High Above

"It's a bad situation."

Using the power of the Heart of Terra to observe movements in the distance, Ian's soul returned to his body.

He said solemnly to his companions in the conference hall: "I saw that the virtual realm in the distance had turned pitch black. Although it was not the pitch black I predicted, it was not far off."

"That's the Blackness of Resentment - that area has been completely swallowed up by Resentment."

Having said this, Ian took a deep breath: "Feiyandi used demonic technology!"

At this time, more than a week had passed since Xiahui City was attacked.

This week, Xiahui led the city hall team from top to bottom to work overtime, and was completely exhausted.

Although the crash of the airship did not cause any casualties, the economic losses were real - the material cost of the shelter tower was also money, not to mention the damage caused by Adelbert's overclocking, which was difficult to recycle, and everything had to be built from scratch. .

Moreover, some of the passengers who died when the airship crashed were Xia Huiling's partners.

Although most of the passengers in the airship did not deal with Xiahui Ling very well, after all, those who were late for such a big event as the Chongling Holy Land groundbreaking ceremony were not considered allies by any stretch of the imagination. It's not even as good as those who don't come, at least they have no connection with Xiahui Ling.

But even if they are just seemingly inseparable partners, they are still partners.

Take Viscount Limor, for example. Ian can tell with his toes that he who has cut off the opponent's financial resources is simply his mother-killing enemy. But no matter how much Viscount Limour wants to knock Ian to the ground, at least now he We are still supplying raw materials properly, and we don’t dare to cheat.

On that airship, there were three imperial nobles of the same level as Viscount Limor, as well as many other minor nobles and ordinary businessmen. Some of their final destinations might not be Xiahui Territory but Harrison Port, and the result was a mess. I just explained it here in a daze.

By the way, Ian was left with a mess.

Now, the Limor family is frantically asking about Ian's specific situation. All past contracts have been cancelled. They have even threatened to sue Ian in the imperial court to expose the vicious true face of Ian under his beautiful skin.

"Just go ahead and sue. No matter how much you sue Viscount Limor, you won't be able to come back! He has turned into a pile of ashes in the Xiahui Territory and turned into farm fertilizer in our territory!"

Even a good-tempered person like Ian was very angry when he encountered a mentally handicapped noble family. He threatened directly: "You'd better not come to Nanling. See if I don't do anything to Nanling." You can also make it into agricultural fertilizer!”

At that time, no one in the entire conference room dared to speak. Everyone was keeping an eye on the situation, not daring to offend the goblin lord who had turned the conference room into a minus fifty-degree freezer.

——But to be honest, this kind of temper is really quite elf-like.

This crisis is not just about the cancellation of contracts.

The demon army in the Flying Flame Land cut off the main transportation routes in the southwestern province, causing major problems in the exchange of supplies.

"Boss, the Imperial Nobles' Office just issued a message. They said that we don't have to worry about the threats from those families! They also said that at present, our Yinfeng County should set the example of the imperial nobles, quickly rectify the chaos in Nanling, and take precautions against flying Prepare for the Fire Land Raid."

At this moment, Qingchao finally reported good news. Ian, who took a big sip of Coke to calm down, sighed: "They know who the victim is. If they really dare to let those idiots sue me, I will fly there today." The Western Province killed all those weaklings and put the blame on Feiyan Land."

After thinking for a while, Ian waved his hand and said: "Tell them, there is something big in the Void Realm over there in the West, and the crisis is at least a natural disaster level. I can stop Feiyan Land's attack on Nanling's army, and Dingxu A demon in this realm, but he may not be able to handle that thing.”

"Yes, boss!" Qingchao agreed happily, and then he asked cautiously: "Are we really not able to handle it?"

"You can't say for sure. At the very least, you have to pay a big price." Ian said. He pondered for a moment, recalling the process of the star-extinguishing journey, and said slowly: "At the very least, after this demon army is completely formed in the future, If the five-level people don't take action, they can easily destroy a small country."

——I was almost beaten to death. Isn’t that just destroying a small country easily?

