[Vol. 7] Chapter 7: Her Change
First, let's confirm one thing again. This is definitely the same world Violet had been in after she crossed over. There's no doubt about it.
The laws of this world, the "Origin Realm," are very different from those of the Ancient Spirit Realm. Here, the energy is divided by environmental factors, creating different elemental properties, rather than being pure spiritual energy like in the latter.
For example, since this place is above the ocean, the concentration of water-element molecules is much higher than other elements. This is something that would never happen in the Ancient Spirit Realm.
As for why they were deep under the sea just moments ago but have now suddenly surfaced. This isn't too hard to understand.
According to the world-overlapping theory that Sethlin once mentioned, different worlds might have their edges aligned, but not in a flat, layered way. Instead, the Ancient Spirit Realm and the Origin Realm are connected by the same ocean. It's like they are two continents separated by a vast sea, but the direction of the sea between them is flipped.
Of course, it's not as simple as just saying it's two sides of the same ocean. But as they just experienced, if someone dives into the deep sea at certain special locations in a specific way, they can "pass through" to the other end of the ocean and reach a completely different world in another spatial dimension.
What Violet doesn't quite understand is why, despite having a Divinity, she wasn't rejected by this world. Back when she lived in the Origin Realm, she never felt any resistance toward foreign beings either, not toward her dragon companion, Snow Wing, nor toward Lucas.
Thinking about it this way, this world actually seems quite welcoming to her.
Well… in any case, she’s back now. If there are things she can’t figure out yet, she might as well not stress over them!
Now, as for where exactly she is…
As she pondered, Violet gazed at the surrounding sea, where the waves were gradually calming.
Unlike the Ancient Spirit Realm, which is completely engulfed by the sea, the Origin Realm has landmasses, with the ocean existing only in the east. That means she must be somewhere in the eastern part of this vast continent or perhaps even in a far eastern sea region.
There was one question Violet had been curious about ever since she first arrived in this world…
According to most scholars in the Origin Realm, the Eastern Sea is one of the world's boundaries. A vast, limitless ocean with no end. No matter how far one sails east, there is no reaching the edge of this sea, only the risk of never being able to return.
So, if they were to continue sailing east now… where would they eventually end up?
After all, unlike the Eastern Sea, the other three directions of the Origin Realm have no ocean. It’s not like they could circle back to the other side of the continent like in the Ancient Spirit Realm, right?
With this thought, Violet turned to look at the fox-eared young man behind her. His energy had clearly weakened significantly. Almost as if he had been drained. He was now at roughly the same level as when Violet first met him as Dawn, having fallen from his pseudo-god level state down to just barely surpassing the transcendent-level. His strength had been completely crippled.
As expected, the Origin Realm does reject and suppress the Spirit Veil people. After all, their very nature is similar to demons. They are unmistakably "beings from another world."
However, Le Qiaoqiao and Hongyan didn’t seem affected at all. Was it because their levels were too low?
No… that couldn’t be it. Even low-tier demonic creatures, like the demon beasts, had been somewhat suppressed back in the Holy Empire. So this clearly wasn’t just about power level.
In that case, what about Mr. Diviner and Mr. Dead Soul? They were also from the Ancient Spirit Realm, yet they didn’t seem to be affected by this world’s laws either. According to the memories Dawn left behind, the humans there weren’t actually native to the Ancient Spirit Realm, they had migrated from another world.
And at the time, they had arrived from the western coast of the Ancient Spirit Realm…
Could it be that humans in the Ancient Spirit Realm actually originated from the Origin Realm? If that were true, then what about other worlds, like Aibus? What about the races there that closely resembled humans…?
Deep in thought, Violet barely paid attention to the chatty girl excitedly discussing their thrilling experience. Instead, she casually asked.
“Ming Lan, if someone wants to travel from here to the Ancient Spirit Realm, how do they do it? Do they also have to dive into the deep sea?”
Hearing this, the grand steward, who was about to leave and inform the other crew members, paused and shook his head.
“The gap between the two worlds isn’t as simple as going back and forth. From this side, if you just keep sailing east across the ocean at a steady pace, at normal ship speed, you’ll reach the western coast of the Western Origin Spirit Kingdom in about three years.”
"Huh? It's that easy?"
No wonder those [Church of Truth] people were able to escape to the Ancient Spirit Realm in large numbers. It takes a long time, but it’s still much simpler than the deep-sea passage they had just experienced.
