Chapter 280: Preparation for the War of Civilizations

"As for Master Bingshuangyan..."

Lin Qing glanced once more at the petrified Master Bingshuangyan, who had always been sealed; he could sense that this stone-like seal was easily broken from the outside.

He was too lazy to waste more words on Master Bingshuangyan, so he waved his hand casually, turning the seal into nothingness.

After all, this Master Bingshuangyan had already lost his powers and talents; as a direct disciple of the Time-Space Island's Ancestor, who knew what taboos he might possess? Lin Qing dared not rashly use him as a clone.

Moreover, if the Gate of Eternity wanted to replace a new clone, it would have to destroy the corresponding Gate of Eternity and then re-congeal it.

A Gate of Eternity at the Starry Living Being level required thousands of years to recover, while a Gate of Eternity at the Void Sovereign level required as long as millions of years to recover.

It was too long; he could not wait.

Nowadays, Lin Qing could already elevate all his clones to the Void Sovereign level.

However, this clone of Kadoan, a scholar serving as an ordinary divine priest, had reached its limit; even if elevated to the Void Sovereign level, he could not become a Void Divine Priest.

Thus, he had always kept Kadoan at the Starry Living Being level, so that in the future, replacing the clone would only take a few thousand years.

"Keep the Kadoan clone for now; we'll discuss it later. There is still one clone slot left..."

Lin Qing pondered silently, "It would be best to find two or three clones that are highly beneficial to me, possessing special abilities..."

Even the Blood Cauldron King clone could be replaced.

For him, the genetic index of a clone was actually unimportant; unless it was absurdly high, he would rather choose a clone possessing special abilities.

However, he was preparing to enter the Realm of Kings' Ruins next.

According to what Crown Prince Su said, the Realm of Kings tested potential and aptitude, not strength; external aids offered little help, so there was no need for him to wait any longer.

Integrating complete spatial rules into a divine technique was still too exaggerated in difficulty.

After all, it was a terrifying divine technique that would suddenly surge by two major levels.

Even merely conceiving a theoretically feasible idea would require immense effort and a long time.

If it were just a single divine technique, he had some leads, but a Perfect-level combined divine technique was far too complex; he was not even sure how many years it would take, but it would certainly be counted in tens of thousands of years.

In twenty-six thousand years, the 'Newcomer Protection Period' of the Shanhai Realm would expire; at that time, the Shanhai Realm would participate in the War of Civilizations, so he decided to enter the Realm of Kings earlier, perhaps to obtain treasures that could boost the overall development of the Shanhai Realm?

"As for this Chaos Divine Artifact..."

Lin Qing flipped his hand, and a strange sixteen-faced crystal containing specks of starlight, resembling a star, appeared in his palm; within it, as if hidden, lay a vast world, emitting a dim and unclear chaotic aura.

It was none other than the Domain-type Chaos Divine Artifact of the Yuan Emperor, 'Starfall World'.

However, with his current Seven-Phase Domain Divine Technique, he could not at all bring out its miraculous effects.

"Only by creating a Domain Divine Technique with complete spatial rules can the Starfall World be fully activated; it is useless for now." Lin Qing temporarily placed it into the secret vault of the Shanhai Realm closest to the World Origin.

Immediately after, he also sealed away the many divine artifacts he had acquired along the way, which could be considered adding to the foundation of the Shanhai Realm.

Afterwards, Lin Qing took a step and teleported into the depths of the Shanhai Realm's World Origin.

Endless World Origin energy converged here, emitting a hazy colorful light, resembling a hidden sub-space; however, although the spatial mysteries contained within this mass of World Origin were quite complete, they were extremely chaotic and scattered, not yet formed into an orderly whole.

Nevertheless, this was the origin of a vast world; the mighty power it gathered was such that even a Void Divine Priest could only defend himself, but could not resist being expelled by the power of the world.

"First, let the Shanhai Realm transform into a 'Great World'."

Lin Qing glanced at this mass of World Origin and immediately began adjusting the spatial mysteries contained within it, rapidly re-arranging and reconstructing this origin according to complete spatial laws.

Soon, the World Origin of the Shanhai Realm formed an orderly whole, and the World Origin began to crazily absorb energy from the Void Sea, constantly growing and expanding.

The World Origin was like the heart of a human body; a powerful body required a strong heart to pump more blood, and the World Origin must also be powerful enough to bear a larger world.

The Shanhai Realm had already grown and expanded to its limit a thousand years ago; a world with a diameter of fifty million kilometers was the limit for what was called a 'Small World' in the Void Sea.

Once the Master of a Secret Realm became a Void Sovereign, they could transform the Void Secret Realm into a Great World.

"The Shanhai Realm can expand again; the limit diameter of a Great World is five hundred million kilometers."

