In the following days, Sword Casting Manor was busy with post-war reflections.

This battle served as a real-world test for the "Village Guardian Treasure" Ancestral Demon God Armor. Many flaws needing improvements were discovered, and leaders began working together to update the version.

After all, they were fond of farming simulations and enjoyed tinkering with machinery and DIY research.

Moreover, the Night Mad Cultivator advisory group started planning new strategic layouts for the manor and making various plans for the usage of the [Chronicles of Time].

After all.

They were no longer the young boys who got carried away after a victory. Winning didn't make them too cocky, and they knew that guarding the [Chronicles of Time] was the hardest task.

They'd already flaunted their prowess and were now in the limelight. If they were knocked down, they would become fools.

They absolutely didn't want to be ridiculed by the world and found out to be bluffing.

Of course.

Every department was working tirelessly, managing the manor's economy, while the idle Jiucai Rong got an itch for authority.

Jiucai Rong wanted each blacksmith's management team to write an 800-word post-war summary, sharing their views on the battle, claiming it was a gathering of ideas.

But everyone was busy, why bother with this capitalist nonsense?

Sure enough, Jiucai Rong was thrown into the smithy by a group and turned into a divine artifact—streetlight.

Speaking of which, in the Manor's plaza, there had been seven or eight streetlights along the way this month!

Whenever someone made a grave mistake, after a collective vote by the blacksmiths, certain members of management would be sent to the smithy, directly executed, given a warning, and turned into streetlights.

This included but was not limited to:

The Black Alchemy Room incident, where the Night Mad Cultivator was secretly deducted as the Yin Yang Synthesis Furnace's Artifact Spirit.

The Black Dining Hall diarrhea incident, involving the Food God, Shao Chaikun.

The Black Cosmetic Surgery incident, where Immortal Aunt secretly tampered with the surgery, causing people to keep revisiting for touch-ups.

Among them, Jiucai Rong proudly claimed three streetlights.

Jiucai Rong was in tears, protesting: I bear the blame in my efforts to develop the Manor's business!

...

Nowadays, the embers have a high drop rate. Whenever passersby approach these streetlights, they hear the embers wailing.

They don't think they're dead; they believe they are the blacksmiths themselves.

Streetlight Night Mad Cultivator: "Ahhh, how dare you! Get me down!! I'm the Manor's adviser!"

Streetlight Number One Immortal Aunt: "Help! Help! Have I time-traveled? The whole Manor instantly changed! The Yin Qi is thick, and the blacksmiths look at me with eerie smiles."

Streetlight Number Two Immortal Aunt: "I'm the real Immortal Aunt. Speak! Who are you? Did you make the Manor so creepy?"

Streetlight Number One Immortal Aunt: "I'm the original; you're fake."

Every time someone passed by, they would hear these streetlights chirping incessantly.

Just like the monkey suppressed under Five Finger Mountain for making grave mistakes.

Of course.

The Jiucai Rong streetlight was specially allowed to grow two hands on a utility pole to edit documents.

This explains why Jiucai Rong had been so idle lately.

Because he exploited even the streetlight he was hung from, making them work for him.

This has led to an interesting phenomenon: the more streetlights he has, the more bored he becomes; his boredom drives him to act like a capitalist, invent new tricks, exploit the blacksmiths, and then get made into another streetlight by the angry blacksmiths.

The more streetlights he has to help with work, the more bored he becomes, and he causes more trouble.

This has already formed a blissful cycle.

Some people predict that Jiucai Rong might become the Manor's biggest capitalist, breaking a record: Sword Casting Manor's roads lined with his streetlights hanging everywhere.

In the future, when visitors arrive, seeing this weird Sword Casting Manor and hearing each streetlight shouting loudly, would they be scared out of their wits?

Of course.

Sword Casting Manor had been altogether busy dealing with the aftermath, while external affairs grew increasingly intense.

Moreover, this surge of buzz and hot topics resulted in Ning Zheng's earnings skyrocketing to an exaggerated figure: twenty times the previous amount.

