Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2415 Bear's determination

Mid Sector 99—Planet Kizar

Step Step

Clamor

Shaddad walked steadily among the researchers, builders, soldiers, and all the other personnel constantly moving throughout the busy area, yet despite his presence and status, no one turned toward him for long or stopped whatever task they were currently performing. Anyone who happened to notice him merely acknowledged his passage with a respectful nod or a deeper bow depending on their own status and position, then immediately returned their attention to whatever work occupied them.

The recent period had been filled with almost uninterrupted activity for Shaddad, with one task following another and hardly any opportunity to stop, and throughout the entire past decade, he hadn't taken even a single proper break or entered seclusion even once.

When Renara and Hedrick began their enormous invasion? Shaddad merely glanced toward the screen displaying what was happening, gave a small nod in acknowledgment, and walked away to continue his work.

When they eventually emerged victorious and Darvion was killed? Shaddad happened to be walking beside one of the screens at the time, so he smiled briefly at the result, gave another satisfied nod, and simply continued on his way without stopping.

As for the rest of the successive events that had continued unfolding one after another throughout the universe? There was a good chance Shaddad hadn't even learned about most of them yet.

But despite how little attention he had been paying to those external events, there was one extremely important thing he knew very well...

All the troublesome problems involving funding and obtaining the enormous quantities of resources required for his work had already been completely solved, leaving him without any shortage or obstacle from that side, and from that point onward, whether the work succeeded or failed depended almost entirely upon him.

Almost every single day, Shaddad evaluated the latest modifications made to the array and examined their effects, tested those modifications in practice, encountered failure, then returned directly to his work and began making even more adjustments before trying again.

"Aaagh!!"

Shaddad briefly shifted his gaze toward the source of the muffled scream that suddenly reached his ears, but after identifying what was happening there, he simply continued along his original path at exactly the same steady pace without stopping.

The source of that scream was an officer belonging to the special forces under Supreme General Kaiden, one of the citizens of the Mid Belt, who was currently right in the middle of the extremely difficult process of breaking through into the World Cataclysm Realm using the power of his physical body!

And that particular officer wasn't the only person currently undergoing such a process...

On both sides of the street Shaddad was currently walking through, there were no fewer than twenty fully completed arrays operating at the same time, and inside those twenty arrays were twenty different officers who were presently undergoing their breakthroughs into the World Cataclysm Realm!

The entire process was no longer nearly as terrifyingly dangerous as it had been during its earlier stages. The overall success rate had increased considerably after all the continuous modifications, while the chances of suffering paralysis had also been greatly reduced after Shaddad devised a method that allowed the array itself to automatically stop operating whenever it detected signs indicating that paralysis or death was beginning to occur.

There was still one unavoidable issue that none of those improvements had completely eliminated, however, and that was the fact that individual talent remained an important factor... Among those twenty officers currently undergoing their breakthroughs, there would be some who could walk out of the arrays on their own two feet after merely two days, while there would also be others whose condition would force them to leave on a stretcher after as long as two months.

But regardless of how different their individual experiences might be, in the end... the Empire would have twenty additional World Cataclysms ready to enter battle!

The twenty arrays positioned along both sides of this street were merely the initial versions operating under Shaddad's direct personal supervision, but they were far from being the only ones currently in existence. Another ten arrays had already been distributed throughout Mid Sector 99 under the supervision of the Grave Empire, while five more were operating in Mid Sector 100, and another ten were currently being constructed there under the supervision of Truth Chosen Klein, Jaba's deputy.

"Was I teaching a wall?!"

"Hmm?" Shaddad immediately turned his head toward a particular direction just after passing beyond the street, as the familiar voice that suddenly reached his ears immediately caught his attention.

It was Gene, his deputy, a third-stage Truth Chosen and the person currently responsible for developing martial arts specifically designed for practitioners following the Fifth Cultivation Path.

"I'm terribly sorry, sir!!" The officer standing before Gene immediately replied in a loud voice and straightened his entire body as he stood rigidly at attention. Even though that officer was physically far stronger than Gene himself, the way he behaved in front of him resembled nothing more than a small child being carefully taught how to walk.

"For the third time, focus properly!" Gene struck the officer firmly on the shoulder as he repeated his instructions. "As a World Cataclysm who relies upon the power of the physical body, you possess an enormous amount of energy stored throughout your body, so you need to learn how to control exactly where and how that energy is released. You have to leak that energy only through the cells of your skin and use it to form a thin layer around your entire body exactly as I taught you, then use the cells in the soles of your feet and the palms of your hands to release much larger quantities of that stored energy. You need to learn how to properly balance those different outputs and maintain control over them if you want to fly like your colleagues!"

