While everyone was still reeling from Wang Chen's tribulation, Ye Yun had already reappeared in the game.
Fengle City had transformed dramatically. In addition to the original structures, Ye Yun had divided the entire city into three massive plazas. His own Imperial Statue Plaza was the largest, spanning twenty square kilometers, capable of accommodating millions of players.
The Tongtian Ladder and the Enlightenment Tower occupied the same plaza, covering an area of ten square kilometers. Ye Yun's secret realm was allocated its own separate plaza, with entrances for each of its six levels.
Beyond these three main plazas, Ye Yun had constructed over a dozen commercial streets throughout the city. Connected to the Enlightenment Tower were over three million single-occupancy residential apartments and more than 1.4 million suites. Various organizations and groups had their original courtyards replaced with flat spaces ranging from one thousand to ten thousand square meters, resembling office buildings in the real world.
As the most powerful main city on Blue Star, its future population was expected to reach an astounding number. Therefore, all buildings in Fengle City were exclusively for rent, not for sale, which would become the city's primary source of income.
Skyscrapers pierced the sky. Ye Yun, of course, had not forgotten his tens of thousands of Dragon Palace followers. Around the City Lord's Mansion, he had specifically built twenty hundred-meter-high residential buildings, all containing suites. Not only Dragon Palace members but also their families could live together.
The rental process for housing was quite flexible; one simply needed to pay. Players who wished to rent could walk to the entrance of the building or community and step into a small teleportation array, which would display available rental properties and related information. Players could then directly agree to the terms.
Once these residential buildings were completed, they were largely reserved by various major departments from across the country, a situation Ye Yun was happy to see.
This time, Old Song had resolutely come to seek patronage, even the Anti-Scamming Brigade of the Ministry of Defense had rented a five-thousand-square-meter building here, grandly named the Gold Farming Headquarters Building.
"City Lord!" Ye Yun stood atop the City Lord's Mansion, overlooking the towering buildings in the city. Old Wang, a native NPC he hadn't seen in a long time, approached him, which was unprecedented.
Even more perplexing to Ye Yun was the presence of a woman in red behind him – Xiaotian, the manager of his Myriad Treasures Mall. He had even spent a considerable sum to hire her as a consultant for Fengle City.
When had this woman gained such freedom to move within his City Lord's Mansion?
"Brother Wang, what brings you here? And Xiaotian, are you now unrestricted in your movements?" Ye Yun asked, bewildered by the elder and younger pairing before him.
"Heh heh, City Lord, we've come to bid you farewell."
"Farewell? What do you mean?"
"Tian Dao has chosen both Sweetie and me. We are among the first awakened individuals in the eleventh universe. Therefore, we must depart in advance and enter a one-year slumber period at a node where Tian Dao connects to reality," Old Wang said, his smile radiant, betraying his excitement.
"Now? That's not right. Didn't Xiaotian say it would take three years?" Ye Yun was somewhat dumbfounded, the wheels of history were indeed turning too quickly.
"This is all thanks to the City Lord's strong support in Tian Dao. The City Lord's performance in this map fusion has been truly brilliant, coupled with the scale of investment in Fengle City's construction, has caused our points to skyrocket, meeting the requirements before the deadline for the first batch of awakened individuals," Xiaotian said to Ye Yun in a clear voice.
"I never expected something like this. Although I'll miss you, I must congratulate you. When will you be leaving?"
"In ten minutes. At that time, everything about us will be shattered by Tian Dao, and then, based on our points and accumulated wealth, new physical bodies will be regenerated in reality. We came here mainly to give you a gift," Old Wang said, producing a bamboo scroll that emanated a colorful glow.
"This is the method for setting up Fengle City's protective formation. It is said that this formation uses divine stones as its foundation and contains eighty-one methods for trapping and killing enemies. I don't know the specifics, but it should be useful to you, City Lord."
As Ye Yun took the scroll, he immediately received a system prompt.
"System Notification: Discovered a missing part of Fengle Divine City's 'Protective Formation.' Please use it within the Qitian Tower."
"Understood, thank you. How many humans are among the first batch of awakened individuals?" Ye Yun asked, putting away the scroll and looking at them curiously.
Ye Yun was aware that Xiaotian was an awakened individual, but this Old Wang, who had accompanied him for seven or eight months, was also an awakened individual. Did this mean that all native inhabitants within Tian Dao could be awakened individuals?
The establishment of the eleventh universe would not be limited to a single race but would gather all races from the preceding ten universes, truly a hundred flowers blooming, with all races coexisting. It was just unknown how many races would perish when that time truly arrived.
More importantly, the eleventh universe would inevitably have a connection point with the tenth universe, and the first universe it would contact would be the one he was in, the tenth.
...
"This is the first batch of awakened individuals, and the number for each race is not large. We humans have three slots, which is already quite good."
Hearing Ye Yun's question, Old Wang paused for a moment and managed a wry smile.
Three slots, compared to the ten universes, was a small number.
"Do you know anything about your future professions and such?"
"We know nothing. We only know that it's the two of us, plus the City Lord of Shangjing City, making three."
"Um, City Lord, we've come to say goodbye this time, and also, could you lend us some gold coins? After all, shaping our physical bodies in reality is not only related to the points we've earned in Tian Dao but also to our accumulated wealth." Seeing Old Wang's hesitant gaze, Xiaotian, standing beside him, became anxious. Ten minutes had passed, and she had already wasted most of it arguing with this peculiar old man.
"Lend money? How much?" Ye Yun was never stingy with his own people.
"About a hundred..."
"Of course, the more the better. City Lord, I know you're rich. How about it? Want to invest in our human race in the eleventh universe?" Before Old Wang could finish, Xiaotian quickly interjected.
The more the better?
Invest?
Ye Yun was taken aback. What the heck, he wasn't a venture capitalist. However, upon hearing Xiaotian's words, Ye Yun's own thoughts began to stir...