Chapter 458 - 229: River of Blood and Death God’s Blood
A large number of Thunder God Golems were shipped from the Golem Factory, exchanged for vast quantities of Magic Crystals.
Over the past six months, the Wizard Tower’s Golem Legion had expanded to thirteen hundred units.
Its numbers had nearly doubled.
In addition, this financial abundance allowed the Wizard Tower’s upgrade to proceed ahead of schedule.
In truth, while the All-Knowing Wizard Tower was classified as a Medium-sized Wizard Tower, its core facilities—such as the Element Pool and the Maze Locking Protective Energy Field—were all large-scale. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a semi-large-scale Wizard Tower.
The only differences between it and a true large-scale Wizard Tower were the Floating Ring and its internal area.
With the support of ample funds, Pei Ze completed the upgrade smoothly.
[Wizard Tower: All-Knowing]
[Level: Large-scale (Enhanced)]
[Tower Spirit: No. 1, No. 2, No. 3]
[Facilities: Large-scale Element Pool (Enhanced), Large Floating Ring (Enhanced), Stargazing Platform, Warehouse District, Experimental District, Practice Area, Meditation District, Planting District...]
[Servants: Ancient Tree Deer Spirit (501), Shadow Giant Dragon, Golden Oak Tree, Ten Thousand Flowers Fairy, Water Sprites (6), Thorn Spirit (1,482)...]
[Protective Devices: Large-scale Maze Locking Protective Energy Field (Enhanced)]
[Combat Devices: Spell Tower (Enhanced) x300, Thunder God Golem x1,300]
Compared to before, the Wizard Tower’s combat capabilities had clearly increased by a significant margin.
In addition to the expansion of the Golem Legion, the number of Spell Towers had also doubled.
Coupled with the enhanced Element Pool and Maze Locking Protective Energy Field, the All-Knowing Wizard Tower’s combat power was now higher than that of many other large-scale Wizard Towers.
’A Level 4 Wizard who owns a large-scale Wizard Tower... I must be the first, right?’
’At least, I’m certain I’m the first in Chenxi City.’
A slight smile touched Pei Ze’s lips.
The next step up from a large-scale Wizard Tower was a Floating City.
However, as the most powerful weapon of the Wizard Civilization, a Floating City was far beyond the current Pei Ze’s reach.
Even if he broke through and became a Level 5 Wizard, he still wouldn’t have the resources to construct a Floating City.
This wasn’t merely a matter of financial lack—constructing a Floating City required Magic Crystals numbering in the hundreds of millions. More importantly, many of the necessary materials simply couldn’t be bought with money.
One either had to barter for them with other Wizards or venture deep into the various outer planes to find them.
There were plenty of cases where Rule Wizards spent over a thousand years and still failed to successfully construct a Floating City.
’Of course, with the Eye of Omniscience, maybe I can give it a try after I break through and become a Sixth-level Wizard.’
’But even if I can’t build a Floating City, the Wizard Tower can still be upgraded further.’
Pei Ze looked at the Wizard Tower’s stats before him, his eyes glinting.
"All-Knowing, deduce a plan for upgrading the Wizard Tower."
[Please specify an upgrade path.]
Pei Ze thought for a moment, then said, "Prioritize enhancing the Element Pool and improving its stealth capabilities."
In the Wizard Tower’s last two major battles, both against the Alien Insect Army and the Prayerers, its power reserves had proven insufficient.
In fact, this was a common problem for all Wizard Towers.
The energy required to operate such a massive war machine, especially in combat, was astronomical.
Even now, the problem had never been completely solved.
A Wizard had once tried to install a weakened version of a Floating Ring’s power core, the [Elemental Melting Furnace], into a Wizard Tower, but the result was the tower’s immediate and catastrophic detonation.
It was the same principle as trying to fit a jet engine into a car.
Even a weakened Elemental Melting Furnace was too much for a Wizard Tower to handle.
Forcing it in would only lead to disastrous consequences.
’Still, this is a good reference point.’
’With the power of the Eye of Omniscience, it might just be possible to deduce an ultra-weakened version of the Elemental Melting Furnace that’s compatible with the Wizard Tower.’
As for improving its stealth, that was an idea that had suddenly occurred to Pei Ze during the previous god-slaying operation.
If the Wizard Tower had been able to slip past the Spider Queen’s senses and land a backstab while she was fighting the Silver Moon Maiden, he might have won a much easier victory.
