Chapter 146: Intelligence and Plans (Part 1)

Six months of Earth time later.

A giant dragon, its entire body embedded with massive mechanical structures, soared into the sky.

With a flash of its form, it rapidly tore through space, shooting hundreds of thousands of kilometers away in an instant.

Meanwhile, the city it left behind was reduced to complete ruin.

A World Master, bearing strange patterns across his head, roared with a voice containing boundless fury: "Investigate! How on earth did the outsiders sneak in?! Find out everything and root them out!"

"Also, immediately report to the 'Ancestral God Cult' that outsiders have descended upon our world!"

He had not suffered any severe physical injuries, but his soul had sustained considerable damage from the torture of "Soul Searching."

However, to this lofty and supreme World Master, physical injury was a trivial matter.

To have a mere Universe-level weakling successfully execute a "Soul Searching" technique on him was nothing short of supreme humiliation!

Admittedly, part of the reason was that the opponent possessed a pile of bizarre technological equipment that heavily suppressed his spiritual willpower and consciousness.

Yet, no matter the reason, for a dignified "Sanctuary powerhouse" to have his soul and memories pried into by a mere "Sky-grade" fellow was an intolerable disgrace that could only be washed away with blood!

However, his investigation was destined to yield no results whatsoever.

The Void Dragon's "Phase Jump" was an almost unbeatable method for escaping and traveling for anyone below the level of a封王 (King-class) Immortal.

This was already the fifth city guarded by a World Master that Jiang Chen had raided within the short span of half a year.

His clone would infiltrate, suppress the strongest entity in the city using his mechanical legion, extract intelligence via soul searching, and then swiftly make his getaway aboard the Void Dragon mecha.

Though the methods were simple and brutal, the efficiency was astonishingly high.

On Planet Visca, a World Master was already considered a regional powerhouse, exposed to higher tiers of society and wielding higher-level intelligence.

Through consecutive soul searches on multiple World Masters, Jiang Chen had acquired a massive amount of classified information regarding Planet Visca.

When pieced together, the intelligence concerning the "Ancestral God Cult," the "Blood God Fruits," and the "Ancestral God Tombs" formed an extremely clear and comprehensive roadmap in Jiang Chen's mind.

Deep within a wasteland, the Void Dragon mecha landed in a valley and was promptly stowed away by Jiang Chen into his world ring.

Finding a secluded cave at random, Jiang Chen continued to organize the intelligence he had gathered this time.

"Judging from the memories of these World Masters, at least on the surface, the 'Ancestral God Cult' has over a hundred Immortal Gods. More than twenty of them guard the 'Ancestral God Tombs,' and over forty are stationed at the Ancestral God Cult's headquarters, 'Ancestral God City.' The remaining thirty-some immortals either garrison important cities across Planet Visca or serve as envoys patrolling various regions."

As Jiang Chen organized the information in his mind, he could not help but feel a lingering headache.

Over a hundred Immortal Gods, even when scattered, formed a formidable force.

If they were all the most ordinary of immortals, that would still be manageable.

However, if even one or two of them reached the Marquis level, given Jiang Chen's current strength, it would be extremely difficult to defeat them without paying a heavy price.

And this referred merely to the twenty-odd Immortal Gods guarding the "Ancestral God Tombs."

If he were to face the forty-plus immortals in "Ancestral God City," even if all of them were the most ordinary Immortal Gods, the outcome of a clash with the mechanical legion's current strength would remain highly unpredictable.

Should any among them possess slightly stronger combat prowess, Jiang Chen would undoubtedly face certain defeat.

If he truly sought absolute safety, his best option would be to target those immortals who were "isolated" out in the open.

Combining the Void Dragon mecha with the combat power of the mechanical legion, Jiang Chen was fully confident in defeating or even killing ordinary immortals.

Only if the opponent reached the level of a Marquis would they possibly manage to escape under the siege of the mechanical legion.

Successfully hunting down a single immortal practically guaranteed him a "Blood God Fruit."

The isolated immortals outside alone represented over thirty "Blood God Fruits."

Unfortunately, among the memories of these World Masters, Jiang Chen failed to find any name lists or whereabouts regarding the higher-ranking "Divine Children."

Such classified information was not something ordinary World Masters were qualified to access.

Furthermore, there was a high probability that those higher-ranking "Divine Children" had already consumed "Blood God Fruits."

Having gone through all the trouble of visiting Planet Visca, Jiang Chen naturally hoped to acquire as many "Blood God Fruits" as possible.

