Year 4520, Day 29
I've finally completed the paperwork for my departure.
Activating a teleportation array to reach a world who knows how many billions of kilometers away is quite an undertaking.
Even though the teleportation is happening in a group, I still have to contribute ten high-quality spirit stones.
And that's only because there are hundreds of people traveling.
Alone, I'd be unable to bear such a cost.
I'm eager to see everyone again. After all, it's been over 4,000 years since I last heard from them.
But anyway, departure is scheduled for two months from now, so I just have to be patient.
...
With the additional reward granted by the director, Liam only had to pay for the divine pearl containing the uranium.
Thus, he was left with just 150,000,000 points.
Two-star pearls were clearly exorbitant compared to one-star pearls.
The moment he made his selection, all rewards classified as level A and B disappeared from the screen, leaving only those of level C and below.
But Liam had anticipated this and exited the divine pearls tab, moving to the resources section.
This time, he directly entered what he wanted in the search bar. He had a plan.
[Rank C Reward: 1L of primordial liquid. This is the layer of water closest to the origin stone of an aquatic world. Though its effects are far inferior to those of an origin stone, consumption allows Rank 6 entities to begin rule comprehension and Rank 7 entities to gain certain insights. It also enables a demi-plane to expand or a lower plane to comprehend rules more swiftly. (Price: 20,000,000 points)]
Liam wasted no time and bought six vials.
As for the remaining thirty million, he used it to purchase a variety of rare materials, ranging from Rank 4 to Rank 6, quickly depleting his fortune.
On the other hand, he had also received a message from Lucie, saying she wanted to transfer her rewards to him, but he quickly declined. It would be a mere drop in the ocean compared to what he had just purchased.
...
A few minutes later, a small spacecraft arrived in front of him and delivered a small spatial ring containing all his purchases.
"Alright, it's time to get down to business!"
With a flick of his wrist, he summoned the world he had just won.
"Hmmm, one should be enough."
Effortlessly, he forced one of the vials he just received through the spatial barrier.
As the spatial barrier collapsed, the vial shattered.
At the same time, Liam used his internal energy to repair the spatial barrier, and the entire plane began to tremble, rapidly expanding.
180km, 190km, 200km.
Within hours, it had reached the absolute limit for demi-planes.
Liam immediately used his powers to press down and control a portion at the very center of the plane.
Under his intervention, the plane began to tremble as never before, and soon Liam faced a familiar situation.
Moments later, he was pouring a heap of materials into the evolving world, watching the establishment of a Rank 2 world.
Since Liam had forced the transformation process, this world had far less potential than Alandal, with an origin stone barely ten centimeters in size.
But Liam didn't care.
With a wave of his hand, this newborn world, whose consciousness hadn't even formed yet, fractured and shattered, releasing a small, brilliantly luminous stone.
Obtaining an origin stone was possible only in three ways: when a world naturally died, during a war between two worlds of the same level, or at the birth of a world.
At a world's birth, before its will was fully formed, it was indeed possible to intervene and retrieve the origin stone.
However, once a world possessed its own consciousness, even an eternal being could not destroy it before the world could react, self-destructing its own origin stone.
Only when a world fought another world of the same level could it not spare enough attention to "self-destruct," or when it had reached the end of its life.
Indeed, even worlds had lifespan, albeit very long ones.
Demi-planes were not truly alive, of course. In general, planes could live from 500,000 to 10,000,000 years, depending on their rank, while the lifespan of Rank 3 worlds stretched into the billions of years.
As for Rank 4 worlds and above, they were considered immortal.
Returning to the present, Liam directly used his will to grab the origin stone.
"Wake up, Alandal, I have a gift for you."
He used the mental link in his spiritual sea to communicate directly with his world.
Alandal's consciousness was still young, barely equivalent to a two or three-year-old child. To grow, it needed to spend extended periods in a trance-like state, in a sort of semi-hibernation, only rarely waking up.
The last time it woke up was when it sensed that it had mysteriously arrived in an unknown space, but under Liam's coaxing, it quickly went back to sleep.
HMMMMM
An innocent, pure young consciousness took a moment to awaken.
Though it couldn't speak, Liam still sensed the mimicry of excitement as it emerged, mixed with excitement over the "gift."
After all, every time Liam gave it something, it was beneficial to it.
"Be careful; I'm going to open a spatial channel to your core, don't resist."
After sensing a vague agreement from its divine domain, Liam immediately spent a few thousand faith points and sent the newly formed origin stone inside.
In Alandal's perspective, after sensing that its "parent" had opened the channel, it felt a certain affinity with the tiny object that had just arrived.
