Chapter 639 Fast Forward, Everything Fast Forward!

The Aian World, the southwestern region, an uninhabited wilderness.

This place was once a fertile grassland, with numerous villages and towns establishing huge breeding bases here. Large numbers of cattle and sheep were brought out, heading towards the entire southwestern land together with hundreds of transport merchant ships.

But the disaster three years ago destroyed everything. The once-fertile land dried up, and the cattle and sheep either starved to death or were devoured alive by hungry displaced people. The people who had gathered on this grassland either became displaced or left for other places.

Migration is the daily life of people in the Aian World. Mobile cities are a matter of course, and even fixed villages often disperse for various reasons.

Meeting and parting are the main themes of this world.

However, there are always some people who, for various reasons, stay in place and refuse to leave.

For example, someone who set their old home as a teleportation origin point and didn't return for seven or eight years, not even knowing that their old home was gone.

Buzz—A circular halo appeared on the wasteland full of flying sand and gravel, and a lithe and slender figure emerged from it.

"This daddy has returned!"

A vigorous voice vibrated through the sand and wind. A young woman wearing leather armor, carrying a large crossbow, a sci-fi-style plasma gun at her waist, and holding a box that looked like armor strode out of the halo.

She had a head of fiery red shoulder-length short hair, and her eyes were golden-orange like fire. The wilderness wind blew her hair, and yellow sand crept into her neck, causing the lady, who had been in a good mood, to not react for a moment: "Wait, what is this?"

"What's going on?"

"Where's my large grassland and cattle and sheep?"

"What should I do?"

However, she quickly reacted and couldn't help shaking her head: "...Ha, what kind of development is this? Has my old home been razed to the ground by a natural disaster?"

"Fortunately, my parents died of the demonization disease long ago, otherwise I might have to pretend to shed a few tears... Hmm, there doesn't seem to be a resurrection option in the space? Forget it, forget it, even if there is, don't let the old folks come back to suffer."

After muttering to herself a few times, the red-haired lady, whose outfit was quite mismatched but overall had a wild vitality, clicked her tongue and kicked the sand and dust beside her with some displeasure: "I originally thought that since I was being sent back by the space, I could just go back to my old home and have some roast whole lamb at Old Man John's bar. I love that taste so much—now who knows if there's even such a thing anymore."

"Speaking of which, how many years have I been gone? Seven years, or eight years? Anyway... Whoa, what is this?!"

While talking to herself, the red-haired woman accidentally kicked a skull out of the sand and dust, which startled her a bit: "Sorry, buddy, I didn't mean to disturb your rest!"

As she spoke, she squatted down and poked the skull's head: "Hey, since these bones were found in my old home, you might be someone I used to know, but maybe not. Anyway, I'm sorry."

Standing up, she clasped her hands together. The red-haired woman sincerely apologized to the skeleton, then frowned and turned her head, surveying the boundless wilderness in front of her: "No matter what, this is too outrageous. Even a natural disaster couldn't have turned the Simittel Plain into this."

"And the origin energy concentration around here. As expected, the origin energy concentration in my old home is off the charts! And even more off the charts than before!"

Lowering her body, the red-haired woman, Funia, carefully pinched a bit of dust with her hand. She put it in her mouth and tasted it, then took out a similar-looking instrument and shone it against the sun in the sky, confirming: "The origin energy accumulated in the soil has increased by more than 27%, and the sunlight from the Saint Sun has indeed decreased by 5.24%. If this dimming is progressive, wouldn't it be extinguished in a few decades?"

Sighing deeply, Funia simply sat down in the sand and dust, lying on the ground. She was shoulder to shoulder with the previous skull, turning her head to complain to it: "Don't you think so? The environment in my old home is too bad. Even the [Second World-Ending Flood] I experienced last time wasn't this weird. Only Isis and the others' [Wandering Planet] was about as miserable."

"But at least the Wandering Planet can run. My old home is a flat, square continent world. What's the point of running?"

