1112 The Illusion Sea

As long as it was a piece of personal equipment — unless the owner had actively wiped away all signs from the equipment — high-leveled appraisers would be able to obtain information on the ancestry of the equipment. They were extremely impressive. This was a high-earning profession as high-leveled appraisers in the divine territory were rather rare. From the pricing figures that Lao Wang had obtained, if one wanted to appraise an ownerless piece of equipment that was above level-5, the appraisal fee alone would be sky-high and would cost 1,000 Gold Star Stones! If one wanted to appraise equipment that was above level-4, they would have to brace themselves for an even more frightening price difference!

Lao Wang was annoyed. Luckily, he had not rashly looked for an appraiser or thought that he could casually look for someone to refine the equipment. He had truly been overthinking. Did appraisers actually earn so much money? They were only spending some time appraising equipment. They really earned that much without risking anything? This was even worse than pill refinery!

Learning the art of appraisal was not difficult at all. In the end, equipment was a non-living thing. Furthermore, as long as it was a crafted item, they were identifiable. One simply had to follow the prescribed rules and check the equipment step by step. What was truly difficult were the number of equipment around and the experience involved. It was a test of one's memory…

The requirements for a beginner appraiser was being able to remember all the details on 100,000 types of the most basic materials in the divine territory, including their place of production, special characteristics, effects, and so on. Furthermore, every type of basic material had 1 to 10 variations. On average, a massive knowledge database comprising 500,000 types of materials had to be completely stored in the brain. The examiner would conduct spot checks for three days and three nights. One had to immediately answer correctly without any hesitation to become a beginner appraiser.

If the intermediate level was this difficult, there was no need to mention how difficult the higher levels were, let alone the requirements for peak S-ranked appraisers who understood the history of all the equipment in the entire divine territory.

It was no wonder that even though the threshold for studying appraisal was low, it was an extremely scarce occupation in the divine territory. Typically, only some special races could assume such positions. Furthermore, they also had a special status. After all, they could impart history and civilizational knowledge most of the time.

Of course, this had nothing to do with Wang Zhong. He was only roughly estimating the level of these three items. He used a violent method that wasted valuable resources. —He simply inserted spiritual power and determined how much spiritual power was needed to activate the equipment.— Of course, this method had the possibility of damaging the equipment. However, Wang Zhong felt that as long they had survived being cleansed by the Netherworld River, they would definitely not be weak… If the equipment got damaged… then the equipment was unlucky.

With Lao Wang's current flourishing combat level, typical intermediate-level equipment would definitely react. However, after a persistent attempt, Lao Wang was left paralyzed and panting on his bed. None of the three artifacts were fond of him. His spiritual power had completely disappeared, but there was no reaction. However, according to the difficulty involved, the mirror seemed to be of a lower level among the three pieces of equipment.

These three artifacts were definitely not ordinary items. There was even a possibility that they were level-3 or above!

Lao Wang was extremely enthusiastic. However, it was a pity that this enthusiasm was simply extinguished by Jhonas at night.

"Boss, what kind of daydreaming is that? Refining ownerless level-3 equipment again?" Jhonas was speechless. "I'm afraid that no one in the entire Heavenly Gates can do that! It's not because of skills. In reality, equipment refinery is like pill refinery, and level-4 is the peak in the Land. Anything above level-3? Firstly, the Land doesn't have refining environments that are good enough. Those need extremely harsh spiritual pressure and some special conditions. The most powerful spiritual pressure in the Land is in the Heavenly Gates, but how many units of spiritual pressure are there? There are only at most fifteen units of spiritual pressure. However, refining level-3 equipment requires environments with at least thirty units of spiritual pressure.

"Thus, level-3 equipment are all works that have fallen from the Heaven and are like gods. Then, there is the problem of the materials involved. All equipment above level-3 were refined in the Heaven before being bestowed upon some level-8 civilizations or others in the Heaven. Of course they would use materials from Heaven. How would you find those materials in the Land? Even if such mythological materials appear in the Land, Boss, do you know what value they would have? I can't even bear to state an actual amount and attack you…

"Thus, stop dreaming, Boss. We can't even buy level-3 equipment in the Land. Even if you have excellent luck and pick one up, you can only stare blankly at it. You can't refine it and simply cannot use it."

It seemed like these high-leveled artifacts that he had been excited about for so many days were completely useless… Lao Wang still felt that this was a great pity. If he was able to activate one piece of equipment, it would definitely be of great help to the human race!

Lao Wang was helpless and could only laugh at himself. A Void Core had imagined using equipment that were above level-4. It seemed like he had been overthinking.

"Boss?" Jhonas turned to look at him. "You couldn't have picked up some discounted items and thought that they were pieces of high-leveled equipment, right?

