Inside the grand hall of the Holy Grail Castle in the Holy Grail Empire, a virtual projection of a battlefield map was displayed.
Surrounding the Holy Grail Empire, there were a total of fifteen kingdoms.
Nine of them had already been completely destroyed. Only six remained.
Among these, the Sky Kingdom, the Black Iron Kingdom, the Silver Kingdom, and the Gold Kingdom had kings who were suspected of being parasitized and replaced by an entity claiming to be the GM. As a result, these four kingdoms were to be dealt with last. That left only the Behemoth Kingdom and the Night Kingdom.
The Behemoth Kingdom had an extremely small territory, confined entirely to the backs of giant beasts.
Because of this, the Behemoth Kingdom had become a mobile kingdom, able to move freely through the wilderness between different kingdoms.
The Night Kingdom was even more unique. The entire kingdom only appeared during the night.
Through the detailed investigation of the Omniscient Magic Eye, it was discovered that the Night Kingdom existed within the shadow formed at the bottom of Moonlight Lake when sunlight shone on it. Of all the kingdoms, the Night Kingdom was known to be the most xenophobic, completely isolating itself from the others.
After careful consideration, Rosen gave up on personally destroying these two kingdoms.
Because, relatively speaking, he was more interested in the GM.
So he handed the Night Kingdom over to the Calamity Apostles and the Death God's Avatar to deal with slowly. As long as a true emperor didn't enter the Night Kingdom, its king wouldn't awaken, so letting the Calamity Apostles gradually conquer it would suffice.
As for the Behemoth Kingdom, it was left to the Undead Empress and the Dark Sun Slime. If it couldn't be dealt with immediately, they would slowly grind it down.
Rosen shifted the Omniscient Magic Eye toward the Black Iron Kingdom. The Virtual Eye Technique immediately projected a three-dimensional image of the Black Iron Kingdom onto the sand table.
The entire Black Iron Kingdom was shrouded in black smog, with sunlight barely able to reach the ground.
All the cities were covered by magical barriers, filtering the smog that blanketed the entire kingdom.
However, maintaining a permanent energy barrier came at a significant cost.
As a result, the barriers on the outer edges of the cities couldn't fully filter the smog. Only the inner cities had barriers capable of thoroughly purifying it.
Those living in the outer cities had such short lifespans that they barely reached one-fifth the average lifespan of even the lower-class citizens in the Golden Lion Kingdom.
This massive disparity wasn't solely due to the poisonous smog — it was also because the Black Iron Kingdom hadn't achieved universal transcendence.
On the Continent of Kings, advancing to the transcendent class was fairly easy, as low-level resources for transcendents regenerated at an astonishing rate.
It wasn't that the Black Iron Kingdom couldn't implement universal transcendence — it simply chose to treat ordinary people as disposable resources.
Transcendents had lower fertility rates, which went against the Black Iron Kingdom's particular needs.
Because the kingdom didn't see ordinary people as people at all, the concept of "public support" was nonexistent.
Normally, this would threaten a civilization's continuity, leading to a kingdom's eventual decline.
Throughout history, almost all kingdoms that exploited their people without compassion saw short-term brilliance but ultimately faced backlash and fell into decay. Yet the flame of civilization in the Black Iron Kingdom not only didn't burn out — it grew ever stronger and more vigorous.
Even now, Rosen hadn't figured out exactly why that was the case.
He had already sent a few Eternal Avatars in to infiltrate the kingdom, exploring its hidden secrets from other angles.
Spiritual artworks drawn by the Hand of God, combined with the Omniscient Magic Eye, had greatly enhanced the eye's capabilities.
But even so, the capital of the Black Iron Kingdom was still able to evade its gaze.
That fact alone suggested that the Black Iron Kingdom held far greater importance than the Sky Kingdom.
And the Silver Kingdom and Gold Kingdom were said to be even more formidable than the Black Iron Kingdom.
The steam airships heading to the capital of the Black Iron Kingdom spewed thick smoke from their boilers, constantly creating new smog.
Rosen had seen steam civilizations before — the Chaos Seas were home to several examples of steam technology.
Relying on a special kind of steam energy, this ancient technological system hadn't been completely phased out.
After all, as the saying goes, "The pinnacle of science is boiling water."
But even though the steam tech in the Chaos Seas was far less advanced than that of the Black Iron Kingdom, it was still capable of zero pollution. Filtering pollution wasn't difficult — which made it all the more obvious that the Black Iron Kingdom seemed to deliberately intensify pollution.
Inside the noble's cabin of the steam airship, Rosen looked out the window at the smog-covered Black Iron Capital, which loomed faintly in the distance.
This wasn't his original body. It was a divine consciousness attached to an Eternal Avatar, who had assimilated and replaced the heir of a baron.
This time, he had come in person to the Black Iron Capital, hoping to find the answer he sought.
As the airship passed through the outer city's barrier, the smog suddenly thinned to the point of near invisibility.
