Ian sat forlornly on the pure gold throne engraved with complex space runes. There was deathly silence in the huge hall, but the air seemed to be completely solidified by his extremely suppressed anger, and even the tiniest dust was suspended in the air.
As the supreme Overlord of the Arcane Empire, he hated the feeling of being led around by others. Guznader, that old and immortal undead monarch, actually dared to blackmail him with the threat of the gods!
This is simply an unforgivable provocation. Ian knows very well that this kind of passive blackmail will never happen only once. Once those greedy undead have tasted the sweetness, they will only get worse.
Therefore, he must immediately overturn this chessboard controlled by others.
"The final deployment of 'Milky Way Mist Array' must be completed as soon as possible." Blink muttered to himself with a terrifying cold light in the deep silver pupils of Ian.
This epic fog array that covers the entire galaxy is the ultimate defense project he personally initiated in order to completely replace Guznard's ancient artifact that isolated the galaxy.
As long as this array can operate successfully, then even if this war ends, even if Guznader is completely bombarded to ashes and can no longer provide shelter, Arcane Empire can still rely on this fog to keep those aloof and greedy gods from Milky Way Galaxy!
"Morgana, bring up the latest data model." Ian ordered in a deep voice to Void. As the strongest artificial intelligence that accompanied him along the way, the purple House-elf instantly understood the master's intention.
Empire's intelligence department and top scientific researchers had been frantically collecting and analyzing the shield data of Guznader that enveloped Milky Way.
From these massive data torrents, Ian became extremely interested in the magic Divine Artifact left behind by Ancient Magekind.
If given the chance, he would definitely pull out the Divine Artifact from the opponent's bones on the day when Guznader completely fell.
"How is the progress of Mist Array?" Ian asked coldly while quickly browsing the complex law formulas scrolling like a waterfall on the holographic screen.
"The main frame has been basically completed, boss." The petite holographic projection of Morgana was flying lightly beside the screen. "Not only that, we have also made a second optimization of the underlying logic of the fog based on the latest Divine Artifact data you just requested."
The initial inspiration for this set of Mist Array came from an extremely rare large-scale protection mechanism that Ian accidentally intercepted during the <Black Clover> space expedition.
After the Arcane Empire Research Department countless magical modifications and sublimations, this array has reached an unbelievably terrifying state in terms of defense breadth and even causal shielding.
"I heard the 'but' in your tone." Ian knew this House-elf very well, and raised his eyebrows slightly.
"I can't hide anything from you." Morgana put away his usual playful smile and brought up an energy structure diagram emitting dazzling red light with great seriousness, "The biggest Achilles heel of this epic project is the [Energy Core] that drives it."
"If we want this fog to perfectly surround the entire Milky Way Galaxy, and have enough defense to withstand the indiscriminate bombardment of multiple Tenth Tier gods, we must equip it with a complete [Tenth-Tier Aether Core]! However, even a Tenth Tier core, the total energy contained in it, is definitely not enough to withstand the joint bombardment of so many gods in the sky for a long time."
"What's even more terrible is..." Morgana sighed, pointing to another set of data, "The entire Arcane Empire is currently selling iron and steel, and it is only in the movement of Tenth Tier Floating City'Netheril' There is only one Tenth-Tier Aether Core installed in the power furnace. If we dismantle it to fill the bottomless pit of Mist Array, then Netheril will instantly become a piece of scrap metal floating in space, and all its proud strategic deterrence will be completely drained!"
Ian's brows were tightly knitted into the character "Chuan". He knew very well that the "magnitude" of energy was important, but [energy utilization] was the core barrier that truly determined the height of civilization.
To use the most extreme analogy: the raw energy of a Tenth Tier core is enough to maintain the daily operation of an entire huge universe.
But if a civilization reaches the peak of energy utilization, then the same core can even be squeezed out to drive two or even three universes at the same time with terrifying efficiency!
'The energy utilization model of the remote Ancient Gods device in Guznader's hand has definitely reached a creepy high-dimensional level.'
Ian secretly deduced in his heart. The poor guy Guznader can only provide the dead Psychic Energy of Ninth Tier for that Divine Artifact.
