Yun Yi was wearing a military uniform as he disembarked the railcar onto the ground. Even though it had just rained, the smell of blood and fire was still fresh in the air.
Of course, there was also the disgusting scent of those disaster-infected Desolates.
"Welcome, professor Yun Yi!"
The battle at the frontlines was even harsher than what he had thought, as the one who came out to greet him was the Celestial's 3rd squadron commander, but it was clear to anyone's eyes that this commander was wounded.
Has the situation gotten so bad that even a commander needed to brave the battlefield?
Yun Yi couldn't help but feel worried about the war situation. He wasn't worried about being able to win against the disaster-infected Desolates, but rather that there would be too many casualties from this war that they wouldn't be able to go against the Desolate Republic.
…
A battle would occur between the Desolates and Celestials, this was inevitable.
Even if the disaster-infected Desolates did not attack this time, the Celestials or Desolates would have chosen to attack them very soon.
Especially for the Desolates, since they wouldn't be able to wait for too long. Negary had continued to take over the world authorities bit by bit, the Desolate spirit's act of pooling resources to one side was causing his authority to gradually slip, so in less than 10 years, Negary and the Desolate spirit would hold the same authority over this world, and in 20 years, Negary would hold the absolute advantage over these authorities.
At that time, even if the Desolate spirit had a grasp over the [Protagonist], it would still be slowly replaced by Negary, so the war must occur within the next 10 years, and it would surely end in less than 10 years.
This was something that both the Desolate spirit and Negary had predicted, and currently, the Celestials required a large number of resources to prepare for war, while they had been using it in an especially economical manner, they still had far too little resources.
While the disaster-infected Desolates could obtain power from destruction, they still had quite a bit of resources, which was exactly what the Celestials required.
Meanwhile, the Desolates needed to train their army and turn the tides of their conflicts. Ever since all their tribes had unified into a single alliance, quite a few conflicts had surfaced that remain unresolved. They had access to ample resources, but because of that abundance, any Desolate could easily obtain a considerable amount of it without needing to move too far away. They had grown stronger, but their combat skills were growing at a much slower rate comparatively.
At the same time, when the tribes became unified, quite a few Shamans without any remaining potential or abilities had taken up considerably high positions, and in this era where geniuses were a dime a dozen, their existence had become an obstacle in their growth, which made this war an excellent opportunity for them to climb higher.
All in all, both sides had reasons to fight the disaster-infected Desolates, but the most important reason was that neither side felt assured with this bunch of destructive beasts here. They had to clean them up before the war, or they'd be leaving an unstable force that could decide the flow of war.
The current situation was one where both the Celestials and Desolates were wary of one another. If there was a chance, they'd trip one another up, and there were also special agents who had infiltrated the other's side to create disturbances, but the real battle hadn't actually begun.
After meeting with the commander of the 3rd squadron and being briefed by him, Yun Yi took up his post at the camp.
Inside an underground lab, a disaster-infected Desolate prisoner would occasionally be brought here by the frontline soldiers. Yun Yi's job was to study them and develop weapons to fight specifically against these monsters.
While Negary was on the same side as the Lord of Disaster, he couldn't directly inform his subordinates of the Lord of Disaster's information. This wasn't an issue of betrayal, but because this was a war to take over an entire world.
Never mind the critical issue of how that had the potential to expose his relationship with the Lord of Disaster, if Negary had to help them with every little thing, what was the point of having subordinates?
The operation of a world required living beings, especially excellent living beings. The fact that the Celestials were more powerful compared to the Desolates was only an advantage, and one that they had to fully exert in order to obtain recognition from the world itself.
In cultivation terms, the Desolates and Celestials were competing for the great fortune of being the world's main character. In biological terms, they were competing for the top position of the food chain. What they were using to compete was the advantages and strength of their entire races, not with how strong the entity behind them was.
The Desolate spirit giving the Desolates a resource cheat resulted in his authorities waning, so if Negary did everything himself, it should also result in him losing a part of his authorities, as well as a huge possibility of him losing the entire thing.
Losing command over a world, even to Negary, was a considerable loss, not to mention how it would ruin his resurrection plan.
Negary's goal was to further promote his world virus and turn it into a phenomenon virus, which required the aid of this world's environment. One of the requirements for this was for a large number of this phenomenon occurring in a large area, and the competition between two races who needed to overcome their shortcomings in order to obtain evolution was perfectly suitable for this.
With two races competing for the top position on the food chain, the loser would only end up extinct. Furthermore, a few thousand years later, the winning side would even use the losing side in their history books or zoos in order to retell the original desperate struggle, reminding them of their predecessors' efforts.
For this reason, neither the Desolates nor the Celestials had room to back down. Rejecting improvement meant death, this atmosphere was something that Negary had personally invoked, as well as the true reason why he was here.
His consciousness had faintly been able to recognize the essence of the phenomenon of wanting to continuously improve and become a better self. With enough data, he would be able to compile the Principles and Ideals contained within to not only achieve sublimation in his form of existence but also manifest his Pathway.
Increasingly more data was flowing through Negary's consciousness. Currently, even as a consciousness who hadn't been resurrected, he wasn't any inferior to his previous self while he remained in this world, and once he had resurrected through the cradle that is the Ancestral Wild, he would once again leave the birdcage of his past behind.
〖 Do not disappoint me, everyone 〗
Negary was closely examining Yun Yi. According to what Negary had analyzed from the world's data, if Negary hadn't interfered, Yun Yi would have been the 'best friend' character of the [Protagonist] Meng Luo.
In other words, he was a crucial deuteragonist, from a certain point of view, he would have had his own predestined role to play in the script, but now that he had begun walking on another path, his predestined role had become his limit.
〖 So, can you break through your own limit, Yun Yi? 〗
…
Yun Yi shook his head, feeling like he had just heard someone whisper into his ears asking something, it had been a very long time since he had heard illusory noises.
"Perhaps I've been researching a bit too hard recently"
Yun Yi put down his work and stood up to look inside the nearby quarantine zone. A disaster-infected Desolate was mindlessly attacking the nearby walls and observation board. Even after being locked up for several days, its will to destroy had not waned a single bit.
To conserve the Celestials' strength as much as possible, a weapon to counteract these disaster-infected Desolates must be developed soon. A working product had been designed previously, but due to some shortcomings of its core technology, this fantasy weapon consumed too much Cede and didn't fit the requirements. Simply put, it couldn't be mass-produced, so it needed to be redesigned.
Yun Yi once again scratched his head until his hair was a mess, even a fantasy required a lot of thinking.
Right at this moment, the light of the entire base suddenly shut down, followed by the emergency lights turning on with a loud siren.
[Emergency, a disaster-infected Desolate has broken loose, suspected to be sabotaged by a Desolate. The passage leading outside has been wrecked in an explosion, aid will probably not arrive for another 30 minutes, please stay cautious. I repeat…]
Yun Yi immediately shot to his feet and drew his spare weapon. There had been cases of special agents on both the Desolate and Celestial sides who infiltrated the other's backline to cause sabotage, but this was the first time that a research center had been breached, so the one who came wouldn't be simple to deal with at all.
