Within a mysterious virtual space in the Primal Universe.
Darkness filled this place, with only specks of starlight shining in its central region.
Beneath this endless starlight, a rather plain-looking temple floated in the void.
Inside the temple's great hall stood a long stone table, with stone chairs arranged at its head and along both sides.
While Kanuo was guiding Lu Qingshan's cultivation, towering figures had already filled these dozen or so chairs. They were all supreme beings of the universe, the true pillars of the entire Human Race!
"I imagine everyone already knows!"
At the head of the stone table sat a burly, savage-looking man. He surveyed those around him before saying solemnly, "The Original Ancestor has now been suppressed by the Origin Will of the Original Universe. Even the True Supreme Treasure he carried has been suppressed along with him!"
"The commotion when the Original Ancestor was suppressed was so great that virtually all the major powers in the Primal Universe now know about it. Our Human Race is about to face an enormous challenge. How do you think we should respond?"
"Giant Axe!"
A rather stout, bald figure with a bushy beard soon asked, "Have the Demon Race, Zerg, and Machine Race made any moves? When the Original Ancestor led our Human Race into the core territory of the Primal Universe, all the territory we seized originally belonged to those three races. If they decide to join forces against our Human Race, we'll face tremendous pressure!"
Hearing this, the other supreme beings of the Human Race could not help feeling their hearts tighten.
In truth, with the Human Race's current strength, as long as they withdrew from the core territory to develop elsewhere, they could seize a vast stretch of territory anywhere in the Primal Universe. They could also avoid conflicts with major powers such as the Demon Race, Zerg, and Machine Race!
However, this core territory was the most quintessential region of the vast universe. Life born here often possessed astonishing potential and could more easily break through to the Universe Venerable or even Universe Master level.
Precisely because of this, unless the situation became utterly critical, the Human Race would certainly be unwilling to surrender the vast territory they currently occupied.
"The Zerg and Machine Race haven't made any moves!"
The Savage Giant seated at the head of the table soon said, "But Demon Ancestor Zhen of the Demon Race just contacted me. He wants to force our Human Race to return every bit of territory we previously seized from them, or the Demon Race will wage war against us!"
"This..."
"Damn the Demon Race!"
"The Demon Race is far too arrogant! Do they think our Human Race fears them?"
After hearing the burly savage's words, anger appeared on the faces of the many powerhouses present.
And just then...
A gold-robed figure seated not far from the Savage Giant soon spoke. "Actually, I think there's a way to resolve this!"
Hearing this, all the powerhouses present turned their gazes toward the gold-robed figure.
"Chaos, what's your idea?"
"Chaos, tell us!"
Seeing this, the gold-robed figure soon said, "There are currently four powers occupying the core territory of the Primal Universe: our Human Race, the Demon Race, the Zerg, and the Machine Race!"
"Before Teacher was suppressed, our Human Race held a relatively transcendent position. None of the other three powers wanted to offend us!"
"But now that Teacher has been suppressed by the Origin Will of the Original Universe, Giant Axe is our Human Race's only remaining Universe Strongest. Our strength is roughly on par with the Zerg and Machine Race, or even slightly inferior!"
"The Demon Race, however, has both the Beast Ancestor and Demon Ancestor Zhen, as well as sixteen Universe Masters. Their strength far exceeds that of any one of our three powers!"
"So I believe we can join forces with the Zerg and Machine Race to target the Demon Race together. I'm sure neither the Zerg nor the Machine Race wants to see the Demon Race grow increasingly powerful!"
"That's a good idea!"
"I agree!"
"The Demon Race really is too powerful! If the Starry Sky Behemoth Progenitor hadn't led the Starry Sky Behemoth lineage away from the Demon Race, it would take the combined strength of all three of our powers to roughly match them!"
"When our Human Race first fought its way into this core territory, we did seize some territory from the Zerg and Machine Race, but nowhere near as much as we seized from the Demon Race. I believe the Zerg and Machine Race probably won't refuse to cooperate with us!"
After hearing the gold-robed figure's words, the Human Race's many supreme beings voiced their agreement.
