Chapter 1019 - 518: Before the Age of Calamity, He Was Insignificant; After the Age of Calamity, He Stood Tall as a Mountain

Zhou Furu and his fiancée Ma Miaodan arrived in Eastern City and immediately used their phones to call an intelligent unmanned private car.

Compared with the four newly attached provinces such as West River Province, Eastern City’s status is very special because it possesses a World Gate, and so it was established as a directly governed municipality.

The intelligent car quickly left the high-speed rail station and drove onto an elevated highway.

The young couple immediately saw, in the distance, a gigantic arched gate appearing.

Ma Miaodan blurted out, "The Eastern Gate!"

This gigantic arch is precisely the landmark building completed three months ago—the Eastern Gate.

The Eastern Gate reaches a staggering height of 1,200 meters, built with massive amounts of ultra–high-strength Exotic Material, and many Iron Fist People participated in the construction.

Right beneath the Eastern Gate lies the famed World Gate.

This landmark is not merely decorative; on the contrary, it is a super-large defensive installation.

According to news media reports, if faced with an external invasion, the Eastern Gate can activate multiple defensive force fields.

Even a Knight Powerhouse with overwhelming strength would find their Combat Power greatly suppressed if they were to be struck by multiple defensive force fields without warning.

It was only two months ago that many citizens of Eastern City proposed adding light strips and similar decorations to the Eastern Gate to enhance the building’s visual appeal.

Only then did Eastern City design a plan, installing many auxiliary devices on the Eastern Gate so that it would also serve as an urban landscape feature.

Zhou Furu said with a hint of regret, "It’s a pity today isn’t a public open day for the Eastern Gate, otherwise we could make a reservation and go check in with some photos at the Eastern Gate."

Ma Miaodan laughed and said, "It’s fine! In the evening the Eastern Gate will run three rounds of ultra-large holographic scenery shows. The whole city will be able to see them, and that’s what I’m really looking forward to."

This so-called "holographic scenery" has made the Eastern Gate a globally famous attraction, drawing tourists from all over the world, with celebrities from various countries by the handful.

Of course, the greatest number of tourists are still from Great Xia.

First, Eastern City is within Great Xia’s borders, so it’s very convenient for Great xia People to come; second, in this day and age, only Great xia People still have both money and leisure.

In recent years other countries have all been heavily ravaged by various calamities; aside from Great Xia, not a single nation’s economy has fully recovered. Ordinary people hardly have money for travel.

Ma Miaodan took in the continuous clusters of buildings flanking the elevated highway and sighed, "Last time I came here there weren’t this many buildings. Eastern City is getting more and more prosperous."

Zhou Furu gave a brief "Mm": "When our family moved over from Great Xia, I remember Eastern City’s permanent population was only a bit over six million. Now, a year later, the permanent population has already exceeded twenty-five million, and the media predicts that in five years it may pass fifty million."

Ma Miaodan nodded, echoing a line many people have said: "The growth of Eastern City is a miniature of Great Xia’s rapid rise."

Now Great Xia has already passed legislation for the comprehensive use of intelligent unmanned vehicles; manned vehicles are limited to special industries, and Eastern City is naturally no exception.

The city’s transport infrastructure has been correspondingly overhauled. Take traffic lights as an example: the duration of red lights is managed by an intelligent traffic AI, dynamically adjusted so that the red light time is no longer fixed.

So this intelligent vehicle encountered red lights rarely along the way, and even when it did, they lasted less than ten seconds.

In the field of intelligent transportation, Great Xia has long become the benchmark for the entire world.

Every foreign tourist who comes to Eastern City is struck with amazement by Great Xia’s advanced traffic model that leads the age.

Fifteen minutes later.

The young couple smoothly arrived at their destination—the Sea of Death Black Sand Evil Race Museum.

In front of the museum is a plaza of more than a thousand square meters, and at the very center stands a stone sculpture roughly ten meters high.

The sculpture’s face is indistinct; its feet tread on sand, with ripples floating and shifting all around it.

These ripples are not produced by holographic imaging equipment.

Instead, through extremely ingenious design and special material processes, light interference is used to form the ripples.

The sculpture’s form looks rough-hewn, yet it exudes a mountain-like, indescribable weight.

It is like a silent guardian, wordlessly watching over the patch of land beneath its feet.

Any Great xia People who see this scene know exactly whom the sculpture represents—Mr. Ghost.

Mr. Ghost destroyed the Primordial Evil Race and donated a large number of artifacts, which is why the statue stands here.

But the designer poured their heart and soul into the statue’s design not merely for those reasons.

As Great xia National Television once said in its introduction to the museum, "Before the Age of Calamity, he was small and ordinary; after the Age of Calamity, he was tall as the mountains."

At first sight of the statue, both Zhou Furu and Ma Miaodan felt themselves slightly shaken by that sense of gravity.

Zhou Furu drew a quiet breath and bowed deeply to the statue with utmost seriousness.

To him, and to countless Great xia People, seeing the statue is like hearing an encouraging voice: "I am ahead of you—now you must catch up."

This is the cry that Great Xia’s people of benevolence and resolve pass on to those who come after.

Dynasty after dynasty, it has never ceased.

This generation of people of benevolence and resolve has produced figures like Mr. Ghost and Mr. Spirit Crows, paragons who hack through thorns and press forward with determination, opening up a path for Great Xia and Great xia People.

Ma Miaodan followed him in bending to salute, but she is not a native-born Great xia People, and cannot truly grasp what it feels like for Great xia People to see the statue.

In her eyes there was only reverence for a top-tier powerhouse.

The museum was very crowded today. Everyone who passed by the statue, whether of their own initiative or in imitation of others, would all bow in salute to it.