As you can see, Funia, who was talking to the skull, was an explorer of the Pioneer Space, and now, due to the Pioneer Space's repatriation operation, she had returned to her old home.

To be honest, if it wasn't for the mandatory repatriation, Funia would never return to this terrible place, the Aian World.

Not to mention that this is a continental world, and everything that can be explored has already been explored to a great extent. Even if there really are secrets buried deep in the earth... can that compare to the boundless worlds in the multiverse?

It's obvious with just a toe!

Funia was originally on a mission in another world, fighting head-on with monsters tainted with the blood of ancient gods in a gloomy, remote city. Her team had just revealed the mystery of dreams, and before they had time to rest, they were directly thrown back to their old home after treatment.

If she wasn't naturally cheerful and optimistic, this might have turned her into a depressed person.

"Hey, this broken environment in my old home is full of demonization diseases. If my strength hadn't reached the Divine Intent realm and I could suppress the demonization symptoms, I'd probably be dead by now."

Lying on the ground, feeling the yellow sand of her hometown, the red-haired lady, after being silent for a while, stood up again with vitality: "Alright, I'm already here, I can't be decadent!"

"Let's dig a grave for the bones of my old home. Although I don't know who's who, it's too scary to kick a skull out of the sand."

Two hours later, a huge pit, obviously blasted out with explosives, was scattered with a large number of scattered corpses collected from the ruins of the surrounding villages.

Funia, who had turned the mass grave into a mass burial pit, did not think about whether her actions were inappropriate.

Because she had done a good deed, she was even in a good mood, humming nursery rhymes that her parents had taught her when she was a child, and left this long-lost, yet completely unrecognizable hometown.

A few days later, the Southern Territory.

In a small town bar on the edge of the wilderness.

Wearing a mask to conceal her appearance, Funia sat at a single table by the window, enjoying a roast whole lamb.

"Not enough spices, and the meat is not tender enough, not even five-tenths as good as Old Man John's. I'll give it a passing score of forty."

Although she gave a failing grade, the explorer was still eating happily.

Recently, she had roughly figured out the current situation of the Aian World through the Pioneer module and her own information gathering.

The current continental situation is similar to when she left. The Empire is still the Empire, the barbarian tribes are still barbarian, the Yanshuang Army is still defending the Northern Territory, and the Sky Dragon nobles by the sea have not left their island fortresses.

Apart from the fact that Count Avender, who was famous in the Southern Territory, was killed and his bones were not found by a former rebel member who was incognito some time ago, there has been no major news worth noting by explorers in the past ten years or so.

"[Saint Sun Will Fade] [Dusk Descends] [Demon Moon Disaster]... These three world-class tasks are obviously not something that a small elite explorer like me can solve. At least a Peak Commander or even a Overlord-level powerhouse would have a chance, right?"

While eating roast whole lamb, Funia was very clear in her mind: "Since I'm back, I'll just mess around, enjoy the dogshit-like dirty air of my hometown, and then run away when the time comes... Saving the world is obviously not my business. It'll take an Immortal-level super powerhouse to do it!"

Funia knew very well that the meaning of an explorer's existence was to explore the unknown, but if you want to explore the location for a longer period of time, you have to be a little cowardly.

Fear, dread, and anxiety are the excellent qualities of every explorer.

Those who forget these points, either are so strong that they forget what failure tastes like, or die quickly.

"Speaking of which, I remember Count Avender too. He was a stupid idiot noble. It's good that he's dead."

Turning her thoughts back to reality, Funia couldn't help laughing. She patted the table and threw a red gold ingot at the counter: "Boss, give everyone a round, it's all on me, keep the change!"

"Oh oh oh oh! Okay!"

After accepting the red gold ingot, the bar owner, who had originally thought this somewhat crazy woman was troublesome, immediately changed his attitude. He showed a warm and friendly smile, and immediately beckoned the waiter to serve wine, and everyone in the bar cheered, raising their glasses to Funia in unison.

"The boss is generous!"

"Good fellow!"

