Chapter 602: Hope Sparked by the Ascension Platform

Ancient legends passed down through generations say that, before the great calamity, numerous cultivators on the Primeval Continent ascended to the Immortal Realm. Through special means, they managed to communicate back, proving the existence of that vast immortal world.

But after the calamity, an unknown force shrouded the Primeval Continent, cutting it off not only from the Immortal Realm, but also from the rest of the stars. For hundreds of thousands of years, this loss has haunted every cultivator on the continent.

Now, with the faint hope glimmering through this Ascension Platform, it’s no wonder everyone present is buzzing with anticipation.

After careful deliberation, the gathered factions decided to join forces and study the Ascension Platform together.

Once tensions eased, the various groups launched into animated discussion.

“As far as I know,” someone said, “in ancient times, only ascendant cultivators could activate the Ascension Platform. Are we really going to have our elders personally give it a try?”

The first real question quickly emerged.

But others soon voiced a different perspective.

“I wouldn’t be so sure. After the great calamity, the world changed, and the once-dense spiritual energy on this land has dwindled. The number of ascendant cultivators now is a thousand, even ten thousand times fewer than before.”

“By the same logic, maybe the platform’s restrictions have also weakened.”

“At this point, all we can do is speculate. What matters is if anyone’s willing to step up and make the first attempt!”

……

After much discussion, each group selected two representatives. All of them were at the Core Formation stage, old cultivators with their lives nearly at an end, desperate for one last try.

A dozen or so people took turns stepping onto the Ascension Platform. With a nod between them, they all activated their spiritual power at once.

Energy from these Core cultivators surged into the white jade platform. As suspected, the platform responded, clearly influenced by the changed environment. Their efforts triggered a noticeable change.

Everyone watched as the platform began to tremble under the influx of power. Just when they thought the platform was about to activate, the anomaly abruptly vanished. Had they not witnessed it with their own eyes, many would have doubted anything had happened at all.

The higher-ups from each faction exchanged uneasy looks, but nobody was ready to give up.

“From what we saw, the Ascension Platform can be activated! If Core cultivators aren’t enough, then let’s try Nascent Soul cultivators!”

“Agreed!”

“I second that!”

Reaching a consensus, each side selected one Nascent Soul cultivator, bringing the total to six.

The six Nascent Soul experts stepped onto the platform without hesitation, pouring overwhelming power into it.

This time, the reaction was even stronger. The white jade platform quaked violently, pushing its limits, then a pillar of light shot up into the sky.

When calm finally returned and the pillar faded, everyone stared in shock.

“Where did they go?”

“They vanished—could they have actually been sent to the Immortal Realm?”

“Can we confirm if they’re alive? Is the Immortal Realm safe?”

The crowd erupted into a flurry of conversation, curious about the fate of the six missing Nascent Soul cultivators.

But someone soon shook their head and spoke up:

“They each left a life token behind with their respective clans. But the Immortal Realm is too far from the Primeval Continent. The moment those six vanished, their life tokens went dark.”

Some breathed a sigh of relief, seeing this as good news—at least there was still a glimmer of hope.

Yet even more people were pessimistic.

“There’s a good chance the Ascension Platform never actually connected to the Immortal Realm. The transmission was probably severed, and the six were lost in a chaotic void the instant it tried to activate.”

“Or maybe, after all these years, the Immortal Realm itself has become unimaginably dangerous—a place that snuffed out six Nascent Soul cultivators in a heartbeat.”

For those left waiting, speculation weighed heavily on their minds.

What they didn’t know was that, in some distant, pitch-black place, the six that had been sent weren’t dead at all.

“What is this place? There’s not even a hint of light!”

The six stepped off the ancient stone platform behind them, probing the darkness.

Lucky for them, all were Nascent Soul experts—fourth-tier lives of the Shattered Sea of Stars, fully capable of seeing through the eternal night. The total darkness didn’t slow their exploration down at all.

“Wherever we are, it seems we’ve landed on an unknown continent—one completely unlike the Primeval Continent.”

At that moment, the peak Nascent Soul cultivator from the Taiyi Immortal Sect spoke up, and the others quickly agreed.

The reason was simple: the spiritual energy here was far denser, at least a hundred times richer than on the Primeval Continent. After just a few minutes in this environment, one of the six was already showing signs of breakthrough.

That might not sound remarkable, but for Nascent Soul cultivators, breakthroughs usually took over a century’s effort.

After observing for several minutes, they felt certain—the land they stood on was vast, its end nowhere in sight, nothing like a small or isolated pocket world.

On these grounds, they concluded they were standing on a super-grade Floating-land, a place even more advanced than the Primeval Continent. Maybe, just maybe, this was the legendary Immortal Realm.

Unfortunately, when they tried to reactivate the Ascension Platform behind them, it was a no-go. There was no way to teleport back.

A few who had just begun to celebrate finding the fabled Immortal Realm soon found themselves in a panic.

After all, if this really was a proper Immortal Realm, no one would be worried—but the endless night here was unsettling. Anyone would feel something was very wrong.

Even back on the Primeval Continent, shrouded in strange energies, the darkest nights never looked like this—totally devoid of a single glimmer, as if light itself had been erased. It made their skin crawl with unease and dread.

Compared to the others, the Nascent Soul sword cultivator from the Luofu Sword Sect was much calmer. Though not Zhou Ping, he also had a Market-Walking Token tucked away in his storage pouch.

His sect leader had given it to him, urging him to try quietly activating the silver token. Maybe it could connect to the Omniverse Market and even let him contact Zhou Ping for future trades.

