Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 878

Under the shadow of the Empire's floating city, the desert tribes' belief system is undergoing an unprecedented reconstruction.

This huge steel city suspended in the sky overlooks the vast desert like the abode of gods. Wherever its shadow reaches, ancient customs and emerging beliefs are subtly blending.

Smoke rose from the oasis tribe’s camp.

Amir sat in front of the tent, carefully stroking the compressed biscuits in the silver-gray package distributed by the empire.

This package of alchemical creation exudes a faint wheat aroma and is the food supply for their family for three days.

Ever since the Empire promoted the faith of the New God, these foods printed with the gear emblem have become their hope for survival.

"Mother, I have taken today's share." Amir divided the biscuits into three portions and handed the largest portion to the old woman curled up in the blanket.

The old man took the food with trembling fingers, and a complex light flashed in his turbid eyes.

"The gift of the new god is more satisfying than the camel milk of our ancestors." Amir said softly, and this sentence has spread throughout the tribe.

Indeed, these alchemical foods can stop people from going hungry, and the children in the tribe have regained color on their faces.

He could no longer remember the last time he drank camel milk. The mellow taste in his memory was gradually replaced by the sweet aroma of biscuits.

Outside the tent, the newly erected statue glowed metallically in the setting sun.

It was a sculpture that combined the outline of traditional idols with the beauty of modern machinery. It was both strange and strangely familiar.

Amir tightly grasped the ancestral scimitar and slowly knelt down in front of the statue under the gaze of his mother.

This weapon, once used to protect the tribe, will now serve as a testimony to his allegiance to his new faith.

However, there are always those who hold on in the tide of change.

Under the dim oil lamp in the cellar, Saleh's bone knife carved fine lines on the animal bones.

This is Sekhmet's true name, and it is the belief they have passed down from generation to generation.

Suddenly, the sound of orderly military boots came from above his head, and he quickly hid the bones into the secret compartment in the cellar. His movements were so skillful that it was heartbreaking.

Such caution is not without reason.

Three days ago, the story of the White Antelope tribe's experience had spread throughout the desert - because of the toppling of the new statue, the heating for the entire tribe was cut off and the food supply was interrupted.

When the imperial soldiers reopened the energy tower, several of the oldest elders and several weak children had closed their eyes forever.

The empire's missionaries traveled between tribes on roaring steam locomotives.

Governor Radcliffe made his personal inspection, his crisp uniform contrasting with the desert robes.

At this moment, he was standing in the assembly square of the Golden Falcon Tribe, with an energy tower flashing blue light behind him.

"The faith of the new god must be implemented. If you fail to do so, the heating of the energy tower will be interrupted, and the food provided by the empire will be taken back." Radcliffe stared at the old chieftain of the Golden Falcon tribe who was already kneeling in front of him, his tone still cold and ruthless.

Behind the old chief, his young son had already tightly grasped the decorative dagger at his waist, and seemed to be quite eager to splash blood within five steps.

But the young impulse was suppressed, and the old chief assured Radcliffe in a humble tone that all members of the Golden Falcon Tribe would submit to the faith of the new god.

"I hope you can keep your word. The empire's mercy is limited, and so is my patience." After warning the old chief, Radcliffe left the tribe and took a steam transport to the next tribe.

The old chieftain of the Golden Falcon tribe stared at the departing steam transport vehicle with a sad expression.

"Father, why don't we resist?" the young man questioned his father. He didn't understand why his once heroic father would become so servile.

As the roar of the steam engine faded away, Chief Wang looked at the black dot floating in the sky and said to his son, "Look at the sky, son. No matter how sharp our machetes are, they can't reach that height.

But remember, the people of the desert are like poplar trees, who obey the wind and sand on the surface, but whose roots grow deeper and deeper.

As night falls, the warmth radiated by the energy tower dispels the chill of the desert.

At the junction of light and darkness, ancient prayers and new hymns echoed under the starry sky in wonderful harmony.

This reconstruction of faith is writing a new wisdom of survival in the desert.
-
In the floating city hanging high in the sky, a temporary temple of a new god is emitting a faint sacred light.

