Chapter 656: Arcane Seat, Blockchain Civilization!

"But can you truly defeat... the Ancient Lava Region? That's the Three Pillar God Virus!"

Xu Zhi sat in his chair, sipping tea and gazing into the distance. "Even Caroline recently mentioned that the Ancient Lava Region is catching up to her. Daughter of the Forest, Subaru, Du Xue, and others are already, or are almost, High Gods." His thoughts had already soared past the orchard, reaching the lava cellar cave system more than a thousand meters beneath the house.

The Ancient Lava Region. Whoosh!

The Overlord of Ancient Gods, enveloped in divine light, descended upon the land. The divine light quickly dissipated, transforming him into an ordinary white porcelain creature. Crack. His stature suddenly grew, turning him into a three-meter tall giant, merging with the average physique of the world's human race. He was handsome and tall, wandering the land and walking through an ancient Victorian-style city.

There was no science fiction, no televisions, no mechs, no mechanical motorcycles. Mountains, rivers, flying birds, rustic castles, knights, swordsmen, and mages formed an ancient city-state world that hadn't even reached the steam age.

"What a miraculous land," Xu Zhi said with a smile, standing on the street and observing the ancient people dressed in simple, rough linen clothes. "Who would have thought this was the Demon Core lineage?"

This was the Demon Core lineage! Every single one was a supercomputer, a race with incredibly powerful cosmic computing power. Back then, they were known as the Lava Tech Race, a race of universal scientists. Yet, after more than a thousand years of development, their civilization hadn't progressed; instead, it had regressed severely, remaining an ancient city-state civilization.

No computers. No tanks. No internet. None at all! The Demon Core lineage's most powerful talent for mechanical research and development had simply not appeared.

"The Ishdal Civilization of yesteryear was called 'Prehistoric Pygmies' by the people of this era. Their brilliance was like a flash in the pan, rising and falling in just over four hundred years, reaching terrifying heights back then. But now, after more than eight hundred years—twice that time..." Xu Zhi couldn't help but feel surprised. The Demon Core race, hailed as human-like computers, was still living a primitive life.

Without technology, this city-state era had only one profession: Arcanist. Branches could include Arcane Knights, Arcane Swordsmen, Arcane Mages... It seemed to be a new era system where arcane spatial models, similar to spatial geometry and various spell models, were constructed in the brain for use.

"It seems that although there wasn't an explosive war, everything has subtly passed through an incredible era," Xu Zhi thought as he walked across the land and turned his head.

In the study of a noble castle, an oil lamp flickered. A middle-aged man in a blue noble robe was teaching a child of about ten years old. Holding a quill pen, he wrote complex and dense formulas on parchment. "Jason, this problem should be solved this way. If you continue like this, you won't be able to break through to a Tier 3 Arcanist..." This was a university-level spatial geometry problem. Even five-year-old Ishdal children from back then could solve it instantly and find seventy-three different solutions, yet now it had become a difficult problem.

"They've practically become imbeciles, unable to solve a mere university geometry problem," Xu Zhi thought. "They clearly still possess demon cores, yet in this era, they can no longer utilize their terrifying computing power. Their intelligence is no different from that of ordinary sand-table humans."

Xu Zhi bypassed the city and ventured deep into a large mountain. In front of a wooden house covered in vibrant green vines, cute firefly-sized grass sprites fluttered in the yard. A woman made of vines was meticulously carving flowers into her body with a graver. Her body was covered in more than 108,000 carved flowers, resembling the most beautiful and intricate wood carving, each relief and texture like a divine creation.

"Overlord of Ancient Gods?" A low female voice suddenly sounded near Xu Zhi.

Xu Zhi looked at the Daughter of the Forest. "Long time no see."

"Indeed, long time no see," the Daughter of the Forest smiled, her eyes filled with reminiscence, and she respectfully stood up. "The era of the Great Unification, the era of destroying the Great Joy Emperor—that was so long ago, it feels like centuries."

