Slime True Immortal

Farvoyage Port was connected to the Dream Gateway, and the first vessel to pass through the portal into the Astral Realm was the Sky Oath.

The colossal silver structure slowly rose from the grasslands, and the arcane runes on its underside flared up the moment it passed through the portal, as if lighting the first beacon for this newborn port.

It would serve as an outpost, patrolling around the dream, protecting the Farvoyage Port that had just risen from the earth.

The pioneering travelers on the grasslands stood frozen for a long while before snapping out of their daze at the miracle.

They watched as the Sky Oath vanished into the void, then followed the guidance of the Magical Creature Legion, stepping into this port where they would stay for quite some time.

According to Chen Yu's plan, the pioneers would remain at this port for five days to familiarize themselves with Farvoyage Port and the environment of the Astral Realm.

Only after five days would they be allowed to leave the port's boundaries and venture into the true Astral Realm for exploration.

He had further divided the pioneers into two major systems.

One side was the empire's directly-administered legion structure, including elite knights drawn from the Border Corps, the Magical Creature Legion directly under the emperor, the Slime Knight Regiment, the Slime Mage Corps, and the Slime Engineering Teams.

The other side consisted of adventurers and mercenaries managed by the Adventurer's Guild.

The guild allowed pioneering travelers to form adventure guilds of over a hundred members after arriving at Farvoyage Port, which was also the minimum threshold for accepting Star Exploration missions.

Unless they were officially registered Extraordinary professionals, the guild almost never issued solo missions to avoid unnecessary casualties.

Furthermore, every adventure guild had to include a specially trained Slime Mage.

These Slime Mages mastered more fundamental coordinate perception and Silver-Thread weaving techniques, capable of helping travelers orient themselves in the vast Astral Realm, preventing them from getting lost in the boundless silver void.

Chen Yu's goals were clear. First, use the power of the pioneering travelers to explore this starry sky protected by the Tree King, and completely map out the known region's star charts.

Second, based on preliminary exploration, extend outward, attempt contact with other intelligent beings in the Astral Realm, and establish ties with the Silver Dragons and those ancient races also active in the Astral Realm.

Of course, they also had a critically important mission.

That terrifying creature still lingered at the end of the Abyss in Xu Xuan Heaven.

His gel clone was instantly killed during that brief contact, and the other party hadn't even realized his existence.

A creature that could crush him into Slime Paste like an ant was at least a demigod-level existence.

No one knew when it might break through the planar barrier of Xu Xuan Heaven, enter that realm, or even follow the Astral Realm's pathways to grope its way near Zeyarila.

He had once inquired with Oros about the distribution of Astral demigods, obtaining many vague coordinates from this old Silver Dragon who had lived for fifteen hundred years.

Perhaps among these coordinates, traces of that mysterious creature could be found.

But the Astral Realm was so vast it was nearly boundless. Relying on himself alone, he couldn't possibly search through all those coordinates.

He planned to organize the coordinates into standard exploration missions and distribute them separately to the empire's legions and the adventure guilds.

He hoped these pioneers would bring him surprises.

After arranging the pioneers' destinations, Chen Yu stayed at Farvoyage Port for a moment, confirmed there was no unusual danger around the dream, then quietly left the port and returned to Slime City.

It seemed today was my lucky day.

As soon as he returned to the Royal Palace, Large Slime brought news from the Dryad domain.

The sages had succeeded.

Using that jar of Silver Resin, they had cultivated a second Extraordinary Ancient Tree.

The crown of this newborn ancient tree began to spread out on the third day after absorbing the Silver Resin, its leaves showing the same silver-white luster as Fardoern, growing even better than expected.

This verified the possibility of building an Extraordinary Ancient Tree Warband.

As long as the same alchemical process was followed, diluting the Silver Resin and feeding it in batches to the Arcane Ancient Trees, they could continuously cultivate Extraordinary Treants.

After reading the report, Chen Yu thought of Eserin.

Unfortunately, since Eserin was imprisoned in the Ancient Tree Council, no news had come back.

If she could see that her life's work was growing into a warband capable of protecting an entire empire, how gratified she would be.

Since the Treant Warhost already had a clear prospect, his Slime Warhost couldn't fall behind either.

He returned to the Knight Training Grounds in the Dark City and selected the hundred best-performing Slime Knights from the regiment.

