Chapter 201: Chapter 96: Ancient Porcelain Holy City: Surging Undercurrents
「Late March.」
The war on the front lines grew increasingly intense.
With the extremely stable Ogrande City in the rear continuously excavating resources from the Ancient Ruins, the steam industry operated at full capacity, providing vast amounts of war materials.
The newborn Steam Empire gradually managed to hold back the offensive forces of the Saintisman Steam Empire.
This was especially true after the various factions gradually established their Steam Towers.
Zorn began to enjoy the benefits of the Steam Ritual Tower.
Vast quantities of various types of Essence, carried by steam power, converged upon him.
Among them, Spiritual Essence and Fighting Essence gathered in a continuous, unending stream.
The combined effect of resources from the Blood Sail Pirate Gang, the Mafia, the Steam Factories, and the Steam Ritual Tower caused Zorn’s Source Energy Experience to skyrocket during this period.
Zorn wasn’t the only one who enjoyed the benefits of the Steam Ritual Tower.
The others who had also built Steam Ritual Towers, the numerous Transcendents of the Ancient Porcelain Holy City, and the Transcendents from the major Steam City-States—they could all feel the highly efficient flow and supply of Essence during this time.
And this was one of the benefits of a Steam Empire.
It allowed the entire nation’s Extraordinary characteristics to operate with the efficiency of a steam engine.
Steam power circulated, bringing with it the resources of steam industrialization.
At the same time, it brought Source Energy and Essence to the Transcendents.
Once the steam nation-founding ceremony was officially initiated and a giant Sacred Mark blossomed within the epic scroll of the Northern Border Region, the gains for the Transcendents would be even greater.
This wasn’t just the case for the newborn Otan Grelle Steam Empire in the Northern Border Region.
The Saintisman Steam Empire, and the Steam Imperial Alliance to the south—as the steam tide surged ever higher, they too enjoyed the benefits brought by the Steam Ritual Towers.
Likewise, Zorn’s counterparts had also been restless during this time.
「Calamity Origin Land」
Zorn sat in silence upon the majestic Golden Throne within the Spiritual Realm.
Within the Calamity Black Mist, the hidden silhouette of a Level Six Evil Spirit Assassin slowly emerged. It had silently traced its way back to its origin—a fragment of Egunus’s flesh and blood.
Just as this Evil Spirit Assassin was about to explore deeper into the Calamity Black Mist,
a beam of sunlight, as heavy as solid gold, instantly pierced through the Level Six Evil Spirit Assassin’s Spiritual Body.
"Damn you, Zorn! You don’t belong here! You who stole the flesh of Egunus, you will surely suffer the curse of Death!"
The Evil Spirit Assassin struggled to maintain its Spiritual Body as it shrieked curses at Zorn.
The next moment!
A golden sunflower abruptly bloomed above its head.
HSSSS...
The Evil Spirit Assassin, its spiritual framework already on the verge of collapse, crumbled completely.
Although this wasn’t enough to truly kill it,
it was inevitable that its spirit would be damaged.
As the tide of steam surged ever higher,
it wasn’t just Zorn whose leveling speed was fast; the same was true for other Evil Spirit Creatures.
Zorn was mostly preoccupied with his own cultivation and acquiring more resources.
He didn’t have much time to hunt other Evil Spirits.
But it was a different story for the Evil Spirit Sequences from the Evil God Organizations.
They had ample time.
Before the new year, there were still over a dozen Sequences in the Calamity Origin Land tied to the flesh and blood remains of Egunus.
After the passage of the entire winter last year, plus more than a month of spring,
now, there were only five Evil Spirit Remain locations left in the Calamity Origin Land.
A brutal, survival-of-the-fittest slaughter had left no room for the weak Evil Spirits, all of whom had been devoured.
The five remaining Evil Spirit Sequences, including Zorn, had all reached a Sequence Level of Six, each one stronger than the last.
Moreover, every single one of them had a respectable background.
Out here, anyone without backing was long dead.
Currently, the other Evil Spirit Sequences were all aware that Zorn controlled powerful Evil Spirit abilities and the Evil Spirit flesh and blood remains.
They could even find out Zorn’s location.
But no one with the nerve to try and capture Zorn had yet appeared.
The reason for this was quite simple.
Here in the Calamity Origin Land, they had already clashed with Zorn many times.
Every time, it ended with the others suffering a crushing defeat and being wounded.
Having long ago established his advantage with the dense Calamity Black Mist and his supremacy with the Spiritual Realm, Zorn held an absolute advantage in the Calamity Origin Land.
The other four couldn’t even stand against Zorn when they joined forces.
They could only draw from and utilize the Calamity Black Mist.
They couldn’t enter and occupy a territory within the Calamity Origin Land.
As for using their most powerful technique—constructing a Spiritual Realm within the Calamity Origin Land—that was out of the question.
Zorn would kill every last one who tried.
After dealing with the Evil Spirit Assassin that had snuck in trying to stir up trouble,
Zorn slowly calmed his mind and withdrew from the Spiritual Realm.
’The other Evil Spirits aren’t weak either. Thankfully... I have a significant advantage!’
’And what’s more...’
Zorn’s pupils constricted slightly.
’My advantage is still growing.’
In the past half-month, Zorn had finished forging the Spirit Realm Starship at the Star Realm Spirit Ship Ruins.