Xu Zhi scanned the Daughter of the Forest. He also discovered that this terrifying High God, like the ordinary people, had lost her original computing power. Despite being of the Demon Core race, she seemed like any other High God.

"After that fateful battle, when you opened the worldline and allowed us to defeat destiny... what followed was a collapse of computing power. Our ability to calculate was disintegrating," the Daughter of the Forest said. "Pillar Gods are not inanimate objects. After that Great Joy Battle, it felt threatened. A race doesn't need all its members to possess such powerful intelligence and computing power; that creates too many variables. They themselves tried to restrict the computing power of all their subordinate beings, and all extraordinary intelligence began to vanish."

The Daughter of the Forest seemed to be crying and laughing at the same time. "The terrifying intelligence of the Overlords of Ancient Humans, the Prehistoric Pygmies, the Ishdal Civilization, truly existed in ancient legends." The Daughter of the Forest said in a low voice, "This gradual anomaly began after the Great Unification era. Our computing power decreased. Subaru, Du Xue, and I researched the results... We are undergoing a strange evolution!"

"Evolution?" Xu Zhi was startled. Despite losing that terrifying computing power and super-thinking ability, they claimed it was evolution?

"Yes, we are evolving," said the Daughter of the Forest. "Long ago, the three Pillar Gods were already deducing their respective races. The gene chains of the three races were constantly being perfected and iterated... For instance, the current humans are a three-meter-tall, well-proportioned race that emerged from the fusion of ancient lava species that had disappeared, such as giants, sea creatures, and hydras."

This was indeed evolution. Xu Zhi naturally remembered that the Three Pillar God Virus continuously evolved its race, calculating worldlines to gain an absolute advantage, seeking to defeat and devour the other two Pillar Gods. But that was indeed evolution... So what about now? How could a decrease in brain computing power be called evolution? This feeling was like the high intelligence of modern humans regressing to the period of ancient apes. And, from a highly developed modern civilization, they had regressed to a primitive city-state civilization.

The Daughter of the Forest replied, "This is the choice of the Three Pillar Gods. As the great, unseen destiny of their own races, they calculated countless worldlines and coincidentally chose the same one. If we didn't embark on this most correct path of evolution, our race would only face the fate of elimination."

Xu Zhi had previously encountered worldlines and understood their terrifying implications. So, this seemingly backward behavior was actually a super miracle? Similar to Stone Star?

Xu Zhi listened quietly to the Daughter of the Forest's explanation. He knew there was more to come. Because if it were merely to maintain their rule and restrict the computing power of their hundreds of millions of 'computer units,' then as a mutated virus, they would instead face eradication by the other two viruses. That wouldn't be such a foolish approach.

"Even gods cannot resist the power of those Pillar Gods; we too have become ordinary people... So, where has all our computing power gone?" the Daughter of the Forest said. "Ninety-nine percent of our computing power has been taken and merged together to specifically calculate a more terrifying future and to use the most formidable computing power to deduce the possibilities of a new Tier 9 path."

Xu Zhi was stunned, unconsciously nodding gently. He suddenly understood something. What was this situation? It was like a super mining virus. It's forcibly installed into your computer, running frantically in the background, causing your CPU to run at nearly full capacity, severely occupying server resources, and drastically affecting system performance, making it impossible to even open a webpage or play a small game without extreme lag.

This was probably the situation now. 'Mining' in your brain, using your computing power to 'mine' the Tier 9 path and deduce worldlines. The Three Pillar Gods have pushed themselves to this extent? They want to frantically strengthen their computing power to destroy each other?

Xu Zhi, however, still didn't speak. Because he knew there had to be more. If his subordinates became ordinary people, even if their computing power was strengthened, their race's intelligence would weaken and their combat power would decrease. How could they then resist the invasion of other Pillar Gods?

"Concentrating our computing power, while seemingly weakening our intelligence, has actually strengthened our own combat power," the Daughter of the Forest said with a smile, continuing, "What is a Tier 9 world?"

