Chapter 371: Three Months? |
Immediately after—
Chen Mang felt a wave of repulsive force radiating from the planet. It wasn't particularly violent, but it steadily pushed him away. He offered no resistance, simply allowing the force to carry him back out into the depths of space.
The moment he cleared the planet's atmosphere.
The members of the Elder Council immediately swarmed him. The leading Grand Elder's eyes flickered with confusion as he blurted out, "Did you fail the trial?"
"If even you couldn't pass..."
"Are the heavens truly doomed to destroy the Rugged Civilization?"
Hardly any time had passed. Emerging this quickly could only mean he had failed.
A Berserker was completely incapable of setting foot on this planet.
Only a Divine Archer could enter it.
"Yes."
Chen Mang nodded and summoned his Stellar Train. As he walked toward the main carriage, he glanced back at the elders and casually offered, "Care to come in for a chat?"
The instant the Stellar Train materialized!
The elders' hair stood on end. Horror filled their eyes as they stared at the colossal machine as if it were a primordial beast. They could palpably sense the horrifying threat radiating from the locomotive—a suffocating premonition of imminent death that they had never felt before, even when facing their most formidable foes!
Just who...
What tier of civilization did this man actually come from?!
"Alright," the Grand Elder agreed, his voice turning hoarse.
"There was absolutely no way I could pass that trial."
Sitting inside the carriage, Chen Mang crossed his legs and leaned back in his chair. He lit a cigarette and exhaled a plume of smoke while looking at the gathered elders. "The position of Holy Arrow allows one to channel the power of every Divine Archer in the Rugged Civilization to launch a devastating counterattack during an invasion. The introductory visions of the trial made that clear to me, and I assume you all know this even better than I do."
"The price, however, is the life of the Holy Arrow."
"First of all,"
"I am not a member of your Star Arrow Clan. It is impossible for me to lay down my life for your race."
"Secondly,"
"I don't particularly need your civilization as an allied force. You might think your civilization is incredibly powerful, but to me, it's mediocre at best."
"And thirdly,"
"The core power of this trump card relies entirely on the total number of Divine Archers within your branch of the Star Arrow Clan. The Holy Arrow acts merely as a conduit. The Rugged Civilization barely has any Divine Archers left. Even if you found a Holy Arrow, the resulting attack wouldn't pack much of a punch anyway."
The Grand Elder stood in utter silence. He knew everything Chen Mang said was absolutely correct, but his hands were tied. Their branch of the Star Arrow Clan simply could not produce a Holy Arrow anymore.
Chen Mang paused for a moment before waving his hand. Instantly, dense streams of data illuminated the screens beside him.
"According to my intelligence, the reason the number of Divine Archers in the Rugged Civilization keeps dwindling is that a sixth-rate power, the Green Mountain Civilization, infected your people with a highly contagious virus."
"A virus that transmits through sexual fantasies."
"Once someone is infected, anyone they fantasize about will also contract it. It spreads like wildfire. This specific pathogen alters your genetics to ensure that fewer and fewer Divine Archers are born into your civilization."
"The Green Mountain Civilization!"
The Grand Elder stared blankly at the evidence displayed on the monitors. When realization finally set in moments later, his eyes blazed with fury. The data undeniably pointed the finger at the Green Mountain Civilization—a faction located squarely within their own territorial borders. For years, the elders had been too busy searching for a Holy Arrow to pay them any mind, especially since that civilization consistently paid their required tributes.
He never imagined they would be ruthlessly stabbed in the back.
And such a vicious, deep stab at that!
It had practically severed the Rugged Civilization's jugular!
"Damn them!"
The Grand Elder's expression turned terrifyingly dark. He turned to the other elders and ordered, emphasizing every single syllable, "Assemble the grand army. I want the Green Mountain Civilization wiped from existence within three months!"
"There's no need for that."
Chen Mang waved his hand dismissively. "I've already annihilated the Green Mountain Civilization. In fact, wiping them out was how I acquired this intel in the first place."
The Grand Elder looked down at a starmap compass in his hand. Sure enough, the entire star system housing the Green Mountain Civilization's political capital had been completely two-dimensionalized, flattened into a state as thin as a cicada's wing.
He slowly raised his head, staring at Chen Mang with an incredibly complex expression.
The Green Mountain Civilization was a proper sixth-rate power. Had they truly been wiped out so effortlessly?
The sheer absurdity of it was hard to process.
Furthermore, it had happened right inside his own borders without him receiving a single warning. It seemed their intelligence division needed a thorough purging. How could an event of this magnitude go completely unnoticed until now?
However...
If this man could quietly erase a sixth-rate civilization within their territory without tripping a single alarm, then annihilating the Rugged Civilization wasn't out of the realm of possibility either, was it?
A chill ran down his spine at the thought.
