There were altogether five flourishing districts and twenty-two ordinary residential districts in the Heavenly Federation. Including the capital, there were twenty-eight districts.
Those twenty-eight districts didn't border each other, and each district was practically independent of the other.
Take the Eastern District, where Eastern Shang-Wei City was located, as an example. Outside the Eastern District was a continuous forest, which was the most primitive and wild of places.
That was the world of other living things, and they were the rulers there.
They were powerful, dangerous, and deadly, and there were so many of them.
In the history of the Heavenly Federation, the founding of each district had been founded on the blood of countless ancestors.
But the Outer Reaches were also a treasure trove, with rich products, as well as the precious furs and skins of those wild beasts, which were enough to make greedy humans disregard their own safety.
The materials needed for the high-grade cards, which were so precious in people's eyes, were almost all obtained from the dangerous Outer Reaches and from the bodies of powerful creatures.
The Heavenly Federation greatly publicized that kind of exploration, and allowed private exploration. After a private person found a new district, he could get a lot of benefits, such as if the two sides were to engage in commercial trade, he could get ten percent of the taxes, or the discoverer could get priority in trade, and so on. Moreover, those priority rights could be transferred and bought and sold.
Once the policy was introduced, many expeditions funded by large financial groups immediately sprang up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
From then on, card artisans, along with the development of card theory, began to show more and more powerful battle power, standing out among the other martial professions and becoming the number one profession.
Society's large demand for card artisans also stimulated the rapid development of card theory.
"Are you getting used to living here, Senior Wang?" Zuo Tingyi asked politely when he saw Wang Ze.
That exchange party, which was basically made up of students, would stay there for two months, with neither school making any hard and fast demands on them, and they could do whatever they wanted.
After two weeks of discussion, Chen Mu had already memorized the whole story.
Not only that, but he had already figured out almost every scene and every detail of the story.
Both of their eyes were bloodshot, but their spirits still seemed pretty good.
The two of them had pitifully little money on hand for them to squander, and they had no choice but to rack their brains.
The length of the card play story couldn't be too long, but it had to be attractive, which was a rather difficult challenge for Copper.
He wrote it over and over, and then revised it over and over again.
Two weeks. The two of them discussed it for two whole weeks.
Next to the script, which originally only had a few pages, was a thick stack of drafts.
These drafts were filled with the results of their discussion over the past two days.
The more Chen Mu asked, the more specific and detailed he became. He even brought up some of the questions that Copper had overlooked.
When had Leister ever encountered such a line-up? He was also incomparably distressed.
However, he also understood that Chen wanted to save money, so he wanted to be detailed.
Chen Mu couldn't relax. Although the production work hadn't started, he was already making all sorts of adjustments in his mind.
Although the image of the card play wasn't complicated, how to enhance its expressive power was a rather difficult problem.
The biggest problem was that they didn't have any extra money on hand for him to experiment on.
And for Eastern Wei Academy, the student in charge was Zuo Tingyi.
The two sleeping soundly didn't know that while they were discussing behind closed doors, the Star Academy delegation had already checked into Eastern Wei Academy.
The Star Academy's exchange activity, which could only be described as inconceivable, had attracted the attention of the entire Heavenly Federation.
What had originally been limited to the exchange activity between the Star Academy and Eastern Wei Academy had already become a grand event for all of Eastern Shang-Wei City.
Finally, on the day that the Star Academy delegation arrived at Eastern Wei Academy, Copper's script was finally completed.
Just as tens of thousands of people in Eastern Shang-Wei City were turning out to see the glory of the Star Academy, one of the six great academies, Chen Mu and Copper were locked up at home discussing the script.
The two of them launched into a very heated discussion.
There were really too many dangers in the Outer Reaches.
There were too many powerful creatures in the Outer Reaches, some of which even the top human card artisans couldn't contend with. They were the darlings of nature.
It could be seen that the Star Academy was taking the exchange activity quite seriously.
Apart from the fourth-year students who were preparing for the graduation exam, there were also third-year students, with no lack of aces among them.
"You flatter me, senior.
Oh, that's right. There are a few students from your esteemed school who are participating in the field practice organized by third-year class F. That way, I'm afraid we won't have enough teachers to protect them. "Zuo Tingyi said with some hesitation.
Outside of the Heavenly Federation was the Outer Reaches of the Outer Reaches, with dense primeval forests, dry deserts, and snow-capped mountains that reached into the clouds.
But, if you walked through the Outer Reaches, through the forests, across the deserts, and climbed the snow-capped mountains, what would it be like out there?
No one knew. Every year, there would be countless explorers who would set out, and none of them would ever come back.
What they needed now wasn't to start making things right away, but to rest.
Wang Ze was the student representative for the Star Academy.
He was tall and thin, with a long face, slightly sunken eyes, and a piercing look.
He was a third-year student from the outer academy of the Star Academy. At the Star Academy, if an outer academy student didn't have the qualifications to enter the inner academy, then he could graduate in four years.
Although Wang Ze's power was only slightly above average as a card artisan, he was proficient in the ways of the world, and was well-versed in both human and machine communication. That was why the school had appointed him as the student representative.
The Outer Reaches had become heaven for countless adventurers, but it had also become hell, where countless adventurers had been buried.
Once they rested, the two of them slept for a full two days and two nights.
Wang Ze rather admired that refined and courteous junior from Eastern Wei Academy.
Wang Ze came from a distinguished family, and he had a very good impression of Zuo Tingyi's demeanor.
He smiled slightly, "Thank you for your trouble, junior. The school's care is really meticulous, but I'm afraid we won't be able to get used to it when we get back to the school."
Chen Mu asked Copper to tell him in detail every detail of what he wanted to achieve, such as the changes in lighting, the background, the clothing, and the expressions of the characters.
That was to say, Chen Mu needed to reduce the number of failures, which would greatly reduce production costs.
It was clear that his interest in cost control far exceeded his desire for high-level card knowledge.
For those two paupers, cost was life.
And the discovery of the transit windows and the ash stratum had brought the entire Heavenly Federation into an era of feverish exploration.
In the year 2910, humans discovered the first transit window in the Outer Reaches, and very quickly the ash stratum connected to the transit window was discovered.
Transit windows were the entrances to other regions that humans discovered in the Outer Reaches.
The ash stratum was a passage connecting two transit windows, and it was said that the ash stratum was a dusky world, which gave it its name.
Immediately after that, the first new domain was discovered, which is now the Mohadi Domain.
And its discoverer, Yang Sen, also obtained enormous honor and wealth because of this.