With a brimful of gains, Rocky took the last skyship out of Backhill Village and returned to his own Thunderhawk City.
Standing at the bow of the skyship, Rocky was in high spirits, or rather, his mood had to be good, for the rewards from this mission were simply too great!
The original commission for this mission was merely ten thousand Gold Coins and five hundred pounds of Yellow Scale Ore, plus a portion of Demon Corpses. If all these commissions were converted to Gold Coins, the total sum would definitely not exceed one hundred thousand Gold Coins. Of course, for Rocky and Thunderhawk City, this was already considered a huge amount of money.
But now, when Rocky truly left Backhill Village, the gains he acquired far exceeded his expectations.
Let’s not talk about his commission which initially belonged to him, nor the over a hundred Demon Corpses, or even the thousands of pounds of Yellow Scale Ore—it goes without saying. Even excluding these, Rocky still had other gains.
For example, everything in the storage of Backhill Village!
The warehouse of Backhill Village was not particularly large, but it was completely equipped, containing not only Gold Coins and food but also over a hundred Demon Cores!
Long before this mission began, Aileen had mentioned that The Forsaken People were very wealthy since they not only possessed the resources of the land but also those of the Demons. Backhill Village was just such a case.
Years of battling with Demons had allowed Backhill Village to accumulate a large number of Demon Cores. Whenever the village encountered an emergency, the villagers would sell these cores to the Chamber of Commerce of Sky City in exchange for needed resources. Now, with Rocky having emptied the whole of Backhill Village, these Demon Cores, accumulated over years, belonged to him!
Continue your journey with empire
Demon Cores, ah!
There were at least a hundred of them accumulated by Backhill Village, and once these cores were sold, how much money would that be?
So, counting this profit, this time, he’s probably going to earn over several hundred thousand Gold Coins!
Several hundred thousand Gold Coins!
My God, even thinking about that number made Rocky drool. He, who had been troubled about money since traversing to this world, had never seen so much Gold!
And all these earnings were still those that could be measured in numbers. In reality, his most significant gain from this time was precisely what could not be calculated with numbers or Gold Coins, which was the population of Backhill Village!
The more than one thousand villagers of Backhill Village would henceforth be residents of Thunderhawk City. Two months ago, Rocky had just started economic reforms in Thunderhawk City; new industries were waiting for manpower to be developed and constructed.
At such a critical period, the sudden increase of more than a thousand people was self-explanatory in terms of what it meant for Thunderhawk City, right?
At the same time, among these more than a thousand people, several hundred were experienced soldiers who would undoubtedly greatly strengthen Thunderhawk City’s power. After all, the troops of Backhill Village were not rookies; they were veterans who had fought against Demons for countless years!
A single mission, with so many tangible and intangible gains, how could Rocky not feel elated.
And with such a tremendous gain, what would the future hold for him and Thunderhawk City?
It would undoubtedly be on the rise!
So, if it weren’t for the presence of outsiders, Rocky really wanted to dance and laugh out loud just to express the joy in his heart.
At this point, some might ask, the rewards from this mission were indeed huge, but let’s not forget, how many people died for this mission! Since human life cannot be measured in money, is the profit earned at the cost of so many lives truly worth it?
Rocky didn’t know the answer to that question. He only knew one thing: If so many had died and nothing was gained, that would be the true loss!
……
……
And so, Rocky left Backhill Village with his full gains, leaving in high spirits, and he really should be glad, for his gains from this time were enormous indeed.
But as the saying goes, joy for some often means sorrow for others. When Rocky happily returned to Thunderhawk City, on the other side of the continent, someone was worrying.
Gesya.
In this world, Gesya is known as the God of the Earth, said to be the one who nurtured the land and bestowed life upon all creatures dwelling on it. Legend has it that he, along with the God of the Sky, gave birth to the seas, making him the father of the Sea God. In the mythological system of this world, Gesya holds an exceptionally important position.
But now, people no longer believed in such myths and legends, because no one was blind. When Demons began to invade the land, the deities of the myths were nowhere to be seen. Gesya, the so-called God of the Earth, was missing without a trace, letting Demons occupy the land. Under such circumstances, who would continue to worship him?
