Floating over the grand palace, Han Wanrong spent some time explaining the uniqueness of the Realm of Remote Heaven to Nie Tian.
“Why is this Dead Star Sea considered the place where fierce battles break out the most frequently between humans and the outsiders?” Nie Tian asked with a confused expression. “Shouldn’t it be the Shatter Battlefield?”
“They’re different,” Han Wanrong said with a faint smile. “The Shatter Battlefield was in an area that was abandoned by all races a very long time ago. No matter who wins battles in that area, it won’t affect the foundations of the human world or the outsider world.
“However, the Dead Star Sea is the separation between the human world and the outsider world. Marching through it, the outsiders will be able to invade our domains.
“Even though a large number of spatial rifts in the Shatter Battlefield also lead to our domains, the outsiders can’t get their large-scale stars.h.i.+ps through them to launch ma.s.sive invasions.
“Not to mention that many of the spatial rifts and portals in the Shatter Battlefield have been destroyed recently.”
Nie Tian’s expression flickered as he said, “But both the Domain of the Falling Stars and the Domain of Heaven Python have been invaded by outsiders. Even that floating continent too. So they don’t actually have to cross the Dead Star Sea to come to our heaven and earth.”
Han Wanrong’s face grew serious again. “Let me explain it to you this way. Many of the domains we now live in were first discovered and explored by the outsiders and Ancientspirits in ancient times.
“What they did was travel across the Dead Star Sea to this brand new world. They wandered around in their ancient stars.h.i.+ps with their human slaves, discovering and occupying numerous domains. Of course, fierce battles broke out between the outsiders and Ancientspirits all the time too.
“But back then, humanity hadn’t learned how to practice cultivation with the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth, or strengthen themselves with spiritual materials.
“Our fate was very sad at that time.
“Later, only after we mastered the method of cultivation did we grow stronger and stronger, and eventually escape our fate of serving the outsiders and Ancientspirits as slaves.
“After hundreds of thousands of years, we finally rose to prominence in this new world.
“And over time, we drove the outsiders and Ancientspirits from our new home.
“However, there are still a large number of special spatial rifts and spatial tunnels in our world that the outsiders and Ancientspirits left there.
“They might be hidden in some of the realms we live in, or some dead realms or floating meteors.
“Because of this, the outsiders and Ancientspirits can still come to our world from time to time.
“Besides, many of those spatial tunnels carry the bloodline imprints of powerful outsiders and Ancientspirits. So even though we’ve found many of those spatial tunnels, limited by our feeble flesh power and the fact that we don’t carry their bloodline wonders, we can’t go through them into their world. So we usually destroy them directly after finding them.
“Over the years, we’ve already found and destroyed hundreds of spatial tunnels like that. However, there are some well-hidden ones that we haven’t found yet, so the outsiders and Ancientspirits can still sneak into our world through them from time to time.
“But they don’t usually stay for long. Instead, they usually just attack some of our realms to loot resources and take some of our people as slaves. Then, they’ll leave before our powerful sects learn about their deeds and come after them.”
With these words, Han Wanrong paused for a moment. “But right now, we don’t have a single teleportation portal in their world that we can teleport to and from freely.
“Even so, since we’ve become more and more powerful, we’ve thought of the most direct way to do that.
“That is to sail through the Dead Star Sea into the heaven and earth where the outsiders and Ancientspirits live without relying on any spatial tunnels!
“During the past thousands of years, we four great sects have already sailed into their world more than a few times, despite their rigorous attempts at interception.
“However, we also paid heavy prices.
“Each of our four sects have suffered severe casualties, and were barely able to set up a few teleportation portals in their world, but they were all discovered and destroyed shortly afterwards.
“Even so, our efforts to counterattack have never stopped.
“After all, the vast heaven and earth beyond the Dead Star Sea is the place where humanity was born. We still have a large number of our people that are still living their lives as the outsiders’ slaves or toys.
“Every time they have a large-scale sacrificial activity, they’ll slaughter close to a million humans.
“The thought that we still have countless people living in pain and suffering in their world keeps pus.h.i.+ng us forward on the path of counterattack.”
Han Wanrong’s words unfurled a long scroll in front of Nie Tian’s eyes, which recorded humanity’s tragic past and struggling history.
It was also at that moment that Nie Tian learned that humanity’s origin actually lay beyond the Dead Star Sea.
The vast area and the numerous domains they now lived in had actually been discovered and explored by outsiders and Ancientspirits with the help of their human slaves.
Even at this point, a large number of humans were still being raised like livestock and butchered as sacrificial offerings.
Perhaps those humans were still commoners who didn’t know a thing about cultivation.
After countless years of development, humans had finally found a way to strengthen themselves, and rapidly expanded by relying on their advantage in reproduction.
Today, they were already powerful enough to fight back.
Han Wanrong sighed. “However, as we grew stronger and stronger as a race, problems started to emerge among ourselves. The four great sects have joined up three times to march ma.s.sive forces into the Dead Star Sea. But every time, they suffered heavy losses facing the outsiders and Ancientspirits’ joint efforts.
“Of course, conflicts broke out between outsiders and Ancientspirits too. But once we summon our forces and march into the Dead Star Sea, they join up to deal us heavy blows.
“After our three failed attempts, different voices appeared among our various human sects and clans. Some thought we might as well focus on developing ourselves, and stop attacking the outsiders and Ancientspirits.
“Some suggested that we should forget about our humiliating history.
“Others even started to do business with outsiders and Ancientspirits under the illusion that they could all get along in peace.
“At the same time, we became plagued by internal strife and power struggles. Barriers gradually formed among us four great sects.
“Of course the outsiders and Ancientspirits were happy to see us unravel. Some outsiders even thought up every possible method to provoke conflicts among us over the exploration of new domains and other matters. Many succeeded.
“Now, we’re facing hards.h.i.+ps both within and without. We might seem stronger than ever, but we actually have far more problems than we used to.
“When we first started up, we stood as one, and trusted each other in our effort to drive the outsiders and Ancientspirit from our lands. We all fought for the same goal.
“However, many things changed after we rose to prominence.”
Han Wanrong sighed with mixed emotions.
She went on and explained more about the Realm of Remote Heaven, the Dead Star Sea, and the conflicts between different races. Afterwards, she took Nie Tian down from the sky.
Qu Mingde and Quan Zixuan were there waiting.
Han Wanrong clearly knew what they had been waiting for as she said, “You’re free to go look around on this piece of land, and the Void Spirit Society, Heaven Span Pavilion, and Five Elements Sect’s sections as well. As long as you have enough spirit jades, spirit crystals, or valuable materials, you can get almost anything here.”
After expressing their grat.i.tude, Quan Zixuan and the others rushed away in high spirits.
Even though Nie Tian didn’t need any cultivation resources for the time being, he intended to find out more about the Realm of Remote Heaven. Therefore, he also bid farewell to Han Wanrong and went wandering around.
Several days pa.s.sed...
On the piece of land that was the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s section, Nie Tian saw a few enormous ancient stars.h.i.+ps approaching from the Dead Star Sea. Each and every one of them was badly damaged, as if they had just survived a fierce battle.