"Since over ninety percent of the population are mortals, and mortals can only live for a hundred years, they still need to live their lives."
"Just like in secular kingdoms, some farm, some hunt, some are officials, and some are bandits, occupying a territory."
"Among the three religions and nine schools of thought, they are often integrated. These bandits, though called bandits, also engage in the business of capturing slaves."
"It is evident that the host has encountered this kind of bandit who moonlights as a slave catcher."
Fang Ming fell silent.
He quickly communicated with Fu Meng.
"Do these people possess any extraordinary powers?"
Fang Ming noticed the long sabers in the hands of these bandits and their attire, automatically judging that this was by no means a technological civilization with firearms.
It was merely at the level of ancient technological civilization.
The technological side could be disregarded.
However, the extraordinary side could not.
Judging by their speed, these bandits should not have extraordinary powers.
But the fact that he had dodged and was still discovered by them already proved that some of the bandits must possess extraordinary powers.
So, do ordinary bandits not have them, but their higher-ups do?
Fang Ming guessed.
Fu Meng provided the answer.
"Ordinary bandits have no extraordinary powers, but among these thirty-odd people, the bandit leader and two of his subordinates possess extraordinary powers at Qi Yuan stage five and Qi Yuan stage three respectively."
"Qi Yuan stage three, in the God Realm, can roughly exert the strength of the early stage of Qi Refining in the Primordial World."
"Qi Yuan stage five, in the God Realm, can roughly exert the strength of the middle stage of Qi Refining in the Primordial World."
"Previously, the host was discovered because the bandit leader at Qi Yuan stage five directly scanned the surroundings with his divine sense and discovered the host's presence."
Qi Yuan is the lowest cultivation realm in the God Realm's cultivation system.
It is the first extraordinary realm that cultivators aspire to reach to become gods.
This is the only true cultivation system, with cultivation realms far surpassing any illusory, fantasy cultivation system or realm.
If they could descend to the lower realm, even a Hongmeng Supreme would not be able to withstand a Qi Yuan stage cultivator and would be defeated and killed within ten rounds.
However, in the God Realm, the extraordinary power they could exert was only equivalent to the early to middle stages of Qi Refining in the Primordial World.
This caused Fang Ming's expression to change slightly.
Early and middle stages of Qi Refining, they don't sound weak, but are they truly not weak?
Fang Ming knew this all too well.
The Primordial World had four major cultivation realms: Qi Refining, Qi Transforming into Spirit, Spirit Returning to Void, and Void Merging with Dao.
Each of these four major cultivation realms was further divided into early, middle, and late stages.
These four major realms, in many Chaos Eons, the Journey to the West era, and even the post-Journey to the West era, had new, more detailed subdivisions.
Qi Refining corresponded to the Qi Gathering stage, Foundation Establishment stage, and Golden Core stage.
Qi Transforming into Spirit corresponded to the Nascent Soul stage and Spirit Transformation stage.
Spirit Returning to Void corresponded to the Void Refining stage and Body Integration stage.
Void Merging with Dao corresponded to the Body Integration stage and Great Ascension stage.
This was the realm division in many Chaos Eons, the Journey to the West era, and even after the Journey to the West era, as known by Fang Ming.
The four original major cultivation realms were broken down into nine major cultivation realms.
This was more suitable for the Primordial World of that time, where spiritual energy was declining and the age of Dharma-ending was approaching.
Fu Meng said that Qi Yuan stage three could be considered the early stage of Qi Refining, and Qi Yuan stage five, the middle stage of Qi Refining.
In reality, the early stage of Qi Refining could be considered the Qi Gathering stage, and the middle stage of Qi Refining, the Foundation Establishment stage.
In other words, Fang Ming had to face two Qi Gathering stage cultivators and one Foundation Establishment stage bandit.
After reaching this conclusion.
Fang Ming's face contorted.