Instinctively, it concentrated its full attention on the stone and immediately transformed it into a kind of plasma, which surrounded its own origin stone, now about forty centimeters in diameter.
Rumble
Immediately, the entire plane began to shake.
The spatial wall converted the energy of the void faster, increasing the density of spiritual energy by a few percent.
Several small fissures appeared here and there as every area without a magic matrix seemed to stretch.
Within minutes, the world's radius increased from 850 to 900 kilometers, then the tremors slowly subsided.
With the origin stone, Alandal had directly consolidated its current understanding, reaching approximately 55 runes for each primary rule.
Now, it would slowly digest the origin stone and comprehend the remaining rules.
With this insight and the solid foundation Liam had given it, it would likely only take 50 to 60 years to reach the pinnacle of lower planes.
"Well, now all I have to do is to wait."
...
Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, nearly 70 years had gone by.
BOOM
The entire area trembled as mana swirled.
At the very center of the energy storm, on what looked like a gleaming blue prism topped with two divine runes, several mystical runes materialized quickly, making the already turbulent mana even more agitated.
After an unknown time, the waves of mana gradually calmed.
Finally, the sea leveled again, revealing a young tree with two branches and 17 leaves, each adorned with a beautiful, mystical rune.
...
At the center of a small spherical formation about twenty meters in diameter, a beautiful young woman slowly opened her eyes.
"HA!"
Her aura spread over the void, causing everyone to look up.
"What? She's already reached Rank 7."
"There's nothing impressive about that. Becoming an Earth Mage at over 200 years old may be fast, but it's far from exceptional genius."
"Shut up. She went from a beginner magus to a higher existence in, what, less than a century? Let me know the day you manage that!"
"Hmph. She's just trading her freedom for power. Even if she's more powerful than me, she'll never be free again."
"And your mom? she is free?"
"Woah, to have such guts, does your dad finally came back?"
...
While the students argued, the young woman hurriedly put away the formation and flew a few thousand kilometers before kneeling before a figure sitting cross-legged in the void.
"My Lord, I have finally reached Rank 7."
Liam opened his eyes slightly, looking at his subordinate goddess with an appreciative gaze.
He had observed her closely over recent decades and was very pleased with what he had seen.
As he had anticipated, she was very determined and cultivated diligently.
He had set up a small formation in the void to isolate her from outer space and convert void energy into spiritual energy.
Though it didn't match the energy of a higher or peak plane, it was enough for her to practice.
He had also spared no expense on elixirs and spirit stones to aid her progression.
However, the main reason for her breakthrough was still her own hard work.
"Good job. I was waiting for you to come out of seclusion before starting the next operation. It's been thirty years since the last war, and the Minks have already been driven out of all low-tier planes. Now, all that's left is to aim for the mid-tier planes."
He said, glancing at the two planes orbiting each other, one with a radius of nearly 1000 kilometers, while the other reached about 650 kilometers.
Indeed, Lucie's divine domain had also reached the rank of a lower plane, and the goddess of nature had named it Vyrandell.
It wasn't just her; almost two to three hundred students had also upgraded their divine domains.
However, Alandal was among the top two student worlds, on par only with Lena's world.
He was also very pleased with the development of his believers.
Now, the four main races: Nagas, Donvers, Valyrs, and Novarians, numbered about 1.5 million people, thanks to the divine pearl of reproduction he had deployed, totaling 650 intermediate existences.
The Nest contained approximately 20,000 draconians, including about twenty Rank 4 entities, as well as 82 wyverns, not to mention the three drakes, though two were still confined to the beginning of Rank 5 by the world and spent most of their time hibernating.
At the same time, the Nest's spiritual vein had almost reached the seize of the one under Portalis city, with the island expanding to about ten kilometers in diameter.
As for the forest elves, they were currently the weakest faction, with only about 7,500 members and just twenty-two intermediate existences. Even the queen was only at the peak of Rank 4.
The Sanctuary had over a hundred thousand beasts under its command and about fifty spiritual beasts, while the King of the Depths, a massive kraken chosen by Alandal as a guardian, reigned over millions of marine monsters and a hundred aquatic spiritual beasts.
In addition to that, there were also another hundred spiritual beasts scattered here and there, belonging to no faction or having founded their own minor forces, though they were negligible.
In total, there were millions of inhabitants, 975 Rank 4 beings, and 6 Rank 5 beings.
Liam had received so much faith energy that he had even managed to condense his fourth divine rune and was halfway to the fifth.
...
