I will eventually become a divine being through accumulating constantly

Ning Yuantai smiled and explained, "Among the major security corporations, Black Tide Security is known for having a particularly bad reputation… Besides collecting commissions, they also sell the 'criminals' they capture to medical and breeding companies of equally bad reputations… And these sold individuals have no human rights, their status is no better than that of lab rats, so you can imagine what happens to them."

"Of course, these are all 'rumors,' with no solid evidence," Ning Yuantai shrugged.

"I see," Xue Jing nodded.

He didn't specify the punishment, but simply waved his hand and said, "Take him away and lock him up."

A member of White Crow immediately replied respectfully, "Yes."

He then grabbed the limp Sky Pirate by the hair and dragged him toward the rear of the cabin.

"…Give me a definite answer, big brother!"

The Sky Pirate quickly shouted.

"Kill me, kill me!"

"Hurry, please!"

The voice gradually faded away as Xue Jing turned to Ning Yuantai and asked:

"How much longer until we reach Yuan City?"

Ning Yuantai thought for a moment and said, "Dealing with the Sky Pirates took some time, it should take about three more hours."

"Hmm," Xue Jing nodded, picked up the slightly drowsy Miao Miao, stood up, and walked to a small compartment at the front of the cabin.

"Let me know when we're almost there."

Ning Yuantai replied respectfully, "Yes."

The remaining individuals present watched Xue Jing's retreating figure with reverence. Only after he entered the small compartment did they begin excitedly whispering among themselves, discussing the recent battle.

...

Following that, there were no more encounters with battles, and the journey proceeded smoothly.

That's not to say there were no other Sky Pirates; in fact, they encountered several groups.

But it seemed that the deeper they went into the Inner Ring, the more discerning the Sky Pirates became. Recognizing from a distance that the plane was a 'Dragon Core Fighter,' they wisely kept their distance and left.

Xue Jing was happy for the peace; now that his main regular skills had almost all reached the upper limit of Lv10, and he was waiting for their sublimation, he was not as urgently in need of combat experience anymore and didn't require frequent combat.

Three hours later.

"Xue, look,"

Xue Jing was conducting some martial arts experiments in Consciousness Space when he suddenly heard Ning Yuantai's voice calling him.

He exited the Consciousness Space, opened his eyes, and looked in the direction Ning Yuantai was pointing.

Far away, a massively expansive city came into view—yet soon, his attention was captured by something even further in the distance.

That was a structure… or should it be called a 'pillar'?

Truly reaching from the heavens to the earth, piercing the clouds like the mythical 'Divine Tree' that connected the earthly realm to the heavens, with Xue Jing's vision unable to perceive its top, the colossal black cylindrical structure stood.

Xue Jing watched the 'pillar' in awe and said, "Is this… the Sky Center?"

The Sky Center, built at the very heart of the urban circle — or rather, the so-called urban circle, was essentially divided around the Sky Center.

And its predecessor was called — the Sun Pillar!

"Quite impressive, isn't it?" Ning Yuantai spoke somewhat proudly.

"I was born in the Outer Ring, but I also lived in the Inner Ring for quite a long time as a child, yet even now, seeing the Sky Center still amazes me," he said.

"This is a miracle of Zhuxia's architectural history... no, of human architectural history, to this day we still do not know how the people over two hundred years ago achieved it."

Xue Jing did not respond but just stared at the Sky Center that connected heaven and earth, feeling for the first time since he had acquired the Skill Panel after crossing over that he himself seemed as insignificant as an ant.

About two hundred years ago, after 'God' had died, entering the New Calendar, when the world had just stabilized from its turmoil, the new governments of various countries were gradually stabilizing, and people all around the world were striving to adapt to the new era, entering a period of peaceful development.

At that time, for some unknown reason, every country in the world foresaw through some undisclosed method that there would be a monumental disaster capable of causing human extinction.

To confront this world-ending level disaster, nations around the world united like never before, helping each other, leveraging the strength of the entire world, and spent a full twenty years constructing an architectural feature known as the 'Sun Pillar' in the territories of various countries.

This was an extremely large heating device, akin to the sun itself, capable of illuminating vast areas, bringing warmth to regions within its reach.

Beyond constructing the Sun Pillars, all nations also re-planned their administrative regions around the pillars, forming what became known as 'urban circles'.

Once humanity was prepared, the disaster descended.

It was the first entity in history with a danger level exceeding level 10, dubbed a 'Super Organism.'

It was also, until now, the strongest creature known to human understanding, without equal.

The first and mightiest Super Organism was named—Eternal Night.

Its true form was a colossal mass of black flesh that enveloped the entire Earth Star like a curtain of darkness.

Upon its arrival, just like its codename, it brought an Eternal Night to all of Earth Star.

The transmission of sunlight was completely blocked, and humanity could no longer receive even the slightest ray of sunlight, causing the temperature of the entire Earth Star to begin dropping at a terrifyingly rapid rate.

Eternal Night made no other moves; it merely existed—its mere presence was a disaster sufficient to eradicate humanity.

Sun Pillars around the world were activated, illuminating the scant land left to humanity, bringing a semblance of hopeful warmth.

But this was merely a drop in the bucket... The closer one was to a Sun Pillar, the more warmth they could enjoy. Humans in the Outer Ring still lived in extremely cold and harsh conditions, barely surviving.

The desperate struggle in the Eternal Night War officially began, with nations around the world frantically seeking solutions to 'Eternal Night'.

But that dark curtain of flesh was so terrifying that it was already a challenge just to touch it, let alone harm it. Moreover, humanity found to their despair that after they somehow managed to slice off large chunks of its flesh, it regenerated the flesh faster than it could be damaged.

How humanity ultimately resolved the Eternal Night remains obscure in the historical records.

Nowadays, people only know that the 'Eternal Night War' lasted three years, about two-thirds of the Earth's population perished, and the environmental damage to Earth Star was immeasurable. Most regions became uninhabitable 'Evil Land,' with the extinct species of plants and animals beyond calculation, and to this day, no statistical results have been produced.

Thanks to the accomplishments obtained from various Intersecting Boundaries, it took humanity over 150 years to barely recover and to return to prosperity.

Though reforestation efforts continue to this day, most areas outside the urban circles are still 'Evil Land,' and restoring Earth Star to its pre-Eternal Night War condition is estimated to require nearly three hundred more years.

After the war ended, these Sun Pillars built with tremendous efforts of humanity were converted into 'Sky Centers.' Discover stories at empire

Currently, among the nine large urban circles in Zhuxia, there are nine Sky Centers each serving different purposes.

The Sky Center of the Fifth Urban Circle that Xue Jing is seeing right now is the most comprehensive among them all, with many floors leased out for various purposes, hosting the headquarters of many super-giant corporations within several of its levels.

The price of properties here is unexpectedly not very expensive... because there are simply too many floors, never selling out, they simply can't all be sold.

Of course, saying it's not expensive is only relative to its historical significance; for civilians, it is still very pricey, comparable to average housing prices in first-tier cities.

Xue Jing withdrew his gaze and turned toward the neon-flashing city that was getting closer and closer.

"Yuan City..."

He muttered softly to himself.

...

(With this, the book formally steps out of the newbie zone and also out of my personal comfort zone. I hope I can write well in the following sections, feeling a bit nervous.)