In fact, Zorn had already set sail yesterday.
The Spirit Realm Starship, built with the Mechanical Crystal Core of a Level 7 boss as its heart, was a full 2.4 times faster than the previous one, which used a Level 5 elite Mechanical Crystal Core.
Zorn estimated he could reach the region of the Magic Ring Seed in just over half a month.
Pulling his thoughts back from the Spirit Realm Starship, Zorn focused them on the 13-story Steam Ritual Tower before him, as well as the patch of Steam Spirit Fruit within its domain.
By the end of March, Zorn had already completed the construction of the 13-story tower, which was now officially topped out.
The other Steam Ritual Towers were mostly between 15 and 25 stories tall.
At this moment, around the newborn Steam Spirit Realm,
the Steam Grey Mist, rippling with layers of green jade, surged gently.
The Steam Grey Mist outside the Steam Spirit Realm belonged to... the Saintisman Steam Empire.
And the power contained within those green jade ripples was already obvious.
The Jade Realm was the secret power that had been supporting Saintisman from the shadows all along.
Although the forces of their respective Steam Spirit Realms had not yet gone to war,
the probing had already begun.
Half a month ago, those strange, green jade ripples had already begun to spread and seep in.
While building his tower, Zorn could sense a terrifying power deep within the strange jade steam, constantly observing and testing him.
If they were to simply destroy these Steam Ritual Towers,
Zorn and the others could just gather the scattered resources and rebuild them.
Therefore, attacking at this stage held little meaning.
The crucial moment would be when the Steam Ritual Towers activated to establish the giant Steam Sacred Mark.
Undoubtedly, the power within that strange jade steam was also waiting for this opportunity.
Just as Zorn was continuing to steadily absorb his many resources,
a powerful Spirit Body, nearing Level 8 and carrying a sun-like aura, silently approached.
"Lady Sun!"
Zorn looked at the visiting Lady Sun.
Even with her spiritual silhouette retracted, it still emanated a thick, golden halo.
A single glance was enough to tell that this Lady Sun was about to advance to Level 8.
The establishment of the Steam Realm had brought great benefits to these High-Level Transcendents as well.
"Have you noticed anything unusual about the jade steam outside?"
Zorn thought seriously for a moment before replying.
"Someone is spying from the shadows, even probing to a certain extent."
"It’s possible they might launch a direct attack on us within the Spirit Realm’s domain."
"Especially..."
Zorn paused, glancing at the jade Steam Grey Mist outside before continuing,
"...when someone like you leaves their Steam Ritual Tower. That’s when you’re most likely to become a target."
Lady Sun nodded slightly, agreeing with Zorn’s assessment.
Then, she lowered her voice and said,
"According to my intelligence, it seems quite a few powerful Transcendents have flooded into the Ancient Porcelain Holy City recently."
"Moreover, several powerful Pirate Gangs have silently entered the Ancient Porcelain Holy City."
"On top of that, my intelligence also mentions that some formidable experts from the Harvester Temple also seem to have arrived in the Ancient Porcelain Holy City."
As she spoke, Lady Sun’s sun-like eyes blinked.
"You have quite a history with the Harvesters."
"Back in Ogrande City, you used that terrifying Ancient God Curse, causing the Harvester Temple to suffer heavy losses and even lose face."
"The top experts of the Harvester Temple are dying to get rid of you."
"You... must be extremely careful during this time."
"We can’t rule out the possibility that those terrifying fellows will try to besiege you."
"Besiege me?"
Zorn nodded slightly.
"I’ll be careful."
Although Zorn wasn’t particularly afraid of being besieged, such an event would more or less force him to reveal some of his powerful techniques, so he still needed to be cautious.
"Furthermore!"
Lady Sun continued.
"For so many Extraordinary powers to pour into the Ancient Porcelain Holy City, their intentions are clearly anything but ordinary."
"And since your strength is immense and your methods are extraordinary, I hope that when you have time, you can also investigate and see if you can get a handle on their movements and intelligence."
"That way, we’ll be able to come up with a better response plan."
After a moment of thought, Zorn nodded slightly.
"Over the next few days, I’ll carefully investigate what these Transcendents visiting the Ancient Porcelain Holy City are plotting."
Such an influx of power was naturally no small matter.
The actions they might take could be varied.
Just as Lady Sun said, it was even possible they would launch a hunt for Zorn.
If he could actually capture key intelligence from these secret intruders, he could in turn launch a fierce counterattack against them.
The nation-founding ceremony of the Steam Ritual Towers was about to begin.
The confrontation between the two sides would also grow more intense.
"Your cultivation progress recently has been astonishingly fast,"
Lady Sun said after carefully observing Zorn.
"You’re about to advance to Level 7, aren’t you?"
"Yes, soon!"
Zorn nodded.
’I’m holding onto resources worth a million gold pounds, and I’ve already used up most of them. How could my leveling speed not be fast?’
Besides, the Ancient Porcelain Holy City was a Chapter Two map, so to speak.
The resources here were far more abundant than in Ogrande City.
Originally, Zorn had planned to steadily advance to Level 7 and only take action after his important strategies had borne fruit.
But since those pirates, Harvesters, and even people from the Holy Fierce Sun weren’t behaving themselves,
Zorn didn’t mind taking action a little early.
It was time to make those fellows behave.
