Chapter 67: The Megastructure Laboratory (Requesting Monthly Votes)

The news of the Sun and Moon Empire's elderly emperor's demise and the ascension of the new emperor, Xu Tianran, quickly swept across the Douro Continent. Numerous factions were thrown into an uproar, utterly astonished that the master of the Sun and Moon Empire would suddenly change during this turbulent era.

Naturally, they were not truly concerned about this on a personal level. The Star Luo Empire, which shared a direct border with the Sun and Moon Empire, even dispatched several envoys over consecutive days to mourn the late emperor and congratulate Xu Tianran.

After all, from their perspective, with the Sun and Moon Empire just welcoming a new emperor, its domestic situation was bound to be unstable. Consequently, the Star Luo Empire could finally gain a period of peaceful development and respite.

However, reality proved to be the exact opposite of their imagination. The newly enthroned Xu Tianran exercised iron-fist methods, firmly securing his position within a mere few months and grasping both political and military power tightly in his hands. Following a series of royal decrees, the war machine of the Sun and Moon Empire roared into motion!

Unprecedented factories sprang up one after another, and countless soul-tools rolled off assembly lines, quickly equipping the military. In a remarkably short span, the army of the Sun and Moon Empire completed a total overhaul of its equipment, vastly increasing its strength!

Simultaneously, benefits were provided to the populace. As various civilian-use soul-tools were put into service, public support for Xu Tianran grew louder and louder. Their voices resembled a grand musical score, with Xu Tianran acting as the maestro wielding the baton!

Witnessing this unprecedented momentum from the Sun and Moon Empire, the Star Luo Empire, which had just wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, nearly choked to death. While loudly denouncing the inhumanity of the Sun and Moon Empire on the international stage, they simultaneously reached out to various factions, intending to jointly counter the re-arming Sun and Moon Empire.

Their primary target for contact was Shrek Academy, holder of the continent's strongest military might. Thousands of years ago, during the continental collision war between the two sides, it was Shrek Academy that had stepped forward to defeat the Sun and Moon Empire, forcing the enemy to stay west of the Mingdou Mountain Range for millennia without daring to cross.

The Star Luo Empire hoped that this time Shrek Academy would once again step up as the leader. To their disappointment, however, every message sent to Shrek Academy met with absolute silence, like stones sinking into the ocean.

This was utterly terrifying. Could it be that even a force as formidable as Shrek Academy did not dare to face the contemporary Sun and Moon Empire?

Just as the Star Luo Empire was preparing to make a desperate gamble, Shrek Academy finally sent a reply—a single sentence that filled them with boundless joy.

"If matters become truly irredeemable, I shall take action."

The letter carried an overbearing and majestic aura, and anyone with discerning eyes could tell precisely who had penned it.

It was written in the personal hand of the Dragon God Douro, who had stood guard over the world for four hundred years!

The morale of the Star Luo Empire, previously on the verge of collapse, instantly straightened its backbone at those words. Rubbing their palms and flexing their muscles, they were fully prepared for war.

Yet, to everyone's utter astonishment, there was no continuation. After upgrading its military readiness, the Sun and Moon Empire chose not to march west across the Mingdou Mountain Range, but instead turned its forces toward the Evil Eye Forest.

What kind of place was that? It was the territory of the Holy Death Spirit, the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler—an eighty-thoushand-year soul beast second only to the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, Di Tian, among the Ten Greatest Fierce Beasts! It was a place of extreme peril!

According to rumors, on the day the Sun and Moon army invaded the Evil Eye Forest, the entire forest shook violently as if struck by an earthquake. An ocean-like surge of spiritual power blotted out the sun and sky, transforming into a towering tornado that connected heaven and earth!

The Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler led the entire Evil Eye clan rushing out of the forest, and a terrifying momentum burst forth, clashing between their dragon-like tentacles and the soul-tools of the Sun and Moon army!

The outcome of this battle remained unknown to the outside world; people only knew that half of the Evil Eye Forest was destroyed in its wake, and the Sun and Moon Empire subsequently fell into silence.

Even so, the factions of the Douro Continent did not dare to act rashly. This battle had revealed to them just how terrifying the power of a fully realized soul-tool army could be. They felt a deep sense of shock and dread, while also worrying that this might be a trick by the Sun and Moon Empire designed to lure them in for slaughter!

And what was the actual situation?

The reality was that the current Sun and Moon Empire simply had no time to pay attention to them.

At some unknown point, the underground of the Sun and Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy had been completely hollowed out and connected to the underground laboratories of the Mingde Hall, forming a massive, terrifying structural experimental site.

The entire experimental facility was divided into five zones: the Smelting and Refining Zone, the Resource Reserve Zone, the Central Control Room, the Information Convergence Section, and the Ecological Technology Section.

Through layers of architecture and division, this place had truly transformed into the brand-new, supreme soul-technology center of the Sun and Moon Empire!

At this moment, within the Resource Reserve Zone, Ju Zi, serving as the head of this sector, was listening to a report from her subordinate.

"The following is the total consumption of resources within the mega-structure over the past three months... The consumption of various soul-metal categories accounts for 160 percent of the past decade's average... The consumption of spirit-herb resources accounts for 80 percent of last year's stockpile..."

As the data was read off one by one, the subordinate's voice gradually rose until, finally, with wide eyes fixed upon Ju Zi, he said with a dry voice: "The expenditure of national treasury currency is incalculable..."

"My lord, what on earth are we doing? Even for the research and development of a tenth-tier soul-tool that still only exists in concept, we shouldn't be using such astronomical resources! The total for just three months has consumed the empire's accumulation of two years. If this continues, expenditure will outstrip income sooner rather than later!"

What the subordinate understood, Ju Zi naturally understood as well. Furthermore, she knew all too well that the destination of these resources was nothing like the publicly proclaimed manufacturing of a tenth-tier soul-tool.

Rather, it was for a god-creation project!

In the eyes of those in the know, this project rivaled the creation of the legendary twelfth-tier soul-tool; only something of that scale could match such a terrifying rate of resource consumption.

Yet, at this moment, Ju Zi found herself gripped by a headache. Just as her subordinate had said, three months had drained the state treasury's two-year accumulation. If things kept going like this, how could the empire possibly sustain it?

Although the Sun and Moon Empire possessed immense productivity, it could not withstand this kind of consumption.

Ju Zi knew very well that the birth of anything new required constant trial and error, and the resources demanded by this process were astronomical. In the long run, even the Sun and Moon Empire would not be able to bear it, inevitably triggering turmoil.

She had reported this matter to Xu Tianran, but the only response she received from him was a cold gaze. Ju Zi could feel that had she dared to utter even two more words back then, the person standing here right now would likely not have been her.

The changes in the Sun and Moon Empire over just a few short months made Ju Zi feel somewhat estranged from it. She sensed that something was fundamentally wrong, and when she paused to observe, she discovered that she seemed to be the only one who was out of place. She felt as though she had been isolated on the outside, utterly disjointed from the collective and the world.

This sensation left her suffocating, much like a drowning person struggling desperately, only to wake up realizing she had already sunk to the bottom of the sea when she thought she was breaking the surface.

Ju Zi pressed her temples, her head throbbing as she thought, "I hope it's just because I'm too tired."

Meanwhile, in the Information Convergence Section, Dou Ya, dressed in scholar's attire, closed his book and looked up. Raising his eyes toward the terrifyingly large nutrient pod at the center, he said calmly, "Evil Lord, have you still not made your decision?"

Within the murky green solution, an eye the size of a small hill blinked open, glaring fixedly at the tiny human down below!