The Lotus Visualization Method was an orthodox cultivation technique from the Ink Sect, the crystallized wisdom accumulated by generations of Innate Mythical beings.
Lu Yuan had only taught them the basics.
In truth, "Bloodline Power" and "Extraordinary Tinder" were very similar, except the former had more variations, was more complex, and was more idealistic.
Ordinary Acquired Mythical beings needed a year or even several years to master it proficiently. To become truly skilled, they would have to spend hundreds or thousands of years.
There were also differences among Acquired Mythical beings. Some had combat power no weaker than Innate Mythical beings, but if they did not cultivate, they were merely of a slightly higher Extraordinary Level, capable only of bullying the weak with brute force.
Tian Tian gave it a try but could not grasp the method. She could not help sighing. "Compared to the Grand Commander, why do we feel so incredibly dull?"
"This method looks profoundly vast and intricate..."
Lu Yuan casually made something up. "It was brought by the Apocalypse. This passage just somehow appeared in my mind. Maybe it's an ancient inheritance."
Li Datie nodded in agreement. "What a pity. No matter how good a cultivation method is, in this era, we don't have much energy to spare for cultivation."
"Of course." Lu Yuan patted their shoulders, his expression turning solemn. "Cultivation itself really isn't that important. Turning you into Acquired Mythical beings comes with historical tasks!"
"Tian Tian, you'll be responsible for academic research related to Bloodline Power. Leave receiving those scientists to you as well. Advanced Bloodline Adepts, Painted Skin upgrades, advanced material research—all of it will be your responsibility."
Tian Tian straightened her chest. "Understood!"
Her body and soul had once been eroded by an Aberration Guai, but her heart, which loved research, had never changed. She had always fought on the front lines of scientific research.
Now, her status as an Acquired Mythical being gave her inexhaustible energy. With a mere turn of her mind, inspiration nearly overflowed—what kind of results could she achieve by using her own blood and flesh as materials?!
Lu Yuan continued, "Li Datie, you'll be responsible for replicating the Future Mirror and deepening the research together with the craftsmen."
"We need to expand the influence of Mythical Industrialization. Cheap replicas are the key. The cost and manufacturing difficulty must be reduced."
"Of course, if you run into certain difficulties, I'll come help as well."
Li Datie nodded. "I've been thinking about this for a long time. But the Future Mirror must be bound to the destiny of its civilization. We can only teach other civilizations how to make it. Whether they succeed or fail, we have no way of playing a decisive role."
"Making the principles public is enough. Don't underestimate other civilizations. There are still quite a few civilizations with ambition."
Li Datie sighed. "Grand Commander, I've actually been wondering all this time—what would happen if we kept this achievement to ourselves?"
"...I really can't accept it. We put so much effort into this and bore the risks of failed forging, only to give away the results for free. If we sold this achievement and sold it once to every civilization, how much could we gain?"
Lu Yuan smiled. "At first, I had the same thought as you... I was a little reluctant too."
"But you have to understand that we are already among the strongest civilizations."
"If an Era Disaster happens, we'll have to step forward even if we have to grit our teeth... If we have no allies by then, we'll truly have no one to turn to."
"So, how should I put it? Finding one more promising friend is also a way of broadening our future path. Just treat it as an investment, an intangible asset."
That was indeed true. The more friends they had, the broader their road became.
Once, Lu Yuan had secretly worried that the Ninth Era would fail to produce powerful civilizations, forcing him to step up himself—facing endless enemies, no matter how strong the Greedy Demon God was, he would inevitably lose. He could barely defeat one god, but against two god-level beings, he would be no match.
But now he had discovered that whether it was the Buzhou Alliance, the suddenly emerged neutrino civilization, or their own Northern Alliance, they all possessed considerable ambition.
There were also the Underground Alliance and the Iron Key Alliance. They all had potential.
As long as Mythical Industrialization was promoted, several Level Six Civilizations might emerge. Compared with the Eighth Era, that number would already be no less impressive.
And that was without counting those still-hidden civilizations with potential... Surpassing the Eighth Era was within reach!
As Lu Yuan spoke, he could not help smiling. "You have to understand that reputation is very important on Pangu Continent... It's an idealistic resource. A Peak Civilization of an era cannot be some obscure nobody. Even if a powerful civilization emerged from some forgotten corner, no one would consider it the Peak Civilization of this era."
Li Datie understood, and his heart burned hot. Green Field City... a Peak Civilization?!
The thought made his body and soul tremble—yes, Green Field City might not be without a chance to seize the opportunity!