However, that Divine Artifact relied on this insignificant Ninth Tier energy to block the terrifying pressure of more than three Tenth Tier True Gods on the periphery of the galaxy!
This kind of leverage efficiency, which almost violates the law of conservation of energy, made Ian deeply realize that there is still a technical generation gap that cannot be ignored between the Empire and Ancient Magekind in its heyday in terms of the underlying microscopic application of energy.
At least at this stage, he does not have the ability to fabricate such a heaven-defying Divine Artifact out of thin air. Therefore, he is determined to get the original Divine Artifact in Guznader's hands.
"Since the hardware can't keep up, do you have any emergency alternatives?" Ian tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest of the throne.
"The most feasible emergency measure at present is to force the Aether Core of Netheril to undergo extreme compression at the physical and legal levels and transform it into a [super-solid] form." Morgana gave the calculation result, "Although this can barely hold up for a while, it is just drinking poison to quench thirst. If we want to fundamentally break the situation, we must mass-produce more Tenth-Tier Aether Core immediately."
"It seems that our plunder plan to [Dark Multiverse] must be put on the agenda immediately. We cannot delay it for another second." A cruel and bloodthirsty light flashed in Ian's silver eyes.
"Yes, boss."
"Immediately issue the highest order to the military headquarters to completely lift the ban on all Golem Legion!" Ian stood up suddenly, and a tyrant aura that dominated the star sea burst out, "Spread them all into Dark Multiverse!
Tell the underlying AI that executes the program to focus on those parallel timelines where "Arcane Empire does not exist"! Once the target is locked, immediately implement the three-light policy and dig out all the rare resources and Cosmic Energy in those timelines for me!"
In this crazy plunder across dimensions, Ian still maintained an almost pathological caution. What he feared most was not the indigenous gods in the parallel universe, but [himself]!
He is afraid that if in a certain timeline, there is a Ian variant with the same intelligence as him, once the opponent defeats and captures the Golem of the Empire, with the abnormal reverse engineering ability of "Ian", the opponent will definitely be able to use it to achieve a technological explosion, thus evolving into a terrifying disaster that can threaten him.
"Yes. So, boss, what are your plans next?"
"I will devote all my energy to the ultimate crack of [Aether Mana Network]." Ian took a deep breath, his eyes burning with enthusiasm for endless energy, "As long as we can find a path that is not destroyed by those The Mana Network timeline controlled by the bullshit gods is like inserting a straw directly into the main artery of the universe! By then, Empire will have obtained the true Infinity energy!"
Aether Mana Network, that is the ultimate network that runs through the entire Omniverse and carries vast energy that cannot be measured in numbers. Once Arcane Empire can successfully tamper with it and take over, Ian will completely say goodbye to energy anxiety, and can even use Tenth Tier Floating City as a disposable consumable to go crazy!
"How many special Golems with the ability of 'Prophecy' do we have?" Ian immediately asked.
"Currently, only the last two units of the Empire are available." Morgana reported helplessly. In the entire Arcane Empire, being able to build this kind of machine with your own hands There are very few people who have touched the prophet Golem of Law of Causality and Law of Fate, not even Ian himself is among them.
"Give me those two treasures, form the most elite task force, use them as the core, and immediately set off to find the perfect 'pure Mana Network' timeline in Multiverse! In addition, inform Luna that as soon as this damn galaxy war is over, let her put down all the work she is doing and take full charge of this ultimate project that is related to the lifeblood of the Empire!"
In normal times, Ian would definitely put all the masters of the Prophecy Department into this project without hesitation. But now that the war is burning at home, he really can't mobilize more high-level combat power from Prophecy.
After deploying all the grand strategies, Ian was like a precision machine that was wound up, and immediately plunged into a crazy scientific research retreat.
He took the lead in dividing a high-level clone with extremely high computing power, and asked it to be responsible for compressing Aether Core of Netheril into a "super solid state". Then, the highest-level royal instructions flew like snowflakes to the major central departments of the Empire. The entire Arcane Empire, a terrifying state machine, began to roar overload under the will of the emperor.
The real person of Ian plunged into the deep hacking of [Aether Mana Network].
