A Thousand Years Flew By

"Come to think of it, what exactly is that... battle armor of yours? What kind of divine artifact is it?"

Pusiluo slowly lowered his battle axe, scratched his head, and asked outright.

Over the past two years, Pusiluo and Adkins had become the sort of men who could fight first and get along afterward.

As Huosi's top fighter and chief scientist, Adkins hadn't exactly treated the outsider Pusiluo with outright disdain, but he'd certainly put on the airs of a senior.

As a brawny man with a temper as fiery as his whole body, Pusiluo couldn't stand that sort of thing.

He'd suffered enough grievances at Alikui'en's hands over the years. He'd long since sworn that he'd never let anyone act so high and mighty in front of him again!

Of course, Lord Huosi was the exception. After all, he was the benefactor who had saved Pusiluo from a life of misery.

And so the two began a friendly exchange of blows. Both were Lowgods, and Adkins had already achieved an initial fusion of his Laws of Profound Mysteries. They were evenly matched.

However, Pusiluo was a Volcano Giant, with a powerful body. Taking advantage of his physical superiority, he left Adkins helpless.

That should have been the end of it, but when Pusiluo saw Adkins lose, he couldn't resist taunting him.

Adkins stopped holding back, activated his battle armor, and instantly suited up. Energy poured from its various mechanical cannons, unleashing a barrage of firepower.

He nearly beat Pusiluo to a pulp.

Pusiluo tried to fight back, but the strange armor was unbelievably tough. His attacks couldn't even break through it.

After the fight, Pusiluo was utterly baffled. He couldn't understand what sort of divine artifact Adkins had suddenly used. It was as hard as a turtle shell, and getting hit by it had hurt like hell.

Most importantly, how had those cannon-like things unleashed such powerful attacks? He hadn't sensed any powerful divine-force fluctuations, yet their strength had been terrifying.

"Heh. This is a battle armor specially developed by Lord Huosi. It's a one-of-a-kind divine artifact in this world."

Adkins tossed his head, his voice light and smug.

Huosi had modeled the battle armor on his own Interstellar Battle Armor. It couldn't possibly match the original, but it could still provide a substantial boost.

At the very least, it was more than enough to let Adkins turn the tables on Pusiluo.

"Um, you know, we've known each other for so long. Could you... make one for me, too?"

Pusiluo rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and asked hopefully.

Who wouldn't want a terrifying divine artifact like that? With one, his strength would instantly soar.

"Keep dreaming. This is the Federation's highest-level secret. Only Lord Huosi can make one. There are only two in the entire Federation right now: one for the lord himself and one for me!"

Adkins refused outright, carried away by his smugness. He couldn't resist showing off his standing in Lord Huosi's eyes, either.

"Heh, I'm just a little envious."

Pusiluo didn't get angry. He only rubbed his hands together cautiously.

No matter how you looked at it, Pusiluo hadn't been under Lord Huosi's command for long. He couldn't expect to compare with Adkins.

Pusiluo had volunteered to fight on the Dark Continent this time for two reasons. First, he wanted to stretch his muscles. After years of holding back, he hoped battle would give him an outlet.

Second, he wanted to earn some merit. Even if it wasn't a major achievement, it might at least make Lord Huosi take notice of him.

If he kept at it, the lord would eventually reward him. Then, wouldn't he get a divine artifact of his own?

"Give it up, kitty."

Adkins curled his lip. The former Lowgods of the Qingya Continent had worked at the Academy of Sciences for years and earned far more merit than Pusiluo. Pusiluo hadn't even begun to measure up.

He'd merely helped the Expeditionary Army deal with a few opponents. That kind of contribution barely counted.

"Are you asking to die? How many times have I told you not to call me a cat?"

Pusiluo's face turned visibly red, and he swung a fist at Adkins.

The word "kitty" was Pusiluo's sore spot. Anyone who brought it up was asking for a fight to the death!

"Honestly, you're still this sensitive about cats after all these years."

Adkins deftly dodged Pusiluo's punch and cut off the conversation.

"All right, we should head back and report. We still need to handle the transfer of control over the whole continent!"

Adkins knew just how much Pusiluo hated cats. But over the years, he'd discovered that teasing Pusiluo with the word "kitty" was rather fun.

The way the man got angry was amusing.

"You bastard!"

Pusiluo muttered angrily, then withdrew his divine power as well.

With the only god-level powerhouse on the Dark Continent eliminated, the entire continent inevitably fell into chaos.

The Federation's army seized the whole continent as quickly as possible, facing virtually no meaningful resistance.

In the Magic Universe, individual strength could often decide everything.

In the Material Plane, god-level powerhouses were always right. A single word from them could determine the life or death of countless people.

