The daylight lasted for a full seven days, and Mo Di and Long Yutian also stayed at the Altar of Light and Shadow for a full seven days.
Both Mo Di's premonition and Long Yutian's intuition told them that the longer they stayed there, the greater the benefits they would receive, which is why they remained.
Not eating or drinking for seven days was nothing to them, and when bored, they could pass the time by meditating.
However, people in the outside world did not have their patience.
First, Greenlawn City inevitably fell into chaos during the seven days its two mainstays were missing.
Some old guard, seeing their simultaneous disappearance, began to stir again, planning to contact old subordinates and return to their former glory.
Later... they were discovered by the Ling Family's overseeing left by Long Yutian and were then completely wiped out by a team of his henchmen.
Not a single person was left alive.
Ling Tianfeng, who was retired at home, had no choice but to resume his duties, stabilizing Greenlawn City while sending people into the Altar of Light and Shadow to search for the two.
Unfortunately, all attempts ended in failure, because once anyone approached that ocean of light, they would fall into a state of fascination, unable to move their feet no matter how much they were called.
Other cities were not faring much better.
The anomaly of seven days of daylight was too bizarre; for a time, various conspiracy theories and doomsday prophecies emerged.
Some cities with unstable foundations even erupted in civil unrest, with some even being taken over by fanatical believers of certain religions.
The same was true for the monsters emerging from the mist.
In Qingping City, Prandella retracted her roots and buried herself in the soil.
The “Sea Demon” that had submerged Haiyan City retreated into the deep sea, hunkering down and not coming out.
It wasn't until seven days later, when the daylight passed and night returned to the world, that they gradually resumed their activities.
“Finally, I can see things clearly again.”
At the Altar of Light and Shadow, Long Yutian opened his eyes, and light seemed to seep out of them.
Although the radiance emitted by the shard of the light god was dazzling, it did no harm to his eyes; instead, it significantly improved his vision.
“By the way, where is the shard of the light god?” He belatedly realized that the shard of the light god, which should have been suspended in the instrument, was nowhere to be found.
“It was probably used up. You didn't think maintaining that pillar of light came without any cost, did you?”
Mo Di controlled his Soul Eye, observing the world somewhat clumsily.
‘Is this the same kind of vision as Spiritual Sense? It’s truly useful.’
With a thought, the Soul Eye looked at his own body—blood vessels, internal organs, bones... everything was clearly visible.
In addition to observing the outside world, the Soul Eye could also be used for introspection.
This was of great significance for martial arts training and self-improvement.
During the seven days of continuous daylight, this Soul Eye absorbed the “light” emitted by the shard of the light god, using it to nourish a seed deep within his consciousness.
After seven days of observation and research, he basically confirmed that this seed was closely related to his mind, so he named it the Seed of Mind.
If he, being closest to the shard of the light god, experienced this, then what about Long Yutian, who was second closest to the shard?
When he looked into Long Yutian's eyes, this question was answered.
There was light in Long Yutian's eyes.
“The light in your eyes is leaking out,” Mo Di kindly reminded him.
“Hmm... huh?” He paused, then took the ice mirror Mo Di handed him and looked into it.
In the mirror, his appearance hadn't changed much, but the almost materialized brilliance that occasionally flashed in his eyes reminded him of one thing.
The shard of the light god had indeed brought him certain effects.
Mobilizing his Spiritual Sense for introspection, Long Yutian's expression gradually grew serious.
After a long while, he finally spoke: “Teacher, a seed-like object has appeared in my upper dantian. Do you have any idea what it is?”
“Do you feel it's closely related to your mind and will?”
“Yes, I do have that feeling.”
“I'm in the same situation.” Mo Di's words reassured him somewhat.
But the next sentence caused his emotions to fluctuate again.
“I don't have much time left. There's something I must tell you...”
He spoke of some of his conjectures and thoughts.
After explaining the final matters, Mo Di patted him on the shoulder, comforting him:
“There is no banquet that doesn't end. I have entrusted all the Greta School's legacy to you. Study hard, and perhaps in the future, you can step into all realms, and we might even have a chance to meet again.”
Although the Greta School's legacy only reached the Transcendent level at its highest, this discipline from another world might inspire the people of Blue Star.
Modern technology and otherworldly magic might spark the flames of wisdom, thereby promoting the rapid development of the surviving human civilization.
Despite his reluctance, Long Yutian still nodded, “Teacher, please take care.”
He had long speculated about Mo Di's identity, and hearing Mo Di say it himself now confirmed his suspicions.
He was no longer the campus beauty's personal bodyguard who was showing off and slapping faces in college a year ago, but the head of a city, so he naturally wouldn't be swayed by emotions.
