Spending a good few minutes taking in the city that had suddenly replaced the twenty seventh floor of the tower that should have been dominated by the Heavens Faith Sect, Xuan Hao found himself deeply confused by the sudden change that had taken place. Not just because a massive city far beyond any city he had seen within the small world in the past had emerged, but also because he had clearly sensed the presence of someone beyond the Land Creation Realm within the city. Exceeding the realm that limits of the floor that should be somewhere within the Land Creation Realm... And different from the demigod belonging to the Heavens Faith Sect, it was clear that this powerful being wasn’t the only being above the Land Creation Realm within this massive city.

If anything, he had a feeling that the owner of the mountain wasn’t even considered the true pinnacle within this massive city, as from what little he had managed to understand about this city over the past few minutes, the true powers in charge of this massive city were located next to the immortal ascension staircase that he would need to ascend to complete the task that had been assigned to him.

From this fact alone, it was clear that this floor was no longer one where he could just run around recklessly with his current strength, as he ran the risk of offending some powerful figure.

Instead, it looked like it was going to be far smarter for him to silently explore this massive city and try to search for the heavenly treasures that he had originally returned to the twenty seventh floor of the tower for.

After all, with people at the Star Creation Realm emerging, it was clear that a source of heavenly and earthly treasures had also emerged. If not, it would have been impossible for the strength level of the small world to rise so drastically compared to his last visit.

Luckily, he didn’t have to search for long to get an answer to his questions, as the existence of heavenly and earthly treasures weren’t considered much of a secret within the massive city where even a random pedestrian might be a powerful figure at the Land Creation Realm.

Although... Learning where he might get his hands on these treasures ended up with him also learning the history of the small world and how it had developed to its current prosperous state and unsurprisingly, the history of this small world developing to its current state was entirely tied to him killing the demigod of the Heavens Faith Sect in the past- or more specifically, him using the Dao of Space to collapse space across an area that could cover the old Heavens Faith Sect two times over.

After his departure back then and having handed over knowledge of the Profound Immortal Realm to the different subordinate powers, the general state of the world remained unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years before the first few beings at the Land Creation Realm began emerging. Following which, several millions years passed with Land Creation Realm cultivators slowly replacing the original Celestial Lord Realm cultivators before a little over three millions years ago, it was discovered by a Land Creation Realm cultivator proficient in the Dao of Space, that the collapsed space he had left behind back then connected to a desolate world half the size of the small world.

Of course, the new space for expansion within the core of the small world was great for the powers long since entrenched within the core with nowhere else to expand, but the most important thing about this new desolate world was the fact that it could produce heavenly and earthly treasures. Allowing the Land Creation Realm cultivators that had mostly been stuck at the Early or Middle Stage of the Land Creation Realm to reach the Late and Peak of the realm before finally, a little over two million years ago, the first Star Creation Realm cultivator emerged.

Following the emergence of a Star Creation Realm cultivator, the small world completely changed, and the former path of the Celestial Immortal Realm was entirely thrown to the side and everyone starting on the path of cultivation followed the path of becoming a profound immortal instead of a celestial immortal. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

As for where the immortal ascension staircase fits into everything? It mainly had to do with legends of him ascending the staircase and it being a path to the immortal realm surviving to this day along with the scars of his battle with the demigod of the Heavens Faith Sect surviving to this day.

Originally, it was impossible for the people of the small world to even step onto the spiral staircase, something the locals believed was because they were too weak, as the remnants that had survived from his battle with the demigod of the Heavens Faith Sect already went far beyond what someone at the Land Creation Realm could accomplish.

But with the emergence of cultivators at the Star Creation Realm, some of which specialized in the Dao of Space, it was generally acknowledged that he was someone at the Pinnacle of the Star Creation Realm who had later ascended the immortal ascension staircase to breakthrough to a higher realm.

And maybe in response to the beliefs of the local inhabitants, the ascension realm tower had adjusted the twenty seventh floor of the tower to center around the immortal ascension staircase. Making the locals discover that anyone who had reached the Profound Immortal Realm, be they cultivators at the Breaking Dawn Realm or the Star Creation Realm, could challenge the immortal ascension staircase and attempt to ascend.

Amongst these people attempting to ascend, some did indeed succeed and even more surprisingly, those who successfully ascended and reached a higher realm had the ability to communicate with some of their descendants from the small world or the powers they had originally been part of. Establishing a direct link between some of the powers from the small world and the so-called immortal realm that should be another floor of the ascension realm tower far above the twenty seventh floor that had ended up being changed alongside the twenty seventh floor due to his interference.

That aside, because of the establishment of a direct link to this immortal realm, the powers that had this kind of connection could be considered at the very pinnacle of power within the small world and were not only in control of the immortal ascension staircase but also controlled the flow of heavenly and earthly treasures. Making it difficult for a Land Creation Realm cultivator like himself to get his hands on these kinds of precious cultivation materials. Especially so considering there were rumors that the desolate world producing the heavenly and earthly treasures was guarded by a formation that had been sent down from above that had strength above the Profound Immortal Realm.

In other words, if he wanted to force his way into the small desolate world where the heavenly and earthly treasures were being produced, he would have to face off against a formation that had almost certainly reached the Venerable Realm. Not exactly something that was possible with his current strength and comprehension of the Dao of Formations.

Meaning, if he wanted to get his hands on a heavenly or earthly treasure, he would have to buy it through one of these major powers, something that would undoubtedly be expensive.

At the very least the immortal ascension staircase wasn’t sealed off even though it fell under the control of these different major powers. All he needed to access it was pay a single top grade spirit stone. Expensive, yes, but not exactly something that would affect someone like himself, it was more so in place to stop someone from recklessly throwing their lives away on the immortal ascension staircase.

After all, though everyone could ascend the staircase whenever they wanted after reaching the Profound Immortal Realm, stepping onto the staircase meant one had to continue ascending and couldn’t go back, while failure to ascend meant death. One of the main reasons why those powerful cultivators throughout the city were hesitant to step onto the immortal ascension staircase and try to ascend to the immortal realm. Most waiting until they reached the limit of what they could accomplish within the small world before challenging the immortal ascension staircase.

Of course, to someone like Xuan Hao, this didn’t really mean much, as he would be able to attempt the immortal ascension staircase as many times as he wanted.

The only thing he worried about was the fact that it wouldn’t be as simple as he had originally thought to get his hands on the heavenly and earthly treasures on the twenty seventh floor of the tower.

He could try to steal some and force his way to the immortal ascension staircase, but considering the number of powerful cultivators present within the city and the fact that there was no lack of those proficient in the Dao of Space thanks to the scar he himself had left behind when killing the demigod of the Heavens Faith Sect, he doubted this would have much success... And unfortunately, he would lose anything he obtained from the tower floor when he died.

The only way to mitigate this death was to consume the heavenly treasure or earthly treasure before dying, something that wouldn’t be possible without a week or two, time he wouldn’t have in case he stole the heavenly or earthly treasure from one of the major powers on the twenty seventh floor of the tower.