And the red-haired lady, who loves this feeling the most and has a bit of a crowd-pleasing potential, laughed heartily, enjoying everyone's flattery.

Until a dusty man, with a girl, opened the door of the bar.

Cicero was not handsome. At most, it could be said that he looked capable because of his many years as a mercenary. Naturally, he would appear more alert and cautious with a little girl traveling around with him.

He came here to ask the local boss for some information—he could be considered an old acquaintance. Fifteen years ago, they had resisted the origin energy beasts that attacked the village together. He hoped that the other party would remember the past friendship of fighting bloody battles together.

But the moment his figure appeared, Funia's pupils under the mask widened, and her golden-orange eyes locked onto the man, even forgetting to drink, and the wine in the glass in her hand spilled on her thigh.

"Good fellow, I'm really a good fellow!"

She murmured in astonishment: "What kind of guiding technique is this guy cultivating?"

"How can his soul impurities still be reversed and reduced?!"

Funia's golden-orange eyes were actually a product of exchange. Some civilized backgrounds called them 'Fiery Eyes'. She had only exchanged for the intermediate level at the moment, and she was far from the top-level True Fiery Eyes. It only allowed her to ignore the fire of explosions, see the trajectory of bullets, and the aura derived from the human soul.

In this world, there are many demonized people. Their souls mostly appear grayish-black, turbid, and not transparent.

The souls of ordinary people appear in various colors. Even if there is occasional black, the clear black and the turbid black can be distinguished at a glance.

The moment Cicero walked into the bar, Funia noticed that both the man and the child were demonized, and their souls were grayish-black.

However, unlike all other demonized people.

The two people's souls... were 'fading' little by little, at a speed visible to the naked eye!

It was as if there was a flame that was burning the magazines out of the soul, completely restoring the soul that had been polluted by the origin energy and the instinctual will of the body!

"This difficulty is comparable to a fish not drinking water in the water, but spitting it out!"

Murmuring to herself, Funia was really stunned. She could figure out with her fingernails that this pair of father and daughter had a very high-level soul cultivation method, and they had only been cultivating for a short time, so they would show such a trend.

And this kind of cultivation method can curb the demonization disease!

At this moment, the customers in the bar were laughing—Cicero's behavior of bringing a little girl into the bar was indeed rare and worthy of a laugh. The man turned a deaf ear to this. He walked all the way to the bar counter, briefly talked to the owner who had become serious, and handed the other party a notebook filled with words.

"You may not believe it, but you can try it."

He said: "If you think it's good, you can spread it to others as you like—why would I want to deceive you? Think about it carefully, Mike, what do you have that's worth deceiving me, and what needs do I have that require deceiving you?"

After speaking, he took Cecilia's hand and turned to leave, causing another burst of laughter in the bar.

Pa.

Funia snapped her fingers.

Origin energy fluctuations clearly spread.

Boom!!!

A violent explosion appeared outside the bar, and the materialized shock wave exploded in the sky like thunder.

Instantly, the entire bar became silent.

Everyone's eyes were focused on the red-haired woman wearing a mask, their eyes full of awe.

Even Cicero's footsteps stopped in place. He stared blankly at Funia, because he could sense that the other party's eyes were focused on him.

"Hey, you over there, come here."

Without the slightest hesitation, Funia stood up directly. She walked out of the bar door and then looked back at Cicero: "Follow me, I have something to say to you."

Outside the bar, in a quiet corner of the village.

Pa.

A hand pressed on the wall next to Cicero's face. The strong origin energy fluctuations were like facing an about-to-explode factory origin energy furnace. Even if Cicero had faced Professor Svetlery's power, he could only ensure that his legs would not kneel down in trembling fear.

At this moment, Funia was proficiently reciting the Explorer's Bible: "Good brother, I want to have a win-win transaction with you—give me that guiding method that can purify the soul, and I can give you unimaginable wealth!"

"Do you want red gold, or other cultivation secrets? Your daughter's physique is not very good, right? I have enhancement nutrients without any side effects here!"

