High-Level Martial Era - Chapter 1015

Chapter 1015: Chapter 503: Divine Court Headquarters! Source Fire Star (12,000)
 

The Sword Demon Heavenly God carried Li Yuan, his speed astonishing, flying toward the distant Starry Sky Ancient City.

“The formation of the Starry Sky Ancient Array has been activated; this space is sealed. Without formation permissions, I cannot use Void Shifting,” the Sword Demon Heavenly God explained. “Forcing it open would probably require mastery over the complete Space Laws.”

Li Yuan was inwardly shocked; usually, only Divine Kings could master the complete Space Laws.

However, even without Void Shifting, the Sword Demon Heavenly God’s speed was still incredibly fast… Within the perception of Li Yuan’s Divine Sense, his speed easily exceeded 30,000 kilometers per second.

“True God Limit Experts generally have a maximum flight speed of a few thousand kilometers per second,” Li Yuan sighed inwardly. “Breaking past 10,000 kilometers per second is already extremely rare.”

But Heavenly Gods could effortlessly surpass it.

“Being accepted as a disciple by Dong Mang God King, this Sword Demon Heavenly God must possess terrifying power. His speed limits are certainly far beyond this,” a thought flashed through Li Yuan’s mind. “I wonder if he can reach the legendary ‘Space Ultimate Speed.'”

Space Ultimate Speed, that is, the speed of light!

It is the highest speed permitted by the cosmic rules, impossible to surpass… Unlike Void Shifting, which utilizes different spatial wave nodes for jumps, true flight operates fundamentally differently.

Despite being separated by millions of kilometers, with the Sword Demon Heavenly God’s speed, they arrived remarkably fast.

Under the suppression of an invisible restriction, Li Yuan’s Divine Sense couldn’t spread out and could only rely on his eyes to observe.

From a bird’s-eye view, Li Yuan could see many cultivators coming and going within the Starry Sky Ancient City.

“Sword Demon, I hear the Starry Sky Ancient City doesn’t occupy any territory?”

“The Starry Sky Ancient City is bolstered by numerous formations and restrictions with endless might,” the Sword Demon Heavenly God explained. “Even for someone like me, a Heavenly God, I can only enter via prescribed routes to access the Starry Sky Teleportation Array. Random trespassing could provoke hostility from the Heavenly Gods of the Starry Sky Divine Court, and that would be troublesome.”

“Does every Starry Sky Ancient City have a Heavenly God?” Li Yuan couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes!”

“The City Lord of a Starry Sky Ancient City must be a Heavenly God,” the Sword Demon Heavenly God chuckled. “And they wield Inheritance Divine Artifacts, possessing strength at least of a Heavenly God Third Rank, often reaching Heavenly God Fourth Rank.”

“With the support of the Starry Sky Ancient City… At least within its scope, even powerful figures like Divine Monarchs would not be opponents to these City Lords.” the Sword Demon Heavenly God remarked.

Li Yuan listened attentively. From what he knew, Heavenly Gods were divided into five ranks by their strength.

The vast majority of Heavenly Gods considered reaching the Heavenly God Third Rank as a notable achievement in their lifetimes.

A Heavenly God of Fourth Rank possessed terrifying strength and highly elevated status.

As for the Heavenly God Fifth Rank, they held the privilege of being called ‘Heavenly God Monarchs,’ extremely rare beings—each an overlord of their territory.

“But I’ve heard that the Starry Sky Divine Court does not compete for territory.” Li Yuan couldn’t help but ask: “Without territory, how can there be so many Heavenly Gods?”

“Nine thousand Starry Sky Ancient Cities would imply at least nine thousand Heavenly Gods guarding each generation, wouldn’t it?” Li Yuan felt perplexed.

It was an issue Li Yuan had long wondered about.

From what he understood, in the Divine Realm, numerous Divine Court Forces fought fiercely over territory… Larger territories and more lifeforms led to more geniuses.

Only after accumulating countless talents would there be the hope of producing Heavenly Gods or even Divine Kings…

“Wrong!”

“Little Martial Uncle, I must correct three common misconceptions you have,” the Sword Demon Heavenly God chuckled. “First, the current Divine Realm no longer has nine thousand Starry Sky Ancient Cities; that was the number in the earliest generations.”

“Now, only about seven thousand remain!”

“The rest of the Starry Sky Ancient Cities were either destroyed by wars or reclaimed by the Starry Sky Divine Court,” continued the Sword Demon Heavenly God. “For instance, of the over 800 Star Domains directly governed by our Chaos Divine Court, only about a hundred Star Domains still retain their Starry Sky Ancient Cities.”

“To name one close example, Fierce Star Domain’s Myriad Dragons Ancient City was destroyed by war more than ten thousand years ago,” the Sword Demon Heavenly God elaborated. “It’s said that even the Inheritance Divine Artifacts were lost.”

Li Yuan’s heart trembled slightly.

The Myriad Dragons Ancient City—wasn’t that the Starry Sky Ancient City once connected to the Ancient Flame True God?

“Doesn’t the Starry Sky Divine Court interfere in such wars?” Li Yuan asked, puzzled.

“They can’t,” the Sword Demon Heavenly God shook his head. “Numerous Divine Court Forces fight and kill each other… And in some wars, defeat is inevitable; even if the Starry Sky Divine Court Headquarters intervenes, they would surely lose.”

“Unless a legendary Divine Emperor takes action… But why would a Divine Emperor lower themselves for such trivial matters?”

Li Yuan seemed half-comprehending. He had to admit there were many hidden aspects of the Divine Realm that he did not understand.

“The Starry Sky Ancient City does not occupy territory, logically it shouldn’t have conflicts with other forces, right?” Li Yuan was slightly hesitant.

“Little Martial Uncle, this brings us to your second common misconception,” the Sword Demon Heavenly God chuckled. “You know about the competition for territories, but what is the essence of territory?”

“Population, resources, treasures,” Li Yuan replied.

“Correct!”

“Population and resources,” nodded the Sword Demon Heavenly God. “But in truth, Heavenly Gods can easily create small worlds, while figures like Divine Kings or even legendary Divine Emperors can directly condense majestic landmasses—entire macro-worlds capable of supporting the population of an entire Star Domain.”

Li Yuan thought of Jue Xing Continent, a single continent comparable to thousands of star systems, nearly a miniature Star Domain.

“And as for planetary transformation… Using the techniques of major Divine Realm forces to turn countless stars within a star system into ‘Life Planets’ would be effortless. However, after long epochs, why is the number of Life Planets still so small?” the Sword Demon Heavenly God smiled.

Li Yuan couldn’t help but shake his head; he truly didn’t understand.

“It’s because Origin Power is limited!”

“The Divine Realm itself has an Origin, as do individual Star Domains and Mortal Domains operating through their Origins,” the Sword Demon Heavenly God explained. “The creation of life requires immense consumption of ‘Origin Essence’… If too much life is created, the quantity of Origin Essence per soul will sharply diminish, their growth potential will plummet, and the probability of producing great talents will drastically drop.”