Since he has previously obtained a large amount of top-secret knowledge about the underlying architecture of Mana Network from "Akashic Records" at an extremely expensive price, his research progress can be called Godspeed.
In the top-secret laboratory where the time flow rate was forcibly increased, in just one month, Ian successfully developed an initial enchantment array that could directly draw pure energy from Mana Network's Dimensional Interstice.
However, just when he was about to put this array that could be recorded in history into actual combat testing, he encountered an unprecedented Waterloo.
Although he had used countless counter-reconnaissance methods to physically cut off the connection between Mana Network and Cosmic Will from the outside, the moment he tried to forcibly extract energy, he was still met with a huge and suffocating resistance!
That resistance is like an absolute wall of sighs that stands in front of Truth. It is cold and majestic and does not allow any mortal to get involved!
"What the hell is going on..." Ian looked at the crazy Blink crash data on the holographic screen, his face was terrifyingly gloomy.
"Could it be that the group of Ancient Magekind who pushed across the universe deliberately left some kind of tamper-proof backdoor will in the underlying code of Mana Network when they evacuated the starry sky? Or is it that those gods who are above have been secretly controlling the final interpretation of Mana Network through some higher-dimensional laws that I have not yet discovered?"
Just when Ian was deep in thought, trying to find inspiration for a breakthrough in the vast sea of formulas, two extremely special, highest-level encrypted communications suddenly forcibly interrupted his thoughts.
As the communication was connected, two beautiful faces with completely different styles, which were alluring to the country, were instantly projected on his holographic screen. Looking at these two women who could make the stars eclipse, the fatigue in Ian's eyes was instantly replaced by a gentle smile.
"The supreme loves in my life." Ian raised the corner of his mouth slightly and spoke out a love word very skillfully.
"Oh? Which one of us are you specifically referring to with your rhetoric?" Hermione crossed his arms over his chest, with a hint of teasing in his eyes full of wisdom.
"Of course it's you two." Ian accepted the order without any blush.
Olivia on the side still maintained the cool military girl posture, directly ignoring Ian's glib words, while Hermione turned over Byakugan unceremoniously.
"So, how did that Abyss undercover trip feel?" Ian stopped joking and looked serious.
"Dark, weird, creepy, and the air is always filled with disgusting negative emotions." Hermione frowned, seeming to recall some extremely unpleasant experience.
"It sounds like this is definitely not a tourist destination suitable for vacation."
"Not only is it inappropriate, it is simply a living thing Hell." Hermione shook his head.
"So, after lurking in that hellish place for so long, have you ever dug up any valuable information that's worth this adventure?" Ian's eyes flashed with the brilliance of a scientific research madman.
"There is a lot of useful information." Hermione's expression became extremely serious, as if he was reading a top-secret academic report, "The first major discovery: I secretly captured and dissected countless Abyss protozoa there. I found that the [bloodline] of these monsters is simply a miracle that transcends common biological knowledge!"
"What should I say?" Ian became interested.
"Their extremely deformed bloodline can swallow and use [anything] in the universe to carry out Self evolution! Whether it is pure Aether magic power, high-latitude gods Divine Power, or the entanglement of mortals' negative emotions, Physical matter, and even living souls... whatever they swallow can become the best nourishment for their genetic mutations! Moreover, depending on the nutrients they swallow, they will derive all kinds of strange and completely different Demons forms!"
Hermione paused, and his tone became a little solemn. "But the most chilling thing is - no matter how they devour or evolve, the evolutionary direction of their genes will always be towards the most extreme and pure [absolute evil], and there is no possibility of being purified!"
"It's so terrifying... This is simply the ultimate killing bloodline that has Infinity's plasticity, but is branded with depravity." Ian took a breath. This completely unreasonable evolutionary mechanism is not only unprecedented for the Arcane Empire, it is also a terrifying existence that is enough to subvert the existing biological gene tree!
"Not only that, these Abyssal Demons souls are the filthiest and filthiest mixture I have ever seen in my life. The deep sense of depravity makes me feel extremely fascinated. I even want to immediately slice their souls under the microscope and study them!" A trace of fanatical curiosity for knowledge flashed in Hermione's eyes, which is the nature of the Empire's top scholars.
