The Greedy Demon God's Path Forward

With this transaction complete, not only was Green Field City satisfied, but Haishen Civilization was as well.

Their leader, Dong Bi, said excitedly, "Thank you so very much!"

"Mr. Lu, if you have the time, you should visit the Eastern Continent. I can introduce you to some powerful civilizations from the Eighth Era. There will definitely be even bigger deals to make."

Lu Yuan was somewhat hesitant about the Eastern Continent.

Green Field City could not head to the Eastern Continent anytime soon. After all, Mythical Industrialization was developing at full swing. How could they leave halfway through?

As for going there himself with a team... he might have to remain in the Northern Frontier for a long time, leaving him with no time to spare.

"Can't they come here themselves? A Level Five Civilization should be able to use some naturally occurring Space Fissures, right?"

"Of course. They can indeed come by spacecraft... but a cooperative relationship involves far more than simply doing business."

The leader of Haishen Civilization lowered his voice. "Your civilization... we think very highly of it... Some remnants of the Eighth Era still remain. You understand what I mean, don't you?"

Old Cat's eyes widened as it interjected, "I really don't."

Dong Bi laughed twice. "It is somewhat embarrassing to say. Compared to the Sixth and Seventh Eras, the Eighth Era was indeed a little lacking. It produced no groundbreaking ideas in the supernatural realm, never reclaimed the moon... and spent an unremarkable era in mediocrity."

"Still, there are some Level Six Civilizations willing to shoulder responsibility... They did leave some things behind..."

"Those Level Six legacies are kept by certain old fellows. They still have considerable foundations. There are quite a few civilizations like ours that possess anomalous demons, and some even possess ghosts, monsters, and demons..."

Lu Yuan frowned without speaking.

Demons, ghosts, and monsters lacked intelligence, so there was little to say about them. Only demons possessed intelligence, and their stance was highly unique.

He thought of the Myth of the Demon—the legacy of the Ink Sect—and wondered where it had gone.

The Haishen leader spoke vaguely. "There are many truths concerning the End of Era that only Level Six Civilizations can barely access. Even we Level Five Civilizations are not qualified."

Lu Yuan said, "But we have not yet developed into a Level Six Civilization either. It seems we cannot accept that legacy."

Dong Bi laughed again. "There is no rush. Mythical Industrialization must at least develop to a certain level before those old antiques can be persuaded. Otherwise, they are unlikely to relinquish the power in their hands."

"I'm only mentioning it in passing. The Eastern Continent has an extremely strong foundation. If you offer them a little support and link those civilizations into the river of fortune of the Ninth Era, they would be no worse than the Neutrino Alliance."

Lu Yuan nodded. "Understood. We will seriously consider your suggestion. In any case, once Haishen Civilization produces an Acquired Mythical, those old fellows cannot possibly remain unmoved."

Dong Bi narrowed his eyes. "Haha, naturally!"

After the negotiations ended, the man and cat left the meeting room.

Old Cat was immersed in blissful joy. It was about to control unprecedented wealth.

Meanwhile, Lu Yuan was thinking about gods.

What exactly gods were remained an unsolved mystery.

Ever since entering the Concept World, Lu Yuan had vaguely realized that gods were most likely a group.

Since he had encountered and killed a white-haired god, were there other gods still active on Pangu Continent?

The answer was certainly yes.

"Our normal activities right now are most likely being deliberately concealed by Pangu Continent... Those gods cannot discover civilizations with potential like ours, or they would have come to slaughter us long ago."

With that thought, he found it difficult to eat or sleep peacefully. "If there is an opportunity, I really should examine the legacies of the Eighth Era."

"Bzzz—"

The jet engines roared as the spacecraft returned to the rear base.

With nothing else to do, Lu Yuan sat in his seat while thoughts bubbled up one after another in his mind.

"Everyone is developing at breakneck speed now, yet my personal combat power has begun to stagnate... Ever since forging the Demon God's heart, I have made almost no progress."

He had a small worry.

In truth, that was the norm. How could individual power continually surpass the power of civilization?

But perhaps Lu Yuan's way of thinking was what they called greed. He no longer desired material things; did he only want to increase his personal power now?

"But the Greedy Demon God's combat power has indeed reached its limit. There is still a vast gap between it and the Eternal Level."

"Even now, I cannot defeat two gods. If two white-haired gods appeared at once, they would most likely be able to kill me. Besides, white-haired gods should not be the strongest kind."

Forge another demon god organ?

