Chapter 1376 Progress

chapter 1376 progress

du cong led the team, followed by wang wei next to him and jia ping behind. they stood before a black energy shield that seemed to hide what was inside.

"i didn't know you had a flair for the dramatic, du cong," wang wei responded.

"this is such a monumental creation so i couldn't help myself," du cong chuckled. "lord, you didn't peek inside, did you?"

"get to the point, du cong, i'm in a hurry, and no, i didn't peek," wang wei said.

"alright," du cong said as he motioned for someone to reveal what was inside. the black energy shield dissipated, and wang wei saw a black armor shining with magic lights. he could tell this was not ordinary armor but one similar to exoskeleton suits with its own power source.

"a power armor?" wang wei asked.

"power armor? that's an interesting way to call it," du cong commented. "we call it the rune mechanical armor, but that is not why we call you here. lord, haven't you detected the level of this armor?"

"hmm? a tier 5 armor?" wang wei asked with shining light. "you've broken the restrictions on your civilization?"

"that's right," du cong nodded. "about 50 years ago, someone accidentally built a tier 5 power source that broke the limit of our records. after contacting lord jia ping, we deduced that there might be hope for us to break our limit and tried — this is the result."

"good, good," wang wei repeated. "have you tested it out in battle?"

"of course." du cong ordered his people, and a well-built woman walked to the armor and put it on. then, jia ping waved his hand to summon a prisoner with cultivation on par with the divine body realm. the prisoner was promised freedom if he won this battle, so the latter fought for his life. the final result was a tie, which was understandable, given that this armor was the first generation.

"not bad, not bad," wang wei once again praised. "can you manufacture these armors in large quantities?"

"we are currently in the process of reducing the difficulty of the manufacturing process," du cong said. another advantage the upper-dimension mortals have over their counterparts is their vast number. as such, even if only a small number of their population can condense their spiritual power and use the power of runes, there are still a large number of them. due to this large population, du cong was confident of increasing the refining speed of these armors.

"however, we can only build a large number of them with the help of cultivators."

"du cong suggested that we capture more cultivators and control them before forcing them into factories to build these weapons," jia ping added.

"that's not a bad suggestion, but there are some risks."

"we can be extra careful on how to select these prisoners," du cong added, trying to persuade him.

du cong was quiet, not hiding his unwillingness in his facial expression. "we don't know that for sure."

"do you want to take the risk?"

"i —"

"jia ping is right," wang wei finally spoke. "we cannot take the risk."

"so, this is it? our limit will always be tier 6?"

wang wei glanced at him. du cong was obviously an ambitious man. rather, he wanted his people to have the power to control their destiny. in the latter's mind, he probably wants his mortal civilization to be on par with cultivators. wang wei would not burst his bubble. according to his analysis, the minimum limit for mortals is tier 9.

once they start to acquire the power of tier 10 or above, even if it's the weakest [immortal path], no one will allow it. all cultivators who previously supported them will stop; by then, grand dao will also interfere. although mortal civilization involves the power of cultivators, many of his cores originated from earth's science and technology, and grand dao will not allow its further expansion.

"not necessarily."

"lord, you have a way?" du cong asked.

'artificial intelligence,' wang wei thought, but he did not say these words out loud. "simple: you construct a soul powerful enough to control laws. the next step is to strip it of its emotions and change its memory capabilities into the ability to store knowledge or data. "the third step is to modify its intelligence. use runes that involve spirit, wisdom, and calculation to allow that soul to process a large amount of information and accomplish tasks beyond the norms.

"once that is accomplished, you can leave the task of wielding the law to that soul."

"this method is feasible," jia ping commented. "in the current world's situation, building powerful weapons is allowed, and this soul falls under that category."

"yes, it's definitely feasible," du cong said, almost yelling.

"hold your excitement and think about the downside of this approach," wang wei said, his words acting as if he had dunk a bucket of cold water on du cong's head.

"this soul, or this lifeform, will be vastly more powerful than everyone in your civilization, and it will be the core of your development," wang wei explained. "can you imagine how catastrophic it will be if something goes wrong with it?"

"it's easy for such a soul constantly involved in the power of law to regain its normal intelligence and emotion," jia ping analyzed. he could think of many ways for these mortals to restrict that soul, but jia ping knew they were only stopgap measures. the crux of the issue is that these mortals control power beyond their limits. as long as this fact holds true, there will always be the danger of that soul going out of control.

"i understand this, but what choices do we have?" du cong said in a low voice.

"alright, no need to start feeling sorry for yourself about something that hasn't happened yet," wang wei said. "focus on pushing your people to tier 6 before thinking about the power of law."

"i understand, lord," du cong nodded. he agreed with these words, but that also did not stop him from starting to prepare for the future. while wang wei and jia ping left to talk privately, du cong entered the void illusion realm to prepare for the future.