Wang Wei stood before a gate full of runes. Although his statue was everywhere in this city, no one recognized him. He observed the large gate, feeling the subtle fluctuation emanating from it.
He remembered how the world was when he first came and how much influence he had on this world. Back then, if you had told anyone that mortals could master the power of space-time on their own, 99% of cultivators would have laughed in your face, while the remaining 1% would look at you oddly and not say anything out of politeness.
He waited a few minutes until it was his turn. According to instructions, he stood in a circle before the door. Then, a flash of light appears around him, and he disappears.
'A controlled wormhole? Not bad,' he thought before finding himself inside an all-white space that was shining as bright as the stars. His mind seemed to feel like it was looking at infinity itself.
'If I were a mortal, then this subspace would indeed be a version of infinity,' thought Wang Wei. Before long, he found himself in another room with a magic circle on the ground. There was no gate around him, but Wang Wei could tell the entire compound was the Teleportation Gate.
A woman stood before him with a gentle smile. She immediately welcomed him and explained how to leave the compound. Wang Wei thanked her before leaving.
'Let's see what's different between this Green Lotus City and Black Stripe City,' thought Wang Wei. Green Lotus City is in the Taiyi Profound Gate's Domain, so he wanted to know whether there was any difference.
He walked around the city, and to Wang Wei's disappointment, there wasn't much difference, except for the God Temples. As a religion, Taoism had gods even before the Heavenly Court, and the people living in their domain were used to worship different gods.
However, the Taiyi Profound Gate would always disperse the Incense gathered, and the act of praying was more of a way to condense their religion's Qi Luck by better controlling the mortals.
'How stubborn,' thought Wang Wei, thinking our these Taoist monks followed the Absolute Beginning Emperor's edict like it was absolute. After shaking his head, Wang Wei visited a few more places in the central continent before heading to the Southern Continent.
His first destination was Heart Fire City in his old sect's domain–the Origin Pill Dao Sect. As soon as he arrived, he discovered something different: most mortals had tattoos on them.
Some hid them with some sort of potion. Others naturally could hide them in their bodies, while the rest did not care and let them show.
'Totem Warriors? Has it spread to mortals?'
Wang Wei was intrigued, so investigated. He went to a hospital and saw a bunch of children that had been born. Then, a caretaker or nurse pushed them into a special room with countless runes engraved on the ceiling. She activated something, and the runes descended on the children's body, creating a tattoo.
Some of the children began to emit light in their forehead where their Niwan Palace was. The nurse had a holographic screen before her and would identify these children as [Extraordinary].
As for the other children, the light emanates from their bodies.
'I see,' thought Wang Wei, understanding the situation. The mortal civilization in the south did not follow the Dao Opening Sect's model but created their own unique civilization.
The citizens did not use things like meditation, potions, pills, or Rune Array to create Extraordinary Citizens that awakened their Spiritual Power. Instead, they directly engraved special runes on the people's bodies at birth, activating their potential and spiritual power.
Meanwhile, ordinary citizens do not need to practice martial arts to wash and nourish their bodies with Spiritual Qi, thus strengthening them and prolonging life. The totem given to them at birth will automatically absorb Spiritual Qi from the environment and replace the role of martial arts.
'Different paths to the same destination,' thought Wang Wei with a smile. He was glad these people did not directly copy his sect; that would be boring. It's good for the Mortal Spiritual Rune Civilization to have variety.
He then proceeded to analyze the difference between these two mortal civilizations.
'The totem allows this citizen to awaken their spiritual power at birth, saving them a great deal of time. However, my people who have to meditate for a long period of time before succeeding, their spiritual powers are scattered and harder to control.
'It's the same for Body Totem. They don't need to practice martial arts, but their strength is not as good as the sect's mortals. However, they can also add more totems to their bodies to make up for this fault.'
In general, each had its advantages and disadvantages. If Wang Wei had to choose, he would lean toward the Totem Warriors. However, they have not been developing long enough to be even close to his sect's mortal civilization.
By the time they catch up, his mortals would have adopted some of the advantages of this Totem Civilization.
Wang Wei walked away and continued to observe this city. Due to the influence of the Southern Continent's Professions, the mortal civilizations developed faster than the others.
Things like pharmacology and rune artifacts excelled in the South. Arrays are not well developed in any mortal civilization because mortals' spiritual power is too weak to borrow the strength of Heaven and Earth, so they must rely on artifacts–similar to technology–to do everything.