No. Forging organs came with diminishing returns. The heart had already been forged; stuffing in new organs would only add a few functions and would not bring about a qualitative transformation.

Worse still, recklessly forging organs could disrupt the internal balance and make the Greedy Demon God weaker.

"At most, I can forge some minor functional organs in the future. It will be difficult to achieve another qualitative leap in combat power."

"However, there is another path."

The first was ability fusion.

Lu Yuan had originally wanted to fuse an ability stronger than Stong Gale, but after trying for so many years without success, he could only strategically abandon the idea.

That was because the prerequisite for ability fusion was that the ability had to exist in the first place before it could be fused—both Stong Gale and the Eternal Tinder had already existed before there was a path to fusion.

The Chaos Sea might contain abilities stronger than Stong Gale, but searching blindly would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"I might as well create a new one myself..."

The second path was... an Absolute Ability.

The Greedy Demon God still did not possess an Absolute Ability.

That thing could undergo a revolutionary qualitative leap.

Based on Lu Yuan's current understanding, an Absolute Ability might involve "concepts."

The immortality of ghosts and the deathlessness of demons were not truly absolute immortality or deathlessness. But as more intelligent lifeforms came to recognize those things, corresponding concepts formed and further strengthened those abilities.

"So Absolute Abilities are actually related to the cognition of vast numbers of intelligent lifeforms."

"What should I do? Deceive the world once again?"

Lu Yuan thought for a long time without coming up with any particularly good ideas, but this path seemed to have a higher chance of success...

Suddenly, the communicator began to beep.

After Old Cat answered it, its whiskers trembled.

It seemed that some major progress had been made.

"G-good news!" Old Cat said excitedly. "The Neutrino Industrial Union heard that we lent out Li Datie and finally got anxious... They want to offer a high price to hire people!"

"Anyway, there are several other Grandmaster Artisans. They are only slightly weaker than Li Datie, but they can still fetch a huge price."

Lu Yuan had just been comforting himself that there was no need to be greedy. He did not lack these trifling sums at all.

Yet as good news arrived one after another, he still felt a faint pang of bitterness.

The kids had finally grown up. They could make cakes for themselves now, while Old Lu was still standing still.

"You go negotiate by yourself. I'm heading to the Northern Frontier anyway!"

"Old Lu... please! Without you showing up, I, Old Cat, can't keep them under control!" The damned cat shamelessly clung to him. "Please, comrade!"

The member races of the Neutrino Industrial Union came in all shapes and forms, consisting of several highly intelligent species, including humanoids, dwarves, elephant folk, and the Octopus Race.

Due to their mechanical modifications, their clothing possessed a cold, streamlined aesthetic.

"Lord Lu Yuan, let us get straight to the point."

"The conditions offered by our union are the same as before. We will exchange knowledge of the Aether Spirit-Core Network for Acquired Mythical beings. Compared to Haishen Civilization's offer, our bargaining chip is no less valuable."

Yan Ri, the artisan of Xingyao Civilization, truly was a believer in efficiency above all else. He did not bother with empty pleasantries.

"Our union has an endless flow of fortune, but... our artisans are somewhat weak. So you must first train our artisans, then teach us the knowledge related to the Future Mirror."

"But offering the Aether Spirit-Core Network as payment is more than sufficient. This is a genuine Level Seven Civilization legacy. There may not be a second one in all of Pangu Continent."

Yan Ri presented a report.

The other leaders wore solemn expressions and remained silent.

It was clear that they were somewhat reluctant... This involved the foundation of their civilization.

But Haishen Civilization had already borrowed Li Datie. If they hesitated any longer and some other civilization snatched the opportunity away, they might be delayed by decades.

Lu Yuan accepted the report and patiently read through it.

He read at a glance, needing only a single sweep of his eyes to take in an entire page.

The report was over a hundred pages long, yet he finished it in only two minutes.

That formidable learning ability prompted the Neutrino Alliance to discuss it privately. Even with brain chips and the Aether network, they did not possess such rapid reading speed. It seemed that Acquired Mythical beings truly had something special about them.

Lu Yuan let out a soft breath.

The Aether Spirit-Core Network was actually a legacy of the Gear Civilization.

In other words... a god!

Of course, it was not that white-haired monster god that manipulated concepts.

It was the "god" that distributed Civilization Milestone rewards and protected the major cities within Safe Zones.

This "god" had been built upon the World Will, serving as the conscious mind of the World Will. It was more intelligent and lively, displaying preferences similar to those of ordinary living beings.