However, the air in the outer city still carried a heavy smoky stench, along with the putrid smell of burning corpses.
After disembarking from the steam airship, Rosen displayed his noble crest and was granted entry into the inner city.
While the outer city was filled with factories and chimneys, the inner city had none. The steam machinery on the streets operated without polluting the environment. The inner and outer cities were like two entirely different worlds. Compared to the outer city, the air in the inner city was downright fragrant.
Rosen hailed a steam carriage and quickly arrived at the House of Nobles.
He was assuming the identity of Bryce Fox, the heir of a fallen baronial family. Now, only Bryce was left alive in the family, and he had come to Black Iron Royal City to inherit the title.
As a mere landless baron, Rosen successfully inherited the barony without much trouble.
Though near the bottom of the noble hierarchy, nobility still came with many exclusive privileges.
Nobles were allowed to reside in the inner districts of any city, including Black Iron Royal City.
Rosen took up residence at the Nightingale Inn, a place known for its strong connections to the outer city.
Unlike the nobles of the World Government, nobles on the Continent of Kings were far less restricted.
Since the continent had never abolished slavery, the Nightingale Inn secretly served as a glove-covered hand for inner-city nobles to capture slaves.
Whenever a family in the outer city had a beautiful daughter or a handsome son, they would often go missing, only for some noble in the inner city to gain a few new slaves. No one understood the outer city better than these black-gloved operatives.
Within just one night of Rosen staying at the Nightingale Inn, most of the staff—aside from the guests—had already been replaced.
He had considered using his Eternal Clone to replace everyone, but some of the jobs in the inn were truly beyond what he could bear.
Fortunately, these people were pitiful but unimportant, so it wasn't necessary to replace them all.
The Nightingale Inn's slave-hunting squad had many informants in the outer city, and Rosen quietly gathered the clues he needed.
Many clues weren't even hidden on the surface, and within just a few days, he had almost everything he needed.
Rosen had already learned most of the common knowledge by spying on other cities.
In the Black Iron Kingdom, no one was buried after death. All corpses were cremated. It was a long-standing custom that "when a person dies, their light goes out," so the deceased's relatives didn't care about the body. The kingdom would collect the corpses and send them to be boiled away.
In this regard, the outer city of the royal capital was no different from the outer districts of other cities.
But in other aspects, the royal capital was quite unique.
All corpses of Beyonders in the entire kingdom were transported to the capital for cremation.
Then, in the factories of the outer city, a special metal known as Black Iron was created.
Ordinary Black Iron referred to a black metal made from iron fused with carbon.
The Black Iron of the Black Iron Kingdom was similar—except the iron used was infused with divinity, and the carbon came from the ashes of Beyonders. It also incorporated the extraordinary source essence of Beyonders, producing a unique Black Iron found only in this kingdom.
The production of Black Iron was very high, thanks to the kingdom's frequent Beyonder deaths.
But not even a single gram of Black Iron ever made it to the outside. Only the royal capital could produce Black Iron, and all of it was confiscated by the royal family. It was then used to fuse with other metals to create Black Iron Alloy, which was used to manufacture various steam-powered machines.
The value of Black Iron Alloy varied by quality, but generally, Black Gold from Black Iron below Sequence 3 wasn't expensive.
However, as for the original Black Iron—even a duke who dared to steal it would face certain death.
After buying some Black Iron Alloy, Rosen used the Mysterious Study Room and tapped into the Eternal Source to trace it back to its origin.
The result was unexpected: there was no real Black Iron within the Black Iron Alloy.
On the surface, it looked like a fusion of Black Iron and other metals. In reality, Black Iron merely participated in its manufacture and never actually integrated into it. Thus, tracing it back only yielded a small amount of special energy derived from the original Black Iron.
Omniscient Magic Eye analyzing...
Main God Computer analyzing...
Primordial Pharmacist analyzing...
Biological Alchemy analyzing...
Soul Alchemy and various other branches of alchemy were all attempted…
Eventually, Rosen discovered the true function of the energy derived from Black Iron.
Black Iron was alive. It wasn't just a metal—it was a form of life.
The true subjects ruled by the Black Iron King weren't humans at all, but these artificial lifeforms known as Black Iron.
No wonder the Black Iron Kingdom treated humans with such disregard, yet its national strength only kept rising instead of collapsing after its peak.
Humans were merely raw materials used to create Black Iron lifeforms, most of which were likely hidden in the royal capital.
In the southern part of the outer city, Rosen slipped into a Black Iron factory like a ghost.
But he quickly discovered that these factories were nothing more than facades.
They were merely entrances to some other spatial dimension.
Rosen locked onto a delivery worker transporting semi-finished Black Iron and anchored the dimensional door of the Mysterious Study Room to him.
The next morning, the delivery worker finally carried the semi-finished Black Iron toward the mysterious space.
Each worker transported no more than a palm-sized, heavily sealed chunk of semi-finished Black Iron.