Wang Wei took a Soaring Phoenix Construct, heading to the nearest city. As he sat in the plane that was flying in the air, a sense of achievement overcame him. He looked through the window and saw endless stretches of land, forests, and mountains.
'This world is too big. After more than seven hundred, the mortal population had drastically increased, but they still occupied a small part of the population.
'However, if they continue to reproduce at such a rate, after a few million generations, an issue of overpopulation might occur. Should I plan for this?'
He thought about it for a moment and decided to ignore it. Once the court spreads to the Lower Realm and other World Communities, mortal migration will help with this problem.
Additionally, Wang Wei knew that this world will not always be peaceful. After he leaves, not all Heavenly Emperors will be able to reign in these ambitious cultivators, allowing mortals to grow and develop.
Once a weak Emperor takes control, the cultivators will have no restraint, fighting everywhere and destroying countless mortal cities and civilizations.
'They must be restrained,' thought Wang Wei before continuing his tour. He focused on observing the Gods of the Southern Continent. Xu Shi is worshiped as the God of the South, along with some Gods from the Academy.
However, to adapt to the local situation, Xu Shi also allowed Gods that originated from factions in the south to be worshiped as well.
After visiting the south, Wang Wei looked in the direction of the Origin Pill Dao Sect. Lou Cheng's destiny and fate were still shrouded in a cloud that blocked all his investigation.
However, his Fate Shadow Guard has infiltrated the sect and learned the latter is refining a pill, and he seemed obsessed with it; moreover, Lou Cheng went to great lengths to hide it from others–especially him.
'Flame Emperor, what are you planning?' thought Wang Wei. He analyzed the situation countless times and had many theories. Alas, there was not enough information to come to a conclusion.
'It doesn't matter. I have a feeling your path will lead to me in the end,' thought Wang Wei before leaving. He headed to the Eastern Continent, trying to see if their civilization was anything unique.
As soon as he landed, he sensed the difference. The mortal civilization in the East seemed to have inherited the martial spirit even present in the Cultivation World of the East. They were also greatly influenced by the fact that most swordsmen's lineage was in the East.
The martial art that Wang Wei developed to help people keep fit turned into a world of Mortal Martial Arts, with mortals who became as strong as Divine Altar Realm cultivators.
Moreover, this was not the only unique aspect of the Eastern Mortal Civilization. A grant event was happening in Warrior City, so Wang Wei bought a ticket to the Colosseum.
In his private room, Wang Wei calmly watched the events. When it began, his mouth twitched.
'Human vs Robots?' he thought.
At the center of the stadium was a man in martial clothes with a long sword. Opposite him stood a humanoid puppet more than 5 meters tall. Wang Wei could tell a mortal was inside the puppet, controlling it like an exoskeleton suit.
The battle was thrilling, at least it was to the crowd. In the end, the swordsman won as he successfully shopped the puppet made of wood and ores harder than steel.
Wang Wei noticed he was an Extraordinary Citizen who could place temporary runes on his body to boost his physical attributes.
'Rune Martial Art? Human ingenuity is truly a wonderful thing,' thought Wang Wei before staying to watch the next battle. It was the same swordsman against a Divine Sea Cultivator.
The final result was the cultivator's victory, but he barely won. Wang Wei could tell he was trying his best. The cultivator left the Colosseum feeling humiliated. However, he did not dare act out.
The mortal civilizations had no problem dealing with low-level cultivators like himself. Furthermore, the Heavenly Court did not allow any cultivators to mess with mortals.
Wang Wei shook his head. The man accepted the Colosseum invitation, probably thinking it was easy money. But who knew he was only inviting humiliation to himself?
'In the end, it's because cultivators have not truly integrated with mortals,' concluded Wang Wei, but that was to be expected. After all, it has only been seven hundred years.
Extraordinary Citizens can now live between 250 to 300 years, meaning only two generations passed for them, let alone cultivators. So, there is still a lot more work to do before a perfect integration could appear. In the end, it might not even be perfect.
'More importantly, the court needs to have strict written rules.'
Wang Wei has shown how he felt towards mortals, so these factions followed his will; it did help they could also benefit. However, the Heavenly Court has yet to establish strict and written rules for everybody to follow.
'A lot of work has to be done in the next meeting,' thought Wang Wei while tasting the unique food of the East. He enjoyed tasting the food of each civilization.
So far, his favorite has been the spiciness of the south.
After the battle, nothing interested him, so Wang Wei headed to the Western Continent to check how the monks were doing.