Forced buying and selling, exchanging cheap materials worth only dozens or hundreds of points in the Pioneer Space for a cultivation secret that is worth at least several thousand exploration points for opening a branch,

——Standard Pioneer behavior.

And Cicero, who understood that the strong man in front of him, who was obviously qualified to be a general in the Empire, suddenly took off his disguise and showed up in front of him, took a deep breath. He knew that the current situation was already considered good. The other party just planned to force a sale and did not do anything terrible.

So, after calming down, the man forced a smile and said: "This lady... my cultivation method is free."

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Funia raised her eyebrows. She smiled and said: "So, you want some rare materials, or other cultivation methods?"

"No, I mean to say that this cultivation method does not require any price."

Quickly correcting his statement, Cicero's heart calmed down at this moment.

He recalled what Professor Svetlery had said at the beginning, and said in a deep voice: "The creator of this technique entrusted it to me without asking for any price, and my mission is to spread this cultivation method that can save all the demonized people, so that more people can survive."

"This is my mission, I cannot charge a reward, so lady, if you want it, just take it, I guarantee it is absolutely complete, without any omissions."

Saying this, Cicero took out a booklet from his arms and handed it generously to the quite shocked Funia.

"Amazing, the guy who gave you the cultivation method... such nobility is too rare!"

Although she often talked trash and had a lively personality, Funia was not stupid. She only glanced at the booklet a few times and could completely confirm that the person who wrote this cultivation method was much stronger than her.

No, no, no, compared to her, a second-rate explorer, it would simply lower the other party's standards!

"There are hidden dragons and crouching tigers in my old home, what the hell!"

After reading the entire booklet, Funia gasped—good fellow, she only glanced at it and imitated it, and felt that her soul had become clearer.

How should I put it... Like purification, many impurities in her soul turned into smoke and scattered. Although the absolute amount was burned off a lot, what was left was essence!

A backer! A backer in my old home world!

Those tasks that seemed difficult to complete... might have a chance!

"...Do you have a way to contact that expert?"

Generously putting the booklet into her arms, Funia did not feel ashamed at all. She retracted her fist that she had used to threaten Cicero, and then took off her mask, revealing a big smile, giving a thumbs up: "Don't worry, as long as you tell me, from now on, you are my brother!"

"Uh, what I mean to say is..."

Faced with the lady in front of him, who was so enthusiastic that she was beyond common sense, so powerful that she was too much, and claimed to be an explorer, Cicero pushed the curious Cecilia behind him, as if he did not want his child to learn from such an example: "I really don't have a way to contact him, but, I think, if I spread this guiding technique to the entire Southern Territory... Professor, he will definitely know!"

"Oh?" And Funia keenly grasped the place where the other party believed in his words: "Indeed, if you have any achievements, then the other party will definitely know, pay attention... Even if the other party does not intend to contact you again, it is impossible to ignore such a situation."

"Right?"

Facing Freya, who had already started to put her arm around his shoulder and was overly familiar, Cicero said with a worried face: "Well, maybe, maybe... Lady, please respect yourself, I am a man with a family."

Funia was not embarrassed at all. She laughed and said: "Hey, I am not interested in men or women, I prefer cannons and explosions—anyway, I am going to start helping you promote this guiding technique now!"

Saying this, before Cicero could react to how the other party was going to help him promote the guiding technique, he was stunned to look ahead.

Because, Funia had taken out a giant fully armored off-road vehicle from the metal box she was carrying.

——Equipment storage box, a necessity for explorers who love heavy weapons and large vehicles. High-level equipment storage boxes can even hold an entire mobile warship, and ignore any weight!

"Let's go!"

Funia, who had already gotten into the driver's seat, opened the doors of the passenger seat and the rear compartment. She confidently took out a giant loudspeaker, larger than half a person, and a laser printer: "Let's start now, on the road to spreading the truth!"

"Now, you start reading aloud all the contents in this booklet, and don't be silly and hand-copy it—come, put this booklet in this fully automatic printer... It will take care of everything, just wait!"

