The fortress contained only a limited number of defensive secondary cannons—merely a dozen or so. However, according to the control system, the Astral Fortress in its complete state boasted a full ten thousand such secondary cannons. Beyond these were the primary defensive cannons, and above those were other offensive weapons.
One could imagine what an impregnable porcupine this Astral Fortress must have been in its prime.
After dismantling these secondary cannons, Richard took another stroll through the fortress.
Along the way, he discovered several other items of value: small floating turrets resembling officer's sidearms, laser cutters for repairs, simple crystal lathes, and various other miscellaneous gadgets.
All these items held some degree of worth.
Having determined that he had squeezed about as much benefit from the fortress as possible, Richard finally turned his attention to his original target—the Power Furnace.
An Astral Fortress of such colossal scale naturally possessed an equally extraordinary Power Furnace.
According to the control system, the Astral Fortress World Tree III was powered by a Type IX Radiant Furnace, fueled by the same black stones Richard had obtained from the Toad King's calculus. A single fuel replenishment could sustain the Astral Fortress at full operational capacity for five hundred years. This duration would multiply several times over during non-combat conditions.
Under normal circumstances, an Astral Fortress wouldn't require fuel replenishment for an entire epoch if no battles occurred. And in the case of a crashed fortress, the furnace's fuel had been radiating its glow across untold epochs.
This remarkable piece of technology far surpassed the Power Reactors of Wizards' Floating Cities. At least based on Richard's intelligence, Floating Cities required major overhauls every five centuries, including maintenance and fuel replenishment for their reactors.
Following the control system's guidance, Richard soon arrived at the passage nearest to the Power Furnace.
Beyond this passage, he would face the furnace's raw radiation directly.
"Without the World Mushroom, I'd truly be helpless against this furnace," Richard remarked, a faint smirk crossing his face as he observed the Radiant Aurora seeping through the fissures.
Soon, a massive mycelium tentacle slithered down the passage to Richard's side, accompanied by Ulysses.
"Finally tackling this thing," Ulysses perched on Richard's shoulder, his eyes glowing faintly.
"This won't be easy. Even if the old mushroom can absorb energy radiation, tentacles will rot under such intensity," Ulysses added.
Richard glanced at the mycelium tentacle beside him. "World Mushroom, what do you think?"
"Though I hate to admit it, the old crow's right. Direct contact with the furnace's radioactive material would indeed corrode my tentacles."
Richard frowned at this revelation. If the World Mushroom couldn't handle it, he seemed genuinely stumped.
However, Richard soon spotted a potential solution.
"If direct contact damages your tentacles, why not avoid contact altogether? Couldn't you create a thick energy barrier?"
The suggestion gave the World Mushroom pause.
For ages, it had relied solely on its formidable physical form in combat, rarely employing "unorthodox tricks" like energy barriers. This had ingrained a certain rigidity in its thinking.
Both Ulysses and Richard were misled by this point, causing them to forget that the World Mushroom possessed an energy barrier.
"Indeed, I almost forgot about the energy barrier," the World Mushroom admitted somewhat sheepishly. "We can indeed use an energy barrier.
However, the radiation from this thing is extraordinary. If we use an energy barrier to resist it, the magic power concentration in the Secret Realm will decrease to some extent.
Moreover, storing it is another issue.
If we use a large amount of mycelium to preserve it, it will slow down the expansion speed of the Secret Realm."
"Put it underground, with your mycelium acting as a partition in between," Richard said without hesitation. "A slower expansion speed for the Secret Realm doesn't matter."
These black stones would definitely be refined by Richard in the future.
The delay would only affect the Green Forest World for these few years.
Based on the current situation, as long as they won the war in the surface world, their Plane Expedition would essentially be over. The remaining time would just involve clearing out the remnants of the World Tree Sub-bodies and then igniting the Portal.
The World Tree would be handled by Grand Wizard Galon.
Seeing that Richard had already made up his mind, the World Mushroom said nothing more.
After Richard applied to the main control, under the protection of the World Mushroom, he and Ulysses opened another Mystic Realm Rift.
This Mystic Realm Rift was close to a massive wall fissure, making it convenient to later transport the Fuel Ring into the Secret Realm.
Soon, a new mycelium tentacle extended from the fissure. The thick, white mycelium tentacle even generated a milky-white energy barrier.
Relying on this energy barrier, the tentacle followed the fissure straight toward the Power Furnace.
The Type-9 Radiant Power Furnace, from the outside, resembled a massive pillar.
The pillar's shell was made of crystal, with occasional metal components embedded within.
Now, this Power Furnace had turned into a firework-like explosion, revealing its fuel—the Radiant Black Stones.
The Power Furnace's Fuel Ring had nine layers. The battle that caused the Astral Fortress to fall had shattered three of them into fragments and exposed the fourth Fuel Ring.
What the World Mushroom needed to do was retrieve this exposed fourth layer.
The World Mushroom's mycelium tentacle continuously proliferated in the air. The greenish Radiant Aurora shone on the milky-white energy barrier, stirring up towering waves.
The closer the energy radiation got to the fuel, the stronger it became. The energy radiation from the fuel itself reached tens of thousands of energy levels.
