The business of the Blazing Flame Merchant Guild now spans the Shattered Sea.
Leaders of oases discovered that they could even purchase mythical-grade puppet, the Blade of Radiance, here. With such a puppet, an oasis could be secured for generations to come.
Even Bolai Zemeng was envious.
The inheritance of Starfall City might also face a generational gap. If the royal family could retain a mythical puppet, it would provide a safeguard.
However, he dismissed the thought of purchasing one.
Times have changed!
Calamity is imminent!
Spending a fortune on a mythical puppet was not very sensible. It would be better to acquire more resources and cultivate the new generation; perhaps one or two mythical beings could be nurtured.
Bolai Zemeng felt this was a sound strategy and withdrew his accumulated wealth to visit the Blazing Flame Mall to purchase treasures.
His most desired item was the Water of Origin, which could enhance potential. However...
"I'm very sorry, but our guild does not have such treasures either. May I recommend Pure Divine Radiance to you, dear customer?" Bai Yansi spread her hands.
The organization had the Water of Origin, but it was no longer sold to the public. Only those with the 'Ignited Flame·Torchbearer' or higher authority were eligible to purchase it, and only for their own use.
Bai Yansi had purchased a set.
Bolai Zemeng was not the first, nor would he be the last, to seek out their guild for the Water of Origin in recent days.
But if they didn't have it, they didn't have it.
Unless the demigods of the Four Hegemons personally arrived, the Blazing Flame Merchant Guild would reluctantly grant a favor.
They were even instructed,
"This is the last portion."
In the past half-year, new mythical beings must have emerged from the various hegemons.
Fang You could faintly perceive the influence of the Hand of the Unseen on destiny, faint but present.
The probability of the Six Senses ascending to divinity might have increased by 3-4%. The more talented the individual, the more favored they were, and the greater the chance of ascension.
However, statistically, it still seemed like a small number, but...
"In the past, only a very few Six Senses would attempt mythical awakening. Now, the number of Six Senses who attempt it will significantly increase."
Granted, the death rate remained high, but once they broke through this chasm and advanced to divinity, even the most ordinary mythical being, one that could only serve as a unit of measurement, would soar to the heavens.
This was the glorious era preceding the impending calamity.
Although it was also accompanied by piles of withered bones, failures were not worthy of a name and were not noticed. Only those who crossed the threshold of life and death to attain divinity could step into the light and enjoy the cheers of the crowd.
This, in turn, would trigger a wave of promotions, causing more and more dreamers to throw themselves into the fray.
"This is not a bad thing."
"But it also means the calamity is very close, and what we lack most now is time."
Time...
Fang You thought of the Time Pavilion, that supreme treasure.
The effect of the Year and Time Secret Realm was undeniable, but its other two major abilities remained sealed. He had tried many methods, feeding it divine sources, touching it with laws, tapping and hitting it, etc., all without any reaction.
He could only set it aside in resignation.
"Master..."
Xiao Huan, clinging to the edge of the panel, jumped out of it with a whoosh. "There's news, big news."
"We just received intel that a hegemonic force has already successfully promoted to a Level Nine Oasis!"
Oh!
This proved the prophecy of Sage Cang Tu to be correct, and this force was acting with considerable speed.
"Which force is it, and is there any specific intel on their promotion process?"
"It's the Winterless Empire~" Xiao Huan replied.
Fang You was not surprised.
While the Northern Grim Realm was relatively weaker in the west, the Winterless Empire was its sole super-hegemon. The overall strength of this empire surpassed that of Crimson Lotus, Ancient Moon, and Seven Stars, making it the second-largest human force after the Central Sacred Court.
The territory occupied by the Central Sacred Court was not an oasis.
Xiao Huan sat on a materialized swing, kicking her legs. "The Winterless Empire did not conceal their promotion, and they seem to be preparing to promote a second Level Nine Oasis. However, the Winterless Empire has a very tight blockade on intelligence regarding the specific process..."
"It's not impossible to obtain this intelligence, but, emmmm, it will cost money!"
And it was very, very expensive!
She looked reluctant.
But Fang You believed this money had to be spent. The Winterless Empire's charging for intelligence was also reasonable. After all, the Winterless Empire was the first nation to successfully promote to a Level Nine Oasis, taking on greater risks. There was no reason for them to share intelligence for free.