Their gel colors varied in shade, but each pair of small eyes shone with the same excitement.

He granted each of them the Slime Emperor's Blessing.

This blessing wouldn't directly boost their strength, but it could help them more easily pass the Hero's Trial.

Afterward, he pulled these hundred Slime Knights into the Lesser Xu Xuan Heaven, letting them train their skills around the Slime Dao Mountain and soon grasp the threshold of the trial.

With the time acceleration effect of his Creation Authority, he believed the first batch of Extraordinary Slime Knights would emerge soon.

By then, the empire would simultaneously possess two Extraordinary Warbands.

The Treant Warhost would handle frontline defense and positional suppression, while the Slime Knight Regiment would be responsible for mobile operations and tactical breakthroughs.

Even facing the ancient Ancient Tree Council, this foundation wouldn't appear meager.

Of course, Count Bran wasn't idle either. He was leading a Magical Creature squad in the Shadow Mountains, quietly tinkering with a Shadow Legion. When it returned, it should bring a considerable surprise.

The days that followed gradually returned to calm.

The empire's Astral Realm exploration was proceeding quite smoothly.

Under the protection of the Tree King's remnant body, adventurers were exploring this unfamiliar star region almost without risk.

Although they hadn't encountered any truly threatening Astral Realm creatures, exploration itself was a task requiring patience.

Most guild missions were still stuck at the stage of opening new routes and establishing new coordinates.

It would probably take several more months before they explored the complete range covered by the Tree King's sanctuary.

Exploring the Astral Realm was something that couldn't be rushed, and shouldn't be rushed.

During this period, news also came from Yano and Nilly's side.

After the imperial fleet had sailed for quite a long time, they finally reached the waters of the Southern Islands.

The fierce resistance they had imagined didn't occur. The island kingdoms along the way, upon seeing the imperial fleet approach, one by one showed anxious unease, terrified that this fleet flying an unfamiliar flag would erase them from the map.

Louis looked into it further and found that those kingdoms were nervous not because the empire's reputation had spread that far, but simply because those island nations were too weak.

Some so-called island kingdoms had a ruling territory no larger than a town-sized ring-shaped reef, and a regime without even a regular army dared to embroider a crown on its flag.

The most powerful professional within the kingdom was merely a few elite warriors, and the entire kingdom faced the danger of being wiped out by a passing Goblin tribe.

Facing Yano and his group, they were like country bumpkins seeing a fully-armed regular army for the first time.

Of course, among the Southern Islands, there were indeed places that could truly be called cities.

The Coral City-States governed most of the uninhabited islands in the archipelago. It was said that the city-state's governor was a genuine Legendary professional.

Yano's next goal was to find a way into the Coral City-States, trading under the name of a legitimate merchant convoy while secretly investigating the whereabouts of the overseas Stone Descendants.

Chen Yu believed that with Jack and Yano's ability to get things done, news should come back soon.

To ensure the Gel Network's signal could reach the Southern Islands, he erected a super Gel Signal Tower next to the Merchant Alliance council hall in Misty Bay Harbor.

Even if Yano and his group reached the Coral City-States, they could maintain contact through this tower's relay.

However, due to the great distance, signal latency would be significantly higher than in the Eastern Continent.

...

On an afternoon when there were no urgent matters to handle, Chen Yu crouched on the Throne, flipping through the accumulated documents and messages from this period.

Most of these were routine reports from various regions.

From the summaries Silver Sparrow had organized, he spotted an invitation letter sent by Louisa.

Most of the wheat fields on the Golden Tassel Plain had finished harvesting.

To prevent the winter clear-weather thaw from soaking the harvested grains, the windmills on the plain turned almost non-stop day and night.

Part of the milled wheat flour would be transported to markets across the empire to maintain normal food supplies, while the bulk of it would be stored in dry cellars to cope with possible future lean years.

According to the White Horse Kingdom's preliminary estimates, this year's harvest on the Golden Tassel Plain was enough to sustain the entire empire's grain needs for a full three years.

This was thanks to the Slime Agronomists' long-term use of talents like Soil Improvement and Promote Growth to cultivate the wheat fields and crops, as well as the large-scale deployment of gel greenhouses across the plain.

