Huosi's Plans

"It looks like you've done pretty well."

Just as Adkins was thinking, a familiar voice interrupted his instructions.

Then the figure of that great lord appeared before him, with Grandpa Bernas standing respectfully right behind.

"My lord, this is all thanks to your excellent leadership."

Adkins replied deferentially, his tone carrying a hint of flattery. He was nothing like the second-in-command of Qinghuo City from the original story.

That was only natural. He wasn't a Highgod now, much less a mighty powerhouse of Qinghuo City. He was just an ordinary Ninth-Rank expert under Huosi.

Huosi had discovered Adkins by chance. While traveling across the continent, he'd come across the two being hunted. At first, he hadn't been interested.

After spending so many years in the Coiling Dragon World, Huosi had seen death countless times. People were hunted down and killed every day, and he'd long since stopped caring.

But the two men's conversation caught his interest. He eavesdropped for a few moments and quickly realized who they were, then casually rescued them.

At the time, Adkins was just a boy, but Huosi knew he had the talent to become a Seven-Star Fiend.

In Qinghuo City, he was the second most powerful figure, surpassed only by Qinghuo Leilin. However, Leilin was a powerhouse just one step away from becoming a Paragon.

Adkins had said that there were plenty of Highgods in Gebada Prison. The fact that he'd become the most powerful person there after the city lord probably meant he'd fused three Profound Mysteries.

Fusing three Profound Mysteries was already enough to reach the level of a Six-Star Fiend—and that was in an environment like Gebada Prison.

If Adkins had started fusing Profound Mysteries as early as the Saint Realm, and hadn't lived in such a harsh place as Gebada Prison, he would've had every chance of becoming a true Seven-Star Fiend.

Yulan Continent could be said to be full of talented people, but aside from Bluefire, Beirut, Linley, and Odin, the original story hadn't clearly established anyone else as stronger than him.

As for the other three kings, they didn't even have names. And Beibei's Innate Divine Ability was terrifying, but when it came to fusing laws and Profound Mysteries, he was a complete zero.

"Three days from now, the exchange students at Huosi Academy are going to Dragon King Forest for field training, right?"

Huosi thought for a moment, then asked Adkins.

"Yes, my lord. We've already made preparations. There'll be thirty students, six teachers, and ten off-road vehicles. Everyone will be equipped with an AK74, and we've also prepared three Gatling guns."

Adkins answered calmly, thumping his chest in assurance.

The students were only getting the most basic scientific products, but it was a start.

They'd first let the students experience something different from magic. Then they could gradually expand from there.

"Good. Most of those students are exchange students from academies across the continent, and their families are influential clans from the two Empires. If we get them to use our technology, their families are sure to be tempted. It'll be excellent advertising."

Huosi nodded in approval.

Xuanshen Island lay beyond the northeastern edge of the continent. The regions bordering the continent belonged to the Linggeste Empire and the Orsopu Empire, while Dragon King Forest lay between the two.

These three regions represented the three divine-level experts on the continent. The Dragon King was a divine beast who had once defeated the Lightning Element powerhouse Lingester head-on, relying on his powerful body.

Although Xuanshen Island had maintained a certain level of trade with the two Empires, the scale had never been very large.

The imperial families and the truly influential clans regarded Xuanshen Island with wariness, but had little interest in anything else about it.

After all, Xuanshen Island was a rising power. It had a divine-level expert protecting it, so no one dared underestimate its strength, but it lagged far behind in other areas.

Merchants weren't keen on trading with Xuanshen Island. The journey was long, and the selection and quantity of goods were limited, so it wasn't worth the cost.

The students at its academies were also less talented. After all, they were schools in a newly established city. The children of nobles and royalty, along with the talented children of many commoner families across the continent, preferred the long-established academies.

But now Huosi wanted to advertise his products and get the truly wealthy to start buying them.

With machine tools and assembly-line production, all kinds of goods on Xuanshen Island could be made at very low cost. If handled well, they could completely drain the two Empires' resources.

The cultivation system had existed in the Coiling Dragon World for countless years. That was exactly why nobody cared about technology; they just saw it as a few useless toys.

As a result, the divine-level experts of the two Empires, along with the many Saint Realm experts, wouldn't care about these things at all, even if the Empires' treasuries were emptied and their economies suffered a massive blow.

At most, it would give the emperors a headache. The divine-level experts wouldn't care in the slightest. As long as there weren't powerful foreign enemies, they were almost all in seclusion, focused on cultivation.

As for money and the economy—sorry, in a magic world where cultivation was the mainstream, most people weren't interested in that stuff.

At the same time, peasant uprisings didn't exist in this world. The idea that kings and nobles came from the same stock as everyone else could never take hold.

A million peasants rising up together would amount to no more than one spell from a Saint Realm mage.

If faith hadn't caused divine-level experts to pay a little attention to ordinary people, most Empires would probably have lived in abject misery.

Some experts who cultivated the Laws of Death even treated people like livestock, killing a few every so often and refining their souls into Soul Gold Granules just to strengthen their own souls.

