Technological advancement begins with devouring.

Chapter 400 Ethnic Conference

Upon returning to the primordial universe, Jiang Chen directly contacted his clan and inquired about the current situation.

Jiang Chen's 'seclusion' period was not long, only a few hundred years.

However, with the major event of the annihilation of the demon race, the situation in the primordial universe remains quite tense.

Moreover, the human race is not content with merely annihilating the demon race; they also covet the alliance led by the machine race and the insect race, and want to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

During this period, the Lord of Chaos City, the Founder of the Giant Axe, and others have been frequently contacting forces such as the Starry Sky Beast Alliance and the Ancestral God Cult, attempting to push for a further war and spread the flames of war throughout the entire primordial universe.

Naturally, the Starry Sky Beast Alliance and the Ancestral God Cult could also see that if most of the forces in the universe were wiped out, the human race would inevitably be the biggest beneficiary.

Although they could share in the benefits, they were worried that the humans would turn against them later, so they were not very enthusiastic about participating.

The Northern Frontier Alliance, in particular, firmly opposes escalating the war.

They seemed to have already foreseen the scene where, after all the other 'resistance forces' were eliminated, the human race would turn its guns on the Northern Frontier Alliance and wipe it out.

—In fact, this was indeed the plan of the human race.

Forces like the Starry Sky Beast Alliance and the Ancestral God Cult, which do not compete for territory, can choose to stay and maintain an alliance, depending on the situation.

However, forces like the Northern Frontier Alliance, which require vast territories, must be eliminated.

Given their superior combat power, the human race naturally desires to completely dominate all territories of the original universe, leaving no scraps for anyone else.

The human race wants to push for war.

However, the Northern Frontier Alliance firmly opposed it, and the Starry Sky Beast Alliance, the Ancestral God Cult, and the Lone Rangers were not enthusiastic about participating.

Over this period of time, the Lord of Chaos City and others have done a lot of work, but it seems that the results have not been ideal.

At the Temple of the Giant Axe, the high-ranking members of the human race gathered once again.

"So, there's basically no progress at the moment," Jiang Chen summarized simply after hearing the Chaos City Lord's words.

The Chaos City Lord nodded and said, "That's true. If we insist on going to war with the Machine Race and the Zerg, the Starry Sky Beasts and the Ancestral God Cult will most likely not help us. The Northern Frontier Alliance might even become our enemy."

There are no fools among the leaders of these powerful forces.

As the strength and trump cards of the human race were gradually revealed, they quickly understood the situation and knew what would happen once the human race wiped out the machine race and the insect race.

From their perspective, they naturally don't want a 'giant' beside them, threatening their safety at any time.

This is not something that can be resolved simply by making a lot of diplomatic efforts.

When it involves the fundamental interests of a faction, no amount of arguing will change anything.

It's no wonder that the Chaos City Lord and his team's efforts were ineffective.

When the human race was wiped out before, the strength they revealed was too great and too frightening.

The sheer power of a single 'Death Star' to devour smaller universes ensures that humanity possesses an almost overwhelming advantage over the entire primordial universe, and even the vast majority of powers in the cosmic ocean.

In a one-on-one situation, aside from the two holy lands whose true strength is unknown, no force dares to guarantee survival under the human race's offensive.

If these forces in the primordial universe do not unite, they will be destroyed by the human race sooner or later.

In this situation, the fact that the Starry Sky Beast Alliance, the Old Beast God, and even a group of lone wolves like the Mountain Guest who previously stood on the side of the human race did not "betray" and stand on the side of the Machine Race and the Zerg Race already shows that the Chaos City Lord and the others have not been busy for nothing during this period of time.

but……

Judging from the current situation, it seems unlikely that these forces can be used as cannon fodder to fight against the Machine Race and the Zerg.

"If we rely on ourselves alone..." Jiang Chen quickly thought, analyzing the comparison of the two sides' combat strength.

With the Death Star around, winning this battle is definitely not a problem.

However, to ensure that the Terrans do not suffer too many losses in the war and can maximize their benefits, the Death Star alone is not enough.

Such a war fortress is indeed invincible on the main battlefield, but there is only one of its kind. Once the enemy splits its forces, it can only secure the advantage of one battlefield.

Other battlefields still require a sufficient number of strong individuals to handle them.

The reason why the demon race was unable to dominate the universe with its 'replenished primordial spirit' and was forced to make a non-aggression pact with the 'demon extermination alliance' was because of this.

