Astonishing the World at First Cry!

The vast desert stretched endlessly, its rolling dunes frozen into golden waves, forever poised to spill forth yet eternally still.

Heat shimmered across the ground, boiling the distant horizon into a blur.

Within hundreds of millions of square kilometers of the surrounding area, tens of thousands of civilizations of every size had gathered!

Cities dotted the landscape like stars.

Some civilizations had dispatched High-Speed Spaceships carrying only a small group of diplomatic representatives.

Others had simply transported entire cities here.

When they first arrived, they had naturally wanted to investigate the cause and course of that great battle.

As for the final result, they had found nothing...

Instead, they had made an unexpected discovery: the existence of the Buzhou Alliance!

So they simply began trading here and exchanging information. It was not a loss, either.

With the Supreme Artisan Competition as a selling point, coupled with the deterrence of the New Century Fortress, no large-scale war had broken out so far.

With a soft hum, the spaceship landed smoothly, and a group of people emerged from the airport.

Their first reaction was... huge! It was truly enormous!

The airport ceiling stood five kilometers high, making their group seem like tiny ants in a hall of giants.

Through the glass windows, they could even see the stars outside.

If the New Century Fortress rose a little higher, it would truly become a Spaceport.

"Let's take a look around the Trading Market." Li Chunhong smiled. "We sold the Cryo-Laser equipment and made a little money."

"It's just that there are too many things we want to buy. Our wallets never seem to get any fuller."

Lu Yuan smiled. "Don't worry. There will be plenty of cooperation projects in the future... A civilization can only grow step by step. There's no way to rush it."

Green Field City was Green Field City, and the Human Alliance was the Human Alliance.

Their relationship was better than that between ordinary civilizations, but they were not allies.

This relationship was actually quite friendly, and Lu Yuan did not feel burdened by it.

"I'm also hoping our artisans can win some prizes in the competition..." Another white leader looked full of anticipation. "Even an excellence award would come with several thousand Spiritual Rhyme. That's quite a lot for us."

"Then we're competitors!" Leaders from the Red Bull Alliance and Yan Snake Civilization stepped down from another spaceship.

Enemies of the past, friends of the present.

Over the past three years, the Red Bull Alliance had done rather well, selling Ox Ghost blood and cowhide as specialty goods.

With Green Field City looking after them, the Human Alliance was doing reasonably well too.

Yan Snake Civilization, on the other hand, had become the weakest.

The Yan Snake artisans were fired up, hoping to win prizes and rise again.

The rewards this time were truly generous. The Spiritual Rhyme rewards alone exceeded three million!

There were also Immortal Level materials, Epic Level materials, and all kinds of valuable materials that could not be bought even if one had the money!

There were also all kinds of God's Skills, ancient bloodlines, and other treasures that money could not buy!

Such immense rewards naturally attracted the attention of every civilization.

There were too many civilizations arriving at the New Century Fortress to register for the competition to count.

Lu Yuan had his own matters to attend to. After exchanging pleasantries with the leaders for a while, he asked Seashell to take his parents shopping.

He himself headed to Green Field City's territory.

As the founding civilization of the Buzhou Alliance, Green Field City had an embassy covering one square kilometer.

Its facilities were complete, and artisans had gathered there.

At first, Lu Yuan had merely planned to create a Mythical Equipment for Green Field City.

He would openly win some prizes, making up for the regret that he had not created a myth for humanity all these years.

But now, he had developed a certain degree of ambition—if he truly stole a small portion of a god's authority and revealed himself before countless civilizations, he might be able to alter certain "concepts"!

That would create opportunities for exploitation. Some engineering projects that had once been exceptionally difficult might become achievable!

"This Concept Ability is somewhat like the power of believing something into existence... but it comes with many limitations. It requires the consensus of all living beings, and it also needs a hint of deception. It really isn't easy to control."

"And no one else can know what I'm thinking. Once they recognize it as a lie, the conceptual alteration will fail."

Seeing him enter, the artisans immediately came forward to greet him.

"Hello, Mr. Lu!"

The artisans from the Human Mother Civilization had recently gotten along very well with those from Green Field City. Professor Zhang Hui and other old acquaintances were also visiting here.

They also planned to compete. It would be best if they earned a ranking, but if they did not, they could only accept it.

However, the artisans of Green Field City were still brimming with Inner Spirit. Their goal was clear: they had to bring home at least one medal!

Lu Yuan smiled. "Hello, everyone! Have you had any new ideas lately?"

"Grand Commander, there are more and more competitors. More than fifty thousand outside civilizations have arrived, and there's no shortage of people with brilliant ideas." Li Datie reported on the recent exchanges.

He looked rather worried.