If Richard had to endure radiation of this intensity, he wouldn't last a second before turning to ashes.
Fortunately, it was the World Mushroom handling this task.
Because the World Mushroom could absorb energy radiation as nourishment, its energy barrier didn't completely resist all the radiation. Instead, it intentionally allowed some to penetrate the barrier to replenish the energy barrier's consumption.
This was also the reason it could lift the Fuel Ring.
Otherwise, even the World Mushroom would struggle to retrieve it.
The World Mushroom's mycelium tentacle quickly coiled around the Fuel Ring, which trembled slightly before being lifted by the tentacle.
The mycelium tentacle wrapped the entire Fuel Ring tightly, then swiftly carried it toward the Secret Realm.
Without this wrapping, the Fuel Ring's terrifying radiation would instantly destroy the Mystic Realm Rift.
Soon, the Fuel Ring entered the Mystic Realm Rift.
"Success!" Richard exclaimed excitedly.
Once inside the Secret Realm, the rest would be simple.
...
In the Secret Realm, the Fire Lizard Warband and their craftsmen were slowly emerging from the Fungal Stipe of the World Mushroom.
Just moments ago, the World Mushroom had drawn them all into its stipe, explaining that something dangerous was entering the Secret Realm and they needed to take shelter.
It was hard for them to imagine what kind of terrifying entity could warrant hiding inside the Fungal Stipe of the World Mushroom.
But before they could all exit, a black-robed figure hurriedly passed through them and arrived beneath the World Mushroom's stipe.
Fire Lizard took a closer look—wasn't that black-robed figure none other than Richard?
"My lord."
"My lord."
...
The Fire Lizards bowed slightly toward Richard. Normally, Richard would calmly nod in acknowledgment.
But today, Richard clearly had no such inclination.
"Go about your business. No need to crowd around me."
Soon, a passage appeared on the World Mushroom's stipe. Following this path, Richard quickly arrived at the location of the Fuel Ring—an underground cave meticulously wrapped in layers of mycelium, soil, and more mycelium.
The World Mushroom erected an energy barrier for Richard, allowing him to approach the Fuel Ring.
Gazing at the pitch-black Fuel Ring before him, Richard felt the Magic Power surge within him, and a violent energy fluctuation erupted from his left arm.
Richard had already steeled himself to sacrifice an entire arm—after all, this was an inevitable step. Without being a World Master, no one could physically touch this material without consequence.
Richard's left arm passed through the energy barrier and lightly tapped the Fuel Ring.
In the next instant, his entire arm turned to ash, and half his chest suffered cellular collapse.
Pale ribs were exposed to the open air.
The World Mushroom swiftly intervened, channeling abundant vitality through the mycelium into Richard's body. The collapsed cells rapidly regenerated, and even his severed arm slowly regrew.
But Richard paid no attention to his physical condition.
His entire mind was now captivated by the information from the Miracle Furnace.
[Material: Fuel Ring]
[Extractable Rule: Radiation Rule (Tier 1)]
[Extraction Cost: 500 Soul Power]
...
[Complete Rule Detected. Activate Rule Fusion?]
At first, the Miracle Furnace's information was straightforward. Though the complete Radiation Rule pleasantly surprised Richard, it didn't exceed his expectations.
But what followed truly shocked him.
The Miracle Furnace had other functions! Richard had always suspected that something of such extraordinary caliber wouldn't be limited to mere material refinement.
Now, it seemed his intuition was correct.
"Activate!"
Richard didn't hesitate.
In the next moment, the furnace flames surged within the Miracle Furnace. The originally pitch-black furnace gradually turned crimson.
Ancient runes flickered across the furnace walls—just a single glance made Richard's head spin.
Those runes contained unimaginable, terrifying power.
Soon, the furnace stopped changing.
Apart from the fiery-red runes now etched upon it, the once-dark furnace showed no further alterations.
[Rule Fusion Activated]
Immediately, Richard's mind was flooded with the new functions of the Miracle Furnace.
In short, the current furnace could not only refine rules but also fuse them, altering their nature.
"Is that all?"
Richard scratched his head, feeling like this new feature wasn't particularly useful.
Even without rule fusion, the rules he had mastered still interacted with each other. Moreover, using this function required consuming rules as fuel—something far too extravagant for Richard.
Still, he wasn't the World Master, so he couldn't jump to conclusions.
After leaving the Secret Realm, Richard returned to the Astral Fortress. With the Fuel Ring now gone, the radiation emitted by the Power Furnace abruptly diminished.
The Power Furnace wasn't completely destroyed—what remained of it still restrained the Fuel Ring's radiation.
The earlier intensity of the radiation had been due to the Fuel Ring Richard took being almost entirely exposed, completely unrestrained by the furnace.
Finding Ulysses, Richard explained the Miracle Furnace's new function to him.
"Huh? Rule fusion?" Ulysses stared at Richard dumbfounded, his jaw slack with shock.
"Judging by your reaction, this feature must be pretty powerful," Richard chuckled.
"Powerful? This could save you centuries of labor!" Ulysses shrieked, nearly hysterical. "Richard, my Chief God!
Whether I can become a Chief God someday—it all depends on you now!"
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