Chapter 2: Inferior

Carrying the hope of his people from the Lesser Xuan Realm, Jiang Sheng took a step outside of the Dimensional Crack. He was instantly greeted with a three or four-meter-tall cavern with a depth of less than ten meters.

Behind Jiang Sheng was a piece of rock floating in midair and protected with a layer of colorful yet mysterious light.

To Jiang Sheng, the mysterious light was both deary and familiar, like a part of himself. After all, he had been harnessing the energy from this mysterious light all his life.

Within his gaze, this mysterious layer of light protects the piece of rock or the origin of Lesser Xuan Realm. The only matter that puzzled Jiang Sheng was the realm's true appearance, which could be no different from a piece of rock that was pickable at random from the roadside.

"Could this be the real appearance of the Lesser Xuan Realm?" Jiang Sheng whispered by himself while patiently studying the rock's surface, which looked identical to the land and sea placement of the Lesser Xuan Realm.

He eventually accepted that he originated from the world hidden within this floating "rock." Although it was difficult to swallow this truth, Jiang Sheng had no other option. After all, this world has plenty of unbelievable possibilities, like that piece of rock no bigger than an infant's head.

After pondering aimlessly for a while, Jiang Sheng shook his head to rid himself of these complicated thoughts. And with his mind much clearer than before, he realized something else.

This place is simply the inside of a small cavern. Could there be a much bigger world outside the entrance?

With this curiosity in mind, Jiang Sheng braved and stepped outside this peaceful cave, only to be greeted with another wondrous sight.

It was a vast sight compromised of a mountainous region without ends. The scenery before looks grand and deeply mysterious, as if it was a distance that no walking could cover, regardless of how close they appeared.

Many other people are near him, with all sorts of racial traits and shapes. From his initial guess, all of them were identical to him.

They were all recently ascended individuals from their respective Lesser Realms. But the weird part was only Jiang Sheng's cavern was visible in his sight, not the others.

Altogether, a little over a thousand individuals were here, appearing clueless about what to do next.

"I think that's all of them this time," a male voice came into their ears just as their mind wandered aimlessly. Their unannounced arrival naturally alerted Jiang Sheng and the rest due to how close they came without getting caught by anyone.

"A thousand and fifty-five ascendeds... It was another average number this year." A second voice continued the unfinished sentence. Several breaths later, two silhouettes descended and took a random spot among Jiang Sheng and the others.

"Who are these two? What is their background?" everyone asked. Some simply thought about it, but a few among the thousand whispered without caring about the people nearby. From the moment these people arrived here until now, everything was strange and mysterious to them.

With no clue what they should be doing, these ascended like Jiang Sheng naturally appears clueless about every little thing.

"Ascendents from the Lesser Realm... Put these bracelets on your wrist," said one of the strangers who wasn't bothered to make a self-introduction. And with a wave of his hand, a metal cuff appeared above every ascended like Jiang Sheng.

"Must we put them on?" asked one of the ascended.

"May we ask what the bracelet is for?" another ascended interrupted.

Unfortunately, they had misjudged the situation. This mistake in their personal judgment cost them dearly lives as those who spoke were killed in the blink of an eye.

"How dare a mere thing from the Lesser Realm dare to question what you were told to do?" the one who took action then reprimanded everyone around after taking the life of seven ascended here.

The change in his tone, as well as his expression, came so unexpected, like how fickle the weather was. The depth of his cultivation also surprises all the ascended present. Before finishing his words, a layer of intimidation forced everyone to kneel on the ground.

"Listen here, you trash from Lesser Realm. Back where you came from, you might be a peak-level existence. But here in the Lower Realm, you're merely an ant without a hint of cultivation," the expert continued.

His lack of goodwill in the tone and crude choice of words were obviously done on purpose. But some of his words were also unrefutable facts. Before these two mammoth-like existence, those like Jiang Sheng and everyone else was a nobody.

After all, it only took the expert a sentence to force Jiang Sheng and the rest prostrating on the ground. Luckily, the intimidating forces lessened ten breaths later, allowing them to move and breathe like before.

"Put on the Devil's Mark before I kill a few more among you trash!" the expert warned them again to hurry and put on the bracelet.

Those with weaker resolutions immediately gave up on resisting and wore the metal bracelet voluntarily. As for the rest of them, they took several more minutes to consider before going along with what the others had done.

"Humph!" the other expert then interjected after everyone was done putting the metal cuff around their wrist. A light flick from his finger activates a certain mechanism in the bracelet. This made the metal cuff adjust itself to fit the wearer perfectly.

"I will be honest to you ascended beings. This Lower Yuanning Realm you're at is not as kind as you thought. Instead, it was a hundredfold more cruel than the Lesser Realms all of you came from," the other expert, who had a milder temper between them, said.

"This place you're at is known as Wanshan Continent. And the land we're on right now was the Ascension Mountain, which housed all the Lesser Worlds together." he continued.

"On this particular date each year, the dimensional crack would be open to allow ascended like you to come into this world. There will be more people to explain everything else to you after we return to the High Heaven Sect. But for now, we expect full obedience from all of you." At the end of his words, the expert waved his hand toward an empty space.

His action brought a flying galleon into view, ready to give them a ride to wherever its destination was. And in this case, it is the High Heaven Sect the expert mentioned earlier.

With a stone heavily sitting on their heart, these a thousand and few ascended step onto the ship quietly. Even Jiang Sheng had no choice but to follow the flow.

The ship departs moments after confirming that nobody was left behind. But the heavy atmosphere still lingers in each of them as they travel in the skies for several days.

Just as the majority relaxed slightly, the ascended was thrown off the ship like trash in midair. The distance from the land was not too wide apart. Still, several unfortunate individuals lost their lives here.

The landing point was surrounded by several deep chasms, man-eating forests, and wild Spiritual Beasts of all sizes. To simplify it, these ascended were thrown into a place no different from a slaughterhouse.

But setting these life and death experiences aside, the ascended that landed safely on the ground gathered together once more.

Ten people are waiting for them this time, with a more casual appearance compared to the two experts before. The metal cuff called "Devil's Mark" also existed on their wrist, indicating that these people here were the same as Jiang Sheng and the rest.

"Gather up, everyone," the leader of this group of ten people raised his voice for the newly ascended's attention. His tone obviously lacks interest but is acceptable from a different perspective.

After all, if compared to the two experts before, this one sounded a bit friendlier.