Nodding slightly, the prophet said seriously: "Even if I can deal with it, I shouldn't be the one to deal with it. Are all the people in the empire dead? The main battlefield is not in our Nanling."

"Scott, go see if Adlbert is awake. If he is, ask him to wait in the virtual realm. I will check his situation."

At this moment, after thinking about countermeasures, Ian began to assign tasks: "If you don't wake up, prepare a refugee camp - although there were many casualties in the attack on the Nanling territories this time, being cold-blooded is not a bad thing for us. In the future There will be many refugees coming to seek refuge, so prepare the camps first, prepare food and medicine."

"Beware of infiltration, there must be Feiyan spies inside."

"Yes, sir." Scott responded crisply, while Ian continued to explain to Qingchao: "You must protect the young people in the training camp. They are all practitioners of meditation. They have no fighting power now. If one of us dies, In the future, there will be one less core member of the team, so you must guard and protect them."

"But you must also be prepared to go on a mission. There are many people who deserve to be killed and need your sword."

"Okay, boss!" Qingchao didn't hesitate. As the most popular instructor with no pretensions among the students, Qingchao has always been very popular in the training camp. He can be regarded as the big brother, and Ian is not afraid that he will make any mistakes. Because Qingchao's son immigrated from Jingge Cliff some time ago, he has good qualifications and was selected into the training camp as a member of the second phase.

"Roland, work will continue on Snow Summit. I will hand over the entire Iron Man construction team to you. They will work around the clock and build a sustainable core as soon as possible. War is now and the Holy Land is the future."

"Old Farr, your lifespan is coming to an end."

Ian looked at the other side of the conference room, and he said seriously: "You have been responsible for writing your reflections in the laboratory recently. Currently, there are no examples of artificial soul holders in our territory who died after their natural life span. As a Territory cadres must be mentally aware - death is not retirement, do you understand?"

Although what he said was hardly human, both Roland and Old Farr laughed. They stood up and saluted Ian: "Promise to complete the mission, sir!"

Finally, Ian turned his head and looked at Xiou who looked expectant.

The real dragon looked like 'What about me? What about me? ' with an excited expression, and Ian thought for a while: "You... go and accompany your mother, Miss Hua An, Shuangdie and the others. Tutor Dongyu went to the South China Sea to help transport the goblins, so you should be ready to receive them. "

"Okay Ian!"

Although it was very powerful, this mission was indeed quite important, so Xioye left happily.

After finishing everything in his territory, Ian frowned and sat in his seat, looking at the various reports in his hands.

Compared with today's general environment, the group of small and medium-sized nobles from various places who died on the airship and the damaged shelter tower of Xiahui Leader were not a crisis at all.

Although the groundbreaking ceremony did not end perfectly, all forces saw with their own eyes that the Chongling Sect had mastered the technology of artificial psykers. The envoys from all parties stationed in the Chongling Building also witnessed the crash of the airship and the fall of the Xiahui City. The defensive power of the protective formation.

The tall building with dozens of floors actually did not become a target and was destroyed by the enemy. This alone is enough to make the Chongling Building a monument - as long as it exists for one day, the people of Xiahui City will not lose confidence.

Not to mention the subsequent transformation of Adlbert into the Giant of Light, which greatly improved the territory. Even on the day of the attack, Ian was asked by a group of people, ‘What kind of technology is that? ’ ‘How much money can we pay for cooperation? ’ This kind of question.

In terms of impressions alone, if it were not for the current war between the Empire and the Flying Flame Land, Ian's wave of propaganda would at least attract the cooperation of four or five forces and several waves of investment.

Although other forces don't have better defensive formations than the protective formation, for example, within the empire, isn't there a small shield generator based on the imperial capital as a template? At the very least, Ian knew that the latest generation of armor was basically equipped with a small shield generator, which had no shortcomings except high energy consumption.

Even so, you can never have too much technical reserve for something like this.

"The really important issue is that the western border defense line has been 'dismembered'."

Looking at the map projected by the Heart of Terra, Ian frowned and smeared large areas of scarlet in the area between the West and South Ridge.