For artisan creation, daily accumulation was important, but some luck was also needed in competition.

If a certain race suddenly had a burst of inspiration and snatched a good ranking...

Such dark horse incidents could easily happen.

Lu Yuan laughed heartily. "Don't worry about such accidental events. We only need to do our best... Tell me about the competitors."

Li Datie rubbed his hands together. "The civilizations of our Buzhou Alliance are all quite strong. Three Moons Civilization, Chi Civilization, and Artisan Civilization all have exceptionally capable artisan teams."

"The Iron Key Alliance and Northern Alliance also have several teams."

These were all old rivals. Lu Yuan had read the relevant information and nodded slightly.

"But several more competitors have appeared recently. One is called Haishen Civilization. They are said to possess the foundations of a Level Five Civilization... Their team won't be weak."

"That big Seashell, right?"

"Yes! Those guys are incredibly proud. They supposedly created myths back in the Eighth Era!"

"A Grandmaster Artisan!"

Lu Yuan turned his head, his gaze shifting slightly.

Yao Star Sea Shell was exhaling clouds and mist in a desert several thousand kilometers away. The enormous sandstorm around her shifted into all kinds of forms, becoming mountains one moment and oceans the next.

Haishen Civilization's city was located inside that enormous Seashell.

As though she had sensed Lu Yuan's gaze, the Star Sea Shell, who had been exhaling clouds and mist, inexplicably shuddered. With a crashing sound, ripples like water spread through the desert.

The layers of clouds and mist also turned into sandy tornadoes.

Lu Yuan: ...

Am I that terrifying now?

Li Datie did not notice any of this. "There's another opponent worth noting: the Neutrino Industrial Union. Their strength cannot be underestimated."

"Oh? Neutrinos?" Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow.

"As the name suggests, it's an alliance formed by civilizations with powerful materialistic technology."

"They come from the Southern Limit. It is said to be a new continent where the background Idealistic Radiation is low, making it highly suitable for materialistic industry. Their populations are also enormous. Every one of them reportedly has more than one billion people, which is extremely rare on Pangu Continent."

Lu Yuan's heart stirred.

"These civilizations are the trump cards Pangu Continent spent tremendous effort preserving!"

Most civilizations had been transported here city by city, but a very small number had been transported nation by nation.

This clearly required the World Will to expend far more energy, so such civilizations had been carefully selected. Every one of them was naturally an Interstellar Civilization.

Some might even have numbered only in the single digits and had merged into Pangu Continent on a planetary scale!

These civilizations were the pillars Pangu Continent had originally regarded most highly!

Lu Yuan asked again, "How did they get here? The Southern Continent is far too distant from us. They couldn't arrive in a year or two, and I heard there are extremely dangerous idealistic disturbance zones over there."

Li Datie gestured with his hands. "They used naturally occurring Space Fissures to jump part of the way. Their spaceships can also travel at high speed through space, around two hundred thousand kilometers per hour."

"I understand. Any civilization capable of using Space Fissures is close to Level Five even if it hasn't reached it yet."

"But everyone, have confidence!" Lu Yuan raised an arm and shouted. "If we do not cry out, so be it—but when we do, we will astonish the world!"

His voice carried an inexplicable infectious force, as though they were destined to shock the entire world in the future.

The artisans immediately became filled with motivation.

Ever since Lu Yuan had put forward his theory of Mythical Industrialization, he had temporarily become known as a loudmouthed braggart.

Moreover, after all these years without producing any achievements, the stain of that public opinion had only grown worse.

Only great creation could wash away the stain!

So if they were going to do it, they would do something big—create Acquired Mythicals!

This was a difficult subject. According to the theories of Mythical Bloodline studies, mass-producing Acquired Mythicals should be possible.

After all, the example of blood sacrifice stood right before them. As long as enough people were sacrificed, Acquired Mythicals could indeed be created on a massive scale through some method.

But reality was exceptionally difficult!

Blood sacrifice energy was extremely special. It involved the purely idealistic concept of souls, and the Blood Sacrifice Rule had also been forcibly concealed.

Approaching it from this angle would reveal an amalgamation of bottomless abyss and towering mountain ahead, something even Level Six Civilizations and Level Seven Civilizations could not climb.

Lu Yuan and humanity had even less of a solution!

So what could they do?

The answer was simple—Profound Yellow Qi!

Lu Yuan planned to use the higher-grade energy known as Profound Yellow Qi to take a small shortcut.

Of course, he had consumed far too much Profound Yellow Qi when becoming an Innate Mythical. He did not even have a single full unit left, only about 0.22 units.

That tiny amount was not enough to create an Innate Mythical.

But even a small amount of Profound Yellow Qi was more than sufficient to create Acquired Mythicals.

