Chapter 1 Distorted Space

Xu Jingming found the surrounding space distorted and blurred. His robes had also changed into loose-fitting garments, with the number "230534" on his left chest. At the same time, his figure, hairstyle, and appearance had become identical to his real-world self.

"Hmm?" Xu Jingming felt the changes in himself, puzzled.

"Friendly reminder: When entering the Mysterious Land, please conceal your true appearance and information. Body shape and size cannot be altered." Along with the echoing voice, a panel for adjusting his appearance appeared before him.

Xu Jingming looked at himself on the panel. "Conceal my true appearance and information?"

He began adjusting his appearance, slightly modifying his face shape and hairstyle, and fine-tuning his eyebrows and eyes. Immediately, his whole person became a bit more sharp and fierce.

Once the adjustments were complete.

*Whoosh*

The distorted space returned to normal, and Xu Jingming saw a vast wilderness before him. A massive spaceship was parked in the wilderness. This spaceship was estimated to be over a thousand meters long and over three hundred meters tall.

*Buzz!* A virtual figure appeared beside Xu Jingming and said, "Number 230534, please enter the spaceship in advance. The journey to the Mysterious Land will officially begin in 172 hours and 51 minutes."

"172 hours from now?" Xu Jingming was taken aback.

"Yes, you can log off at any time now," the virtual figure nodded. "We will also send a notification five minutes before the Mysterious Land journey officially begins."

Understanding, Xu Jingming walked towards the spaceship.

As he approached the ship, Xu Jingming saw a hatch silently opening and a wide staircase lowering. Xu Jingming walked up the staircase and into the ship.

He walked along the main corridor inside the ship for a while. Soon, he saw a large hall.

The hall was extremely spacious, over a hundred meters high. At a glance, there were tens of thousands of cosmic citizens scattered throughout the hall, yet it didn't feel crowded at all!

These cosmic citizens had various shapes and appearances. Some were over six meters tall with skin like rocks, some were less than half a meter tall and adorably petite, there were also towering giants with four arms, stern three-eyed people, and humans with furry tails—humans from all sorts of cosmic civilizations, gathered together.

"Would you like something to drink?" A robot walked over, enthusiastically. A wide variety of beverage options floated before it, all marked 'free'.

Xu Jingming ordered a familiar alcoholic beverage.

The robot conjured the drink out of thin air and handed it to Xu Jingming with enthusiasm.

"There are still more than seven days until departure." Holding his glass, Xu Jingming sat down in the hall, silently observing the other cosmic citizens. "Are these tens of thousands of people just going to chat here?"

"Number 230534." A blond-haired man with short hair walked over, holding a glass of wine. He gestured to his chest, where his number, 370628, was displayed. "I'm from the Lanwein Star Alliance, and you?"

"Wu Hook Star Alliance." Xu Jingming nodded slightly.

The short-haired man sat down and laughed. "Entering the Mysterious Land once costs ten billion cosmic credits; it's really not easy. How about we exchange information about the Mysterious Land? It would be a mutual help."

"Exchange information?" Xu Jingming looked at him. "Sure."

"You should know about the first planet of the Mysterious Land, right?" The short-haired man took a sip of his wine and said.

Xu Jingming's expression froze slightly.

"The first planet—you don't even know that?" The short-haired man was stunned. He hadn't expected such a reaction.

Xu Jingming couldn't say anything. Making something up would be easily exposed.

"Not very clear," Xu Jingming said, shaking his head.

"To spend ten billion cosmic credits to come in, does your civilization really know so little about the Mysterious Land?" The short-haired man was puzzled. "This is the first planet. As long as someone from your civilization has been here, they should have recorded some information."

"Could you enlighten me?" Xu Jingming asked.

His civilization was a newly advanced cosmic civilization! It didn't have much accumulation, so its intelligence was naturally weak.

He was the first from the entire Blue Star civilization to come to the Blood Rain World! Even the hidden opportunities in the Blood Rain World were learned from Pang Ze, who told Xu Jingming.

