บท 628: Chapter 627: Great Thousand World

The Great Thousand World!

This place stood as the undisputed center of all worlds, where countless planes intersected and numerous planes drifting outside intertwined!

Heroes from many different places gathered here, including the strongest individuals from the lower planes who followed the coveted path of the Heavenly Sovereign as they explored the mysterious and unknown realms beyond the Sovereign.

The Hundred Spirit Continent.

The Hundred Spirit Continent, located in the Northwest Region of the Great Thousand World, was not very famous in the vast, endless Great Thousand World.

However, the superpower controlling the Hundred Spirit Continent was quite renowned in the northwest of the Great Thousand World.

The Northern Profound Palace was one of the overlords of the northwestern region of the Great Thousand World and ruled over four continents. Its Palace Master, Qin Beixuan, had reportedly gone into seclusion to attempt a breakthrough to the Immortal Grade Heavenly Sovereign. Should he succeed, its influence would be able to spread even further.

The Immortal Grade Heavenly Sovereign was an existence that was second only to the Saint Grade titans in the Great Thousand World. Aside from the Five Ancient Clans and the Great Thousand Palace, the top superpowers, the Immortal Grade Heavenly Sovereigns were considered the strongest in the Great Thousand World, the true backbone.

Therefore, despite the relatively low profile of the Hundred Spirit Continent, the fact that it was coveted and occupied by a faction such as the Northern Profound Palace indicated that it was far from being a resource-scarce land.

Hundred Spirit Sky was an inconspicuous area within the Hundred Spirit Continent. Such areas were countless across the land.

Although the Hundred Spirit Continent was nominally under the rule of the Hundred Spirit King, this ruler had not established an effective government. As a result, numerous factions thrived within the Hundred Spirit Dynasty, with countless forces spread across various realms, constantly waging wars against each other.

The Northern Spiritual Plains, a notorious dangerous area within the Northern Spiritual Realm of the Hundred Spirit Sky, located in the northwest, was vast and home to various ferocious spiritual beasts. Exploration teams would occasionally enter to hunt spiritual beasts for resources.

The Northern Spiritual Plains contained many rare materials and spiritual medicines. It was considered a treasure trove. Of course, one needed to possess sufficient strength to claim these treasures. Otherwise, one risked not only failing to obtain the treasures but also losing one's life in the attempt.

Under the night sky that shrouded the outskirts of the Northern Spiritual Plains, a campfire flickered in a campsite, mostly filled with young people who seemed to be on their first expedition. The entire campsite was enveloped in a lively atmosphere.

By the blazing campfire, a young lady with a clear and delicate face sat idly, her gaze fixed on the darkness beyond the camp. It seemed as if various bloodthirsty beast roars were echoing in the distant depths.

Though her appearance may not have been striking, she exuded a mysterious and hazy aura that only grew more intriguing the longer one looked at her. Many warm gazes were directed towards her by the vigorous young men nearby.

The girl was beautiful. Yet her slightly pale lips suggested that she might not be in the best of health.

'I've truly suffered a great loss this time. To have my strength fall to such a state because of that secret realm.'

The young lady in the white dress muttered to herself as she gazed into the darkness. She was not from the Northern Spiritual Realm, not even from the Hundred Spirit Continent. She had chosen to leave her clan and travel the continent quietly for some reasons. Unfortunately, luck was not on her side, as she had suffered serious injuries in a secret realm not long ago and was forced to use a life-saving method that could relocate her, bringing her to these Northern Spiritual Plains.

Suddenly, a somewhat handsome young man approached the girl in the white dress and extended an invitation with a gentle smile.

"Miss Jing, you haven't eaten anything for quite a while. We've prepared some food. Why don't you come and join us?"

"Thank you, Brother Mu, but I don't feel like eating right now..."

The girl in the white dress casually refused the young man's invitation.

A hint of disappointment flickered across the young man's face as he looked at the girl in the white dress, his eyes revealing a hint of admiration.

However, since he was rejected, he didn't insist but changed the topic instead. "We will be entering the Northern Spiritual Plains tomorrow. Miss Jing, since you are new here, why don't you join our team? It's better to have someone to look out for each other."

Miss Jing still shook her head, "No, thank you. I plan to split from your team once we enter the Northern Spiritual Plains tomorrow. I'll be going my own way."

"I see, then I am sorry to disturb you."

The young man was stunned for a moment, then gave a wry smile, shook his head, and returned to sit by another campfire, appearing somewhat dejected.

Not long after he sat down, the sky above the endless mountain ranges of the Northern Spiritual Plains suddenly filled with dark clouds as thunder roared. Whistling winds carrying endless Spiritual Energy swirled around. Finally, a gate that reached straight up to the sky directly opened!