"Yes, sir!!" The officer released a deep breath after hearing the instructions once again, then concentrated intensely on controlling the enormous amount of energy stored throughout his body. "Hyaaaaa!!" An immense amount of energy immediately began erupting from beneath his feet and lifted his body upward into the air, while the thin energy surrounding the rest of his body caused him to glide forward with astonishing ease as though the resistance of the surrounding air had completely ceased to exist. "Hahaha, this is amazing!!"

But Poof he quickly lost control and crashed directly into an old building.

"Ugh." Gene moved off to the side while muttering under his breath in obvious frustration, "At least there's some progress." Then he took out a small booklet, opened it to a blank page, and immediately began writing down what he had just observed and learned from the attempt... The title written across the booklet was The Method of Flight for a Body Strength User.

"...." Shaddad watched the scene for a brief moment with a faint smile on his face, then continued along his original path without interfering with Gene's work.

Those who relied on bodily strength had always been accustomed to using their tremendous physical power to jump across great distances, while some among them had even learned to release their stored energy in ways that allowed them to glide across considerably longer distances, but none of those methods gave them the precise and continuous control necessary to genuinely fly through the air like their counterparts who cultivated and used internal energy.

What was currently happening here could therefore only be described as a genuine miracle... something that the universe had never witnessed or achieved before.

But extraordinary things that had never been seen before were nothing particularly new on this planet.

"...Is everything prepared?" Shaddad finally asked after continuing on his way until he reached his intended destination.

At that particular location stood what initially appeared to be an enormous open palace... No, after looking at it properly, it was clearly something different from an ordinary palace.

Shaddad stood there looking toward the enormous structure before him, a vast and complicated facility that had been constructed across an area estimated to span hundreds upon hundreds of acres.

The enormous structure was filled with massive pillars that varied considerably in both size and shape, while strange rivers of different colors flowed around those pillars and passed directly between them, and even the sky above the facility seemed to consist of dense, heavy lights that continuously shifted and changed from one color to another...

And despite the tremendous size of the entire facility and the overwhelming scale of everything constructed throughout it, there was only a single small stone seat positioned directly at the center of that vast open palace.

"Everything is ready, sir!" Hundreds of workers, researchers, and Truth Chosen who had been busy throughout the facility immediately saluted Shaddad before stepping back from their positions. Everyone who had been writing down observations, recording notes, or copying something immediately stopped what they were doing and put their books away.

Only one person remained and stepped forward toward Shaddad, giving him a respectful salute accompanied by a bow. "City Lord, the volunteer for the experiment is already here and prepared. Please place the heart of the array; once that's done, we can begin the experiment at any time."

Shaddad gave a small nod in acknowledgment... This person was another third-rank Truth Chosen who had volunteered to assist them with their work and had taken the oath only a relatively short time ago.

...Afterward, Shaddad slowly released a breath, walked toward a particular area within the enormous facility, and took something out of his ring. Vroom The object that appeared before him was a brightly glowing crimson sphere surrounded by several metal rods covered in carefully drawn inscriptions.

Then Shaddad carefully placed the glowing crimson sphere directly into the center of the panel before him.

Oooooom

"All right." Shaddad's assistant raised his hand after seeing that everything was finally in position, then called out toward the person who was supposed to undergo the experiment. "Come on, Zoldar, it's your turn now to—"

"Wait." Before his assistant could finish what he was saying, Shaddad suddenly raised his hand directly in front of his face to stop him, then slowly released another breath before speaking with clear determination. "...I'll do it today."

"Sir!!" The Truth Chosen immediately raised his voice in alarm and looked toward Shaddad with obvious concern after understanding exactly what he intended to do. "The Nexus State breakthrough array hasn't succeeded even a single time so far, and the mortality rate among the volunteers who have already attempted the breakthrough has reached 70%!"

"I'm optimistic this time." Shaddad swallowed hard as he looked toward the enormous array he had spent so much time continuously evaluating, testing, failing with, and modifying.

Then Baf he struck the ground forcefully with his leg and used that single movement to leap directly toward the center of the enormous array, landing near the small stone seat before immediately sitting down upon it.

After settling into position, Shaddad turned his attention toward his assistant and gestured for him to proceed. "Do it."

"City Lord!!" The assistant shouted again in alarm, remaining where he stood without moving his hand toward the controls, clearly not daring to personally begin such a dangerous experiment while Shaddad himself was sitting at its center.

"Do it!" Shaddad shouted again, his voice leaving no room for his assistant to continue hesitating. "I have to be the first person to successfully break through into the Nexus State using the Fifth Cultivation Path, and it's going to happen today!!"

"....." The assistant stared at him for a moment before swallowing hard, then finally placed his hand against the panel and gave a reluctant nod as he prepared to activate the enormous array. "Please survive."

Bzzzzzt~

"Aaagghhh!!!"