A huge naga stood at the peak of Portalis, atop the bell tower of the church that had once again been expanded, overlooking the vast city with its hundreds of thousands of inhabitants.
A middle-aged Novarian suddenly entered from the staircase and respectfully bowed.
"Your Holiness, the meeting will begin soon."
Hmmm
Sylvera calmly nodded and followed the foundation establishment cultivator, quickly arriving in front of a large door.
"... spirit stone, it's clearly on our territory; what right does your Rising Sun city have to occupy it?"
"I don't give a shit. Wasn't it the same when the mystical oak bore fruit, yet you still sneaked in to steal the fruits."
Angry shouts could be heard even through the walls.
Opening the door, the Novarian couldn't help but glance inside but quickly lowered his gaze, cold sweat running down his back.
The room wasn't large, barely a hundred square meters, and was only decorated with a round table surrounded by nine seats on which blue holographic figures sat.
However, it wasn't the room itself that frightened this young cultivator, but rather the people sitting around it.
All were legends widely known in the world, and their slightest movement could impact the lives of thousands of people.
First, there was a large naga with a smile on his face, munching on treats in his chair, enjoying the bickering: the lord of White Lotus City, Adam Constantine.
A honey badger was calmly sitting next to him in his true form, though resized by the hologram to measure only three or four meters: the leader of the Sanctuary.
Beside him, an exquisitely slender woman with unparalleled beauty satt, exuding an air of cold elegance: the elven queen of the City of Eternal Trees, Lyrael Sereniel.
the female naga and middle-aged Valyr who had been hurling insults at each other for a while now, the respective lords of Rising Sun City and Silver Springs City sat by both side of the trio.
Next to the Valyr was the Queen of the Nest, sprawled on her throne: the Drake Isabella Vossenheim.
Then came two individuals quietly playing chess, seemingly oblivious to their surroundings: the director of the New Dawn Academy, Ilbert Luminara, and the King of the Depths, Arius Bale.
Finally, there was an empty seat reserved for the High Pontiff of the Church of the Four Elements.
"You're just in time, Sylv; this is the best part!" James said, gesturing to the naga.
Sylvera couldn't help but sigh.
The days when everyone got along were long gone.
With Alandal's growing population, especially intermediate existences, all felt that the world's resources were becoming increasingly scarce.
Because of this, it was inevitable that tensions would rise between the various factions.
The second continent was inhabited only by the Nest and the forest elves, along with a few insignificant minor forces, so even though it occupied just 31% of the world, they managed to maintain a balance due to their low population.
It was much the same for the oceans.
The main issue lay on the central continent. Even though it alone occupied nearly 42% of the world, it also had five major factions: the three large cities, the Sanctuary, and the capital, Portalis.
[MAP OF ALANDAL HERE]
For the last two, things were manageable since the spirit stone mine with its origin stone had doubled the concentration of spiritual energy within a forty-to-fifty-kilometer radius, enabling many rare materials and plants to grow quickly, not to mention the increasing flow of spirit stones.
After all these years, they had learned to properly maintain the mine, allowing it to reach an incredible size. By estimates, there were about thirty thousand low-quality spirit stones and around five hundred low-quality spirit stones.
On average, they extracted only about 1% each year and constantly modified the vein's offshoots to facilitate spiritual energy currents while reinserting "empty" spirit stones back into the mine for natural recharging.
One could say they had fully optimized the spiritual vein's exploitation.
However, things were different for the three main cities.
Each controlled about ten other cities and numerous small villages, gathering hundreds of thousands of people.
Even though they also had spiritual veins, none had an origin stone, and their growth was very slow.
Without threatening the vein's stability, they could only extract a dozen low-quality spirit stones per vein each year and were completely dependent on Portalis for low-quality stones.
In fact, Alandal was big enough so the main continent was enough to support hundreds of millions of inferior beings.
The main concern was that the shortage of high-level resources worsened each year.
In fact, if Liam hadn't continuously used his contribution points and the origin seed to regularly introduce rare materials, a war would likely have already erupted.
He had also found a good strategy for this. He bought a large number of one-star resource pearls and either merged them with the seed of origin or enhanced their potential without increasing their rank.
For a Rank 2 world, one-star divine pearls posed almost no burden.
Nevertheless, it was only with the loot from four other planar wars that he barely managed to maintain a thin balance on the main continent.
And it was mainly because of this concern that an annual discussion took place among the leaders of the main factions, trying to resolve issues and prevent war.
However, this time, Sylvera had urgently convened this meeting. Although nearly everyone knew what it meant, they still wanted confirmation before taking action.