When dealing with the demon race before, it was fine. Although the demon race was not weak, it was still just one race. The total number of strong people was what it was. By joining forces with the Starry Sky Beast Alliance and other forces, we were not afraid of the demon race splitting its forces.

But now, what the human race has to deal with is a large number of powerful individuals from countless races united together.

Furthermore, the fact that forces such as the Starry Sky Beast Alliance and the Ancestral God Cult are unwilling to participate in helping humanity has greatly increased the pressure faced by the human race.

"If we don't count forces like the Northern Frontier Alliance and the Starry Sky Beast Alliance, just considering the Mechanical Race and the Zerg, how many powerful individuals do they have in total?" Jiang Chen suddenly asked.

The Lord of Chaos City immediately said, "There are more than a dozen of the strongest beings in the universe, and the number of universe lords is probably between six hundred and eight hundred."

In just a few hundred thousand years, after a series of great wars, the number of powerful beings in the primordial universe has indeed decreased significantly.

The alliance, led by the Machine Race and the Zerg, involves many forces, but the number of powerful individuals is not as high as one might imagine.

"In other words, assuming the Starry Sky Beast Alliance and the Ancestral God Cult do not participate in the war, we need at least five hundred Universe Lords, along with the 'Death Star,' to ensure overwhelming force. If we want to defeat the enemy with minimal losses, then we need at least a thousand Universe Lords." Jiang Chen calculated and quickly came to a conclusion.

One 'Death Star' is worth thousands of universe lords.

However, if the enemy splits its forces, at most a few hundred universe lords, along with a few of the strongest beings in the universe, would be enough to hold back the Death Star for a period of time.

This also means that on other battlefields, the Terrans must have enough forces to hold out until the Death Star arrives to provide support.

If casualties are not taken into account, four or five hundred universe lords would be enough.

However, to win with a low or even no casualties, one must have an overwhelming advantage in combat strength.

Of course, considering that the human race only needs to ensure that its own strong members do not perish, a force of about a thousand universe lords would actually be sufficient.

Jiang Chen immediately had an idea: to build a mechanical legion with the combat power of a universe master.

This legion doesn't need to be too strong; having the attack power of an ordinary universe lord is enough. Then, by using numbers and combining the legions' attacks, it can avoid its own weaknesses and shortcomings.

Using this 'Cosmic Lord-level Mechanical Legion' as the main force and cannon fodder, and then cooperating with the strong of the human race and the Hongmeng.

In this way, without the help of forces such as the Starry Sky Beast Alliance, the human race is fully capable of driving this war on its own.

The only problem is that such a mechanical legion at the level of a cosmic master would probably consume a lot of resources.

Moreover, if a real battle breaks out, the losses of this mechanical legion will inevitably be substantial, meaning that this investment of resources is almost a 'one-off' investment and cannot bring long-term benefits.

However, after some consideration, Jiang Chen still made the suggestion.

"The situation in the universe is unlikely to change much in the future. The Starry Sky Beast Alliance and the Ancestral God Cult, although allies of us, will also be wary of us. Unless there is a major upheaval, they are unlikely to help us," Jiang Chen said. "In that case, we might as well resolve the problems in the primordial universe as soon as possible so that our race can develop faster. Nearly half of this cycle has passed. Don't forget that a great catastrophe will befall us at the end of this era, and we must have sufficient strength to deal with it."

"You mean the 'World Beast'?" The Chaos City Lord looked at Jiang Chen and couldn't help but ask, "You already have the 'Death Star,' isn't that enough to protect yourself in the face of the World Beast's threat?"

Jiang Chen had informed the clan about the Beast of the Realm long ago, which caused some panic among the clan's higher-ups at the time.

However, as the clan's strength grew, the Giant Axe Founder, the Chaos City Lord, and others gradually became less wary of the World Beasts and began to disregard them.

Upon hearing Jiang Chen's words, the founder of the Giant Axe was naturally surprised.

He could tell from Jiang Chen's tone that Jiang Chen was extremely wary of the Beast of the Realm.

This means that, in Jiang Chen's understanding, the current 'Death Star,' mechanical familiars, and so on are far from strong enough to fight against the World Beasts.

