1906 As Many as the Stars

By the time Alex read through all of the talismans, his mind was abuzz with useless pieces of trivia such as what ranking a sect was and how big a guild was.

He finished reading through them all and realized that none of the invitations he got were from sects that ranked very high. They were all from sects and guilds lower in ranking, trying to catch a big break by scouting a talented new cultivator that would've just recently ascended and would still be quite unaware of most things.

Alex had to admit he was that person in a way. Still, he didn't like any of the sects he read in the talisman. Did he have to choose one of them?

'Can I even make it here being all by myself with no background?' Alex wondered. What better place would there be for him to hide in than a sect full of many other individuals?

'I wonder if I can find an alchemy-focused sect,' Alex thought. There were ones that boasted their Alchemy knowledge, but none seemed to be specifically for Alchemy like the Hong Wu sect was.

'Let's worry about that later,' Alex thought. For now, it was time for him to leave this room and go learn about the world he had come to.

Just to be safe, Alex spent some more time in his room before leaving. When he walked out, he had been in that room for nearly 3 weeks.

Alex searched for Cai Dusong, but he didn't have to go very far to do so. Cai Dusong instead found him.

He arrived in front of Alex in the hallway and gave a warm smile. "Have you finally accustomed yourself to this world, young friend?" the man asked.

"I have, senior," Alex answered.

"Then come. It is time I teach you what I can about the Immortal realms."

Cai Dusong took Alex to a room far within the building. It was a small room with a few chairs for one to sit in.

Alex counted the 5 chairs and sat on one of them after Cai Dusong told him to.

Cai Dusong sat on one of the other 5.

"Let me begin by teaching you something basic. In this world, there are humans and there are Demons."

The old man began explaining to Alex the difference between Human and Demon, something Bai Jingshen had explained to him when he had only just entered the True realm.

Alex listened to the old man's explanation and frowned at some points. He talked about the war and painted a clearly bad picture of the Demons, saying things such as that the Demons had begun the war all those years ago, and they had killed so many people because of that.

He painted the humans in a better picture, as though they were saviors who had retaliated against the demons to free the everyday people from the clutches of those monsters.

The Demon's loss was a Human's victory in this man's mouth.

Alex nodded throughout the entire explanation but was very much certain that he could not take any of this man's words as truth. At least, he could not take any information he could be biased towards as fact.

After explaining the difference between Demons and Humans, an information that Alex acted as though he wasn't aware of, the old man moved on to something else.

"You come from what we call a Spirit Realm. These are worlds where people can only go up to Saint realm with their cultivation base."

"Anything more and they have to leave for the Immortal realm."

"Currently, there are 72 Spirit Realms in total that belong to the humans."

Alex's eyes went wide upon hearing that information. It was not the fact that there were 72 Spirit realms that surprised him, but the fact that they belonged to the humans.

Which meant…

"And there are 44 Spirit Realms that belong to the Demons."

'There was more?'Alex thought, completely taken aback by this information.Bai Jingshen and Senior Yang had been excitedtalkingabout the Immortal Realmandnevertalkedabout the Spirit realms.

Alex never bothered to ask either, as Godslayer had long ago told him that there were 70-some Spirit realmsandhe took that as the truth.

Turnedout, Godslayer had not been aware of the Spirit Realms that belonged to the Demonsat all.

"The beasts have a dozen or sotoo, but we do not know the exact number. As for mortal realms, there are about 50 or so."

"Mortal Realms?"Alex asked.

"Realms without Qi,"the old man said."It originally did have Qi, but during the many years, it has been stripped of all spirit veins, making it a barren land with no Qi. Only mortals live there now, and we do not disturb them."

'There were even more?'Alex thought.

He had been aware that the world was so much bigger than just his one giant realm, but this was a mind-boggling number, even for him.

"As for the Immortal realms,"the old man continued."There are 33 of those in total."

"18 of those belong to the Humans, 9 of those belong to the Demons.3of the remaining ones belong to the beasts."

"And finally, the last 3 are lands unclaimed by anyof thefactions."

Alex raised an eyebrow."3 Immortal realms are unclaimed? Why?"he asked.

"It'sjust how it is,"the man answered.

"The Ever Dark Realm is frigid and cannot sustain life. The Immortal Prison realm is more of a place where they send cultivators to die."

"And the realm known as the Realm Within Realms…

I'mafraidI'mnot aware of what the deal iswith that one.But even the Divine realm cultivators are saidto not go there, soI would forget about it."

"Now then, let's talk about the Immortal realm we are in, shall we?"Cai Dusong asked and began talking about the Myriad Spirit realm.

There were a total of 3 Continents in this world. TheRosesteel Continent, the Spring Grass Continent, and the Blue Silk Continent.

Each one of these continents wasapparentlyknown by its specialty and was ruled by sects of that same name.

"Which continent are we in?"Alex asked theold man.

"None," Cai Dusong said."We'reon a large island in the ocean between the3continents.Thisis where the Interrealm Teleportation formationis set upto receive anyone that comes here."

"Isee,"Alex said."Then where does one go from here when they come? I meannewlyascended Immortals like me?"

"Well, most just choose the sect from the talismans they receive. You got some from those people when you came,didn'tyou?"

"Idid,"Alex said."But I was wondering if I had better choices."

"I'mafraid those are the choices for easily joining a sect. Otherwise,you'llhave to go through the regular process of waiting, evaluation, and result, with an almost certain possibility of rejection ifyou'reapplying for any of the higher ranking sects."

"I'mafraidyou'llhave to go for the weaker sects for now. Try your luck for the other ones when your cultivation base improves a little more over the millennia"