Chapter 317 The kings meet!
【To the Imperial Navy Command:
His Majesty Saint Sith, I wish His Majesty the Emperor good health. I would like to report to the Navy Command the preliminary results I achieved while stationed at Deadwood Port on the continent of Janna.
· First of all, regarding the alternative solution to the supply problem, I have successfully contacted the local lord, Prince Colin.
This distinguished gentleman is a true nobleman, and I am deeply impressed by his noble character. Even though his family has been separated from the Empire for 500 years, his heart is always towards His Majesty the Emperor, and he expresses heartfelt concern for our situation, even though his territory is also severely affected.
According to what he said, 500 years ago, his ancestor was ordered to go to the depths of the vast ocean to find new land. Unfortunately, he was shipwrecked. Then he settled on the continent of Janna, established a colony on the northern coast, and took in the drowning people who suffered the same pitiful fate as him. It was not until a sudden storm recently destroyed the barrier of the Dragon God Gutav that he regained contact with us.
Leave aside these trivial matters for the time being, through the introduction and assistance of His Highness the Prince, we have initially drawn up a plan to reach a food import agreement with the United Kingdom of Gutav. Although the relevant agreement is still under negotiation, according to Prince Colin, the problem should not be big... As long as we can solve the transportation problem, he will provide us with the food we need.
The main reasons why I chose this option are as follows:
First of all, this move can effectively alleviate the food supply shortage problem currently faced by St. Ilburg. By purchasing food from the nearby lizardfolk kingdom, we can significantly shorten supply routes that would otherwise require lengthy voyages across vast oceans. This not only saves valuable shipping resources, but also reallocates the excess transportation capacity for the transportation of more important weapons, equipment and strategic materials.
Secondly, through this grain trade, we can effectively test the real national strength and economic status of the Gutav United Kingdom. Previously, we knew very little about this sudden rise of the Lizardmen regime, but through large-scale trade exchanges, we can take this opportunity to fully understand their production capabilities, economic structure, and deeper political and military power, laying an intelligence foundation for the empire's further actions in the future.
Third, and more importantly, we can establish solid diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom of Gutav in the name of trade and driven by economic interests. According to my observation, the rulers of this kingdom are quite pragmatic and have a high interest in profit and economic development. If we can form an alliance with it, even if it is just a trade partner, we will have a huge strategic advantage for the empire in the future, whether we are fighting threats from hell or containing other hostile forces.
Especially now that Hell has also shown interest in this continent, I think it is necessary for the Empire to strengthen its military presence here.
With all the above benefits, this move can be described as killing three birds with one stone. It is also the most appropriate and stable strategy I can think of under the current situation.
In addition, while stationed here, I had the privilege of witnessing with my own eyes the astonishing industrial capabilities of the United Kingdom of Qutav. Their achievements in the field of steam machinery have far exceeded my previous expectations.
Their mastery and use of steam engines have reached an almost superb level. Previously, the boiler of our steam sailing ship "Grace" was seriously damaged in a storm, and it was repaired by lizard engineers at Deadwood Port. The precision mechanical skills they displayed were breathtaking. Not only did they perfectly repair the damaged boiler, they even greatly improved the boiler's steam efficiency!
Later, I took the fleet to Deadwood Port for repairs. The final result proved that what Captain Derek saw was not an accident - there was indeed something in those reptiles!
In terms of the technical capabilities they displayed, they were no less than the top mechanical workshops in the empire! And their use of steam technology is not just for navigation. Just like our use of magic, it has been integrated into every aspect of their lives!
Including food production!
There is no doubt that this situation deserves our high attention and further investigation and research to ensure that the empire can always maintain its technological advantage or at least not be surpassed.
I will continue to pay attention to the progress of construction and trade here, and report to the headquarters again after achieving further results.
————Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Coastal Fleet of the New World, Yours sincerely, Hamelton!
……
The dim light of the morning light crossed the highest step of the Sun Staircase Mountains and turned the quiet holy lake into sparkling gold.
Genius has just dimly lit up, and the morning fog has not yet dissipated. The broken walls of Assam City are already ringing with jingles that are no less than those of Deadwood Port.
A loud cry came from the distance, pushing away the thick clouds.
"Just send me here."
Luo Yan, who was riding on the back of the wind lizard, patted the former's back of the neck gently. The lizard responded with a long chirp, and then sank down into the milky white clouds.
Luo Yan took advantage of the situation and soared into the sky, his thoughts moving slightly.
A soft breeze dragged his body, bringing him back to the ground from a thousand meters altitude, until the soles of his boots sank into the soft lawn of the lakeside.
Including the time spent in the Fenghou tribe, hundreds of kilometers of mountain roads could be crossed in just one day.
