Therefore, although it appeared as the world was still peaceful, both the Church and the Empire were investing their resources into armaments, preparing for a war that would break out at an unknown time.

All the Knight Academies kept on expanding. The quota for the annual selection kept on increasing, and even the Regional and National Selections were changed to be held annually.

A large quantity of Divine Weapons was being created incessantly. The ore and mineral, blacksmithing, transportation and logistics, and other relevant industries welcomed an unprecedented state of glory.

The Empire had now gathered the Sand Country, the plains, and its original eight regions. Regardless of whether it was in terms of wealth, resources, or population, all of them had reached a great height. The entire country was headed toward a raging state of prosperity and development.

If this were to continue on for ten or even 20 years, it would be no surprise even if the country’s power managed to catch up to the Church’s. Of course, this was if Ulpian were taken out of the equation.

Bringing along the Crown Princess and Jiuqian back to the palace, Fang Xingjian first went to meet the Fourth Prince to ascertain the Empire’s current situation.

Hearing the Fourth Prince’s reports, Fang Xingjian nodded. “You guys have done well. There will be a war between us and the Church sooner or later.”

At the thought of this, Fang Xingjian tapped out with a finger and sent the information on the various high technological weapons he had attempted to create in the martial arts world into the Fourth Prince’s mind.

“It takes too long to nurture Knights. The Empire can focus its resources and start to mass-produce these mechanical weapons.”

After all, experts who could reach the Divine level, even those at tier five or six of the Divine level, would need to have extremely great talent.

Fang Xingjian could mass-produce geniuses using the nine levels of the mystical prints, but if those people did not have sufficient talent by themselves, it would still be hard for them to reach the pinnacle. The amount of wealth and resources spent on them would be completely sufficient to create technological weapons that far surpassed their strength.

Therefore, Fang Xingjian’s plan was to stop the Empire from using its resources to mass-produce Knights. Instead, they should only select a small portion of people with outstanding talents to give them genius-styled nurturing.

The saved resources could be used to create a large-scale mechanized army to fill up the gaps in battle prowess amongst those at the lower tier.

With that, they would be able to create a military system where cultivators formed the higher-tiered battle prowess and the mechanized troops took charge of the lower-tiered battle prowess.

Mechanized troops were unafraid of hardship, fatigue, and death. They were the best battle prowess meant for destruction.

Nurturing Knights through an elite-based education would make it easier to nurture outstanding characters.

The amount of resources required for nurturing ordinary Knights and second transition Knights would far surpass that of a mechanized army. There would still be a need to distribute authority and wealth to them. It would be both tiresome and troublesome, and this system would be discarded by Fang Xingjian.

Of course, it was just a matter of not using the country’s resources to support them. Fang Xingjian still would not stop the commoners from relying on themselves to cultivate the Knight martial path.

With so many Divine level experts working under him that he could use as laborers, it would not take too much time to create these high-technological weapons.

Therefore, in the time that followed, many secret arsenals rose up within the Empire. Prince Philip, Tyrant, and Lan Yue each built their own arsenal, preparing to mass-produce mechanized troops.

They also had to produce robots equipped with electromagnetic rifles, mechanized cuttlefish equipped with plasma cannons, combat drones, and others.

Clearly, after the mechanized army was produced, the Empire would at least have the absolute advantage in the lower-tiered battles.

However, the Empire’s upper echelon understood that if they wished to win against the Church, the greatest difficulty they had to face was still Ulpian. The second thing they had to consider was the attitude of White—the God of Universal Truth.

Ever since he conversed with the Fourth Prince, Fang Xingjian had kept himself shut inside, not going outside. He would look into the distance from the palace everyday like he was observing something.

He was sensing the profoundness of the integration between tier seven of the Divine level together with his own cultivation. The ability to control time acceleration, together with his high-dimensional Sword Realm, gave him a special experience.

Fang Xingjian sensed half the world, and seething Dragon Qis came down from void space, gushing into his body incessantly.

The Nine Lives Helix kept on entering deeper in Miracle World’s group consciousness. Fang Xingjian immediately sensed that the depths of this world was a lot more difficult to reach compared to when he attempted the same thing in the martial arts world previously.

One reason was because this world had a longer history. Another reason was because the existence of ether particles greatly increased the degree of chaos in group consciousness.

As Fang Xingjian continued to probe deeper, his eyes penetrated through layers of void space. He seemed to have seen countless people’s choices and the future of the entire world.

“I’ve seen annihilation and despair, the end of the world and remorse,” Fang Xingjian said as his eyes wavered a little. He continued, a little surprised, “What on earth do you want to do?”

Ulpian’s figure walked out from void space. “You know what I want to do. Even if it’s just once, I want to win against him.”

“Everyone thinks that there’ll definitely be a battle between the south and the north, and I’m your greatest enemy,” Fang Xingjian said with a sigh. “But who would have expected that you don’t care about the people in the world? The only person you’re concerned about is him.”

Fang Xingjian raised his head and looked at the stretch of emptiness in the sky.

In fact, not long after he had returned to the Empire, Ulpian had gotten in touch with him.

He found out about Ulpian’s goal. Ulpian wanted to let the entire Miracle World break out from White’s control and break away from the control of the highest level of existence in the multivariate world. He wanted to win the demonic god for once.

However, the more one reached Fang Xingjian’s current level, the more one would understand how difficult it would be to win against a demonic god.

At White’s realm, his will would affect countless worlds, radiating across many universes.

There was almost no doubt that the Miracle World was White’s territory and that the entire world’s history was under his influence. It was like Fang Xingjian’s influence on the martial arts world.

Only events that were beyond White’s will would not be controlled. For example, the fourth onslaught, the fifth onslaught, and the impending seventh onslaught.

These impacts came from the worlds that were not within White’s grasp, and they were the only ones that were not within White’s control.

Everything within the other worlds was within White’s grasp and circulated according to his will.

It could be said that in the present Miracle World, the history, situation, power distribution, and each country’s culture were all created by White’s hands.

Countless worlds progressed in the way he wanted things to progress. This was despite the fact that this was merely a place for his will to radiate and for him to expand his territory, seal up his opponents, and draw power from.

In the depths of a universe that was an unknown distance away where demonic gods were using true violence to spar, battles of an unknown degree of horror and violence were probably breaking out.

“All history, as well as everything in the past and the future, proceeds according to his will. Regardless if they are good or bad, they are clearly all beneficial to him,” Fang Xingjian said. “The conversation that we’re having right now is likely also within his influence.”