In the inner city of Jianhua, within the academy permeated by the scent of roses, the dean, dressed like a noblewoman, was immediately alerted. She departed in a magnificent carriage and soon encountered her exceptional student.
Meidisha.
At first glance, her appearance was much the same as when she had left not long ago. However, upon closer inspection, one could see that the young woman's inner radiance was contained, and her slender waist and arms harbored immense strength.
It seemed very much like she had broken through.
The guards would not have reported falsely.
It was just...
"How did you ascend to the Fourth Awakening? Are you feeling unwell anywhere?"
The breakthrough was cause for celebration.
But not necessarily entirely cause for joy.
Meidisha was a student she highly valued, arguably the most outstanding among the recent graduates of the Rose Academy. Her only regret was that Meidisha's family was merely a minor noble house, not a great one. If she had been the eldest daughter of a great noble, her family could have provided her with a Fourth Awakening ritual, and Meidisha wouldn't have had to strive for it herself.
To strive meant entering the newcomer world as an emissary, facing considerable danger. However, as long as she secured sufficient benefits for the oasis, the emissary herself could receive generous rewards.
A set of Fourth Awakening rituals was sufficient.
Such rituals not only significantly increased the chances of awakening and prevented immediate death upon failure but also ensured that the awakening process would not be subjected to too much mysterious erosion.
In other words, the degree of pollution would not increase significantly after awakening.
Only then would there be a chance to aim for the Commander-level and Throne-level in the future.
As Meidisha had awakened on her own, she was now non-human. But if the erosion was too severe, her life would be confined to being non-human. While not bad, the Dean of Roses still felt a touch of regret.
Upon seeing the dean arrive, Meidisha first performed a student's bow and then said, "I encountered some fortunate encounters on Blue Star... that world, and I was fortunate enough to advance to the Fourth Awakening. As for feeling unwell... probably not. I feel quite well now~"
Meidisha flicked a strand of her hair and glanced at the tips of her shoes, attempting to charm her way out of scrutiny.
Seeing her demeanor, which appeared quite normal, without the symptoms of madness caused by high pollution, the Dean of Roses felt slightly relieved.
Could it be that this child was lucky, and did not suffer too much pollution erosion during the Fourth Awakening?
"Come with me. We'll test your pollution levels."
"Oh, okay..."
Jianhua City, after more than a hundred years of cultivation and development, possessed a rich foundation and a comprehensive array of facilities, rituals, and artifacts. It had long since established its own training system.
Meidisha now followed the dean to a place densely packed with flowers.
Here, various flowers bloomed, arranged in concentric circles, subtly outlining peculiar patterns.
Ritual patterns!
Meidisha knew that this was one of the most advanced and accurate ritual sites for testing pollution levels at the Rose Academy. She had only heard of it, never been here.
At the dean's signal, she obediently stood in the clearing amidst the dense cluster of flowers.
She was quite confident in herself.
Her mind was exceptionally clear. Previously, she occasionally felt dullness and heard faint illusory sounds. After the Fourth Awakening, none of these symptoms had appeared. It was highly likely that her pollution level was even lower than before her awakening.
Seeing Meidisha had taken her position and was centering her mind and spirit, the Dean of Roses nodded slightly. Under her instruction, an attendant here took out a vial and carefully dripped a drop of wine-red liquid into the flower cluster.
Instantly,
In the ritual flower cluster, those half-open or bud-like flowers began to bloom one after another, extending like dominoes. Simultaneously, an invisible force spread.
The wind brushed against Meidisha's sleeves and hair.
The floral fragrance permeated the air, and wisps of invisible power entered and exited.
After a while,
Several symbols lit up in front of the ritual flower cluster, emitting a faint blue light.
They represented a certain number, a certain degree, interpretable only by those who possessed specialized knowledge. However, everyone present, whether the attendant responsible for the ritual or the Dean of Roses herself, clearly understood the meaning of the symbols.
They couldn't help but glance at them.
