Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon
Chapter 407 - 406 Takeover

Chapter 407: Chapter 406 Takeover

In the following week, the residents of the City of Defense experienced a series of earth-shattering changes.

Firstly, almost simultaneously, the followers of the Paradise Sect heard the call of the divinities.

While the divinities had responded to their prayers in the past and even made appearances to accept their audiences, these were always confined to within the Holy Hall. It was the first time that divine edicts directly entered their minds. The followers who heard the holy sounds were ecstatic, feeling that they had drawn one step closer to the divinities.

However, some claimed to have heard a young male voice, others a pleasant female voice, and still others insisted it was a wise old man; in short, there were various claims... This led everyone to swiftly adopt a new notion: the image of the Paradise Master was far from merely the Goddess with Twin Wings. When walking among mortals, the form taken was varied and different for each individual, not fixed.

Secondly, it was the first time that the Paradise Sect of the City of Defense connected with the followers of the sect from outside.

When the followers from Thistlefort took the train into the City of Defense, banners welcoming them were hung all over the city. This acceptance process was incredibly smooth, with no one sensing anything unusual. For the local residents, they had long attempted to spread their faith outward, so the culmination of their work today seemed only natural. Some even believed that perhaps some of the followers who hadn’t returned initially hadn’t perished outside but had dedicated themselves so fully to proselytizing that they forgot to come home. It was only now that their efforts had forged the sect’s presence in other cities.

On the contrary, the real surprise was on the part of the visitors coming from outside.

For instance, Xue Quan and Elise, among others.

The former was somewhat of an outsider, but it was different for Elise and his peers... As nobles of the Old Continent, they knew the history of the City of Defense like the back of their hand, having set out for the Misty Forest with an expedition team just five or six days earlier. Yet due to an unexpected event en route, they temporarily returned to Thistlefort to escort the injured, only to find upon their return that the City of Defense had revived. The hundreds of thousands of people not only survived, but the city was bustling with activity—the contrast so stark that it seemed too exaggerated even for a dream.

This made Chaoyang realize something: only part of the fifteen lost years of the City of Defense had been made up—the changes in history did not cause a chain reaction that spread outward but were firmly contained within this small area by the power of the Unfathomed. Those outside still thought of it as a dead city, with even a touch of the Hidden Mist remaining on the fringes of the forest.

Of course... with the "gift" being reclaimed, all the strange phenomena within the City of Defense would disappear, and communication would no longer be limited. However, in the short term, the impression of it suddenly "popping up" could not be changed.

The arrival of the leadership team from Thistlefort also meant that the control of the Paradise Sect in the City of Defense began to shift to Chaoyang. This process was just as smooth—The Mist God had no interest in fighting for power, and Enkui and Potland were true believers of the Paradise Master. With the word of the divinities out, they naturally wouldn’t insist that the City of Defense was the birthplace of Paradise.

Thanks to the large amount of wishing power provided by the City of Defense, Chaoyang was able to expand the range of his third incarnation’s Divine Country to encompass the entire city, allowing the local followers to enjoy the convenience of "connectivity." When the first batch of Follower’s Marks was put into use, he felt the wishing power of this place grow even stronger.

Xue Quan did not come alone.

He was well aware of his purpose, and accompanying him to the City of Defense was a large contingent of scientific research team members. Upon receiving the news of the new energy source from Chaoyang, these individuals immediately embarked on researching the beach caves and the warehouse ruins. Every day, as the local fishermen returned home with their catch, they could see a throng of personnel in white robes coming in and out of the cave entrance. However, this time, the cave was no longer a bloody and cruel site of horror, and any resident willing to register to assist the people in white was well compensated.

As for Mekefa, Yukel, and others from Zhaixing City, they left without saying goodbye on the evening of the day Chaoyang met with the Mist God. They departed in great haste, unwilling to even wait for the train repairs, and after purchasing more than ten horses at great expense, they set off toward the north.

As these people crossed the borders of the city, Shadow asked for Chaoyang’s opinion, but Chaoyang had no intention of stopping them. Even if these people didn’t report back, the news of the City of Defense’s revival would soon spread across the entire continent. Far away at the Royal Capital, someone had already received this exclusive news, and it would serve as proof of Paradise’s miracle, making the front page of major newspapers.

A week later, Xue Quan arrived at the Holy Office with dark circles under his eyes.

"Not getting enough rest recently?" Chaoyang joked.

"Just about two hours of sleep over the past two days," Xue Quan said with a self-deprecating smile. "But it’s not too bad since I can always switch to another body when this one gets tired."

It was all because of the bizarre things found in the cave... Although he was not a scientist, he felt obliged to keep working since the academics hadn’t called a stop. After all, he was responsible for coordinating the personnel and resources here.

"Does it work?"

"It works."

"Is it useful?"

"That... is hard to say."

Xue Quan knew exactly what he meant, though others might be confused. On the second day after the research team commenced their work, Professor Wang Shengli was escorted back to the Northern Prefecture Control Center by Chaoyang with two glass jars. Through exploration, it was found that the brains inside the jars had some differences from human brains—more grooves, noticeably thicker grey matter—possibly belonging to a new species. Even more unfathomably, it functioned steadily on Earth, emitting energy. The energy wasn’t electrical or thermal but a wave that did not rely on a medium to transmit. Together with some components, also found in the warehouse, it demonstrated the properties of an energy source, such as emitting light and mechanically doing work. The power output of a single glass jar was about one thousand watts.

"So, it’s about the same as an air-conditioner unit... That doesn’t seem very useful," Chaoyang commented while flipping through the report submitted by Xue Quan. The biggest problem with this discovery was how to mass-produce it—you can’t just snatch brains from wherever. The area that had been explored so far revealed three warehouses behind the metal walls, but only Number One warehouse primarily stored these glass jars, totaling one thousand five hundred and twenty. They could barely meet the energy needs of a city for lighting but that was pretty much it.

"At first glance, yes. However, Professor Wang has found that when several glass jars are linked together, their power increases exponentially, as if their waves are combining," Xue Quan explained. "Additionally, their durability has garnered a lot of attention from experts—the power of a nuclear battery of the same size doesn’t even reach half of theirs, and their lifespan is between 50-80 years. If it were to be applied, the space sector would definitely be the most suitable field. But an industrial product’s value depreciates significantly if it can’t be manufactured on a large scale, so the experts’ conclusion was: it’s hard to say."

Chaoyang nodded, "Any other discoveries?"

"Hmm... take a look at this." Xue Quan handed over a stack of photos, which depicted pages of yellowed paper. "While searching the warehouse, we found records with writing in a safe. Unfortunately, this writing is very different from what people use today, and deciphering it will take some time. The Control Center is already gathering the best language and image experts to assist with the translation work. I expect that we will make progress in one to two months."

"No..." Chaoyang murmured as he looked at the photos, "I can understand these writings..."

"Really? What’s written on them?"

He ran his right hand over the photos, whispering, "Reveal."

The text before his eyes began to twist, extend, reorganize, and eventually turned into a series of Chinese characters.

——’New Continent Expedition Diary, March 5, 2156.’