But the Wizard Tower’s enormous size and the intense energy fluctuations it produced during flight made this incredibly difficult.
It wasn’t as if Wizards hadn’t attempted research in this area, but the results had always been disappointing.
’But by that same logic, just because other Wizards couldn’t do it didn’t mean the Eye of Omniscience couldn’t.’
’It was just a question of how much Elemental Source it would consume.’
As Pei Ze issued the command, the Eye of Omniscience quickly responded.
[Task created: Deduce Wizard Tower upgrade plan. Estimated cost: 197,362 units of Elemental Source.]
Although he had anticipated it, the sight of a nearly 200,000-unit cost still made the corner of Pei Ze’s mouth twitch.
Even with one hundred percent elementalization, the deduction would still take nearly six years to complete.
But on second thought, any other Wizard would probably die of happiness if they could research a large-scale Wizard Tower upgrade plan in just six years. With that, Pei Ze felt at ease.
’Oh well. Once I advance to a Level 5 Wizard, the cost will be reduced even further. It might only take three or four years then.’
The previous task to deduce Wuyu’s evolution plan had been completed long ago.
The Eye of Omniscience’s task queue was currently empty, so Pei Ze simply let the task run, planning to accelerate it gradually.
Thinking of Wuyu, Pei Ze sent out a thought. A black shadow instantly streaked in from the distance, transitioning from extreme motion to absolute stillness as it landed on his shoulder in a flash.
Wuyu looked the same as ever, its size virtually unchanged, but the profound, cold, and desolate aura about it had grown more distinct.
Its icy eyes seemed to hold the very essence of death. A single glance gave one the chilling illusion of their life slowly draining away.
Only when its gaze fell upon Pei Ze did Wuyu’s eyes soften, if only slightly.
"CAW."
Wuyu lightly pecked Pei Ze’s cheek, just as it always did.
Pei Ze smiled faintly and reached out to stroke Wuyu’s icy feathers.
The evolution plan deduced by the Eye of Omniscience was slightly different this time.
In addition to various corvid-type Magical Creatures, it now included many rare and exotic items.
For example, water from the legendary River of Blood.
The River of Blood, also known as the Nether River, originates from the lowest depths of the Endless Abyss. It flows through the Blood Rift, cuts across the Nine Layers of Hell, and winds its way through the Desolation and Despair Wasteland, the Sharp Sound Battlefield, the Heart of Fury, the Hammer of Severity, and the Land of the Beastmen, before finally emptying into the Destiny Deep Marsh.
This river connected the two great planes of the Abyss and Hell, serving as the most vital artery for the Blood War.
With ferryboats, demon armies could ride the current downstream, surging from the Abyss into Hell.
Likewise, devil armies could travel upstream, arriving in the Abyss from Hell.
However, the water of the River of Blood was dark and putrid, imbued with evil Magic Power. An Angel would be wounded merely by touching it, a mortal who drank it would lose their memory, and even Evil Demons dared not make contact with it lightly.
All souls who signed contracts with devils and ultimately fell into Hell had to undergo the "purification" of the River of Blood to be reborn as devils themselves.
Billions of souls churned within the River of Blood at every moment.
In a way, it could be described as a physical manifestation of the Power of Death.
Since Wuyu had merged with the Power of Death, it was not surprising that its evolution required it to drink water from the River of Blood.
Another requirement was the blood of a deity whose portfolio was related to death.
’To be honest, this is even harder to acquire than water from the River of Blood.’
Deities with portfolios related to death were, without exception, immensely powerful.
Examples included the gnomish God of Death and Nature, Sha Gouzhen; the Beastman God of Death, Yizhus; and the human God of Death and Justice, Osiris.
The weakest among these beings were Middle-tier Deities.
And that wasn’t even mentioning greater deities like Yegor and Kelanwo, who had survived from ancient times.
The Divine Blood of such gods could not be bought with money.
On the other hand, as for the corvid-type Magical Creatures required for the evolution, Pei Ze had given a list to Tao Ping and commissioned the Travelers’ Association to collect them as soon as the deduction was complete.
The same went for the other materials on the list.
Over the past six months, Wuyu had been steadily devouring and absorbing them. Now, it only needed water from the River of Blood and the Death God’s Blood to break through to the fifth level.
’I’ll figure out how to find those two things after I break through to become a Level 5 Wizard and upgrade the Wizard Tower.’