The hall was vast and brightly lit! Yet, what met Xing Chen’s eyes left him utterly dumbfounded!
For hanging from the ceiling of the hall were electric lamps! And at the entrance to the hall, there was an automated electronic door!
Electric lamps, electric doors! These marvels, nearly forgotten by Xing Chen who hailed from modern society, actually existed in this mysterious world!
What shocked Xing Chen even more was a large area on the hall’s wall, resembling a screen, vividly displaying a desert scene! Impossible, it was a computer screen, and a massive one only seen in science fiction films!
Was this modern society, or the Marfa World? For a moment, Xing Chen even suspected he might be dreaming!
But then, remembering that he carried Lan Ye—something far surpassing modern technological civilization—in his mind, Xing Chen didn’t feel so surprised after all! After all, Lan Ye was originally created by Wolong Manor!
The obedient Xiao Mei placed steaming hot or refreshingly cool drinks before him! They were beverages Xing Chen was familiar with to the core: milk coffee, cola, and beer!
This sight nearly brought Xing Chen to tears of emotion! Heavens!
How many years had it been since he had tasted such things! It took a good while before Xing Chen could quell the shock in his heart.
However, Nile seemed completely oblivious to the excitement and astonishment Xing Chen felt in that instant! The host and guest settled into their seats, and Nile dispensed with pleasantries, diving straight to the main topic!
Under Nile’s introduction, Xing Chen gained a general understanding of what this so-called Wolong Manor truly was! Simply put, it was a world of civilization remarkably similar to modern civilization, possessing extremely developed technology!
Of course, this was all analyzed by Xing Chen based on the sparse information Nile revealed! But what astonished Xing Chen was that such an extremely advanced civilization had existed for over thirty thousand years without any discernible progress!
It was as if it had fallen into a glacial period of historical stagnation! Modern society’s highly advanced civilization had developed rapidly only within the last two hundred years following the Industrial Revolution!
If measured by the speed of development during that era, Xing Chen couldn't even begin to imagine what Earth's society would have evolved into after thirty thousand years! Yet, as Nile continued his detailed explanation, Xing Chen finally understood why this world's civilization had remained stagnant.
The fundamental reason was the lack of resources most crucial for civilizational development! In this world, known as the Wolong Great Desert, usable resources were incredibly scarce.
The entire world’s energy relied solely on power generated from desert geothermal energy, solar energy, and wind power plants! Never mind petroleum or metals; even readily combustible wood was hard to find!
But this was only one reason! The most fundamental reason was that this civilization had suffered a massive internal schism and riot thirty thousand years prior!
Much precious technological civilization was destroyed in the conflagration of war! After the conflict settled, the subsequent civilization was established amid ruins.
Consequently, the technological civilization suffered a historical gap in its development! Take the massive computer before them, for instance; the Nile clan only gradually figured out how to operate it after several generations of exploration!
From there, civilization began its recovery, but the pace was surprisingly slow; recovering and adapting to the high-tech artifacts left by their ancestors consumed a significant amount of time! Among the civilizations already explored and researched, biotechnology and electronic technology were the first to be restored!
Thus, the people of this world possessed a profound understanding of human anatomy, genetics, and microelectronics! What shocked Xing Chen, however, was that such a highly advanced electronic and biological civilization exhibited surprisingly primitive research into warfare weaponry!
Through subtle probing, Xing Chen was astonished to discover they didn't even know what gunpowder was! This led them to favor methods of warfare that relied on the human body as the basic weapon, supplemented by biological armor crafted using advanced alchemy!
This explained why warriors who became Phoenix Heaven experts by utilizing the Phoenix Heaven Demonic Armor and the Star King Set formed the core fighting force of this world! But what truly astonished Xing Chen was this: The people of this world lacked the ability to procreate!
Women simply did not become pregnant! For the continuation of life, they relied entirely on highly developed biotechnology, generating the next generation through cell replication and human cloning!
In other words! In three hundred centuries, not a single life in the Wolong World was born through normal conception!