This approach was admittedly a bit like cheating. The preciousness of Profound Yellow Qi was not something Acquired Mythicals could compare to, and it was vastly more precious than blood sacrifice energy.

But so what? Because this matter involved Concept Ability, it was worth it.

Lu Yuan had a vague intuition. "First, let some people become Acquired Mythicals."

"Once a spreading effect appears, related concepts will arise in the minds of countless intelligent beings. Even something false can become real!"

Of course, he was not one hundred percent certain about this. He still had to prepare as thoroughly as possible. Even if he failed, using 0.22 units of Profound Yellow Qi to create dozens of Acquired Mythicals would not be too much of a loss.

Thinking of this, Lu Yuan asked, "Has everyone had any brilliant ideas recently?"

At the mention of this, everyone was filled with excitement, but they also felt immense pressure.

Li Datie frowned bitterly. "Grand Commander, the subject of mass-producing Acquired Mythicals is too vast. We artisans can't really grasp it, and we don't have much confidence."

"At present, our best idea is to create a mirror."

In truth, the Green Field artisan team already possessed the ability to forge myths. They had merely delayed due to cost-effectiveness concerns. Lu Yuan was confident enough to let them display their talents; he only needed to personally complete the core component.

Li Datie took out a conceptual blueprint. "The image reflected by this mirror would not be one's current self, but one's future self after becoming an Acquired Mythical. Its artistic conception aligns with the philosophical principle that the past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, and the future mind cannot be grasped."

Lu Yuan vaguely understood. To create a myth, the first thing needed was an elegant philosophical conception, along with an idealistic rule appearing in the world for the first time.

The "self" was only a temporary combination of the five aggregates, without an independent and unchanging inherent nature.

If there was a one-in-a-trillion chance that one's future self would become an Acquired Mythical, then using this mirror to transfer that karmic connection onto oneself in advance could greatly increase the strength of one's bloodline.

"What a genius idea!" Lu Yuan said with great interest. "What is this equipment called?"

"The Causality Mirror, or the Future Mirror!"

"But there are many problems. First, the increase in bloodline strength is nowhere near enough." Li Datie smiled bitterly. "For example, if an Innate Mythical needs bloodline strength of 100, then an Acquired Mythical must have at least 10. An ordinary person's bloodline strength is around 0.001."

"And theoretically, this mirror can only raise it to around 1. That is under perfectly ideal conditions..."

"If it performs a little worse, it might only raise it to 0.1. In any case, raising bloodline strength to 10 is nearly impossible. We're short by entire orders of magnitude!"

Lu Yuan laughed heartily. "Idealistic theory is only empirical data. Miracles still happen occasionally."

"Don't feel burdened. Even if we make a mirror that raises it to 0.1, that would still be an enormous improvement. It wouldn't be a waste."

"Lu Yuan, there's another problem." The Ratfolk Artisan also sidled over, saying slyly, "Even if we truly create something Mythical Level, if it can't be replicated, its artisan score may not be very high."

"The materials we're using this time aren't cheap. People will say you're a nouveau riche who forcefully piled expensive materials into a myth. Once public opinion starts up, you won't be able to defend yourself."

"When you, Old Lu, argued with the judges back then, it caused quite a stir. I heard the artisans of Iron Key Civilization still remember you."

The Supreme Artisan Competition emphasized functionality, cost, and replicability.

If Idealistic Industrialization could not be replicated, it would not mean much.

Lu Yuan shook his head. "When I made that bold claim back then, I truly believed it."

"What makes our Ninth Era different from the other eras? First, the large-scale spread of Field Industrialization has increased the productivity of every civilization."

"Second, alliances formed early, reducing the occurrence of war."

"But changes of this level are still far from enough. Which of the Peak Civilizations from previous eras were not astonishingly talented?"

"Only Mythical Industrialization!"

"Mass-produce myths, or create items just slightly inferior to myths. Only then can we resist Era Disasters and truly differ from the past!"

His voice was not loud, but it was extremely resolute. "So I don't care about other people's public opinion."

"We are exploring a new path. What do rumors and slander have to do with me?"

Rat Gongye's whiskers trembled twice, and he was immediately rendered speechless.

Look at him—this bearing, this broad-mindedness!

Why pay attention to those flies?

Besides, Lu Yuan's achievements were right there. He had invented Field Industrialization!

Rat Gongye had originally wanted to make a few sarcastic remarks, but he could not get the words out. He even felt a trace of agreement.

Lu Yuan waved his hand. "Comrades, let us work together and create new glory!"

The human artisans were filled with soaring Inner Spirit and shouted together, "If we do not cry out, so be it—but when we do, we will astonish the world!"