In fact, if he uses the teleportation array, his speed can be even faster, and it won't even take a day. Maybe he said goodbye to General Hamelton in the morning and sat with the chiefs of the chiefs meeting for a meeting at noon.
As early as when he first set foot on this continent, he asked Arakdo to build fast-moving teleportation arrays on both sides of the Sun Staircase Mountains to transport important military supplies and a small military force to attack the city of Assam. This passage is still functioning today, mainly used to help players travel quickly and deliver important intelligence.
Unfortunately, although players can ignore the impact of subspace, Luo Yan himself is already at the platinum level, and the loss of traveling through subspace can no longer be ignored.
If it is not a long journey across the ocean or even across the planet, or there is some urgent matter that has to be relocated immediately, it is better not to use the teleportation array if possible.
He has just returned to peak gold status, and it will take three to five days to return to platinum level.
Standing by the lake, Luo Yan turned his attention to the city of Assam located in the center of the holy lake. He looked across the rising mist of the lake and saw the lizard people busily shuttled among the ruins.
As the aftermath of the big storm has ended, residents of Assam have moved back, and professional life players active in this area have gradually moved from front-line jobs to first- and second-line management positions.
purely from the perspective of physical labor, these lizard people are simply born to be bulls and horses.
After all, every gene in their bodies is the crystallization of the Zeta Empire's biotechnology. If extraordinary power were not involved, only the stone people in the cemetery would be able to compete with them.
But then again, the stone man race itself was created by extraordinary power and cannot be regarded as a typical creature. And if this is taken into consideration, the lizardmen of Nagana Continent are indeed worthy of the title of "the strongest beasts and horses on the earth".
Relying on the experience accumulated in reconstruction work, a skilled life professional player can often command 5 to 10 lizard laborers and be responsible for 1 to 2 reconstruction projects.
The advantages of both sides are complementary. One has the brainpower and the other has the strength. The entire construction progress can be described as having wings.
It is worth mentioning that Luo Yan also noticed that the Lizardmen of Assam City built some simple inland docks on the shore of the island in the middle of the lake and on the edge of the ruins of the city wall, shuttling back and forth between the shore of the Holy Lake and the river connecting the Holy Lake.
They transported the unrecyclable construction waste to the outside of the holy lake through some sampans similar to rafts, and then transported the processed wood and stone back to the holy city.
In addition to relying on human power to row boats, some larger sampans are equipped with small steam engines. They look like a small boiler with a propeller blade attached and tied to a raft made of logs with hemp ropes. They are always at risk of falling apart.
However, it is undeniable that this simple and crude method is indeed very effective, greatly improving the speed of material transfer, which is more than twice as fast as animal-drawn vehicles and human-powered trailers!
Luo Yan doesn't need to guess, this is definitely an idea that the players came up with.
After all, the lizardmen of Janna continent did not have such a thing as a ship before, let alone install a steam engine on a ship.
Perhaps the city of Assam in the future will become a water city similar to Venice, with a prosperous urban area wrapping the vast holy lake.
This is also uncertain.
Floating beside Luo Yan, Youyou sighed softly.
"If General Hamelton saw such a scene, I'm afraid he would be shocked."
The milky white body is still invisible to anyone.
However, Luo Yan was able to observe the existence of this guy without the help of a mirror.
"Maybe... you might be disappointed." Luo Yan replied noncommittally, and then gently waved the magic wand in his hand, summoning a skeleton horse exuding the aura of the netherworld from the rising purple mist. He turned over and rode on it and headed towards the direction of the Holy City.
The lizardmen who saw him along the way stopped and nodded, casting awe-inspiring looks at his back.
After seeing the miracle of the Dragon Temple rising into the sky and falling from the sky, almost all the residents of Assam surrendered their faith and loyalty to him.
As for the players, some cast curious glances at him, while others showed expressions of surprise, with different expressions.
Luo Yan nodded slightly to his followers, without disturbing their work and life, and walked straight through the city wall with only one gate remaining, and behind the gate there was a whole other world.
Lizardmen carrying baskets filled with stones were running on the streets, and little demons flapping their wings handed wrenches to the undead standing on the scaffolding... There was hardly a single idle person in the entire city.
Steam cranes puffing out white mist pull ropes to move materials to high places. Wooden masts wrapped with rattan stand in the streets and alleys. Looking at it, it looks like a stretching metal jungle.
The moisture dripping along the copper pipes is like the sweat shed by the giant beast in Assam City, moistening the blackened stone roads and the melt marks spread along the stone roads, and is stitching together the ugly scars printed on the land little by little.
Continuing along the street, there is a broken market, surrounded by several temporarily divided shed areas.
All lizard laborers from all over the continent of Janna live here temporarily, and use their work rewards to exchange for hominy and other daily necessities including cloth from Goblin merchants.
