Chapter 994 Pitiful Machinery Race
"Don"t talk anymore! There"s no point!"
This discovery made Foonilia somewhat angry. It was as if she had jumped into the trap that she had painstakingly dug.
Mu Zi looked as Foonilia disappeared in a flash and shook his head. Girls were mysterious and hard to understand.
However, he never expected that a few days later, Ma Dong, who was in the Holy City, suddenly received a strange order. It was an urgent order for ham sausages and cola worth 500 silver star stones. Ma Dong instantly felt as if he had been struck by lightning and turned into superman. Which boss ordered this???
...…
Recently, Old Cow was almost never in the flower shop during the day. Although the Sh.e.l.l Shade Faction had not continued to cause any trouble recently, all the shops knew that this was simply the calm before the storm. The people on Heavenly Treasures Street were all filled with fear. Discussions about the news that the Sh.e.l.l Shade Faction was about to purchase their shops could be heard everywhere. They also talked about the actions that the Chamber of Commerce would take to resist this, such as holding talks with the Ninth Wilderness Path or looking to the Star Alliance law enforcement squad. However, all these were completely useless.
The higher-ups in the Ninth Wilderness Path did not even show their faces. The Chamber of Commerce faintly heard a rumor that the Ninth Wilderness Path had their misgivings as Yin Jiao had joined the Heavenly Gates array. Furthermore, they heard that the Sh.e.l.l Shade Faction had paid up and that the Ninth Wilderness Path had already given up on Heavenly Treasures Street.
In the end, they could only hold on to a small hope and look to the law enforcement squad. They hoped that the law enforcement squad could intervene and, at the least, take some preemptive measures to prevent various worst-case scenarios from happening. However, they had looked to the wrong people…
"The Sh.e.l.l Shade Faction has not actually committed any violence. All of this is simply a fragment of your guesses and imagination. This cannot be used as evidence that can be effectively determined. Thus, the law enforcement squad will not step in." The leader of the law enforcement squad was expressionless. This was a characteristic of the machinery race. As the practical defenders of order in the Land, the feeling that the machinery race gave to other civilizations was that of a cold, rigid, and overbearing race. Thus, all of the other races hated the machinery race. They would rather have dealings with the ugly insect race than deal with the machinery race. However, there were many times when they could not avoid this.
"d.a.m.n! If we wait until he actually commits violence, we will be done for!" Someone among the members from the Chamber of Commerce started to lose his temper. He clenched his fists tightly and shouted in an agitated tone, "You fools, do you have brains! You…"
Clang clang clang! Crack crack crack!
Sharp spears were pointed at the person who had chided. Several s.h.i.+ny silver machinery race soldiers had surrounded him, their cold bodies s.h.i.+ning with a dazzling gleam.
"You are now accused of deliberately slandering and insulting a member of the law enforcement squad for no reason!" the leader coldly said. "The law enforcement recording has sounded. I sentence you to prison for one month. You are not allowed bail either!"
"You cannot capture him! We have done nothing. We protest! Do you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds have the judgment and the adaptability to carry out law enforcement?!" Not only was the goblin that had been taken away shouting, the others who followed along were also expressing their support and protesting angrily. "How are you emotionless machines worthy of upholding the Star Alliance laws in the Land?!"
The shouting blended together and tried to disrupt the judgment of the law enforcement squad in hopes that the law did not apply to the ma.s.ses. However, the cold machinery race did not show any sign of hesitation or confusion. "For doubting the authority of the machinery race to enforce the law, you are sentenced to a short criminal detention. You have the right to be bailed out for 200 Star Coins. If anyone resists law enforcement, you will receive a warning on the first time and be killed on the second! Bring all of them away!"
Even though the machinery race was unable to acc.u.mulate their core and fly into the Heaven world due to the limits of their race, in terms of actual combat power, no matter whether it was in an individual battle or a war, this terrifying level-8 civilization was able to round up and beat a vast majority of civilizations in the Land!
Furthermore, with the terrifying authority that the four top civilizations had bestowed upon them, the machinery race was the most direct spokespeople for the four top civilizations in the Land!
They were powerful and cold machines yet could not form their core. To the celestial people, they were perfect mouthpieces and law enforcers. When faced with complicated civilization relations and various interlaced conflicts of interest in the Land, there was no doubt that the machinery race was the best candidate to deal with them. In reality, even though several thousand races mingled together, they were able to maintain their current state thanks to the hard work of the machinery race. However, during this process, the machinery race shouldered far too many things. The strong were used to using their power and domineering rules, and this had indeed brought about much injustice to the lower-cla.s.s civilizations. However, under these circ.u.mstances, they would not be able to get help from the machinery race as they did not uphold justice. The authority that the celestial people had given them was to maintain the existing law.
