The Barren Land continued in their moment of passion as their Pagoda bloodline illuminated thend. Every person above the age of 12 years had an illusory ck Pagoda hovering behind them.


    Gradually, the colossal ck Pagoda in the sky began to disappear, while the runes and strange markings on the four tallest Pagodas in various cities were nearingpletion.


    As the massive ck Pagoda finally vanished, the runes on the four Pagodas werepleted. With their transformationplete, they appeared entirely different, exuding a potent aura.


    Despite this, every citizen of the Barren Land felt a powerful connection to the Pagoda. It seemed to resonate deep within their very souls.


    Su Yen gazed at the new transformation of the Pagoda and couldn''t help but smile. Although he didn''t fully understand the significance of the mysterious markings, he had seen them on the real Pagoda.


    "These markings should be for some kind of defense or something like that..." He thought to himself.


    He shifted his attention to the crowd below, their bloodline Pagodas materialized, and he could sense their anticipation.


    He raised his hand, and the bustling center square fell into a hushed silence as everyone retracted their bloodline images.


    "Now, we are one with the Pagoda," he began with a crisp voice. "As long as the Pagoda stands, we are never alone."


    "Every year, we shall celebrate this day in remembrance of our new race."


    "To mark this day as a memorable one, I''ve created a new function in the Spirit Comms."


    "The ''You Connect'' is a new app that will connect everyone together," he announced.


    "You Connect!"


    "A new app!"


    The people were initially confused but also curious. Before they could fully grasp what was happening, their Spirit Comms sent them an upgrade notification.


    The upgrade only took a couple of seconds toplete. A new app, "You Connect," appeared on their Spirit Comms interface.


    Before the crowd could explore the new app, Su Yen''s voice echoed in their minds.


    "With the Spirit Image Crystal, you can take images or videos of yourself or what is happening around you."


    A small crystal hovered in front of Su Yen, pulsating with a purple hue.


    "Open the new app," hemanded.


    Quickly, the people rushed to open the new app. It presented them with two questions, and they promptly filled in their responses.


    The You Connect timeline then appeared before them. To their astonishment, the only thing on their timeline was images of Su Yen.


    Gasps and exmations filled the air.


    "What the..."


    "How is this possible..."


    The crowd was left utterly dumbfounded.


    They withdrew their consciousness from their Spirit Comms and stared at Su Yen standing before them,paring his physical presence to the image on You Connect.


    "Another image has appeared!" they cried out in shock and excitement.


    "Another one has appeared!"


    "Oh my god! This one is talking!"


    "Wow! It''s like we are watching the Sect Master in our minds!"


    Various exmations and gasps echoed through the crowd as they bore witness to the seemingly impossible happening right before their eyes.


    "With this, you can share your memories with your friend and love ones." Su Yen voice woke the stupefied gaze from their stupor.


    *****


    It had been a week since the unveiling of the ck Pagoda and the birth of the new race.


    However, the people were still caught up in the frenzy of social life. It didn''t take long for them to grasp the ins and outs of You Connect.


    As always, the most enthusiastic users were the youngdies. They were wildly uploading virtually every moment of their lives.


    To purchase the Spirit Image Crystal, you could visit the Celestial Sect stores or the two merchant stores. The Celestial stores even allowed people to buy it on loan, making it easily essible for virtually everyone.


    Besides gossip, news was distributed much faster. Slowly, the people began to realize the importance of You Connect.


    Sitting in his courtyard, sipping tea, Su Yen looked at the number of followers he had on You Connect and smiled.


    "One billion plus and still increasing at a rapid pace."


    Just as he was enjoying his newfound fame, Huang Yin sent him a message on You Connect. She sent an image of herself dressed in a new robe with a caption: ''What do you think?''


    Su Yen didn''t waste any time and responded immediately. "Lovely... You look so gorgeous. I can''t wait to see you." He added various heart emojis.


    Huang Yin responded with a new picture of herself, taking a more seductive pose.


    She showed her perky butt, looking directly into the image crystal as if she was gazing directly at Su Yen, with a caption.


    ''What about this? Do you enjoy this view?''


    Su Yen and Huang Yin continued their intimate exchange, sending each other private pictures. Their interaction became increasingly heated.


    It was only when Su Yen heard a knock on his door that he abruptly stopped his intimate moment with Huang Yin.


