Compared to the raging war in the new world, Fort Continent was as calm as a secluded paradise.
Since realizing the existence of the new world’s malicious intent and accidentally obtaining its goodwill, Qianye no longer feared Sousa all that much. He launched repeated attacks, beating the Moorland werewolves into a miserable corner.
Qianye had proven that he could harm Sousa with Dragonsgrave, and the latter had no idea whether or not Eunuch Liu had left. So, he simply chose not to appear and ignored his subordinate werewolves no matter how badly they were being beaten.
Qianye knew he couldn’t push things too far—the great dark monarch might just appear and launch a thunderous attack if he were to get too close to the Moorland door, and he might be able to escape back to the Evernight World before the malicious intent could damage him.
As for whether Qianye himself could take on an attack from Sousa, there was no need to even think about it.
Qianye thus drew a border three hundred kilometers from the Moorland door, attacking all werewolves who had crossed the line. He himself would not take a step beyond it, either. The werewolves also realized the presence of this line as time went by. They no longer expanded in this direction, choosing instead to pioneer new land on the opposite side.
As Qianye flipped through the battle-reports, he found that some of the numbers didn’t make much sense. The Moorland werewolves had been expanding for so long, yet their numbers in the new world were actually dwindling?
Qianye relied on the concealment of the holy trees to investigate the area around the werewolves’ door. Could it be that Sousa felt so ashamed that he had decided to give up on the new world?
Qianye immediately refuted his own idea. The benefits in the new world were unimaginable—the holy tree, its sap, and the stony metal were all priceless treasures. Even random rocks on the roadside were treasures like dark golden sandstone.
Seeing that Qianye had stabilized his footing, all kinds of people from the dark race flocked to Fort Continent in hopes of doing business with him. There were quite a few demonkin, arachne, and vampires in Cerulean Wave City. Of course, there were a lot of humans as well.
The many different races were able to live harmoniously since all of them were here for business. As for war, that was something beyond the walls of the city.
Qianye hadn’t expected such a situation. All those arriving in Cerulean Wave would head over to tour the ancestral altar after hearing about Qianye’s legends as the son of darkness. And the great shaman never refused anyone—he was all too proud and happy to let these ignorant bumpkins gaze upon the aura of the son of darkness.
The level of Qianye’s dark golden blood energy was so high that all spectators were left in awe. The weaker ones would go weak in the knees and fall down in prostration. Experts with stronger bloodlines were also shaken as they could vaguely sense the darkness origins within.
Seeing everyone’s shock and awe, the great shaman felt so satisfied that all of his pores were gushing with darkness origin power. The werewolves of Fort Continent had always been looked down upon, but they could finally feel proud at this moment. He secretly uttered some words of disdain, “Ignorant fools!”
This made the dark races of Cerulean Wave City even more obedient. Especially those experts who could sense the darkness origins, they were as docile as little kittens.
The other three races had it easier, but the vampires were badly suppressed by the bloodline. Many of them fell limp to the ground. After hearing of this, new vampire arrivals would head to the ancestral altar in an attempt to prove themselves. Most of them went in walking but ended up being carried out by the werewolves. They didn’t mind this outcome, however, and only paid respect to the altar and left.
Everyone had a tacit understanding of what this meant.
With the experts being so docile, their subordinates also turned into good-tempered people. In addition to always greeting native werewolves with a smile, they treated the humans even better. After all, the humans had money and were potential business partners.
The humans in the city were composed of those from Zheng, the Empire, and the neutral lands. Those from the neutral lands had always lived together with the dark races, so they had no problem at all. Zheng was a country that had been pushed to the brink of destruction at one point, so there was no way they would dare to act rashly in the presence of so many foreign experts. As for the Imperial nobility, they understood that there was money to be made by trading with the dark races. Why would they want to kill instead of doing business?
Qianye was initially worried about putting so many races together in Cerulean Wave City, but every time he came back from the new world, he would see them living together in joyful harmony.
He had a feeling that something was odd, but Song Hui’s reports grew better and better each day. Although the Empire had jammed Qianye’s sourcing route by means of the war tax, there was still a steady stream of military supplies coming in from the Evernight faction, eventually exceeding the Empire in volume. From a certain perspective, one could even say that Evernight was supporting Qianye’s expansion.
It was rather ironic, but it was the truth.
Qianye was expanding faster and faster in the new world, and his territory was growing at great speed. Since obtaining the goodwill of the new world, he suffered no more limitations when entering the forests, and that proved to be a calamity for the six-armed creatures and beasts. If the surprise attack was successful, even a six-armed general from a four-holy-tree grove would have its head blown off by Dragonsgrave.
Qianye discovered that the holy tree was like a parent, while he and the six-armed creatures were children fighting for its favor. It was just that things were crueler in the new world and the fight would go on until one was dead.
As his territory grew bigger and the holy trees under his control grew in number, the tactical resources in his grasp began to pile up like mountains.
Since the Empire was treating him like this, Qianye had no plans to give them any resources. On the other hand, he also kept tight control on the amount of holy tree sap and stony metal flowing into the Evernight faction. As for the other resources, he couldn’t be bothered too much.