"Chaos's idea is indeed excellent!"
The burly savage at the head of the table also said, "I'll contact the Zerg Queen and Mechanical Race Father God later to see what they think! But facing the Demon Race's threat, our Human Race cannot afford any carelessness. At the very least, we must be ready to go to war with them at any moment!"
"Don't worry, Giant Axe!"
"The Demon Race wants our Human Race to leave this core territory? That's nothing but a fool's dream!"
"Isn't it just war? Our Human Race will never back down!"
For a time, all the Human Race's powerhouses nodded in response.
"Good!"
Seeing the fighting spirit filling the Human Race's supreme beings, the burly savage at the head of the table gave a slight nod, then continued, "Aside from the Demon Race, I gathered everyone here today to discuss the Virtual Universe!"
"Although the Original Ancestor has been suppressed by the Origin Will of the Original Universe, before his suppression, he created this Virtual Universe secret technique, which can reach every region of the Primal Universe and even persist for a long time!"
"I'm sure everyone has gained some understanding of this Virtual Universe by now!"
"According to our investigations, even the universe origin exists within this Virtual Universe. Thus, even after connecting to it, powerhouses can comprehend and cultivate the various origin laws!"
"The Virtual Universe created by the Original Ancestor is truly miraculous!"
After hearing the burly savage's words, a smiling figure with dazzling long golden hair and eyebrows hanging down to his chest also spoke. "Although a few powerhouses in the universe can allow others to cultivate within illusions, the laws those cultivators comprehend must be ones the caster has mastered. The caster must also expend enormous amounts of energy to sustain their cultivation!"
"But according to our investigations, the Virtual Universe secret technique can not only persist continuously, but also allow people to smoothly comprehend the Universe Origin Law within it, without consuming any energy at all. It's truly unheard of-simply inconceivable!"
"Exactly!"
A ferocious-looking beast covered in intricate scales, with three sharp horns on his head, soon said with a smile, "Even the Mechanical Race Father God, whose technological prowess defies the heavens, can at most construct a super-network covering a dozen or so Universe Countries!"
"But several of my avatars are in different Universe Countries, some even outside our Human Race's territory, and every one of them can connect to this Virtual Universe. It's truly inconceivable!"
"With this secret technique of the Original Ancestor's, our Human Race's ability to transmit information in the future could far surpass even the Machine Race, which currently possesses the most advanced technology!"
"The Original Ancestor's secret technique is indeed unbelievable!"
Another rather stout, bald figure with a bushy beard soon said, "But if we want to achieve instantaneous communication through this Virtual Universe, we'll need extremely powerful information-processing capabilities!"
"That's easy enough!"
Another figure dressed in azure robes soon said, "In this vast universe, Machine Race powerhouses undoubtedly possess the strongest information-processing capabilities. We can simply entrust instantaneous communication within this Virtual Universe to the Machine Race powerhouses within our race!"
Indeed, the Human Race also had Demon Race, Zerg, and Machine Race powerhouses among its ranks.
This was not betrayal. Rather, those alien powerhouses had been enslaved by Human Race powerhouses!
For example, the World Lord Level Zerg Mother Emperor whom Luo Feng enslaved in the original story had not changed races, but stood wholly on the Human Race's side.
The same applied to the Demon Race and Zerg: some Human Race powerhouses had also been enslaved by these alien powerhouses.
The Machine Race's situation, however, was somewhat unusual. Since they had no souls at all, they could not be enslaved by powerhouses of other races.
However, once the auxiliary intelligence accompanying a powerhouse of another race transformed into intelligent life and obtained a rather precious Evolution Heart, it could transform into a true Machine Race life-form, capable of cultivating, growing stronger, and even continually breaking through.
This was where the Machine Race life-forms within the Human Race came from: they had evolved from the intelligent life accompanying those powerhouses.
Among these Machine Race life-forms were some who had broken through to extremely high levels.
The Human Race's previous communication systems had all been built by these Machine Race powerhouses!