Everyone was cloned and replicated! This left Xing Chen profoundly shocked, yet not entirely unexpected!
After all, Yue Ying and Zhan Lang had already subjected him to so much, so much upheaval! In summary, this was a society with an extremely developed technological civilization, yet simultaneously a mutilated, incomplete civilization.
This was Xing Chen's perception of the Wolong Civilization! Of course, this was not what concerned Xing Chen the most!
What he truly cared about was the relationship between the Wolong Clan and the Nile Clan! Under Nile's introduction, Xing Chen learned that the people of the Wolong World were not entirely monolithic!
Conflict and opposition existed among them. But to trace the historical roots, one had to return thirty thousand years!
No one knew the origin of the Wolong Clan's civilization; not even Nile, who was a member of it. To them, everything existing and everything possessed in this world seemed natural and self-evident!
The earliest documented history of the Wolong World was found in an ancient book titled Wolong Notes! According to that ancient scripture, a terrible war erupted in this world thirty-five thousand years prior!
Forests and green lands vanished, replaced entirely by barren, desolate desert! Wolong Notes called this year the Year of Divine Abandonment!
Divine Abandonment meant being cast aside by the gods! The world was utterly ruined, and civilization nearly collapsed!
Later, among the ravaged ruins, a surviving clan—known as the Dragon Clan—occupied the largest desert oasis and established a paradise suitable for human habitation there! This was the origin of Wolong Manor!
The person who established Wolong Manor was the first Manor Lord, Zhuge Shi, who was praised by later generations! Along with the first Manor Lord, three other key figures established Wolong Manor: Xiang Tian, Chen Xing, and Shi Ying Yue!
The descendants of these three clans inherited the sacred mission of safeguarding Wolong Manor through the ages! Consequently, they were metaphorically known as the Three Dragon Guards!
Their descendants took the surnames Xiang Tian, Chen Xing, and Ying Yue, respectively, calling themselves the Xiang Tian Clan, the Chen Xing Clan, and the Ying Yue Clan! These Three Clans were collectively known as the Three Dragon Guard Divisions!
They jointly protected the peace and tranquility of Wolong Manor! This situation persisted for a long time!
However, three thousand years after the establishment of Wolong Manor, the Xiang Tian Division within the Three Dragon Guards launched a rebellion, assassinated the then-Manor Lord, and seized the position of authority! The Chen Xing and Ying Yue Clans were caught completely off guard and ambushed by the Xiang Tian Clan, suffering heavy casualties, forcing them to retreat from Wolong Manor!
Afterward, the Ying Yue Clan built a new settlement in an oasis in the northern desert, which later became the Ying Yue Tribe! The Chen Xing Division journeyed far to the southern desert, where they established the Chen Xing Tribe!
The civilization, which had barely unified after the ruin, fragmented once more due to human ambition, and Wolong Manor plunged into prolonged warfare! The guardians within the Zodiac Twelve that Xing Chen encountered—Aries and Taurus—were defenses established by the Xiang Tian Clan to resist the Chen Xing and Ying Yue Clans!
This explained why Xing Chen was discovered immediately upon entering their territory! Of course, the discovery of Xing Chen was not limited to just Taurus and Aries!
In truth, Nile had detected him the moment Xing Chen defeated Feng Yun! But Xing Chen later used an invisibility technique to evade his pursuers, causing Nile to lose track of him!
However, the tremors caused by the battle between Xing Chen and Wei Peng, the Taurus guardian known as Old Ox, allowed Nile to track his whereabouts once again! Although Xing Chen ultimately fell to the combined assault of the two strongholds in the Taurus defense zone, the astonishing power he displayed immediately sparked an interest in Nile!
Hence, when Wei Peng and Old Ox attempted to capture Xing Chen, Nile suddenly intervened and rescued him! Through brief conversation, Xing Chen had grasped the intelligence he needed!
The existence of twelve powerful figures like Aries and Taurus gave Xing Chen the most direct understanding of Wolong Manor’s formidable strength! But Nile seemed unaware of the whereabouts of Xing Ye and Xing Zhan, leaving Xing Chen at a loss!
“Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep—” Just as Xing Chen was secretly growing anxious, a series of urgent alarms suddenly blared! Nile and Nia Xiao Mei’s expressions shifted subtly!
“What is that?” Xing Chen was equally startled! “The Xiang Tian Tribe is launching an attack!” Xiao Mei sounded nervous but remembered to explain, “This blue alert…” “Those persistent bastards again?” Xing Chen ground his teeth.
“Could it be those two from the Taurus Palace?” “The Golden Warriors are a critical force for protecting the Manor! They cannot easily leave their defense zones,” Nile said, quickly striding out of the hall!
“You should come too,” Xiao Mei and Nia followed swiftly! This location was clearly a defensive fortress.
Xing Chen followed the three through a corridor and quickly arrived at the control room! The first thing that caught his eye was the massive screen on the wall!
At that moment, the screen displayed an intense battle scene, and Xing Chen could not have imagined that what he saw was a monstrous creature of massive size and ferocious appearance! It was like giant, fiery red giant lizards!
Lizards! Fiery red lizards!
Could they be Fire Dragon Lizards! Xing Chen was momentarily speechless!
That was correct; Xing Chen was definitely not unfamiliar with these monsters, as they were the Fire Dragon Lizard warriors he had witnessed in the legendary game of his past life! According to the official explanation from the legendary game at that time, these monsters were the monstrous warriors of the Fire Dragon Legion led by the Fire Dragon Pope!
Yet, unexpectedly, such terrifying fire dragon creatures truly existed in the real Wolong Manor! These monsters were sturdier and fiercer than the Demonic Dragon creatures!
At that moment, these creatures were charging furiously toward the city gates and walls! It was evident that the city displayed on the screen was built within a certain desert, with faint clumps of lush green visible around it!
But now, the ground was piled high with corpses, and the scarlet snowmelt stained the vibrant green in shocking shades of blood-red! And facing these monstrous beasts were warriors clad in armor!
Judging by the style, they were wearing Demonic Heaven Armor, Thunder Armor, and so on! Although Demonic Heaven Armor and Thunder Armor were not unknown on the Marfa Continent, they were never seen in the sheer numbers displayed on the screen!
A massive swath of human warriors, densely packed, were all wearing this rare and powerful equipment from the Marfa Continent! At this moment, these armored warriors, wielding blades and swords, were fearlessly engaging these huge monsters in fierce combat!
The figures on the screen exhibited extremely high combat effectiveness! On the ground, in the sky—wherever one looked, their figures swept across the battlefield!
“The target is Daluo Fengyin Oasis,” stated a tall, sharp-featured woman with green hair in front of the computer screen! Upon seeing Xing Chen, the woman paused slightly before smiling faintly and nodding in greeting!
“Daluo Fengyin Oasis is also a branch of the Ying Yue Tribe!” Xiao Mei, standing beside him, automatically acted as Xing Chen’s commentator! “See that?
That’s my sister, Lan Qi! She is one of the top Phoenix Heaven War Gods in our Nile Tribe!” Xiao Mei whispered with a smile near Xing Chen’s ear.
“It was she and Nile who pulled you out from under the nose of Taurus.” An expert! Xing Chen couldn't help but observe Lan Qi, who stood before the screen with a stern expression!
Her features were delicate, her demeanor cold, and her brows held the resolute strength unique to soldiers! It was clear she was a stoic, iron-willed soldier!
Xing Chen inexplicably felt a touch of nervousness! Her towering figure was even half a head taller than Xing Zhan!
At least 1.85 meters! Yet, her perfect physical proportions did not make her appear bulky or clumsy; instead, they conveyed a strange dynamism and beauty!
Xing Chen would absolutely not underestimate her strength because she was a woman! This was the intuition of an expert!
This woman’s power was likely no less than his own! Perhaps due to the common affliction of those shorter in stature, Xing Chen sorrowfully realized he only reached her shoulder!