After Cicero got into the car in a daze, Freya revealed a wild smile: "What tasks have we explorers not done? Spreading the cultivation method is too simple! We explorers have always been unconstrained... What is promotion? Today I will tell you!"

"Now, I will let you know the power of loudspeakers and posters... Wait, all the villages in the Southern Territory, from now on, the propaganda offensive of this Funia, your daddy, will begin!"

"What?" Cicero was still in a daze at the moment. He did not understand what Funia was saying: "What offensive?"

"It means brainwashing—have you heard of not accepting gifts during the festival this year?"

"No..."

"Then what about O-bubble?"

"Neither..."

Rumble!

The engine of the off-road vehicle rang, like thunder.

Stepping on the accelerator to the end, the wild beauty with red hair and golden eyes laughed heartily: "You're right to not know!"

"From today, all the villages within a radius of five hundred kilometers can only hear the same voice!"

Rumbling, the off-road vehicle roared forward in the dusty wilderness, and at the same time, the voice of preaching from the loudspeaker, more shocking than thunder, rang out.

Simple, crude, and effective.

This is the secret of explorers.

Even after a week, Cicero still did not understand what those inexplicable advertising lines meant.

But without a doubt, the results had fast-forwarded to the point where they could not fast-forward any further.

Originally, it would take him a long time to make a person accept it with half-doubt and start cultivating this cultivation method, just like an unknown person selling discs under the overpass.

But since Funia, things had accelerated to the point where eighteen villages were brainwashed in a week, and almost all demonized people had begun to cultivate.

Was it terrible? Yes, it was terrible.

Eight times the speed, it was really exaggerated!

This was probably the dimensionality reduction strike of advanced propaganda tools on the previous era.

Unlike Cicero, who was worried and did not know whether such actions were considered proper spreading of the cultivation method, Funia was very happy when doing this. She even forgot that this was to follow Cicero's clues to find the theoretical backer. She was wholeheartedly immersed in this new experience and enjoyed the fun of freely promoting the cultivation method.

Until a week later, she calmed down a little and began to prepare to upload this cultivation method, which she had never seen before, back to the Pioneer Space.

"Pioneers encourage the behavior of uploading unknown cultivation methods. Although it is only one or two thousand points at most, it is still meat, and you have to eat what you should eat."

So happily starting the Pioneer Space module, Funia received a prompt from the Pioneer Space: [Unfinished version of Emberfire, mind-based purification cultivation method, uploading can get 2500 exploration points.]

[Creator: Primal Candlelight.]

"Let me see, which big shot invented this cultivation method..."

2500 exploration points, basically the highest level of relevant uploaded inheritance, proving that this cultivation method was just completed not long ago and was a completely unknown thing—Funia immediately became happy and created several explosions in the wilderness.

But, when she turned her attention to the creator, things changed.

"Oh, it's Primal Candlelight..."

"..."

"Ah?! Primal Candlelight?!"

Shocked, she jumped up, hitting the roof, causing the entire tank-like giant off-road vehicle to vibrate slightly: "Why why why why?! Why does my old home also have Candlelight, and I have never heard of it before?!"

"Can this even intrude? No way, no way?!"

And just when a certain Pioneer Space explorer began to be suspicious and scared herself.

At this moment, the Primal Candlelight in her mouth was leading the disguised First Dawn ship in a queue, slowly approaching the mobile warship port of the coastal city.

The coastal city, the largest neutral area between the Southeast Territory, the trade center in the south of the continent, and the best port in the surrounding area, welcomes the maritime commercial fleets of the Sky Dragon nobles.

As a place where the Asmodai Empire's royal family could not reach, the laws and customs here were completely different from those in the Empire's jurisdiction. As the busiest commercial mobile city, its port was obviously always full, and even the entrances and exits of the cargo distribution center were full of ships entering and exiting, as if there was no end.

Unless it encountered a sea disaster, or a terrible typhoon, the coastal city would always be so busy. Only then could the workers and merchants, who were busy and hardworking in the past, stop and rest for a while, enjoying the rare quietness.

