Chapter 446: The Origin Headquarters

Adrian crossed the final stretch of open air and descended toward the elevated inspection platform overlooking the active inscription halls.

Selena noticed him first. Her brows rose slightly, and a familiar smile soon appeared.

"So you finally decided to return," she said as he landed before them. "It has been more than a hundred years since we last saw you."

Adrian glanced between Selena and Lysandra before looking down toward the enormous factory complex beneath them. "It has not been anywhere near that long for me."

"I assumed as much," Selena replied. "You happily roam across the universe while leaving the rest of us inside a Time Formation to work for a century."

Lysandra's lips curved faintly before she inclined her head toward Adrian. "Welcome back, Supreme Emperor. The central formation informed us the moment it recognized your mana signature, but Selena insisted that waiting here would be more entertaining than going to meet you."

"And I was correct," Selena said without the slightest embarrassment. She gestured broadly toward the industrial world around them. "Because of that decision, you wandered through half the headquarters and saw the progress yourself instead of simply arriving somewhere comfortable and demanding a report."

"Hey, it is not as though I am forcing any of you to work," Adrian protested, raising both hands. "If someone overheard the way you speak about me, they would assume I was some kind of tyrant."

Lysandra shook her head at Selena's deliberately exaggerated complaints. Adrian had indeed left them with plans, resources, and an enormous amount of construction waiting to be completed, but neither she nor Selena had been forced into any of it. If anything, both had chosen to involve themselves far more deeply than necessary.

For cultivators who had spent much of their lives unraveling runes, formations, and turning abstract ideas into working systems, the headquarters was not simply labor assigned by Adrian. It was the kind of work they genuinely enjoyed.

Before Selena could continue tormenting him, Lysandra raised one hand. "I will give you the actual progress report before this becomes another argument."

A holographic projection expanded above her palm and quickly grew into a detailed model of the entire headquarters. Seventeen planets appeared across overlapping spatial layers surrounding the Central Origin Construct, while countless golden-white threads marked transportation currents, energy-distribution pathways, communication links, and defensive sectors connecting the entire concealed region.

"The relic planet was relocated here soon after your most recent departure," Lysandra began. "Selena and I had already been working on the central formation surrounding the headquarters, and during that process we also established the Galactic Net functionality within it. Once that foundation was stable, Octaven and Kaelar helped us relocate the necessary worlds."

She moved two fingers across the projection.

One of the healthy inhabited planets enlarged until its continents filled most of the hologram. Cities constructed from pale stone stretched across several regions, connected by flight routes and smaller currents of golden light. Adrian recognized Elyrian architecture in the open towers, broad terraces, and elevated districts built for winged movement.

"The Elyrians also chose their planet," Lysandra continued. "King Elyras inspected the available worlds together with Mariska and Aelion, and their people began settling this one shortly afterward. Their Sanctuary remains anchored within the Azure Garden as their protected ancestral ground, but most of their population now resides here."

"Elyras and their own councils continue governing the planet. Origin protects the world, maintains its connection to the wider headquarters, and provides access to shared infrastructure, but our administrators do not rule Elyrian civilization."

Adrian studied the growing cities for several moments before slowly exhaling.

When he had passed the sparsely inhabited worlds during his inspection of the headquarters, he had assumed Hestia and the others were preserving them because the promise he had made to the Elyrians still awaited his return. Only now did he properly account for the difference between his own journey and the years experienced inside Origin's temporal regions. Even the earliest portion of his absence had given the Elyrians decades within the Azure Garden, and the headquarters formation had granted them many more subjective years after the relocation.

"I intended to take them to choose a world after I returned," Adrian admitted.

"We saw no reason to make an entire civilization wait for you," Selena replied. "They had already chosen Origin, and suitable planets were sitting here unused."

Adrian nodded without attempting to defend the delay. "You made the right decision."

Lysandra returned the projection to the complete model of the headquarters. "There was another matter we managed to investigate once the Origin Net became active here. We finally have an answer to the question we had regarding its range, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that we have failed to discover where that range ends."

Adrian's attention sharpened immediately.

The Void Emperor's barrier had isolated the Milky Way so thoroughly that they had never been able to determine whether the limitations of their earlier network came from distance or from the seal surrounding the galaxy itself.

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"We first distributed nodes throughout Virelith," Lysandra explained. "There was no measurable weakening even in the systems farthest from the headquarters. After that, we carried an Origin node into Andromeda, while several disciples transported others along separate intergalactic routes. Every node remained connected to the network."

She adjusted the hologram again, leaving only several distant nodes connected by thin streams of light. "Mana consumption increases when additional nodes are introduced, when more users enter the network, or when larger volumes of information move through it. Distance itself, however, has produced no measurable increase in energy consumption."

"Did you detect any response delay or weakening as the separation increased?" Adrian asked.

"Nothing our formations can measure," Lysandra replied. "My only theory is that Origin Ink may be creating something analogous to quantum entanglement between connected nodes."

The projection reduced further until only two points remained, one representing Virelith and the other Andromeda.