Under the scorched earth tactics of the Flying Fire Land, the iron wall-like western fortresses were bypassed by the Flying Fire Land from the virtual realm of Archduke Thorin - on the other side of the mountains, even the virtual realm has barriers, but Archduke Thorin's The rebellion caused a breach in this barrier.

The lemure army relied on its elusive mobility to destroy all supply routes of the fortress group and massacred all villages and cities along the way.

Because the demon army does not need supplies, does not need to survive to obtain information, and has no morals, it can easily carry out this kind of counter-attack to clear the country.

And the demon legion can even use such actions to create a lot of resentment, infiltrate the virtual realm, and even secretly create some kind of 'big thing'... If nothing unexpected happens, it will be at least a fourth-level monster.

In just one week, the demon army destroyed all the effective forces in the Western Territory that did not retreat to the big cities for defense. Except for those villages located in the forests and mountains, all the small towns around Guandao have become no man's land.

The number of dead may have exceeded one million.

This is real war.

Now that things have happened, the demon army's military peak is pointed directly at the golden plain. There is no need to think about their target. It must be Nanling, or even more certain, it is the 'Silver Peak Leader'.

And, that's not the end.

The Demon Corps is one of the two major bloodlines of Feiyan Land, the 'Nirmathas Bloodline' technology.

The Absalom bloodline is the bloodline that truly confronts the Western Legion.

When Nirmathas invaded the western hinterland of the empire, the Absalom kings had already dispatched their royal legions and were engaged in an extremely brutal war of attrition with the western fortress group. They spared no expense, no matter the life or ammunition.

Their purpose is to use up the supplies of the Western Legion as quickly as possible when the Western Fortress Group is out of supplies, and then swallow up and annihilate all the capable and effective forces in the western part of the empire.

"Marquis Barton, where is our trump card?"

While signing several documents, Ian asked the Heart of Terra to help him connect to Marquis Barton's communication: "Don't tell us that we need to use the power of Nanling, a shabby rural place, to block the demons, the Nineteenth Legion and the South China Sea. Does the fleet have any other powers that I don’t know about?”

"No more. The Nineteenth Legion and the Nanhai Fleet combined have ten armored squadrons. Counting spares, there are a total of forty-one armors. They cannot defend the Golden Plains."

The Marquis of Barton has also been very busy recently - but not as busy as Ian who needs to coordinate the mountain people's forces to increase armaments and coordinate war production with various forces. This is why he wants to transfer power to Ian. He has long foreseen the outcome of Feiyandi's all-out attack, so he gave the stall to Ian.

"That's enough."

Ian estimated that forty armors were already considered a large force for Nanling. No matter how many drivers there were, they might not be enough. The empire's productivity actually far exceeded its driver training capabilities. This is why it was originally established in Nanling. The reason why Teito has AI-assisted armor.

Now, Ian can completely transform these forty armors, connect them to the Heart of Terra for precise and high-precision combat, and collect armor combat data to accelerate the automated armor driving technology of the Heart of Terra as soon as possible.

When that time comes, he will forcibly take over the military factory near Nauman City. When the time comes to produce one, he will let the Heart of Terra drive one. As for the driver, I will use artificial intelligence to do it. If Feiyandi has the ability, he will He exchanges one for one or four for one, which is Feiyan's loss!

Of course, the idea is beautiful. For a while, Ian couldn't think of a way to take over the military factory other than killing people. Those were the military nobles of the 19th Legion, and the Marquis of Barton was just the biggest manager there. Even if they are true to their word, they cannot let those people give up the production area in their hands, even if they just 'borrow' it.

Because they are afraid, they will not repay the loan.

Ian really won't pay it back.

And he was really thinking about how to kill all these people from the empire who were getting in the way so that he could take over the power alone.

"There's no need to kill."

But the Marquis of Barton seemed to see what Ian's silence meant. Although he couldn't guess that Ian's purpose was the factories and alchemy workshops in Nauman City, he could completely guess that the young earl wanted to take Nan. Ling's five fingers clenched tightly into fists to face the approaching Feiyandi.

And if you want to clench your fist, you must crush something.