Not far away, there are several players using iron hooks to lift up the bent corrugated iron sheets. There are simple stalls next to them, and on the notice board next to the stalls it is written - [Limited time mission: Collect recyclable building materials, reward 100 hell coins].
A lizardman worker held up the stone slab in his hand and seemed to be arguing with the player about the size. Even with the help of translation crystals, the languages of the two sides are not exactly the same. They must combine gestures with hands and feet, and even draw lines on the ground with their tails.
Luo Yan is very pleased that his smart little players are not only satisfied with issuing tasks to other players, but now they have also learned to issue tasks to NPCs!
But a long time ago, this needed to be done by him personally.
More than that, he was also pleased to see that underneath their arguments there was a surge of vigorous vitality and eagerness - as if the reconstruction progress of Assam City was more important than anything else, because everyone was betting on the future in this city.
Not just one’s own.
It belongs to the entire ethnic group.
"Although they have lost their old traditions, they will definitely be able to live a better life than before as time goes by... It's really gratifying." Youyou nodded her abstract head appreciatively, feeling sincerely happy for these hard-working reptiles.
"That's true." Luo Yan nodded, rarely adding anything to Youyou's point of view.
At least——
The class of slaves was completely eliminated.
Including blood sacrifice and cannibalism.
Of course they will face new problems as they move into the future, but as long as they don’t stop, those new problems that follow will definitely be solved over time...even if this process may be full of twists and turns.
But isn’t that what the world is like?
As long as you open the real historical materials and read a little bit, you will know that there is never a so-called one-step, perfect optimal solution in this world.
He will make promises to his believers because he stands on the stand of the gods and must do what the gods should do.
Those who do not believe at all will go to hell, while those who fully believe will naturally be their leeks without knowing it.
However, it would not be too miserable for him to be a leek. At least he comes from a civilized society, and his bottom line is much higher than the average level of this world. However, he is not completely out of touch with the horizon like Taph. It seems to be very high, but in fact it is already as low as the other side of the center of the earth. This made his believers miserable in their pride and fanaticism. In the end, his bones were made into a scepter, and his body was not allowed to be buried before being exposed.
Luo Yan walked through the market and came to the temple enshrining his statue. The temple made of broken granite stones remained solemn and solemn. Because it had been bathed in the sight of worshipers for a long time, the moss-covered stone bricks were coated with a layer of mystery and solemnity that was even better than before.
After noticing the Demon King, an acolyte in a robe came up to him and saluted him respectfully.
Luo Yan signaled him to stand up, and then ordered in a majestic voice.
The temple met with their master. "
"I will give them a new mission."
The lizardman acolyte pressed his tail against the stone slab, closed his hands, nodded and ordered away.
After giving the order, Luo Yan got off his horse, scattered the skeletal war horses lying at his feet, and then went straight into the temple and came to the audience hall on the side of the temple.
Compared to his audience hall in Thunder County Labyrinth, this hall is obviously smaller.
However, although the sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs and the sense of ceremony it should have. Whether it is the candlesticks on the wall or the granite throne on the stairs... they are all reproduced one to one here.
While he is away, this is the meditation room for the chieftain and the chosen king.
While he was here, this was the place of worship - or "chapel" - of the Gutav United Kingdom.
Luo Yan walked to the granite throne and sat down. He closed his eyes and was about to meditate. Suddenly he felt a faint warmth coming along the angular seat and pouring into his body... so that the cold granite was like warm jade.
That is of course not because his throne has been sat on by others and whose body temperature still remains, but because the pure power of faith converges into a hot spring-like power after contact with his body.
Affected by this power, he felt that the extraordinary power that was originally dampened by the subspace was slowly recovering!
It’s more than that!
When Luo Yan closed his eyes and meditated, he clearly felt that his mental power was more concentrated than usual!
It is as if a single-core processor has been plugged into countless small processing units, as if the meditation of thousands of believers are condensing into cells like stars in his vast sea of consciousness!
At this moment, he is not meditating alone -
What he thinks is what everyone thinks!
Aware of the mystery involved, Luo Yan's face gradually showed an expression of astonishment.
"Yuyou, what's going on?"
"I, I don't know either... There is no record of a similar situation in the information left by Lint Isaac. What do you think? Lord Demon King?" There was a trace of confusion in Yoyo's voice, and it was obviously the first time that she had seen such a situation.
Luo Yan closed his eyes and continued to feel it for a while, and the surprise between his eyebrows became more and more obvious.
"I feel that my meditation has been sped up and my efficiency has increased more than three times...But it's strange. I also meditated in the audience hall when I was in the maze of Thunder County, but nothing like this happened."
Yuyou walked around him several times, touching his abstract little head with his chubby palms, and suddenly raised a possibility.
"Could it... be related to the spiritual characteristics of the lizard people on the continent of Janna?"