Finding an excuse to split up and explore, the Luofu Sword Sect swordsman soon separated from the other five.

……

Somewhere in the Omniverse Market.

“Huh?” Song Chi, currently high above the market’s main square, was fixated on a thread of spatial law when his gaze suddenly snapped down to a four-story inn below.

As the Master of the Omniverse Market, he could sense the spatial ripples in one of the Traveler’s Inns—and immediately recognized the exact person entering. More importantly, he knew this was the same inn linked to the second Market-Walking Token Zhou Ping had recently traded for a new Oddity.

With that, plus the hints Zhou Ping had given about the Ascension Platform and the Immortal Realm, Song Chi’s mind raced through the possibilities.

“Could this be someone the Luofu Sword Sect sent to the ‘Immortal Realm’ via the Ascension Platform?”

“Or maybe, like Zhou Ping, he’s also logged in from the Primeval Continent?”

“If that really is the Immortal Realm, could it be related to the Immortal Domain Civilization?”

A storm of thoughts flashed through Song Chi’s mind, but he quickly calmed himself.

“No rush—once the next Market trade happens, I’ll have my answer.”

Still, Song Chi couldn’t help keeping most of his attention focused on that Traveler’s Inn, watching the Luofu Sword Sect’s newcomer closely.

After a few minutes, seeing the excitement on the newcomer’s face, Song Chi had a pretty good guess. He just wasn’t ready to call it definite yet.

Time passed, and in a blink, five days had gone by.

Soon, it was time for another round of Market trades.

Normally, Song Chi might have let his clone handle the trading, but this time he broke the routine.

Instead of training or focusing on law comprehension, he split his attention, watching both Zhou Ping and the Luofu Sword Sect newcomer in their respective rooms.

He couldn’t help it—the matter of the Immortal Domain Civilization weighed heavily on his mind.

In all his centuries, Song Chi had suspected the Primeval Continent was somehow linked to that ancient civilization, and that the continent might once have been part of it.

That suspicion made him care more than ever.

According to the records of the Torch Human Civilization, the Immortal Domain was destroyed more than a hundred thousand years ago, long before the Torch civilization ever appeared. But at its peak, it was the undisputed overlord of the Shattered Sea of Stars—a fact noted by countless star-clans.

A civilization at that scale meant mythic-level power, and its core Floating-land, the Immortal Continent, was likely a level-ten Floating-land.

For Song Chi, that alone made it worth endless pursuit and investigation.

A level-ten Floating-land could birth mythic Oddities all on its own. Going by ancient legends, the ‘Immortal Realm’ ascended to from the Primeval Continent was very likely the Immortal Continent itself.

Lost in thought, Song Chi’s prediction came true: Zhou Ping logged in first.

But after logging in, Zhou Ping didn’t hurry away; he waited at the door to a room on the inn’s third floor.

He waited nearly half an hour.

Just as he was starting to get impatient, the door opened at last—the Luofu Sword Sect newcomer appeared.

The two exchanged a glance, surveyed the room, and then quickly stepped inside together.

Inside, Zhou Ping started to speak, but the newcomer cut him off.

The older Nascent Soul swordsman waved his hand, sending out a burst of spiritual energy that formed a secluded barrier around them.

Only then did he begin to speak.

Outside, hovering high above and shielded by the Market’s laws, Song Chi allowed a faint smile to slip across his lips—no one could tell.

As the Market Master, he was essentially all-powerful here; the newcomer’s crude attempt at secrecy had no effect on him at all.

Minutes later, Song Chi’s shifting gaze proved he’d caught every word of their exchange.

“A super-grade living Floating-land… could this really be the lost Immortal Continent everyone talks about?”

“And what’s with that endless night…?”

……

Once again, countless thoughts flickered through his mind, but he focused on just one.

“I need to find a way to set a Spatial Anchor on that Floating-land!”

Speculation was useless. If he could personally travel there and plant a Spatial Anchor, everything else would fall into place.

But figuring out how to actually set a Spatial Anchor over there was complicated.

Even if the Luofu Sword Sect traded for a Market Projection Token and used it to call in market support, the projection couldn’t really plant an anchor remotely.

Unless… if he could use the Void Sea Projection Emperor’s Tomb to summon the Heavenly Ruin’s projection, and then use its ‘real-virtual transformation’ ability to sneak an anchor in.

But getting the Projection Emperor Stone there would be tricky, too.

And even if he succeeded, whether the stone would work properly was an open question.

The Projection Emperor’s Tomb might be a black component, but with how strange the so-called Immortal Continent was, even the Market’s incredible reach might not guarantee smooth operation.

“Let me think… What could actually generate an endless night on a place like that?”

An endless night wasn’t something normal. Song Chi decided to dig into the phenomenon as his starting point—to see if he could deduce the Floating-land’s location.

“Could it be the result of an Oddity’s seal?”

The first thing Song Chi thought of was the ‘Flow of Time • Prison’ ability of the Timepiece Chessboard. That technique freezes time, but there could be other kinds of seals, right?

He also considered black holes, the Shadow Side of the Void Sea, and other possibilities.

Another day passed in a blink. After sending off all the star-clan visitors, Song Chi didn’t bother checking his trade gains—he simply used his anchor on the Dragon‑Spine Continent to return to the Tianpan Galaxy.

First thing, he took out the Yaoguang Star Order No.32.

He planned to consult the Star Tower Members about the Immortal Domain Civilization. Compared to the Song Family’s mere three thousand years of history, the Star Tower’s backers might have much deeper knowledge.