He smiled and said: "Such a serious raid in Nanling is obviously the responsibility of the garrison's 19th Army Corps. Several leading officers of the Army Corps, including my son, will be tried by military courts in the next two months. "

"Although there will be no problem with the final result, after all, it has nothing to do with them, but within these two months, we, or rather, you have the final say."

"good."

After receiving a satisfactory answer, Ian responded briefly: "This saves a lot of nonsense."

But he still frowned and asked: "But, Lord Marquis, what I mean is, is the 'Imperial Capital' really just sitting back and watching like this?"

"Since Feiyandi has infiltrated us like this, whether it is the supply routes in the South Ridge or the Western Territory, we must have almost infiltrated them."

"The Demon Legion is not a new thing to me. I dare say that the Gnostic Institute has definitely mastered similar technologies. At most, it is because the research progress is different in different directions - is there really no prevention in the empire?"

"Didn't you predict it?" Marquis Barton sighed: "Then you know that the imperial capital needs this kind of 'crisis' situation."

"So, what are the methods to inspire people after the crisis?" Ian said: "It's like Feiyandi used an airship to blow up my main city, but in the end, I used the shelter magic circle to take it down - what should I say now? , what to do with the territory, it’s just like God.”

"The Imperial Capital must have a similar idea, so where is their 'protection circle'?"

"...the capital of learning."

After a pause, Marquis Barton seemed to be thinking about whether he could tell Ian the news, but finally he said clearly: "The Empire and the Capital of Knowledge launched in-depth technical cooperation twenty-five years ago, and the level of confidentiality is second only to The process of forming an alliance with the Canaanite Moorish Party.”

"What cooperation?"

Finally extracting some information from the old fox, Ian's eyes lit up: "Let me think about it, the research advantages over there in the City of Knowledge are the mechanical technology of the Void Realm and Pre-Era Civilization, as well as the most cutting-edge alchemy, and the Ether Furnace Heart. ...Could it be said that he is a virtual machine god? Or..."

"We each paid a huge price, and both parties achieved satisfactory results..."

The Marquis of Barton did not respond to Ian's questioning. He just said slowly: "As for the specific content, Ian, you can't know it for the time being. We know that you won't leak it, but I... have a problem. I can't say it."

——Soul Seal? Or the oath circle?

Ian believed that Marquis Barton would not whet his appetite here, and he must really not be able to tell.

As for the high level of secrecy...

"The beast of a thousand stars?"

Ian lowered his voice: "Is it research on the Beast of Thousand Planets?"

"you?!"

Marquis Barton was really shocked this time. Even through the communication circle, he could still feel his shock: "How do you know? Could it be said that when you were in Canaan Moore, you learned from the master of Qingyue Tower? ...Um, wait.”

Thinking of Ian's identity, Marquis Barton said solemnly: "Can it be said that we will really use it in the future? The situation is so bad?!"

"No, not really."

Ian knew very well that the "Pitch Black Key" of the Beast of Thousand Planets was probably the last resort of something similar to Terra's Death Hand System. Without the existence of the Empire, Terra would have no meaning of existence. They were really crazy enough. to press this button.

Therefore, when Marquis Barton suspected that Ian had 'predicted' the existence of the Beast of Thousand Planets, he couldn't help but be shocked by such a future - could it be that the empire had lost like that and dragged the whole world into the water?

This is just like the people on earth knowing that they will actually press the global nuclear button in the future. Although they are shocked, it does not feel impossible.

Even if it is restrained by the four orthodox religions and other forces, the Key of Darkness may not be able to destroy Terra, but it will definitely be no problem dragging down hostile forces such as the Flying Flame Land, the Cangtian Royal Court, and the Junling Castle.

"It's fine if it's useless."

Marquis Barton also breathed a sigh of relief. Ian knew even the Beast of Thousand Stars. Even though he still couldn't tell the secret due to his oath, he felt much more relaxed: "Although the progress of Feiyan Demon Army is beyond our imagination, So much so that we did not withdraw those armed civilians, but we did have countermeasures."

