Chapter 124: Opening

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Huang Ze found it a great pity that the cheat allowing him to manipulate the flow of time could not be used.

After all, if it had truly been possible, three years could have been turned into ninety years out of thin air. Whether for scientific research or for improving the overall quality of the entire population, they would have had far more time to spare.

Just imagine: training a university student in Xia normally required more than a decade of systematic education. Yet within this mental world, it would take only a few short months!

If every citizen of Xia could enter the mental world for several months of advanced study and receive more than a decade’s worth of targeted education, their overall abilities would certainly improve substantially. Once quantity gave rise to quality, Xia’s comprehensive national strength would surely rise along with it.

“Ordinary people’s brains can’t withstand a thirtyfold flow of time, but three to five times faster… that shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

Huang Ze pondered this. “Besides, now that we have the formula for the dragon-blood potion, everyone has begun taking my Golden Dragon Blood and undergoing a transformation of their life forms. Their physical constitutions and soul strength will surely continue to improve. By then, the multiple of accelerated time they can endure will naturally grow higher and higher!”

So the mental world really did possess tremendous potential for public use!

The more Huang Ze thought about it, the more convinced he became. He then discussed with the little red dragon how much she would charge as a venue fee if he rented her mental world and opened it to the people of Xia.

The little red dragon refused outright.

At one moment, she claimed that operating the mental world was extremely costly and that it simply could not accommodate many visitors.

At another, she insisted that, as a dragon, she naturally possessed a certain degree of spiritual fastidiousness and personal boundaries. Her heart was willing to open only to one person—Mr. Deus. How could she possibly open it to the people of Xia and let them use it as a server?

Huang Ze could hardly press the matter. After all, the little red dragon had been so completely open and sincere with him. As a grown man, he could not exploit her too much or bully her too harshly. That would simply be unconscionable.

He decided to discuss the matter with Academician Ding and the others after returning, to see whether they could construct a mental world of their own and open it for everyone’s use.

“Mr. Deus… the reason you have such a close relationship with the people of Xia couldn’t be because you want to become a deity, could it?”

The little red dragon had always kept her attention fixed on the black dragon, so she saw through his intentions with ease. She asked the question nervously.

“Become a deity? No. Why would you suddenly ask that?”

Huang Ze looked puzzled.

“I don’t know whether I’m right…” the little red dragon replied. “It just feels as though opening one’s mental world to a large number of intelligent beings is one of the necessary steps in transforming into a deity.”

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The little red dragon continued, “The essence of a deity is somewhat similar to what the people of Xia describe in their books as the Alaya consciousness. In the beginning, it is a product formed from the convergence of certain laws and consciousnesses.”

“If you open your mental world to a large number of intelligent beings, you will inevitably be assimilated by them and reshaped by them. In the process, divinity will emerge, and your fate will become inseparably linked to that of those beings.”

“Let me tell you a secret, but you absolutely must not go around repeating it… The divine kingdoms where those deities dwell in the heavens are actually their mental worlds!”

What? Was that really true?

Huang Ze was startled at first, but then he inexplicably felt that everything made sense.

No wonder the star he had encountered earlier in the astral realm had been so small, with hardly any buildings or supporting facilities. As it turned out, it had never been meant for people to live in at all!

A true divine kingdom was a mental world, existing in an idealistic form!

“So, then… the churches’ claims that human souls enter the divine kingdom and live there after death are all lies?”

Huang Ze could not help asking.

“Not exactly.” The little red dragon shook her head. “After many devout believers and many high-quality souls die, the deities really do send angels to bring their souls to the divine kingdoms, where they live.”

“And to those souls, the mental world is also an objectively existent, genuine world. In fact, thanks to the power of the deities and the power of faith, it may even appear more perfect than reality.”

“…”

Huang Ze seemed to grasp something. The more he listened, the more the divine kingdoms of the deities sounded like enormous servers. The believers’ souls were the users of those servers—or perhaps the data they were required to process.

…

The little red dragon coaxed, cajoled, and pestered Huang Ze for nearly two hours before he finally found an opportunity to escape her entanglements and withdraw from her mental world.

After returning to the material realm, he asked Yu Xiaomin about it. Sure enough, the time he had spent with his eyes closed had been no more than four minutes.

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This naturally left him sighing with emotion. The mental world really was a wonderful place: one day there was worth thirty days. If only the little red dragon were not so noisy and excitable, and would instead devote her thoughts and energy to studying and conducting research, it would be even better.

“She agreed to provide the formula for the dragon-blood potion, but she wants two tons of gold in return.”

The black dragon spoke to Yu Xiaomin. “I confirmed the matter with her. The price is fairly reasonable, and she shouldn’t be inflating it by much.”

“That is indeed the case.” Seeing the red dragon wake as well, Yu Xiaomin hurriedly continued, “Mr. Deus, we also inquired about the price through other channels. Every offer was above fifty tons of gold, and none of the sources were particularly trustworthy. If we can obtain it from Lady Red at this price, that would naturally be ideal.”

“All right, then. It’s settled.”

Huang Ze nodded, then kicked the red dragon’s body away when she sidled up against him and gave her a fierce glare.

Publicly displaying affection with me like this—if word got out, how would I ever hold my head up as a dragon?

In less than half a day, he had successfully charmed a young female dragon. He was practically the Casanova of the dragons. What if the organization later decided to make use of his talents and sent him to win over other young female dragons? Wouldn’t that turn him into a stud dragon for real?

I, Huang Ze, am a perfectly respectable man. How could I endure such humiliation?

The black dragon darkened his expression, drove the red dragon away, and continued, “…Give her six hundred kilograms of gold as a deposit first. She’ll go and smooth things over with her connections, and then she’ll be able to hand over the formula.”

“Understood. I’ll report this to our superiors immediately.”

Yu Xiaomin was somewhat surprised. Why did Lady Red need to pull strings in order to sell something of her own? Could it be that, just as on Earth, there was some kind of Wassenaar Arrangement in place, prohibiting her from selling overly important technology to Xia?

But out of trust in the black dragon, he did not ask any further questions. Instead, he immediately sent someone back to deliver the message and prepare the gold.

“…You have a good relationship with Hyperion?”

The thought suddenly occurred to Huang Ze, and he hurriedly asked the red dragon through the mental channel.

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