded them on their own large interdimensional magic gate. In the World of Spells, magic gates were among the most basic spells, while interdimensional magic gates were more advanced. As for large interdimensional magic gates, those were controlled by high-level professionals, and everyone here had one.

Yingbei opened a magic gate and invited everyone to go through. He entered last, heading for the outskirts of Jiangcheng.

As they stepped out of the talisman gate, they saw a huge city not far away. Guo Shier and Li Ran exchanged glances, both noticing the astonishment in each other’s eyes—this city resembled those on Earth in their past life, even more advanced. What surprised Li Ran even more was that it looked like a city built by the Super Mechanical Clan in the Greater World.

The Mechanical Clan belonged to the realm of technological power, while the Talisman Clan belonged to the realm of mystical power—there was a huge difference between the two. It was unexpected to see such a contrast in a city controlled by professionals.

Qi Wu Zhen said, “What a strange city!”

Halechi, Zhen Wuji, Goha, Yao Zebusong, and the others stared in awe at the city. After traveling so far, this was the first time they had seen such a bizarre metal city.

Yin Bei explained with a smile, “Jiang Hua once saved several experts from the Mechanical Clan, so his city is managed by them. Hehe, the Mechanical Clan is excellent at utilizing materials and managing resources. They value collective strength and are far more skilled in construction than our Talisman Clan.”

He added, “Of course, in terms of individual combat strength, they’re nothing—comparable to professionals at all. So before they unite and develop, they are weak in this world. Well, they definitely wouldn’t dare provoke us professionals.”

Yet Li Ran knew in his heart that the Mechanical Clan was absolutely powerful in the Greater World, that is, in the cosmic universe. Once they formed nations, alliances, or other organizations and grew stronger, they would become rulers of the universe. When they could assemble interstellar fleets with countless starships, they would fear nothing.

The Mechanical Clan valued collective strength and powerful weapons, while individual strength was less important. Thus, they would naturally be at a disadvantage here. Guo Shier was now beginning to grasp the mystery—what existed in the greater universe also existed in the smaller worlds, though with a huge gap. So far, he still believed that talismans and spiritual power must also exist in the greater universe.

Hovering cars! Flying cars!

These two types of vehicles resembled the flying cars and chases in the Talisman World. Aside from these and the familiar skyscrapers, Guo Shier had never seen most of the other things from the Mechanical Clan. They were all strange and interesting. Technological things seemed more familiar to Guo Shier, but to Halechi and the others, they were utterly bizarre.

It was about ten li away from Jiangcheng. With their abilities, they could have reached there in an instant, but they still walked slowly—after all, such opportunities to move at a leisurely pace were rare. There was no road on the ground, only vast areas of green grass that were extremely flat, as if artificially planted and maintained. It wasn’t until dozens of kilometers away from the city that there were clusters of trees. Scattered across the grassland were metal platforms about one meter above the ground, each covering an area of around 100 to 120 square meters; their purpose was unknown. Halechi was very curious and flew straight up to one of the metal platforms. Yingbei and Li Ran shouted at the same time, “Come down quickly!” Guo Shier asked, “What’s the matter?”