102: Chapter 102 Sixty Years of Suppression, All Await Breakthrough

In the first year of the Divine Kingdom, the Eastern Spirit Fields welcomed a bumper harvest, with D-grade Spiritual Rice filling the granaries, and the fragrance of the spiritual rice drifting from the irrigation canals all the way to the streets of the New City.

Wang Mu did not let the granaries serve only the military, ordering that apprentices of the Academy, the Medical Cultivator's Hall, Hundred Arts Hall, and families of newborns be given priority in receiving supplies.

His decree was written clearly: the Breakthrough to First-Order Deity concerned the reshaping of the entire Divine Kingdom's foundation, and was by no means the private affair of a few commanders.

Only when the children were well-fed and the apprentices could hold on could Hundred Arts Hall keep their furnaces running day and night, and only then could the military continuously replenish its ranks with new blood.

In the second year, thirty-six new furnaces in the Alchemy Pavilion were lit simultaneously, with Pulse-Protecting Pills, Spirit-Condensing Incense, and Soul-Stabilizing Powder listed as the highest priority.

The Cultivators beside the Pill Furnaces changed shifts but not the fires, and a row of red characters was posted on the wall, reading: "Waste one less furnace, save one more life on the battlefield."

Wang Mu personally sat in command at Hundred Arts Hall, promoting the Breakthrough assistance method.

He divided the Half-step Purple Mansion into three categories: those with strong Divine Souls took the Spirit-Condensing Incense, those with restless Spiritual Qi took the Pulse-Protecting Pills, and those focused on Spells were given additional Stabilization Formation Plates.

Anyone who wanted to blindly crash through the threshold based on hot-headedness was immediately moved from the roster to the observation zone on the spot.

A young Foundation Establishment Cultivator was dissatisfied, blocking the entrance to Hundred Arts Hall and shouting that he had been holding back for thirty years and should absolutely not be ranked in the second batch.

Wang Mu laid out his combat records, Medicinal Pill tolerance logs, and the number of Divine Soul shocks he had experienced.

"You can't even withstand three instances of Formation Plate backflow, so by what right are you grabbing a spot in the first batch?" Wang Mu challenged him publicly.

The young Cultivator's Face turned beet red, and he couldn't squeeze out a single word.

Wang Mu did not save him any Face: "If you want to win glory for the Divine Lord, save your life until the time when you can actually win that glory."

This sentence spread throughout the Immortal Dao Ancestral Court, and the next day, no one dared to cause trouble about the rosters.

Things were even simpler at the Martial Dao Holy City.

Wang Shan drove all the Half-step Martial Masters into the Blood Energy Pool, making them soak for three full hours every day; if they were a quarter-hour short, they would be assigned an extra ten-mile weighted training run.

All nine levels of the Blood Energy Pool were opened, and the crimson water churned; veterans and new elites stood side by side in it, and even though their Faces twitched with pain, no one dared to climb ashore.

Wang Shan sat by the pool, holding his crimson flame saber; if anyone wanted to slack off, he would tap the scabbard against the water.

"The Divine Lord is waiting for you to break through, not for you to come here to take a bath."

Someone in the barracks secretly carved this sentence onto a wooden sign and hung it at the entrance of the Blood Energy Pool, though it was later kicked down by Wang Shan.

He thought the sign looked ominous, but the next day, it was hung back up again.

In the tenth year of the Divine Kingdom, the yield of the Spirit Fields had doubled twice, the inventory of Hundred Arts Hall began to pile up, and bottles of Pulse-Protecting Pills were sealed into the military warehouses.

Wang Mu did not relax, having the Formation Hall bury Spirit-Stabilizing Formations under every Breakthrough square, and had the Talisman Institute prepare ten times the number of protective talismans.

Some complained that he was being too cautious.

Wang Mu only replied with one sentence: "On the day of the Breakthrough, caution will save your life."

In the fifteenth year of the Divine Kingdom, the Martial Dao Holy City completed its first round of full-army inspections.

Wang Shan flipped through the rosters of the three thousand main combat troops, two thousand auxiliary troops, and one hundred thousand reserves three times, and everyone with hidden injuries was sent to the Medical Cultivator's camp.

Several veterans were unwilling to be demoted to the second batch and knelt at the camp entrance, begging him to show mercy.

Wang Shan stood before them, silent for a long time.

Finally, he threw their military medallions back into their arms: "If you want to break through in the first batch, first tear up the slip from the Medical Cultivator's camp regarding your hidden injuries."

The veterans grinned and turned to run towards the medicine pool.

In the twentieth year, the population of the Divine Kingdom grew to 2.6 million, and the New City expanded three hundred miles into the new land of the Green Abyss.

The miasma remaining in the Violent Green Abyss was suppressed within seventeen purification Formations, and the Green Abyss mineral veins began to produce the first batch of usable Ore.

The rot-resistant Spiritual Plants of the Black Swamp area were cross-planted with the Green Abyss poison vines, increasing the survival rate from thirty percent to sixty percent.

These things did not directly translate into combat power, but they made the foundation of the Divine Kingdom thicker layer by layer.

Wang Pingan's Divine Thought hung high in the firmament, never intervening frequently.

He watched Wang Mu manage the Spirit Fields and the Academy, watched Wang Shan reorganize the troops to lay the foundation, and also watched the ordinary subjects marry, have children, attend school, and Cultivate over the sixty years.

This Divine Kingdom was no longer the barracks that only waited for divine oracles in the past.

It was moving forward on its own.

In the thirtieth year, the population neared the three million mark.

Among the new children entering the Academy, four out of ten could complete basic breathing exercises before the age of ten, and the Martial Dao preparatory camp also continuously produced seedlings with sturdy bones and muscles.

