Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2464 Bold step

Young Sector 99—Nihari Galaxy—Northern Region

In one of the busiest and most active places in the entire galaxy, the military industrial zone that never slept and where activity continued without pause, and more specifically within the Crucibles of Greed district, where the endless flow of supplies never ceased and finished products continued emerging one after another without interruption... Zara stood amid it all.

Around her were 34 crucibles operating as usual, and inside every single one of them without exception was a Note-4 vessel currently being replicated after those responsible for operating the crucibles received direct orders from Emily and the Prime Minister to halt the replication of cargo vessels, delivery vessels, Soldier equipment, talismans, and all the other products they would normally produce. Every bit of attention and productive capacity had now been focused solely on replicating and producing fleets in preparation for the coming war in Sector 90, which was scheduled to begin three years from now.

There was an enormous number of cargo vessels constantly arriving with materials transported from other planets and brought out from the warehouses, an equally enormous number of ground vehicles moving back and forth as they distributed those resources among the different crucibles according to exactly what was currently being replicated inside each one, and an enormous number of personnel responsible for coordinating the required proportions, organizing the seemingly endless mountains of resources surrounding the area, and continuously maintaining the crucibles so that their work would not stop.

And beside all of that activity, at the final crucible at the end... Zara stood with her arms folded across herself, her eyes fixed on one particular crucible. Nothing entered it and nothing came out of it, there were no workers moving around its immediate surroundings, and she was the only person standing anywhere within its vicinity... silently watching the crucible work entirely on itself.

Hum, hum, huuuum~

The enormous Crucible of Greed, large enough to accommodate an entire Nota Supremacy-4 vessel within it, was humming happily~ At this moment, the dozens of enormous metallic probes surrounding its massive body were burning with flames that continuously shifted and swayed between green and blue, and each individual probe would direct itself toward one of the nearby hills formed from piled resources, take precisely what it needed from that pile, and then immediately return toward the crucible.

That enormous probe would then transform, splitting itself into several smaller arms that immediately began working on the resources it had just gathered... Those hands continuously passed the green-blue flames through the gathered resources, allowing the strange fire to flow across and through them, and then the true wonder began.

Those resources began reshaping themselves into the forms required of them almost on their own. Some were solid stones that needed to be transformed into extremely thin sheets, so they began steadily compressing themselves until they approached the required form, while others existed as alloys from which the crucible required only a single specific metal, causing that metal to begin slipping free from the rest of its companions and gradually emerging from among them as though it were casually taking off its clothes.

The numerous hands surrounding those resources helped with the process as well, repeatedly hammering against the forming sheets so that they would transform into their required shapes faster, while other hands pulled the needed metals out from among their companions, helping separate and extract them at a much greater speed.

That relatively small handful of resources gathered by each probe would normally have required entire weeks of continuous work merely to reach the optimal forms required for a Crucible of Greed-2, because every single thing had to be completed with extreme precision. Even after each piece reached its ideal shape, every tiny portion of it would still need to be engraved with tremendous accuracy, and that stage alone would require an even longer period of work. Overall, even if 500 expert workers devoted themselves to working on a single crucible, they would still require approximately three full years to complete its upgrade.

But with the Living Reshaping Flame Zara had personally created, the entire process of rehabilitating this crucible and raising its efficiency to the required level would take only five months.

”.....” Zara finally shifted her gaze away from the crucible she had been watching and turned her eyes toward her right, looking across the enormous row of crucibles extending before her, a sight that would undoubtedly be the dream of any empire regardless of how large or powerful that empire might be.

There were 34 of them in total, all already upgraded to the second version, and only two months remained before she would finish upgrading the final one as well. After that, she would finally be able to return to Sky Opening City and participate in the development work there... She had already spent nearly 10 years of her life personally upgrading those crucibles one after another, working on them until their efficiency had risen enough for them to produce one complete fleet every 11 months instead of requiring an entire 12 months.

That might not sound like an enormous improvement when looking only at the difference between those numbers, but it would naturally create a considerable difference over the long term, especially once the Crucible of Greed-3 upgrade was finally stabilized, an upgrade that aimed to reduce the required production period even further and allow a fleet to be produced every 10 months and—

”.....!!” Zaraʼs expression suddenly worsened considerably as those thoughts passed through her mind, and after staring ahead for another moment, she slowly lowered her gaze toward the ground beneath her.

This is a waste of time.

It might genuinely be considered an impressive achievement for someone else, or perhaps even a great achievement for another empire....

But for her, after everything she had put into it, it was nothing more than a waste of time.

Those ten years could have been used for something greater, something of far higher significance and genuinely important to her, rather than being spent merely increasing the speed at which vessels were produced by a relatively small margin!

”...Hesitation wonʼt accomplish anything.” Zara clenched both of her fists tightly, her fingers pressing firmly into her palms as the thought settled completely in her mind. ”Father didnʼt reach where he is today by hesitating!!”

Then, with a determined look that no longer carried the uncertainty of moments earlier, Zara bent down until she touched the ground beneath her, and Living Reshaping energy immediately began pouring continuously and powerfully from the sole of her foot, spreading outward without the slightest pause.

Then she released a long breath, ”Hoooh~” before muttering in a halting voice that still carried unmistakable fear despite the decisiveness behind every word, ”Re... constitution!!”

The green-blue Living Reshaping energy suddenly underwent a drastic change, its familiar colors transforming into an extremely dark shade of orange before that newly transformed energy began surging powerfully upward.

The very instant that strange dark-orange energy came into contact with the Crucible of Greed, everything about what was happening changed at once.

BOOOOOOM

The enormous crucible suddenly exploded with tremendous force, sending its shattered pieces flying violently in every direction around it.

The explosion was so massive and abrupt that the cargo vessels, the workers, and everyone else throughout the surrounding area immediately fled from the vicinity, abandoning whatever they had been doing only moments earlier.

But something resembling genuine magic soon occurred before their eyes, as every fragment scattered throughout the air began transforming into something resembling fine dust, and then that extremely dense mass of dust began converging toward a single point in midair, drawing closer together and gradually cohering into one whole once again.

Within only a few minutes, that enormous cloud of smoke and dense dust had already gathered and cohered until it once again took on the complete shape of a gigantic crucible.

Then CRAAASH—the enormous crucible slammed heavily back down into the exact same place where it had previously stood.

”What the...?”

The workers throughout the area cautiously began returning, their mouths hanging open and their eyes visibly unsettled as they stared at what had just occurred before them, for even in a world filled with cultivation and miracles, something like this was certainly not a sight they could witness every day.

Approximately ten minutes, no more than that. That was all the time it had taken to completely destroy an enormous crucible and reduce its entire structure into dust, only for that same dust to gather again and completely reconstitute the crucible as though nothing had ever happened to it in the first place.

No.... There was something different about it.

Everyone narrowed their eyes and took a much closer look at the newly formed structure before them... That Crucible of Greed had received the entire new upgrade at once and had already become a Crucible of Greed-2!!

”How...?” Everyone furrowed their brows deeply as they stared at it in disbelief. They had been following Lady Zaraʼs work on these crucibles for ten years now and were familiar with the progress of her work, and this particular crucible wasnʼt supposed to complete its upgrade until months from today!

”Ah! Lady Zara!!”

Someoneʼs sudden shout immediately drew everyoneʼs attention away from the upgraded crucible and toward a particular spot nearby.

Lady Zara, His Majestyʼs daughter... was lying face-down against the ground, completely unconscious.

And the tips of her fingers were utterly destroyed.