Rosen noticed that the semi-finished Black Iron was absorbing the spiritual essence of the delivery worker. These workers were all expendable. Too many deliveries at once would cause death by spiritual exhaustion, potentially sparking public panic.
Rosen followed the transport workers through the spatial gate and found himself in a black iron hall made entirely of metal.All the transport workers returned the way they came. After the last one left, pitch-black figures appeared in the hall. These beings were completely unaffected by the black iron semi-finished products' absorption of spiritual essence. They carried all the black iron semi-finished products out and transported them away.
Rosen anchored the world-crossing gate to the black iron semi-finished products and got a glimpse of the true face of the mysterious world beyond the black iron hall.
It was a small world spanning thousands of miles in every direction—or rather, it wasn't truly a world at all.
There was no blue sky or white clouds, because the sky was made of black iron. The sun, moon, and stars were also forged from black iron. Inside this world encased in black iron, everything was made of it.
Rosen saw that at the very center of this world stood the true Black Iron Royal City.
But the beings living within the city were not humans. Instead, they were black iron lifeforms who appeared human on the surface.
The black iron semi-finished products were delivered to the true Black Iron Royal City and sent into a special furnace. Inside the furnace burned a mysterious black flame. After absorbing this black iron fire, the semi-finished products transformed into iron eggs.
All the iron eggs were sent to the nursery. Rosen soon saw one of them crack open.
A black iron baby crawled out of it, and the eggshell automatically softened, turning into a close-fitting outfit.
This was a black iron lifeform. But what exactly was special about them?
"I feel like I've seen this kind of birth somewhere before..."
Rosen took out the Chronicle of Eternity and the Secret Brass Book, and began meticulously searching through relevant history.
The endless span of history was too vast—almost no one could know all of it.
After all, time kept moving forward, and the accumulation of new history was endless.
Aside from the parts he was interested in, Rosen merely skimmed through the rest for a general understanding.
This approach may result in being broadly knowledgeable but not specialized—but as long as he could look things up when needed, there was no reason to memorize everything.
"So these are artificial humans..."
Rosen frowned as he flipped through the historical materials he found.
Artificial humans—humans not born through natural evolution.
In the world where ancient gods had transformed into all things, all intelligent life stemmed from the World Tree, and thus, from primitive humans.
Angels and demons, goblins and gremlins—when traced back, every other race could be linked to humans.
The birth of non-human races usually tied back to true gods.
Take the angel race, for example: there was once a human who wielded power related to light. After becoming a true god, he used his own image to guide some humans to merge with his bloodline. In time, they grew wings and evolved into the angel race.
There were many advantages to doing this. First, it allowed the god to monopolize faith.
Second, the creation of a new race enabled the rise of an independent civilization, separate from humanity.
Any true god who wasn't a fake could lead some humans to evolve into a new non-human race.
However, throughout history, there were always those who sought shortcuts.
If angels evolved from humans, then artificial humans were imitations—human-like beings created without natural evolution.
Artificial humans lacked humanity. From birth, they were monstrous and inhuman.
And yet, artificial humans could reproduce with actual humans—and their offspring were also artificial humans.
Thus, they would corrupt human bloodlines. As a result, they were destroyed by an alliance of true gods from all races.
Even the techniques for creating artificial humans were completely destroyed back then.
Now, it seemed someone had secretly preserved that technology. The Black Iron Kingdom was, in essence, a special kingdom of artificial humans. But what value did these artificial humans hold that made the Black Iron King abandon his human subjects entirely?
To find the answer, the best method was to capture some black iron artificial humans.
Since the Black Iron King was in deep slumber, Rosen wasn't worried about alerting him.
Rosen instantly used the Window of the World to activate the Photographer's snapshot ability. All the black iron artificial humans in the nursery were turned into photographs and vanished. By the time the Black Iron Royal City noticed something was wrong and imposed a lockdown, the alchemists of the Glorious Kingdom had already begun studying them.
Research revealed that black iron artificial humans had two life forms: the black iron form and a normal human form.
In their black iron form, their bodies were fully metallic. In human form, they appeared as flesh and blood.
It was also discovered that although black iron artificial humans could not cultivate spiritual power on their own, they could devour human life essence and spiritual essence through eating. In other words, they were artificial monsters born to prey on humans.
As long as they had enough food, these black iron artificial humans could quickly grow to Sequence 1.
This growth rate was even faster than leveling up by killing monsters on the Continent of Kings. It was likely that the Black Iron King was simply waiting to awaken and unleash all the black iron artificial humans to feed on humans across various nations—growing stronger with each bite until he became the final victor in the King's Game.
It was no wonder, then, that the true gods of all races had left no room for artificial humans back then.
Normally, even mortal enemies wouldn't seek the complete extinction of a race.
Because sparing another race today might mean a chance of survival for one's own race in the future.
As long as a god-created race wasn't completely wiped out, the true god theoretically still had a slim chance at revival.
(End of this chapter)