Chapter 318: All Kings Pay Homage!

【To the Imperial Navy Command:

With Saint Xisi above, I wish His Majesty the Emperor health. Here, I respectfully report to the Navy Command on the preliminary results achieved during my stationing at Deadwood Port on the Jiana Continent.

First, regarding the alternative plan for the supply problem, I have successfully established contact with the local lord—Prince Kelin.

This honorable gentleman is a true aristocrat, and his noble character left a deep impression on me. Even though his family has been separated from the Empire for 500 years, his heart has always been toward His Majesty the Emperor, and he expressed heartfelt concern for our situation, even though his own territory was also severely affected by the disaster.

According to him, 500 years ago, his ancestors were ordered to head into the depths of the Vast Ocean to find new land, unfortunately encountered a shipwreck, and subsequently settled on the Jiana Continent, establishing a colony in the northern coastal region and taking in shipwrecked people who shared his miserable fate, until a sudden storm recently destroyed the barrier of the Dragon God Gutafu, allowing him to re-establish contact with us.

Setting these trivial matters aside, through the introduction and assistance of His Highness the Prince, we have preliminarily drafted a plan to reach a grain import agreement with the Gutafu United Kingdom. Although the relevant agreement is still under negotiation, according to Prince Kelin, the problem should not be significant... as long as we can solve the transport problem, he will provide the grain we need.

And the reasons I chose this plan are as follows:

First, this move can effectively alleviate the grain supply shortage currently faced by Saint Yier Castle. By purchasing grain from the nearby lizardman kingdom, we can significantly shorten the long supply route that originally required crossing the Vast Ocean. This not only saves precious maritime transport resources but also allows the surplus transport capacity to be reallocated for more important weapon equipment and strategic material transport work.

Second, through this grain trade, we can effectively test the true national power and economic situation of the Gutafu United Kingdom. Previously, we knew very little about this suddenly rising lizardman regime, but through large-scale trade, we can take this opportunity to fully understand their production capacity, 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 a solid diplomatic relationship with the Gutafu United Kingdom under the drive of economic interests in the name of trade. According to my observations, the ruler of this kingdom is quite pragmatic and has a high interest in interests and economic development. If we can form an alliance with them, even if it is just a cooperative partnership in trade, it will form a huge strategic advantage for the Empire in the future, whether it is to counter the threat from Hell or to contain other hostile forces.

Especially at a time when Hell is also showing interest in this continent, I believe it is necessary for the Empire to increase its military presence here.

With all these benefits, this move can be described as killing three birds with one stone, and it is also the most proper and steady strategy I can think of under the current situation.

In addition, during my stationing here, I also had the honor to witness the shocking industrial capabilities of the Gutafu United Kingdom with my own eyes. And their attainments in the field of steam machinery have far exceeded my previous expectations.

Their mastery and application of steam engines have reached a realm that is almost miraculous. Previously, the boiler of our "Grace" steam sailing ship was severely damaged in a storm, and it was repaired by lizardman engineers at Deadwood Port. The precision mechanical skills they displayed were breathtaking; not only did they perfectly repair the damaged boiler, but they even greatly improved the boiler's steam efficiency!

Later, I sailed the fleet to Deadwood Port for repairs, and the final result proved that Captain Derrick's observations were not accidental—those crawlers really do have something!

In terms of the technical power they displayed, it is no less than the top mechanical workshops in the Empire! And their application of steam technology is not just for navigation; just like our application of magic, it has been integrated into every aspect of their lives!

Including the production of grain!

Undoubtedly, this situation deserves our high attention and further investigation and research to ensure that the Empire can always maintain a technical advantage or at least not be surpassed.

I will continue to pay attention to the construction and trade progress here, and report to the Command again after achieving further results.

—General Commander of the Eastern Coastal Fleet of the New Continent, Hamilton respectfully submits!

】

The glimmer of dawn crossed the highest step of the Sun Staircase Mountains, dyeing the tranquil Shenghu into a shimmering golden yellow.