The original World Will, on the other hand, was its subconscious. It possessed greater authority and immense power.

Yet it was not particularly intelligent.

Though occasionally, it would produce strokes of genius, such as bringing the Summit Civilization to Pangu Continent.

In other words, as a collective will, the World Will had a split between its subconscious and conscious minds. One part was lively, another dull-witted. The reasons were complex, involving Pangu Continent being too vast, excessive distracting thoughts among living beings, information transmission being too slow, intelligent blocks being distributed too sparsely, and more.

The purpose of the Aether Spirit-Core Network was to interconnect all living beings, accelerate information exchange, expand the intelligent blockchain, and transform the World Will into an artificial intelligence with high intelligence.

This was an immensely ambitious plan.

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment before asking, "An interesting idea. So by giving us this knowledge, you want us to join the Aether Spirit-Core Network and become one of its administrators? Aren't you afraid we will leak this plan?"

"Haha, you flatter us." Yan Ri said solemnly, "You created Mythical Industrialization. You have long since become a thorn in the eye of that unknown enemy."

"We are grasshoppers tied to the same rope. So you will not leak it. Besides, quite a few civilizations know about this, since many outside civilizations have already joined our Neutrino Alliance."

"The construction of the Aether Spirit-Core Network has lasted for three full eras. At the end of the Seventh Era, Gear Civilization had already completed the relevant concept," Yan Ri continued. "During the Eighth Era, it lay dormant for an entire era, gathering vast quantities of data, constantly iterating, and evolving on its own."

"Only in the Ninth Era did this network become smarter and more sentient."

"Back when our civilization was still in its planetary stage and had not yet arrived at Pangu Continent, we had dealings with Gear Civilization. This gear legacy is the greatest wealth they left behind on Pangu Continent, far more precious than so-called Immortal Level materials or the Great Compendium of Gears."

"You also need not worry about security. The Aether Spirit-Core Network has deep-link users, such as us, and shallow-link users. Most civilizations that have not yet undergone modification are shallow-link users. It is little different from carrying a jade pendant, and it slowly increases one's Spirit Attribute."

"Furthermore, civilizations that join can make better use of the World Will's authority. Mind-over-matter antigravity and World Grand Seal technology will consume less energy."

"World Grand Seal technology in particular is a low-cost, low-consumption technology if one wishes to control a disaster-level anomaly."

"That does sound somewhat appealing." Old Cat's ears twitched twice. "But those technologies would only be icing on the cake for us."

"If you want us to join, we must at least have fairly high administrator privileges... Otherwise... wouldn't our survival be in your hands?"

Another leader who looked like an iron-blooded warrior said with a smile, "You may have misunderstood something."

"The Aether Spirit-Core Network created by Gear Civilization is distributed and open. There may be a main host, but even we do not know where it is located."

"As for what we possess, we have only some Subordinate Hosts."

"After you join, the level of authority you receive will be determined by the network's own algorithm. The Neutrino Industrial Union cannot forcibly alter it."

"This technology, which is entirely algorithm-based and cannot be tampered with, is the foundation upon which the Neutrino Industrial Union was established."

"Otherwise, we would have fallen apart long ago over struggles for authority. It is precisely because authority cannot be altered that we have developed steadily to this day. The greater your contribution to the world, the higher your authority. I believe Green Field City will attain a respectable position."

Lu Yuan raised his brows. It sounded somewhat like blockchain technology from the Earth Era: provide computing power, and receive virtual currency.

"What do you leaders think?" Lu Yuan asked the several intermediary guarantors from the Buzhou Alliance.

They had to ask the leaders about such an open attempt to poach members.

A Bai Ze Civilization alien smiled. "Lord Lu Yuan, there is no need to worry."

"Our Buzhou Alliance has always been a loose organization. We do not oppose you joining other circles. Our purpose is to resist Era Disasters, not to dominate others."

"Of course, please keep this confidential. We hope you will not make a grand spectacle of it and let every civilization know. If public opinion rises up then, it will inevitably be awkward."

"According to our assessment, the Aether Spirit-Core Network is indeed a good thing. It complements Mythical Industrialization rather than conflicting with it. If the time is right, we will promote it as well."

Now that Mythical Industrialization had emerged, all these old aliens had become broad-minded and carefree.

Do whatever you want.

In any case, the Buzhou Alliance was already the foremost alliance, standing firm and unshakable.