Xing Chen’s height was already 1.75 meters, which wouldn't be considered short in his previous life, but now— Among everyone present, only the petite and exquisite Xiao Mei seemed shorter than him! This was truly discouraging!
Of course, such thoughts were instantly cast aside by Xing Chen! The intense battle scene on the screen left Xing Chen with no mind for anything else!
Xing Chen had witnessed many large-scale spectacles, but a chaotic battle involving such a massive number of Demonic Heaven and Thunder Warriors was a first for him! There were at least over two thousand combatants!
Across the five empires of the Marfa Continent combined, the number of Demonic Heaven Armors barely reached a hundred sets! Yet, here, a mere small tribal branch possessed such a vast contingent of Demonic Heaven Warriors, Thunder Warriors, Blazing Mages, and Radiant Taoists!
What shocked Xing Chen even more was that despite the sheer numbers of Demonic Heaven and Thunder Warriors, they could not withstand the onslaught of the monstrous creatures! Often, after a single exchange, they were torn to shreds, a gruesome sight!
It wasn't that the warriors weren't strong, but that the Fire Dragon creatures were overwhelmingly and perversely powerful! The entire battle concluded in less than fifteen minutes, leaving behind only widespread ruins, scattered limbs and severed remains, and indistinct chunks of flesh across the wreckage—a truly horrifying sight!
“Ah! How could this be!” Xing Chen found it hard to believe.
“So many Demonic Heaven Warriors, Thunder Warriors, and Blazing Mages, yet they couldn't hold against those monsters?” Xiao Mei sighed with some helplessness. “The might of the Fire Dragon Lizards is far beyond what Thunder and Demonic Heaven armor can resist.
Even a Phoenix Heaven level War God would only flee upon encountering them.” “Knowing this, why did you let them engage the Fire Dragon Lizards?” Xing Chen asked. “They were merely bio-warriors meant to cover the tribe’s retreat,” Xiao Mei explained.
“Bio-warriors.” Xing Chen was dumbfounded. Did that mean they were tools of war without thought or emotion, just like Yue Ying?
“They were manufactured solely for combat,” Nile stated, his calm expression touched with a helpless ache as he gazed at the scene on the screen. In truth, who among those present hadn't been manufactured by a bio-factory, only for different purposes!
Strictly speaking within Wolong Manor, everyone was a bio-human, as none of them were born through natural conception. Yet, even so, bio-humans manufactured by the bio-factory were divided into two categories!
One category was those endowed with personality, capable of thinking like humans; within Wolong Manor, they were called Successors! The term Successor meant the continuation of civilization!
Except for not being conceived naturally, all other aspects of their growth were no different from real humans. They received education from childhood and, upon maturity, were assigned roles to become functional members of society.
They were the backbone that constituted the Wolong Civilization! The other category was consumables!
After being removed from artificial gestation, the bio-human larvae, before they could fully mature, had their brains modified through specialized processes and specific programs implanted! Some of these programs were specialized combat systems designed purely for fighting!
Others were auxiliary systems designed to serve the Successors. Stripped bare, they were nothing more than intelligent robots inhabiting human bodies!
Yue Ying belonged to this latter category! However, unlike generic consumables, Yue Ying possessed an additional backup personality system!
This so-called personality system was stored in the form of data within Yue Ying’s memory chip! When facing issues that the intelligent program could not resolve, these personality systems would automatically trigger, causing the dormant personality to awaken and thoroughly resolve the current problem!
Just as Zhan Lang could automatically trigger the pre-backed-up personality system—the War Maniac—based on the combat power displayed by Xing Chen and Yue Ying. In a sense, Zhan Lang had been reborn at that time!
However, Zhan Lang’s memories after this rebirth were not entirely genuine; they were memories that had been artificially added or deleted! In other words, his memories, even his thoughts, were nothing more than a set of modified data!
All this data modification served only one ultimate purpose: to equip Zhan Lang with higher intelligence to fulfill his mission! And Yue Ying, perhaps, was the same!
This was the reality of Wolong Manor: a highly developed, yet cruelly deformed society!