Over forty shop owners had been arrested, including Old Cow. Although he had paid the bail, Old Cow was evidently not as optimistic as he had been before. It felt as if he had aged several decades in an instant. Not only did this happen to Old Cow, but even the other members of the Chamber of Commerce had become quiet.
The Ninth Wilderness Path did not care, and neither did the Sh.e.l.l Shade Faction. No one suspected the Sh.e.l.l Shade Faction of colluding with the machinery-race law enforcement squad. After all, the law enforcement squad was famous in the entire Land for being unreasonable and hated by all, and this was the reason why they only held a small hope when they approached them. However, it was obvious that the machinery race would not work with the Sh.e.l.l Shade Faction, let alone step up for these free beings. To the machinery race, laws and rules were the standards to judge all situations. What about committing an offense? What would const.i.tute committing an offense? It was only considered an offense if it was carried out in reality. As long as the Sh.e.l.l Shade Faction did not attack, even though their intentions were known to all, the machinery law enforcement squad would not get involved.
Resistance seemed to have become as worthless as a piece of paper, but Old Cow and the Chamber of Commerce did not seem to have any better solutions. They were on tenterhooks all day. They heard that fortunately, Yin Jiao had gone to attend the 500th anniversary of the Cloud Mist Faction. Recently, all was well, but the business in Heavenly Treasures Street had evidently reached a slump. Although it was business as usual at Old Cow"s flower shop, other than a few sales that they occasionally made, he had almost never asked w.a.n.g Zhong to deliver goods. It was evident that Old Cow did not have the mood to do business. Everyone was filled with fear. Who could safely do business now?
On the contrary, this also gave w.a.n.g Zhong more time for cultivation. He had become more skillful with the Devouring Heaven Technique. When one initiated a technique, they would typically experience the process of creating a prototype, finalizing the design, and then spreading the technique. The simple Devouring Heaven Technique he had carried out could only be considered a prototype. w.a.n.g Zhong also continuously improved on this prototype during his cultivation.
First, he cultivated the direction in which his spirit would focus toward when carrying out the Devouring Heaven Technique. Typically, during cultivation, when one gathered their concentration, it would be channeled towards the cultivation technique itself to prevent one"s spiritual power from activating wrongly and consequently losing one"s mind. This was general knowledge that applied to all cultivation techniques.
w.a.n.g Zhong had started off with this, but gradually, he realized that there was a ma.s.sive difference between the Devouring Heaven Technique and ordinary cultivation techniques.
Firstly, the Devouring Heaven Technique did not need to absorb the spiritual power in his meridians and Soul Sea. The entire Devouring Heaven Technique was made up of swallowing and inhaling. During this process, spiritual power would directly enter the depths of his divine cells. This step was extremely simple and did not need any external attention. Instead, what he had to pay attention to were his divine cells, which were the medium of this technique.
The main point of his focus was to disperse his soul and consciousness to every single divine cell as much as possible, strengthening their "consciousness" and allowing them to retain as much spiritual power as possible during the process of swallowing and spitting. Focusing on other trivial aspects would instead disperse his concentration, weakening the efficiency of the Devouring Heaven Technique in terms of absorbing spiritual influence.
After mastering this key point, w.a.n.g Zhong slowly moved his concentration away from the process of cultivation and instantly saw results. Although this move only strengthened the absorption by his divine cells by a little, at the same time, he was using billions of divine cells in his body. It was said that many little drops made an ocean, and the results were very positive.
Although this was far from comparable to simply eating the spiritual fruit, he only had a limited number of fruit, and he could not simply rely on them to increase his power. Furthermore, w.a.n.g Zhong sensed another vital element from the Devouring Heaven Technique.
It was his adaptability to the divine territory.
This adaptability did not just refer to adapting to the gravity and spiritual pressure here, but also his agreement with this world.
Every time he cultivated the Devouring Heaven Technique, he experienced the process of allowing the spiritual influence in the divine territory to enter his body and then discharging it. This allowed his "affinity" with the world of the divine territory to grow with each pa.s.sing day. There was a faint sense of familiarity between him and this world. It was not as exaggerated as intimately connecting with the Will of the world, but this sense of familiarity objectively existed.