"Although I don't know why, the man-made demons in Feiyan Land can circumvent the automatic suppression system of the virtual realm machine gods, but our research on the virtual realm is enough to control the machine gods and hold on to several key fortresses to suppress them - as for how to suppress them in the virtual realm To turn defeat into victory from a disadvantage…the answer is in the sky.”

"The sky..." Ian raised his head thoughtfully and looked at the sky above Xiahui City.

Although it was daytime, with the blessing of precognitive vision and the gift of the Star God, Ian could vaguely see the shadows on the sky.

Dragon Island orbiting Terra's equator always passes by the South Ridge.

"I roughly understand it." He said: "No matter what kind of heaven it is, I can roughly understand it... So how long do you need to persist?"

"Two months."

Marquis Barton solemnly said: "Two months, Ian."

"The empire has been winning for so long that it no longer has any sense of crisis."

"Just like the people in your city will no longer be afraid if they encounter another attack like the crash of an airship... The empire has defeated too many crises and powerful enemies, and the people have forgotten the taste of failure. "

"Even though the late Emperor Inaga II died in the Dark Moon turmoil, the empire is still standing. Our Majesty even defended all the territory, and no enemy dared to invade."

"People are so used to winning that winning means nothing."

Having said this, Marquis Barton sighed: "Your Majesty... Your Majesty Axel, I have always regretted it."

"When he was chatting with me in private, he would occasionally be as fragile as he was decades ago... He murmured to himself that he had always regretted that he had successfully defended all the territories back then."

"He should throw away a little. It doesn't matter a little more. As long as the core area is intact, those small leftover places should be occupied by other forces."

"In that case, although his own reputation will be reduced a bit, people will hold their breath, hate the enemies who gave them humiliation and failure, and become the same hatred."

"These two months have been a necessary humiliation. Without humiliation, we will not wake up the sleeping Imperial people."

Is this really the case... because I have won too many, so I don’t have a sense of crisis? But those who died... at the end of the day, were still arrogant.

Ian thought about what Marquis Barton said. He felt that the other party was exaggerating. The empire definitely had deeper considerations.

However, two months was enough for him to roughly reorganize the management structure of Nanling and forcefully spread the Terminal and the Heart of Terra to other noble territories.

By then, two months later, no matter whether the empire successfully counterattacked or not, at least Feiyandi would no longer be able to penetrate Nanling like before.

Well, from this point of view, the empire's theory is correct. If these stupid little Nanling nobles don't die and suffer heavy losses in previous attacks, capable people like Ian won't be able to control the situation. Power in the palm of your hand.

"What else do you need, Ian."

Marquis Barton said: "The empire can give you all support except substantial help."

"That's enough."

Although 'all support except substantial help' sounds ridiculous, what Ian needs is not resources, but 'name': "Your Majesty, I need you to declare in the name of the Governor of Nanling that Nanling will completely Shift to wartime martial law mode.”

"And, with the slogan of 'preventing infiltration', it was announced that Nanling must be connected to the Internet - the 'Nanling Provincial Mutual Aid Network' developed under the leadership of Yin Fengling."

"That's all I need."

This transitional plot is over, and next is the Nanling War. It has been laid out for so long, and it’s time to write a cool plot!

I originally wanted to take a leave of absence, but it was discovered that I had saved manuscripts, so I can’t take a leave now. However, one thing to say is that it is normal to ask for leave if you have to save manuscripts. I have been spending time with my parents recently and have a lot of things to do. There is no fixed time for writing. I basically save manuscripts at regular intervals to avoid interruptions.

If something suddenly happens and I don’t have time to type, it would be unsightly to stop updating.

The inheritance of light posted yesterday was indeed a saved manuscript. I don’t know why, but I clicked on the scheduled update, and the result was posted on the spot. It would be okay if it was posted as a follow-up to the same day’s update, and it would be treated as an additional update for everyone, but then This is an update in the next few days, and there are still 2 chapters in between. I can only ask the editor to delete it.

I'll find time to post a free extra episode later for everyone who has automatically subscribed. If you don't want the free extra episode, you can ask me for a refund, or maybe add an update at the end of the month?

Double monthly passes are available at the end of the month! Everyone can save some!