This metal temple stands in the third module of the floating city. Twelve pillars engraved with runes form a circle, shrouding the central altar in a halo of light.

In the center of the temple, the artificial divine core created by the genius alchemist Perfect is pulsating at some mysterious frequency, constantly absorbing and exhaling the power of faith.

This statue, which looks like an ordinary stone statue, is actually undergoing an astonishing transformation in its internal structure, and its interior is filled with a boiling torrent of golden energy.

These concrete forces of faith swirled and swirled in the core like a galaxy whirlpool, sometimes condensing into broken runes, and sometimes exploding into fine rain of light.

In the deepest part of the energy vortex, one can vaguely see traces of gold that is purer than molten gold slowly condensing. It is the embryonic form of divinity that is about to be born and is absorbing the wishes of thousands of believers.

Perfect stood in front of the curved observation platform, his long silver hair gently blown by the turbulence caused by the energy storm.

Her heterochromatic eyes stared at the three-dimensional projection floating in front of her without blinking. Dozens of sets of constantly jumping energy readings were interwoven into a web in the void. Among them, the most core "spiritual threshold" indicator was approaching the red critical line at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Her slender fingers unconsciously stroked the cane inlaid with the Philosopher's Stone in her hand, thinking about the progress of the entire plan.

The birth of divinity means that this experiment in creating a deity has finally crossed the most critical threshold.

As long as this ray of divine nature that is taking shape can be condensed, it will be enough to prove the feasibility of artificially creating gods. This is not an arrogant and blasphemous plan, but an extraordinary project that can be achieved through precise calculations.

When the first ray of true divinity is concretized and shines in the core, this new god named "Aktoria" will break away from the conceptual aggregate of nothingness and become a spiritual entity with independent godhood. Theoretical deduction shows that at that time, Perfecto only needs to continuously inject purified power of faith into it, so that the divinity can complete qualitative change in quantitative change, and finally help this artificial creation cross the chasm between mortal gods and mortal gods that has defeated countless predecessors.

But Perfect cautiously used the word "possible" to describe this prospect, because in the process of the ancestor's spirit transforming into a true god, no one could predict what kind of obstacles would be encountered - perhaps it was the instinctive rejection from the laws of the world, or the divine punishment from those high and mighty old gods.

She recalled the divine punishment Sandrion encountered when he was trying to reach the legendary realm. Of the three legendary warriors a hundred years ago, only she survived. However, even so, she was cursed by the gods for a hundred years and could only maintain the body size of a young girl.

It was not until Perfect lifted the curse for her that she was able to break free of her girlish body and even break through the shackles of legend to become a demigod.

The intervention of the gods has never been an illusory legend, but a real threat.

Perfect had to consider whether those eyes hidden behind the scenes would notice this place, whether they would bring down divine punishment, or even directly send divine messengers to descend.

After all, for the returning old gods, a mortal who attempts to create a new god is undoubtedly the most blatant provocation to theocracy.

But it is indeed too early to consider these now.

The divine embryo has not yet fully formed and is still growing slowly under the nourishment of the power of faith. It would be too arrogant to worry too early about the obstacles on the road to becoming a god.

Although the birth of the new god was inevitable, Perfect knew better than anyone that any accident could happen before the final result was revealed.

A tiny energy disturbance, an uncalculated variable, or even a sudden wavering of a believer could cause the entire ritual to fail.

Fortunately, she had already prepared an emergency plan.

In the underground warehouse of the floating city, twelve of the latest god-killing armors are quietly dormant, with divine crystals extracted from the corpses of fallen gods beating in their core furnaces, which provides them with surging power enough to kill gods, even more powerful than any god-killing armor ever made by Perfectcot.

These war machines will use the most violent means to declare to those high and mighty beings - in this war between humans and gods, victory will surely belong to mortals.

Thinking of this, a cold curve appeared at the corner of Perfecto's lips.

Ever since the war with the gods began, those self-proclaimed eternal beings had sent down temptations one after another, and had even personally attacked Perfecto several times. Their arrogance and contempt had long exhausted her patience.

Instead of passively responding to the opponent's moves, it is better to take this opportunity to take the initiative.