In her letter, Louisa invited him to visit the White Horse Kingdom, to see the harvest spectacle on the plain with his own eyes, and to discuss the fallen Divine Kingdom from the Forge Region.

After the Royal Capital campaign, that shattered Divine Kingdom had vanished, and no one could find its traces. But Louisa believed the empire might have reached the point where it could re-examine those ruins.

"Finally, a harvest."

Chen Yu refolded the letter paper, his small eyes gazing at the snowy scene outside the window.

Even just through the brief descriptions on the paper, he could imagine the golden wheat waves swaying in the wind on the Golden Tassel Plain, and the figures bending down with sickles among those waves.

A sense of gratification, like an old farmer's, arose involuntarily in his heart.

He was about to reply to Louisa's invitation when Little Flower reported that someone was seeking an audience.

Anvil had suddenly arrived, and Samuel was with him.

Chen Yu still had some impression of this archmage. Some time ago, Samuel had submitted a design for an Extraordinary golem, but it had been rejected.

After that, he had voluntarily requested to stay and work at the Swamp Shipyard, saying it would help him more accurately assess the empire's magical engineering standards while drawing new inspiration from hands-on work.

Had he come now because he had found the answer to that previous problem?

Chen Yu received them in the Royal Palace's reception hall.

Anvil was as always, his short, sturdy body wrapped in a leather apron. He bowed to Chen Yu as soon as he entered, then stepped aside, leaving the conversation space to the person beside him.

Samuel stood next to him, his mental state completely different from when he had last sought an audience with Chen Yu.

Now, his eyes shone as if he had grown ten years younger, and even his stance carried an excitement that couldn't wait to show something.

"Your Majesty," he began, his voice holding barely suppressed agitation. "I have found the ultimate solution to golem construction and magical engineering."

Chen Yu wobbled his gel, intrigued. "Tell me about it."

Samuel took a deep breath.

"You were right. If I were merely making an Extraordinary golem, that idea would be no different from those construction mages in Dawn City—equally mediocre."

"And the market cost of a single Extraordinary golem is enough to buy ten Floating Fortresses. Whether for assault or defense, its cost-effectiveness is far inferior to that of a Floating Fortress."

"The reason I was so fixated on that path before was simply that my vision was trapped by traditional alchemy and spell frameworks, unable to see a higher-level answer."

"Now I understand. If we're going to build something, we should build a Legendary golem. And I've already found the method to construct a Legendary golem at the lowest cost."

His lips trembled with excitement.

"Your Majesty, why are we so set on crafting a Legendary golem from scratch?"

"The greatest secret of a Legendary golem lies in the alchemical technique of its magical core. While such golems are compact enough, each core is made from crystals of incalculable value."

"Even in Dawn City, the number of Legendary golems doesn't exceed a thousand."

"But the brilliance of magical engineering lies in the fact that the completeness of the system is more important than the scarcity of a single material."

He raised his gaze, his eyes burning as he fixed them on Chen Yu.

"So why don't we change our thinking instead, and focus on optimizing the Floating Fortress design, letting the entire Floating Fortress serve as the magical core?"

"Then, based on the skeletal structure of the Giant's remains, we design a massive golem body for it, directly embedding the fortress in the chest cavity of that body."

"At that point, the Floating Fortress itself becomes part of the golem, and every one of its energy pathways can extend into the golem's limbs."

"If we quintuple the cost of a Floating Fortress, the total cost of a Legendary golem would drop by nearly half. For just fifty-five million gold coins, we can build a true Legendary golem."

Chen Yu was somewhat surprised.

Compared to the traditional Legendary golem's often astronomical price tag of over a hundred million gold coins, this price was indeed much cheaper.

But he still felt something was off.

Fifty-five million gold coins was still a sum that would require the empire to tighten its belt to scrape together.

The entire empire's tax revenue for five years combined probably wouldn't be enough to build such a big toy.

He asked Silver Sparrow to help calculate.

The empire's shipbuilding budget, city defense budget, pioneering fund, the academy's expansion plan, the maintenance costs of the gel greenhouses—every single item was waiting for gold coins to fill.

Was this project really worth the empire investing such a huge sum at this point in time?

Besides, he was already working on nurturing Legendary seeds.

But looking at the light gleaming in Samuel's eyes, he felt that this archmage's confidence wasn't baseless.

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