The representative for the Burning Fire Merchant Guild was Qian Qiu, and for the Blazing Fire Academy, it was Liu Feng.
Instructor Fang was not present, but he was constantly monitoring the situation in the hall, occasionally switching his perspective to the First Tower Master, Dean Rose, or Princess Yun Ji.
Sage Cang Tu, the most mysterious among the Ten Sages.
Mysterious, because he had no fixed abode and was not sponsored by any hegemonic power.
His life experience was also legendary.
Sage Cang Tu hailed from a super oasis and smoothly cultivated to the Mythic realm. However, disaster struck. The super oasis was overturned overnight. The Mythic Cang Tu at the time, once the esteemed leader of a great nation, became a reclusive Mythic.
But he was a Mythic nonetheless. With the prestige of a Mythic, building a large force was still a simple matter.
Yet, Sage Cang Tu was disheartened. Moreover, with his entire kin deceased, he had no intention of managing a force. Instead, he frequently ventured into all sorts of dangerous and perilous lands, soon disappearing from public view.
For decades, even centuries, there was no news of Mythic Cang Tu.
Just as people assumed this Mythic had perished, his return to human society saw him already a venerable Demigod.
A few more centuries passed, and Sage Cang Tu, with his astonishing talent, carved a path for himself amidst thorns, advancing to the High Rank of the Ninth Realm.
It was rumored that Sage Cang Tu's path was one of 'Destiny.'
He was also the one among the Ten Sages most skilled in prophecy and divination.
No one dared to disregard a prophecy from Sage Cang Tu.
Demigod Di Han was merely a messenger. He slowly unfurled a scroll shimmering with divine light and solemnly addressed the representatives: Da Feng Novel Network
"Sage Cang Tu states:"
"The crisis of the Evil Gods is about to descend. This is not only the greatest crisis humanity will face but also the greatest crisis for the entire Strange Realm.
"I have glimpsed boundless darkness. Within the darkness, worlds collapse, gods perish, and all beings cease to exist. Yet, at the end of the darkness, there is a sliver of dawn. By pursuing the traces of this dawn, humanity has hope for continuation.
"Before the true descent of darkness, there will be three tides of disaster, signs of the awakening of the unspeakable Evil Gods. The first sign of awakening has passed, but the subsequent signs will grow increasingly ferocious until the Evil Gods' tentacles spread across all corners of the Strange Realm. At that time, oases will wither, worlds will collapse, and the universe will sink into filth and descend into the abyss."
The disaster brought by this first sign of the Evil Gods' awakening had already been experienced by most super oases.
Some well-informed Mythics already knew that many Mythics and Demigods had perished in the recent tide of disaster, and countless great and super oases had been destroyed.
Furthermore, these obliterated oases were now corrupted by dense filth. Vegetation withered, terrain degraded, the land dried up, and resources were depleted, causing the oasis territories to shrink continuously... Even if, in the future, other human forces managed to clear the evil and reclaim these oasis lands, what they would reclaim would be nearly废弃 (obsolete/ruined) oases.
Under the tides of disaster, the living space of the oases was continuously being stripped away.
Many allied nation representatives looked sorrowful.
They were survivors of disaster, but they had never imagined that the disaster they endured was merely the beginning.
The disaster they experienced then was not overly severe; they managed to overcome it by sacrificing some civilians. If they had suffered the same cataclysmic fate as the Yun Hui Great Domain, who could have saved them?
The ancient gods? Even they were unreliable.
At this moment, Sage Cang Tu continued:
"As I said before, at the end of the darkness lies a sliver of dawn. When disaster strikes, the birth of destiny often accompanies it.
"Children of Destiny are born one after another, ancient gods who had fallen return one by one, precious ruins are unearthed continuously... This is destiny, and it is the Strange Realm's self-salvation."
In fact, the Strange Realm and the Evil Gods were not allies!
The world was not always called the Strange Realm. It was only after the Evil Gods descended from beyond the heavens and usurped it that the world's environment changed drastically, and its original name was erased.
What people remembered now was only to call it the Strange Realm.
Fang You learned this secret from the Kandra Empire. At that time, the Strange Realm's environment was not yet so harsh, but it was already the Strange Realm.
Many allied nation representatives might not be aware of this, but they knew that in times of crisis, the world often favored a few exceptional individuals in the form of destiny.
There were many examples to attest to this.
When the outer world was being devoured by the Strange Realm, many heroic figures emerged. In their era, where their mysterious systems were completely blank, they repeatedly broke through dangerous awakening thresholds.
