God Realm. Yushan Prefecture. Flying God Platform.
Light flickered and shadows flashed.
Twelve figures appeared on the Flying God Platform.
That’s right—these twelve were Ian Song and his group, newly ascended from the Langya Immortal World.
Compared to the Immortal World, the laws of the God Realm were way harsher. Back in the Immortal World, they could fly around and travel thousands of miles in a blink. But here, under the rules of the God Realm, forget moving thousands of miles—even regular flight was basically impossible.
Just as Ian Song and the others were curiously checking out their surroundings, an impatient voice yelled, "Hey, newbies! Hurry up and get down here, don’t block the people behind you!"
Looking up, they saw the one shouting was a soldier standing outside the Flying God Platform, part of a larger squad.
There were over a hundred soldiers in total, all dressed in blue standard-issue divine armor. Most were mid-rank gods, with three upper-rank gods among them.
"What are you staring at? Get down here already!"
The same soldier barked again, sounding pretty unfriendly.
Ian Song narrowed his eyes but didn’t say a word. He simply led his eleven followers off the Flying God Platform.
He’d already squeezed plenty of God Realm intel out of those summoned gods before. First off: in the God Realm, divine energy in the wild is super violent. Ordinary gods can’t just absorb it for cultivation out in the wilderness.
So, there are only two ways to cultivate here.
Option one: enter a city that refines the wild divine energy into something absorbable.
Option two: use god-crystals. The energy inside god-crystals is gentle enough to absorb directly, so god-crystals are hard currency in the God Realm.
How big is the God Realm, anyway?
Those summoned gods were all pretty low-level; they never left their own prefectural city, so they had no clue how huge the God Realm actually was.
But they did know there are over ten thousand prefectural cities in the God Realm, and to be a Prefect you need at least Heavenly God cultivation.
One more thing: the Prefect position can be seized by challenge.
Let’s talk about god-rank divisions next.
Gods are split into lower, mid, and upper ranks, and each rank has early, middle, and late stages.
A fifteenth-layer Ancestral Immortal who passes God Tribulation becomes an early-stage lower god.
A sixteenth-layer Ancestral Immortal who passes God Tribulation becomes a mid-stage lower god.
A seventeenth-layer Ancestral Immortal who passes God Tribulation becomes a late-stage lower god.
An eighteenth-layer Ancestral Immortal who passes God Tribulation jumps straight to early-stage mid-rank god.
So right now, Ian Song is an early-stage mid-rank god. Among his eleven followers, only one is mid-rank—the rest are all lower gods.
"Hey bro, which prefectural city is this?"
Ian Song slipped a god-crystal to a soldier and quietly asked.
Where did Ian Song get all those god-crystals? Easy—he robbed them off the summoned gods.
Seeing Ian Song was so tactful, the soldier’s cold face finally cracked a smile. "This is Yushan Prefecture. Wait over there with the others—once we hit quota, we’ll send you out. And listen, when you leave the Flying God Platform, don’t go signing any random divine contracts. Otherwise, you’ll get ripped off big time!"
"Thanks for the heads-up, bro!"
Ian Song cupped his fists in thanks, then led his group over to the waiting area.
More than fifty newly ascended male and female gods were standing there, all looking around curiously. Clearly, they’d just arrived in the God Realm too.
"Hey bro, which Immortal World did you ascend from?"
Ian Song had barely arrived when a chubby, harmless-looking young man walked up and greeted him.
"Langya Immortal World."
"Respect!" The guy quickly said, "Oh, I’m Bai Yucheng, from the Five Elements Immortal World. What should I call you, bro?"
"Ian Song."
Ian Song replied. He’d heard of the Five Elements Immortal World—it was one of the top hundred out of the Three Thousand Immortal Worlds. Bai Yucheng had late lower-god cultivation, meaning he’d ascended from seventeenth-layer Ancestral Immortal.
As they chatted, Bai Yucheng explained he’d been here four or five days already, but the hundred-person quota still wasn’t filled, so he had to wait.
"How long do you think it'll take to hit a hundred people, Bai?"
Ian Song asked.
"They say it shouldn’t take more than ten days!" Bai Yucheng replied.
"That fast?" Ian Song was surprised. In the Immortal World, people don’t ascend every day—sometimes there’s no ascension for decades or centuries.
Take the Langya Immortal World, for example—the last ascension was more than eight hundred years ago.
So Ian Song was genuinely shocked that a hundred new gods could gather in just ten days.
"Heh!"
Bai Yucheng laughed. "You don’t know yet, Ian—the God Realm’s time laws are totally different from the Immortal World’s. One day here equals a hundred years down below. So ten days here is a thousand years for the Three Thousand Immortal Worlds. With that much time, a hundred ascenders isn’t rare at all! That’s why lots of fifteenth-layer Ancestral Immortals hold off on ascending. If they stay below for ten thousand years, it’s only a hundred days here, and they might break through to the sixteenth layer before coming up. But in the God Realm, you can’t hit mid-stage lower god in just a hundred days!"
Ian Song had never thought about it before, but now he understood why so many fifteenth-layer Ancestral Immortals refused to ascend right away.
A few days passed.
Soon, dozens more ascenders arrived, and the hundred-person quota was finally met.
Two soldiers came over and said coldly, "Follow us!"
The Flying God Platform was an oval-shaped building.
Once you left the platform, you entered a plaza. Plenty of gods were already there, and when Ian Song’s group showed up, their eyes lit up.
The lead upper-rank soldier announced, "One reminder: if you want to stay in Yushan, get a temporary residence permit ASAP. No permit means you’ll get kicked out after one day!"
Bai Yucheng asked, "Sir, how do we get a temporary residence permit?"
The upper-rank god soldier replied, "Outside the plaza, officials from the City Lord’s Mansion are handling permits for new ascenders. To live in Yushan City for a year, you’ll need to pay ten god-crystals."
"We have to pay god-crystals? We just ascended—where are we supposed to get those?"
One of the gods complained.
The upper-rank god soldier said coldly, "No god-crystals, no stay. Leave Yushan City ASAP or get kicked out!"
Ian Song already knew about all this, so he wasn’t surprised.
He had twelve people in his group, which meant they needed a total of 120 god-crystals.
When Ian Song ascended to the God Realm, he’d stashed most of his god-crystals in his Divine Temple, leaving only a few dozen in his divine storage ring. That way, even if someone stole the ring, he wouldn’t lose much.
He tried to pull out some god-crystals from the Divine Temple to make up the 120 needed, but his face suddenly changed. He could sense his Divine Temple, but the God Realm’s laws suppressed him—he couldn’t control it at all!
"Damn it!"
Ian Song cursed inwardly. How could something like this happen?