Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

"Master, you seem to be very happy!" Eva stood in an old building, wearing a gray scarf that covered her silver hair, her mouth, and her nose.

She also wore a simple long skirt. At the moment, she was sweeping a room near the stairs. They were in Virginia, the capital of the Crete Empire.

Compared to Lu Zhiyu's last visit thirty four years ago, the city had become far more prosperous. The previous emperor, Vortigen, had pa.s.sed away a few years back. The current reigning Emperor was Zolman II, who was the son of Vortigen and great-grandson of Zolman I.

During his reign, Vortigen had gradually weakened the influence of the Church. He had also minimized the presence of the Church of Light within Crete and weakened the gentry cla.s.s in order to consolidate the imperial family's power.

Although the Church of Light still had men stationed within Crete, received religious taxes, and retained the power to surveil the nation, Vortigen's rights and freedoms had been much greater than those of Emperor Elliott VIII before him.

He was also much more capable than his brother Elliot VIII had been. Vortigen had pushed the Crete Empire to develop both its economic and military strength, his power increasing gradually as the empire prospered. The signs of his achievements could still be seen all over Virginia.

However, his ultimate goal to cancel the garrison and taxation by the Church of Light, which zoned the districts within his empire, had never been realized. So, when his son, Zolman II, inherited his throne, he also took on his same ambitions. However, Zolman II did not possess the same abilities as Vortigen, who was a ruler who defined an entire era.

In fact, at the time of Vortigen's death, his designated successor wasn't Zolman, but rather his younger brother, Owen. Sadly, Owen suddenly died of the same illness as Vortigen.

Zolman was then pushed to the throne by his uncle, the Prime Minister, Tembor. Right after ascending the throne, Zolman killed many of the other princes, his own brothers, which caused an uproar among many n.o.bles.

After that, he dictated many new decrees and bills that courted the displeasure of the public and lost their respect. Tembor then took the chance to solidify his own power. As such, the situation within Crete was quite volatile and unique.

Lu Zhiyu stayed for a few days by the border of Crete, then headed straight for the capital. He decided to stay there for a while before departing with a caravan towards the desert empire of Batko.

Further to the east, past Mica Province, two mountain ranges and the Sea of Death, was the Great Kafra Desert. Only the top caravans could cross the Sea of Death because it required not only navigation through the vast area, but also the fort.i.tude to adapt to the climate and also to survive the sandstorms.

Within the desert, there were also various magical beasts and monsters. Hence, no ordinary person would be able to survive.

This special route to the Batko Empire was named the Golden Road, since anyone who could pa.s.s through it would receive tremendous wealth. As such, only the wealthiest and strongest caravans would dare brave it.

Lu Zhiyu had booked one of these caravans. However, they needed some time to prepare before departure.

During the meantime, Lu Zhiyu would stay where he was. In this era, it was quite difficult to cross between provinces and countries merely for the sake of tourism. As such, people who wished to cross almost half of the Alen Continent for leisure, like Lu Zhiyu, were quite rare.

Lu Zhiyu then recalled that he actually had a house within the city. He had bought quite some time ago while he was traveling the world with Verthandi. It had been a long while since he'd been back there. So, Lu Zhiyu immediately had Eva bring the suitcases to his old mansion on the southern outskirts of the city and settled in to stay for the time being.

Of course, once they'd arrived, Eva did most of the cleaning. Lu Zhiyu started enthusaistically working in the study, drawing blueprint after blueprint. The entire desk was soon covered in his notes and ideas.

The Kingdom of G.o.d in the skies, Gaia, was not only G.o.d's Kingdom, but it was also Lu Zhiyu's sub-brain. The stronger it got, the more his calculation abilities would improve. Every time he came up with an idea, he would forward it to Gaia, which would process the likelihood of its success and projected progress rate.

Lu Zhiyu had been working on his mid-level mythical creature template in order to break through as a Level Eight mythical wizard. As mid-level mythical creatures possessed metallized cells, with stronger and better rounded abilities, this placed them on a different tier compared to low-level mythical creatures. This difference is made even clearer by their ability to absorb stronger ability templates, which then allows each of their cells to process a larger amount of information.

Lu Zhiyu had been considering several designs for the template. To improve upon the original single or multiple special abilities possessed by low-level mythical creatures, he was aiming to develop complex and dynamic skill sets that would allow a higher degree of control. Also, as the current low-level mythical creatures could only affect some of the atoms, he wanted to allow for his new design to affect wider areas and control entire zones with their mind power.

Domain?

This was Lu Zhiyu's initial thought after observing the battle between Edward and Adonis through Gaia. He found that the battle between the two seemed to be less of a compet.i.tion of techniques and more of a fight to control each other's domains. They had continuously invaded each other's mind power control range and probed these domains for weaknesses in order to land that one fatal hit.

Wasn't this sort of ability equivalent to having achieved the mastery over the movements of atoms within an entire domain? If so, it could be honed to allow the formation of a personalized dominion, where all of the atoms would be free to manipulate!

Lu Zhiyu's dreams.p.a.ce was also moving towards the direction of being a domain, yet he felt that, at present, it was merely a dimension of information and awareness. It was the mid-level mythical lifeforms that would be able to control atomic laws within the physical realm.

At this point, Lu Zhiyu was bursting with excitement. He had been stuck for quite a long time, so this tiny breakthrough was tremendous!

As Lu Zhiyu was beyond himself with delight, he was interrupted by Eva, who was cleaning the room. Lu Zhiyu looked at Eva and suddenly remembered that she was a metallic lifeform.

Her brain was completely made of metallic cells, so unlike regular lifeforms, she naturally had the disposition to ascend to Level Eight mythical status. Yet, she had not undergone any witchcraft training, nor did she possess mind power. However, to Lu Zhiyu, those were not big issues.

Lu Zhiyu immediately stepped towards Eva, who was standing below the stairs. He smirked deviously at her and asked, "Eva, do you want the power of G.o.d?"

Eva stared at Lu Zhiyu in confusion. Her innocent eyes could not detect his ill intentions, so she quickly replied, asking, "The power of G.o.d? Is it useful? Can you eat it? Oh right, Eva doesn't need to eat!"

"Eh?" This was not the answer Lu Zhiyu had expected…