This was destiny, the world's favor!
"Now, destiny has arrived. Perhaps some have vaguely discovered that the threshold to break through to the Mythic and Demigod realms is easier than before. This is our opportunity for humanity to save itself. We must seize it firmly.
"In addition, I have discovered that the path from an Level Eight oasis to a Level Nine oasis has also opened a sliver of dawn.
"Under the calamity of the Evil Gods, humanity's fate is like a candle in the wind. Remember, remember, to seize the opportunity of destiny and shatter the darkness!"
Sage Cang Tu's gentle voice gradually faded.
The streams of light dimmed, and the expressions of the representatives in the hall shifted, becoming solemn.
Many recalled and realized that the world's changes were exactly as Sage Cang Tu had said.
Demigod Xi Guang thought: Generations like Gu Yue, Qi Xing, Hong Lian, and Da Mi Luan Cheng have all produced prodigies far surpassing those of the past. This is the favor of destiny.
The Burning Fire Merchant Guild and the mysterious forces likely benefited as well.
The more outstanding the individual, the more they tend to receive the world's favor.
Old King Chi Sha thought: The Blazing Fire Academy's ability to cultivate so many new Mythics in a short period perfectly illustrates Sage Cang Tu's words, doesn't it? The difficulty of advancing to Mythic has significantly decreased, destiny has arrived!
More Demigods, in unison, thought of one word—Level Nine Oasis.
Whether the disaster would destroy all humanity, they were unsure, but if they had the chance to strive for a Level Nine oasis, they would undoubtedly spare no effort to try.
In this world, there was no such thing as a Level Nine oasis yet!
Oases were a product of the Strange Realm's drastic environmental changes. The limited size of oases restricted the living space for humans and various life forms, but oases were also the essence of the world's vitality and possessed many powers that did not exist before.
The birth of resource zones, the nurturing of world power... and so on, were all the authorities of oases.
Among them, Level Seven oases were a significant threshold, capable of continuously producing world power, which could accelerate cultivation. The cultivation resources for most Mythics and Demigods came from the output of super oases.
However, even hegemonic powers like the Seven Great Nations, possessing more than one super oasis, had capitals that were only Level Eight oases, unable to advance to the Ninth Level.
This was not a lack of accumulation, but a missing element.
This missing element might be the world's assistance, or perhaps the level was previously locked.
Thinking of this, the Demigods in the hall could not hide their excitement.
They were unsure what powers a Level Nine oasis would develop, but a Level Nine oasis was equivalent to the High Rank of the Ninth Realm. Since Level Seven and Eight oases could produce resources beneficial for Mythic and Demigod cultivation, would a Level Nine oasis also contain a path towards the High Rank?
This was highly possible!
Within the various hegemonic forces, there were not a few extreme Demigods whose Demigod bodies had reached perfection, yet they could not find their own path, and the paths of their predecessors could not be replicated.
They desperately needed a clear path, even if it was only a sliver of a clue, it would be an unparalleled treasure.
Sage Cang Tu's prophecy offered them a glimmer of hope.
When they returned, they had to try.
If before, worried about the impending disaster, they had invested forty percent of their accumulated foundation, then now, having seen the dawn of destiny, they dared to invest another forty percent. This was forty percent of tens of thousands of years of accumulated foundation, immeasurably vast.
The gloom brought by the disaster seemed to have dissipated considerably, and many representatives' faces were alight with excitement.
After Sage Cang Tu's prophecy of destiny, the conference proceeded through its normal agenda, after which the representatives from each faction began to seek cooperation and exchange.
As a rising star, the Blazing Fire Academy, with its abundant cultivation facilities and resources, made Liu Feng a sought-after figure.
His age might not compare to these representatives, but he had seen more Mythics and Demigods in his time. He was an old hand and immediately opened his divine sense to communicate with the various representatives who approached him, handling matters in an orderly fashion.
Want to come to our Blazing Fire Academy for exchange and learning? No problem, we'll discuss specifics.
Want to get our academy's resources for free? Get lost.
Most importantly, it was an opportunity to connect with various forces and enhance their awareness of resisting disaster. Exchange and learning were part of this.
When the exchange students returned to their countries, they would bring back not only powerful strength and rich knowledge but also the ideological concepts of Blazing Fire and an emphasis on disaster.
"However, even if some allied nations don't really believe that disaster can overthrow all of humanity, they will still strive to cultivate strong individuals. This is the allure of destiny's prophecy... This Sage Cang Tu is quite skillful."