He gradually fell silent, completely abandoning the idea of forcing Chen Mang to take up the mantle of the Holy Arrow. Clearly, both the young man's raw power and the mysterious background supporting him were vastly more terrifying than they had anticipated.
To someone like him, the exalted position of Holy Arrow—a title countless people coveted—held zero appeal. To Chen Mang, it was utterly worthless.
"Let's leave the past where it belongs,"
Chen Mang continued, meeting the Grand Elder's gaze. "Your most pressing crisis right now is your severe lack of Divine Archers. I can eradicate this virus for you. Once I do, the population of Divine Archers in your clan will rapidly recover. With a larger foundation of archers, a new Holy Arrow will naturally emerge in time. It's much better to have one of your own people fill that role anyway."
"How does that sound?"
"That would be a godsend!"
A glimmer of wild hope flashed through the Grand Elder's eyes. "You can actually cure this virus?"
They hadn't even known the virus existed until today, much less possessed the means to cure it.
"I'm about seventy percent confident, but I'll need some time. First, let's discuss my compensation. What price are you willing to pay? I need iron ore and all sorts of raw materials. Keep your Murphy Stones, I don't need them. You have three chances to make an offer."
"If your offer tempts me, I'll stay and fix this for you."
"If it doesn't, we'll part ways here. And..."
Before Chen Mang could even finish his sentence, the Grand Elder met his gaze with absolute solemnity. "Everything. If you can solve this crisis and guarantee the Rugged Civilization a Holy Arrow, every single resource in our civilization will belong to you!"
"This entire territory, the Ore Stars—they will all be yours."
"These hundreds of millions of light-years of domain will be yours to command."
"..."
Chen Mang fell silent, his mouth twitching slightly. After a long pause, he murmured, "You drive a hard bargain. Your very first offer has already tempted me. However..."
"That doesn't sound like a genuine offer. Are you planning to write a bad check?"
"I can assure you, defaulting on my debts is a very bad idea."
'What the hell is this nonsense?!'
He fully intended to extort a massive fortune, but he wasn't a fool. If they gave him all their resources, how would their civilization survive? Did they plan on living off dirt? Were they going to survive purely on the joy of having a Holy Arrow?
Did they really value the Holy Arrow over their own survival? If they were just going to force a war later to take everything back, he wouldn't even waste his time researching a cure. He would just annihilate them right here and now.
His eyes narrowed dangerously.
The heavy blast doors of the Stellar Train's carriage slowly slid shut. The hidden integrated fire-control systems locked onto their targets, ready to unleash hell at a moment's notice. If he slaughtered the entire Elder Council here, the Rugged Civilization would be thoroughly decapitated.
"We aren't lying."
The Grand Elder took a deep breath, meeting Chen Mang's gaze with unwavering earnestness. "Given the circumstances, I will tell you the absolute truth."
"Although the Rugged Civilization belongs to the Star Arrow Clan, we are merely a splinter branch."
"Not too long ago,"
"The main branch of the Star Arrow Clan broke through to become a ninth-rate civilization. They are now actively marching toward the realm of a God-Tier civilization. Through a mysterious method, they contacted every scattered branch of our race wandering the universe, summoning us all to gather together and conquer the God-Tier realm as one!"
"When the time comes—"
"Within the agreed-upon timeframe, an unfathomably massive and complex Bloodline Wormhole will open to bring all our scattered kin home. Naturally, the Rugged Civilization wishes to experience Returning to the Ancestral Clan and reunite with the main family."
"But..."
"To cross the Bloodline Wormhole, we must be led by a Holy Arrow. Without one, the passage will remain closed to us."
"For any normal branch of the Star Arrow Clan, this is a trivial requirement. After all, every branch is supposed to have a Holy Arrow. But the Rugged Civilization has completely lost ours. The wormhole opens in three months."
"If we don't produce a Holy Arrow within three months, the Rugged Civilization will lose this once-in-a-lifetime chance to return home. Even if a Holy Arrow emerges a thousand years from now, the main clan will never activate another astronomically expensive Bloodline Wormhole just for our tiny faction."
"This is our one and only chance."
"Therefore..."
"If you can genuinely cure this plague and ensure a Holy Arrow is born within three months, we will happily abandon every last ounce of our resources to you."
"The Bloodline Wormhole bridges the vast distances of the cosmos, spanning distances of up to hundreds of billions of light-years—an unfathomable reach. However, the cost of utilizing it is absolute. We cannot bring a single resource with us. Not even our clothes. We must step through the portal exactly as we came into this world—bare and empty-handed."
"Aside from the Bloodline Wormhole, there is simply no other technology capable of gathering an entire species scattered across the known universe."
"..."
Chen Mang remained silent as he processed the information. If that were the case, the Rugged Civilization's desperation made perfect sense. Anyone would be frantic for a chance to join a God-Tier civilization. Furthermore, the sheer racial cohesion of the Star Arrow Clan was astounding.
