Ed is no longer in the Theocracy, or rather, the body that represents him is no longer in the Theocracy.
During the previous Demon Realm World War, Ed confirmed his future development direction, so he is now striving towards becoming Transcendent Tier.
For Ed, there was nothing that could be called a "threshold" between the High Tier and Transcendent Tier; what he lacked was only control over this material world.
So he is currently on a "state visit" in a sense, and his destination is naturally --
Graycast Corridor.
This was the first time Ed had sat at opposite ends of a negotiating table with a Machine Spirit, but it didn't quite feel like that.
The Great Labyrinth City is the city itself, which has undergone a highly mechanized transformation, while Ed's true form is the Root Network located deep beneath the Theocracy.
Seated on either side of the negotiating table were Ed's clones on one side and a mechanical puppet connected by links on the other.
They're not even human.
However, this will not hinder the progress of the discussions.
Ed's purpose in coming here was very simple: he wanted the Territory Secret Pact of the Graycast Corridor.
In every sense, the Graycast Corridors were his earliest allies.
At that time, the "Holy Tree Worship Church Theocracy" was only the "Second Holy See," but Gray had already begun to act as a bridge between the two sides, bringing the first real trade route and opening up the Mechanical Path for players to specialize in.
Later, after the generational change of the Grand Foundry Master and the Skeleton Alliance's assassination attempt on its leader, the relationship between the two sides became even closer.
Even so, Ed was ultimately unable to easily obtain the Territory Secret Pact for the Graycast Corridor.
In the world after the Demonic Tide, if one wants to truly control a piece of land, Territory Secret Pact is essential.
In other words, this thing is essentially a property certificate for World of Disorder.
Giving this away is equivalent to directly transferring ownership, something that is unlikely to be easily accepted by anyone in any world.
Therefore, even though the relationship between the two parties is already very close, Ed still needs to show his sincerity if he wants to obtain the "property certificate" for the Graycast Corridor, and he also needs to exchange it with something that cannot be obtained elsewhere in the Great Labyrinth City.
The two sides went back and forth for a while, and although it was just a test of each other, they roughly knew each other's bottom lines.
To Ed's surprise, even now he still hasn't sensed that selfish emotion from the Great Labyrinth City Machine Spirit, as if this Machine Spirit was born solely to ensure the survival of the Graycast Corridor.
I always felt it inherited some kind of emotion from Balund and Aiboke, becoming almost like a saint...
Ed pondered to himself, and at the same time, he keenly grasped the problems that the entire Graycast Corridor was currently facing during the exchange, and quickly finalized the terms of the deal with the Great Labyrinth City's Machine Spirit.
As the true supreme ruler of the Graycast Corridor, the Great Labyrinth City Machine Spirit was willing to hand over the entire Graycast Corridor Territory Secret Pact to Ed Adrian, the ruler of the Theocracy.
Ed has three things to do:
First, the cooperation between the two sides has deepened further. The Eternal Domain was completely sealed off not long ago, Twin Kings should be trying to merge new Authority.
Once the Twin Kings break through the barrier and show signs of launching a major attack on the Graycast Corridor, the Theocracy must immediately send troops to Synergy the operation.
Second, after obtaining the Territory Secret Pact of the Graycast Corridor, Ed cannot modify the established rules already in effect within the territory of the Graycast Corridor.
Even if the Great Labyrinth City hadn't mentioned it, Ed wouldn't have done that.
This land is situated on the world's largest mining area, and before contact with the Theocracy, over 99% of its inhabitants were Mechanical Compatibility.
A very small number of outliers did not pursue other extraordinary paths, but instead, like Gray's wife Nora, simply refused to be transformed.
If Ed were to directly reconstruct the rules of the Territory Secret Pact after obtaining it, the tens of millions of people in the entire Graycast Corridor would perish rapidly due to his actions.
The third thing Ed needed to do after obtaining the Territory Secret Pact was to demonstrate his sincerity and express a certain expectation for the Great Labyrinth City.
Ed indicated that while he would not change the existing rules, he would add new ones to them.
After the war in the Demon Realm truly ended, all remaining vampire lineages in this world, except for the King of Domination Vanessa, had been completely wiped out.
This means that, in a practical sense Blood Corpses, as a dangerous "energy source," have become depleted.
Looking at the whole world, the place that has the most love-hate relationship with Blood Corpses and the most severe dependence on them is the Graycast Corridor.
Therefore, in the previous negotiations, Ed creatively proposed the alternative solution of "New Energy Machine Spirit", indicating that he could produce biological tissue to replace the Blood Corpse, so that the entire Graycast Corridor would not collapse after the Blood Corpse was exhausted.
At the same time, older Machine Spirits and mobile fortresses that have already been manufactured can be replaced after modification, and their durability may even need to be improved.
In fact, many people in the Graycast Corridor don't really like using Blood Corpses as an energy source, partly because they are indeed a bit disgusting, and partly because they are too dangerous.
Now that a better alternative was available, the Great Labyrinth City, after a brief period of deliberation, finally agreed.
The Great Labyrinth City itself also proposed another rule for Ed to join the Territory Secret Pact: to purify the land within the Graycast Corridor to make it more suitable for crop growth.
The Graycast Corridor boasts some of the world's richest mineral resources, but at the cost of unimaginably barren land.
If it were a place like the Wilderness of Chaos or the Skeleton Alliance where crops simply don't grow, that would be fine. The biggest problem with the land in the Graycast Corridor is that the things that grow there are extremely unpalatable and contain chronic toxins.
Under the influence of the enrichment effect, everyone in the Graycast Corridor is essentially in a state of chronic poisoning. If it suddenly erupts one day, it may combine with the effects of the Demonic Tide, turning the substance flowing in their blood vessels into engine oil.
This was not difficult for Ed, and even after gaining experience in treating the highly Aberration natives of the Tree Worship Church, he was able to gradually help the residents of the Graycast Corridor expel toxins and return to normal.
Thus, all the terms were drafted in just one hour, with the two heads of state negotiating directly—an efficiency that astonished both the empire and the former kingdom.
"Then, the Territory Secret Pact for the Graycast Corridor is yours."
"Great Labyrinth City," said the puppet that only had a mouth but no face, as it manipulated the figure.
Then it bent its fingers and tapped its chest lightly.
Amidst the hum of the mechanical structure, a door the size of a fist slowly opened, revealing the object inside.
The doll used its distinctly knuckled mechanical hand to take the object out and held it in its palm, handing it to Ed.