He was like someone who had left his native place for a new place. He would not be acclimatized to the environment, but after living here for a long time, he would slowly get used to it.
w.a.n.g Zhong now felt this way. However, the Devouring Heaven Technique had sped up this process of getting used to his environment. From what he had seen, he slowly started to possess some qualities of the citizens in the divine territory. He was no longer like a foreign immigrant who was out of tune with this world.
Just as w.a.n.g Zhong sensed this, he understood the importance of this kind of affinity. The higher his affinity with the world, the more he would be favored by the heaven and the earth, just like the creatures in Heaven. It would allow you to realize things more easily and improve your fate, as well as various other effects. This was also the origin of the so-called natural talents and geniuses.
The fact that the Devouring Heaven Technique was able to reach this level of efficiency surprised w.a.n.g Zhong. Frankly speaking, a technique that could change his natural talents, his fate, and his affinity with the world was simply unthinkable. This had surpa.s.sed the scope of normal techniques. At least, he had never heard this in the Holy City or in the history of the human race.
Perhaps he was too inexperienced. After all, the divine territory was different from the Holy City.
However, he used up the 32 Loying Fruits too quickly. As his body and Soul Sea continued to strengthen, the need for the Loying Fruit increased in order to be able to continue the maximum speed of cultivation. The 32 Loying Fruits had been completely used up in the span of four or five days.
The Loying Fruit plant withered very quickly after its fruit had been plucked. It turned into ash and was absorbed by the ground. The s.p.a.ce became bare once again. As w.a.n.g Zhong held the last Loying Fruit he had plucked in his hands, he did not plan to simply eat it. He had already spent the salary of 10 Star Coins that Old Cow had given him on various experiments, and he had used up his last Star Coin on the 32 Loying Fruits from Allansian merchant Boss Hu. In order to ensure the continuation of his cultivation, he needed even more money. This Loying Fruit was the only capital that he possessed.
Over the past few days, w.a.n.g Zhong had thought about a few methods to sell off this Loying Fruit. He could look for Boss Sea, Sister Ling, or even Old Cow himself. This would be very simple but did not seem too suitable. He was too familiar with them. Once they started to interrogate him, it would be very difficult to find an appropriate reason to conceal the truth about the fragment world. If he did not explain it, there was no doubt that it would create a large problem in everyone"s hearts.
He had thought about disguising himself to sell it at an auction, but the auctions at the Ninth Wilderness Path were famous for their high fees and thresholds. He only had one Loying Fruit. Even if it was a variant, it would only fetch a price between 100 to 200 Star Coins. Whether anyone would buy it was a problem. Furthermore, he could not pay the processing fees before that. Moreover, he was going to continue this steadily. If similar products appeared several times, it might raise suspicion from others. Where was he getting so many variant fruits from? If anyone had any greedy ideas, the Ninth Wilderness Path auction could definitely cause trouble for him.
In the end, after much thought, w.a.n.g Zhong thought about someone who was not on his original list of considerations —— Basir. He was not considered strong, but his approaches were wild.
When the shop closed in the evening, Old Cow excitedly went out as he had heard that the Chamber of Commerce had a new idea. The Catanlyke District did not just house the Sh.e.l.l Shade Faction and the Ninth Wilderness Path. In reality, there were many other great powers. Someone in the Chamber of Commerce knew someone from the Procuress Sea Race, a level-6 civilization that had a Void Core expert on guard. They were very famous in Catanlyke District. It was said that as long as the Chamber of Commerce paid enough money, the Procuress Sea Race would deal with this matter on behalf of the Heavenly Treasures Chamber of Commerce. Old Cow was going to discuss the issue of money with everyone else. It was definitely not a small number, and everyone would have to share the expense. They would probably discuss for the entire night about the issue of paying money.
When Old Cow left, w.a.n.g Zhong was also prepared. He also left at night.
He directly went to look for Basir in his house, but no one was home. When he asked around nearby, he heard that the Ninth Wilderness Path had recently withdrawn from the area, and a portion of the slave market was being moved away in the dark. There were many slave vendors here who had all moved away. They had temporarily gathered in an underground trade market in the outskirts of Catanlyke District. It was rather distant and was inconvenient to travel back and forth. Thus, it was common for these slave vendors to not return for a few days.
All the main districts in the Land were gathered at a few points near the Heavenly River, where the air was filled with rich spiritual energy. Thus, land was expensive there. However, although the outskirts of Catanlyke District were still in the middle circle, it was far away from the Heavenly River. Thus, in reality, the geographical environment there was similar to some peripheral areas.