Obviously, now was not the time for quietness.

At this time, the First Dawn ship was queuing to enter the port. In front and behind it were huge merchant ships. These huge steel creations were full of courage, slowly docking with the mobile city.

Standing on the deck, looking at the large and small mobile warships in the port stirring up dust and entering and exiting, bringing up large swaths of smoke in the sky and the earth, this scene even reminded Su Zhou of the crowded cars on the streets of Tiandu Modu in the past, but the size of the mobile ship was far better than the car, and the momentum was the same.

"Hello, we are the staff of the coastal city port, and we are now registering for entry into the port."

And at this moment, with a wave of origin energy, a winged man with a halo on his head flapped his wings and came to Su Zhou.

This winged man seemed to have experienced a lot of wind and frost. There were scars on his originally handsome face, and his left eye was deeply sunken, leaving only a dark hole.

But even with such a terrifying appearance, the attitude of this winged man was like a spring breeze. He cordially invited Su Zhou to provide his name and origin energy traces as proof of port entry registration.

"Is that all you need?"

Su Zhou naturally filled it all in. Forging a name and origin energy fluctuations was as simple as breathing. In terms of 'entry matters', he naturally filled in 'trade and year-end auction'.

"Oh? Sir, are you planning to participate in the year-end auction? Can you show me the physical objects you plan to trade?"

Seeing the reason Su Zhou filled in, the winged man curiously asked, but then he explained: "This is necessary. If it is not a particularly valuable treasure, but an order for bulk commodities, then you must see the physical objects—the port location of the coastal city is very valuable. We provide the port location for free, and naturally, we also need merchants to prove their value."

"No problem, I understand."

Su Zhou, who had long known this under the guidance of the Flint, nodded slightly. He took out a perfect metal ingot from his arms and handed it to the winged man.

The perfect metal ingot was bright silver, with a texture close to crystal.

After the winged man carefully took the metal ingot, he seriously took out the instrument and examined it in detail.

Then, his mouth grew wider and wider, and his eyes showed shock.

"The most, the highest level of origin energy alloy steel... The afterglow of the Saint Sun, this is the material for the core parts of the origin energy furnace in the metropolis..."

"Just, just such a metal ingot, its value will exceed 50,000 Empire coins..."

Instantly, the attitude of this staff member changed from the original friendliness to respect.

After taking a breath, he bowed deeply to Su Zhou, and even the brightness of the halo on his head increased by one level: "Please turn to the VIP channel next to you, sir, what services do you need?"

"We have a complete set of service procedures, almost free, and the quality is absolutely guaranteed!"

"Thank you, I don't need it."

Su Zhou did not care about this. He came to this city to obtain various materials, and it was naturally best to be treated with courtesy.

He was also used to being treated with courtesy no matter where he was. This was probably the benefit of being good-looking.

In fact, the place that Su Zhou really cared about was some of the details in the hearts of the locals.

He lowered his head and looked at the winged man who had experienced the storms of life.

"Are you a demonized person?" The man said in a low voice. He stared at the demonized scales that appeared behind the other's ears: "In this city... are demonized people not discriminated against? You are even allowed to serve as an important position as a port registrar."

"Of course not, sir!"

In response, the originally respectful registrar raised his head. He puffed out his chest with pride, and the empty left eye socket seemed to be glowing: "The coastal city treats everyone equally—demonized people are also among them!"

He stretched out his hand and showed Su Zhou the magnificent and spectacular city behind him, emitting endless light, and even the night sky could be illuminated, and proudly smiled: "I have experienced many things, and suffered a lot in the world. After finally coming here, I regained my dignity!"

"Welcome to the coastal city, sir, the most equal place on this land!"

And Su Zhou raised his head, staring at the brilliant city of lights.

The man stared at the black and white intertwined curses and vows above this city, and slightly narrowed his eyes.

"Is that so?"

Then, he lowered his eyes, and Su Zhou said lightly: "Then take me in and take a look, sir."

"I can't wait."

Seeking a monthly ticket!