The sky was just beginning to brighten, and the morning mist had not yet dissipated, but the sound of clanging, no less than that of Deadwood Port, had already sounded among the broken walls and ruins of Assam City.

A loud cry came from afar, pushing away the thick clouds.

"Just send me here."

Luo Yan, riding on the back of a wind lizard, patted the latter's neck lightly. The lizard responded with a long cry, then lowered its body and dived into the milky white clouds.

Luo Yan took the opportunity to soar into the air, his mind moving slightly.

A gentle breeze supported his body, bringing him back to the ground from an altitude of thousands of meters, until his boots sank into the soft lawn by the lake.

Counting the time delayed at the Wind Roar Tribe, he had crossed hundreds of kilometers of mountain roads in just one day.

Actually, if he used a teleportation array, his speed could be even faster, not even taking a day. It's possible he could have bid farewell to General Hamilton in the morning and sat down for a meeting with the chieftains of the Chieftain Society at noon.

As early as when he first set foot on this continent, he had instructed Alakeduo to build fast-travel teleportation arrays on both sides of the Sun Staircase Mountains, used for transporting important military supplies and small military forces to attack Assam City. Today, this passage is still playing a role, mainly used to help players travel quickly and transport important intelligence.

However, the frustrating part is that while players can ignore the influence of the subspace, Luo Yan himself is already at the Platinum Tier, and the toll of traversing the subspace has become increasingly impossible to ignore.

Unless it is a long-distance trek across oceans or even planets, or there is some emergency that requires immediate relocation, it is better to avoid using teleportation arrays whenever possible.

He has only just recovered to the peak of the Golden Tier, and it will take another three to five days to return to the Platinum Tier.

Standing by the lake, Luo Yan cast his gaze toward Assam City, located in the center of the Shenghu. His sight crossed the mist-rising lake surface and saw the lizardmen busily shuttling between the broken walls and ruins.

As the aftermath of the great storm ended and the residents of Assam City moved back, the life-profession players active in this area gradually transitioned from frontline labor to frontline and second-line management positions.

Simply from the perspective of manual labor, these lizardmen are practically born beasts of burden.

After all, every gene in their bodies is a crystallization of the Zetta Empire's biotechnology. If supernatural power is not involved, the Necropolis likely only has the Stone Man race that could compete with them.

But then again, the Stone Man race itself was created by supernatural power and cannot be considered a typical biological species. And if this point is taken into account, the lizardmen of the Janna Continent truly deserve the name "strongest beasts of burden on the surface."

Relying on the experience accumulated during the reconstruction work, a skilled life-profession player can often command 5 to 10 lizardman laborers, responsible for 1 to 2 reconstruction projects.

The two sides complement each other's strengths; one provides the brains, the other provides the brawn, and the entire construction progress can simply be described as having grown wings.

It is worth mentioning that Luo Yan also noticed that the lizardmen of Assam City had built some simple inland river docks on the shore of the lake island and the edge of the city wall ruins, shuttling back and forth between the shore of the Shenghu and the river channels connected to it.

Using sampans similar to wooden rafts, they transported non-recyclable construction waste out of the Shenghu, and then transported processed timber and stone materials back into the Shengcheng.

In addition to relying on manual rowing, some larger sampans were equipped with small steam engines, looking like a small boiler with propeller blades attached, bundled with hemp rope onto rafts made of logs, constantly facing the risk of falling apart.

However, it is undeniable that this simple and crude method is indeed very effective, greatly increasing the speed of material transport, more than twice as fast as animal-drawn carts and manual trailers!

Luo Yan didn't even need to guess to know that this was definitely an idea thought up by the players.

After all, the lizardmen of the Janna Continent didn't have things like ships before, let alone installing steam engines on boats.

Perhaps the future Assam City will become a water city similar to Venice, wrapping the vast Shenghu within its prosperous urban area.