The only thing he could do was offer his teacher a heartfelt wish.
Then he looked up and continued to move forward... In Blue Star Year 2033, the Ling Corporation of Greenlawn City used special means to kill the Frost噬 Giant Spider, one of the Three Disasters.
This also triggered a special phenomenon called 【Seven Days of Daylight】.
In the same year, Ling Corporation's head, Long Yutian, carried out drastic reforms, renaming it “Arbiter Company” and vigorously promoting a new technology called “magic” within the company.
Under his leadership, Greenlawn City quickly emerged from the slump since the outbreak of the Mist Crisis and developed rapidly.
In just a few years, Greenlawn City rapidly expanded, and various results combining magic and technology emerged. At the same time, the combination of ancient martial arts and biotechnology also shone brightly.
Using these achievements, Arbiter Company successively cleared the mist from the cities surrounding Greenlawn City, forcefully seizing control of other cities.
Human cities were once again connected.
And the impact of the Seven Days of Daylight incident finally began to be exposed to the world.
The “light” in some people's hearts finally grew into a Seed of Mind, which granted them various abilities.
A portion of these people, trapped by extreme emotions and unable to face their inner selves, consequently degenerated into special individuals called 【Twisted Ones】.
These individuals often acted solely based on their own emotions, causing significant losses to society.
Another small portion of people transformed into special individuals opposite to the Twisted Ones, known as 【Awakened Ones】.
But neither the Twisted Ones nor the Awakened Ones were a match for Arbiter Company; they could not stop the company's expansion.
As Arbiter Company continued to expand, Long Yutian's power also grew, attracting simultaneous opposition from both external and internal forces.
Finally, one day, when Arbiter Company's territory bordered the ocean, the “Sea Demon,” once one of the Three Disasters, launched a fierce attack.
At the same time, within humanity, several Awakened Ones and Twisted Ones conspired to ambush Long Yutian, planning to use this opportune moment to eliminate him.
However, they did not expect that even when caught in a pincer attack and needing to protect the populace simultaneously, Long Yutian remained invincible.
In this battle, he displayed his identity as the original Awakened One, quelling a tsunami and severely injuring the Sea Demon with one punch, and then crushing all the traitors with another.
From then on, his name was known to all; ordinary people revered him, while his enemies only feared him.
He had almost achieved the feat of “defeating the entire world single-handedly.”
Thereafter, no one dared to conspire against him, and Arbiter Company continued to expand globally with an unstoppable momentum.
Thirty years later, except for some mist-shrouded forbidden zones where Immortal-level enemies existed, Arbiter Company had largely reclaimed lost territories, and humanity once again stood at the pinnacle of Blue Star.
To better manage Blue Star, Long Yutian collectively referred to the areas controlled by Arbiter Company as 【Cities】 and divided the Cities into 26 【Nests】.
Arbiter Company was once again reorganized, with the former 【overseeing】 and 【henchmen】 forming two separate companies.
They were respectively responsible for overseeing the entire City and eliminating individuals and forces that violated the rules set by the head, ensuring that the head's orders were correctly executed.
At this point, the Blue Star's structure was largely stable.
In the former Greenlawn City, now Nest A, the headquarters of Arbiter Company, Long Yutian, now middle-aged, stood before a floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the scenery outside, a few memories flashing through his mind.
More than thirty years ago, it was here that he discussed the “dissolution of the board of directors” with his teacher.
“Time flies so fast; things from more than thirty years ago feel like they happened yesterday.”
More than thirty years had not added any wrinkles to his face; he still looked like a young man.
For him, who had long since broken through to the seventh realm of martial arts, maintaining youth and achieving longevity were trivial matters. If he wished, he could even change his cellular structure with a single thought, completely transforming into another species.
This was a power comparable to that of an Immortal.
Yet, even so, there were still existences both within and outside Blue Star that he feared.
For example, the six major mist-shrouded forbidden zones, and the extraterrestrial enemies that could appear at any time.
“There are still too many enemies threatening us.” He walked to his desk, found an old notebook, and began to flip through it with a sigh.
This was a magic textbook left by his teacher, Mo Di, containing the magical knowledge of the Greta School.
Most of it had long been outdated, the kind that even junior high school students could easily understand.
After so many years of development, Blue Star's magical theories had long surpassed those left by Mo Di, and were far more complex and profound.
Yet, he still cherished it as a treasure, often flipping through it when he had nothing else to do.
As he looked through the notes, his thoughts drifted back to the day he bid farewell to his teacher.
Mo Di's last words still echoed in his ears.
