"Brother Yan. Now, what are you going to do?" Luo Qing inquired casually as they strolled along.
"Me...? I think I'll join some sect. I need resources and exercises to strengthen my power." Yan Shun replied.
'Thinking about it... I really didn't get any martial arts from the system. She just gave me life-saving treasures.'
'Well, If I was a system, I'd probably do the same. After all, my future wives are a bit too... ahem.'
"Ahh... that will be kind of difficult." Luo Qing remarked, scratching his head with a wry smile.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Yan Shun asked, a bit puzzled.
"Your cultivation level... is a bit too weak. Although, you can leap the ranks, for any sect to accept you... that will be kind of difficult?"
"What!? Don't they evaluate talent or bone age for taking in disciples?" He asked, wearing a perplexed expression.
At that moment, Luo Qing stopped in his tracks and looked deeply at Yan Shun for a few moments.
Slap...
Smacking his forehead, Luo Qing explained, "Ah! I forgot you're from the Lower Realm. Things work differently here."
"Explain?"
"Here, on the Upper Realms, we don't care much about talent, physique, bloodline, or anything like that. Everyone can become talented due to the abundant opportunities around."
"Sects typically consider cultivation level and, like you said earlier, bone age. For instance, you're in the Divine Transformation realm and 25 years old."
"No Sect would take you because your cultivation level is pretty low. Unless you are from a prestigious family, but that doesn't seem to be the case," Luo Qing continued.
"Generally, Sects only accept cultivators at the Middle of the Divine Lord Stage, and if you are under 100 years old, you should be accepted easily."
"And that goes along to the other stage, if you are a World King, you should be under 250 years old to be accepted."
"Same goes for other stages – if you're a World King, you should be under 250 years old to be accepted."
"If you're a Great World King, you've got until 1000 years. And so on."
"Being 25 and at the Divine Transformation Stage isn't really impressive here... It's even considered... a bit mediocre?"
"What do you mean by that?" Asked Yan Shun after hearing his words.
"Each family has this thing called 'Divine Transformation Fruit,' which ignores cultivation levels from the Lower Realms."
"It also enhances your natural talent, be it a weapon or attribute. Plus, those fruits are very cheap." He added.
This time, it was Yan Shun who came to a sudden halt, staring at Luo Qing in disbelief.
He looked at Luo Qing trembling...
"Somehow... I'm still the weakest?" He clenched his fists.
"N-no, don't think that way! Brother Yan, you're a rare genius! Your understanding is even higher than mine!" Luo Qing consoled, giving him reassuring pats on the back.
"It's really true..." Yan Shun muttered.
"H-huh? W-what's true?" A bewildered Luo Qing asked.
"In the cultivation world, luck is everything. If I were born in the Upper Realms, I wouldn't have had to spend so much time reaching this stage," Yan Shun sighed as he walked with a heavy heart.
"H-hey, don't say that! I believe you can easily surp—"
"Don't try to console me. Do you know how it feels to realize that a one-year-old baby can reach my cultivation level with a simple fruit that isn't even rare!?"
"Ahh..." Luo Qing froze entirely.
He really couldn't deny his words...
'No wonder you said that the Upper Realm was much better than the Lower Realms... But, why didn't you simply give me a fruit of those!?'
[A-ah... About that... Mhm...]
'...'
[Sorry? I wanted you to forge your own foundation and suffer from real experiences. I simply didn't want you to get into this level so easily and take it for "granted".]
[Every cultivator should create a good mindset, and not giving you a fruit was a decision made by me so you could create a good mindset.]
"Ah, how am I supposed to join a sect now?" Yan Shun pondered out loud.
At that moment, Luo Qing, wearing a faint smile, slung his arm over Yan Shun's shoulders.
"Hehe, don't worry about that. Did you forget about me and my sister? We come from a very prestigious family!"
"With my backing, any sect will welcome you." He assured, grinning at Yan Shun.
Yan Shun returned the smile but then shook his head with a small sigh.
"Actually... I don't want your help."
"What? Why?" Luo Qing asked, tilting his head in confusion.
"I simply don't want to."
"Is it because you want to earn the right to enter the sect on your own?" He asked, thinking it might be a matter of pride.
Yan Shun simply shook his head.
