The Golden Sky World's name came from its brilliant golden sky.
There were billions of life forms thriving in this vast world.
The life forms with some intelligence are further categorized into different races or species.
However, among these races, there are ten races at the top of the food chain of the Golden Sky World.
The top three are Rank First: Devil Race, Rank Second: Demon Race, and Rank Third: Ancient Hunter Race.
Among these top ten races, ranked fourth are "Humans."
Humans are famous for their crafty nature, astute minds, and their ability to adapt.
Furthermore, humans were born with endless ambition; they always want more, no matter how much they have, and they are never satisfied.
For hundreds of thousands of years, humans tried to overthrow the top three races and become masters of this world, yet they failed miserably.
Apparently, humans have been inferior to the top three races in many aspects; they weren't born with the supernatural abilities and powerful bodies of the Demons, or the formidable minds and "Blood Memory Heritage" of the Devil Clan, and they also didn't have the "Elemental Bloodlines" of the Ancient Hunters!
Humans have always been on bad terms with other races because of their desire for dominance and those races' unique resources. They will never accept being inferior to other races.
However, the thing that always dragged them down was themselves.
They didn't trust each other and fought and schemed among themselves. As a result, humans are not as fully united as other races and only show temporary unity in times of immense crisis. That's the biggest reason for humanity's inferiority.
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The Golden Sky World is divided into ten continents and an immeasurable sea called the Endless Sea.
Each continent is governed by one of the top ten races, according to that race's strength or rank.
The biggest continent was under the control of the Devil Race, and so on.
The Azure Wind Continent was the Golden Sky World's fourth-biggest continent. As the name suggests, this continent was famous for its dangerous azure winds.
This continent was the home of the human race.
Human civilization differed significantly from those of other races and had its own unique hierarchy. Humans distributed power between different levels.
They organized the land of Azure Wind into four levels and a wasteland.
Bloodthirsty beasts roamed the wastelands, which were also home to the humans lowest in status.
The other four levels are the Low-Level Lands, Middle-Level Lands, High-Level Lands, and Royal-Level Lands, respectively.
There are only cities in the Low-Level Lands, and those cities also govern the wastelands.
The Middle-Level Lands are governed by kingdoms, which control the Low-Level Lands.
Empires exist in the High-Level Lands, and they control the Middle-Level Lands.
The Royal-Level Lands are the true face of the human race, home to the truly powerful forces of humanity. These powerful forces created Ancient Sects with countless years of heritage!
They control the whole Azure Wind Continent.
Humanity has obeyed this strict hierarchy system established by the Ancient Sects for countless years. If anyone tries to go against it, no matter whether it's a city, a kingdom, or even an empire, it will be destroyed by its overseeing authority — before the Ancient Sects even need to lift a finger.
The land distributions have been arranged according to the worldly energy called "Qi" and its density level.
"Qi" is a miraculous energy that, if one has a method to utilize it, can grant mysterious, supreme abilities, a long lifespan, even the ability to fly, and many other things impossible for a mortal.
No one knows where this Qi came from or who named it. But for as long as anyone can remember, the path of utilizing Qi has been known as "Cultivation," and one who walks this path is a "Cultivator."
The higher the level of the land, the denser the Qi. The density of the Qi plays a massive role in cultivation speed and power.
Any cultivator would want to go to higher-level lands to become more powerful than the masses.
In this "World of Cultivation," the law of the jungle rules — power means everything here, and the strong trample the weak.
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The fourth-level lands were also known as the Lands of Cities.
Cities are ranked 3-star, 2-star, and 1-star, respectively.
3-star is the lowest, whereas 1-star is the highest.
Furthermore, the Low-Level Lands are divided into the Eastern, Western, Southern, and Northern Lands of Cities.
The Northern and Western Lands are the lands of the Wastelandians — simply put, the location of the wasteland. So everyone calls the people who live there "Wastelandians."
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In the Eastern Lands of Cities, there is a 2-star city near the bank of a beautiful river.
Rows of colorful flowers lined the riverbank, creating exquisite scenery, and the scent of flowers drifted in the air with a light wind.
River-Flower City is the name of the city located beside this stunning riverbank.
River-Flower City has large city walls and large bronze city gates, which only opened for noteworthy and wealthy people. For commoners, there was a small gate beside the big gate for entering and exiting the city.
The city is split into two areas: the outer region and the inner region.
In the Outer Region lived commoners and mortals, and in the Inner Region lived nobles and cultivators.
The City Lord's Mansion is also in the inner region of the city.
Life was far more difficult for poor commoners in this world. They had to work hard to earn a living. Some were even forced to become slaves of nobles merely to stay alive.
In the nobles' eyes, they were just like animals with intelligence; they felt no pity for them. Who told them to be born like this, right?
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In the outer region of River-Flower City,
the most barren and dark part of the city was the slums.
People who didn't have money to buy a decent house could always purchase cheap huts here.
The slums were full of uneven dirt roads with trash scattered here and there. No one came here to clean the place frequently. That's why shelter here was so cheap, and crime was at its peak.
In a small, muddy alley of the slums was a small, rundown hut made of scrap metal. There were some holes in the roof of this little hut.
In this rundown little hut lived someone who was going to change the entire structure of the Golden Sky World one day!