The group resumed their journey toward the massive golden-white structure standing at the center of the UNI-Hub.
Adrian glanced down at Aerin, who now walked obediently beside Aurelia. Though she behaved herself, her eyes continued to sparkle with unrestrained curiosity as she took in every unfamiliar sight. Her head swiveled constantly, tracking floating merchants, examining glowing displays, studying beings whose forms defied simple description.
Adrian made a mental note to return to the food store she had pointed out earlier. After all, this was supposed to be an excursion. What was the point of exploring the universe if they could not even enjoy its simpler pleasures?
As they moved deeper into the hub, rows of alchemy centers and formation centers lined the vast avenues.
In the universe, commonly used fields were standardized into universally recognized centers. While each center had its own ownership and unique name, the general classification never changed. This allowed cultivators from any galaxy to immediately understand what services were being offered.
It reminded Adrian of hospitals. Regardless of who owned them or what they were called, the word "hospital" carried the same meaning everywhere.
Among all the facilities, Adrian found himself most drawn to the alchemy and formation centers. From what he had read on the forums, these two fields alone held countless developments and products completely unknown to their home galaxy.
The alchemy centers sold a wide variety of ingredients, but they were most renowned for their pills.
One center they passed had crystalline windows displaying pills of various colors.
While Adrian had not found complete catalogues in the forums, he had read extensively about mana pills. These were created using highly mana-dense plants combined with condensed mana and rare materials, with countless variations depending on the ingredients used.
The purpose of these mana pills was simple but revolutionary. They replenished mana far faster than mana crystals.
Usually, cultivators relied on mana crystals to recover while traveling through the void, but for someone with mana reserves as vast as Adrian's, that method required countless crystals and significant time.
Mana pills solved that problem entirely. A single pill could instantly restore a massive amount of mana.
Kael asked again to confirm, "So instead of meditating for hours or consuming dozens of crystals, you just swallow one pill?"
"Essentially." Adrian moved away from the display window, continuing toward the UNI-Bank. "Though from what I read, the more powerful the pill, the more dangerous it becomes if your body cannot handle the sudden influx."
Adrian had also read that many cultivators consumed these pills even when already full, deliberately overfilling their Mana Seas to force further expansion.
And mana pills were merely one category among an endless range of alchemical products.
They passed another alchemy center advertising longevity pills, and even a pill called conceptual essence seed pills, which seem to work as natural treasures. And even in the universe, beings who used these to ascend without actual knowledge were considered lesser, because without proper knowledge, one could never form a divine concept using them.
Compared to all these pills, the alchemical industry back home felt primitive.
The available plants were limited, and so many of these advanced techniques simply did not exist yet.
Elara's expression grew thoughtful, "When we return, we could change that. If we brought back knowledge of these methods—"
"Assuming we can afford to purchase any of it," Zerathul interrupted.
Adrian said nothing, but privately he agreed. The forums had made that abundantly clear. Techniques, manuals, ingredients, formations, all were locked behind UNI-Coins.
As they continued walking, they passed formation centers.
Selena stopped mid-step. Her gaze locked onto a display window where dozens of tokens floated in suspension, each one pulsing with faint light.
"Look." She muttered.
The formation centers fascinated just as much. Unlike in the Milky Way Galaxy, where one needed a rune master to etch formations directly into space or structures, the universe offered portable formations. Even the portal formation they had used earlier existed in a portable form.
Lysandra moved closer to the window, "I had researched on this, but was never able to achieve it."
Adrian studied the display. The tokens varied in size and color, made with unknown materials, but all shared the same fundamental structure, a compressed lattice of symbols.
These formations were etched into specialized tokens that could be carried anywhere. When activated, the entire formation would deploy instantly at the designated location. Of course, these divine formations still required their respective divine essence crystals, which were sold separately like batteries.
Adrian was deeply curious about how the universe achieved this. Formations were traditionally bound to specific locations or even the void itself. When he had moved the Origin Capital's formation, he had done so by moving the entire section of void along with them. The universe, however, seemed to have solved this problem in a fundamentally different way.
The portable aspect was also just one aspect of it. The more important factor was the nature of divine formations themselves. Since they were constructed using unique divine concepts, each formation possessed its own specialization. The portal formation, for instance, relied on a divine concept specifically optimized for spatial continuity and efficiency.
Adrian wanted to see what kinds of formations existed here. By doing so, he could learn which essential aspects of arcane concepts were used to create these divine concepts, and that would give him lots of knowledge about divine concepts themselves without even joining a sect and getting a divine spell from them.
He was not alone in this interest. Selena, Lysandra, Mira, Septimus, Morvain, and several others were equally eager to examine these formations and experiment with them. However, for now, they were still only Stellar-level cultivators. Even if they stood before a divine formation, they could not perceive its symbols or essence.
Aerin tugged on Aurelia's sleeve. "Can we go inside?"
"Not yet, sweetheart." Aurelia glanced at the tokens, "We don't even have money."
Because of this, everyone shared the same immediate goal. First, they needed to exchange their low-tier mana crystals for UNI-Coins and see how much money they even had in the first place. Second, they needed to grow stronger.
This excursion was meant to experience the universe, but in their current state, they were effectively blind to much of it. Without the ability to perceive rules and divine essence, they could not fully appreciate what lay around them.
Thomas rested a hand on Elara's shoulder, "We're tourists in a world we can't see properly yet."
"Take your hands away," Elara straightened, "We are in public!"
Strength was the prerequisite to truly seeing and to protect themselves, so they would not be defenseless like back against the pirates.
Adrian guided the group forward through the flowing crowd. They attracted a few glances, but no one paid them any real attention. In a place like this, they were not particularly unusual.
They passed many other facilities along the way, including Body Arts Centers and Authority Technique Centers, but none of those were priorities for now.
Thomas paused briefly at a Body Arts Center, reading the displayed advertisement for something called "Ironflesh Body Art," but Elara pulled him along before he could linger.
"Later," she said simply.
Aurelia kept one hand on Aerin's shoulder, ensuring she stayed close. The child's eyes still darted everywhere, cataloguing every detail with unsettling focus for someone her age.
As they approached the entrance to the UNI-Bank, Adrian noticed the crowd thinning slightly. The beings entering and exiting moved with purpose, their visits clearly routine.
The entrance itself rose three stories high. Its doors were made of a translucent material, allowing a clear view into the vast lobby beyond. No guards stood in sight, yet Adrian could sense powerful formations woven seamlessly into every surface.
He paused for a moment and turned to the others.
"Ready?" Adrian asked.
Elara nodded, "As we'll ever be."
Alice adjusted her robes, "Let's see what our half galaxy's worth of crystals amounts to here."
Zerathul grunted, "Probably not as much as we'd like."
Together, they stepped forward, crossing the threshold into the heart of universal commerce.