Apart from the living powerhouses of the Ancestral God Cult, the corpses of the Immortal Gods buried within the "Ancestral God Tombs" could also be used to extract "Blood God Fruits."

However, Jiang Chen was unsure whether the "Ancestral God Cult" had already extracted the Blood God Fruits from those corpses.

If they had not, it meant the number of "Blood God Fruits" available for Jiang Chen to plunder on this planet could increase by quite a margin.

Yet, all of this presupposed that Jiang Chen was capable of dealing with the group of immortals belonging to the Ancestral God Cult.

There were at least a hundred immortals on the surface, and Jiang Chen had no way of knowing if any were hidden in the shadows.

Facing this magnitude of enemies in a direct head-on conflict left Jiang Chen with zero chance of winning.

The only viable path was to find a way to weaken the strength of the Ancestral God Cult first, and only when they had been weakened to a sufficient degree, launch a decisive strike to conquer them.

Alternatively, he could find ways to enhance himself, granting himself enough strength to simultaneously deal with over a hundred Immortal Gods.

After analyzing for a moment, Jiang Chen's consciousness entered the Virtual Universe and submitted an application to the Virtual Universe system.

A moment later, a call invitation came through.

"Your Highness Jiang Chen, how may I assist you?" asked the Virtual Universe Company employee with an extremely respectful attitude.

Jiang Chen got straight to the point and stated his request: "I would like to ask, if I exchange for resources in the treasury, can the delivery location be set inside the mission world?"

"Inside the mission world?" The employee sounded somewhat surprised, but immediately replied, "Apologies, Your Highness. According to the rules of the Virtual Universe Company, to ensure the fairness of the training missions, we are not permitted to deliver treasures into mission worlds."

Jiang Chen pursued the matter further: "If they are delivered to the entrance of the mission world, and I go out to retrieve them myself before returning to the mission world, would that count as a mission failure?"

"I am sorry, Your Highness, that is not allowed. Once you enter a mission world, there are only two ways to leave: either successfully complete the mission, or voluntarily abandon the mission, which counts as a failure. Furthermore, you cannot re-enter the mission world once you leave. Every Highness is only permitted to enter a specific mission world once in a lifetime."

The employee's reply left Jiang Chen somewhat disappointed.

Nonetheless, Jiang Chen did not say much more; he expressed his gratitude and hung up the call.

Since the Virtual Universe Company did not permit it, purchasing massive amounts of materials to enhance the mechanical legion's combat power for the purpose of dealing with the Ancestral God Cult was unviable.

However, Jiang Chen had no intention of giving up.

Using the intelligence gathered from the minds of several World Masters, Jiang Chen compiled a map of Planet Visca, clearly marking key locations such as Ancestral God City and the Ancestral God Tombs.

"Here, this continent is an area where the Ancestral God Cult's control is relatively weak. I can completely occupy this place and develop here."

Jiang Chen pondered internally: "Planet Visca possesses a very high power tier, and its production of various resources is actually quite abundant. There are numerous varieties of Class D and Class E material yields alone. Although the material types may not necessarily match what the mechanical legion needs, whether I redesign based on the available materials or simply use alchemical transformation arrays to convert them into the materials I require, I can still expand the scale of the mechanical legion."

"Occupying this continent, mining resources to mass-produce units, and expanding the mechanical legion might just achieve the goal of dealing with the Ancestral God Cult."

"Even if I fail, with the Void Dragon mecha, I can still escape."

"Very well, let's do it."

Jiang Chen made a prompt decision, boarded his spacecraft, and sped toward the opposite side of the planet.

——

Across the entirety of Planet Visca, the oceans did not account for a vast proportion, making up roughly one-fifth of the surface.

Yet they fortuitously divided the planet into three continents.

Two of them were slightly larger, encompassing about sixty percent of the planet's surface area.

The smallest continent accounted for only around twenty percent of the surface.

This smallest continent was referred to by the natives of Planet Visca as the "Abandoned Land."

This was because the region was exceptionally desolate and possessed a rather harsh environment, making it unsuitable for human habitation, with even ferocious beasts being sparse.

The population across the entire continent accounted for less than one percent of Planet Visca's total population.

This, however, conveniently suited Jiang Chen, allowing him to develop securely on this sparsely populated continent.

The spacecraft flew at an altitude of over ten thousand kilometers—a distance that happened to be the limit where detectors would not be blocked by the planet's special magnetic field.

Under the scan of the detectors, the distribution of mineral deposits within thousands of kilometers beneath the surface was recorded into Jarvis's database.