And glance again.
And glance again.
Indeed, only these few azure runes had lit up, nothing else.
The Dean of Roses shot an incredulous look. "Are you sure there were no problems with the ritual process?"
The attendant solemnly stated, "Esteemed Dean, there were definitely no problems with the ritual. We used it this morning..."
But as he spoke, he too began to doubt.
With the Dean present, if there was a problem, his position would be jeopardized!
Cold sweat trickled down the attendant's brow.
While the few people outside the ritual stared with wide eyes, lost in thought, Meidisha, inside the ritual flower cluster, waited and waited for the news of 'examination complete.'
She couldn't help but wonder.
"Esteemed Dean..."
She called out.
Could something have gone wrong? Judging by the Dean's expression, she seemed a bit strange.
"Come over here. There might be a slight issue with the test ritual."
Hearing the dean say this, Meidisha tiptoed through the flowers and came to the front of the ritual, looking at the few recondite runes representing the numerical values.
The interpreted meaning seemed to be...
"0.2%?"
It seemed, possibly, probably, perhaps...
"A little low?"
Hearing Meidisha's murmur, the dean shot her an exasperated glance. Was this merely a little low?
She had the attendant re-examine and adjust the ritual, then had Meidisha tested again.
After a while,
The dean fell silent.
"Fanny, go up and get tested."
She pointed to an attendant, asking her to step forward.
A moment later,
The dean was silent again, her silence tinged with a hint of excitement.
Test again! And test again!
Meidisha was tested a total of three times. The people present, and even the Dean of Roses herself, stepped up to be tested. This confirmed that the ritual had no problems and the test results were not mistaken.
Then, only one truth remained...
"A pollution level of 0.2%! Such a pure body has actually appeared!"
She stared at Meidisha, as if looking at a treasure. The scorching gaze made her own student feel uneasy.
Only then did the dean realize she had lost her composure.
But the excitement was undeniable.
Meidisha, having ascended to the non-human level, not only had her pollution level not increased but had actually decreased significantly, reaching a state of purity. With this, her student now had a high chance of advancing to the Fifth and Sixth Awakenings.
If they could have another Sixth Awakening, Jianhua City's status and power would increase significantly, and the influence of the Rose Academy in Jianhua would also greatly expand.
More importantly, if Meidisha could achieve perfection during the Fifth and Sixth Awakenings, she might even have a chance to contend for the mythical Seventh Awakening in the future.
If a mythical existence were to be born, Jianhua City's status would skyrocket, becoming a super oasis with influence at the regional level!
However, that was too far off.
Meidisha's current situation was clearly a stroke of luck. Whether future awakenings could be achieved with such perfection was still uncertain.
To cultivate her into a seed of myth would not be solely her decision; it would also require persuading the Dean of Sword and the Dean of War Song.
Suppressing some of her excitement, the dean looked at Meidisha with exceptional kindness.
"Child, you are magnificent. You are the pride of our Rose Academy."
Hearing the dean praise her so highly, Meidisha became embarrassed.
She scratched her head. She knew very well how her extremely low pollution level came about; it had nothing to do with her own efforts. It was entirely due to her mentor who had essentially given her a cheat.
She just hadn't expected that an awakening assisted by her mentor would be so powerful, not only making the process much easier but also cleansing the deeply ingrained pollution within her body.
None of this could be said. Meidisha simply changed the subject.
"Esteemed Dean, I returned this time mainly because I have important matters to report. I must report to you in person for you to understand clearly."
Reporting to her own dean was not enough.
To achieve maximum win-win, the support of the other two deans was also necessary.
...
Some time later,
The Dean of Sword, the Dean of War Song, and the Dean of Roses, the three most influential figures in Jianhua City, convened.
Under their combined gaze, Meidisha couldn't help but feel nervous.
She was merely a small elite member of Jianhua.
Unbeknownst to her, the Dean of Sword and the Dean of War Song had come so readily because they wanted to meet her, this "future star of Jianhua."