That is also hard to say.

Floating beside Luo Yan, You You sighed softly.

"If General Hamilton saw a scene like this, he would probably be shocked."

That milky-white body was still invisible to anyone else.

But Luo Yan was already able to observe this fellow's existence without the help of a mirror.

"Perhaps... he might be disappointed." Luo Yan replied noncommittally, then gently waved the magic wand in his hand, summoned a skeletal horse exuding the aura of the netherworld from the suddenly rising purple mist, flipped onto it, and headed toward the direction of the Shengcheng.

Along the way, the lizardmen who saw him stopped and bowed their heads, casting awe-filled gazes at his back.

After witnessing the miracle of the Dragon God Temple rising into the air and descending from the sky, almost all the residents of Assam City submitted wholeheartedly and offered him their faith and loyalty.

As for those players, some cast curious gazes at him, while others showed expressions of surprise, their attitudes varying.

Luo Yan nodded slightly to his believers, not disturbing their work and life, and walked straight through the city wall that only retained one gate, and behind that gate was a whole new world.

Lizardmen carrying baskets full of stone materials ran on the street, little demons flapping their wings handed wrenches to the undead standing on the scaffolding... one could hardly see an idle person in the entire city area.

Steam cranes exhaling white mist pulled ropes to lift materials to high places, wooden masts wrapped in rattan stood in the streets and alleys, and looking out, it was like a metal jungle stretching itself out.

The moisture dripping along the copper pipes was like the sweat flowing from the giant beast that was Assam City, moisturizing those charred stone slab roads and the melt marks spread along the roads, stitching up the ugly scars printed on this land bit by bit.

Continuing forward along the street, there was a broken market, and around the market were several temporarily divided shed areas.

Lizardman laborers from all over the Janna Continent lived here temporarily, using their work wages to exchange for corn porridge from goblin merchants, as well as other daily necessities including cloth.

Not far away, several players used iron hooks to pry up bent corrugated iron sheets, set up simple stalls nearby, and wrote on the bulletin board next to the stalls—【Limited Time Quest: Collect recyclable construction materials, reward 100 Nether Coins】.

A lizardman laborer held a stone slab in his hand, seemingly arguing with a player about the dimensions and specifications. Even with the help of translation crystals, the languages of the two sides were not exactly the same, requiring the use of hand and foot gestures, and even drawing lines on the ground with tails.

Luo Yan was very gratified; his clever little players were no longer satisfied with just issuing quests to other players, and now they had learned to issue quests to NPCs!

And a long time ago, this was something he had to do himself.

Not only that, he was also gratified to see that beneath their arguing voices surged a vigorous upward spirit and urgency—as if the reconstruction progress of Assam City was more important than anything else, because everyone had bet their future on this city.

Not just their own.

But that of the entire race.

"Although they have lost their old traditions, they will surely be able to live a better life than before as time goes on... truly gratifying." You You praised, nodding its abstract head, feeling genuinely happy for these hardworking reptiles.

"That is the truth." Luo Yan nodded, rarely failing to add to You You's point.

At least—

The class of slaves has been completely eliminated.

Including the bad habits of blood sacrifice and cannibalism.

Moving toward the future, they will certainly face new problems, but as long as they do not stop their steps, those new problems that follow one after another will surely be solved as time passes... even if this process might be full of twists and turns.

But isn't the world just like that?

One only needs to open real historical records and read a little to know that there has never been a so-called perfect, one-step-to-the-end optimal solution in this world.

He promises his believers, that is because he stands in the position of a god and must do what a god should do.

Those who do not believe at all must go to his hell, and those who believe fully are naturally his leeks, and they do not know it.

However, being his leeks is not too miserable; at least he comes from a civilized society, his bottom line is far higher than the average level of this world, and he is not like Ta Fu, who completely broke away from the horizon to the point of appearing very high, but actually already lowered to the other side of the earth's core—making the believers who worship Him miserable in pride and fanaticism, finally turning His bones into a scepter, exposing the corpse before people without burial.

