Han Wu left an avatar behind and departed the battlefield. Before heading to the Sealed Civilization, he stopped at Imperial College.

It was summer break, but Qin Shuang had stayed on to work on grasping the incomplete form of the Lightning Jurisdiction. She also made occasional trips to the battlefield to lend support.

Han Wu went to her dormitory and handed her the Divine Jurisdiction he had taken from Major God Jing Lei, along with several lightning-related secret techniques he had extracted from Jing Lei’s soul during interrogation.

For someone who specialized in lightning, these were of immense value. Qin Shuang accepted them with clear delight and kissed him. They held each other for a long while before parting.

With Han Wu’s support, her comprehension advanced at a much faster pace. As such, when she learned he was heading to the Sealed Civilization, Qin Shuang decided to accompany. Once she completed her Divine Jurisdiction and ascended into a Major God, she could take advantage of the Sealed Civilization and gain an additional ability.

Han Wu agreed, and the two set off immediately. They teleported through a series of arrays, then boarded a ship for the remaining distance.

After three days of travel, they finally arrived near the Sealed Civilization. A translucent membrane surrounded it on all sides. Entry required passing through it, but the membrane was not as simple as it looked.

A thousand interlocking rules were woven into it, forming a closed system. Any outsider civilization who wished to enter had to be recognized by the membrane first. Recognition required accepting a seal. Any abilities, Divine Aspects, Divine Authority, Divine Jurisdiction, and even physical strength unrelated to sealing would be sealed away. The effect was far more thorough than the Magic Sealing Wave.

However, the membrane’s seal didn’t reduce visitors to ordinary people. Instead, it converted sealed powers in a different form called Ring Count. The more Rings a person possessed, the greater their resistance to sealing and the higher the rank of Seal Arts they could wield.

Han Wu accepted the membrane’s seal. A wave of unusual energy wrapped around his powers unrelated to sealing and converted them into Rings. His Ring Count was set at twelve.

Even with his powers sealed, two skills remained available to him. The first was the Reaper Seal, a soul-attribute Seal Art, rated at eight Rings. The second was the Four Guardians Seal, a space-attribute Seal Art, rated at nine Rings.

Qin Shuang followed and accepted the membrane’s seal, receiving a Ring Count of nine. One skill remained available to her: the Thunder Sparrow Seal, a lightning-attribute Seal Art, rated at five Rings.

Recognized by the membrane, they entered the Sealed Civilization and landed in a stretch of mountain forest. The area teemed with magical beasts that were naturally hostile toward humans and would attack on sight.

The moment Han Wu and Qin Shuang arrived, a magical beast struck. A hundred-eyed spider the size of a small house sensed them and charged on eight long legs.

They dodged the spider’s first strike, but it pressed the attack without pause. They quickly realized that evasion wouldn’t solve the problem. They needed a powerful attack to overwhelm it and put it down.

Qin Shuang instinctively moved to summon her divine realm, but she couldn’t access it. The seal on her body blocked it, leaving only the Thunder Sparrow Seal available.

Following the knowledge in her mind, she released it. A bolt of lightning answered her call and formed a sparrow made entirely of electricity. The sparrow cried out and launched itself at the hundred-eyed spider.

Upon contact, it dissolved into countless lightning threads, wrapping around the entire spider. As it struggled, the lightning threads of the Thunder Sparrow Seal sent high-intensity currents through it to subdue and seal the creature.

The hundred-eyed spider wasn’t so easily subdued. All of its eyes flared, each emitting a different colored beam at Qin Shuang. She dodged, but her concentration slipped. As a result, the spider broke free of the Thunder Sparrow Seal and turned its beams on her in a frenzy.

Han Wu decided to test his two skills and started with the stronger one, the eight-Ring Reaper Seal. As the seal activated, a pale phantom figure manifested behind him. The phantom looked ferocious, but its movements were stiff, like a puppet on strings.

Han Wu was not impressed, but there was no helping it. The Reaper Seal had originally been a skill used by the evil god that had presided over the Giant Shadow Civilization to harvest souls. Han Wu had killed that god, then absorbed and converted its Microcosm into his Soul Microcosm.

The skill had lost most of its original power. Even so, under Han Wu’s control, the Reaper Seal still ranked at eight Rings.

The hundred-eyed spider saw the phantom looming behind Han Wu and felt the soul pressure rolling off it. It immediately tried to run. What it didn’t realize was that the moment the phantom appeared, every escape route had already been cut off.

The phantom reached out, seized the spider’s soul, and tore it clean from its body. It then drew a blade and split the soul in two. The hundred-eyed spider’s soul shattered on the spot.

Han Wu watched as the lifeless spider collapsed and compressed into a small amber bead, its surface inscribed with the character for six. He picked it up and sensed a substantial reserve of Light Energy within.

As he examined the bead, a group of people approached. There were quite a few of them, all wearing matching armour, clearly a unit from a major power.

Their leader spotted Han Wu and Qin Shuang and paused, visibly struck by their appearance.

Han Wu appeared lean and sharp, and one with a discerning eye could detect the strength contained into his frame. Qin Shuang needed no description; her beauty and composed bearing spoke for themselves. The leader felt unworthy of standing before her.

He took a deep breath and spoke. “Did either of you happen to see a six-Ring magical beast, a hundred-eyed spider? If so, please tell us honestly. The Panyang City Guard will reward you generously.”