When Wang Mu received the statistical ledger, his palm rested on the page for a long time.

"The Origin of the alien race has finally been consumed."

The humid and hot Laws brought by the Black Swamp Scale Nest, and the reproductive and berserk heritage brought by the Violent Green Abyss, were all dismantled bit by bit by the Divine Kingdom, and stuffed into the Spirit Fields, medicine fields, mineral veins, the Academy, and the barracks.

The enemy's divine kingdom was already dead.

But the enemy's heritage had become the soil, grain, medicine, armor, and the foundation of the newborns in Wang Pingan's Divine Kingdom.

In the fortieth year, the foundation of the Divine Kingdom's civilization completed a new round of consolidation.

Wang Mu re-classified the five institutes under the Immortal Dao Ancestral Court—Alchemy, Formation, Talisman, Spirit Planting, and Medical Cultivator—and established a Breakthrough Guardianship Division in each.

Wang Shan divided the barracks of the Martial Dao Holy City into five departments: main combat, rescue, logistics, Formation base, and reserves; any Half-step Martial Master breaking through had to have a corresponding team monitoring them.

The two systems docked at the Breakthrough square for a full three months.

Just on the points of traction cables, the distance of medicine pools, the evacuation routes of the Artillery Battalion, and the number of spare Formation Plates, they argued more than a dozen times.

Wang Shan complained that Wang Mu wrote the procedures too thickly, and he was annoyed after flipping through half a volume.

Wang Mu dragged a training Puppet whose blood energy had gone out of control in front of him and let the Puppet explode on the spot.

Blood plasma splashed onto half of Wang Shan's body.

Wang Shan wiped his Face and cursed: "Fine, I'll listen to you."

When this reached the military, the veterans laughed for three days.

In the fiftieth year, the first batch of Half-step powerhouses who had followed Wang Pingan since the Early Stage of Awakening began to reach the end of their lifespans.

A Demigod's Divine Kingdom could extend life, but it could not let every subject transcend time.

By the Blood Energy Pool in the Martial Dao Holy City, an old veteran sat down against the stone wall, his hair completely white, his skin clinging to his bones, clutching a Half-step Martial Master military medallion in his hand.

His name was Wang Tie, and in his early years, he was just the most ordinary shield soldier in the heavy armored army.

In the Blood Moon Wreckage, he had carried the Spider Guards; in the Black Swamp Scale Nest, he had pulled the rescue ropes; and in the Violent Green Abyss, he had dragged his broken leg to guard the Formation base.

He had never been a commander in his life, nor had he stood in the light at the very front.

But his military medallion was engraved with three great merits.

When Wang Shan arrived, the veteran's eyes were still open, his gaze falling into the depths of the Blood Energy Pool.

"Commander, I didn't charge."

Wang Shan crouched before him, his throat moving: "I know."

"The Divine Lord said to wait." The veteran pressed his fingers against the military medallion. "So I waited."

Wang Shan raised his hand and pressed it on his shoulder: "You waited."

The veteran wanted to smile, but his mouth didn't have the strength to lift.

He took one last look at the firmament and swallowed his last breath.

That military medallion was still gripped in his palm.

Wang Shan stood there for a long time.

All the surrounding Half-step Martial Masters were silent.

No one shouted, no one cried, only the water in the Blood Energy Pool continued to churn.

Wang Shan personally took the military medallion and hung it at the very front of the Breakthrough square.

"He did not break through, but he upheld the Divine Lord's order."

After these words spread, all the Half-step powerhouses suppressed their originally restless Qi.

What they were waiting for was the day the Divine Kingdom broke through the rank together, certainly not the gains or losses of one family or one person.

In the sixtieth year, the twentieth day in the outside world.

The population of the Divine Kingdom officially broke through three million.

The total rosters of the Immortal Dao Ancestral Court and the Martial Dao Holy City were delivered before Wang Pingan's Divine Thought.

The total number of Half-step Purple Mansion and Half-step Martial Masters was three thousand three hundred and twenty-one.

Among them, over one thousand two hundred came from the Immortal Dao system, and over two thousand came from the Martial Dao system.

They stood on the squares of the two giant cities, the Spiritual Qi and Blood Energy in their bodies pressed to the limit.

On the square of the Immortal Dao Ancestral Court, the Half-step Purple Mansion Cultivators sat cross-legged in a Formation, with Spirit-Condensing Incense, Pulse-Protecting Pills, and Stabilization Formation Plates placed in front of each person.

On the square of the Martial Dao Holy City, the Half-step Martial Masters stood in armor, heat waves from the Blood Energy Pool rolled over the city walls, and the military flags were pulled straight.

Wang Mu stood on the high platform of the Ancestral Court, the command flag in his hand lowered.

Wang Shan stood in the center of the Martial Dao Holy City, his crimson flame saber propped against the ground, his gaze sweeping over each familiar and aged Face.

Everyone was waiting for the Divine Lord in the firmament to speak.

In the secret chamber, Wang Pingan's Divine Core roared.

The golden divine fire had not yet ignited, but the Demigod markings were already shining to the extreme.

On the boundary of the ten thousand square kilometer Divine Kingdom, the invisible barrier caused the earth to shake continuously.

Wang Pingan opened his eyes.

His Divine Thought turned into a blazing sun, rising into the firmament of the Divine Kingdom.

Golden light shone over the Eastern Spirit Fields, over the Southern Black Swamp, over the Western new land of the Green Abyss, and over the Northern New City and the two Holy Cities.

Three million subjects looked up simultaneously.

Wang Pingan's divine oracle spread to every inch of the ten thousand square kilometers of land.

"The Laws are full, the iron rules shall be broken. Today, follow me into the First-Order!"