Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3501: Almost Like A Mortal World

Meng Bai looked around, eyes wide. "Really?"

"Yes," Lin Mu said. "Busy. Organized. Large enough to support trade, artisans, guards, administrators. For mortals, this would be considered prosperous."

"But for an immortal world," Daoist Chu added, his voice tinged with mild disbelief, "this is barely a town."

Cattaleya sighed deeply, rolling her shoulders. "I’m finally starting to understand just how backwater this world is."

She turned her head slightly and looked at Elyon. "Why didn’t you tell us?"

Elyon flinched, just a little.

"I didn’t know," he admitted, sounding genuinely uncomfortable. "Not fully, at least."

Cattaleya raised an eyebrow. "You’re Elyon. You always know."

"Usually," Elyon said, rubbing the back of his neck. "But the Fifteen Ryze World is... strange. Information about it is scarce. Almost nonexistent in most networks."

He paused, then continued more seriously. "That’s why I was out so much back in Khwanzim. I wasn’t relaxing. I was digging. And even then, what I found was fragmented."

Lin Mu glanced at him. "The Butterfly Kingdom."

Elyon nodded. "That alone took effort to confirm. Even then, the information was old. I originally thought we’d arrive directly at its capital. The teleportation staff thought the same."

"But you found out otherwise," Daoist Chu said.

"Yes," Elyon replied. "From a secondary source. Someone who specialized in obsolete routes. That’s when I learned the arrival location was no longer the same and had shifted to an independant teleportation hall."

Cattaleya clicked her tongue again. "So the routes are outdated."

"Partially," Elyon said. "Some are. Some aren’t. It seems no one bothers maintaining accurate records here."

Lin Mu’s gaze drifted toward the city walls. "Which begs the question of just how obsolete the directions we’re following actually are."

No one answered that.

They passed through the city gates without incident. The guards barely gave them more than a cursory glance, clearly accustomed to low traffic. None of them were particularly strong. Spirit Realm at best, and that was being generous.

Inside, Blue City felt... quiet.

Not empty, but subdued.

Stalls lined the streets, selling food, cloth, tools, and basic cultivation supplies. There were no grand auction houses, no towering alchemy towers, no formation guild halls that radiated power.

The people were mostly mortal. At least when compared to the Immortal realm. Of course by mortal, it meant they were spirit realm cultivators.

Lin Mu could count the number of cultivators above the Nascent Soul Realm on one hand within his immediate vicinity. Even Dao Shell Realm cultivators were rare.

"This..." Meng Bai said slowly, "...this really feels like a mortal city."

Lin Mu nodded. "It’s close."

They walked deeper into the city, taking in the sights. Children ran through the streets laughing. Merchants argued over prices. A blacksmith hammered away at glowing metal that barely qualified as Mid Spirit-grade.

Lin Mu found himself oddly nostalgic.

"It reminds me of home," he said quietly.

Meng Bai turned to him. "Home? Your... mortal world?"

"Yes."

Meng Bai’s eyes lit up with curiosity. "What are mortal worlds actually like?"

Lin Mu considered the question as they walked. "Similar to this, in many ways. Smaller scale. Slower pace. Most people are ordinary."

"Ordinary?" Meng Bai echoed.

"Mortals," Lin Mu said. "People who never cultivate. Or if they do, only to very low realms."

Meng Bai frowned. "How low?"

"In some places," Lin Mu replied, "you might not find more than a handful of cultivators in an entire city. And even those might not reach the Nascent Soul Realm."

Meng Bai stopped walking.

"...What?"

The others slowed as well.

"A Nascent Soul cultivator," Meng Bai said carefully, "is considered... strong there?"

"Yes," Lin Mu said. "Extremely strong in many cases. They’re qualified to make their own sects, some even make entire kingdoms."

Meng Bai stared at him, genuinely stunned. "But... in the Immortal Realm, that’s basically nothing."

Lin Mu smiled faintly. "Exactly."

Daoist Chu let out a low hum of contemplation. "In some immortal families, almost all children are born at the Core Condensation Realm."

"Some can be born higher too," Cattaleya added casually. "Well, the geniuses at least. Though that is still common in the Celestial realm." She added.

Meng Bai looked even more shaken. "Then... the gap is that big?"

"It is," Lin Mu said. "In mortal worlds, cultivation resources are scarce. Techniques are incomplete. Knowledge is fragmented. Reaching Nascent Soul often takes a lifetime, if it happens at all."

"And immortals?" Meng Bai asked. "Uh, I mean Immortal Ascension realm cultivators." He corrected himself.

"Real immortals don’t exist there," Lin Mu replied. "At least not naturally. You can at most reach the Immortal Ascension realm. After that you’re forced to ascend."

The group walked in silence for a bit, the weight of that information settling in.

Finally, Lin Mu looked at them feeling a bit surprised. "You didn’t know this?"

All of them shook their heads.

"Never," Daoist Chu said. "I’ve never been to a mortal world."

Cattaleya snorted. "Neither have I."

Lin Mu raised an eyebrow. "No reason to?"

Daoist Chu nodded. "None. Descending to the Mortal Realm requires permissions, approvals, inspections. The process is long and tedious. And even then, we’d be heavily restricted."

"And you’d feel weak," Cattaleya added bluntly. "The laws suppress us."

She paused, then grimaced. "For me, it’s worse."

Lin Mu glanced at her.

"I’m from the Celestial Realm," she said. "Even being in the Immortal Realm is already... constrained. I can’t even speak freely about things. Going to a mortal world would feel awful. Like trying to breathe through mud."

Meng Bai swallowed. "That bad?"

"Worse," Cattaleya said. "I’d probably be miserable the entire time."

Lin Mu nodded slowly.

As they continued through Blue City, the contrast between worlds, realms, and scales became painfully clear. The Fifteen Ryze World was not just underdeveloped.

It was forgotten.

And somewhere, far to the south, lay the remnants of a fallen kingdom that they now had to reach without maps, without routes, and without certainty.

This journey was no longer just inconvenient.

It was unpredictable.