Thirty-three Heavens, Demon Clan Heavenly Court.
At the center of the newly completed "Myriad Demons Come to Court Hall," a bottomless hole had been blasted open!
Di Jun's golden imperial robes had been shredded by the shockwave. He stood blankly before that enormous crater, feeling the burning pain on his face.
It was not the pain of flames scorching him.
It was humiliation!
The dignity of him, the Demon Clan Heavenly Emperor, had been viciously torn away by Xuanzheng, that damned member of the Wu Clan, across countless miles of time and space, thrown to the ground, and stomped on twice!
"Why..." Di Jun's voice was hoarse, like an evil ghost howling from hell. "Bai Ze! Tell me! Why?!"
Bai Ze, the Demon Clan Sage, knelt on the ground, his body trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind.
"Your Majesty... I... I do not know! That formation... was theoretically flawless, but once Solar True Fire was injected into it, it... it became the most terrifying explosive in the world!"
"Pfft—!"
Unable to endure it any longer, Di Jun spat out a mouthful of Rebelling Blood!
He remembered Xuanzheng's "honest-looking" face on the Solar Star.
Playing with mud?
The mud others played with could suppress the Eastern Emperor Bell!
The mud the Demon Clan copied from the blueprints could blow their own home into the sky!
"Xuan—zheng—!!!"
Di Jun threw back his head and roared, his voice shaking the nine heavens!
"A direct assault... is a dead end."
Bai Ze spoke tremblingly, a trace of madness emerging from his despairing eyes. "Your Majesty, there is only one way left..."
"Speak!"
"Steal!"
Bai Ze lowered his voice to a whisper.
"We can no longer be satisfied with fragments of formation diagrams! We must send people disguised as rogue cultivators to infiltrate the Wu Clan's construction site!"
"We will not study their profound formations. We will study how they move bricks! How they mix cement! How they process their most basic materials!"
"Xuanzheng's strength is founded upon those 'techniques' we have never even heard of! As long as we can steal his 'production processes,' we can replicate his miracles!"
"This is called... learning the Wu Clan's strengths to defeat the Wu Clan!"
Di Jun stared fixedly at Bai Ze. After a long while, he laughed, though his smile looked even uglier than crying.
"Fine."
"We'll do it."
"I, the Demon Clan Heavenly Emperor, will begin today by acting like a thief and stealing a Wu Clan member's... craftsmanship."
Netherworld Sea of Blood, construction site.
Xuanzheng had his hands tucked into his sleeves and wore a "safety helmet" polished from the skull of some divine beast as he strolled about leisurely.
Just then, the [Script Mirror] in his mind grew faintly warm.
A fragmented image flashed past.
It was the Heavenly Court palace that had been blown into ruins.
It was Di Jun's face, twisted beyond recognition.
It was Bai Ze's poisonous scheme: "learning the Wu Clan's strengths to defeat the Wu Clan."
[Oh-ho?]
Xuanzheng stopped walking, and the corners of his mouth rose uncontrollably.
[It exploded? It exploded that quickly? Looks like the 'thermal runaway rune' I left in those formation diagram fragments was even more effective than I expected!]
[And they want to send industrial spies to steal my methods?]
[Tsk, tsk, tsk. Di Jun, Di Jun, you've finally evolved from a reckless emperor into an... elementary schooler who knows how to use schemes and tricks.]
[Since the students are so eager to learn, wouldn't I, as their 'teacher,' be terribly negligent if I didn't put in some effort?]
Not only was he not the slightest bit wary, he was trembling all over with excitement!
It was the ultimate thrill of being about to harvest an entire era's worth of suckers!
He strode briskly over to Xiangliu, who was directing the great shamans in refining "Merit Cement."
"Brother Xiangliu! Good news! Heavenly good news!"
Xuanzheng grabbed the middle one of Xiangliu's nine heads and shook it hard.
"I just observed the heavens at night and received Father God's revelation!"
Xuanzheng's expression instantly became incomparably holy and solemn, as though Pangu himself had returned to the world.
"Father God said that for our Wu Clan to rise, we cannot shut ourselves away and build carts behind closed doors! We must possess the boundless spirit of sharing the Great Dao with all living beings!"
Xiangliu was completely baffled.
"What... what does that mean?"
"It means!" Xuanzheng slapped his thigh, his voice ringing out, "We're going to do 'technology open source'!"
He pulled out a huge pile of jade slips from his robes. They were densely covered in all kinds of blueprints he had "optimized" overnight.
There was Thirty-Six Incorrect Formulas for Merit Cement.
There was <Soul Guiding Banner Runes Crash Course: From Beginner to Self-Destruction>.
And there was <Learn Buzhou Mountain Load-Bearing Walls in Three Days (Shoddy Construction Edition)>.
He stuffed all those jade slips into Xiangliu's arms.
"Brother Xiangliu! Go at once! Set up a 'All Races of the Primordial World Technology Exchange and Mutual Progress Bulletin Board' in the most conspicuous spot on our construction site!"
"Engrave all of these onto it! Let every passerby, every curious soul, every being with ulterior motives... ahem, every being filled with admiration, learn from them for free! Observe them for free!"
Xiangliu swept his divine sense over them, and all nine of his heads shook like rattles.
"No, brother! Th-this stuff is all wrong! This cement formula will turn into a pool of poisonous sludge when mixed! Engraving that on a Soul Guiding Banner will make the resentful souls become fiendish ghosts on the spot! And this city wall... this isn't a city wall, it's a sand sculpture!"
"Foolish!"
Xuanzheng patted his shoulder with heartfelt anguish.
"Brother Xiangliu! Vision! Where is your vision?!"
"What we are sharing is not technology! It is thought! It is philosophy! It is the grand sentiment of 'our Wu Clan being willing to lead everyone toward Common Prosperity'!"
"Think about it. When others see this, wow, the Wu Clan is willing to share even such core technology. What kind of magnanimity is that? Won't the Wu Clan's reputation shoot right up?"
"As for whether they collapse their own houses or blow up the magical treasures they refine after learning from it... can that be blamed on us?"
Xuanzheng leaned close to his ear and said in an eerie voice only the two of them could hear:
"That just means they have not mastered the craft and lack comprehension. What does it have to do with our Wu Clan?"
Xiangliu: "..."
He felt like his brain was no longer enough.
But seeing Xuanzheng's utterly sincere expression, one that seemed to say "everything for the Wu Clan," he ultimately nodded in a muddled, half-convinced manner.
"Th-that does seem to make sense."
"Go!" Xuanzheng waved a satisfied hand. "Remember, make the bulletin board as big as possible! As conspicuous as possible! Better yet, add a few slogans. Call it—"
"Technology Has No Patents, the Great Dao Is Shared by All!"
[Heh heh heh...]
Xuanzheng turned around and looked up toward the Thirty-three Heavens, the curve of his lips cold and cruel.
[Come, my dear 'Heavenly Court Strategic Leadership Group.']
[I have already handed out your textbooks for free.]
[I hope you...]
[Study happily, and die understanding why.]
Before you continue