Each day, more than thirty million Qi Fortune Value was credited to him.

In these three short days, he had already pocketed over a billion.

This made him reflect that indeed wealth is found amid risks.

If his previous wager had failed, had he been killed by Xin Xichen and others, not only would he have lost everything, including many Self-Transformation Realm Ancestral Demon Gods, he would also have lost 1.5 billion Qi Fortune Value.

But with a bit of luck, he successfully escaped danger and reaped this huge profit wave.

The loss in Qi Fortune Value quickly regained within these three days, and with the momentum lasting for the next few days, the remaining Qi Fortune Value are pure profit!

At a conservative estimate, he might receive more than two billion.

But this won't last forever; surely no one keeps praying endlessly, and peak periods always decline.

After a while, people will forget, returning to work, earning money, raising children, while cultivators go back to their practices.

"Looks like Xin Xichen doesn't plan to attack." Ning Zheng waited the past few days, sensing no threats, so he began pondering the Chronicles of Time. Who knows how powerful the thing inside is, though it's under control, it's essential to remain vigilant.

...

Bone Demon Royal City.

After that battle, in recent days, Phoenix, Cursed, and others succumbed to external pressures and ceased internal conflicts to start discussions and decided to unite thoroughly.

Everyone knows, holding the Chronicles of Time, the Ancient King of Embers, what kind of monster he will become in the future.

Unable to kill him in the cradle now, the only option is to accelerate development; if their growth cannot match, the future outcome is obvious.

"Xin Xichen said they want to ally with our Four Seas Dynasty," Phoenix Yi said.

Although the Four Seas Dynasty is already a union of four dynasties.

"Then my Nursery's back side will also join the allied forces," Cursed said solemnly.

The nursery's front side is huge, and so is the backside.

His power can be deemed as a massive kingdom of death.

Though not superior to the Nine-State Central Plains, it's not weaker than any single sea, just a bit low-key.

"Then, our three forces are fully united." Xin Xichen's Dharma Aspect projection came over, "Central Plains Nine-State, Four Seas of Barbarians, Nursery back side, the three strongest forces in the world... develop together, support each other, and avoid internal strife."

Fully preparing and developing the Immortal Path is all they can do.

Xin Xichen said: "Your Hongmeng should be shown to me..."

"What, do you want to burn it?" Phoenix Yi asked.

"No, I help you improve it, enhance the Firewood ability." Xin Xichen shook his head.

This Eye of Identification is a bit too watery.

What if it's enhanced with Firewood?

Now, thanks to the revision of Firewood, it only needs to burn spilled aura, blood, and skin tissue to read others' powers.

If this weakened version of Firewood were popularized through the Eye of Identification?

All of Nine-State's populace would instantly see through others' divine techniques, magical artifacts, blue bars, and health bars...

"We agree to this," Yan Shuangying stepped up. "Develop together, Hongmeng... massive statistic, classification, research, is indeed the most advanced thought for pushing forward an era!"

With the addition of Firewood, a data panel will indeed appear later!

Now, under the pressure of strong forces in the shadows, these guys began to join forces.

This was what the blacksmiths wanted, and also what Ning Zheng wanted.

"With broad dissemination, it can merely see through cultivators below the Three Elements Realm." Xin Xichen said.

Phoenix Yi frowned, "Then I agree, anyway, low-level Firewood cannot see through my disguise."

"No problem." Cursed also nodded.

Thus, Human Race started to rise as well.

Just then, a lofty voice suddenly came from the sky, "How come you didn't invite me for your alliance?"

Everyone looked over, and a Dharma Aspect Clone appeared before them.

The Dharma Aspect of the Giant Shell Ancestral Demon God.

"Why are you here?" Xin Xichen didn't give a friendly expression.

"Eye of Identification, Hongmeng, we also want to invest and gain usage rights," Giant Shell Demon God said. "This thing is quite beneficial for cultivating the lower tiers."

He coldly said:

"And the price we pay is we will cleanse the Monarch's parasites... allowing your various factions to send some cultivators for joint exploitation!"