Meidisha did not realize that she had only just begun to report her experiences on Blue Star, the incredible events that had unfolded.
The Dawn District.
The tidal wave attacking the city.
The sky shattering and earth rending, and so on.
"This is impossible!"
The Dean of War Song was the first to refute. The Dean of Sword, and her own Dean of Roses, looked as if they didn't believe it either.
This was within Meidisha's expectations.
It was also the reason she insisted on returning. Relying solely on that scroll-like artifact and its limited textual transmission, it was too difficult to explain things clearly. The deans would not believe it.
But now, Meidisha produced a photograph.
A photograph taken and developed by a Blue Star camera, showing the sky with two colors: one half dark gray, the other half bright dawn.
"Even during the Gray Fog Tide, Blue Star was able to maintain order."
"Thanks to this, Blue Star has a complete array of various materials, including daily necessities, ordinary minerals, livestock, plants, etc."
Compared to the oasis, the worlds yet to be devoured had two major advantages.
First, the shallow layers of the anomalous world born from the convergence were virgin territory, unexplored, with rare materials scattered everywhere.
Second, the abundance of ordinary resources in the original world.
These ordinary resources were also lacking in the large oases. Space was limited, and large-scale trading of ordinary resources was difficult, primarily due to transportation. By the time they cleared the passages, the new world would have already been largely eroded, leaving little power to acquire those resources.
Blue Star was different.
Order was maintained even under the Gray Fog Tide.
More importantly...
"The Dawn District? Crystal Cannons? Several non-humans?"
Upon seeing these 'pieces of evidence,' the Dean of War Song fell silent.
Meidisha understood that this dean was beginning to believe, at least half-believing.
In truth, she had reported less than what had happened.
Things like "one shot killed tens of thousands of anomalies" or "directly pounded a disaster-level anomaly into submission," she either omitted or downplayed. It wasn't that she couldn't say them, but even with her downplaying and the guarantee of her non-human status, the deans still found it hard to fully believe.
If she had told the truth, would the deans have believed her? They would have thought she had lost her mind.
But she also understood.
If she were in their shoes, without witnessing it herself, she wouldn't believe it either.
"Blue Star's potential is unprecedented. My personal view is that we should increase our investment and achieve greater win-win cooperation."
After she finished speaking, she felt a little apprehensive.
The Dean of Roses pondered for a moment and then said, "I still trust Meidisha, but we must guard against her having an incomplete view... Well, since Blue Star's potential is sufficiently high, I intend to invest in a puppet avatar and enter Blue Star to investigate."
The robust Dean of War Song immediately followed, "Since that's the case, let's send a few more emissaries from Jianhua. If the scale of cooperation expands, young Meidisha alone won't be able to handle it."
"Speaking of which, I am also very curious about that Dawn District. I might as well make a trip myself, it's just a matter of using an artifact to create a puppet avatar."
The strategy was decided in a few words.
The Dean of Sword felt a bit helpless. He would have to stay and guard Jianhua alone?
Fortunately, the main bodies of the Rose and War Song Deans were present, and he could call them if anything happened.
"In that case, the sooner the better. Let's begin preparations."
...
...
Blue Star, the Aquatica Base City.
As Meidisha prepared to return to her residence to rest, a certain mentor withdrew his gaze.
"Not bad. It seems Meidisha's trip went very smoothly, and she even persuaded two figures of the dean level."
Regardless of the initial intentions of the Dean of Roses and the Dean of War Song, once they arrived on Blue Star, they wouldn't be able to leave, cough, what he meant was, they would be lingering on Blue Star, reluctant to depart.
The "Hearth" already possessed diverse specialties that could attract even a Sixth Awakening Throne.
In addition, gourmet food, clothing, and various modern industries also held sufficient appeal. Take Jianhua City, for example, which emphasized noble etiquette and paid attention to dress and manners.