Luo Yan's heart moved, and he vaguely thought of something.
"Spiritual traits?"
Yuyou nodded hurriedly and continued.
"That's right...although I'm just speculating. Just like the power of faith can formulate the underlying code for the rules of this world, the thoughts of everyone who gather the power of faith should also have the underlying code."
"This has nothing to do with belief, it's like a collective subconscious, or a "consensus." For example, the people of the empire sincerely believe that their emperor is immortal, so when their emperor sits on the throne, he really gains the power of immortality!"
Hearing what Yuyou said, Luo Yan immediately understood what it meant.
Since the lizardmen of Janna have become their own believers, while they accept the creed of the Necropolis, the power of faith in the Necropolis also absorbs the spiritual qualities of these lizardmen.
For example——
They believe from the bottom of their hearts, and have believed for thousands of years, that their Holy King possesses the unparalleled power in the world.
It is precisely because of this that when the person with the title of "Holy King" sits in the "highest position" in the hearts of all lizard people and meets the triggering conditions of the buff, he will automatically receive the blessing subconsciously exerted by millions of lizard people.
The power of faith stored in the idol will slowly and unconsciously transform towards the miracle they yearn for from the heart.
Although this blessing will not really allow Luo Yan to gain supreme power, it will at least push him in that direction and reach the limit that this blessing can reach.
For example, the former Holy King Izzy has reached the pinnacle of the Janna continent, and his golden scales exude majesty that no lizardman can resist.
After the Great Barrier was lifted and the continent of Janna was connected to the world, the upper limit of this power was naturally raised... As for the limit, it is naturally the upper limit of one's own soul level, which is the peak of diamond level!
In other words, have you unconsciously become the de facto "Holy King" in the minds of these lizard people? !
This sounds really strange... It's like whoever enters the city of Assam is the master of the lizardmen, and whoever defeats the lizardmen is a member of the lizardmen.
And he clearly said that he is the "Devil King".
Luo Yan couldn't laugh or cry for a moment, but this did not prevent him from enjoying the pleasant feeling and the strength that filled his body.
This huge power is different from any kind of magic in the world, but the purest and purest extraordinary power!
If his and Youyou's speculations are correct, he can not only get twice the result with half the effort by sitting here and practicing, but he can also obtain a series of buffs including eternal youth, rapid recovery of HP and MP, etc.!
"It's incredible... It seems I have to come here more often."
Yoyo, who was floating aside, added in a low voice excitedly.
"Actually, it should be the same for you in the necropolis. After all, the lizard people's spiritual characteristics have been absorbed into your faith share. Of course, considering the number of believers, the buff effect imposed on you by the throne here may be stronger."
After a pause, it continued to encourage.
"So Lord Demon King! For your strength and health, and for you to become an eternal existence in this universe as soon as possible, we must speed up the expansion of the territory of faith! Try to step on both the Demon God and Saint Sith under your feet as soon as possible!"
It is not necessary to step on your feet, but eating it in one bite is a good choice.
Luo Yan smiled faintly.
"That will be a matter of time... But everything must be done step by step, and cannot be rushed."
Otherwise, Lint Isaac and Gutav have learned from the past, and the gods falling from the clouds are worse than the rats crossing the street.
The surging power of faith slowly repaired the damage caused by subspace to his extraordinary power. Most of the wounds that originally took three to five days to heal were healed in just one hour.
Just when Luo Yan was quietly feeling the power filling his body converging towards his sea of consciousness, rapid and humble footsteps came from outside the solemn hall.
The chiefs and the elected king who stayed in Assam did not let him wait long until sunset.
After learning that their "Holy King" had arrived at the audience hall, they set off almost immediately and rushed from all over Assam City as quickly as possible to meet their master.
An acolyte walked in from the side door of the audience hall and looked at Luo Yan, who was sitting on the throne, and bowed respectfully.
"Lord Demon King... Your servants are already waiting in front of the door, earlier than expected. Do you want to meet them now? Or I can invite them to the lounge to wait."
Luo Yan opened his eyes. His strength was close to its peak, and he exuded boundless majesty.
"Let them in."
The lizardman acolyte's tail trembled slightly, he lowered his head humbly and said in a trembling voice.
Then the door of the audience hall opened, and the leaders of the lizard tribe filed in, kneeling respectfully under the towering throne.
Piety, loyalty, and reverence!
Nearly the same expression is written on the faces of different shapes and colors.
Luo Yan, who was sitting on the throne, could see every inch of the scales on their faces, and even the subtle textures on the scales.
Utilizing the faintly burning candlelight and the dim light emitted by the magic crystal, he could see almost every little thought or expression of theirs.
Humbling not to show any slightness, the leaders of the lizardmen spoke almost in unison, as if they were meeting the real gods.
「Meet the Demon King!」