Though, of course, it only worked because their overall population was relatively small.
Humanity could never pull off a stunt like this. There were simply too many humans scattered across the cosmos. Attempting to construct a Bloodline Wormhole for the entire human race would incur an astronomically, prohibitively high cost.
However...
"Three months?"
Chen Mang shook his head and looked at the Grand Elder with a soft sigh. "You've misunderstood me. I can only guarantee a resurgence in the birth rates of Divine Archers. For those God's Chosen who were already infected and transformed into Berserkers, it's too late. Even if they are cured, their biological pathways have already been permanently finalized."
"The absolute best I can do is ensure your civilization's next generation of infants is born free from the pathogen."
"A newborn baby obviously cannot take up the mantle of the Holy Arrow."
"I'm afraid I cannot help you with your time limit."
"Then all of this is utterly meaningless." A profound sorrow flashed through the Grand Elder's eyes. "Only by producing a Holy Arrow within the next three months can our survival be guaranteed. The Rugged Civilization is willing to pay absolutely any price."
"If we fail..."
"The Rugged Civilization will be the only branch of the Star Arrow Clan left rotting in the cosmic wilderness."
The truth was, the Grand Elder was still withholding a crucial piece of information.
That was...
The ascendant ninth-rate main branch had explicitly warned all offshoots: any faction that failed to pass through the Bloodline Wormhole within the time limit would have their innate God's Chosen abilities permanently stripped away.
The entirety of the Star Arrow Clan's strength derived from their God's Chosen.
According to the hierarchy of the Star Arrow Clan, the most supreme lineage held absolute dominion over the 'Godhood' templates of both the Divine Archers and Berserkers. Possessing this core Godhood granted them the absolute authority to sever the powers of any lesser God's Chosen across the cosmos.
To put it bluntly:
if they failed to cross the Bloodline Wormhole and reunite with the ninth-rate empire within three months, their people would be reduced to mortals.
Forget maintaining their status as a seventh-rate civilization; they wouldn't even have the combat strength of a measly third-rate faction.
Any hostile force in their surrounding star sector could effortlessly wipe them out.
They would be nothing more than sitting ducks waiting for the slaughter.
This was no longer just a heartwarming matter of Returning to the Ancestral Clan. While the racial loyalty of the Star Arrow Clan was legendary, there were always renegade factions who preferred to play kings in their own little mud puddles rather than bow to a higher authority. Controlling the core Godhood was the main family's ironclad method of enforcing absolute obedience.
In three months, if they still hadn't produced a Holy Arrow, the Rugged Civilization would effectively cease to exist.
That was exactly why the elders had ignored the Green Mountain Civilization for so long, despite suspecting foul play. Their biological doomsday clock was aggressively ticking down. With the total collapse of their civilization looming on the horizon, they couldn't afford to waste a single second policing their vassals.
Three months.
Chen Mang remained steeped in silence. He desperately wanted to swallow this incredibly lucrative deal, but the impossible timeline tied his hands. Forcing the miraculous birth of a Holy Arrow in a mere three months defied all logic.
However...
He still wanted to try.
"Send me the exact parameters and requirements of the Holy Arrow trial," he murmured decisively. "I'll see what I can do."
"Understood."
Without a moment's hesitation, the Grand Elder produced a metallic token and handed it over. "This datapad contains everything you need to know about the trial."
Following the exchange, the two parties went their separate ways.
The Grand Elder led his retinue out, rushing back to scour their territories for any hidden prodigies. They refused to place all their eggs in Chen Mang's basket. They had to keep searching, desperately hoping for a miraculous mutation that would birth a powerful Holy Arrow of their own.
"Given the current situation,"
Chen Mang leaned back in the Stellar Train's command carriage, his eyes scanning the datapad's contents. "Cheating is our only option. If we want to pass this Holy Arrow trial, assuming we bypass the mental fortitude tests, there is only one physical requirement."
"And that is..."
"To pull back the ancient longbow as an unawakened God's Chosen, and successfully unleash a Star Arrow."
"It's designed to measure absolute, unadulterated potential. Only someone capable of inducing a spiritual resonance with a planet's core while still in their mortal, unawakened state can achieve this."
"Is there a way to brute-force a cheat for this?"
"Theoretically, it's possible."
Xiao Ai's crisp voice echoed through the carriage speakers. "While the universe hosts an unfathomable number of races, it's not entirely infinite. If we mass-produce enough 500-Level Bread, we can mathematically guarantee that someone will eventually roll the genetic lottery and acquire the innate talents of the Star Arrow Clan."
"After all, the production cost of 500-Level Bread is fairly cheap."
"A mere 200 million units of iron ore per batch. It's essentially dirt cheap."