Ming Lan continued, "It sounds simple, but it’s actually not that easy. The space between the Origin Realm and the Ancient Spirit Realm takes the form of a massive storm zone over the ocean. That area is constantly ravaged by violent storms and tsunamis, and beneath the waves, there are giant sea beasts as powerful as mythical creatures. They're extremely aggressive, any normal ship that sails into that area is practically doomed."
"That’s why even the Spirit Veil Merchant Guild rarely tries to force their way through. Instead, they use the blessing of the Supreme Sacred Fox God to teleport across worlds. From a spatial perspective, leaving the Origin Realm is much easier than entering from the outside."
So the connection between these two worlds is pretty complicated. It’s kind of like a one-way valve or something.
The priestess gave a small nod, deciding not to dwell on the topic. Instead, she changed the subject.
"Can you figure out where we are in the Eastern Sea right now?"
Ming Lan let out a helpless sigh and lowered his voice a little.
"Miss, just look around. It’s nothing but an endless ocean. No islands, no landmarks. What exactly am I supposed to use to figure out our location?"
"Usually… after passing through the world’s boundary, we end up somewhere between the storm zone and the eastern coastline of the Origin Realm. But there’s no clear pattern to where exactly we appear."
After thinking for a moment, Ming Lan glanced at the two women who had left to clean up the scattered debris on the deck. Then, he quietly added.
"Miss, the Eastern Sea of the Origin Realm isn’t just empty ocean. There are actually a lot of scattered islands here, some of which are inhabited, even by fairly large civilizations. If we can find an island and talk to the locals, we should be able to figure out our location pretty quickly."
"An island, huh…"
Violet nodded and closed her eyes, expanding her divine sense in all directions.
From the moment they arrived, the priestess had already connected to numerous distant signals. Most of them came from the various enchantments and markers she had set up during her past travels. Things like hidden spatial teleportation gates or protective barriers and magic formations.
Of course, some of her allies had also sensed her presence and immediately sent messages.
However, the one who was absent from that group was a certain dragon girl, which was clearly not in line with Xiaoguang's usual behavior.
It was odd, but with the [Seal of Heaven and Earth]'s spatial mysteries no longer in the way, Violet could clearly perceive all of Xiao Guang's information, and even use her contract authority to forcibly summon her back to the pet space if necessary. The reason she could remain calm and act without worry.
Deep in thought, Violet opened the status panel of her most important pet.
— — — — — — — — — —
[Individual Name: Xiao Guang (Evolving)]
Age: 375 years
Gender: Female
Race: Dragon Species, Holy Crystal Dragon (Lv. 100)
HP: 4.01 million / 4.01 million
MP: 1.97 million / 1.97 million
Strength: 92,330
Agility: 80,609
Intelligence: 32,441
Pet Equipment:
Sky-Shattering Claws (Semi-Divine Artifact)
Ring of Earth’s Protection (Semi-Divine Artifact)
Heart of Eternal Pulsation (Semi-Divine Artifact)
Unknown (Grade Unconfirmed)
— — — — — — — — — —
Evolving…?
Violet knew very well that since arriving in this world, Xiao Guang’s stats had barely changed. That was mainly because she had already reached her level cap. She was a fully matured Holy Crystal Dragon, and aside from consuming rare treasures or upgrading her equipment, her strength had basically peaked.
But compared to six months ago when Violet last left, all of Xiao Guang’s stats had slightly increased. The change wasn’t huge, but it was noticeable enough on the status panel to be significant.
And then there was that "Unknown" equipment…
Violet wasn’t worried that her dragon girl had been tricked into something dangerous. After all, the stat boosts were real. If that unknown piece of equipment was harmful, she would have felt it immediately through their bond.
Besides, Xiao Guang might act a little silly most of the time, but as a dragon, her instincts about good and evil were incredibly sharp. She just tended to behave more docile in front of her master. If anyone had tried to take advantage of her, well… their remains would have been reduced to dust by now.
That meant this had to be a transformation she initiated herself, one that benefited her.
So that was probably why she hadn’t responded to Violet’s summons earlier. It seemed that their temporary separation had actually helped her grow.
If that was the case, there was no need to interfere. Violet decided to let Xiao Guang handle things on her own and just observe the situation for now. The more urgent priority was figuring out where they were.
With that in mind, she extended her SP scan outward. In the blink of an eye, it swept across a thousand miles, capturing everything in her range.
"Huh? This is…"
"What’s wrong, Miss?"
Violet withdrew her spiritual energy, her black hair swaying slightly as she shook her head.
"It’s nothing. I found the island you mentioned. Let’s head there and ask for directions."
She paused for a moment, her gaze distant.
"There’s… something very interesting there."
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