Published at 29th of May 2023 5:02 am

Chapter 432: The Lost Timelines

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Edward did not waste time. The following day, he boarded the ship and attacked the Automaton Race. And since this time, he was not doing a broadcast, so he was quick, ruthless, and efficient.

He used all the golem he had in his interdimensional ring, adding a total of 1 million. Although a small force, it was enough to conquer such a small civilization.

The automatons did not accept their fate and fought back rigorously. Among the top civilization of this universe, they had one major advantage: numbers. With enough resources, they can mass-produce robots and spaceships of different Tiers.

So, once they meet an enemy of a similar level, they can use a large number of cannon fodders to either overwhelm or consume their enemies. This advantage is one of the reasons the Otsutsuki could not easily wipe them out. Of course, the main reason for their survival is that they serve no real value to the Otsutsuki since they were not flesh and blood, thus could not be sacrificed to the God Tree to condense Chakra Fruit.

Unfortunately for the automaton, they met Edward–a paranoid ruler. The golems used the Anti-Technology Spell the Empire developed to fight Intelligens or other pure technology-based civilizations.

They also used numerous viruses that targeted their central control server, cutting off their communication and access to the web. The viruses also corrupted much Artificial intelligence and turned them against their kind.

Despite all of this, they put up a great fight. Edward also discovered another reason for this civilization’s survival: a Tier 8 Weapon. He also guessed the others–like the Sage Clan and even Chakra Race–may have similar methods.

Edward then took action and took control of the weapon to study and incorporate into the Empire. Then, under his leadership, the mighty Automaton Civilization was almost destroyed in three days.

Luckily, the highest authority of the civilization realized fighting was useless and made the rational choice to ensure their survival: surrender and hand over the Source Code.

Edward looked at the representative of the Automaton; she was a blue humanoid robot; she looked quite beautiful, similar to the human aesthetic.

“So, even a lifeform like yours has the instinct to survive,” he commented.

“It seemed your majesty has some prejudice against our race,” said Silvia. “We are creatures with emotions and creativity; you can say we have a soul. The only difference between humans and us–besides flesh–is we choose to use logic and rationality in all actions and decisions.”

“I am indeed biased against your race,” replied Edward. “Unfortunately, this will not change anytime soon.”

“That is a shame. Can I ask what will be our fate?” asked Silvia with great calmness; she did not look like someone whose entire civilization was just conquered.

“The advantage of your civilization is number. As long as you have enough resources, you can increase your population,” commented Edward. “So, I will place this feature to good use. I need your race to mine resources for me.”

“Mining? No problem.”

“I will give you six months. I need you to mine all the resources of this universe, turning it into a desolate place.”

Silvia frowned, “That will require a large population.”

“You can use a small portion of the resources to increase your population.”

“That’s fine. Do you have any rules or restrictions?”

“No, I only need efficiency. Additionally, population is also part of the mining. As long as you find any place with life, bring them back.”

“Limited to humans?”

“No, the race does not matter.”

“As you wish,” she replied before leaving to accomplish her order. Meanwhile, Edward relaxed. He used too many resources when creating the Tier 10 Floating City, so he’s going to plunder without control to make up for it. This timeline is only the first.

‘I should be able to plunder a few hundreds timeline before the Universe Will exiled me.’

After conquering the automaton, the other top civilizations were shocked by the power displayed by the Arcane Empire. They now understood the Emperor had the capacity to treat war with them like it was child’s play. So, many people prepared to send an ambassador to Ninja Planet to see how the Empire operates.

Meanwhile, Edward targeted the Immortal God Civilization. Sadly, these people were experts at hiding and covering their tracks because of the persecution of the Otsutsuki Clan. According to the information he received from the clan, Edward knew the Immortal Gods were the favorite sacrifice of the Otsutsuki.

These Gods were immortal and would revive after the sacrifice. Furthermore, they created the best Chakra Fruits. So, they became experts at hiding to prevent the Otsutsuki from hunting them down.

After searching for a while with no result, Edward had to use Divination to find them. Although these Immortal Gods seemed to have high immunity to divination, he had a powerful medium to find one: Hidan–a member of the Akatsuki.

He worshipped the Immortal God, Jashin. Through him, Edward could find Jashin’s location and capture him. On his return trip home, Edward did not do a preliminary analysis of this Immortal God.

“What a strange God,” he commented, looking at the imprisoned Jashin before him.

“Indeed,” commented Morgana. “His Immortality originated from his faith. As long as he has followers, he will never die. However, he does not have any divine energy.”

Edward nodded as he reviewed the data he had gathered. The source of the Immortal God was their faith. They used [Faith] instead of divine energy like the Gods back home to cast spells or create miracles.

“Who knew [Faith] was so volatile and could be used as such,” commented Edward. In his universe, the gods must convert faith into Divine Energy through their Divine Flame. But in this world, the gods directly use faith as a power source.

“They have a high immunity to the corruption of faith compared to the gods in our world or the one from the Konosuba Universe, but they are still all crazy,” added Morgana, observing Jashin.

“We do not have as much data on our gods to make a conclusion,” Edward shook his head. Most of the data about gods originated from Herpo the Foul and the False Gods the Empire created.

“Regardless, these Immortal Gods are a great specimen to study. We should capture all of them.”

“You’re right: Create a task force to search for them,” he said. “Ask the other civilization for their help.”

After returning home, Edward took some time to settle the previous research team of the Chakra System. Subsequently, he had another clone study the Immortal God. Orochimaru was interested in this god and asked to be part of this study.

Edward agreed as long as he finished his research first.

Then, he went on a press tour around the Shinobi World, increasing his prestige through a few interviews and appearances. He took advantage of the previous war and broadcast to further incorporate the people of this planet into the Empire.

Finally, he also returned to the lab for his plan to proceed. He created a magical artifact that looked like a grey soccer ball. He enchanted millions of magic runes on this artifact before succeeding; the process took him an entire month and half of the precious materials in his interdimensional ring.

“Success,” he muttered as he exhaled.

“Great job, master,” said the little elf.

“Thank you,” he replied as he looked at the final product.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, I’m thinking how this thing could create a protagonist if I drop it in any random universe,” replied Edward. “They can use it to become super powerful, push the technology tree of their planet to a higher level, or even rule the world.”

“True. And if it’s a high-level universe, they could become Tier 12 and break the limit of the universe.”

“Tier 11, maybe. However, Tier 12? The chances are minuscule,” added Edward. “Of course, they would have to find the energy to activate it. Otherwise, it would be useless.”

He no longer wasted time and injected his mana into the artifact. It lights up before projecting a picture of the starry sky. However, the images did not stay for even a second as they changed to another one. Sometimes, the pictures appeared to be the same, but the two knew they were not.

After a few hours, the artifact stopped spinning, and a few pictures remained before Edward.

“Found them,” he muttered with bright eyes. “The Lost Timelines.”

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