The vast continent had countless living beings and hundreds of millions of civilizations, but why couldn't it be them?
If Green Field City had once thought only of survival, then in the future it had to forge ahead. This was a transformation in mindset and decision-making, the inevitable path to becoming a Peak Civilization!
Lu Yuan continued, "As for Seashell and me, we'll be responsible for... producing extraordinary resources."
"One advantage of the new era's path lies in the tremendous abundance of resources."
"We need to cultivate a batch of low-grade, mid-grade, and high-grade resources. Not only can this persuade outside civilizations, it can also benefit all of Green Field City."
This division of labor was actually quite reasonable. All four Acquired Mythical beings could be put to use.
Of course, in Old Cat's eyes, Lu Yuan was slacking off again. Seashell had been cultivating Idealistic Material in the Qiankun World for so many years already... She only needed to produce some seeds in the Qiankun World, and the task would be complete.
"You just want to slack off, don't you?" it said bluntly.
Lu Yuan sneered. "What? My wife and I are the foundations of civilization. Every action we take carries political implications in other people's eyes. It's more suitable to let them handle work that puts them in the spotlight. If something goes wrong, there'll still be room to remedy it."
That was indeed true.
When leaders met, their subordinates had usually settled everything beforehand. The leaders merely signed their names and went through the procedures.
If the highest leaders met, discovered they could not reach an agreement, and started tearing into each other, it would cause a diplomatic incident.
Therefore, Lu Yuan could not possibly handle routine receptions. Old Cat could only grit its teeth and tacitly accept Lu Yuan's laziness.
"Ugh, there's also the development of Form Skills and Qi Skills. We don't have enough manpower for that." Lu Yuan was even complaining. "Forget it, let other civilizations work on it. That area isn't all that appealing anyway."
And so, Green Field City entered a flourishing golden age of development.
This great development was unprecedented, involving every aspect of food, clothing, housing, and transportation, affecting hundreds or thousands of industries. From kindergarten children to middle school and university textbooks, from major research institutes to factories and craftsmen's forging grounds, everything was undergoing earth-shaking change!
The four Acquired Mythical beings had clear divisions of labor, driving the great development of the entire civilization.
The first major breakthrough, cultivating more powerful Extraordinary Creatures, was easily achieved in the second month.
Only when Extraordinary Creatures reached higher Extraordinary Levels could they produce better materials. That was self-evident.
Research in this area had actually continued for hundreds of years. The easy fruit had long since been picked, and what remained was much harder to obtain—when Extraordinary Creatures were cultivated to Levels 6 or 7, that was basically their racial limit. Those exceeding Level 7 were exceedingly rare.
Even ancient ruins offered no particularly useful clues. It seemed that generation after generation of civilizations had failed to overcome this problem.
However, the emergence of Acquired Mythical beings brought entirely new changes.
"The cells in this batch are far too active—hundreds or even thousands of times more active than those of ordinary people!
"Maybe we really have a chance this time!"
"Why cultivate Extraordinary Creatures? Just cultivate Painted Skin directly!"
During the Mythical Bloodline experiment, several researchers shouted excitedly in front of their microscopes.
Outside the laboratory, hundreds of experts and scholars had gathered on the large field, anxiously awaiting the results.
At the very center of the field was the ancient anomaly, Demon: Painted Skin, confined in a glass cage.
Besides it, there were other Extraordinary Creatures, from sky scorpions and king serpents to tusked wild boars.
Every disaster-class anomaly was precious wealth.
As an anomaly captured in the Early Era, Demon: Painted Skin had played a critical role in Green Field City's development. Spirit Speech Technology, for instance, had been developed based on Painted Skin's abilities and had protected all humanity many times.
But it had one enormous flaw—it would not obey!
All it could think about was eating people!
At first, Lu Yuan had considered secretly using the Domination ability to make it more obedient.
But Domination was temporary after all, consumed a large amount of spiritual resonance, and carried the risk of exposure if used over a long period.
Painted Skin's madness and wildness were permanent. Constantly coming over to dominate it was not a long-term solution.
In the end, Lu Yuan grew a little irritated and simply had the scientists make a high-end cage to lock it up.
Whenever they needed to use it, they would send a Giant God Soldier to beat it up viciously until it submitted. This method was simpler, cheaper, and fairly efficient!
But doing so came at a cost—Demon: Painted Skin's strength could not be allowed to increase drastically.
Once it grew too much stronger, the Giant God Soldier would be unable to suppress it. After all, it had the Race Value of a demon. If it truly developed, it could eat the entire city.
