Late at night, in the new high-rise building of the Eastern Castle of Mulim Hall.
"Zhinao, project my data interface!"
Inside the empty 180-square-meter room, Galedun played with the living potion that belonged exclusively to him, while communicating with Zhinao in his mind.
Galedun (Lin Jiale)
Strength: 0.5 tons (0.7 tons)Speed: 12 m/s (16 m/s)Vitality: 2.8 (ordinary person is 1)Soul: 6.2 (ordinary person is 1)Magic Energy: 6
True Meditation Method: Level 5 (45%)
Abilities: Self-healing Regeneration, Bullet Time, Basic Swordsmanship
The light screen Zhinao projected into his consciousness was simple and clear. Strength and speed had two states—one under his own control, and the other the body's limit state when Zhinao took control.
The True Meditation Method was created by Zhinao through integrating what it had obtained from the Citadel, along with the meditation methods Galedun had collected over the years, forming the most suitable meditation method for Galedun.
The reason it was called "true" was that many meditation methods in this world relied on faith in a certain existence, borrowing the power of that existence.
Just like warlocks whose power came from the Undying Ones of Qarth, or red-robed priests who borrowed the power of the Lord of Light.
Even the Three-Eyed Raven—perhaps possessing talent beyond ordinary greenseers, able to possess all things and sing praises—still relied on the weirwood trees to borrow the power of the Old Gods to view the past and foresee the future.
Galedun's True Meditation Method, on the other hand, was cultivation through entering a perfect empty-mind state of unity between heaven and man, a state of enlightenment, using it to temper mental power and strengthen the source of the soul.
Moreover, the True Meditation Method had no limit. Completing each level meant Galedun gained an additional shapeshifting "talent slot."
In theory, as long as Galedun lived long enough, not only could he become a greenseer, he could even build an army of ten thousand beasts that obeyed his command.
But the cultivation required entering a state of unity with heaven and enlightenment, which meant he could not truly enter the perfect empty-mind state himself—only Zhinao could do it in his place.
During the process, Zhinao also had to stop all model calculations so that Galedun, from flesh to soul, could fall into a perfect empty state.
"Zhinao, I'm leaving it to you!"
Galedun's consciousness completely detached from his body and entered Da Zhuang's spiritual world.
The Galedun who had been sitting on the bed instantly lost all emotion in his eyes. His every movement became extremely stiff, yet perfectly precise.
He opened the living potion and downed it in one gulp like drinking alcohol, without showing the slightest discomfort.
One didn't even know what he did—the bottle was completely empty, not a single drop left behind.
"Boom—!"
In an instant, deep green fluorescence surged across Galedun's body surface. His heart thumped violently, the sound like thunderous drums echoing through the room.
The muscles and blood vessels across his body bulged and writhed like coiling dragons. The muscles on his face twitched convulsively, making him look ferocious beyond measure!
Under Zhinao's control, Galedun perfectly absorbed the living potion. A deeper level of evolution was still underway.
The blood flowing through his veins surged like a raging flood. A massive number of hematopoietic stem cells and white blood cells continuously multiplied. The heart chambers driving circulation throughout his body kept condensing the blood, little by little, until it formed golden vital blood as radiant as liquid gold-mercury, carrying a faintly sacred aura.
Even brain cells—which should have stopped growing when a baby was first born—under Zhinao's control, absorbed the life factors and energy refined from the golden vital blood, and began to divide and proliferate once more…
All of this made it seem as though Galedun's life level was leaping forward, or as if an epic evolution that would normally require countless years of survival of the fittest had been forcibly shortened and activated.
When Galedun received the message from Zhinao and his consciousness returned, dawn had quietly arrived.
"Crack crack—!"
Despite not sleeping all night, he felt brimming with energy, as if endless strength was surging within him, unable to help but rise and move his fists and legs. Crisp cracking sounds burst from his bones and tendons throughout his body.
"Pa li pa la—!"
He casually practiced his boxing. His arms shook like long whips, exploding the air, and the wind of his punches howled like an eighteen-level typhoon,
ravaging the room.
[Host evolution complete. Bone strength increased tenfold, muscle toughness increased fourfold, internal organ tissue strength increased twofold, digestion capacity increased twofold...]
After venting some energy, Zhinao's real-time report interrupted his rhythm of adapting to his increased strength.
"Zhinao, project the data interface!"
Compared to Zhinao's verbal explanation, Galedun preferred a more intuitive data interface—it better reflected the growth of his strength.