"See, right now, I'm pretty powerless. I don't have my... 'girlfriends' to watch my back. And if I were friends with someone from a prestigious family..."
"You'd become a target." Luo Qing finished his sentence.
"Ah, I didn't think about that, especially considering my family is quite powerful." Luo Qing sighed.
Hearing this, Yan Shun chuckled, sliding his arm around Luo Qing's shoulder and saying, "Well, I'm the new here. How about you tell me about the Upper Realms?"
Looking at Yan Shun, Luo Qing nodded with a smile and began talking about the Upper Realms.
"You should know, but there are millions of 'Upper Realms'. But, there's one that stood out the most, and the one we're walking on right now.
It's called, '"The Land Of Gods". Mainly because it's here that the strongest sects are gathered. You could say that this continent is divided into five parts, one being dominated by a strong force.
In the north, comes the Luo Family, which is my and your wife's family. We can be considered pretty strong, and I'm confident we're the most "influential" figure here.
In the south, there's the "Royal Family". For a few thousands of years this realm was dominated by an Emperor, and the "Royal Family" are pretty much the descendants of him.
Over the years, they were slowly pushed back into a smaller and smaller territory, but now, they are coming back strong! Their descendants are also very talented.
Me, myself, almost got defeated by one of their descendants... That guy was so freaking strong, and he was packed with treasures.
Well, going on, on the west, there's one of the Three Great Sects. Also, you need to remember, that the Three Great Sects are the proclaimed strongest sects of all the Upper Realms.
They're called the Qiankun (Heaven and Earth) Holy Land, and they mainly specialize in the Pill Dao, Weapon Refining, and Weapon Dao.
Now, in the east, there's the Heavenly Origin Sect or Holy Land. Because they are proclaimed as the strongest they have the name "Holy Land" instead of Sect.
I think that even if the Lower Realms is like that, but whatever.
This Sect is mainly specialized in Formations, Pill Dao, Beast Taming, Weapon Forging/Refining, Poison Making, and runes. Mainly, they are more focused on Beast Taming and Formations.
And finally...
The Yaochi Holy Land.
It's localized in the central region and it's easily the strongest force in this entire realm. And, it's a female-only sect. I don't know much, but it seems that the Sect Master, Yaochi, seems to hate men.
If you didn't notice, before I used that talisman to teleport us away, the Immortal Prison's Goddess was fighting with an extremely beautiful woman who had a few... ugly features...?
That was Yaochi herself.
Oh! And about their specialization?
Everything.
Each elder there has a very deep attainment in some specialization.
Spear, Sword, Beast Taming, Alchemy, Weapon Refining, Formations, and much more!
The sect has an elder for every single thing, and the Sect Master herself seems to be proficient in all of those.
It's really a pity that it's a female-only sect... I would love to join it, heh. The techniques there should be extremely powerful...
And the ladies should also be extremely beautiful... ahem.
And that's about it. That's the most important thing about this realm, I won't bother with telling the names of Saints and the Holy Sons of those same sects because it's easy to notice.
On their waist, there's always going to be a token saying "Holy Son" or "Saintess" with the symbol of their sect."
Hearing Luo Qing's words, Yan Shun started to think about which sect to try and join, obviously between the Qiakun Holy Land and the Heavenly Origin Holy Land.
He's not some dumb guy who would go to the sect examination of the Yaochi Holy Land.
"Oh! Now that I remember! Hehe, you're quite lucky." Luo Qing suddenly patted his shoulder and chuckled.
"What?"
"Next week, there's a competition on the Silver Moon City, which is located in the Center of this realm."
"This competition will be just between people under the age of 50! And the reward for the Top 10 is the right to join one of the three great sects!"
"However... your strength." Luo Qing contemplated silently.
"There's no use thinking about it." Yan Shun laughed.
Now, he already knew where to go.
"Take me to the Silver Moon City." Yan Shun said with a faint smile.
"Hehe, I knew you would want to participate! Let's go!" Luo Qing suddenly brought out a huge ship.
Yan Shun's eyes widened, but he followed Luo Qing's words.
"The Silver Moon City is a bit far away since it's located in the Central Region, but with this ship... We should reach it in a matter of weeks, maybe at the exact moment of the competition!"
Vroom!