Seized by the System

Immediately, Fang Ning looked through the massive dragon eyes and saw Ren Ruofeng issuing commands. Lines of human-form mechs marched out of the nearby light gate and settled into neat rows.

Each mech carried an incubator that was typically used in hospitals.

Once the countless number of mechs had lined up at both sides of the river, Ren Ruofeng emptied the red liquid in the bottle into the crystal-clear River of Blood.

No, it should be called “Matriarch River” as it was a real matriarch river!

In a moment, billions of children and grandchildren would be birthed. Fang Ning believed that soon, this “Matriarch River” would form a great consciousness after being worshipped and given offerings by its offspring.

This was not some superficial form of worship, but it was built on real blood relations and nurturing.

Just like how the Chinese practice of worshipping one’s ancestors was considered satanic by Westerners. However, to the Chinese, was it not eviler to fight and kill in the name of a superficial deity?

At least worshipping one’s ancestors had a real beginning. If not for the ancestors’ efforts in developing a piece of land and passing on family properties, the descendants would have faced immense difficulties in reproducing successfully.

Moreover, after the Era of Shenyuan, this sort of action had brought about great rewards.

In the reincarnation pool in the Land of Sanguinity where numerous dead souls gathered, half of them were Chinese. The reason for this was the annual and regular rites that took place since the beginning of the Era of Mystery was that it allowed these souls to be enshrined in their loved ones’ memories. As a result, this ensured their survival.

Just like the former Son of Heaven, William. He had missed a woman so much that it had allowed her soul to survive.

Fang Ning pondered and not long after, the river began to boil. The red liquid spread swiftly across the water and each segregated drop of blood was like a core that nurtured life.

He seized this opportunity and spoke to the Syste,. “Alright, God System, it’s time.”

“Damn you. When you need me, you call me God System, but when you don’t, you call me a good-for-nothing System. That’s very haughty of you!” Sir System grumbled. Then, it took control of the arcane realm’s Heavenly Axiom in order to transform the River of Blood.

System Notification: [The System has changed the Order of the arcane realm’s Heavenly Axiom and activated the River of Blood’s function of breeding human beings.]

At the next moment, the sounds of “ribbit” rang out from the bottom of the river which gave Fang Ning a fright.

He was not the only one who was appalled by this. Oldman Ren and his men who were standing watch at the riverside were as white as a piece of sheet.

“What’s the matter? Mr. Ren, don’t tell me something went wrong with your population explosion plan?”

“Yes, it doesn’t sound like the cries of babies, but like an army of frogs looking for their mother?”

“Could they be struck by some kind of curse? How can the babies we’ve bred been turned into frogs?”

Ren Ruofeng furrowed his brows too as he scrutinized the bottom of the river. It was as if he was trying to make sense of what really happened down there.

All he saw was an army of tiny, four-legged creatures that looked like dark shadows swimming beneath the river’s surface.

“Indeed. How could the gods of the Upper Realm let us grow our population that easily? They must have had a hand in this!”

“Yes, an arcane realm isn’t exactly the safest place and they can still infiltrate this area. It has already been proven some time ago.”

“I can’t believe they’re so vicious and diabolical that they have actually put a curse on the babies who are still growing!”

The group of mighty cultivators suddenly became victims as they started to throw in furious remarks at each other.

In the System Space, Fang Ning questioned the System immediately. “Sir System, what the hell is going on?”

“Eh, my apologies.” Sir System was embarrassed. “It’s my first time doing this and I didn’t follow the procedure. A small bug appeared and I inserted the wrong sound effect… It’s all because of that green frog. It traumatized me greatly until I ended up inserting its voice into the System.”

“I think it should be the other way around.” Fang Ning rolled his eyes. “It’s obvious that you were the one who traumatized it a lot.”

The green frog overheard this and leaped out, expressing its agreement loudly, “Ribbit, it’s like this, ribbit, it’s like this.”

“Eh, you’re exactly the same. You do know how to conserve effort.” Fang Ning was flabbergasted.

“Enough, both of you! Just make them wait patiently while I make a few adjustments, or do you want to do it instead?” Sir System asked.

“Fine, fine, you take your time to debug and I’ll calm them down.”

Fang Ning rode the fire dragon and appeared above the river bed.

“Please be patient and don’t worry. With my presence, everything will return to normal very soon.”