Galedun Tarth
Strength: 0.9 tons (1.2 tons)Speed: 16 m/s (19 m/s)Vitality: 4.7 (ordinary person is 1)Soul: 6.5 (ordinary person is 1)Magic Energy: 12
True Meditation Method: Level 5 (55%)
Abilities: Self-healing Regeneration, Bullet Time, Basic Swordsmanship, Magic Energy Radiation Absorption
Galedun carefully recalled his data from before taking the living potion.
Compared to before, aside from speed and soul, nearly all other stats had almost doubled, and he had gained the ability to absorb magic energy.
The strength of a single arm alone had reached nearly two thousand jin. It could be said that he was steadily walking down the path of becoming a superman.
"Two hundred thousand gold dragons—this is literally smashing money into it!"
He rubbed his chin, silently feeling heartache for his little stash of money.
"But the medicinal effect really is insane!"
Galedun smacked his lips as he got out of bed, as if he had truly tasted the living potion.
Taking a single step forward, he left behind several afterimages and instantly flashed to the desk. The strong wind he carried flipped open a stack of bound documents nearly ten centimeters thick on the tabletop, pages filled with data written in different handwriting rustling loudly.
This dossier contained the weekly summary reports from all officials on the island, entirely composed of data generated from their handling of government affairs over the past week.
In addition to weekly summaries, there were monthly summaries, quarterly summaries, and so on. Galedun strove to generate as much data as possible.
For example, the farmland overseer under the Ministry of Revenue at City Hall would report the acreage of reclaimed farmland that week. Tax officials would report tax revenues collected from the Tarth Trading Company and the bank, and so forth.
Inside the room, the candles were extinguished by the strong wind. Galedun laughed in surprise, then relit the long candles. With Zhinao's assistance, he gradually gained control over his explosively increased strength.
Under the bright candlelight, after roughly stabilizing himself, his attention was drawn to a dozen sheets of paper pressed down on the desk with a blue-jade seal. Unlike the official dossier, the blank spaces on these pages were filled with red annotations.
These were directives issued where Zhinao had analyzed discrepancies or anomalies in officials' reports, as well as verified reports of mutual accusations among the five major organizations.
Tarth Island implemented a system of separation of powers among politics, economy, and the military.
Aside from the military department being completely independent, the City Hall and the Judicial Hall were responsible for civil administration and justice respectively—mutually independent, mutually supervising, and relying on the City Defense Army to manage Tarth Island.
Similarly, internally managing the two commercial streets was the Tarth Chamber of Commerce; externally handling capital flow was the Tarth Bank; and representing the voices of the common people was the United Guild. These three were also mutually independent and mutually supervising!
Likewise, the City Hall and Judicial Hall were independent of the Tarth Chamber of Commerce and the other two organizations, possessing only supervisory authority, while the three organizations likewise held only the right to report issues regarding City Hall.
This system inevitably caused many conflicts among the five organizations, affecting administrative efficiency.
But at the same time, it generated massive amounts of data that flowed to Zhinao. Zhinao would then coordinate all parties based on data analysis results, returning unreasonable matters or having Galedun personally intervene—thus pushing administrative efficiency back up again.
As for the rest, before surviving the Long Night, Galedun would not allow private capital to sprout—at least not to the point of draining the blood of the Tarth people.
All the people of the entire Tarth family territory had to unite under him—or more precisely, under Zhinao's command—in order to survive the long, endless night!
He rigidly required that data obtained from the grassroots level must be confirmed and signed by at least three officials.
The five major organizations would also conduct cross-checks and reports from time to time. Combined with Zhinao's model predictions compared against actual data, this ensured that the data would not be distorted.
Finally, the four close-guard knights were responsible for acting as "Imperial Envoys," patrolling the entire island at irregular times every week, ensuring that the lives of the Tarth people were getting better—getting even better!
Galedun was not afraid of trouble. Even if administrative efficiency was low, as long as more data was produced, the better.
Under big data: fairness and justice, transparency without a trace!
[295 AC, Week 40: Tax officer Ryan privately imposed additional docking taxes amounting to approximately 21 gold dragons, consistent with the report filed by tax officer Koda]
[295 AC, Week 40: Civil officer Sky broke into a distillery's female dormitory under the pretext of inspecting contraband. No such inspection order exists in the data submitted by the Department of Administration!]
[295 AC, Week 40: Fisheries overseer Yu Tianzhang reported this week's fishing yield as 1.23 tons, a clerical error. After comparison of data submitted by the Minister of Revenue and the Maritime Affairs Officer, the actual figure was 12.3 tons, close to the predicted data of 12.1 tons]
[...]
A string of mechanical tones rang out in Galedun's mind, making his head ache slightly.
"Zhinao, can't you really change it to Sister Lin Chi-ling's voice?"
After roughly reviewing the abnormal documents, he revealed an expectant look and began communicating with Zhinao.
...
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(End Chapter)