Passing through the market, Luo Yan came to the temple where his statue was worshipped. The temple made of broken granite blocks remained solemn and dignified. Because it had been bathed in the gazes of believers' worship for a long time, those moss-covered stone bricks were plated with a mystery and sternness that surpassed before.

Noticing the Demon King, an acolyte wearing a robe came up and bowed respectfully to him.

Luo Yan signaled for him to rise, then ordered in a majestic voice.

"Go and tell the chiefs of the Sand Ridge, Tide, Wind Roar, and other tribes, as well as the King of Many Chosen they have selected."

"I want them to arrive at this temple before sunset to see their master."

"I will grant them a new mission."

The lizardman acolyte's tail pressed tightly against the stone slab, palms joined, and he bowed his head to receive the order and left.

After giving the order, Luo Yan flipped off his horse, dissipated the skeletal warhorse crawling at his feet, then walked straight into the temple and came to the audience hall on the side of the temple.

Compared to the audience hall in his Thunder County labyrinth, this great hall was clearly a size smaller.

However, although the sparrow is small, it has all the internal organs; the sense of ritual that should be there is all here, whether it is the candlesticks on the wall or the granite throne above the steps... everything here is a one-to-one replica.

When he is not here, this is the meditation room for the chiefs and the King of Many Chosen.

And when he is here, this is the place of worship for the Gutav United Kingdom—or rather, the "court."

Luo Yan walked to the granite throne and sat down, closed his eyes and prepared to meditate, when he suddenly felt a faint warmth coming through the angular seat, pouring into his body... to the point that the granite that should have been cold was like warm, moist jade.

That was, of course, not because his throne had been sat on by others and still retained someone's body temperature, but because the pure power of faith, after coming into contact with his body, gathered into a power like a hot spring.

Influenced by this power, he felt that the supernatural power originally bruised by the subspace was slowly recovering!

Not only that!

When Luo Yan closed his eyes to meditate, he clearly felt that his mental power was more condensed than usual!

It was as if a single-core processor had been plugged with countless tiny processing units, as if the meditation of thousands of believers was condensing into star-like cells in his vast and boundless sea of consciousness!

At this moment, he was not meditating alone—

What he thought was what everyone thought!

Realizing the mystery of this, an expression of astonishment gradually appeared on Luo Yan's face.

"You You, what is going on?"

"I, I don't know either... The data left by Lin Te Isaac does not record a similar situation. How do you feel yourself? Demon King?" You You's voice carried a hint of confusion, clearly seeing such a situation for the first time.

Luo Yan closed his eyes and continued to feel for a while, the surprise between his brows becoming more and more obvious.

"I feel that meditation has been accelerated, and the efficiency has increased by more than three times... but it's very strange, I also meditated in the audience hall when I was in the Thunder County labyrinth, but such a situation did not occur."

You You circled him several times, its chubby palms touching its abstract little head, and suddenly proposed a possibility.

"Could it be... related to the mental characteristics of the lizardmen on the Janna Continent?"

Luo Yan's heart moved, and he vaguely thought of something.

"Mental characteristics?"

You You nodded hurriedly and continued.

"That's right... although I am only speculating. Just as the power of faith can formulate underlying code for the rules of this world, the thoughts of the many that condense the power of faith should also possess underlying code."

"This has nothing to do with faith; it's like a collective subconscious, or 'consensus.' For example, the people of the Empire believe from the bottom of their hearts that their Emperor is immortal, so when their Emperor sits on the throne, he truly gains the power of eternal life!"

Hearing You You say this, Luo Yan immediately understood its meaning.

Because the lizardmen of the Janna Continent became his believers, while accepting the creed of the Necropolis, the power of faith of the Necropolis also absorbed the mental characteristics 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 supreme power in the world.