If it weren't for the Spark of Hope Academy being a major ally of the Human Alliance, he wouldn't even have a channel to purchase this intelligence.
There were two parts to the intelligence.
One was the conditions required for promotion to a Level Nine Oasis;
The second was the tribulations encountered during the promotion process.
Spark of Hope naturally only purchased the latter. Even so, Xiao Huan exclaimed, "It's too expensive! Damn it, I'll definitely earn it back double from the Winterless Empire in the future!"
The intelligence provided by the Winterless Empire was quite detailed.
The entire 'tribulation' process lasted a full three days.
That's right, the biggest difference in the tribulation of an oasis's promotion to the ninth level compared to previous ones was its extremely long duration, with attacking ominous creatures appearing endlessly.
Even if a mythical being could obliterate countless ominous creatures with a wave of their hand, they couldn't possibly last for three days. There had to be enough powerful individuals rotating, and a sufficient number of mid-tier soldiers to continuously resist the ominous creatures.
To promote to a Level Nine Oasis, sustainment was crucial!
"Sufficient potions and all sorts of supplies must be prepared. You must be ready for a super large-scale war."
Naturally, the intensity of the attacking ominous creatures far surpassed anything before, being more than several dozen times that of a six-to-seven promotion.
From time to time, ominous creatures would even emerge from within the oasis, keeping people on their toes.
The first oasis in the Winterless Empire to promote to Level Nine was not the royal capital. During the promotion war, their entire super city suffered considerable damage, with countless casualties.
During this period, the Winterless Empire experienced a total of 36 waves of 'internal attacks,' all of which were described in detail, truly reflecting the value of this intelligence.
Spark of Hope already had experience in dealing with these ominous creatures that suddenly appeared from within the oasis.
Starfire Oasis's six-to-seven and seven-to-eight promotions, as well as Blazing Flame Oasis's six-to-seven promotion, had all encountered them, albeit on a much smaller scale than the Winterless Empire.
Fang You's method of dealing with them was to leave sufficient mythical combat power and defensive measures within the city.
For example, setting up numerous defensive rituals within the city... this needed to be emphasized.
Because, as the gray fog surged, ominous creatures directly appeared inside the oasis city, ignoring the external defensive formations of the oasis.
If one was unaware of this and placed their safety in the hands of the city's protective formations, they would suffer heavy losses.
"Hmm, we also need to build enough Dawn Lighthouses within Starfire Oasis; one isn't enough, so ten; ten aren't enough, so sixty-six."
As for transferring the civilians within the oasis to other cities before the war?
The Winterless Empire explicitly advised against it in their intelligence. However, they welcomed anyone who wished to try and report the results.
Oases and their inhabitants were interdependent.
Oases provided humans with a place to live, and humans provided oases with vitality, helping them to grow.
A moment's thought would reveal that if an oasis lost its humans, it might not be able to withstand the erosion of filth during its promotion tribulation, leading to the oasis shrinking, withering, or even being directly destroyed.
Therefore, during the promotion, not only should the humans living there not be relocated, but more people should be brought in if possible.
This was all for the sake of the oases, for the future of the empire!
Fang You flipped through the intelligence and summoned Black Blade, An Jianyou, Liu Feng, and others to discuss countermeasures.
Promotion could not be rushed.
Even from the descriptions in the Winterless Empire's intelligence, he found it troublesome. Furthermore, Starfire Oasis had only existed for a short time. According to past patterns, they would face even more severe promotion wars than other regions.
They must prepare thoroughly.
"We must ensure the safety of every citizen of the oasis."
...
Starfire Oasis had already begun preparing for the promotion war. Now that they had the intelligence, their preparations became more targeted.
They built numerous shelters within the oasis and invested heavily in legendary defensive rituals upon them.
This expenditure made Xiao Huan exclaim in heartache.
But she understood it was a necessary expense, and watching the resource numbers plummet left her teary-eyed.
Spark of Hope was still preparing.
Having obtained the intelligence from the Winterless Empire, various hegemonic forces, who had already fortified their oases like impenetrable fortresses, successively launched their assaults towards Level Nine Oases.