There are capable people among humans.
Fang You mused inwardly.
At the same time, in a hidden place in the Strange Realm, within an ordinary small wooden house, Sage Cang Tu withdrew his gaze from the conference, couldn't help but cover his mouth and cough, spitting out only golden divine blood.
Prophesying the crisis of the Strange Realm, how could it come without a great price?
In fact, if it weren't for the fact that most of the prophecy's outcome was already obvious, and the remaining parts could not be predicted at all, this revelation of destiny would have completely exhausted Sage Cang Tu's life force.
He was one of the younger among the Ten Sages, yet at this moment, his hair was as white as snow.
However, Sage Cang Tu was still puzzled, or rather, curious. "What exactly is this sliver of dawn..."
Others would certainly assume that this dawn was the world's boost of destiny.
He felt it was nonsense!
Destiny existed, and the Strange Realm's potential was indeed being fully exploited, but could the calamity of the Evil Gods be resisted merely by fighting desperately? Many outer worlds had fought with all their might, only to make no ripple in the end.
Sage Cang Tu felt that the Strange Realm had some capacity for resistance, but the slivers of dawn he saw were even more ethereal and blurry.
He wanted to find the source of the dawn.
He believed the source lay within a certain allied nation.
Therefore, using the Human Alliance Conference as an opportunity, Sage Cang Tu began to pry into fate, tracking the dawn at the end of the darkness.
He saw it!
He followed this sliver of dawn forward, wanting to see where this sliver of dawn would ultimately land on which representative.
To his surprise, the dawn forked and remained stationary.
Sage Cang Tu: "???"
This was indeed a novel experience!
...
...
The prophecy brought by Sage Cang Tu was not only about disaster and destiny, but he also prophesied that the most precious ruin of the Kandra Empire, Trial Ground No. 1, would appear soon.
The Sage could not pinpoint the exact time, but he estimated it would not be later than two years at the latest.
This ruin, which held a vast amount of Kandra Empire's treasures and secrets, was highly anticipated by the world. Some hegemonic powers had spent immense human and material resources searching for it, all in vain.
The general consensus was that they could only find it when Trial Ground No. 1 appeared.
Fang You was also covetous.
Especially at this juncture where strength was desperately needed.
Within Trial Ground No. 1, they might even find clues about God-Slaying Weapons.
—The Kandra Empire failed to slay the Evil Gods, but that did not mean the God-Slaying Weapons were useless. It was more likely that their power was insufficient. After all, as far as he knew, the Kandra Empire did not have many high-ranked individuals, and true giants who could rank among the Tenth Tier True God realm were even rarer.
At his peak, Chi Yan was only a Ninth Awakening.
"Do you know where Trial Ground No. 1 is?"
"Chi Yan still doesn't know..."
She drooped her head.
Fang You was not surprised. Trial Ground No. 404 floated around everywhere before its appearance, let alone Trial Ground No. 1. If it were so easy to find, the most likely scenario would not be its discovery by human forces, but its destruction by Evil God servants or attendants.
As for what treasures or technologies were within Trial Ground No. 1, Chi Yan still did not know.
It wasn't that she lacked memories in this regard, but rather that this matter was not her responsibility, and she wouldn't bother asking about such things.
"But Chi Yan is very familiar with the trial officers, the big sisters and uncles there~!"
...
Fang You did not pay too much attention to the matter of Trial Ground No. 1.
It was useless to care too much.
Once the trial ground appeared, with the current scale of Blazing Fire, it would not be difficult to know its exact location. Moreover, based on the case of No. 404, he believed that by then, the trial ground would transmit secret coordinate information.
Fang You was more concerned about another matter from Sage Cang Tu's prophecy—the Level Nine oasis!
Blazing Fire had three major oases: Starfire Oasis, Burning Fire Oasis, and Training Camp No. 3 Oasis.
After years of development, all three oases had been promoted to Level Seven, with Starfire Oasis even reaching Level Eight, a level only hegemonic powers could possess.
After Starfire City entered Level Eight, Fang You continued to pour 'popularity' into the oasis, assisting in its expansion and upgrade.
Initially, the oasis area could expand slowly, and resource output increased slightly. But one day, no matter how much popularity he invested, the oasis became stagnant, unable to create even the slightest ripple.
He could fully understand the confusion and urgency of the various hegemonic powers.
Because he knew even better that the oases had indeed hit a bottleneck.