“...The shard of the light god, was it really a coincidence?”
Closing the notebook, he looked up at the sky outside the window.
In the night sky, the stars twinkled, but he vaguely felt a strong malice.
At the edge of Blue Star's star system, space rippled, and huge, ferocious space-dwelling plankton suddenly appeared.
Most of them were wounded, some even with their internal organs exposed, as if they had just survived a brutal war.
Mental fluctuations jumped and transmitted between them, expressing various meanings:
“Aisaster, hungry.”
“Food, very close.”
“Hunter, still pursuing.”
“Predation, escape.”
“...”
They made no secret of their appetite or whereabouts, heading directly towards the planet with the most biomass in this star system.
The beleaguered people of Blue Star were about to experience their first contact with extraterrestrial life.
In the form of war... 【Teleportation complete. Protection time remaining 10 minutes.】
City, Nest R.
Light shifted, space twisted, and a group of four suddenly appeared on a bustling street.
Their attire was no different from that of the City dwellers; the only subtle clue was their temperament.
However, the dense crowd seemed to have had their perceptions altered, not only failing to notice the anomaly but also actively walking around them as they passed by.
Among the four, the leading middle-aged man glanced at his three teammates, his gaze sharp as a sword.
He spoke: “Our mission world this time is called 【Mist Forbidden Zone】. You've all read the world intelligence, right?”
“Already read it,” replied a nimble and lively-looking young man, “The intelligence shows this is an X-rated world, but the mist that serves as the world's background has extremely high exploration value.”
“And also the black technology displayed by those aristocratic families and conglomerates,” interjected the cool-headed woman beside him.
Recalling the absurd intelligence about these forces, she frowned slightly, a look of disgust on her face:
“I really don't know what the higher-ups of those aristocratic families and conglomerates are thinking, to actually use black technology to create some kind of 'service zone.' Do they only have dirty thoughts in their heads?”
“No matter what, if we want to complete the mission assigned by the Main God, we'll inevitably have to deal with them.”
The middle-aged man, as the leader, spoke. He looked at the silent young man in the team and said:
“Old Du, the negotiations are up to you.”
The young man nodded, not saying a word, appearing particularly reliable.
In a few words, the leader completed the arrangements, and the ten-minute protection time also just ended.
After the Main God's protective cover disappeared, the surrounding pedestrians still seemed completely unaware.
The four were accustomed to this and were about to disperse to do their own things.
A sudden, shrill alarm blared, and everyone on the street simultaneously stopped, looked up at the sky, their faces showing panic.
“Aisaster swarm invasion detected! All Nest R residents, please proceed immediately to the nearest shelter and await the R Company's legion to defeat the invaders...”
The moment the alarm sounded, the pedestrians on the street, as if they had experienced this situation many times, surged in one direction in unison.
Only the four from the Main God's Space were dumbfounded, blocking the path of the pedestrians.
“Damn it, do you want to become biomass? If you want to die, don't block my way, get out of the way!”
Some short-tempered people simply pushed them aside, cursing as they ran forward.
“Leader, I think I heard something about a 'swarm,' and 'Nest R,' 'R Company.' Does the 【Mist Forbidden Zone】 world view have these things?
Or were we teleported to another world, and this is actually the 'City' from that monthly plan?” The lively young man's mouth hung open.
“I, I don't know either,” the middle-aged man looked bewildered, “Could it be that this is a world that has been magically altered?”
“Damn it, Leader, don't think! Some big guys are coming from the sky, let's run!”
Shadow covered the entire Nest. The four looked up, only to see countless grotesque floating organisms descending tentacles from the sky, coiling around the pedestrians on the ground.
“This is bad, it's Zerg! How can an X-rated world have something like Zerg?”
The young man was still complaining, but what shocked him even more was yet to come.
A figure appeared in the sky at some unknown point, casually throwing a punch that split the largest of the bugs into two.
“Ha, you alien hillbillies, you don't know that our Blue Star is protected by a brave Grand Commander, yet you dare to invade.”
In the crowd, some people stopped, looking up at the figure in the sky with reverence and excitement.
“Hooray, Grand Commander, we love you!”
“To witness the Grand Commander fight, it's worth dying for!”
Listening to the local people's exclamations, the four outsiders watched the entire process of the Grand Commander slaughtering the swarm with wide eyes and shocked expressions.
The entire process lasted less than three minutes, by which time the so-called R Company's legion had barely arrived.
“Isn't this an X-rated world? How can both lunatics and a swarm appear at the same time?”
The middle-aged man's expression collapsed. He had a premonition that this time, they might very well fail.
“Main God, I curse your horse!”