    "Sect Master, the elders are waiting," a voice came from outside.


    Su Yen nodded and left for the sect''s main hall.


    Inside the hall, Su Yen sat on his throne and looked at the beaming smiles on the elders'' faces. He knew everyone had been enjoying the best moments of their lives with You Connect. Even some of the audacious ones had managed to capture the hearts of some youngdies.


    "Am I wrong in introducing social media to these old dogs?" he thought for a moment before dismissing the thought from his mind.


    "I know you''ve all been having the best time, but you must not forget your priorities," Su Yen said with a solemn tone.


    "We won''t, Sect Master," they chorused.


    "Good. How is the mining of Spirit Stones going?" he asked.


    Elder Feng stood and straightened his robe. "Everything is going ording to n, but the sea beasts have been quite troublingtely. However, our men have managed to deal with them easily."


    "What is going on?" Su Yen asked with a knitted brow.


    "The sea race is fighting among themselves. I think the Mountain Sea Turtle region may be under attack," Elder Su Feng responded.


    Listening to this, the elders breathed a sigh of relief. Currently, they couldn''t afford to go to another war. They were just healing from the previous battle wounds.


    "That''s good to hear, but if the turtle asks for help, help it. It''s still my mount, after all," Su Yen said before changing the subject.


    "What about the mining in the northern region?"


    "It has started and is moving smoothly," Su Ming responded.


    "Good. Nothing must happen to those two mines for now. Our future development depends on them," Su Yen said seriously.


    "What about the stores and the creation of the bank?" He turned to look at Elder Hua.


    "We still maintain our profit from the sales and repair of the armors. As for the banks, in the next couple of days, we should be through with our preparations."


    "Good, good. Now, to the most important ones," Su Yen announced, and the atmosphere inside the hall turned solemn.


    "How are the defense walls of the various cities and towns?" He asked.


    "The city walls will bepleted next week. As for the towns and viges, two or three weeks, a month at most," Elder Kang responded.


    "Good, but that''s not quick enough. With our new bloodline and the power of faith, we need to secure our towns and cities to the maximum," Su Yen said with a solemn tone.


    "If you need more people, just ask. I want it to bepleted sooner," hemanded, leaving no room for debate.


    Elder Kang sighed and nodded. ''It looks like I need to assign more people to the construction. If not for the ridiculous height of the city wall, we would havepleted it a long time ago,'' he thought to himself.


    The walls of the four cities were already 80 meters high, but they had yet toplete the construction since they were aiming for 100 meters. The construction of the massive fortress-like walls surrounding each city was imposing.


    As for the towns, they would be 50 meters high, and the viges would range between 10 to 15 meters tall. Previously, the city walls ranged between 20 to 30 meters. Compared to the massive 100 meters, it was nothing but a dwarf.


    To Su Yen, he found the city walls to be too small. He had decided toplete this first before raising the height to 500 meters. While it might seem unnecessary to others, he knew what wasing and wouldn''t take any chances with the city walls.


    "Do you know why, with our massive army, we still lost miserably against the Blood Whisperer?" Su Yen asked.


    For a couple of seconds, the hall was thrown into dead silence. Su Ming furrowed his brow and thought deeply before he responded.


    "Because our soldiers are inexperienced and also weaker than the Blood Whisperers."


    Hearing this, all the elders nodded in support of his response. But Su Yen didn''t change his expression. He looked at his elder brother and nodded.


    "You''re right... partially," Su Yen began, shifting his gaze to look at all the elders.


    Partially?!


    Su Ming rolled his eyes and looked at his younger brother, not understanding what he meant by "partially." He wasn''t the only one confused. They looked at each other before looking back at him.


    "You must be confused by what I mean by ''partially,'' right?" he asked.


    Everyone nodded.


    "Simply put it, even if our men are weak and inexperienced, their poption should make up for it. Not to mention the elite soldiers with the Bronze Armor. How are they weaker than the first wave of Blood Whisperers?"


    A look of realization dawned on the elders. Still, Su Yen continued slowly.


    "Our army has been trained in various tactical formations that could handle any dangerous situation. But to be more effective, we need arger team."


    "Therefore, weakness and inexperience didn''t make us lose our men. The Blood Whisperer seeded in attacking us because we didn''t have a concrete transportation system."