The foundations and power of the hegemonic forces were revealed for all to see.
Following the Winterless Empire, Crimson Lotus, Ancient Moon, and Seven Stars, the three great hegemons, were promoted.
Subsequently, four of the seven great nations of Cloud Radiance also cultivated Level Nine Oases, and for a time, the human world entered a period of booming promotion wars.
Seeing this, Fang You was not surprised.
"Water Overflow Nation's Turbulent Flow Port, with only one or two mythical beings as guardians, could withstand the fierce attacks of several demigods solely with its ritual formations. This indicates how stable the oasis defenses of these hegemonic forces are."
"Moreover, human hegemons do not fight alone. They can summon many powerful reinforcements during promotion wars."
For instance, the seven great nations of Cloud Radiance had close ties. Their royal families often intermarried. For example, Princess Mia of Cloud Map Nation's mother was from the Ancient Wood Royal Family. With these connections, the seven nations could summon many mythicals with close relationships.
The Seven Stars Alliance, Ancient Moon Dynasty, and Crimson Lotus Empire in the Shattered Sea did not have as close ties as the seven great nations, but they still had intermarriages.
No promotion failures or oasis collapses had occurred yet.
But that did not mean there were no losses.
Among them, Water Overflow Nation's promotion war encountered an accident. It was unclear whether it was interference from a servant of an evil god or simply bad luck, but during the promotion of Water Overflow King's Capital Oasis, it was attacked by a high-level ominous creature.
Water Overflow Nation was not unprepared. They paid a great price to summon a resurrected ancient god and deployed a divine-demonic weapon, forcefully killing the high-level ominous creature.
However, during this process, several eight-star ominous creatures and over twenty seven-star ominous creatures appeared within the Water Overflow Nation's oasis.
This resulted in immense losses for Water Overflow King's Capital, and nearly caused the defense line to collapse.
During the promotion war, several mythical beings also perished in Water Overflow Nation.
Their royal capital was now a Level Nine Oasis. However, with the loss of countless awakened individuals and important structures, it was difficult to say whether Water Overflow Nation had profited or lost from this battle.
Witnessing the dire state of Water Overflow Nation, the remaining three nations of the seven great nations of Cloud Radiance hastily hit the brakes. They felt they needed to prepare more and only begin their promotion when everything was foolproof, lest their entire royal capital be nearly destroyed like Water Overflow Nation.
"There are two more pieces of good news~"
Xiao Huan swung her legs:
"The first is that the evil god faction is fighting even more fiercely. According to eyewitnesses, battles between factions are constantly erupting in the Grim World. Many, many servants of evil gods have already perished. Perhaps if the evil god faction destroys itself, we will be out of danger."
This idea was perhaps too optimistic.
However, wars between evil god factions were far more brutal than evil god servants fighting humans; they were truly fighting with brains... He could attest to this; he had seen it through Thousand Faces' perspective.
If not for Thousand Faces' fully developed self-preservation abilities, an ordinary mythical being like him/her would likely have died several times over.
"The second piece of news is that more and more ancient gods have been appearing recently, spreading divine miracles in some oases."
"According to common perception, these ancient gods are recovering, or gradually healing their injuries and returning with their strength."
This was indeed good news.
Regardless of the ancient gods' disposition, at least for now, humanity and the ancient gods shared a common enemy.
Ancient gods were individually scarce but immensely powerful. Pure ancient gods were all high-level existences, but many ancient gods had perished or were injured. Injured ancient gods needed human power to recover.
Many years ago, human oases had established a cooperative relationship of worship with ancient gods.
The notarization ritual utilized the mighty power of an ancient god.
Of course, there were also many unreliable existences among the ancient gods. The ancient god 'Lord of Ten Thousand Tentacles' worshipped by the Land of Nightfall never even appeared as a shadow on the night the Land of Nightfall was destroyed.
Fang You did not have ancient god reinforcements of his own, nor did he wish to bring in an ancient god of unknown origin.
Seeking strong reinforcements from other hegemonic forces? Possible, but unnecessary.
He had not publicly revealed his preparations for Starfire Oasis yet, let alone sought external aid. He wasn't even planning to call upon the hundred or so peripheral mythicals who had graduated from Spark of Hope Academy.