For the people of today, Gesya no longer represented the God of the Earth; instead, it denoted a city.
One of only three remaining cities on land is called Gesya City!
Today, after demons have occupied the land for a hundred years, there are only three places left on land where people still live and can be called cities, and Gesya City is one of them.
This city is located on a vast plain, almost as large in area as the Top Ten Divine Cities in the sky, and is home to hundreds of thousands of people. It can be said to be one of the last strongholds on land.
However, anyone who has personally visited this city would be incredibly surprised because Gesya City is situated on a plain surrounded by expansive grasslands, with no naturally defensible terrain. How could such a city hold out so long against the attacks of demons?
If someone thought this way, they would be terribly mistaken, or rather, anyone who had such thoughts obviously had not seen the full picture of Gesya City. Indeed, the city is located on a plain and one can see endless land all around the city, but if one looked farther, they would see the true face of the city.
A hundred li away from Gesya City lies a swamp nearly a thousand kilometers wide. This vast swamp encircles the city like a giant serpent, protecting Gesya City from the approach of demons. Even high-level demons, faced with a swamp nearly a thousand kilometers wide and fathomless, are at a loss.
The swamp is known as the Karina Great Swamp, meaning “insurmountable,” and it is precisely because of this insurmountable swamp that Gesya City remains one of the only three cities left on land!
Only now, the situation seems to have changed a bit…
Above the vast swamp, there appeared a fleet of skyships numbering in the hundreds. Each warship in this fleet is of the latest model, especially the flagship of the fleet, which is over two hundred meters long, equipped with nearly a hundred newest type magic cannons, and carries thousands of crew members and hundreds of soldiers donning Void Magic Armor!
The highest officer of this flagship, who is also the supreme commander of Gesya City—Siberius—is currently wearing Void Magic Armor, floating in midair, and surveying the opposite shore of the swamp under the protection of a Void Magic Squad.
Following Siberius’s gaze to the other side of the swamp, one would find it completely covered with demons!
At this moment, the number of demons gathered on the other side of the swamp is unimaginably high, so much so that one couldn’t even begin to count them.
Are there ten thousand demons?
No.
Fifty thousand demons?
No.
One hundred thousand demons?
No!
The demons surrounding the swamp are easily in the millions!
Millions of demons are packed around the Karina Great Swamp, thoroughly surrounding Gesya City both inside and out, making it impenetrable, a scene that even Siberius, who had led Gesya City through the Second Counteroffensive War, couldn’t help but be startled by.
“What on earth is going on…”
Hovering in midair with the aid of the Void Magic Armor, Siberius looked upon the endless horde of demons, his brow knotted in deep concern. A month ago, demons began congregating around the swamp; in just a short month’s time, their numbers grew from a few hundred or thousands to the scale it had reached now, and it appeared that their numbers were still increasing.
Who is Siberius?
Being the commander of one of humanity’s last three cities on land, his strength and abilities have reached an unrivaled level, but even he had never faced a situation like the one before him.
However, drawing on his lifetime of experience fighting demons, he could tell that something major was about to happen, a catastrophe!
Therefore, he swiftly called his lieutenant, “Inform the Kafka Empire, the Sky Alliance, and the Magic Energy Research Institute about our situation here. Ask them to send large Sky Cities to eliminate the demons as soon as possible, and also contact the other two cities to see if they too have encountered similar situations.”
“Yes, sir!”
With a quick response, the lieutenant immediately returned to the flagship and relayed Siberius’s orders.
The Kafka Empire, the Sky Alliance, and the Magic Energy Research Institute that Siberius mentioned are the three superpowers in the sky. Over eighty percent of the Sky Cities are dependent on these three forces for survival, and even the monstrous Top Ten Divine Cities have seven of them divided among these three powers!
Clearly, Siberius felt that the abnormal behavior of the demons in the recent month was serious enough that the three superpowers must be informed!
PS: It’s still three updates today! So continue to ask for recommendations!