"A Tier 9 world uses the terrifying hundred trillion computing power of one's own body to converge into a phenomenon of law, interfering with and influencing the rules of the outside world, becoming a world unto itself, even interfering with physical data in reality..." She spoke of the Great Joy Emperor. "In your own world, light can be curved, not just shine in a straight line. In your world, any incoming attack energy can be transformed into light and reflected by mirrors."

"And the Three Pillar Gods directly seized ninety-nine percent of the computing power of billions of beings. This terrifying computing power, when gathered, can form a colossal central processor for phenomena of law."

"We, these sub-computer modules scattered everywhere, are like network cables, sending request commands, praying to the unseen destiny, borrowing the main computer's computing power to use phenomena of law." The Daughter of the Forest exclaimed, "Yes, everyone can use phenomena of law, distorting the world's rules, even those as weak as Tier 1 or Tier 2... Everyone can interfere with and distort the world's rules. Everyone can use some extraordinary rule... This power to implore the heavens to distort nature is called Arcane Art!"

Arcane Art!? Phenomenon of Law? An Arcane civilization that distorts rules? Xu Zhi felt goosebumps all over his body. Tier 1 and Tier 2... can interfere with the rules of heaven and earth, distorting the reality of light, mass, and fire. How terrifying was this entire world! One person's computing power, though strong, was limited. It was better to pool everyone's power, forcibly occupy it, and create a qualitative change... This way, everyone could pray to the central core and gain terrifying phenomena of law! This structure was similar to a mage's magic net. But it also wasn't.

No wonder the three Pillar Gods, in their competition to evolve their races, all chose this path. Not only did it centralize power, making their subordinate races weaker and less of a threat to themselves, but it also significantly boosted the race's combat power and enhanced their own supercomputing abilities to deduce worldlines, allowing them to contend against other Pillar Gods.

"Arcane arts, huh? Very wondrous things," Xu Zhi chuckled.

"Indeed," the Daughter of the Forest said. "Although our computing power has been forcibly restricted, the stronger one is, the greater their own computing power, and the more resources they can calculate and obtain... The arcane models we build and construct also become formidable. We've all been forcibly entered into the Arcane Era. Our intelligence and computing power have weakened, but undeniably, our combat power has become incredibly exaggerated."

"The Demon Core, though still called 'Demon Core' by some in this distant era eight hundred years later, is more commonly referred to as: Arcane Crystal." She continued, "At the same time, it has branched into many Arcane areas: Summoning, Spirit, Necromancy, Life, Elemental, and various others. One can choose a specialization and build similar arcane models."

Xu Zhi's heart shivered. "This time, the Three Pillar Gods are even more ruthless... As the unseen 'racial destiny,' they directly plundered the vast majority of their entire race's computing power, reducing them to ordinary people."

"This is a blockchain civilization! Everyone is forced to mine with their computing power. Every Arcanist is mining Bitcoin... No, Arcane Coin?" The so-called Arcane areas of Summoning, Spirit, Necromancy, aren't they just different areas of a blockchain? Distributed data storage, dividing people into blocks! Trendy, fashionable, advanced!

So that's it. Thinking about it, it's quite similar. Arcane civilization, it turns out, originates from blockchain? Indeed, extraordinary civilizations all have a basis in reality. Blockchain arcane arts... just like physical Buddhism and chemical Taoism. Presumably, the three Pillar Gods are three different virtual currencies, each teaching people how to mine. So that's it. The Arcane Civilization in Western legends—this is probably the legendary crypto-currency civilization!

The Daughter of the Forest extended her hand. "'Arcane Art, Kaguya,' she spoke coldly. An unseen connection descended, and a vast, complex intention, as if mixed with countless beings, dramatically sank."

Rumble! Xu Zhi seemed to see the consciousness of all the animals, plants, and humans of the entire world, countless powerful beings, converging into a colossal torrent of consciousness. Like a phantom seated on a mysterious Arcane Throne, slowly extending a hand and transferring a mysterious authority in a certain aspect into her grasp.

