**Chapter 255: The World Layout**
Two items appeared for a brief moment before quickly vanishing, as if they were absorbed into Yuliya’s body.
And indeed, that was the case. With her eyes gently closed, visions of these two items filled Yuliya’s mind.
Mythic-grade items, they truly have their extraordinary charm.
“Mythic-grade… Golden Kingdom… Golden City…”
Once upon a time, the Golden Kingdom could stand shoulder to shoulder with divine beings.
“Sister Tong, are you giving me these two items now so I can go on a little adventure?”
She glanced at her mission board but found no follow-up tasks.
“Sister Tong, aren’t you going to send me a mission or something?”
“No mission. Whether to see or not, to go or not, it’s up to you.”
Yuliya gave a wry smile.
Choice? What choice?
She closed her eyes and started examining the items.
The key wasn’t much to look at; she’d only know its purpose when she found the location. The map, on the other hand…
But this map… it was a little hard to understand.
She didn’t recognize the place—it didn’t even seem like the Jade Emperor Kingdom.
Oh wait, the bottom left corner looked like a place name from the Jade Emperor Kingdom.
At that moment, Yuliya suddenly realized she didn’t know much about the geography of this world at all.
So far, she had only been to two places: the initial Beginner’s Village, Falling Leaf City, and now the main city, Emerald City.
Other places? Complete blank.
No problem, she could just ask someone who knows.
“Steven! I need to ask you something.”
“Here, Your Highness.”
“Oh right, can you help me find a map of the Jade Emperor Kingdom? I need to take a good look.”
Actually, she had encountered this question before when meeting various nobles and lords in the royal palace.
Each one introduced themselves as coming from here and there.
Yuliya felt completely lost, awkwardly smiling and nodding politely.
As a princess, even if others noticed she was clueless, they wouldn’t dare say much—she just breezed through it.
Before long, Steven brought back a rather vague map, which was perfect for Yuliya; she didn’t need anything overly detailed.
Too detailed, and it would give her a headache.
Comparing it to the map, she quickly found the little corner of the Jade Emperor Kingdom that appeared on the Golden Map.
As expected, the location indicated on the Golden Map was outside the territory of the Jade Emperor Kingdom.
A bit of a hassle.
“Steven, do you know what the situation is like around our kingdom’s borders?”
“Borders?” Steven frowned, “Your Highness, why the sudden interest in this?”
He had a bad feeling—someone might be up to no good.
“What’s wrong? Isn’t it only natural for this princess to want to know about the kingdom? Or do you see me as just a lazy fish that’s only good for eating and taking up space?”
“No, I dare not.”
How should he put this? Our esteemed princess couldn’t exactly be called lazy; she was actually quite hardworking.
It was just that her efforts were a bit misguided.
To put it bluntly, she wasn’t really dealing with serious matters.
Whenever serious business came up, it was always, “Ah, I can’t, I’m so tired.” But once the serious stuff was over, she would create a big news story, and after everything was in chaos, she would simply walk away, leaving others to clean up her mess.
But if she truly wanted to handle serious matters, she had the capability and reliability to do so.
“Since Your Highness wishes to know, I shall speak freely.”
After pondering for a moment, Steven organized his thoughts and said, “Do you know the layout of this world?”
“Huh? I don’t know.”
The sudden shift to such a grand topic made Yuliya involuntarily tense up.
“It’s like this: this world isn’t a complete entity. You could say it’s divided into chunks, and we commonly refer to each chunk as a realm.”
“In the distant past, the Jade Emperor Kingdom unified this realm, so what you wish to know about the outside situation should be about the other realms.”
That sounded kinda cool, and Yuliya started rubbing her hands together.
“Is there a total separation between the realms?”
“Not complete separation; there are parts that are interconnected, what we call realm gates. But realm gates aren’t particularly stable and will change over time.”
“You can think of a realm like a balloon; if two balloons are pressed against each other, there’s a squeezed part between them, which is the realm gate.”
“And what exists in the places that aren’t connected?”
“I don’t know.”
“You can’t see it?”
“Can’t see it, can’t sense it.” Steven shook his head, “It’s difficult to understand just by listening. If you were to see it, you’d understand; although it looks like you can see another realm’s environment at a glance, in fact, you’ve hit the limit, and reaching out will touch an invisible barrier.”
“So, it means there definitely exists some kind of barrier between realms, but we can’t see, touch, or sense it?”
“Yes, it’s said that only divine beings can step into that area. Not long ago, several legendary powerful beings teamed up and forcefully opened a crack near a realm gate, and one of them entered that crack.”
Yuliya’s eyes widened, “And then what?”
Steven shrugged, “And then, nothing. That legendary powerhouse vanished without a trace and never appeared again.”
“Whoa… even legendary powerhouses have no way to deal with that…”
Maybe the rumors were true; only divine beings could step there, or one could speculate even more extremely—maybe that’s where divine beings truly existed.
“Well, in any case, the realm walls are unmovable; the scenery on the other side of the realm walls can be treated as an illusion. We just need to watch out for the realm gates.”
“After understanding all that, please, Your Highness, take a look around the borders of the Jade Emperor Kingdom.”
Steven took out a pen and started drawing on the map.
“To the north is the Desert Realm, with a realm gate nearby. The Desert Realm isn’t a human territory but a paradise for monsters. Occasionally, monsters from the desert cross through the realm gate, which is also a key area for our defense.”
“The Western Forest Realm and the Eastern Ocean Realm are similar to the north; they’re primarily monster territories and key defense areas.”
“To the south is the Plain Realm, which has several countries, both of human and non-human races, but their relations with our Jade Emperor Kingdom aren’t great.”
“There are a few other realm gates, but the other side contains small realms that we just keep a simple watch on.”
“As for farther away, in the realms that aren’t adjacent to our Jade Emperor Kingdom, the situation is even more complicated. Would Your Highness like me to explain further?”
“No need.”
Yuliya shook her head.
She wasn’t concerned about other places; she only cared about the north’s desert.
According to the Golden Map, the position should be in the Desert Realm.
“Do you know anything more detailed about the northern Desert Realm, Steven?”
“The Desert Realm?” Steven rubbed his chin, “It’s a bit special there.”
“How special?”
Special is what I want!
“The Desert Realm is vast, and it’s our key area for defense. However, the monsters that come through the realm gate from the Desert Realm are relatively few. Compared to the Eastern and Western realms, which experience monster waves every year or two, the last monster wave from the north was over ten years ago.”
“Are there very few monsters there?”
“No, there are a lot—more than in the east and west. But… researchers once believed that due to the special environment, monsters there are reluctant to come over here.”
