84: Chapter 83: A Blessing or a Curse?

Xia Xingchen activated the controller integrated into his skin, and with a series of rapid taps, transferred the final reserves of energy to the equipment replacement system.

Soon, the brand-new system chip was replaced.

Nuwa quickly began using her data engine to write new programs, starting to operate in place of The Creator.

Nuwa quickly began to take over The Creator's original position, appearing on the screen.

"I will need at least 50 years here to complete the replacement of all systems."

Xia Xingchen was stunned when he heard this. It would take that long?

Nuwa nodded.

"What about the dream star?"

Nuwa thought for a moment before making a quick judgment.

"It can be understood that the dream star has temporarily lost its Machine Spirit. It will be like an ordinary Imperial cogitator system; it can respond to your commands without affecting daily operations."

As Nuwa finished speaking, numerous mechanical arms extended from within the room and connected to her physical system.

Nuwa's data torrent also began to transfer, officially shifting toward the Forge World of the Dark Age of Technology.

Seeing this, Xia Xingchen could only bid farewell to Nuwa before turning and leaving.

Xia Xingchen did not know if this exploration was a blessing or a curse. He had obtained a Forge World from the Dark Age of Technology, but he couldn't use it, and he had also lost one of his cores, Nuwa.

When Xia Xingchen walked out of the massive pyramid, he took one last lingering look at Nuwa and everything inside.

What a pity; so many treasures, yet none could be utilized.

When Xia Xingchen walked out of the pyramid, Leovitos and Wang Ke had been waiting outside for a long time. Xia Xingchen led everyone back to the transport ship and returned to the warship.

"Archon, did Lady Nuwa stay there?"

Xia Xingchen nodded.

"The Machine Spirit chose her."

Xia Xingchen directly attributed the reason for Nuwa staying behind to the Machine Spirit.

Leovitos did not have a shred of doubt upon hearing this; after all, the Machine Spirit was the incarnation of the Omnissiah. If he were to question the Machine Spirit, it would be equivalent to questioning his own faith.

At this moment, Leovitos felt only envy; he had not expected that Nuwa would actually receive the approval of the Omnissiah.

Wang Ke did not care about this. At this moment, his heart was filled with a greater desire for technological knowledge, as well as dissatisfaction with the limitations of his own flesh.

Wang Ke planned to undergo integration modification upon returning, becoming a being like the Adeptus Mechanicus. The lifespan of a normal physical body was barely a hundred years, but once mechanically modified, he would have at least a thousand years of life, which would give him the qualifications to study everything here.

Returning to the warship, just as Xia Xingchen was preparing to leave in the same manner, Zheng Hai brought him some very bad news.

"We need to wait for one day for the Origin Cannon to finish cooling down and recharging."

Xia Xingchen slapped his forehead: "Oh, damn, I forgot about that!"

Every time the Origin Cannon was fired, it required at least an hour of preparation, and after firing, it needed a full day to cool down and recharge.

Just as Xia Xingchen was preparing to wait, Nuwa's communication was transmitted to the communication array.

"Archon, I have manipulated the star's gravity to open a temporary passage for you. You can leave the Evernight Star System from there."

Nuwa finished her transmission.

Zheng Hai and the crew quickly began to change direction, soon arriving at a narrow passage entrance.

As the ship's speed was pushed to the maximum, the dream star left the Evernight Star System at its conventional top speed.

"Alright, Zheng Hai, return to Lanshan Planet first."

This episode today had finally come to an end. What he needed to do next was to hurry up and pay this year's taxes.

Afterwards, he would head to the Tri-Phal System to purchase military equipment.

By the way, did I forget something?

Xia Xingchen began to ponder in his mind; he felt as if someone had been forgotten.

At this moment, Katrus, who was traveling through the Warp, sneezed.

"Who is it? Who is thinking of me like this?"

Katrus immediately began to pray for the Emperor's blessing in his heart again.

He was currently in the middle of a Warp jump; he must not be targeted by anything unclean!

After Katrus finished praying, he looked at the object behind him.

It was a huge iron cage. Under strong demand, Katrus had been locked inside this cage made of special alloy.

Archon Xia Xingchen should really like this item. After all, I went to a lot of trouble to get this cargo from the black market.

The fleet led by Xia Xingchen returned to Lanshan Planet.

In the remaining less than two months, Xia Xingchen had to complete two things.

The first thing was to prepare the credits.

The second thing was to prepare rare materials.

Although he had the endorsement of the Inquisition, Xia Xingchen could not go empty-handed.

Xia Xingchen had to prepare items that could be traded with the Forge World.

Xia Xingchen finished processing today's administrative affairs in the Governors Palace at The Spire.

Xia Xingchen walked to the window and stood at the highest point, looking down at the most prosperous city.

We have already transferred nearly 60,000 colonial people from Vanad Planet to Lanshan Planet via cosmic-class mass transport ships.

After these residents were transferred to Lanshan Planet, they were immediately thrown into construction work.

Now, after a year of development, Lanshan Planet had undergone significant changes.

The most obvious were the Spaceport and the Space Elevator. Although they had not been completely built, the basic prototype and framework had been set up, and the entire Spaceport could transport a small amount of supplies.

The entire planet's industrial zone had also started operating, and the million-strong population had basically been thrown into the bottomless pit of industrial manufacturing.

At the same time, Xia Xingchen's manufactured goods began to be produced in a continuous stream.

Most of these industrial products would be internally consumed. Originally, Xia Xingchen had been worried about the lack of an external market, but now with the Vanad world, he felt much more at ease.

Future surplus industrial products could be dumped into the Vanad world.

Xia Xingchen understood that the vast majority of resources in the Vanad world had been mined for thousands of years and were basically on the verge of exhaustion.

His last administrative order was to squeeze out all the remaining mineral resources of Vanad.

The Vanad System was located to the west of the Daxia Star System and was also the main path for Xia Xingchen's future expansion.

Oh, you ask why I don't expand to the north, east, and south?

First of all, to the north of the Daxia Star System was the Great Maelstrom. Although it was far away, expanding in that direction was tantamount to facing Chaos directly.

To the south, the report brought back by the exploration team sent by Xia Xingchen was a region of dead planets.

Moreover, most of these planets had some kind of special obelisks standing on them. When Xia Xingchen saw this news, he immediately gave up on expanding in that direction.

The east was rich in resources, but the Tau Empire was in the southeast. Coupled with the first invasion of the Tyranids in the 41st Millennium, Xia Xingchen did not want to use the east as his rear base.

Therefore, the development of the east was limited to prioritizing the capture of resource-rich and important planets and establishing fortress worlds centered around them.

The west, however, was full of corrupt Imperial Governor worlds, worlds controlled by rebels, as well as a small number of Orks and Chaos forces, along with a small number of Craftworld Aeldari and Drukhari / Dark Aeldari.

Alright, four options were laid out before me.

May I ask, which direction should I choose?

In fact, this was a single-choice question.

Besides attacking to the west, where else could I expand!