But Jianhua Oasis was a limited space, with finite raw materials. Trade with other large oases was also not easy. Limited by materials, personnel, and other conditions, in his opinion, Jianhua's clothing was just so-so.
Blue Star's styles and design concepts were leagues ahead of Jianhua.
"Clothing and food, while their transaction volume might not match high-level mysterious treasures, if they can be sustained, then Hearth will have a continuous stream of income. Most importantly, the cost is low."
"If, one day, Blue Star's restaurants can be opened in every oasis, it would also be a beautiful prospect."
"Besides these, there are also livestock, especially those specifically for breeding."
Oasis powers were either the last vestiges of civilization escaping a devoured world, or they were family powers that had split off from other oases... Of course, it was rumored that deeper within, there were native inhabitants of the anomalous world and other fantastical creatures.
Civilization's remnants had to traverse dangerous anomalous zones, and survivors would suffer heavy casualties along the way, let alone livestock.
More likely, by the time the surviving elites had the capability to migrate, the world would have been mostly eroded, survivors would be rare, and animals even rarer.
At most, they could preserve some plant seeds.
"And on our Blue Star, we have consistently strived to maintain order. Before the Gray Fog Tide descended, we made the maximum effort to preserve various species... I wouldn't dare say all Blue Star species were preserved, but most of them are, and the numbers of pigs, cattle, and sheep are particularly substantial."
"The diversity of species has been preserved. The current problem is the lack of sufficient breeding grounds."
Within their Hearth's secret realm, a number of special breeding farms had been constructed.
Pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, freshwater and saltwater fish were all raised, and various rare species were preserved. Within a bamboo forest garden lived several giant pandas, living a comfortable life, often fed and petted by passing Hearth members.
However, the space within the secret realm was limited, and outside the secret realm, the only two base cities currently available had even more limited space.
Of course, other base cities under construction, and large breeding farms overseas, had also preserved many. However, these places were not under the coverage of the "Dawn Light," and anomalies often bred there. Even with elite soldiers stationed there, it was impossible to prevent large numbers of livestock from being torn apart by anomalies due to a moment's carelessness.
Breeding farms, agricultural farms.
Both were currently lacking.
"The demand for livestock in the oases is also quite high. However, Blue Star itself is currently short of them. The scope of a single Dawn Base City is larger than a large oasis, but it also accommodates a population far exceeding that of a large oasis."
"Currently, we are relying on the food reserves stored from Blue Star in the past to sustain ourselves."
"In the future, if more than ten giant base cities are constructed, and with Liu Shang's improved crop seeds, it might still... still not be enough! The base cities themselves have crammed in a large population, leaving too little area for cultivation."
If the anomalies could eat, then they could rely on 'hunting' to meet their food needs.
However, that was not the case.
They could only rely on Liu Shang to continuously improve crop seeds to increase yield. Additionally...
"If my predictions are correct, once Blue Star's defense circle is fully constructed, some areas within it will be able to allow the gray fog to slowly recede, and sunlight will reappear in the human world."
"No, there's no need to wait for the defense circle to be fully constructed. Perhaps, once five base cities are built in the Eastern Huang, and the core defense circle is established, it will be possible to designate some areas as 'low-risk zones'."
"At that time, by researching or acquiring some rituals that promote livestock reproduction, and expanding the scale of breeding, animal husbandry can become a pillar industry for Blue Star."
...
...
The next day, the Blue Star World Conference was held as scheduled.
The conference discussed the future direction of Blue Star.
Currently, there were two main strategic plans: one was the "Dawn Base City Plan," and the other was the "Doomsday Ark" plan, proposed by the leader of Sector 51.
However, there were few respondents.
It couldn't be helped. The Dawn Base City was out in the open, with successful examples. As for the Doomsday Ark plan? Not even a shell could be seen.
The choice between the two was self-evident.
"Hmph!"
"Utterly foolish!"
"While the Dawn Base Cities can provide security, the world will be overturned sooner or later. Building base cities will only allow those civilians who cannot generate value to live for another year or two. It is meaningless."