"I can't say for sure about the strength of the Realm Beasts right now. The Death Star can kill as many ordinary Realm Beasts as it comes. But when only one Realm Beast remains, the ultimate 'Realm Beast King' is born, and its destructive power is terrifying. Even if the Death Star were to upgrade once or twice more, it might not be able to handle it." Jiang Chen shook his head and said, "To deal with the Realm Beast calamity, we must begin preparations much earlier."

"But the treasures needed to build the mechanical legion..." The Chaos City Lord hesitated.

The human race's treasure trove had been thoroughly emptied by Jiang Chen several times; even a rat would have to cry its way out if it went in.

Although the human race was replenished when the demon race was destroyed, the human race received more territory and treasures, while most of the ordinary resources fell into the hands of forces such as the Starry Sky Beast Alliance and the Ancestral God Cult.

The human race currently lacks the resources to build a sufficiently large and powerful mechanical army.

"Would it be feasible to exchange a few supreme treasures with the Starry Sky Beast Alliance and the Ancestral God Sect?" Jiang Chen asked the Chaos City Lord. "Also, if we go to war with the Mechanical Race and the Zerg Race, can we ensure that they at least remain neutral?"

If, after the war begins, forces such as the Starry Sky Beast Alliance and the Ancestral God Cult, out of excessive fear of the human race, directly side with the Machine Race and the Zerg Race, then the trouble will be even greater.

The number of powerful beings that the human race alone has to deal with is much greater, which means that more combat power is needed to maintain the advantage on the battlefield.

"The Starry Sky Beasts, the Ancestral God Cult, and those lone wolves will not become our enemies. Even if they don't help us, they won't help the Machine Race or the Zerg. I can guarantee that." The Chaos City Lord paused for a moment, pondered, and then continued, "As for the Northern Frontier Alliance... they might become our enemies. According to intelligence reports, the Northern Frontier Alliance has been in frequent private contact with the Zerg, Machine Race, and Prison Race recently, and they may have reached some kind of tacit understanding, or even made an agreement."

“If the Northern Frontier Alliance becomes our enemy, then we will have one more strongest being in the universe and dozens more universe lords among our enemies.” Jiang Chen calculated for a moment and said, “To be on the safe side, we need to build at least a thousand mechanical units with the combat power of universe lords. However, they only need to have the attack power of universe lords, so the cost will not be very high.”

As he spoke, Jiang Chen waved his hand, and a list appeared in front of everyone.

The document lists several different mechanical unit designs, their properties, and the materials required for their manufacture.

Of course, apart from a very few extremely critical core materials, most ordinary materials can be replaced by other alternatives, so the requirements are not very stringent.

The higher the grade of the material, the rarer it is. If you fixate on a particular material, you may end up searching the entire universe and still not be able to gather all the materials you need.

Making minor modifications and adjustments to the design based on available materials is an essential skill for every designer.

The same applies to weapon refiners and treasure refiners who craft supreme treasures; they all need to possess this ability.

The list contains only three types of mechanical units, all of which are designs that Jiang Chen had previously presented.

Even before acquiring the Death Star, Jiang Chen had prepared several highly cost-effective mechanical units, intending to use thousands of mechanical legions, each with individual combat power reaching the level of a universe master, to help the human race sweep across the primitive universe.

However, after acquiring the Death Star, they abandoned the plan and devoted more resources to improving and upgrading the Death Star, as well as building the Death Star Legion.

Now, Jiang Chen has brought out these mechanical unit design schemes again and improved them.

The design concept hasn't changed much; it's just that while reducing costs, their overall combat power has been slightly improved, but the improvement isn't significant, still remaining at the level of a normal universe master.

If we only consider attack power, it falls between the top of the third tier and the top of the fourth tier.

In other aspects, they are similar to second- and third-order universe masters.

These mechanical units are not particularly strong individually; even a third-order universe master could easily defeat them.

But if it reaches a certain scale, it will be terrifying.

Under the concentrated fire of hundreds or thousands of mechanical units, even the strongest being in the universe would not dare to withstand it head-on.

It also has a considerable advantage in engaging in long-range combat with an equal number of universe masters.

The only downside is that it's expensive.

Based on a total of one thousand, the resources consumed are comparable in value to several top-tier treasures.

"This resource consumption is quite astonishing..." The Chaos City Lord tapped his fingers lightly on the table, pondered for a moment, and then said, "I'll go talk to the old Beast God and the others to try to ensure the supply of resources. Jiang Chen, I'm leaving the mechanical legion to you."