【Starfire Oasis Lv8 (99%)】
【Resource Points: 1 Mingliu Jade Mine Lv8; 2 Ironwood Forest Lv8; 3 Life Spring Lv8; 4 Strange Crystal Mine Lv8; 5 White Meat Fruit Grove Lv8; ⑥ Raw Ore Vein Lv8; 7 Secret Realm Stone Vein Lv8】
And now, perhaps there was a chance for a breakthrough.
"However, this is merely Sage Cang Tu's prophecy; whether it is true is still uncertain. Even if the prophecy is true, can a Level Nine oasis be easily promoted just by pouring in popularity?"
It was definitely not that simple, because he had just tried, and pouring in popularity still did not cause the oasis to change at all.
What else was missing?
After constant exploration and attempts, he quickly arrived at preliminary results.
The barrier had indeed loosened, and he had discerned some key elements.
"First, the oasis must reach Level Eight perfection, meaning Level Eight 99%, and all resource points must be cultivated to Lv8."
"Second, the oasis's own strength is insufficient; it requires sufficient external impetus, that is... world power."
He had met both of these conditions.
However, there was still a third condition.
The power of high-level laws!
There must be a high-level existence using its own law power as a foundation to pry open the Strange Realm's power and allow the oasis to undergo a true transformation.
And high-level existence...
Fang You looked at Qian Hong.
This wouldn't do.
Fang You then looked at the Secret Puppet.
This wouldn't do either.
They were not normal enough; their operating models differed greatly from true high-level beings.
It would be better to rely on himself, Instructor Fang, or Chi Yan, or wait for Liu Feng and Zhou Bao's law power to accumulate further.
Moreover, promoting to a Level Nine oasis would inevitably face a backlash from the Strange Realm's corrupting forces. This matter could not be rushed; it had to be foolproof.
...
Half a year had passed since the end of the Human Alliance's highest conference.
During this period, exchanges and cooperation among human forces in various regions were close, and many newly emerged super oases had begun to make their mark.
In the Falling Star Great Domain,
Three super oases emerged in just half a year.
Six months ago, Sword Flower City began its promotion, facing the oasis tribulation directly. During this time, Empress Yi Luoxi, stationed at Sword Flower, unleashed her Phoenix Divine Fire, turning two invading Seven-Star level strange evils into ashes on the spot, leaving onlookers in awe and exclaiming the Empress's magnificence.
Three months ago, the Black Stone Alliance began planning its promotion.
Black Stone was originally just a Level Four great oasis with insufficient foundation, but with the sponsorship of 'popularity' from the Burning Fire Merchant Guild, the Black Stone Alliance rapidly advanced to Level Six and began planning for Level Seven.
It was soon promoted.
This news even attracted the attention of many powerful forces in the Shattered Sea.
They marveled or coveted it.
Initially, Fang You had not allowed the Burning Fire Merchant Guild to promote too quickly, as it was too exaggerated and could arouse suspicion. But now, he was no longer hiding it; the Burning Fire Merchant Guild had a backer.
He even directly sold ritual stone tablets that gathered a large amount of popularity through the Burning Fire Merchant Guild's channels.
This not only generated extra income but also enhanced humanity's overall strength, a win-win situation.
And not long ago, with the help of the Burning Fire Merchant Guild, Steel City easily passed the oasis promotion tribulation.
Thus, a situation of five nations standing side-by-side emerged in the Falling Star Great Domain.
But anyone with discerning eyes knew that the true hegemon was and could only be the Burning Fire Merchant Guild!
What, you say Falling Star City has a long history and deep foundation? That's all in the past; times have changed.
"Sage Cang Tu's prophecy is indeed accurate. In such a short time, the power of our Falling Star Great Domain has increased severalfold compared to before, but..."
This seemed to have little to do with them in Falling Star City?
Oh, it wasn't entirely unrelated; their allies' strength had increased, and their lives were safer.
It's just that,
"The glory of the ancestors must not be lost! Since multiple Mythics have emerged in the Falling Star Great Domain over the years, it is also in line with destiny that Falling Star City can cultivate its third and fourth Mythics."
He believed so.
He had no choice but to dedicate all his energy to cultivating the new generation.
Most of the oases in the Falling Star Great Domain, such as White Tower, Scorching Flame Great Oasis, Storm City, and so on, did not have the opportunity to participate in the Human Alliance conference, nor did they have many channels to understand the outside world, let alone know about Sage Cang Tu's prophecy.
Their Six-Awakening helmsmen only felt a moment of dizziness before realizing that the Great Domain had changed.
The times had changed.
And they hadn't even gotten on board yet.