"Moreover, as the anomalous world's encroachment on Blue Star intensifies, it is uncertain whether the Dawn Base Cities can be maintained."
The leader in the black leather jacket snorted inwardly.
His plan to increase the influence of the White Eagle was a failure. Yesterday, upon seeing the extraordinary strength of the representative teams from Sunset Country, White Bear Country, and others, he knew it would be difficult.
But the leader did not admit defeat.
The Doomsday Ark plan was his reliance. A shell? Of course, he had it, but he wouldn't reveal it. That was the ultimate trump card of their Sector 51.
"However, the Mysterious Era is ultimately a world where strength reigns supreme. We must have Dr. Mysterious race against time to develop the awakening potion."
"And I myself must begin attempting the Fourth Level Awakening."
As long as he reached the Fourth Awakening, he could restore the glory of the White Eagle!
In the conference hall, Your from Sunset Country, Anderson from the Waves Country, and top experts from various countries argued fiercely.
"The next base city should be our Sunset Country's turn!"
"I think our White Bear Country is more suitable."
"Our Peacock Country is closer to Eastern Huang and possesses many top-tier experts."
"No, our Waves Country is better prepared. It should be our turn first!"
Aside from Eastern Huang, didn't our Waves Country cooperate with Hearth first!
Damn it!
Minister Anderson was both angry and regretful.
He regretted hesitating when Hearth first mentioned the 'base city plan,' failing to agree immediately. Otherwise, they wouldn't have to wait until Eastern Huang's five major base cities were completed before they could compete.
Hearth was too biased towards Eastern Huang!
"Building base cities is not just about the Dawn Lighthouse and defending against tide attacks."
"The migration and resettlement of the populace, as well as the construction of base cities, etc., the main effort must come from you. The construction of the Dawn Lighthouse still needs to be prioritized, but the construction of base cities can start much earlier."
This statement was very reasonable. Anderson, Your, and others could not refute it.
If they were in the same position, could they complete the migration within a few days? Clearly not!
Even if the opportunity was given to them, they couldn't grasp it!
Conversely, from another perspective, if they started preparing the base city plan from now on, perhaps by the time they completed their base cities and resettled their populations, Eastern Huang would have already finished their work. They could seamlessly transition, without any delay.
Therefore,
They still had to compete with other countries for the first position after Eastern Huang.
Watching them continue to argue fiercely, Fang You did not find it noisy. He only felt it was good.
"Competition is better than no competition. This way, countries won't drag their feet. After all, activating the Dawn Lighthouse is related to population, and the construction of base cities indeed relies more on the countries themselves. This statement is not wrong."
"It's just that the main material needed for the Dawn Lighthouse, 'Eternal Brilliance Stone,' is a bit scarce!"
"This item can only be found in the deep regions of the anomalous world, and it is very far from the entrance."
Madam Snake was one line.
Jianhua City was the second line.
In addition, he had already instructed Xitina to detour on her way back to Blue Star, to investigate a 'clue-pointing location.' However, the journey was long and the time required was uncertain. Whether there would be any complications along the way was another matter.
So,
The construction of base cities depends on ranking? Wrong! It depends on when the trades with the major powers are concluded, that's the correct way to think about it.
Mentor Fang began to daydream, his gaze shifting beyond Blue Star.
In a certain area of the conference hall, it was also quite quiet.
The leader in the black leather jacket was watching coldly.
Observing the leaders of these mysterious departments fighting fiercely for a construction ranking.
"Foolish."
"You will all regret it."
...
The conference lasted for three days, and the leader in the black leather outfit prepared to leave on the second day.
When inviting the envoy in blue robes to leave together, an accident occurred.
"I am very sorry. Although our cooperation has been pleasant, my superiors in the Wave City Federation have ordered me to remain in Eastern Huang and await further instructions."
Leader in black leather: "???"
---
(Two-in-one chapter!)