Whoosh! Invisible light warped, as if the surrounding light collapsed into a circle, swirling in threads. "Light curves at a certain curvature! Light is a physical substance! Light is composed of threads! Light possesses scorching properties! The temperature of light is around twelve thousand degrees Celsius!" She laughed. "These are the world laws of Arcane Art, not reality. This is a phenomenon of law! Tier 8 Arcane Art—Kaguya."

"In most battles among those of the same tier, from Tier 1 to Tier 7... Arcane Art will absolutely crush any attack from a unified tier."

Xu Zhi was awestruck. Yes. It was too terrifying. Tier 3, Tier 4... they could tap into the unseen will of the race, use pseudo-phenomena of law, and affect and distort the natural laws of reality. How could one fight against that in the same tier? They held an absolute advantage. Arcane Art was undoubtedly one of the most powerful magic types at its level, almost without equal.

"Of course, cultivating Arcane Art now requires building arcane models, which is incredibly complex and terrifying knowledge. Every Arcanist is a powerful and knowledgeable person," the Daughter of the Forest looked up. "The era has truly changed. What is an Arcanist? An Arcanist borrows core computing power, allowing even the most ordinary of us to bypass conditions and study unseen phenomena of law..."

"As we ourselves grow stronger, we gain more powerful computing power. The arcane arts we explore and develop, the phenomena of law we open up, will also feed back to the Pillar Gods... strengthening each other."

Xu Zhi stopped speaking. The Pillar Gods were indeed terrifying. The billions of Arcanists across the land not only provided conventional supercomputing power but also contributed their wisdom, inspiration, and talent, allowing them to cross the computing power threshold of weak Tier 9. Everyone could leverage 'destiny' to study phenomena of law. After all, pure computational power, no matter how strong, was rigid and found it difficult to forge new paths, but with powerful individuals providing ideas and talent, it was different. This was an era of scientific research that gathered the wisdom of the entire populace, where every strong cultivator could research and explore countless Tier 9 phenomena!

Though externally, it still appeared medieval. "This side is also exploring Tier 9! However, their direction of exploration is the phenomena of law of Tier 9, various applications, and pseudo-law spells of Tier 9," Xu Zhi murmured. To be governed by unseen destiny, perhaps it wasn't so bad after all? Moreover, Tier 8 Arcane Art, the Great Prophecy, could communicate with the Pillar Gods and foresee some distant future. It truly formed its own system.

Only then did Xu Zhi understand why they still maintained a medieval city-state era. Because there was no need to further advance their civilization. Anyone who underestimated them, thinking they were merely weak, primitive city-state civilizations, with Arcanists being just ordinary mages, would surely suffer a great loss!

At the same time, they now appeared harmonious and peaceful. It was a very ordinary medieval era with ordinary mortals. Only upon true contact would one realize that each of them was a terrifying pathogen, an infectious catastrophe. Their external facade was too strong!

Xu Zhi's eyelids twitched. They were thought to be a weak indigenous world, but who knew they were actually a truly super weak Tier 9 civilization.

"Overlord of Ancient Gods, what is your intention in coming here?" the Daughter of the Forest smiled. "Where is the First Generation Corpse Emperor, the Holy Cherry Blossom Dynasty, Emperor Sakura?"

"Gone to another realm, hasn't been here for a long time. Just checking on the development of the era," Xu Zhi didn't hide anything.

The Daughter of the Forest didn't speak further but offered warm hospitality. She brought out her finely brewed wine and told Xu Zhi some interesting stories of these times, about the passionate Subaru and Du Xue. She told Xu Zhi that this era was actually quite good. A stone dropped, its trajectory first existed, then was predicted. It was their era that first had its own ideas, doing what they desired, and then their trajectories were calculated by the Pillar Gods.

Wine flowed into their troubled hearts. "Thank you, truly, thank you so much, for letting us back then decide our own destiny and defeat the Great Joy Emperor. The era is still a three-way standoff," the Daughter of the Forest's voice was almost hoarse. She drank to drunkenness, crying, laughing, and making a commotion.

"Our choices have never been truly interfered with," the Daughter of the Forest pointed at the sky, unable to help but shout, "It is we who decide destiny, not destiny that decides us!"