The laboratory was brightly lit.

On the spacious workbench lay a large golem. Sherman focused intently as he controlled the Mage’s Hand, carefully inscribing runes on the golem’s body.

After spending over half an hour, he finally completed the last rune.

As the rune took shape, a faint glow flickered across the golem’s surface, and it suddenly exuded a lifelike aura akin to flesh and blood.

Sherman let out a long breath and took out a soul crystal, embedding it into the indentation at the center of the golem’s chest. With a click, the soul crystal merged perfectly into the golem’s body.

Buzz!

The golem came to life, sat up, jumped off the workbench, and landed with a thud, emitting a low mechanical sound from its mouth.

"Please issue command."

"Go stand over there and enter standby mode."

Sherman pointed to a corner of the laboratory, where more than a dozen Shadow Steel Golems were already standing in rows.

"Command received."

The Shadow Steel Golem walked heavily to the corner, joining the queue.

Looking at the rows of Shadow Steel Golems, Sherman showed a satisfied smile.

The Star Alliance is currently exploring new planes, waiting for the exploration team to return with intelligence. The plan is to select a new plane for development; thus, there’s an urgent need for golems to expand military force, leading the golem purchase price to soar.

This batch of Shadow Steel Golems is enough to exchange for a considerable amount of Contribution Points.

If he uses them to exchange for Divinity Energy Crystals, it should be enough for him to break through to Level 2 Crystallization.

Even though he’s already a Level 2 Liquefaction Wizard, with power ranking firmly in the top twenty within the Star Alliance, Sherman still diligently earns Contribution Points.

This is the daily routine for all the wizards in the Star Alliance.

Even powerful figures like Wand, Rose, and Fakado—Level 2 Crystallization Wizards—also work hard for Contribution Points.

But everyone accepts it willingly.

Compared to other wizard influences, wizards from the Star Alliance can be considered quite fortunate.

After all, other wizard influences don’t have adequate Divinity Energy Crystals and Elemental Crystal Cores for exchange.

Wizards of the Star Alliance only need to work hard enough to exchange for abundant cultivation resources, advancing their power rapidly.

Such treatment, not just other second-tier wizard influences, even large wizard influences like Wisdom Code and Deep Blue Alliance definitely don’t have.

After leaving the laboratory, Sherman headed straight to the logistics department, handing over all the Shadow Steel Golems recently produced, and exchanged all the Contribution Points obtained for Divinity Energy Crystals, leaving satisfied.

Next, he did not go to the cultivation room but hurried to Ghost Lake City.

After each advancing to Level 2 Wizards, he, Attila, Cole, Tajana, Ethan, and Fleming became increasingly busy, retreating for training, conducting experiments, or going out for exploration, each with their own tasks.

As the Star Alliance’s territory expanded rapidly, they were scattered across different planes and often couldn’t gather together for a long time.

Until the last few hundred years, they set an agreement to meet every twenty years, to catch up and exchange intelligence.

And today is the day for the twenty-year gathering.

When Sherman arrived at the hall of the gathering place, everyone else was already present.

"Sorry, I went to the logistics department, which took some time," Sherman apologized.

"It’s okay," Attila smiled gently, "We just arrived too."

After brief pleasantries, everyone started chatting.

As expected, the first topic was the recent events stirring excitement across the Star Alliance, and even the entire Wizard Realm.

"I heard that Sunan has advanced to True Spirit Wizard, is it true?"

"Indeed, I just returned from Lize, and the teacher has indeed advanced to True Spirit Wizard."

The speaker was Attila.

She had served as Lize’s assistant, so her words were naturally credible.

In fact, everyone present understood that since the news had spread, its authenticity needn’t be questioned.

Yet, hearing confirmation from Attila, they still felt an involuntary awe and admiration.

"Sunan’s rate of power advancement is as exaggerated as ever!"

"Indeed, as far as I know, those True Spirit Descendants took no less than five thousand years to advance from Level 3 Crystallization to True Spirit Wizard, incomparable to Sunan."

"Now, the Star Alliance has also stepped into the ranks of second-tier wizard influences."

"Not just that, the Star Alliance now is not much inferior to Ten Thousand Headed Bird."

Everyone’s face was filled with smiles, even Cole, who was always cold and solemn, had a faint smile on his lips.

The stronger the Star Alliance becomes, the more they benefit.

After a moment of sighing emotionally, Sherman suddenly looked at Cole and shifted the topic: "Cole, didn’t you participate in plane exploration? How is it going?"

Everyone turned their attention to Cole.

Most of those involved in plane exploration were Level 1 Wizards, with very few Level 2 Wizards; among the present, only Cole had participated.

As it pertains to the expansion of the Star Alliance’s territory, they were naturally very interested and curious.

"The exploration is basically concluded."

Cole didn’t keep them in suspense and succinctly explained the exploration results.

"This time, fourteen unknown planes were explored. Among them, six planes had extremely harsh environments and were resource-poor, basically without any value. Lize has already decided to abandon these six planes."

"Among the remaining eight planes, there are five with relatively poor resources but favorable environments, with a good number of ley line nodes that can be used to open up Secondary Magic Stone veins."

In the multiverse, planes are numerous, but truly valuable ones are only a fraction.