With the Great Venerable Dragon God’s consolation, the powerhouses quietened down.

In fact, their shock was caused by their overly high expectations. Even if Fang Ning did not show up, they would have calmed down very quickly and began to brainstorm for solutions.

“Thank you, Venerable One. After this work is done, we’ll give you the complete share of magical energy as promised,” Ren Ruofeng declared.

Previously, when the population explosion plan was discussed, a condition for the Venerable Dragon God was agreed on. Whenever a human who was born from the Mother River became a cultivator when he reached adulthood, a 5% share of magical energy would be taken from the daily magical energy profits and given to the Dragon God.

To achieve this agreement, they depended on the “Nine Transformation Golden Core Technique” and the Magical Energy Bank that relied upon magical energy crystals as a foundation for its operations. With these two elements serving as foundations, magical energy points could become a commodity.

It was something unimaginable in the Upper Realm.

In the Upper Realm, there were a few ways to use someone else’s magical energy. Either one belonged to the same clan, acquired a pill by slaying a demon, or cultivated evil abilities in order to take over someone else’s magical energy by force.

It was simply impossible to collect magical energy via peaceful and large-scale corporate methods. Moreover, spending money to buy it was out of the question too.

Thus, Sir System said that the money belonged to him.

When it came to its money, Sir System was particularly efficient.

Soon, cries from the surface of the water could be heard.

Cries of “waah, waah…” resounded throughout the area. These sounds which were supposed to frustrate and distract numerous parents were music to the cultivation powerhouses’ ears!

The first baby could be seen splashing about on the surface of the water. It swam towards the river bank with its eyes closed with its little arms and legs flayed about but it did not sink.

“Hurry, everyone. Let’s get these children into the incubators.” Ren Ruofeng felt happy and relieved. He was the first one to move forward and pick up the newborn baby from the Mother River. He then placed it into the incubator of a mech behind him.

The mech immediately closed the lid and walked towards the light gate.

The other cultivation powerhouses followed suit. Of course, the mechs were the ones that did most of the work; their actions were nimble.

This was how they differed from the migrants. The humans created by the migrants lacked the characteristics of actual human beings. Their existence only served to produce magical energy.

Whereas that were babies bred through the River of Blood were not just any human, but they were very important as they mattered to the future of humanity.

All at once, ten billion of them were born and it would take them fifteen years to grow. Parents would be disheartened if family planning was not done carefully.

Fang Ning observed what went on in front of him. An infinite number of babies writhed in the river and their wails echoed across the arcane realm.

Ren Ruofeng picked up one baby after the other. He did not treat himself as a big shot or a powerhouse. Instead, happiness tugged at the sides of his lips until creases formed around them.

‘There are tens of billions of them. Are you sure you can carry them all?’

‘Five little speckled frogs, sat on a speckled log, eating some most delicious bugs. I wonder how you’re going to raise so many of them?’ A sarcastic thought emerged in Fang Ning’s mind.

As a way of increasing the rate of dispersion, the water surged gradually and the babies that were birthed incessantly from the river began to float towards a river bank which was a few hundred kilometers long.

An exhausted Fang Ning dragged himself back to the lounge and he rested for a few hours. His mind was still crammed with the cries and wails of the babies. He could not help but marvel at the efforts of those amazing parents. Raising children was no easy feat.

Being a dad was not easy at all.

The birth lasted for ten whole days.

In ten days, countless mechs had been deployed to carry the babies back to the Land of Heritage where they would be nurtured.

When the Land of Sanguinity finally regained its prior tranquility, Fang Ning heaved a sigh of relief.

“Hey, this feels a little too quiet. It was such a major event, yet no one came to bother us?” Fang Ning shook his head in disbelief.

“Isn’t this a good thing? Are you so bored that you want someone to trouble us?” Sir System snorted.

“What do you understand? This further proves the old view that those Upper Realm fellows don’t care about how powerful the humans are. The greater the humans’ rate of production of magical energy, the more it fits with their expectations. I suspect all of the prior troubles they’ve given us are nothing but a plan to prepare for this very day,” Fang Ning revealed his thoughts.

“Oh, really? This fits with my expectations too.”

“Of course, everybody has the same expectations. We can only wait and see who gets the biggest piece of cake in the end.”

“There’s no need to wait and see. That’ll surely be me.”

“Huh, are you a cultured fellow now?”

“I guess so.”