Chapter 387: Great Development! The Three Divine Edicts!

"Anna, have your people packed everything?"

In the forest, Lomina asked.

Anna nodded and said, "Both of our tribes are ready, Mina-jie. We can set off now."

Lomina said, "Then let's go."

Anna made an "mm" sound.

She turned back, casting one last look at the forest where they had lived, her eyes filled with lingering affection.

It was natural—anyone leaving a place they had lived in for centuries would feel some attachment.

But this area was no longer suitable for elves to dwell in.

That ice wall, though it sealed off the Loki Mountains, had drastically altered the surrounding climate, turning it into a frozen wasteland; the resulting scarcity of resources meant the forest could no longer sustain so many elves.

Of course, without that ice wall, their situation would have been worse.

For the elves would have faced endless war.

Today it was eight kingdoms; even after defeating these eight, more kingdoms—or even empires—might come.

The Night Elves had also returned to their former forest to inspect it; after their migration during the Abyssal Rift opening twenty years ago, the God of Darkness had sent many Abyssal Demon Insects upward.

Demon insects were the most common lifeforms in the Abyss, and their varieties were numerous; the Abyssal Demon Armored Beetle was, in fact, one type of Abyssal Demon Insect.

Twenty years ago, the God of Darkness had sent Abyssal Demon Insects that particularly loved to devour plants.

Those insects had devoured nearly half of the Night Elves' original forest, and it took the Green Elves years to completely eradicate them.

But the Night Elves' forest had not recovered at all.

"Stop looking—let's go. We're going to cultivate the Dark Forest; its woods are larger, blessed by the Lord of Flame, and we'll thrive there!"

A Night Elf tugged at her companion.

"Mm!"

The other Night Elf no longer gazed at the forest now beginning to accumulate snow, and followed the main group toward the Dark Forest.

This time, just as twenty years ago, they were leaving the forest they had once called home.

But this time, their faces no longer bore confusion, hesitation, or despair.

Instead, they brimmed with hope!

They were going to conquer another forest and forge a new empire!

Last time, they had lost the favor of the gods.

This time, they had become the favored children of the Lord of Flame!

The Lord of Flame was the source of all their power, all their hope!

Thus, every Night Elf's face shone with anticipation and hope for the future!

The distance from the Loki Mountains to the Dark Forest was not short, but for these elves, it was merely a few days' journey.

Travel speed on the surface was much faster than underground.

Meanwhile, Princess Chenxi remained around the Loki Forest, contacting scattered elf tribes.

She could fly, so her speed was swift.

Her work progressed smoothly; two elf tribes had already shown interest in her proposal.

Cultivating an entirely new Dark Forest and building a brand-new elf empire—just thinking about it was glorious.

Even for elves, whose nature was tranquil, all wished to take part.

So when Lomina and her group set off, another elf tribe had already packed their belongings and traveled through the vast forest toward the Dark Forest.

Meanwhile, far to the south, beyond any known distance from the Loki region:

In the Kingdom of Xiling, grand-scale construction had begun in full force.

In fact, such large-scale construction was also ongoing within the Yan Kingdom.

But the pace of construction in the Kingdom of Xiling was faster than in Yan.

The reason was simple: the Kingdom of Xiling had more people.

Roads were built first.

To grow rich, build roads first.

The Kingdom of Xiling already had many roads, but few were straight.

So the first to be built was a straight road connecting to Hope Avenue.

This straight road stretched from Hope Avenue all the way to the western edge of the Kingdom of Xiling!

It cut straight through the entire Kingdom of Xiling!

In fact, the other end of Hope Avenue had also crossed the Misty Mountains and the Divine Ruins, connecting directly to the road linking to the Lion Clan's Wang Cheng.

That meant this was a straight road stretching from the easternmost edge of the Yan Kingdom to the westernmost edge of the Kingdom of Xiling!

Along this straight road, naturally, there would be several mighty passes.

This was necessary.

These mighty passes were built at strategic, defensible positions to prevent enemies from using this straight road in an invasion.

This was the east-west straight road.

At the same time, several north-south straight roads were also under construction.

These straight roads were built exceptionally wide.

Though not as wide as Hope Avenue's hundred meters, each was at least thirty meters wide.

Even though the Continent of Gods possessed an underground world, its geology was remarkably stable, with few natural disasters; these roads would remain usable for a very long time.

While building the straight roads, lands in the Kingdom of Xiling that had previously been unsuitable for rice cultivation were now being planted with potatoes and corn.

In truth, land as vast as the Kingdom of Xiling could easily support over a hundred million people.

You should know that the Hiling Kingdom stretches roughly 1,600 to 1,700 kilometers east to west and about 1,000 kilometers north to south.

The Kingdom of Hellin stretched about sixteen to seventeen hundred kilometers from east to west, and roughly a thousand kilometers from north to south.

Moreover, the terrain is mostly plains.

The terrain was mostly flat plains.

If we were talking about before Lin Yan's transmigration, an area this size could easily sustain five or six hundred million people.

If placed in Lin Yan's time before his transmigration, such an area could have supported at least five or six hundred million people.

But the Hiling Kingdom only has a little over twenty million people within its borders.

Yet the Kingdom of Hellin had only twenty million or so people.

This has a great deal to do with the fact that grain production cannot keep up.

This was largely due to insufficient grain yields.

Although the Church has mages who can accelerate growth and eliminate pests,

The Church had magicians who could accelerate growth and eliminate pests.

the rice varieties here are not particularly good to begin with, so yields cannot be very high.

But the rice varieties here were inherently poor, yielding little more than modest amounts.

On top of that, the cultivation methods are backward, falling far short of the hybrid rice standards from before Lin Yan's transmigration.

Added to this, farming methods were backward, far below the level of hybrid rice from Lin Yan's time before his transmigration.