Chapter 389: Heavenly Star City and the Star Palace
Han Li had no way of knowing how that potential crisis had resolved itself. As such, he continued to act carefully and flew to the northeast as he was now a wanted criminal and incapable of further remaining in the southwest sea. However, if he were to go to anywhere else, he would need a map of the area, but Han Li only had a map of the southwest sea.
Due to this deficiency, Han Li stopped on a random island after a month of flying.
Although the island wasn’t large, it contained a very prosperous market city because of its location on the border of the southwest sea and other territories.
Wanting to be careful, Han Li concealed the appearances of both him and Crooked Soul using a secret technique and even put on a cloak afterwards. As such, apart from those with a higher cultivation than Crooked Soul, they would only be able to see a vague red light with their spiritual sense.
For the rest of the day, Han Li replenished a large amount of materials from the island’s market city and bought many ancient records that presented information on the circumstances of the various areas of Scattered Star Seas along with their respective maps. He ended up spending quite a bit.
There were a great number of stores on the island that were overjoyed that such a great spender arrived.
Having bought all he wanted, Han Li didn’t dare to linger and left the small island on that same day.
While sitting on his Divine Wind Boat, Han Li took out the jade slips one after another and carefully read through them. After an unknown amount of time, he let out a long breath, tossed the jade slips into his storage pouch, and entered deep contemplation.
After carefully reading through the jade slips, Han Li possessed a general understanding of the Scattered Star Seas.
The Scattered Star Seas were huge, but nobody actually knew how vast they truly were. As no one was stupid enough to attempt to explore its entirety, the sea maps only charted a small portion of the Scattered Star Seas. This was a fact that all cultivators of the Scattered Star Seas acknowledge.
The sea territories that were explored were commonly referred to as the Inner Star Seas, while the unexplored territories were known as the Outer Star Seas. Ordinarily when someone spoke of the “Scattered Star Seas”, they were actually referring to the Inner Star Seas.
The Outer Star Seas were also known by the frightful name of the Demon Seas and was the home to inconceivably gigantic demon beasts. They were said to be no weaker than Nascent Soul cultivators. Low grade cultivators that hadn’t ventured to the Outer Star Sea would have their jaws drop for quite a while upon hearing this.
Records have even said that in ancient times, regardless of whether it were the inner or outer seas, demon beasts reigned supreme, and cultivators were trapped on small, solitary islands. After an unknown amount of time, the previous generations of the Scattered Star Seas managed to slay the demon beasts one by one, making way for the development of the current Inner Star Seas.
As of today, the superpower named the “Star Palace” reigned over entire Scattered Star Seas. This superpower had existed for so long that even ancient records didn’t mention when it had first formed.
While the origins of its creation are uncertain, some believe that it was established by ancient elders that eliminated the demon beasts. Others said that an ancient hero united the Scattered Star Seas at the time, while other rumors are endless and equally contested.
The current Star Palace had established their transcendent Heavenly Star City on a huge island at the center of the Scattered Star Seas. It’s two city lords, the Heavenly Star Sages, rule the entire sect from their city.
The two city lords are extremely mysterious and had never left Heavenly Star City or revealed themselves in public. As such, no outsiders had seen their true appearance. However, it is rumored that the two sages weren’t late Nascent Soul cultivators, but instead, they were divine beings at the Deity Transformation stage.
After all, the Heavenly Star Sages have been famous for nearly a thousand years. How could common cultivators live for so long?
Apart from the Heavenly Palace and Heavenly Star City, there are eight outer territories and four inner territories in the Inner Star Seas. Each of the territories’ three largest islands served to directly govern their respective areas. These cities were known collectively as the twenty-four Outer Star Islands and the twelve Inner Star Islands. They were all subservient to Heavenly Star City.
As for the Stalwart Star Island Han Li had stayed at, it was one of Heavenly Star City’s Outer Star Islands
With the addition of the many small subsidiary islands of the star islands, the Star Palace truly held quite a bit of authority.
But what was most notable was that the Star Palace appointed star island lords through two methods.
The twelve Inner Star Islands were each administered by six people chosen by the two great sages. As for the twenty four Outer Star Islands, Heavenly Star City would host a centennial competition where the final victors would each become an island lord and enjoy the status of a regional ruler.
