Chapter 85 Earth: The Beast Tide (26)

Even though the Civilization Core now provided a means to communicate with Earth, ensuring that their exchanges weren't exposed to everyone directly, Sun Meng still couldn't do much more. The synchronization of consciousness with Yi Gang required his consent and came with various restrictions; simultaneous actions on both sides were impossible. Under such circumstances, even normal cultivation became difficult for him.

After speaking, Sun Meng turned to Kokolaru. "How is it? Has your side still not condensed a Civilization Core?" He had already asked her about this before. With the aid of rare metals, her civilization had stabilized eighty percent of its defensive perimeter. On the surface, all internal factions voiced support for peaceful unification and collective progress, but in reality, they pored over each clause, debating every word in secret.

In other words, they once had the chance to condense a Civilization Core, but due to the rare metals, they had given up on it. In the short term, the losses seemed minor, but from a long-term perspective, the losses were much greater!

Kokolaru tried every day to persuade them, but the ordinary citizens saw nothing wrong with their current lives, nor did they recognize any advantages in Sun Meng's civilization, so they couldn't understand her urgency. The politicians, meanwhile, clung to a sense of luck—they believed that except for a few forerunners like Sun Meng and his group, they were already ahead of many civilizations, and the final step could be taken at any time, so there was no need to rush.

Kokolaru shook her head. "Forget it. I'm truly at my wits' end. There was some rare metal left after stabilizing the defense formations, and recently the civilization has started developing new technologies, so maybe it's not so bad after all." Though she spoke thus, she knew in her heart that this was merely wasting time.

Looking at Kokolaru, Sun Meng suddenly felt that Earth civilization was indeed fortunate to have condensed a Civilization Core. Otherwise, under previous circumstances, it would have taken some time for Earth to unify naturally, even with Huaguo growing ever stronger.

"In the end, we're not the ones making decisions for civilization. All we can do is help our people progress as best we can." Sun Meng tried to comfort Kokolaru. "Come hunt monsters with me. Let's gather more metal—there can never be too much of it." After spending so much time together, he had accepted Kokolaru's feelings for him, but no matter what, he couldn't find that kind of affection for her. It felt more like a strong protecting the weak, and he didn't know how to explain that to her.

In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed. Sun Meng continued his daily routine of hunting monsters for rare metals, while Earth entered a period of feverish construction.

Both the cities and technological advancements of civilization were developing rapidly. The new spiritual network now covered every city; only the publicly designated wild forbidden zones lacked signal. Technologies began to develop in directions beyond warfare, and the entertainment industry flourished once again.

Especially after Sun Meng had decreed that the Earth civilization would be based on the Huaguo language, so that now, the most important thing for people from other countries was to learn it. With the addition of explanations for cultivation terminology, many Huaguo citizens couldn't help but exclaim, "So you finally know what it's like!"

With Earth's hero Yi Gang setting an example, the cooperation and development between humans and the spirit beasts progressed smoothly. However, the spirit beast clan noticed a new phenomenon: all their newborns now emerged directly in semi-human form. The animals humans previously tried to breed had lost the ability to become semi-human.

If not for the fact that the Civilization Core had not announced a new race, they would have thought this was an entirely new species. Just like those monsters, these spirit beasts grew in size and strength, but their intelligence did not increase much, and they could not even speak!

It seemed their development was diverging from that of the current spirit beast clan.

No one knew whether this was a good or bad thing; the future remained a mystery to all.

That day, as Sun Meng and Kokolaru returned from hunting monsters, a robot approached to deliver a message: Mu Xingye and Pix were looking for them.

"What is it?" Sun Meng asked curiously.

"You didn't get the notification?" Mu Xingye replied. "Check the prompt on your Civilization Core."

Sun Meng took out the core's projector and saw a coordinate displayed—not one from Earth, but from this world.

"This is... a relic!" He immediately thought of the one Pix had previously led them to.

"That's right, consider it a reward. But you're probably among the last to receive it, so let's see what it is. I doubt it will be as good as at the beginning," Mu Xingye said, taking out his own Civilization Core, which projected a map with a red dot.

"I received one too, but I never went to claim it. Except for the first batch—people like Pix—the rest of the relics are for individual civilizations, just a kind of reward," Mu Xingye explained. "Our two civilizations still share certain similarities, so I'm curious what reward you'll get. Of course, I'll tell you what I get as well."

Sun Meng nodded. He still trusted Mu Xingye to a certain degree.

Mu Xingye had already discussed this with Pix, so their departure this time did not affect Pix's plans.

Unlike the previous large-scale relic, these reward sites were not only much smaller, but the guardian monsters outside were lower in level and fewer in number.

A single mid-second-tier monster was felled by Sun Meng with an arrow. The Civilization Core appeared, presenting a token.

"So that's why you had such a good plan before—you'd already explored it ahead of time!" Sun Meng said to Mu Xingye.

"Haha, yes, we explored it, but only to the extent of taking out the token. Since he realized the relic wasn’t for individuals, that’s why you all had to go through what you did," Mu Xingye replied, smiling without embarrassment.

The gate opened, and the two entered the relic. Unlike the large-scale one, this contained only a single platform, upon which rested a glowing orb, similar to the one in the previous relic.

The token flew out, emitting light that shone upon the orb, which then projected a screen with five options.

Sun Meng looked at the screen. "Another selection—only three choices this time."

Five cards appeared, all of them valuable treasures, each exceeding the current level of Earth's civilization.

The Earth Spirit Book: Currently at early fourth tier, a growth-type artifact. Using the Civilization Core as medium, it transforms the dead into Earth Spirits, who manage the world's ley lines. The advanced version is akin to a Land God or Mountain God.

The Spirit Cleansing Pool: Currently early fourth tier, a growth-type artifact. Using the Civilization Core as medium, it wipes the memories of the dead and reincarnates them randomly. The closer one's power is to fourth tier, the more likely some memories can be retained.

The Star Chart: Currently early fourth tier, a growth-type artifact. Using the Civilization Core as medium, it hides within the world's barrier, enhancing the absorption and transformation of stellar energy and strengthening the world’s barrier, creating internal stars.

The Celestial Disk: Currently early fourth tier, a growth-type artifact. Using the Civilization Core as medium, it regulates the world’s internal seasons and stabilizes its structure, boosting the absorption and transformation of external spiritual energy.

The Hall of Human Souls: Currently early fourth tier, a growth-type artifact. Using the Civilization Core as medium, it stands at the heart of civilization, collecting the memories of deceased, recognized races, editing them into inheritance realms. The realm’s level and duration depend on the deceased's power in life, and it can be merged into large inheritance realms via the Civilization Core.

These five treasures were aimed at the entire civilization, fundamentally different from previous rewards. Sun Meng realized that, from now on, resource-type rewards would likely only be available through missions. Still, this made him glad—the system now officially recognized Earth's civilization as a unified whole.

This was also the first decision-making meeting since the founding of the Earth Civilization Alliance. Representatives from all sides attended, but as Yi Gang and Little Rabbit were the joint representatives of the two races, together with Xu Xiao, who was connected to Sun Meng, and Uncle Turtle, who was close to Little Rabbit, Earth already had five guaranteed votes out of nine seats. Barring surprises, the others were merely there to be notified.

Xu Xiao said, "Alright, let's discuss which three we're going to choose!"