"Master, the scan is complete. Across the entire continent, there are 6,241 deposits yielding 553 types of minerals above Class C. Metallic minerals make up the majority, with only 191 non-metallic types. Among them are four Class E metal veins, though the reserves of Class E metal are very low, totaling less than 10,000 tons combined."

Jarvis reported swiftly: "Based on the detected distribution of mineral deposits and lifeforms, three regions are suitable for establishing a base; they have already been marked on the map."

Following Jarvis's words, various screens within the spacecraft's control room displayed detailed information, including mineral resource distribution, native human city distribution, and ferocious beast gathering zone maps.

Having Class E metal veins was definitely good news.

Though the reserves were low, such materials were exceptionally costly.

Ten thousand tons of Class E metal had a value that had to be calculated in Hunyuan Units.

Moreover, utilizing pure natural metal was an extremely extravagant practice.

By combining small amounts of Class E metal with Class D and Class C metals to forge alloys, as long as the formula was correct, the cost would be infinitely cheaper than pure natural metals, while the performance might even be superior.

Through a rough estimation of the mineral types and reserves shown by the detecting instruments, Jiang Chen confirmed that the mineral wealth on this "Abandoned Land" had a total value of at least two hundred million Hunyuan Units and upwards.

Naturally, it was impossible for all of these mineral deposits to be entirely suitable for manufacturing a mechanical legion.

Whether choosing to redesign at the cost of sacrificing certain performance aspects or directly utilizing alchemical arrays to convert these materials into those required by the mechanical legion, the scale of the final manufactured mechanical legion would inevitably suffer a certain "discount."

Mineral deposits worth two hundred million Hunyuan Units, when translated to the outside world and used to purchase materials from the Virtual Universe Company treasury to build a mechanical legion, would roughly equate to a scale of eighty million contribution points.

That wasn't even enough for ten "Void Dragon mechas."

Furthermore, in the absence of powerful lifeform carcasses, it was impossible to build mechas following the bio-mechanical integration approach of the "Void Dragon mecha," leaving them suited only to follow the pure mechanical structure path of [Gundam].

"Master, based on the current intelligence available, I suggest that Your Highness capture some Immortal God powerhouses or beast powerforms at the Immortal God level to serve as the core for our main combat mechas. Even if their performance falls short of the 'Void Dragon mecha,' they will still surpass ordinary [Gundam] units."

Jarvis offered another suggestion once more.

By converting immortal divine power using dark energy, supplemented by other designs, it was possible to unleash a portion of the Immortal God's combat power from their lifetime to a certain degree.

Capturing an Immortal God to serve as the core material for a main combat mecha, supplemented by other mechanical structural designs, meant that virtually every captured Immortal God equated to adding an immortal-tier combat force to the mechanical legion.

While weakening the Ancestral God Cult, he would simultaneously strengthen himself.

As long as the number of secretly killed or captured Immortal Gods was sufficient, the balance of power between the two sides would naturally be rapidly overturned.

Jiang Chen naturally understood what kind of advantage this plan would bring him should it succeed.

"Let's not rush into that just yet. First, let's establish the base. While mining the ores, we will research how to break through this planet's magnetic suppression."

Jiang Chen tapped on the map at a location marked by Jarvis as suitable for establishing a base, and said: "As for the location, we'll choose right here. Once I break the magnetic suppression of this planet and use surveillance satellites to monitor the entire world, we can slowly plot how to deal with the Ancestral God Cult."

The special magnetic suppression of Planet Visca caused various reconnaissance and communication methods to fail once they exceeded a certain range, which was extremely disadvantageous for Jiang Chen.

A technology-oriented legion doctrine inherently relied heavily on information dominance.

"Understood, Master." Jarvis immediately steered the spacecraft, flying toward the coordinates designated by Jiang Chen.

Over an hour later, the spacecraft landed amidst a mountain range.

Jiang Chen stepped out of the ship, feeling the scorching high temperature within the mountains, and furrowed his brows slightly.

With temperatures exceeding five hundred degrees Celsius, anyone with weaker strength would find it impossible to survive here.

Naturally, given Jiang Chen's strength, such a temperature was nothing, yet it still felt rather uncomfortable.

For ordinary Planet-level or Star-level beings, this was indeed a place entirely unsuited for habitation.

"With this kind of climate, no wonder it's called the 'Abandoned Land.' If they had a choice, who would want to live in a dump like this..."

Jiang Chen muttered a complaint, opened his world ring, and instructed Jarvis: "Jarvis, I'll leave the mining operation plan to you. All mining and production units are at your disposal."

As he spoke, dense arrays of various mechanical units materialized within the valley, quickly filling the entire space.