If the process of the birth of the new god could really attract the old gods, it would be an opportunity she had been looking forward to.

After all, nothing could better test her research results than a hearty battle between gods.

Whether it is the power of the new god or the limit of the godslayer armor, a real god is needed as a touchstone.

Similarly, in this world that has been ruled by theocracy for thousands of years, nothing can determine the fate of mortals better than a decisive battle - whether to continue kneeling under the throne of God, or to break the shackles of fate with one's own hands, the answer may soon be revealed.
-
Due to the full implementation of the God-making Plan, Perfectoct's originally planned colony tour plan was forced to be suspended, but the expansion project of the floating city was advancing at an even more astonishing speed.

This steel city suspended in the sky is now extending to all directions at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The new energy core roars day and night, providing power for the growing urban area; giant robotic arms wave in the clouds, precisely splicing prefabricated metal modules...

The most amazing thing is that new floating city modules are being constructed on the outskirts of the entire city, which will further enhance the carrying capacity of the floating city.

Although the Desert Kingdom appears to be a dead land of yellow sand, it is baked by the scorching sun all year round, leaving no grass or grass. Even the most drought-resistant desert lizards find it difficult to survive here.

But this seemingly lifeless land hides wealth that makes the entire continent jealous.

The report of the Imperial Geological Survey shows that although the topsoil here is so poor that even the most basic crops cannot be grown, less than 30 meters underground, the scene is completely different.

In fact, when the Imperial expedition team first set foot in this "Land of Death" twenty years ago, the alchemists accompanying them were shocked by the exploration results.

Their exploration equipment gave an unprecedented strong response after going deep underground - the dense distribution of mineral veins and the rich reserves here completely overturned people's understanding of desert areas.

The "Black Spine Mountains" that stretch across the entire desert kingdom are like a sleeping dragon. Every inch of its rock contains dazzling wealth: the purity of hematite on the northern foothills is as high as 75%, the coal layer on the west side is more than meters thick, and extremely rich reserves of copper and tungsten mines have been discovered in the eastern mountainous area.

But what excites Perfect the most is the nearly infinite "black gold" deep in the desert.

When her drilling equipment penetrated the rock layer three thousand meters deep, a column of crude oil gushed out directly from the ground to a height of more than ten meters!

Subsequent exploration showed that beneath this seemingly barren desert, there was a giant oil field of an unimaginable scale.

Geologists were shocked to find that the entire desert kingdom seemed to be floating on a huge ocean of oil - the conservatively estimated reserves of the entire oil field were enough to support the entire empire's industry for hundreds of years.

These precious resources buried deep underground are now being mined with astonishing efficiency.

In the heart of the desert, giant steam-driven drilling machines operate day and night. Their steel drill bits can easily penetrate the hard rock formations. Automated mine carts shuttle back and forth along laid tracks, transporting fully loaded ore to refining centers.

After preliminary processing and refining, these resources are continuously sent to the clouds via floating transport ships dropped by the floating city, becoming important supplies for the expansion of this sky city.

The oil resources, known as "black gold", have been developed to the extreme by Perfect.

She built a modern refinery near the colonial fortress. The towering distillation towers gleamed with metallic luster in the sun, and the criss-crossing network of pipelines extended in all directions like the blood vessels of a giant.

Crude oil is transported here through underground steel pipelines and giant oil tanks towed by steam locomotives. After complex catalytic cracking, hydrotreating and other processes, it is broken down into basic fuels such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and more precious petrochemical raw materials.

In order to maximize the use of these oil resources, Perfecto did not hesitate to use the omniscience of the Jade Record to project the complete knowledge of the petrochemical industry chain in another world into her mind.

As a result, in this desert, modern facilities such as polyethylene production lines, synthetic rubber factories, and chemical fiber manufacturing workshops have sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain.

The plastics, synthetic materials, fertilizers, pesticides and other products produced by these facilities have greatly enriched the lives of the residents of the desert kingdom.

The charm of industrialization is fully demonstrated at this moment - when a product can be produced on a large scale, the amazing production capacity can change everything.

(End of this chapter)