The situation made it evident that the schemers in the Empire had miscalculated. Qianye could still obtain a steady stream of necessary supplies from the other side, not to mention a fair number of elite armaments. Although it would be a bit troublesome to remodel Evernight equipment for humans, werewolves made up the bulk of Qianye’s army, so the supply from the neutral lands was just enough.
Besides, the Evernight Faction was different from the Empire in that each major race controlled their own domain. There were also many minor races without a definite leader. It was difficult to restrict all of them when everyone wanted to do business and get rich. They couldn’t just block the shipping routes like the Empire and its Imperial Guard. As for the council, things in the new world were enough to give them a headache. How could the supremes have time to deal with the flow of weaponry?
Since Qianye could obtain resources and supplies from other routes, his expansion efforts were hardly affected by the Empire’s restrictions. For those who had been expecting Qianye to lower his head and accept the excessively harsh conditions, the outcome couldn’t be farther from their expectations.
Things fell into a deadlock. They knew Qianye held a large stash of holy tree sap, but there was no way for them to get their hands on it. At the moment, they needed it urgently to send more troops into the new world. All they could do was rely on the harvest from the Qin and Western Continents, but it was impossible for them to contend against Evernight’s dozen or so continents with the supply from two. This war would end in defeat no matter how miraculous Song Zining’s skills were as a commander.
At first, this group criticized Qianye in the Imperial court. They blamed him for having untoward intentions, for stashing holy tree sap rather than supplying the Empire.
But this kind of implausible argument was beyond empty. Very soon, others could no longer sit still and started blaming them for destroying the good deal that had existed before. No one with half a temper would continue working with a fifty percent levy.
A steady stream of reports arrived from Fort Continent while the two sides were attacking one another. There were many signs that Qianye had firmly suppressed the Moorland werewolves, so much so that even Sousa didn’t dare make an appearance. He was also expanding at extreme speeds and had occupied nearly three continents’ worth of forests, far exceeding the Empire in this regard.
With Qianye’s full support and the potential recovery of the Transcendent Continent, the Empire would control a supply of holy trees equalling six continents. Evernight only controlled twelve continents after the exclusion of the werewolves, so it was no longer impossible to fight them. They only needed to follow the same strategy of focusing all attacks on a single race while keeping the others divided.
More importantly, Qianye possessed the Martyr’s Palace. The airship was a superweapon in the new world, almost capable of going up against Evernight on its own.
Such a great situation had been ruined, all for a few crates of holy tree sap.
Those who had been claiming they had Qianye in their grasp decided to throw caution to the wind, suggesting that the Empire use military power to force Qianye to bow.
The group came under fierce attack once this suggestion was proposed. Someone made it clear for them to see—Qianye was a rare genius of the generation, to begin with, and now, he was equipped with Dragonsgrave, a weapon almost comparable to a magnum. Who would be able to defeat him? Was the Empire supposed to mobilize a heavenly monarch for this?
If one of them was wounded for such a matter, who would guarantee that Evernight wouldn’t send one of their great dark monarchs to attack the Empire? And that wasn’t even considering whether they would agree to attack Qianye.
Additionally, the aristocratic families who had interests in Fort Continent utilized all kinds of connections to attack this group. It was said that cutting off one’s path to riches was akin to killing one’s parents. These people hated the group to the bones and were completely unscrupulous with their methods.
The number of people who wanted a slice of the cake wasn’t small. Even some of the high-ranking aristocracy were interested. Not willing to let the Yin and Kong families take all of the good stuff, these families also helped out in secret. In the blink of an eye, the group succumbed under the combined assault of all these aristocratic families. They had no choice but to push out some low-level characters as scapegoats.
…
At this point, the battles in the central region of the new world had reached the climax. The Song-Zhao duo was sending three urgent reports a day, asking for men and equipment.
Song Zining made it clear that he would conscript experts from a handful of aristocratic families if he wasn’t given more soldiers. The families he specified by name were the ones who had imposed a tax on Fort Continent. Sending in more troops meant a greater amount of holy tree sap.
Song Zining held great power at this point and was the key to the Empire’s fate in the new world. He had penned this report himself, shedding all forms of pretenses and leaving no face at all for the involved parties. He listed all these families one after another, demanding that they either resolve the issue regarding the holy tree sap or send their core experts into the new world to join the fight.
Everyone knew that these clansmen would never return once they were in Song Zining’s hands.
The language was even harsher in the lastest urgent missive. He stated that while his soldiers were fighting to the death on the frontlines, some people were obstructing their supplies for personal gains. He warned that this was beginning to hurt morale, and that he wouldn’t be able to control the troops if the issue wasn’t resolved as soon as possible.
A mutiny on the front lines would affect the Empire’s fate. This urgent report shook everyone within and outside the Imperial court.
In truth, some people had doubts whether or not the situation had deteriorated to the point of mutiny, but no one dared to take that risk with Song Zining. There was simply no telling what he would do. Back in the year, Lin Xitang and Zhang Boqian would keep each other in check, but there was no one to deal with Song Zining at this point. Zhao Jundu? The fourth young master was even less reasonable.
The Pointer Monarch stood silently for a while after reading the report. “Good move, very bold.”
Early the next day, the Radiant Emperor summoned the Imperial court to discuss re-opening trade with Fort Continent.