"Sorry." The short-haired man stood up and turned to leave, unwilling to aid a competitor.

Xu Jingming silently watched him leave, feeling helpless. After a moment.

"What, you don't know anything?" A tall woman, nearly five meters in height but with an excellent figure, looked at Xu Jingming, this little speck, and was somewhat puzzled. "You don't know, and your home civilization doesn't know? Has no one from your home civilization ever been here?" Xu Jingming simply shook his head.

"Then why did you spend ten billion to come in?" The tall woman also left. "Just say you didn't want to share; you're wasting my time."

"Information about the first planet of the Mysterious Land is the most basic. If you're unwilling to talk about anything, we can't communicate," a stern three-eyed person said a few words before turning and leaving.

Xu Jingming sat there for half an hour, and eight cosmic citizens came to chat, intending to exchange information. But since Xu Jingming couldn't even say anything about the 'first planet,' naturally, no one was willing to say more.

This made Xu Jingming mutter to himself.

"After sacrificing, I realized that among so many cosmic citizens, I have the least information," Xu Jingming said with some helplessness. "No choice, I'm the first one from the Blue Star civilization to explore."

His home civilization's foundation was weak, and it knew too little about many of the universe's secret intelligence. There was no way around that.

"Number 230534." A small human sat across from Xu Jingming.

"I know nothing about the Mysterious Land," Xu Jingming looked at him.

"I've noticed; you really don't know anything," the small human smiled slyly. "How about this, I'll sell you some intelligence about the Mysterious Land! Ten billion cosmic credits, how's that?"

"Ten billion for a piece of intelligence?" Xu Jingming looked at him. "I don't even know if your intelligence is worth that much."

"There are seven major planets in the Mysterious Land; I can sell you the basic intelligence of the top three planets," the small human said. "Competition in the universe is fierce! Everyone wants to block intelligence about the Mysterious Land of the Blood Rain World. It's hard to buy outside. I wouldn't dare to sell this intelligence at the Myriad Realms Group; I only dare to tell you detailed information face-to-face inside the spaceship."

"Basic intelligence of the top three planets?" Xu Jingming pondered.

"Ten billion isn't expensive at all," the small human tempted. "If you go in blindly like a fool, you might not gain much. But if you go in knowing intelligence, you might gain a lot more! This entering the Mysterious Land is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; it's worth spending a little more money to buy intelligence."

Xu Jingming shook his head. "But I don't have money."

"If you have less money, you can buy less; for example, the basic intelligence of the first planet is only one hundred million," the small human continued.

Xu Jingming continued to shake his head.

"So stingy at such a critical moment." The small human scoffed and stood up to leave. "You'll understand the bitterness of not having intelligence when the journey begins."

"Don't bother; that newcomer doesn't even know about the first planet."

"He dares to come in without knowing any intelligence?"

"Who knows? Maybe he knows a lot of intelligence but doesn't want to reveal it."

"From my observation, he really doesn't know!"

Xu Jingming heard the discussions of some cosmic citizens not far away. With his mental state, he could sense the hostility of some people.

"There are quite a few people who are hostile to me." Xu Jingming was slightly puzzled. "I didn't know them before, and those who can come here aren't ordinary cosmic citizens; their mindsets shouldn't be this bad. Could it be that there's competition?"

Xu Jingming was just guessing.

Because he was almost completely ignorant about the Mysterious Land.

After staying in the hall for a while, Xu Jingming logged off and left.

Virtual World Network, personal space.

"Intelligence is very important," Xu Jingming sat on the sofa, thinking. "With intelligence, I can be more purposeful, take fewer detours, and gain a lot more."

"But clearly, none of those cosmic citizens are willing to do good deeds and give me intelligence for free."

"According to that intelligence peddler, some powerful civilizations in the universe are deliberately blocking intelligence about the Mysterious Land." Xu Jingming understood this point as well. There were a massive number of cosmic civilizations in the universe.