Such a momentous scene naturally caused countless spiritual beasts in the mountains to tremble. They all crouched on the ground, their eyes filled with terror as they stared at the sky above.

In countless camps, many people were also startled by this sudden commotion. Especially in the camp where the young lady in white and others were, the campfire was directly extinguished by the tempestuous Spiritual Energy. Terrified and confused gazes were cast toward the sky, and trembling voices of doubt arose all around.

"What is going on? Why is there such a violent disturbance in the Spiritual Energy?"

"This is terrifying! Could it be that a great catastrophe is about to happen? I think we should go home."

"Nothing like this is recorded in the books. What exactly is happening?"

No one got an answer, as they obviously did not know what was going on. Only the young lady known as Miss Jing seemed thoughtful as she looked at the Spiritual Energy Gate.

"This scene somewhat resembles what the elders of the clan described as what happens when a strong individual from the lower plane enters the Great Thousand World..."

The young lady's tone was somewhat uncertain. If the elders of her clan were here, they would definitely tell her that a strong individual from a lower plane had indeed arrived on the Hundred Spirit Continent.

And the person who had arrived was naturally Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ming stepped through the Spiritual Energy Gate and appeared in the sky.

He felt somewhat uncomfortable at this moment. As soon as he and Qing Tan stepped out of the void into the Great Thousand World, he felt a surge of extremely pure and high-quality energy rushing towards him from all directions, desperately trying to penetrate his body.

Inside his body, the pure Dou Qi also dissipated at an incredible speed.

'So this is the Spiritual Energy Tribulation? Without preparation, resisting it could lead to serious consequences.'

Xiao Ming sensed the changes within his body and his expression turned serious.

The so-called Spiritual Energy Tribulation was actually because the energy of the lower planes was of a lower quality than the Spiritual Energy of the Great Thousand World. Therefore, whenever a strong individual from a lower plane entered the Great Thousand World, Spiritual Energy would automatically replace the strong individual's internal energy, such as Dou Qi or Yuan Power.

Strong individuals who were unaware of this fact naturally resisted desperately when faced with such a situation.

After all, who would willingly allow the energy they had cultivated through countless hardships to dissipate and turn into something unknown?

This could lead to a great deal of suffering, and perhaps even jeopardize one's very foundation.

Not to mention those who were unaware of it, even for Xiao Ming, who had known about the Spiritual Energy Tribulation well in advance and had dissipated most of his Dou Qi before entering the Great Thousand World, the replacement process was still tantamount to torture.

The sensation of continuously losing one's strength was indescribable. Since every cell in Xiao Ming's body could be filled with Dou Qi, and some even consisted of it, even after his Dou Qi was dissipated, the Spiritual Energy Tribulation still descended upon him. The replacement process felt as if countless tiny figures were carving into him with knives.

Unfortunately, the replacement process was neither fast nor slow. Unless Xiao Ming exploded his body on the spot and then reformed his physical form, this process was bound to take a while.

After giving this option some thought, Xiao Ming decided not to do it.

He currently lacked a cultivation method from the Great Thousand World, so there was no immediate need to transition to the Spiritual Energy System. Moreover, a reconstructed body could not be compared to his original one. So he decided to take it slow and speed up the transition once he fully understood the Spiritual Energy System.

Xiao Ming was undergoing the Spiritual Energy Tribulation, and so was Qing Tan beside him.

However, Qing Tan's strength was not comparable to Xiao Ming's. After the dissipation of her Yuan Power, her transformation was extremely fast. It wasn't long before she opened her eyes and looked at Xiao Ming.

"Master."

"Mm, have you completed the conversion?" Xiao Ming nodded as he saw this.

"Almost. I'm only one step away from the so-called Sovereign. However, without a cultivation method, I can't control the Spiritual Energy in my body as freely as I can with Yuan Power. If I had a cultivation method, I would be able to step into the Sovereign Stage," Qing Tan said with a hint of frustration on her pretty face.

"Some Spiritual Arts are all we need, and we'll have them soon," Xiao Ming said. Although his strength had fallen to a low point due to the dissipation of his Dou Qi.

But even without Dou Qi, relying solely on his Soul Realm, Xiao Ming was not to be trifled with. Acquiring cultivation methods was a matter of course with his strength.

"However, before we look for Spiritual Arts, let's find someone to figure out where we are."

Xiao Ming's eyes fell on the mountains below, which had been torn apart by the Spiritual Energy. With a wave of his sleeve, the gathered Spiritual Energy immediately dissipated. Then he and Qing Tan descended into the forest and headed towards a camp.