Without the protection of a god-level powerhouse, the Dark Continent's remaining forces had little choice but to submit to the Federation, except for a handful of diehards.

Thus, the Bailun Plane was unified under a single government: the Interstellar Federation Byron Branch.

Following its previous approach, the Federation began large-scale reforms across the plane. The development of the oceans and maritime trade became the new norm.

Within just a few decades, Huosi had extracted vast quantities of untouched ore from the oceans. Using compression and synthesis technology, he continued his research into battle armor and other weapons.

Life in the Bailun Plane began to improve, and the plane's talent pool gradually grew.

Everything seemed to be heading in the right direction.

However, less than a century later, the output of the Bailun Plane's various resources began to level off.

"Just as I suspected."

After examining the state of the plane, Huosi grew even more certain of his earlier theory.

He'd long had an idea about how matter and energy worked in the Coiling Dragon Universe.

Every Material Plane's resources were directly connected to the Elemental Ocean.

For example, if a plane had a capacity of one hundred, its resources would replenish at a certain rate whenever they fell below that level, stopping once they reached one hundred.

Most Material Planes had abundant resources, with reserves ranging from eighty to ninety percent of capacity. That meant the Federation could begin mining as soon as it arrived and gather a huge haul within just a few decades.

After that, though, once the resources had been depleted, they had to wait for the plane to repair itself.

During that process, the Material Plane gradually drew energy from the Elemental Ocean and slowly recovered.

Under normal circumstances, it would take countless years for the powerful mages and warriors produced by a continent to exhaust its resources. The mages absorbed every bit of the world's elemental energy they could, while the warriors mined resources to forge weapons.

But the Federation's large-scale mining had rapidly depleted the plane's resources. It might take hundreds of millions of years for them to recover.

"This really is just a drop in the ocean."

Huosi looked at the data for his battle armor. It showed only a slight improvement. Then he glanced at the space ring packed with all kinds of blueprints, many of which were far beyond his current ability to understand.

"Next, we prepare to set out and keep moving forward. We'll use countless Material Planes to transform this universe!"

Huosi fell silent for a moment, then looked up at the sky and murmured.

Once the Bailun Plane had stabilized, Huosi left with Pusiluo and most of the others, leaving only a small contingent behind to control the plane's government.

Afterward, Huosi had a Teleportation City built specifically in the Yulan Plane.

The city was designed to house teleportation magic arrays. It served as headquarters, connecting to the Material Planes under the Federation's control.

As one magic array after another was completed, spatial portals began linking to more and more Material Planes. Expeditions had become a Federation tradition.

Each expedition brought back enormous resources, and the entire Academy of Sciences was in an uproar. People throughout the Federation argued fiercely over how the expedition slots should be allocated.

Because of this, Pusiluo picked another fight with Adkins, insisting that Adkins had been with Lord Huosi for so long and already had his own battle armor. Couldn't he give someone else a chance to earn merit?

Adkins was both exasperated and amused. Since he had a new research assignment anyway, he simply let Pusiluo have his way.

And so, thanks to his overwhelming strength, Pusiluo became the public face of the Federation's Expeditionary Army. His mission was to lead the Federation into the vast sea of planes!

Before anyone knew it, a thousand years had flown by.

The Federation had grown from a single plane into a multi-plane government centered on the Yulan Plane, ushering in a new era.

Spatial teleportation arrays had integrated countless Material Planes, while science flourished across them, reshaping the very foundations of the universe.

At the Expeditionary Headquarters, on the top floor, Pusiluo drained a large gulp of tea, his face weary.

"Lord Pusiluo, the team we sent to investigate seems to have run into a problem."

A soldier reported respectfully, paying no mind to how exhausted Pusiluo looked.

"What happened?"

Pusiluo yawned to show how he felt, though nobody seemed to care.

Conquering planes sounded impressive, but after a while, it became boring. Over the years, Pusiluo had served as the highest commander of the Federation's campaigns abroad, often charging into the front lines himself.

He'd lost track of how many Material Planes he'd pacified. Three thousand? Four thousand? All he remembered was that the last count had put the Federation at five thousand three hundred and sixty-two Material Planes.

Of course, almost all of them were small Material Planes. None was bigger than the Yulan Plane.

"According to the intelligence, the plane they went to is guarded by a Midgod. So they reported to you right away."

The soldier continued his report.

"Oh? A Midgod?"

Pusiluo sat up at once. Over the years, the Federation had seized several thousand Material Planes. Half had no god-level powerhouses, and the other half had Lowgods.

But they hadn't encountered a single Midgod. He didn't know whether the nearby planes were simply small, or whether the spatial nodes of medium-sized Material Planes were harder to connect to.