"Picked up some discounted items?"

"That's right. Since there are many nouveaux riches like us near the Heavenly Gates, equipment vendors have spread unchecked. There are various small-scale and high-end auctions with various ancient equipment that have not been appraised. But, let me secretly tell you something. They are all out to deceive people, and this is all part of their plan. However, please don't spread this. After all, this is one way equipment refinery businesses earn money." Flying Pig looked at Lao Wang with care and hoped that he had not been tricked. It was often said that those who could fight were often simple in thinking. He was afraid that Lao Wang would lose all his money just after earning it.

Just as Wang Zhong was left speechless, a messenger arrived. Jhonas quickly ran to open the door but saw a messenger from the Combat Cultivation Hall outside.

"You are being sent on a mission to the Illusion Sea World in one week! All Combat Cultivation Hall pupils must participate, or you will be chased out from the Combat Cultivation Hall." After the messenger finished speaking, it coldly threw a letter and rapidly left.

"Hey hey hey, be more polite. I'm not even a Combat Cultivation pupil," muttered Jhonas. When he picked up the letter, he even added, "My Boss isn't either… Dammit, it ran away so quickly. What kind of attitude is that?!"

"Let me take a look." Lao Wang was rather interested.

When he opened up the letter and took a look, besides a detailed list of rewards, there was also an explanation of the mission.

Jhonas also came closer. After all, expeditions usually had great benefits to be reaped. In any case, the Three Great Halls did not restrict any "visitors" from the other halls now. There was no harm in taking a look. As long as there could be benefits for him, he would attend!

Firstly, when Jhonas saw the detailed list of rewards, he was excited. Jhonas, a descendant of the Babi family, had no interest in rewards in the form of prize money and low-leveled equipment. Most importantly, there were special point rewards in the list. Furthermore, these were not Combat Cultivation Hall points. The points could be exchanged across the three Halls.

"This is good!" Flying Pig's eyes lit up. Even though his results in the Combat Cultivation Hall were decent, his habit of napping in class could not be changed, and many points had been deducted as a result. Currently, he desperately needed supplementary points. However, when he took another look at the simple introduction of the Illusion Sea…

Jhonas simply took one look before shrieking. "Damn, an X illusion-type world? They are trying to kill people. Those abnormal Combat Cultivation Hall supervisors are actually crazy. Forget the points. Even if they kill me, I will not go to that kind of place!"

There were only two simple sentences in the description: In one week, pass through the dimensional gate and advance to the Illusion Sea World. Note: The Illusion Sea World is a level X illusion-type world.

In the Land, the Heavenly Gates was one of the few places with dimensional gates. A dimensional gate was an unrestricted position transmission array that could go to any world with definite coordinates at any time. They were much higher-leveled than the fixed channels in the transmission area.

There were four or five other such dimensional gates in the Land, but they were all controlled by the Star Alliance. This was partly what made the Star Alliance so powerful. It would be much easier for them to conquer any known worlds in the Fifth Dimension compared to those interstellar pirates or slave vendors.

Of course, the dimensional gates were typically not used for bloody conquests. Such primitive accumulation practices had existed in the divine territory for several thousand years. They were now used more to train pupils and carry out missions. The Pill Refinery Hall and the Equipment Refinery Hall would also organize similar expeditions and missions. However, the worlds that the Pill Refinery Hall and the Equipment Refinery Hall set out towards were worlds that were not too dangerous and were rich in resources. The main objective was for pupils to collect resources. Such missions were simply heavenly as many of these "resource areas" were special zones that were exclusive to the Star Alliance. Jhonas longed to participate in these at least once.

However, the Combat Cultivation Hall was different. The other two Halls were desperate to pick up good objects when they went on missions, but the expeditions in the Combat Cultivation Hall were typically in the most dangerous worlds. The death rate was not very high, but it definitely existed.

All the Dimensional Worlds were divided into levels 1 to 9 based on the extent of civilization present. The higher the level, the greater the danger. Furthermore, level-X was typically assigned to places where the danger was uncertain, and the Illusion Sea was one of those places. The safe places in the Illusion Sea were around level-2 to level-3, while the dangerous places were definitely level-9. At the same time, level-X also meant that the Star Alliance could not possibly control such danger.

Seemingly, some peculiar natural treasures or illusory creatures that did not exist in the Land could be found in such places. They seemed to be very valuable, but no matter how much one collected, they would eventually all turn out to be illusory. Once they left the Illusion Sea Dimensional World, they would all turn into nothing. They did not have any value in the real world.

It was dangerous and did not provide any profits. No one knew whether the Combat Cultivation Hall supervisor who had chosen this world for the expedition had water in his brain.