Except for a few individuals like Yi Yueluxi, for the city defense battle, he only summoned the core powerhouses of Spark of Hope.
Master Ming Deng, Gou Ping'an, Roland, Shi Yunxi, Anna, and others.
This group of individuals who had grown with Spark of Hope and entered the mythical realm was smaller in number than the former group, but there were still dozens of them! In terms of combat power, they were far superior to the peripheral mythicals from the Cloud Radiance Great Domain. They had laid a perfect foundation during the stages of Awakening One to Six.
An Jianyou and other core members of the organization, of course, had to be present.
Xitina, Xing Jinglei, and others from the Blazing Flame Mall were also there. As for which one would remain to guard the Blazing Flame Mall? None of Yi Luo Xi and the others wanted to stay, so the responsibility of guarding fell to Bai Yansi. She was already a mythical being, and guarding a Level Seven Oasis should be manageable.
Starfire Oasis's war preparations were gradually entering a critical phase.
Mythical powerhouses carrying out missions outside were progressively transferring their work and arriving at Starfire City.
The waiting time was not wasted; the mythicals began to cultivate. They were all elites trained by Black Blade and would not waste a single moment.
An Jianyou, Black Blade, and other core powerhouses of the organization entered the final sprint stage.
"Ding!"
"Notification: Apostle of Destiny · An Jianyou has been promoted to an Eight-Awakening Demigod. Click the panel to view Apostle details."
"Notification: Apostle of Destiny · Black Blade has been promoted to an Eight-Awakening Demigod. Click the panel..."
"Notification: Apostle of Destiny · Xitina has been promoted to an Eight-Awakening Demigod. Click the panel..."
They were promoted one after another.
Due to limited resources, currently, only Liu Feng, Zhou Bao, An Jianyou, Black Blade, and Xitina were the first-tier fostered by the organization, and they could enjoy the longest duration in the Time Secret Realm.
Yi Luo Xi, Xing Jinglei, Liu Shang, Qian Qiu, and others were in the second tier of cultivation.
Their progress was also very rapid.
Especially since many of them had gradually mastered the power of laws that could only be wielded by high-level existences, their combat power surged. Even if they hadn't reached the peak of the mythical path, they could contend with demigods.
"We have over ten elite generals, why should we fear mere ominous creatures?"
As the scheduled time approached, the atmosphere within Starfire City grew increasingly solemn. However, both ordinary citizens and awakened individuals were filled with confidence, stemming from past victories.
The inextinguishable flame of humanity would eventually dispel the gray fog!
Within the city, Fang You measured the land, inspected defensive weapons, and began to review data.
The permanent population of Starfire City exceeded thirty million, and among these ordinary citizens, the awakening rate was as high as 5%. This meant that there were over 1.5 million awakened individuals within the oasis!
However, these were only ordinary awakened individuals who had only received basic combat training, so Fang You had no intention of deploying them to the front lines.
The ones truly prepared for combat were the elite soldiers transferred from Blue Star, various oases, and domain strongholds.
They all had a cultivation level of Awakening Four or above, beyond the ordinary.
With Blue Star as a stable rear base and a population of billions within Blue Star, as long as resources were sufficient, Spark of Hope could cultivate countless elite soldiers of Awakening Four or above.
The soldiers who came to Starfire City to participate in the battle exceeded fifty thousand.
Mythical powerhouses totaled 52, not including puppet combat power.
Among them, Liu Shang, Yi Luo Xi, Xing Jinglei, and Qian Qiu possessed mythical-level combat power.
Demigod powerhouses included Fang You himself, Liu Feng, Zhou Bao, An Jianyou, Black Blade, and Xitina. An Jianyou and the others had just entered the demigod realm, but they were by no means weak among demigods.
Especially An Jianyou.
She really didn't have time to construct a demigod Dharma form, but when did her battles ever require her to personally enter the fray?
She had prepared many trump cards for this promotion war.
Black Blade was similar; the absence of a Dharma form would not affect him as much, and he also did not intend to construct a conventional Dharma form.
Only Xitina might be a bit lacking.
Everything was ready, only the battle remained!
"The time has come."