"Since you are so interested, why don't you just do it? What stopped you?" Ian asked with a smile.
"Skills have specializations, and soul science is not my main direction. I still have my own core topics to overcome, and I can't be distracted." Hermione answered rationally.
"You're right. So, besides blood, what other surprises are there?"
"There are so many surprises. You can never imagine that Abyss, which is full of killings, has actually evolved into an unimaginably huge [inter-dimensional trade center]! Because the underlying laws of Abyss connect countless unknown alien planes, the various rare magic resources there are so rich that it is outrageous, and there is gold everywhere!"
Hermione changed the subject, with a hint of fear in his eyes. "However, I am keenly aware that those Abyss local lords and giants of major forces seem to be interested in Self's 'Cosmic Faith Plane' creatures have an extremely fanatical sense of hostility and rejection. If you hadn't given me countless instructions before setting off, and even forcibly superimposed so many layers of causal shielding protection on me, I would have exposed my identity long ago and been torn to pieces by those monsters!"
After experiencing the previous cruel contact with "Beast-Taming Plane", Ian's almost pathological persecution paranoia broke out again.
He firmly believed that other planes in this vast Void would never have any goodwill toward their universe. Therefore, when he sent Hermione to Abyss, he almost used all Empire's highest-level anti-tracking methods on her.
"Next, are the two biggest ultimate gains of my trip to Abyss." Hermione's voice trembled slightly, obviously the information that followed was extremely important, "The first gain - I successfully obtained the complete [Abyssal Soul Language]!"
Hearing this name, Ian's eyes widened suddenly, and he even couldn't help but stand up from the throne!
Abyssal Soul Language! It is a rare magic language that has absolute dominance when it affects the soul and casts high-level Mental Magic! Back then, Ian traveled around the world after graduating from Hogwarts, and after going through all kinds of hardships, he managed to get an extremely incomplete copy.
Although he later relied on his incredible deduction ability to complete the missing parts and forcibly integrated it into the existing [Arcane Rune Language] system of the Arcane Empire. But he knew better than anyone else that it was a copycat made behind closed doors, and he only dreamed of getting the original and complete inheritance!
"What a great job!" Ian was so excited that he slapped his thigh. He had deduced it countless times in his mind. As long as he could get the complete Demonic Soul Language, he would definitely be able to open a hole and directly pry into and analyze the most profound thing in the universe [Law of Soul]! "Tell me, what is the second ultimate reward?!"
Hermione took a deep breath and dropped the shocking bomb that was enough to make the entire Arcane Empire crazy:
"I... found the ultimate shortcut that can bypass the barriers of the gods and directly analyze and control [Authority]!"
"You... are you serious?!" Ian felt as if his heart had been hit hard by a heavy hammer, and his breathing suddenly became heavier.
"It's absolutely true!" Hermione's eyes flashed with a fanatical light of insight into the truth, "In the law system of the abyss, as long as those demon lords can get the favor and blessing of the will of the abyss, they can legitimately control certain specific [powers]!"
"And after I successfully refined the Abyssal Mark and disguised myself as a Abyss lord, I discovered with horror and ecstasy that not only can we directly 'use' these Authoritys roughly like those gods, E, we can even treat these superior Authority as frogs on the test bench under the protection of the lord's mark, and leisurely conduct [analyze] and [study] them at the micro level!"
Boom!
This news was no less than detonating a hundred anti-matter bombs in Ian's mind.
Before this, it was as difficult for the Empire to let Arcanist control the law as it was to reach the sky, just like a mortal trying to catch the ethereal light with bare hands. But now, the existence of this shortcut means that they can directly transcend the limitations of Godhead and materialize the most mysterious Authority at the bottom of the universe into a textbook that can be read!
"This is simply a miracle sent by God..." Uncontrollable ecstasy finally appeared on Ian's stern face, and his fists were tightly clenched together. "With this shortcut, the gods' monopoly on the laws will be It was completely smashed by us! Now, the last obstacle in front of us that prevents us from mass-producing 'Law Archgod' is how to greatly improve the [willpower] of Arcanist!"