If he were to give up now, he wouldn't be able to take care of his sister and his two apprentices during their formative growth. He had intended on allowing them to acclimate themselves to the first realm before he ascended, but under these circumstances, he would be unable to do so without causing irreparable damage to the realm.

This wasn't something he wanted to see; after all, all that he gained, he had gained here. Furthermore, the first realm was meant to be a training ground of sorts for incoming hunters, and it served a tremendous purpose. If Zhang Lie were to destroy it here because of his stubbornness, what would Zhang Hanxiang and the other incoming hunters do?

Zhang Lie sighed. "Please stop. I'll agree to ascend!"

The formless hand above Zhang Lie immediately dissolved. Once the pressure abated, Zhang Lie reined in his genetic energy, and the cracks surrounding the Blacksteel settlement, along with the void underneath Zhang Lie's feet, slowly began to recover.

The moment Zhang Lie gave up his resistance, his body was instantly teleported into the extradimensional space in which his transferral procedure was held—or, more precisely, into a new copy of that extradimensional space.

A pale blue teleportation array sprung up around Zhang Lie's body. As it flared, Zhang Lie's surroundings turned dark, and the array activated.

The next moment, he found himself in the second of the five known realms of the dimensional world, that of the sura. The first realm, the realm of void, was akin to a tutorial for incoming hunters, whereas the second realm was a battlefield.

There were far more intelligent lifeforms in this realm than just those inhabitants of the Milky Way.

Fortunately, these alien races were inimical to one another, and there was constant fighting over several locations in the second realm rich in usual resources. If not for the discord between these races, the inhabitants of the Milky Way would hardly have dared to venture into this world.

The reason the second realm was known as the sura realm was because it was dominated by lifeforms of the so-called sura race. Mankind was a relatively weak force in this realm, and only had four cities under its control: the cities of Feng, Qi, Ming, and Wang.

Even these cities didn't represent absolute safety. Initially, mankind had built eight such cities, four of which had been destroyed due to coordinated incursions from the sura race, who had done so because of a fad for human flesh—yes, for that alone, the sura clan had found and destroyed four of humanity's cities.

There had been a fiasco about this entire affair, and several of the highest authorities of mankind had even contemplated transgressing into the second realm to punish the sura, but the five realms of the dimensional world all had rules and laws restricting them from doing so.

As such, they could only watch on as mankind defended itself. The sura, native to the second realm, were fierce and fearsome warriors, men and women alike. Their strength and numbers were far superior to those of mankind, even to all the lifeforms of the Milky Way at large.

And the inhabitants of the second realm weren't just these sura. Barely weaker than them were races such as the mara and the demonic ants, who were themselves far stronger than the humans.

In the second realm, mankind was a weak existence.

The Qi valley was where the teleportation array in the city of Qi connecting the first and second realms of the dimensional world was located, and it was kept under heavy patrol at all times.

After all, this was where hunters fresh from the first realm would arrive. They would spend half a year here as a recruit in the armed forces, before being permitted to enter the main city as a one-star warrior.

Memories of Zhang Lie's past life flashed through his mind even as a piercing shout interrupted his thoughts.

"You there, yes, you! What're you doing just standing there? Come over here! Don't block those behind you!" A silver-armored hunter motioned for him to step forward.

Zhang Lie stepped off the teleportation array and asked, "May I ask which city this array is associated with?"

"We're in Qi," the hunter replied gruffly.

Zhang Lie's eyes widened. Qi—the will of the first realm had disadvantaged him from the very beginning!

"If there's nothing else, follow the party of soldiers ahead of you!" The hunter pointed at a small team of hunters in front of where he was standing.

"Ah, thank you." Zhang Lie was well aware of the rules of the second realm, and he rushed toward that team of hunters.

"Another newcomer! And clad in a rather strange get-up, too. Fancy dressing up like the champion of the Void Cup, Zhang Lie, do you? Which settlement are you from?"