They competed with each other.

They would naturally try to block key intelligence that affected the foundations of civilizations, making it difficult for new cosmic civilizations to gather it.

"Pang Ze hasn't entered the Mysterious Land either." Xu Jingming came to the Blood Rain World on Pang Ze's suggestion. Pang Ze told him everything he should have.

"There's one person who might know a lot." Xu Jingming thought of someone and pondered.

"Envoy Tiano!" Xu Jingming sat on the sofa.

"Perhaps Envoy Tiano will look down on me and think I'm shameless," Xu Jingming stood up, "but intelligence about the Mysterious Land is very important to me. It's also important to generations of Blue Star civilization's evolvers."

"Even if I'm called thick-skinned, I can't worry about it." Xu Jingming made a decision.

He knew how to act appropriately.

From childhood to adulthood, he had never wanted to cause trouble for others. Envoy Tiano had treated him very well, even giving him the Crimson Cloud Medal. Xu Jingming was very grateful to him, and he had always been very mindful of his actions towards Envoy Tiano.

This time, he had reached a critical moment in his evolutionary path! It was even important for the future of the Blue Star civilization, so he decided to be thick-skinned for once!

Xu Jingming gently clicked and contacted Tiano.

Virtual World Network.

Tiano was gathering a large amount of intelligence.

"It's not easy being a boss. It's even harder being a top boss in the entire cosmic human alliance." After Tiano decided to start a business, he began preparing formally and discovered that this path was truly not easy.

Managing people was a skill.

Operating a group, managing money, everything was a skill.

Thankfully, Tiano had received the best education since childhood. Over the years, his academic level had reached level 22, which was even stronger than Xu Jingming! Naturally, he wasn't the kind of fool who only knew how to spend money.

"Hmm?" Tiano received a contact. "Xu Jingming wants to see me?"

Tiano was a little curious.

Tiano's attitude towards Xu Jingming was a little different. On the one hand, Xu Jingming was the first genius Tiano had encountered in the Blue Star civilization, and also the only one who had defeated him.

On the other hand, Tiano had been responsible for guarding the Blue Star civilization for more than thirty years. In fact, when he first arrived at the Blue Star civilization, Xu Jingming hadn't even been born yet! So he had watched Xu Jingming grow from an infant all the way to the present.

Given Tiano's age, more than thirty years accounted for nearly half of his lifespan!

In such a long time, he had only encountered such a genius, and he had even defeated him! That was why Tiano had given him a Crimson Cloud Medal back then.

You had to know that, with his status, why would he take the initiative to give gifts?

*Whoosh.*

With a light tap from Tiano, Xu Jingming appeared from nothing and came to Tiano's personal space.

"Envoy Tiano," Xu Jingming said with utmost respect.

"Sit," Tiano looked at Xu Jingming. "It's rare for you to come here."

"I usually don't dare to disturb you, Envoy," Xu Jingming sat down.

Tiano looked at Xu Jingming with a smile. "If I'm not mistaken, you, this martial arts fanatic, suddenly came to me because you encountered something very important."

Xu Jingming was slightly stunned.

"Speak," Tiano said.

"After becoming a cosmic citizen, I mainly trained in the Blood Rain World," Xu Jingming said. "Recently, I just sacrificed ten thousand taels of gold and entered the Mysterious Land. After entering, I realized that I know nothing about the Mysterious Land."

"And the other cosmic citizens in the Mysterious Land are my competitors, and no one will tell me intelligence. I don't even know the intelligence about the first planet of the Mysterious Land," Xu Jingming said.

"There are seven planets in the Mysterious Land in total. There's no need to collect the fragmented intelligence of the seven planets," Tiano said nonchalantly. "It's all useless."

Xu Jingming was stunned.

"To go to the Mysterious Land, you must first understand what the Mysterious Land is for," Tiano said. "The 'Mysterious Land' in the Blood Rain World is actually the only public recruitment channel for the seventeen top forces of humanity in the universe."