"Ah wuu~"
Xiao swallowed the Dragon God's head in one gulp, but the Dragon God's head, which had already turned to stone, did not contain much power.
Not to mention Great Runes, there were not even many Ancient Dragon incantations within it.
However, the Dragon God's head had a tremendous effect on Cyber Aura.
In The Lands Between, the Ancient Dragon race made immense contributions to the development of the Golden Dynasty's forging industry.
In particular, the great Ancient Dragon Gransax even left behind his enormous corpse for the Golden Dynasty to use as it pleased.
Therefore, all high-grade weapons of the Golden Dynasty required Ancient Dragon scales for forging and refinement.
The highest-level weapons even required Dragonlord scales to complete their final forging.
As something superior even to scales, the Dragon God's head could provide attribute enhancements that ordinary people simply could not imagine.
Therefore, after Cyber Aura merged with the Dragon God's head, it underwent comprehensive improvements, and the strength and toughness of Cyber Aura increased by several levels once again.
However, what surprised Xiao the most was that the fossilized Dragon God's head nearly doubled the speed of energy conduction.
This meant that Xiao's attack speed had also increased by at least twofold.
It also meant that when Cyber Aura was activated, it could accumulate energy faster and unleash more powerful explosive force within the same amount of time.
Such an improvement was undoubtedly enormous in combat.
However, after integrating the Dragon God's head, Xiao also discovered a problem.
The cost of producing Cyber Aura had increased once again.
Previously, only one gram of material or equivalent energy was needed to condense nuclear-grade Cyber Aura.
But after merging with the Dragon God's head, Xiao now required at least ten grams of material and equivalent energy to create the same level of Cyber Aura.
Most importantly, the overall enhancement of Cyber Aura would allow countless bottom-level freeloaders to effortlessly enjoy its dividends and receive comprehensive strengthening.
This clearly did not align with Xiao's original vision.
Xiao's original purpose in creating Cyber Cultivation had been to recruit laborers to work for him.
He had never expected that, although the overall progress of Cyber Cultivators had continuously advanced,
In reality, only a minority of people had truly put in effort.
Less than one percent of Cultivators continuously invested resources and cultivated day and night, strengthening the foundation of Cyber Aura and silently contributing to the public.
It was precisely these people who promoted the evolution of the entire Cyber Aura environment.
Meanwhile, the remaining ninety-nine point nine percent of lazy Cultivators simply chose to lie flat and do nothing.
They did not need to research anything, nor pay any price.
They merely had to wait for the overall quality of Cyber Aura to increase, allowing them to become stronger while doing absolutely nothing.
Combined with the continuously increasing production costs of high-level Cyber Aura, Xiao felt as though he had raised a group of demanding ancestors rather than recruited a batch of laborers.
Xiao absolutely could not accept becoming a clown under such circumstances.
Therefore, Xiao decided to change the status quo and absolutely refused to allow those bottom-level freeloaders to continue enjoying Cyber Aura's benefits for free.
Thus, Xiao began considering how to adjust Cyber Aura's operating mechanism.
He realized that relying solely on the overall evolution of the environment could not motivate people to take initiative.
When, within a society, no matter how hard individuals work, the final rewards are equally distributed among everyone, that is the day humanity loses its motivation and progress.
To solve this problem, Xiao decided to incorporate a reward-and-punishment mechanism into Cyber Aura and establish rules conducive to the development of civilization.
He planned to permanently lock the quality of ownerless Cyber Aura at the minimum standard.
This meant that from the moment the plan was implemented, all external aura would no longer automatically evolve, but would remain forever at the lowest standard.
As for how future Cyber Cultivators should increase the strength of their Cyber Aura, Xiao believed that this should depend entirely on their own efforts.
Cultivators could achieve self-improvement by researching and manufacturing foundational materials that met their own standards, allowing their Cyber Aura to absorb them and complete its own evolution.
As for those without talent, they could become bottom-level laborers to expand the market, work hard to earn money, and be harvested like leeks.
Failing that, they could also embark on dangerous adventures to hunt demonic beasts and collect higher-quality aura by absorbing the spiritual essence of those beasts.
In short, it all came down to one sentence:
Those with ability should contribute, those without ability should pay.
All forms of freeloading would be rejected.
As for those Cyber Cultivators who only wished to reap without sowing and enjoy the benefits, Xiao also decided to punish them by ensuring that they would never be able to advance to higher realms in their lifetimes.
According to the new Cyber Aura quality system redesigned by Xiao, the meridians and acupoints condensed from low-grade aura simply could not withstand excessive amounts of Cyber Aura.
Compressing Cyber Aura would generate tremendous internal pressure.
If the meridians were not sufficiently strong, there would only be one outcome from forcibly attempting Foundation Establishment:
They would be overwhelmed by the violent aura and suffer severe backlash.
The reason so many Cyber Cultivators had become lazy in the first place was precisely because Xiao had treated them too well, resulting in the emergence of countless parasites.
If neither contribution nor payment could be achieved, then they would simply wait slowly for death.
They would live until the maximum age of one hundred and twenty and then die on their birthday.
Moreover, through this method, Xiao not only reduced the cost of producing high-quality Cyber Aura, but also shifted those resource costs onto individual users.
At the same time, the decline in baseline aura quality meant that fewer materials could produce greater quantities of aura, allowing more people to participate in Cyber Cultivation, expanding the talent pool and discovering true Cyber Cultivation geniuses.
The moment the brand-new Cyber Aura Act was announced throughout the entire Cyber Dimension, Cultivators across more than a dozen worlds immediately fell into different emotional states.
Some cheered with excitement.
Some became ashen-faced and depressed.
Others frowned with worry...
For a time, countless complex emotions intertwined, forming a vivid picture.
Among them, the largest group was undoubtedly the bottom-level lazy Cyber Cultivators.
They had long been accustomed to relying on the Cyber Dimension's aura to cultivate, a method that, while slow, required very little effort.
However, after the implementation of the new act, they would no longer be able to enjoy such convenience.
For these Cultivators, this meant they had to reevaluate their cultivation paths and search for new ways to increase their strength.
In fact, they had already noticed long ago that the quality of Cyber Aura had been continuously increasing, leading to an overall rise in power.
Especially during the recent period, that growth had been extraordinarily obvious, allowing many people to clearly feel that the Cyber Dimension itself was continuously evolving.
Now, the Cyber Dimension had informed them that freeloading was no longer permitted.
As a result, many Cultivators felt as though their entire world had collapsed, feeling even worse than if they had lost their own mothers.
⭐ Enjoying the story?
You can read ahead and support the translations by joining my Patreon! Your support helps me update faster and take on more projects. Thank you for reading!
Read up to 50 chapters ahead!
patreon.com/AminaSim
