Chapter 70: The Star-Bearer and the World

Nearly a month has passed since the ghost ship from the Chivalrous Expedition returned to Bretonnia and caused a massive uproar.

During this month, all of Bretonnia has been digesting these successive, tremendous shocks.

First was the outcome of the Bretonnian Knightly Order's great battle against the Green Tide in the South Badlands.

What disappointed all Bretonnians first was that Bretonnia did not achieve the great victory they had imagined. The charge of the Knight King and his army of knights in the South Badlands was intercepted by the Orcs' colossi.

The entire Badlands is now in a state of total chaos; almost no one can tell what the final outcome of this disaster-stricken land will be. Besides the Orcs and Dwarfs joining the battlefield, the legendary Skaven and Elves have also begun to enter the fray.

The Elves are attempting to reclaim their former colonies, so they recruited four Elven colonial legions and marched them into the Badlands, intending to purge the original cities. But those ruined cities were already filled with uninvited guests. A cruel war between the Elves and the Skaven broke out in an instant.

Meanwhile, the struggle between the Underground Kingdom and the Dwarf Peaks has never ceased.

However, while fighting alongside the Dwarfs and Elves, the Skaven opened a two-front war, but at the same time, a piece of extremely bad news reached them.

It is said that a player, relying on their own Undying Nature, filled the sealing pit with flesh, blood, and all sorts of junk, releasing a sealed ancient Undead Mage. This unimaginably powerful evil is now gathering corpses in the Underground Kingdom, planning an unspeakable, terrifying scheme against the world of the living.

Yet the battle-hungry Orcs have poured into the Underground Dead Tomb in large numbers, intending to fight these undead creatures to their heart's content. Because the undead have no sense of pain and possess teeth, it perfectly suits these Orcs' love for combat, while also allowing them to replenish their economic system on a large scale—Orcs generally use different teeth as currency.

Under these circumstances, the fact that internal Chaos corruption led to the Chivalrous Expeditionary Force marching north in large numbers, only to be slaughtered and left with nothing, is honestly not even a major event anymore.

After all, looking around Bretonnia, everyone is fighting quite happily.

The Empire to the right of Bretonnia is already annoyed to death by the battle royale between players and Fairies, and has begun preparing to deploy Witch Hunters to purify the surrounding environment. Meanwhile, things on the Norsca Peninsula are always just as bad. Besides the slaughter between players and Fairies, there are also propaganda teams of the Star-Bearer wandering about.

These guys with golden light in their eyes and Runes on their bodies, while not exactly enemies to Bretonnia, are not exactly friendly units either. Often, they would be chatting away, drag a serf over, and by the time they returned, the serf had changed completely.

After lifting the heresy charges against the Star-Bearer, the feelings of the Bretonnians toward the Star-Bearer are actually quite subtle.

On one hand, these strange guys who popped out of nowhere have fulfilled one of Bretonnia's long-cherished wishes: to station themselves in the Chaos Wasteland, hunt Chaos Demons, and permanently carve out their own great achievements there.

In fact, many Knightly Orders and prospective members, because they follow this enemy of Chaos and wish to complete their own great hunt, have chosen to secretly organize teams, intending to smuggle themselves into the Broken Lands—now to be called the Landing Site—to pursue their lifelong dreams.

But Bretonnia has major objections to the Star-Bearer taking the Holy Grail and utilizing it.

If the Star-Bearer could return the Holy Grail, then Bretonnia could reluctantly list the Star-Bearers as an entity with whom they can communicate and liaise. But now that the Star-Bearer has not even said a word, Bretonnia's garrison forces naturally will not take this faction of only tens of thousands seriously.

Although the Lady of the Lake and other temples and factions have said nothing, Bretonnia, as a Knight of the Kingdom, is indeed very concerned about the issue of face in this regard. Another small problem is that the Sea Elves, because of the Chivalrous Expedition, have blocked the shipping route to the Broken Lands.

These treacherous elven cousins, after seizing control of the Albion Island Strait and the shipping route to the Landing Site, claimed they would make Bretonnia and the Landing Site pay the price they deserve. For both sides, everyone is very clear that this is a misunderstanding, though no one really wants to resolve it.

To the people of the Old World, fighting and slaughtering each other is the normal phenomenon, and discovering a misunderstanding between each other and then beginning to reconcile is the rare thing.

So, for a small matter like disconnecting from the Star-Bearer, Bretonnia did not really pay much attention.

And on the whole, the Old World does not have much focus on this aspect of things. Everyone has their own dozen or so arch-enemies to fight; things like the Bretonnian expedition failing or being corrupted by Chaos have happened dozens, if not scores, of times over the past few hundred years.

Everyone's emotions are very stable, but only one person's emotions are not very stable. As another victim, and a poor person blocked at the door by the Sea Elves, Li Ang's emotions are not very stable.

"I will drive all the Sea Elves from this world, leaving not a single one."

Sitting in the Observatory, Li Ang said with a gloomy gaze.

The chilling murderous intent contained in those words made the few people around him look at their noses and hearts, not daring to say a single extra word.

The establishment of the Star-Bearer has been for a month now. Thanks to the Norsca Daxianyi and the conquest of the Chaos Wasteland, several towns have been built in the area expanded by Stonehenge to support the operation of the entire Star-Bearer.

These include the grain-producing God-Given Plain, the research zone Thinker Domain created around the Infinite Labyrinth, the Giant Tree Outpost which has been wrapped in the Life Barrier and serves as the core point for expeditions, and Fool's Beach, which uses the Heavenly Fortress as a fulcrum and advances toward the coastline. Added to the final capital of the Landing Site, the prototype of a flourishing, large-scale territory has already been established.

Moreover, after the Star-Bearers joined Li Ang's Psychic Network—oh no, his sphere of influence—they would naturally discover that their abilities and qualities had improved by a stage.

"Star-Bearer: A group of people who carry the stars on their backs and look out at the universe. Under the leadership of their sole leader, they swear to obtain absolute liberation from this filthy world. No matter what sacrifices that requires, no matter what price that demands.

Civilization Trait: Under the leadership of the sole leader Li Ang, all faction output increases by 50%, Wonder construction time is reduced by 75%, the war-weariness system is locked, and they are considered to be in a state of Psychic (Magic) awakening, with every individual capable of casting spells or spell-like abilities."

But even such a great group is now trapped on land.

"Every time I send out a ship, I have to have sea beasts watching it, and I have to bring people to raid it. Every time a fleet is sent out, it requires a fifty-man frigate to accompany it. Now one-third of our population are sailors; is this reasonable!"

Looking at the silent crowd around him, Li Ang shouted angrily in the Observatory.

(End of chapter)