As such, the centennial competition hosted at the Heavenly Star City became known as the Star Selection Assembly. Every time it convened, nearly all the high grade cultivators of the Scattered Star Seas congregated at the city.
Some cultivators came with the dream of becoming an island lord, while others merely wished to broaden their horizon or socialize. There were even those that wished to use the opportunity to exchange medicine pills, materials, cultivation arts and other such items. As it was considered a fleeting opportunity, Heavenly Star City was overcrowded during this time. But even without the additional bustle of the Star Selection Assembly, the Heavenly Star City was a lively city where both villains and heroes dwell.
Apart from a prohibition of fighting in the cities and spirit stones taxes for long term residences, the Star Palace left the city alone, allowing it to become a place of freedom where cultivators of all ranks could come and go as they pleased. As for wanted nefarious cultivators, so long as they didn’t stir up trouble in the city, the Star Palace wouldn’t take the initiative to arrest them.
The great merchant clans were extremely satisfied with such a free environment and had stores set up in the city year round. They also established their own respective auctions and even acquired many types of spirit stone generating businesses.
As such, an innumerable amount of rare items flowed through Heavenly Star City from the Scattered Star Seas each year.
In addition, Heavenly Star City had another reason for attracting so many cultivators. The Star Palace had set up a transportation formation in the city that led directly to the Outer Star Seas.
So long as someone paid a large sum of spirit stones, they could teleport to many of the “Demon Beast Islands” of varying sizes in the Outer Star Sea. These isolated islands were established by previous generations and all contained Spiritual Qi. When one arrived at these islands, cultivators would be able to kill all sorts of demon beasts in the nearby seas and sell off the demon cores for spirit stones back at Heavenly Star City.
As for the value of spirit stones, a grade five demon beast core could be sold for nearly a thousand spirit stones. As for grade six spirit stones, the profits would be enough to fund a Foundation Establishment cultivator for a lifetime. As such, a significant amount of cultivators annually came to Heavenly Star City to use the transportation formation.
After all, flying directly to the Outer Star Seas without using the transportation formation would not only take an extremely long amount of time, it would also be extremely dangerous to fly unguided like a headless housefly.
With that in mind, Han Li decided to go to Heavenly Star Island with nearly no deliberation. Regardless of safety or acquisition of demon cores, he felt an attraction to this city by no small amount.
Of course, there were other powers of varying strength apart from the Star Palace in the Scattered Star Seas, such as: the Four Freedoms Merchant Alliance, the Devilcharm Sect, the Three Immortal Sect, Night Dragon Island, and so on. Of course, Zenith Yin Island and the Six United Palaces were significant powers as well.
After Han Li silently sorted this information in his mind, he took out a map of the Scattered Star Seas and carefully looked at it. Having decided his destination, Han Li pierced through the air, turning the Divine Wind Boat into a white streak of light.
……
Several months later, a white light streaked past the air above the sea. Standing on the boat was Han Li, tired from the long, nonstop travel.
Such a long and arduous journey was actually a rare experience for Han Li. This was because during his entire journey, he attempted to cultivate the Great Development Technique while flying on his magic tool without end.
From the very start, multitasking had proven extremely challenging, and a technique that divided one’s consciousness to control numerous puppets wasn’t exactly easy to cultivate. As he split his attention while cultivating, he had frequently made many errors.
The Divine Wind Boat would occasionally begin to fly off at an angle, leaving him unable to concentrate on splitting his divine sense. He hadn’t made any progress for several days, but the old adage proved true that practice really does make perfect. After countless attempts and distractions, Han Li was eventually able to forcefully cultivate the Great Development Technique while flying.
However, Han Li had given up on multitasking and focused on flying forward while standing at the front of the Divine Wind Boat.
Half a month later, Han Li judged that he had arrived near Heavenly Star City given the arrangement of the desolate islands he had passed and felt his heart stir with excitement.
After a short moment more, Han Li’s expression slightly changed after he vaguely saw a black dot in the distance that seemed to appear huge.
Han Li instantly stamped down on his magic tool, expediting his arrival.
