The things he did and experienced made him feel free and liberated. It made him feel that his tedious trip to the heavens wasn’t so bad.
But all good things must come to an end. Especially when there is an important mission waiting for him to complete.
After having his fill of fun, he looked up at the sky and focused on the large platform that he saw there. From where he was far on the ground, he saw many people flying around the platform.
This made him say, "So that must be the assembly point. I’d better go and report for duty."
After he said this, he took off into the air towards the large platform. The closer he got to it, the larger it became.
He had expected the platform to be bigger than it looked, but he was quick to realize that he had still underestimated the size of the platform. The closer he got to it, the more it was proven to be the case.
He even clicked his tongue in admiration and said, "I thought it would be as big as the sect grounds, but this is as large as a city."
But once he got close enough to see the platform in its entirety and saw what appeared to be a bustling city full of people, he realized how right he was to say that the platform was as large as a city.
His eyes widened in pleasant surprise as he said, "This is not as large as a city. It is a city. It is an entire city with mortals, cultivators, and animals. There is even a market."
"It is a literal floating city. Or is it a heavenly city since it is in the heavens?"
As he got closer to the floating city, he saw more and more things. Everything he saw was ordinary, but the fact that he didn’t expect to see them in the heavens made them extraordinary.
One thing that he did expect to see was the sect grounds. It was the same old sect grounds with the exact same paint color and layout as the mundane ones on earth.
The sight of the same sect grounds made him twitch his lips and say, "Even in heaven, it is the same. Apparently, nowhere is exempt from this."
Since he had spotted the sect grounds, he knew where to go to report for duty. He went there immediately to do that so that he would be able to start his grade 5 mission as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, his enthusiasm was for naught. He was told that he had to wait because the Four Directions Sect and the other four sects weren’t ready yet.
The good news was that he only had to wait three more days. This happens to be the deadline that he was given to report for duty. So he could only wait.
Fortunately, he was given somewhere to stay in the meantime. But before he went to his accommodations, he went to check the city first. He wanted to know if this city was the same as the ones below.
But even before he left the sect grounds, he knew that this city couldn’t be similar to the cities he was used to. This was because he was seeing too many rank 4 cultivators moving around.
Everywhere he looked, he saw a rank 4 cultivator. This was very different from what he was used to.
In the cities below, rank 4 cultivators were supposed to be rare and not easily encountered. But here he was seeing them at every turn. There was even the occasional flash of rank 5 beings shooting through the sky above them.
After seeing all of these, he said to himself, "This is all probably related to the fact that there is only one Heavenly Battlefield and every rank 4 being in the sect that wants to advance to rank 5 must come here for it."
As he went through the city, more differences between this floating city and the normal cities on earth became clear to him. He saw many of these differences when he went to the market.
The first difference he noticed was the large amount of rank 4 Cloudy Date Metacs that were available for sale. The difference here is that there was not a single rank 4 Cloudy Date Metac in the crystal city that he came from.
This was just the start. He saw many rank 4 Metacs and even rank 5 Metacs for sale in shops.
To top things off, he also saw rank 4 Branch Metacs of the Cultivation Pathway. But the surprise didn’t end there. There were also Branch Metacs belonging to all five sects available for sale.
So he saw Branch Metacs of the Enslavement Pathway, Money Pathway, Death Pathway, Forging Pathway, Mind Hunter Pathway, Strength Pathway, Transformation Pathway, Seer Pathway, Truth Pathway, Sword Pathway, Killing Pathway, Array Pathway, Talisman Pathway, and the Pill Refining Pathway.
These pathways belong to the Four Directions Sect, the Martial Body Sect, the Nexus of Truth Sect, the Sword Way Sect, and the Myriad Phenomenon Sect. They made a total of 14 pathways.
But there were also Branch Metacs for lost pathways like the Dual Cultivation Pathway and the Human Pathway. Lastly, there were the Branch Metacs for the Beast Pathways, such as the Fire Pathway, Water Pathway, Earth Pathway, Wind Pathway, etc.
All of this was an eye-opener for him. It made him say, "Is this the headquarters of the public trading platform?"
"This is truly heaven. Everything I could ever want is available here."
"Everything aside from Divine Metacs. Those are still rare. I doubt that anyone is out there selling the key to immortality for money."
In general, the resources available in the central market were far more abundant than what a normal city could have. And the prices were 30% cheaper than ordering them from the trading platform. This made his trip here more and more worth it.