Chapter 96: Do You Even Need to Ask?
Previously, after discussing with many legendary experts, Joshua had set the tone: 'The main body will go to the Starry World, sweep away the Evil God's minions, and attempt to hunt down the true bodies of weaker Evil Gods.' Meanwhile, for the Bloody Star River side, he would use an avatar to explore, primarily investigating the truth behind the anomalies.
Just then, Ke Lei Le and Ai Er Ma appeared, which was undoubtedly an unexpected delight: one was a Mycroftian, a former frigate captain of the Expeditionary Force, and the other was a local Amos person, who seemed to hold a fairly high position, even having the strength of an Ultimate Peak expert capable of breaking through the sealed national border. Both had their own goals and were located within the territory of the Amos Royal Court.
It couldn't be more perfect.
Having these two as his acting apostles to investigate the situation in the Royal Court was truly the best option. It was far more convenient than sending an avatar to gather intelligence, because the former ultimately involved infiltration—once discovered, it would have to turn into a frontal assault—while the latter was already part of the other side's administrative system. To this end, Joshua gifted Ke Lei Le a man-made Steel Authority called 'Shadow Gold,' which specialized in concealment, lurking, flickering, and intelligence gathering. To Ai Er Ma, he gifted 'Sky Blue,' a man-made Steel Authority specializing in combat, capable of temporarily enhancing strength, enlarging size, absorbing energy, and unleashing powerful legendary-level attacks.
This way, perhaps Joshua wouldn't even need to exert himself; the truth might be uncovered by these two alone.
However, although the 'Bloody Star River' front, which was originally a secondary target, had yielded unexpected gains, the progress on the 'Starry World,' the primary target, was somewhat slow... or rather, it wasn't the right time yet.
This was because the Midgardians in the Starry World needed a considerable amount of time to prepare for a summoning ritual.
As for why the Starry World, which previously didn't require a summoning ritual to freely travel to and from, suddenly needed one now, the reason was actually very simple—it wasn't because the Steel Serpent Star rejected the outside world, nor because the Chaos invasion had triggered the world's instinctive reaction to resist other uninvited guests. The real reason was truly straightforward.
—Because Joshua was too heavy.
To be honest, when Joshua contacted the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground and communicated with the Dominant Will, asking when he could go over, and the Dominant Will, without any tact, directly said, 'Sorry, I can't do it,' he didn't react at first. It wasn't until the other party started listing numbers, bluntly pointing out that his main body's mass was probably equivalent to the sum of several dozen stars, and that the 'Black Hole Engine' inside him, powered by a rapidly spinning artificial black hole, was even heavier than an ordinary world, that Joshua suddenly understood.
Indeed, his individual mass exceeded the total of dozens of ordinary small worlds. How could it be so simple to teleport back and forth? Unless the Midgardians built a Space-Time Hub on the Starry World side and spent half a year adjusting the Star Gate channel, just like the Expeditionary Force did in the Jetram Star Domain, setting up a massive teleportation coordinate point in the Starry World. Otherwise, it would be absolutely impossible to go over as easily as before.
After all, the Starry World, as a massive single world with thousands of galaxies, naturally had a very thick space-time barrier. The Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground could still manage to teleport ordinary legendary experts in and out, but now, based on Joshua's mass, the Midgardians on the other side would need to build at least a star-domain-level super-giant sacrificial array, coordinating from within and without, to open a gap and send the warrior in.
This was because the Starry World was a super-large single world. If it were a micro-world, not to mention teleportation, Joshua couldn't even approach it. The moment he entered such a world, it would collapse, be destroyed, and then be absorbed by him—more terrifying than being invaded by an Evil God.
So, after sending the relevant information to the Midgardians in the Starry World, asking them to immediately begin preparing the reception teleportation array, Joshua had nothing else to do but wait for them to be ready, or handle some additional small matters. This also allowed Joshua, before officially setting off, to take care of some things that needed to be done and handed over.
For example, like now, attempting to build a small Sanctuary World.
Joshua's humanoid incarnation slowly rose. He surveyed the entire New Xilaiye World, and everywhere he looked, there was a gentle red glow.
—The Ring World was huge.
In the ether world named 'Sage's Sanctuary,' the super-giant structure 'Ring World' being built was indeed unimaginably vast. Its surface area was a full twenty-four thousand times that of an ordinary Earth-sized planet, enough for countless trillions of people to live and thrive upon it. It was equivalent to artificially creating twenty-four thousand habitable worlds, a grand project surpassing the imagination of ordinary species.
—But it was too big.
This was also a disadvantage.
