68 To Cultivate, One Should... 2 (1/2)
Rolling her neck twice and wincing at the faint popping noises as the joints rubbed against each other due to prolonged disuse and her horrible reading posture, the girl took one last look at the black book resting on the armchair.
Turning her gaze away, she quickly hugged the black leather book to her chest before striding away.
After a deep breath, An Fei walked towards the unmarked crystalline wall, rapping the crystal surface with her fist three times.
Though she wanted to know more, especially how to cultivate, the girl felt as if her mind was about to burst. She needed time to digest and sort through the information she had just crammed into her mind.
Responding to her three knocks, a circle of golden light burst from the floor, producing a circle with a radius of three meters. Ensuring that her entire body was standing in a stable position and well within the perimeter of golden light, An Fei braced herself for the incoming jerk.
”…ah!?”
Or she didn't amply prepare, for the girl was rudely deposited at the base floor of the Archive without any warning. Rubbing her sore body as she watched the pale-blue radiance dissipate into fragments of light, An Fei suppressed the groan of pain and stumbled to her feet, dragging her body out of the grand library.
The platform had graciously transported her onto the first level of the Archive of Time within an instant, saving her the massive amount of time she would have spent climbing the ladder. However, it had retained the full energy during the impact, causing a tremendous wave of pain to spread across her entire body.
Her body was spared from any damage, but in exchange, An Fei felt as if a storm of searing heat was ravaging her body from the inside. Her knees buckling and devoid of strength, the girl nearly thought that her physique had regressed to that of the malnourished constitution she encountered upon transmigrating into Great Yong.
Holding her waist and hip in agony, the girl limped through the second corridor to return to the massive throne room, her beautiful countenance displaying a relieved smile upon escaping the seeing the outline of a grand throne.
Without further ado, however, An Fei directly entered the first corridor, not stopping until she had entered the soft boudoir, upon which she crashed into the bed without a single thought.
”I'll return after a while…” the girl murmured, her eyelids gently fluttering in pain and fatigue. ”I want some time to think…”
The soft and warm blankets quickly lulled An Fei into a dreamless, peaceful sleep. As the girl's mind sank into darkness, the mirror supported by the bedside released a brilliant scarlet light that covered the sleeping figure of a young girl, and her appearance gradually became indistinct before finally disappearing…
-
The Shattered Star Continent was under the absolute reign of three empires; Great Yan, Great Yong, and Bei Tang. Great Yong ruled the territories in the north and western regions of the continent; Great Yan ruled the south and the eastern third of the continent; Bei Tang oversaw the land from the north to the east.
These three empires controlled the vast majority of the Shattered Star Continent, with only a few thousand kilometers remaining uncharted due to the absurd dangers within those regions of land. However they wished to expand and conquer the sliver of land left unclaimed within the continent, they dared not to for even cultivators of the Nascent Soul Realm faced grave danger.
With the Nascent Soul Realm being the peak attainment of cultivation amongst the royal empires, it was not a mystery that the empires would instead withdraw their territories, drawing a wide berth from the region of death.
The central plains of the Shattered Star Continent produced the inhabitants' major source of grain and crops; the south contained rich deposits of precious metals; the north possessed unfathomable reservoirs of crystals imbued with spiritual energy; and the east and west was home to the demonic beasts of the continent.
The clear divide of resources forced the three empires to sincerely cooperate in trade without thoughts of harboring war or greed, for the grain, precious metals, crystals and stones imbued with spiritual energy, and demonic beasts, all were necessary to an empire's development and survival.
If they dared skimp on grain, the people would starve; the lack of precious metals would severely inhibit infrastructure development and the expansion of cities; and crystals and demonic beasts were vital to a cultivator's progression regardless of their cultivation method. The central plains were not underneath a singular empire, but each possessed an equal share of territory that attempted to outperformance the rest.