Yet if Demon: Painted Skin's strength did not increase, Spirit Speech Technology could not continue breaking through to greater heights.
Moreover, it could produce Immortal Level materials—namely Painted Skin leather, an exceptional top-grade material. Old Cat's entire hide had been made from Painted Skin leather.
Though directly skinning it would severely damage its vitality and leave it unable to recover for centuries, shaving off some fur was not a major problem and could be sustainably maintained.
The higher Painted Skin's level, the better the quality of the fur it produced.
Therefore, increasing Painted Skin's level while controlling it had become a long-term core research focus for Green Field City.
"Mm, very good. Future enhancement potions will cost less while being more than ten times more effective than before." Professor Lu Tiantian sat beside the glass shield with a smile on her face. "Whether it's Painted Skin or these extraordinary animals, they'll be eating well in the future."
Recently, thanks to her skilled control over Bloodline Power.
Her body had been slowly shrinking, and she was currently only three meters tall, no longer quite so enormous.
However, the final stage of shrinking was more difficult than everything before it combined. It might require several years of diligent training.
"Professor Lu, what if Painted Skin grows stronger and breaks through our protective shield?" a female doctor beside her asked with a smile. "Should we deploy more Giant God Soldiers?"
Tian Tian rolled up her sleeve and showed off her bicep. "One is enough! If it dares break out, then the Giant God Soldier and I will personally teach it a lesson with a two-on-one beating!"
Everyone around her burst into laughter. "Give us a break, Professor Lu. You're just a snack to go with its drinks."
Commander Lu Da could fight because he had truly fought his way up. But Professor Lu Tiantian spent every day in the research institute. Even after becoming an Acquired Mythical being, she would still be slapped to death by Painted Skin in a few hits.
The experiments in the laboratory soon ended, and the staff in white coats produced a test tube filled with scarlet liquid.
They injected that tube of liquid into a humanoid puppet...
The humanoid puppet was a clone created through 3D cloning technology. Other than lacking a brain, it was almost identical to a human.
After the injection, the humanoid puppet clearly emitted a mysterious aura, like some prehistoric beast.
This damned disaster, Painted Skin, seemed to have been born purely for violence. It could only level up by eating people.
The more people it ate, the faster it leveled up!
Eating Extraordinary Consumables made it level up slowly and came with a limit.
Once Painted Skin reached Extraordinary Level 5, it could no longer level up by eating consumables.
The reason might have been a special idealistic psychological phenomenon—it had to "believe" that it was eating people in order to level up!
If it believed it was eating plants, then even the finest Heavenly Treasures and Earthly Materials would not allow it to level up.
The human experts had been driven mad by this troublesome creature. They could not truly feed it people, so they could only make some "fake humans."
But "fake humans" were easily exposed, and so Painted Skin fell into a listless state again, unwilling to level up.
This is a fake human infused with Mythical Bloodline. Let's see whether you'll eat it. Tian Tian thought to herself.
Sure enough, stimulated by the Mythical Bloodline, Painted Skin's previously lethargic mental state abruptly changed!
It opened its mouth and swallowed the humanoid puppet whole. Its entire body swelled with excitement, as though it had consumed the ultimate tonic.
The thousand mouths covering its body wriggled in unison, seemingly preparing to use Spirit Speech to break open the glass shield!
But the human experts had been prepared. At once, they evacuated all air from inside the glass shield.
Without air, the transmission power of Spirit Speech immediately weakened drastically.
Lightning flashed and thunder roared within the confined space. Only after an hour did Painted Skin become listless again and stop attacking the glass cage.
Yet the scientists were ecstatic!
One young doctor said in disbelief, "It worked just like that? Painted Skin is full of life now. It mistakenly believes it's eating people—no, eating Acquired Mythical beings!"
"If we give it a few more fake humans, it can level up directly?"
Another, older expert snorted. "You think it's that simple? The blood and vitality of an Acquired Mythical being alone are worth a fortune. You can't buy them even if you look outside. Sigh, one Acquired Mythical being casually broke through a problem that had troubled us in the past. It really makes one feel that striving is no match for fate."
Tian Tian smiled. "I don't mind. My body is huge anyway, so I have plenty of blood."
"But the troublesome part is... the stronger Painted Skin becomes, the greater the risk of it escaping."
"A Level 5 Painted Skin is still manageable. One above Level 10 would be somewhat troublesome."
A demon's combat potential was absurdly high. Every level was a world apart.
The old expert said, "That matter will have to be handed over to another laboratory. In any case, we now have new materials... Didn't the high-risk containment laboratory obtain some Dragon Blood Tree bark?"
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