The outskirts of Catanlyke District were rather desolate. Other than a few crystalline roads s.h.i.+ning in the dim night, the other areas were shrouded in darkness. Occasionally, a few sparkling lights would gather in the darkness. A majority of these areas were so-called pauper districts or underground trade locations that could not be exposed to light.
Although public order in the divine territory was typically fine, this was mainly when the machinery-race law enforcement squad was around. However, the law enforcement squad was only responsible for large cities. What about the outskirts? They were definitely not safe to walk around at night.
w.a.n.g Zhong could occasionally sense evil and hungry gazes from the darkness on both sides of the wide crystalline road. However, most of these gazes were weak. It was just that there were many people around. However, if they had strength and could survive elsewhere, who would be willing to wait in this darkness and rob pa.s.sers-by? This was not a good profession. They did not dare to and could not steal from those with strength. What about those who were weak? They were usually poorer than them, so what could they gain then? It was simply far too common for people to die from hunger in the darkness of the outskirts.
A few days ago, w.a.n.g Zhong would definitely not have dared to come here in the dead of the night. However, he was now different from before. Although he had not spent much time cultivating, cultivation was particular about efficiency and methods. With the 32 Loying Fruits coupled with his cultivation of the Devouring Heaven Technique over the past few days, although he did not dare to say that he had become an expert in the divine territory, at least he felt that he had some basic self-defense abilities.
He wore a cape used for traveling at night. In this dim place, other than being able to see that he had the physique of a celestialoid, one would not be able to see any distinguis.h.i.+ng features. Furthermore, his light and quick steps, as well as his calmness when he walked, caused those observing him from the darkness to be filled with fear. Furthermore, his celestialoid physique messed up their judgment. Thus, they did not dare to easily provoke him.
After walking for over an hour, he walked into a small path beside the crystalline road. Low houses and voices slowly appeared around him. In the beginning, the underground trade market in the Catanlyke District had been an ordinary pauper"s district. Later on, it was used by several powers to establish illegal black markets to evade taxes. Slowly, these black markets grew in scale. Although the Star Alliance had sent out the law enforcement squad to suppress them, every time they were suppressed, these people would change location. After a period filled with extreme panic, they would continue business as usual. There was no use sending the law enforcement troops. Gradually, the Star Alliance became too lazy to care about this. The trade market would occasionally send gifts to the higher-ups in the Star Alliance. Slowly, the Star Alliance tacitly approved of their existence. They belonged to the areas in the Land that were not managed and had their own underground order.
Although it was night, there was a noisy racket here. When he entered the outside of the market, he saw dim and captivating red lights s.h.i.+ning from the low wooden buildings around him. There were various humanoid and beast-like races. When they saw pa.s.sers-by, they would let out bewitching sounds. A few children from alien races ran back and forth in this extremely narrow street. It was disorderly and bustling. Someone who was not familiar with this place would think that they were simply innocent abandoned kids. This was definitely a big mistake. They might not even realize when all the Star Coins on them had gone missing.
There were garbage piles everywhere on the street. Rubbish was even piled up to a small hill, but no one collected them, resulting in a vile stench. A few children from an alien race with barbs all over their bodies were playing beside a pile of rubbish. They picked up the junk on the floor and flung it at a sitting figure in the pile of rubbish.
"Smash this thing!"
"My dad said that these machines are the ones who chased us out of the city!" Children from an alien race were making a racket, but this noise did not attract any attention in the street.
w.a.n.g Zhong curiously took a look and saw that the figure sitting in the pile of rubbish was actually a machine. Its legs had been broken and dangled from its body from a few broken pipes. A platinum liquid that looked like mercury had dripped out from its broken leg, but it had already dried up. Members of the machinery race looked similar to humans, but they were rigid and did not have any expressions. It sat in the pile of trash and did not move. The junk that the children threw at its body caused its hard body to produce rattling sounds, but it did not react. It looked as if it was dead.
However, why would there be a machine in the underground market that the divine territory did not manage? Even if it was a corpse, it should not be here. Rationally, the machinery-race law enforcement squad would not come near this area. Even if there were conflicts when they were enforcing law outside causing several machines to be injured or killed, other machines would quickly pick up their bodies. The machinery race could be revived by "melting and reconstruction" and was called the truly immortal race. It was impossible that it would be thrown here like rubbish.