Undoubtedly, the 'Ether Ring World' was the final refuge for all intelligent civilizations after the extinction war broke out, the hope after despair. It was the crown of the orderly world, the diamond ring on the World Star River—but just as it was so important, its target was also too large.
Even if a super-transcendent array using an artificial star as an energy source and the Ring World as its base was used to shield all information and memes, hiding the entire world in the wreckage of a dark star river, it couldn't be considered one hundred percent safe. And while the Ring World was difficult to build, it wasn't complicated to destroy. As long as there was one hostile legendary existence, they could disrupt the array cycle maintaining the Ring World's stability, causing part or even the whole ring to go out of control, leading to the collapse of the sanctuary.
Therefore, not all chips could be placed on this.
To ensure as much as possible—if such a necessary day were to come—that human civilization could continue, various designs for Sanctuary Worlds, smaller than the Ring World, appeared in the eyes of those important figures.
And building a Sanctuary World was very simple: find a medium-sized or smaller world, modify it to be suitable for human habitation, then cast a shielding spell on it, and a Sanctuary World was successfully built.
What Joshua was doing now was essentially this.
He had just, together with Number 3, used the divine power of the Sky God to shield the information connection between New Xilaiye World and the outside, creating a small sanctuary.
And now, it was time to design the interior of this sanctuary to be more comfortable and more suitable for living.
Floating in mid-air, Joshua raised his hand, and at the same time, the vast majority of unmanned siege machinery in the entire New Xilaiye World moved in unison—and the next moment, energy was activated, engines started, and tens of thousands of large engineering machines began working in perfect order, as if driven by ghosts.
"Adjust the shape and position of the floating islands, lay the foundation for the runic array that shields information and memes, connect the energy to the Blood Life Tree, and treat this Life Tree as the largest solar collector..."
Joshua didn't exert overly powerful force; he merely manipulated machinery to accomplish what previously required the intervention of Steel Force. He could see that the 'Blood Life Tree,' the true body of Xiao Guang and a vassal of the Light Humanoid, was cooperating extremely well, adjusting the position of its roots to allow the machines controlled by Joshua to freely pass through and work. It even voluntarily offered a large portion of its main branches as the base for laying runes.
If Joshua's work was to modify the terrain and lay the foundation of the array, then Number 3's work was to build, one after another, new master and public buildings on the flat ground cleared by Joshua, according to the architectural blueprints. It could be seen that, at Number 3's call, the Black, who was flying wildly in the sky, descended and used its power as an Ancient Dragon to create semi-permanent hot springs at the water circulation points. Every small building had its own separate hot spring supply.
And Xiao Guang, the Light Humanoid, after receiving a large number of Steel Shards from Joshua, also possessed considerable creative ability. Under the commands of Joshua and Number 3, the group worked together to transform the originally rugged floating island continent into an astonishingly perfect 'Disc World' in just one day!
It could be seen that the shape of this Disc World was a perfectly flawless 'disc.' At the center of the disc was a 'Blood Lake,' as vast as an ocean, and the 'Blood World Tree,' whose branches and roots spread across the entire floating island. The World Tree's branches had been modified to be extremely orderly, like a spider's web, spreading layer upon layer, dividing the entire Disc World into nine thousand six hundred huge districts. The edge of the disc was a series of protruding mountain peaks, forming a distinctly concave world.
This Disc World had a diameter of over five thousand kilometers and a habitable area exceeding twenty million square kilometers. Because it was jointly created by Joshua and the will of New Xilaiye World, the environment of this Disc World was extremely pleasant, with a climate close to the subtropical zone of the Far South in the Mycroft World. Rivers flowed down from the edge's mountain peaks, converging into the Blood Lake at the world's center—which might later be renamed the Blood Sea—and the water vapor evaporating from the Blood Lake would, through the World Tree's roots and the clouds, return to the mountain ranges at the world's edge, forming a new water cycle.
It could be seen that Number 3 had already built a batch of buildings in the coastal area near the Blood Lake. Large Mana Core power stations, water circulation equipment, garbage decomposition-material recycling centers were located on one side of the districts, while the other side had many blank spaces reserved for various future industrial factories, commercial markets, and other construction development zones.
And the edge of the world, the plain area near the edge's mountain ranges and closest to the river, was the planting zone. Joshua had already given Xiao Guang many seeds to sow there. Soon, these seeds, blessed by Druids, would grow rapidly and mature, becoming a lush green expanse, supplying food and luxury goods for all life in the entire world.