Looking down at the land of the Shanhai Realm, Lin Qing could see that the spatial structure of the entire Secret Realm had also begun to change; from the simplest oval-shaped world, it began to develop numerous layered and overlapping spaces, each layer of the world being extremely vast, capable of accommodating hundreds of millions of living beings.

Now, the speed at which the Shanhai Realm sucked in the origin energy of the Void Sea was more than ten or a hundred times faster than before, and as the world expanded, it was getting even faster.

The speed at which the Shanhai Realm sucked in energy was also the upper limit of the number of living beings this world could support.

"Indeed, the world can begin to layer; when the Shanhai Realm grows to its ultimate, it will be able to accommodate more than ten thousand times the number of living beings it holds now."

Lin Qing nodded silently to himself, "The probability of geniuses emerging will also become greater..."

The true development of Level 2 civilizations in the Void Sea often began after transforming into a Great World.

The vast number of living beings a Great World could support was enough to nurture a continuous stream of geniuses; as long as there was a sufficiently complete cultivation system, a large number of Void Living Beings, even Void Sovereigns, could emerge.

Normally, even a relatively weak Level 2.3 civilization, over the accumulation of years, could maintain over a hundred Void Sovereigns.

"In over twenty thousand years, the first War of Civilizations will occur."

Lin Qing released his consciousness and carefully sensed the current situation within the Shanhai Realm; he could not help but squint his eyes, "Among the three battlefields of the War of Civilizations, the Sovereign-level battlefield is definitely out of the question, but as long as the Void-level battlefield and the Secret Realm Master's battlefield are won, the War of Civilizations can still be won."

According to the intelligence he had gathered—

Every three hundred and eighty years, the coordinates of the Void Secret Realms of multiple civilizations in the Void Sea would draw closer to each other, resulting in the fusion of some Secret Realm spaces; this part of the fused Secret Realm space was the 'War of Civilizations Battlefield'.

This part of the fused Secret Realm space was both a battlefield and a war prize.

As long as victory in the War of Civilizations could be seized, the Secret Realm Master of the victorious side would have the right to carve out this Secret Realm space, completely integrating this part of space into their home world, thereby allowing the home world to expand to a much larger size!

It must be known that during the formation process of a War of Civilizations Battlefield, the Secret Realm worlds of all participating sides would often have about ten percent of their space integrated into it.

Assuming a war between three civilizations with similar world sizes, the winning side could instantly expand their Secret Realm world by twenty percent!

The War of Civilizations, occurring once every three hundred and eighty years, would see the eight thousand-plus Level 2 civilizations of the Void Sea participate in rotation, taking about a million years to complete one cycle.

That is to say, roughly every million years, the various civilizations of the Void Sea would almost all experience a War of Civilizations.

If they failed consecutively, ten percent of their home world would be carved away each time, making it smaller and smaller.

"If they become the defeated side, they must either lose part of their home or agree to the various demands of the victorious side; only then might the Secret Realm Master of the victorious side give up carving out this part of the War of Civilizations Battlefield, allowing this part of space to return to the home world."

Lin Qing could not help but recall his experiences in the Bai Ta World back then.

At that time, the Bai Ta World had just suffered defeat in a War of Civilizations, but the Holy Master of Bai Ta was unwilling to sacrifice his home, so he agreed to other conditions, such as dividing residential rights and cultivation resources.

"According to the pattern, the 'matching mechanism' of the War of Civilizations is determined by the total number of times one has participated in the War of Civilizations and the win rate."

Lin Qing pondered silently, "Since our Shanhai World is participating in the Civilization War for the first time, the opposing civilizations we are 'matched' with are probably those that have participated very few times or have very low win rates..."

However, before the Shanhai World, the last Level Two civilization to be born on this Void Sea was one hundred and forty thousand years ago.

In just one hundred and forty thousand years, although that civilization produced several Void Lords, the Master of the Secret Realm was not yet a Void Lord, so it was still only a Small World.

It could be considered the weakest Level Two civilization outside the Shanhai World.

"Our Shanhai World does not yet have a Void Lord; we can only give up on the Lord-level battlefield."

Lin Qing pondered silently, "I will definitely win the portion of the battlefield belonging to the Master of the Secret Realm; it mainly depends on the Void-level battlefield..."

The Civilization War follows a pattern of soldiers against soldiers, and kings against kings.

This is mainly because the Civilization Battlefield is divided into three parts, which are three layers of space; if it is a war between two civilizations, it requires winning two out of three rounds to be considered a victory.

If it is a war among three civilizations, it is possible for each to win one round, resulting in a three-way tie.

Like the Bai Ta World back then, which was a war among four civilizations; the other three each won one round, while the Bai Ta World failed to win a single round, becoming the only defeated party, and thus was ruthlessly exploited by the three sides.

"There are still twenty-six thousand years; we should make it in time. Moreover, once the protection period ends, a Civilization War is not guaranteed to happen immediately. If we are lucky, we might have to wait another several hundred thousand years before a Civilization War comes around..."