It is precisely because of this that when the person holding the title of "Holy King" sits in the "highest position" in the minds of all lizardmen, satisfying the trigger conditions for the buff, he automatically gains the blessing imposed by millions of lizardmen in their subconscious.

The power of faith stored in the statue will unconsciously transform slowly toward the miracle they yearn for from the bottom of their hearts.

Although this blessing will not make Luo Yan truly gain supreme power, it will at least push him to move toward that direction and reach the limit that this blessing can reach.

For example, the former Holy King Izi reached the peak of the Janna Continent, and his golden scales exuded a majesty that no lizardman could resist.

And after the Great Barrier was lifted, the Janna Continent connected with the world, and the upper limit of this power was naturally raised... as for the limit, it was naturally his own soul level upper limit, which is the peak of the Diamond Tier!

In other words, he unconsciously became the substantial "Holy King" in the minds of these lizardmen?!

This sounds really strange... it's as if whoever enters Assam City is the Lord of the Lizardmen, and whoever wins against the lizardmen is one of the lizardmen.

And he clearly said he was a "Demon King."

Luo Yan was a bit dumbfounded for a moment, but this did not prevent him from enjoying the pleasant feeling and the power filling his whole body.

This vast power is different from any magic in the world, but is the purest and most pure supernatural power!

If his and You You's speculation is correct, practicing here will not only get twice the result with half the effort, but also gain a series of buffs including eternal youth, rapid recovery of HP and MP, and so on!

"This is truly incredible... it seems I must come here often."

Floating on the side, You You excitedly added in a low voice.

"Actually, it should be the same if you are in the Necropolis; after all, the lizardmen's mental characteristics have already been absorbed into your share of faith. Of course, considering the number of believers, the buff applied to you by the throne here might have a stronger effect."

After a pause, it continued to incite.

"So Demon King! For the sake of your strength and health, and for you to become an eternal existence in this universe sooner, we must speed up the expansion of the territory of faith! Strive to step the Demon God and Saint Xisi under your feet sooner!"

Stepping under the feet is unnecessary, but eating them in one bite is a good choice.

Luo Yan smiled faintly.

"That is a matter of time... but everything must be done step by step, and one cannot be too hasty."

Otherwise, Lin Te Isaac and Gutav are both warnings; a god falling from the clouds is not as good as a rat crossing the street.

The surging power of faith slowly repaired the damage caused by the subspace to his supernatural power. The trauma that originally would have taken three to five days to smooth out was smoothed out by more than half in just one hour.

Just as Luo Yan was quietly feeling the power filling his whole body gathering toward his sea of consciousness, hurried and humble footsteps came from outside the solemn and dignified great hall.

The chiefs and the King of Many Chosen who remained in Assam City did not make him wait until sunset.

Upon learning that their "Holy King" had arrived at the audience hall, they set off almost immediately, rushing over from all parts of Assam City at the fastest speed to see their master.

An acolyte walked in from the side door of the audience hall, looked at Luo Yan sitting on the throne, and bowed respectfully.

"Demon King... your servants are already waiting in front of the door, earlier than the expected time. Do you want to meet them now? Or shall I invite them to the lounge to wait."

Luo Yan opened his eyes. With his strength already approaching its peak, 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.

"As you command."

As the voice fell, the tail pressed against the floor, like a small snake swimming into the cracks of the stone slab, hurried away from the solemn and dignified audience hall.

Then the gate of the audience hall opened, and a group of lizardman tribal leaders filed in, respectfully crawling under the towering throne.

Piety, loyalty, and awe!

Almost identical expressions were written on faces of different shapes and colors.

Luo Yan, sitting on the throne, could see every inch of scales on their faces, and even the subtle textures on the scales.

With the help of the flickering candlelight and the faint light emitted by the magic crystals, he could almost see every little thought or micro-expression of theirs.

Not daring to be the least bit negligent, the lizardman leaders, as if they were seeing a true god, said almost in unison.

"Greetings, Demon King!"

(End of chapter)