The world's center was a dense energy and material circulation industrial zone; the world's edge was a vast agricultural and pastoral zone; and the area between these two was naturally the residential zone. It could be seen that Joshua and Number 3 had already built a series of suspended highways and railway tracks on the branches of the Blood Life Tree that spread across the entire world. The residential zones were located between these extremely convenient transportation tracks, divided into small communities by them.
It could be seen that around a nearly completed residential community, there were just the right amount of greenery, separating each residence. Most of these residential communities consisted of unit buildings with over twenty floors, fifteen buildings forming a 3x5 rectangular community. Of course, there were also detached villas, with three to six floors each. The ground floor of each unit building and villa had its own semi-permanent hot spring. The communities also had very convenient pedestrian paths, gardens, and some planting areas, allowing for self-sufficiency in times of crisis.
"This is already perfect."
Having roughly completed the basic work, Number 3 and Joshua sat together on top of the Black, overlooking the entire world under the sun's radiance. The Disc World looked like an exquisitely crafted gem. The Artificial Intelligence Girl let out a breath and said with some emotion, "This is already more beautiful than the Mycroft World itself... I can't imagine how happy the people who will live here in the future will be."
"Satisfied with this?"
Joshua shook his head nonchalantly and said with a smile, "Wait until later, when I set up a separate magic net server here, allowing everyone to use their Psychic Terminals anytime, anywhere, calling up holographic windows in every corner of the world to communicate with anyone; wait until later, when I build a huge underground world beneath this place, transforming the entire Disc World into a three-dimensional super sanctuary, even giving it the ability to fly independently—wait until then, won't you be shocked speechless? And that's not all; I still have many inspirations I haven't used or placed here."
After all, this was just a prototype, a small experimental site, a Sanctuary World created to meet Xiao Guang's needs.
"..."
Number 3 was indeed shocked speechless by Joshua's wild ideas. After a long while, she lowered her head and muttered softly, "This isn't shock... you crazy guy, anyone would be scared by you!"
Joshua naturally paid no mind to the Artificial Intelligence Girl's soft muttering. In fact, the transformation of New Xilaiye World was very successful, and it allowed Joshua to accumulate a lot of relevant transformation experience. Soon, he would apply this experience to his own world, handing it over to the Seven Gods to improve the district distribution of the Ring World.
Just transforming a world—this seemingly ordinary little thing (though Number 3 and the Black might not think so)—was the most important process of technological accumulation. Even if Joshua was one of the strongest legendary experts in history, he couldn't just conjure up out of thin air how to arrange and organize the districts of an artificial world. He had to try it himself to gain insight and understanding.
"...So, after 'creating' a world like this, you're going to 'save' another world?"
After another long silence, Number 3 raised her head and looked at Joshua, who was also standing on the Black's head. Her tone carried a trace of extremely heavy helplessness: "Seriously, Joshua... you're pushing yourself too hard. No one fights like this!
I've known you for over a decade. Since the Carlis World, you've done something major every year, or gone on an adventure to a new world. You just finished your last battle, slaying tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of Evil God's minions, and after a short month's rest, you set off again to fight another incredibly powerful enemy... Really, the frequency of your battles, the number of battles, and the intensity of your battles are hundreds of times that of an ordinary legendary expert! They rarely go all out even in a few years, while you set off again in just a few days."
"It's not saving, I'm just going to help. And besides."
Number 3 seemed to want to say more, but Joshua turned his head quite casually and interrupted with a smile: "This is the life I love—without such a high frequency of battles, I couldn't have become so strong so quickly, right?"
After speaking, Joshua turned his head and gazed at the Blood Moon shining above the Disc World, which was also the sun of New Xilaiye World. He said calmly, "After this construction, you should have a basic understanding of the methods for building and transforming Sanctuary Worlds. While I'm away fighting in the Starry World, you can assist the Seven Gods in the construction of Sanctuary Worlds and the Ring World on my behalf. I trust your abilities, which is why I brought you along to transform this world."
"As for me... haha, instead of worrying about my mental health, you should worry more about my enemies. You know, I only have to face a myriad of foes, but what they have to face is Joshua van Radcliffe!"
It wasn't boasting or self-praise; the warrior was simply stating the facts directly. But even just a short name was more convincing than a thousand words.
What more could Number 3 say?
"There's no helping it. You're simply beyond saving."
The Artificial Intelligence Girl could only shrug, and in a tone mixed with a bit of anger, a bit of helplessness, but ultimately carrying a hint of a smile, she softly blessed him: "In that case, I can only wish you a smooth journey ahead, and then."
"Save a few more worlds, great hero of salvation."
"Do you even need to ask?"