"The Steam Train is now in service, and steamships should be ready within ten years. Next, I need to figure out how to gather resources while improving my armor and developing a God-Slaying Nuclear Bomb!"

Huosi murmured softly.

That was right: a nuclear bomb, and one capable of slaying gods. When he'd found its blueprints in the warehouse, he'd been startled. It was called a nuclear bomb, but it was nothing like the ones from his previous life.

It used a principle Huosi had never heard of. Divine power and ore could serve as its energy source, storing up power before releasing it all at once.

Depending on its level, it could even kill a god.

Huosi had been shocked when he first saw it, but gradually, he'd grown numb to it.

That was because the warehouse contained even more terrifying things, including a cannon mounted on an Interstellar Warship that could annihilate Highgods.

By absorbing an endless stream of divine power and converting it into an energy that didn't exist in the Magic Universe, it could unleash an attack rivaling that of a Seven-Star Fiend.

There was a God-Slaying Cannon that could release an Innate Divine Ability after being infused with the blood essence of a God-Slaying Rat. There was also a Space-Time Distortion Cannon, unleashed by combining warships representing the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Xuanwu. The blueprints dazzled him; he couldn't wait to build one and use it to attack a Highgod.

Of course, what made Huosi tremble the most was the Gamma Ray Burst on the final level.

In his previous life, the Gamma Ray Burst was the most powerful explosive phenomenon known in the observable universe. In just a few minutes, it could release as much energy as the sun would emit over a trillion years.

It could instantly destroy Earth, the Solar System, the Milky Way, Orion, and even more.

Of course, in this world, within the System Space, it had another name: the Sovereign Annihilation Cannon.

According to the manual, the Gamma Ray Burst in the System Space worked differently under the laws of this universe, but its power was still enough to threaten a Sovereign.

Huosi had even wondered if he could use the power of super-science to break through, undergo a Soul Mutation, and even transcend the Hongmeng Space.

Of course, all of that was still far off. Never mind whether it was possible—just the way Hongmeng regarded him was enough to give him serious doubts.

Ever since he'd gained his cheat, Huosi had started planning out his future.

First, he needed territory and a faction of his own. That wasn't difficult; Xuanshen Island had been established for many years.

It was still a rising power with everything in need of development, but Huosi was confident he could make it better and stronger.

Next, he needed to develop scientific talent to help advance technology and manufacture products. That would have to be done one step at a time.

In a Magic Universe where people could cultivate, it wasn't easy to gather people who enjoyed research. Not everyone was Oufu, able to research tirelessly for countless years like a madman.

Besides, even the Coiling Dragon World obeyed the most basic laws of conservation of energy and mass. Developing technology required resources and energy.

However, ninety percent of the land in this plane was controlled by other divine-level experts. Huosi had no intention of making enemies with them before building a God-Slaying Nuclear Bomb—at least, not in a direct confrontation.

That left Huosi with two options. One was to develop commerce through technological products, using economic means to gradually draw in the continent's talent and resources to support his research.

The other was to fully exploit the resources of the ocean. The seas held plenty of resources, and the various ores on the ocean floor alone could bring him enormous profits.

As a man who'd lived for thousands of years, Huosi declared that only children had to choose. He wanted both.

In the future, as Xuanshen Island developed, more talent came in from all over the continent, and trade brought in more resources, his technology tree would continue to advance.

According to the manual in the System Space, the so-called Divine Domain was an abstract concept. In reality, it was a magnetic field built from special particles released by a divine spark.

Of course, this was more of a theory from mechanical civilization, and its concepts differed from those of the Magic Universe.

But even though the principles weren't exactly the same, they could still develop the means to counter it.

Once the Mechanical Civilization Accelerator finished analyzing it, they could equip the combat mechs with the corresponding anti-magnetic field and directly break the Divine Domain.

Then, without their Divine Domain, the gods would lose their greatest trump card.

He'd only need to send out his Saint Realm subordinates with fighter jets, God-Slaying missiles and their launch systems, alongside his Interstellar Battle Armor. That would be enough for him to take on the entire plane by himself.

Once he unified the plane, he could keep developing technology, unlock space-jump technology, and gradually unify the other Material Planes. He'd gather even more resources, build supercarriers and even Interstellar Warships.

Once he equipped them with Sovereign-level physical and soul defense systems, even a Paragon wouldn't be able to break through. By then, he could face a Paragon head-on as a Lowgod. Just thinking about it was thrilling.

"No, no, it's too early for that. I've only just begun. I can't let my imagination run too far ahead."

Huosi slapped his cheeks, pulling his thoughts back from imagining a Gamma Ray Burst wiping out a Chief Sovereign.

Still, it was good to have dreams. He needed a distant goal to set him moving in the right direction; that was how he'd keep finding the motivation to push forward.

After all, as someone who'd transmigrated into the Coiling Dragon World, who hadn't imagined punching Utrede and kicking Oufu?