Lin Qing sensed the current situation of the Shanhai World and couldn't help but shake his head slightly.

There were only over a hundred Void Beings, and not a single Void Lord, after all, the Shanhai World had been born too recently, only over ten thousand years.

The fact that there were over a hundred Void Beings was due to the Primordial Realm inheritance and the massive resource supply he provided; for a normal newly promoted Level Two civilization, in a mere ten thousand years, it is likely that not even a second Void Being would be born.

"It would be best to have a Void Being capable of sweeping the entire field..."

Lin Qing stood at a high point in the Shanhai World and glanced at Yuan Xueqiu and Mo Luo.

As a successor of the Vacuum Great Tomb, Lin Qing spared no cost in world essence to erase the original world imprints deep within the souls of these two, re-integrating them into the world essence imprint of the Shanhai World, making them part of the Shanhai World.

For these two, the Shanhai World is now their hometown, so naturally, they can participate in the Civilization War.

Fortunately, when these two joined the Shanhai World, they were only Star Beings, so the world essence consumed to change their origin was not much; if they were Void Lords, even the essence of a Great World would be nearly exhausted just to change their origin.

Moreover, once the world essence is exhausted, it takes nearly thirty-eight million years to recover.

"Mo Luo is skilled in cultivating Cosmic Mutants; he can be of great help in warfare..."

Lin Qing pondered silently, "Yuan Xueqiu obtained the secret technique inheritance of the Flying Kite City Lord; if cultivated to a sufficiently profound level, perhaps..."

With a thought, he immediately teleported these two over.

"Greetings, Chairman."

Yuan Xueqiu and Mo Luo were both stunned, then immediately bowed respectfully.

After all, Lin Qing was not only the sole Chairman of the Shanhai World's Supreme Council, but also the Tomb Keeper of the Vacuum Great Tomb.

"How is your cultivation progressing?" Lin Qing said, "One is a successor of the Flying Kite City Lord, the other a successor of the Mist Pigeon City Lord; you will need to contribute in the Civilization War twenty thousand years from now."

Yuan Xueqiu said, "With the treasures and resources provided by the Chairman, the Flying Kite Secret Technique has progressed rapidly. However, the Flying Kite Secret Technique also has high requirements for comprehension. Currently, it is estimated to be at the peak of the Yu Xingyuan Fourteenth Layer; in twenty thousand years, it should reach the Yu Xingyuan Sixteenth Layer?"

"Not bad." Lin Qing nodded slightly.

The Mist Pigeon Secret Technique has very low requirements for comprehension; it relies mainly on treasures and resources.

But the Flying Kite Secret Technique is a supreme secret technique, with an upper limit even higher than the Mist Pigeon Secret Technique. It requires not only treasures and resources but also has high requirements for comprehension. Yuan Xueqiu reaching this level so quickly is already very good.

You must know that for a Void Being to reach the peak of the Yu Xingyuan Fourteenth Layer is already considered top-tier combat power.

"Chairman, I have already started trying to cultivate some Cosmic Mutants."

Mo Luo said, "Most of the mutants I am currently cultivating have combat power at the Yu Xingyuan Thirteenth Layer and can be cultivated on a large scale. If I focus on cultivating a few, it is estimated they can reach the Yu Xingyuan Fourteenth Layer. With twenty thousand years, raising them another level should not be difficult."

Lin Qing nodded slightly and said, "Not bad either. Speak up if you need anything; we must win our Shanhai World's first Civilization War."

After these two departed, Lin Qing felt much more at ease.

Among those weaker Level Two civilizations, even if they could dispatch a group of peak Void Being experts, most would probably only be at the peak of the Yu Xingyuan Fourteenth Layer or the Fifteenth Layer.

If Yuan Xueqiu can cultivate to the Yu Xingyuan Sixteenth Layer, combined with the large group of Cosmic Mutants cultivated by Mo Luo, there is a high probability of securing the Void-level battlefield.

If there is more time, these two can become even stronger, and the certainty will be even greater.

"By the way, there is also Hall Master Qi."

Lin Qing's gaze shifted, and he immediately teleported Qi Lingxiao over.

As the second person in the Shanhai World to break through and become a Void Being, Qi Lingxiao has been a Void Being for over ten thousand years.

Back then, only a hundred years after Qi Lingxiao transformed into a Void Being, he created the Three-Phase Divine Technique on his own, simply comparable to the Star Gods of the Three Great Holy Lands, and this was mainly due to luck.

According to Chu Hongjun's tests, every time Qi Lingxiao undergoes a transformation of his life level, his luck also becomes better, which is quite baffling.

Ten thousand years have passed; what about now?

"Hall Master Qi."

Lin Qing smiled and said, "I haven't seen you leave the Shanhai World to venture out for over ten thousand years; how is your cultivation progressing now?"

(End of this chapter)