Chapter 408: The Overlord of the Celestial River Galaxy, the Holy Dragon Society!
["Alright, don't be sad. If you kept him by your side, he wouldn't even survive to adulthood. Only the Torch Society can protect him best."]
["I hope it really is as you say."]
["Your mission is complete. Now it's time to think about yourself."]
["As she spoke, Ji Wuqing handed you a bronze token."]
["This is the Bronze World Token of my Ji family. Take it and come back to the Ji family with me. Your temporary residence permit is about to expire, isn't it? Joining the Ji family will get you a long-term residence permit. However, since my identity as a member of the Torch Society must be kept secret from the family, I can't directly give you a higher-level family position. You'll have to start from this Bronze Token. I'll find an opportunity to upgrade it for you later."]
["Ji Wuqing was offering you this as thanks on behalf of the Torch Society."]
["You thought this was fine too. It solved your residence permit problem."]
["With that, you could now focus on your cultivation in peace."]
["That works too."]
["Ji Wuqing took out a Spiritual Treasure. It looked like a carriage, open-topped, but with a luxurious canopy."]
["Then, she took out a small gourd and released two white unicorns."]
["Get in."]
["You brought Black Wind onto the carriage."]
["It was a horse-drawn carriage, with both horses and a carriage."]
["But the horses could fly, and the carriage could fly too."]
["Its flying speed was ridiculously fast, so fast that you couldn't even make out the scenery flashing by on the ground."]
["What kind of treasure is this, to fly so fast?"]
["If this were the Void Realm, you wouldn't think it was anything special, but being able to fly like this in the Real Realm—that had to be a fantastic treasure!"]
["Cloud-Chasing Steeds and Cloud-Soaring Carriage. Both are treasures used by cultivators for flying and travel, but I chose to combine them because they fly even faster together!"]
["Later, you learned that Ji Wuqing could actually fly on her own, as she had comprehended the Wind-Riding Divine Ability and mastered its related Divine Arts."]
["But using Divine Abilities and Divine Arts consumed a lot of energy."]
["Whenever possible, even cultivators at the Earthly Nether or Transcendent Realm would still choose to use mounts or artifacts for transportation."]
["Vermilion Violet Star was huge, but with the combination of Cloud-Chasing Steeds and Cloud-Soaring Carriage, you reached the Ji family's ancestral land in less than ten days."]
["The Ji family was a major human power whose influence reached distant planets."]
["They owned many industries, some of which even spanned across planets or star realms."]
["Ji Wuqing told you that the Ji family was currently the largest human power within the Celestial River Galaxy."]
["The only human power that could rival the Ji family was the Jiang family, also on Vermilion Violet Star."]
["Both families were among the ancient human clans, with a long, unbroken heritage passed down through the ages."]
["Even though humans were currently looked down upon by the myriad races and faced discrimination and suppression in many places, these were minor issues given the foundation of the Ji and Jiang families."]
["The most powerful human force, huh?"]
["What? Don't believe me?"]
["No, it's just that I find it a bit odd. The Ji family is already this powerful, yet they can only thrive on a First-tier Star, not permanently reside on a Special-tier Star."]
["The Special-tier Stars have all been occupied by the Holy Dragon Society and their direct subordinates. How could they ever be available to us? Besides, the classifications like Special-tier Star and First-tier Star were originally created by the Holy Dragon Society. Our Ji family has lived on Vermilion Violet Star since ancient times."]
["Over the past few days, you had chatted idly with Ji Wuqing quite a bit, gaining a much better understanding of the Real Realm."]
["For example, the classification of planets into first, second, and third tiers—it was entirely man-made."]
["Done by the Holy Dragon Society."]
["Originally, the distribution of Immortal Qi in the universe was relatively even. Even if some places had more and others less, it was a natural phenomenon caused by flow."]
["But later, the Holy Dragon Society modified the distribution of Immortal Qi across the entire galaxy."]
["They gathered massive amounts of Immortal Qi onto a small number of planets, which became the so-called Special-tier Stars."]
["Then, they left a considerable amount of Immortal Qi on some important planets, which became First-tier Stars."]
["Finally, there were the loosely controlled regions, which became Second-tier Stars."]
["As for Third-tier Stars, they didn't even bother to officially classify them. Any planet that lost all its Immortal Qi due to this operation was simply considered a Third-tier Star."]
["So, does that mean the ruler of the entire Celestial River Galaxy is the Holy Dragon Society?"]
["Ji Wuqing chuckled."]
["You could say that, but you couldn't say it either. Because a galaxy is far too vast. How many people are in the Holy Dragon Society? There's no way they can rule such a massive territory. It's just that they have an Immortal Emperor, so they can do whatever they want without anyone being able to restrain them. That's how they set the rules and appear to rule the entire galaxy."]
["Is the Holy Dragon Society composed entirely of the Holy Dragon Clan?"]
["Of course. The core organization is made up of Holy Dragon people. That's how alien races are—they are very guarded against outsiders."]
["Great... just great..." Ji Wuqing was puzzled by your reaction.]
["The territory of the Ji family's ancestral land was vast, containing over a hundred cities. Everyone living there was human, most with blood ties to the Ji family."]
["For such an enormous ancient clan, their members had long since spread across many planets."]
["This wasn't even mentioning the branch families that had settled on foreign planets."]
["Even among the over a hundred cities in the ancestral land, the blood relations between the people inside were so distant that they could be considered strangers, perfectly able to intermarry."]
["Although the Ji family was called a family, it could actually be seen as a large-scale, systematic, and strictly hierarchical nation."]
["It was the same principle as the Shen Family of the Starry Domains in the human world, but on a much larger scale. The Ji family was a universe-level franchise."]
["Ji Wuqing was the eldest daughter of the current head of the Ji family. She was the true direct bloodline, as straight as it gets."]
["She brought you to Wan'an City, where the main line of the Ji family lived."]
["The city was bustling with traffic, featuring intricately carved beams and painted rafters, all with an ancient charm. Street vendors hawked their wares, the atmosphere was full of the hustle and bustle of daily life, and the cultural ambiance of the human race was rich."]
["At first glance, this place looked no different from the style of some cities in the human world."]
["It wasn't the misty, cloud-wreathed immortal paradise you had imagined."]
["The only difference was that occasionally, a few cultivators would fly overhead."]
["Ji Wuqing generously bought you a house and courtyard in the city, then recommended you for a position as a Squad Leader in the city's patrol battalion."]
["I can only manage this for now. If I were to give you a position that's too high, it would be hard for me to explain to the family. I'll find a reason to promote you later, or..." Ji Wuqing looked at you playfully.]
["Or you could just marry me and become a live-in son-in-law. Then your status would jump straight from the Bronze World Token to the top-tier Crystal World Token!"]
["Your lips twitched."]
["Miss Ji, please don't always joke about such a serious matter as your own life."]
["I never would have guessed. You're actually quite conservative."]
["You smiled but said nothing."]