Facing a Qi Gathering stage cultivator with a mortal body, there might still be a chance of victory, but facing a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, wasn't that courting death?
Of course.
The Qi Gathering stage and Foundation Establishment stage in different fictional worlds absolutely could not be directly equated.
In some worlds, Qi Gathering stage cultivators could kill with a flying sword from ten miles away.
In some worlds, before the fifth level of Qi Gathering, they could only rely on talismans for protection, being inferior even to martial arts masters, and could only cast spells at the sixth or seventh level of Qi Gathering.
In some worlds, Nascent Soul elders could move mountains and fill seas, their every move could shake thousands of miles, and they could cleanse the surface of the Earth with ease, qualifying as planetary-level combatants.
In some worlds, Nascent Soul elders could be surrounded by heavy firepower and killed by missiles.
Directly equating the strength of Qi Gathering stage and Foundation Establishment stage cultivators from two different fictional worlds would definitely lead to great losses!
Similarly, the Qi Gathering stage and Foundation Establishment stage cultivators in Fang Ming's Primordial World, from many Chaos Eons after the Journey to the West era, could not be equated with those in other fictional worlds.
According to the division method of the former supreme Primordial World.
The Primordial World had five tiers of division.
They were Low-Tier Primordial, Mid-Tier Primordial, High-Tier Primordial, Top-Tier Primordial, and Supreme Primordial.
Fang Ming's Primordial World could be considered the lowest tier of Mid-Tier Primordial.
This had been the case for many Chaos Eons.
Qi Gathering stage cultivators in Low-Tier Primordial, Mid-Tier Primordial, High-Tier Primordial, Top-Tier Primordial...
These could absolutely not be equated.
Fu Meng once said that in the Supreme Primordial era, there was a fictional world in the extremely deep sea called "Carefree Primordial."
"Carefree Primordial" belonged to Top-Tier Primordial, and the Qi Gathering stage cultivators of Top-Tier Primordial... the entire omnipotent universe would rise and fall within their palms.
Even at the Qi Gathering stage in Top-Tier Primordial, they were capable of destroying fictional worlds that created normal multiversal narratives and opening and destroying the myriad worlds that ordinary transmigrators perceived, all with ease.
Naturally, the Qi Gathering stage cultivators of Top-Tier Primordial and Low-Tier Primordial were entirely different matters.
Fang Ming's Primordial World, if not counting ancient sages, was stably at the lowest level of Mid-Tier Primordial, having just broken away from Low-Tier Primordial.
The Qi Gathering stage and Foundation Establishment stage cultivators in such a Primordial World would not be overwhelmingly powerful, as Earth Immortals were only planetary-level combatants, and Heavenly Immortals were only star-level combatants.
Calculating from this aspect, and working backward, the strength of Qi Gathering stage and Foundation Establishment stage cultivators was also imaginable.
Qi Gathering stage cultivators could not wield flying swords to kill from ten miles away; let alone Qi Gathering stage, even Foundation Establishment stage cultivators could not do so.
Apart from methods like divine sense scanning, and the ability to cast spells, Primordial cultivators at the Qi Gathering and Foundation Establishment stages were roughly equivalent to the Houtian and Xiantian realms in the Condor Heroes martial arts world.
In Fang Ming's opinion, those two subordinates of the bandit leader, the so-called Qi Yuan stage three, were approximately equivalent to Houtian martial artists in the Condor Heroes world.
And the bandit leader at Qi Yuan stage five was approximately equivalent to a Xiantian martial artist in the Condor Heroes world, comparable in "hardware" to the top experts like the Five Greats of the Condor Heroes world.
The question arose, could an ordinary mortal, and a fourteen-year-old boy at that, using peak mortal techniques, directly contend with experts comparable to the Five Greats in the Condor Heroes world?
These were experts on par with the Five Greats of the world, with identical hardware and strength, not considering combat experience.
Fang Ming did not hold much confidence in this regard.