"I found very little about the phenomenon even through UNI-OS," Lysandra continued. "There are references to theories involving nonlocal relationships and several highly restricted discussions surrounding quantum-linked systems, but nothing that actually explains what Origin Ink is doing. At present, these are only theories. What we can verify experimentally is much simpler: ordinary Galactic Net formations require greater mana expenditure as their signal range expands, while the Origin Net has displayed no distance-based increase in any test we have performed."

Adrian slowly nodded.

Even he had no immediate explanation for the phenomenon, but the practical value was enormous. If the connection truly remained unaffected by intergalactic distance, he could carry a node throughout his travels and maintain contact with Origin regardless of how far he moved from Virelith. More importantly, every discussion, report, and command related to the Origin Sect could remain inside their private network rather than passing through infrastructure controlled by an outside organization.

Lysandra shifted the hologram toward several industrial planets Adrian had not personally inspected.

"We also dedicated several worlds to automated conversion of pure mana crystals into specialized divine essence crystals," she said. "Once the formations were established, we only needed to inscribe the runic structure of the willforce-recovery spell into the conversion system. Origin Ink then produces the appropriate divine essence through the formation."

Another movement of her hand brought the Central Origin Construct back into focus.

"Finally, the primary Origin Ink Forges have been established inside the Central Origin Construct. Those facilities convert pure mana ink into Origin Ink before it is distributed to the specialized production sectors."

The projection changed again, and this time several declining inventory columns appeared beside the headquarters model.

"There is also one problem," Lysandra said. "Our factories consume alloys, ink materials, pure mana crystals, and other supplies through subjective decades of operation, while the suppliers maintaining our commercial cover continue moving according to ordinary external time. Our existing reserves can support the initial public release, but they cannot sustain unrestricted expansion indefinitely."

The hologram displayed ongoing Starlight Jade Healing Ring orders beside the considerably smaller stream of materials being redirected toward Virelith. Those public sales gave the Crimson Vital Sect's Healing Artifacts division a legitimate reason to maintain broad procurement agreements throughout Andromeda, but Adrian could immediately see the danger of increasing those purchases too abruptly. Excessive demand unsupported by visible commercial activity would eventually attract attention.

"The unfinished industrial districts are waiting for supplies, then," Adrian said.

"Supplies and believable purchasing time," Lysandra confirmed. "We can expand much faster internally than our public businesses can plausibly acquire materials externally."

Adrian looked down toward the active lines below them.

The limitation did not threaten their immediate production schedule, but it would determine how carefully Origin expanded during the coming years. Their temporal advantage was extraordinary, yet it also created an imbalance that had to be hidden behind an economy still operating according to ordinary universal time.

"There is an obligation both of you need to know about," Adrian said after a moment. "During my journey, I reached an Upper Major Sect called Kaalatva. I obtained Advanced Galactic comprehension of Time through their sect trial, but I refused the discipleship attached to the inheritance."

Selena folded her arms beneath her chest. "How did you settle the debt?"

"Origin will provide five hundred thousand willforce-recovery artifacts every standard UNI-Year for one hundred years," Adrian answered. "They will receive them at ten percent below our official market price. The first allocation is due within two UNI-Years."

Selena stared at him.

Lysandra reacted very differently. Her hands immediately moved through the hologram, separating inventories, production rates, projected material inflows, and expected deliveries into a new model floating beside the headquarters.

"Fifty million artifacts," Selena said slowly. "What protects them if Origin fails to deliver?"

"There is no UNI-Contract," Adrian replied. "Kaalatva inspects each annual allocation before payment. Anything that fails verification does not count toward the required amount, and the hundred-year supply period begins only after the first five hundred thousand artifacts are accepted. The debt is considered settled only after all one hundred allocations have been successfully delivered."

Lysandra examined the figures for a while longer, shifting several production estimates and reserve levels before finally speaking.

"We could fulfill the first allocation even now," she said. "However, we should not send it simply because five hundred thousand finished units already exist. Before we begin the agreement, we should build an overwhelming reserve on our side. Once the century-long cycle starts, each annual allocation becomes mandatory, and our public release will be consuming from the same broader supply chain."

Adrian nodded. "Agreed."

Selena reached into her spatial ring and removed a compact silver node. The device was small enough to fit comfortably within one hand and possessed almost no visible ornamentation beyond several white-grey lines running across its surface.

"This one is yours," she said, extending it toward him. "It will allow you to connect directly to the Origin Net wherever the network can reach."

Adrian accepted the node and injected a trace of mana into it.

A small sphere of blue holographic light appeared above the device, and the Origin Net unfolded before his perception. Virelith's headquarters, remote disciples, concealed supply teams, and the authorized node operating within Andromeda all appeared inside the same connected structure despite the enormous distances separating them.

The sight made the significance of Lysandra's earlier report immediately tangible.

Adrian closed the interface and looked between the two women. "Both of you have done well. Where is Hestia?"

Selena's expression immediately became amused. "The moment you finish receiving the report, you start looking for an excuse to escape again, do you?"