Precisely because of this, the Human Race's communication systems were considerably inferior to the Machine Race's. After all, the Machine Race powerhouses within the Human Race were far weaker than those on the Machine Race's side.
"Having the Machine Race handle everything within the Virtual Universe is indeed a good approach!"
The gold-robed man beside them soon said, "However, the strongest Machine Race life-form currently within our Human Race is Venerable Hengtie, who serves under Teacher!"
"I already asked Hengtie earlier. According to him, with his current strength, even with the Virtual Universe's assistance, he could only handle instantaneous communication across the greater part of our Human Race's territory!"
"Then have the other Machine Race life-forms within our race assist Venerable Hengtie!"
The azure-robed figure who had just spoken soon said, "Among our Human Race's Machine Race life-forms, there are currently two Universe Venerables and over a hundred King-level Immortals! Working together, with the Virtual Universe's assistance, they should be able to make our Human Race's instantaneous communication system surpass the Machine Race's!"
"I think this Virtual Universe can serve more purposes than just instantaneous communication!"
The ferocious-looking powerhouse covered in intricate scales, with three sharp horns on his head, soon spoke again. "The virtual worlds created by Hengtie and the others contain numerous special spaces. I think the Virtual Universe could do the same!"
"Moreover, people can fully comprehend laws within the Virtual Universe, so it's definitely far superior to those constructed virtual worlds! However..."
"Accomplishing these things requires even greater information-processing capabilities. With our Human Race's current circumstances, we simply cannot achieve that!"
"If only a Machine Race Universe Master could emerge within our Human Race!"
Another figure wearing Azure Battle Armor, with a cape covered in intricate secret patterns behind him, soon said, "A Machine Race Universe Master's information-processing capabilities far exceed even those of most Universe Strongest. Then we would be able to develop more functions for this Virtual Universe!"
"Difficult! Difficult! Difficult!"
Hearing this, the ferocious-looking powerhouse from earlier soon said, "The Machine Race has occupied the core territory for endless years and has nearly three thousand Universe Venerables, yet their current number of Universe Masters is only roughly equal to our Human Race's!"
"It would be far too difficult for our Human Race to produce a Machine Race Universe Master!"
"That's true!"
The azure-armored figure soon nodded and said, "But that's such a pity! Our Human Race clearly possesses a heaven-defying secret technique like the Virtual Universe, yet we cannot properly develop its potential. What a shame!"
"No matter!"
The burly savage at the head of the table soon said, "At the very least, by relying on this Primal Universe, we can crush the other alien powers in information exchange. That's already quite good!"
"As for how to establish this communication system, everyone is welcome to offer suggestions!"
"That's simple enough!"
The gold-robed man beside them soon said, "This secret technique Teacher cast extends throughout our Human Race's territory. With Hengtie's strength, he can easily use this Virtual Universe to establish connections with countless intelligent life-forms, auxiliary intelligences, Auxiliary Optical Computers, and so on. Then the owners of those auxiliary intelligences will be able to connect their consciousnesses to the Virtual Universe!"
"We just need to impose proper restrictions on access privileges. Otherwise, those aliens might also be able to use this Virtual Universe to communicate!"
"Then it seems we'll still need these Machine Race life-forms to handle this!"
The burly savage at the head of the table soon said, "Chaos, Peng Gong, have Hengtie and Yunxing join the meeting as well!"
"Those two will certainly be the Virtual Universe's processing cores in the future, so we can have them offer their opinions too!"
"All right!"
"No problem!"
After hearing the burly savage's words, the other two powerhouses both nodded in agreement.
And so, after the two Machine Race Universe Venerables, Venerable Hengtie and Venerable Yunxing, joined the meeting, these true upper echelons of the Human Race soon began discussing how to utilize the Virtual Universe in the future.
After some discussion, the Human Race's upper echelons decided to establish the Virtual Universe Company within the Human Race's territory, responsible for verifying Human Race powerhouses within its territory and opening accounts for them. Any human life-form who successfully completed verification and opened an account could use intelligent life, Optical Computers, and other auxiliary tools to connect their consciousness to the Virtual Universe!