Chapter 811: Catalyst (2)
But a week later, the Lord of Glory army, twice as many as before, struck again, catching them off guard.
The demons paid a price to deal with them all, thinking that this time they would finally stop.
However, another week passed, and these chaotic armies not only did not decrease but instead returned with double the size, showing a fearlessness in the face of death that surpassed their previous encounters.
The demons were bewildered, somewhat frantic. Were these human armies unafraid of death?!
“Yesterday, I stole a squadron of winged demons and exchanged them for a large amount of resources from the elves. It’s enough to replenish the lost troops and make a profit. It feels so damn good!”
“The elves may be annoying, but they’re still generous. It would have been better if we had been allowed to go earlier instead of waiting until so many legions had awakened.”
“It can only be said that it fits the typical image of elves in Western fantasy novels.”
“We’re basically slaughtering them without resistance. With this demon invasion, the rate of territorial development has increased at least tenfold!”
Thanks to the cross-domain chat channel, players could communicate with zero delay regardless of distance, just like organizing a boss fight. Once they discovered any demons straying from the group, they would quickly call for reinforcements via the channel, pulling in ten times the enemy’s troops in a very short time.
Each time, justice prevailed with overwhelming force, almost bewildering the greedy legions.
How did these armies gather so many troops in such a short time?
Furthermore, the armies employed highly unethical tactics, frequently resorting to cowardly retreats during engagements, covering their tracks completely. They displayed unwavering courage in combat, being prepared to fight relentlessly until the bitter end in order to inflict harm upon their adversaries.
And it seemed like their perception that these armies were growing stronger with each encounter wasn’t just their imagination. Each battle became increasingly challenging, and casualties grew larger.
Previously, it only took a squadron of demons to easily wipe out ten times their number of enemies. But now, it took at least five squadrons to deal with one thousand troops, and their own casualties exceeded half.
In the rear, demons were being rapidly produced, but they couldn’t withstand such rapid consumption!
The mysterious rate of growth shocked both the demons and the Orderly Camp.
Nowadays, the New Moon Islands, with the influx of a large number of players, had become even more lively. The neatly planned streets were filled with players wearing mismatched and flamboyant equipment, striding with an air of indifference.
Although they were a bit careless, they didn’t dare to cause trouble in the Crown of the Ocean. After all, this was the territory of the person who had killed two demon lords, the domain of the Islander.
Even if god were to grant them ten times the courage, they wouldn’t dare to cause trouble here.
In addition to players, there were also many elves, humans from the Northern Continent, envoys from various races, merchants, and soldiers in transit on the New Moon Islands.
But whether it was a nation or a race, or even the elves themselves, none dared to be unruly here, all acting cautiously.
They witnessed elves causing trouble under the influence of their elven heritage, only to face swift and decisive annihilation by the Ocean Crown’s army, showing no regard for the Elven Empire’s reputation.
The Elven Empire dared not say anything, only sternly warning that any elves who arrived at the New Moon Islands, whether merchants or soldiers, were not allowed to cause trouble in the Crown of the Ocean. Otherwise, they would be stripped of their citizenship and personally interrogated and sentenced by a special elven overseer.
With elves leading the way, everyone else worked cautiously, not daring to have any dissent.
There was sincere admiration and awe towards Ji Chen in their hearts. Even the usually domineering elves were reluctant to provoke. How majestic was that?
Players were even shouting out how awesome it was. In the eyes of outsiders, an ordinary epic-tier could actually intimidate the entire elf race from acting recklessly. This was exactly the image of a lord from another world they had imagined!
The western part of the main island of the New Moon Islands was a large area of sea rice fields. Under the improvement of the legendary tier druid Martino, the yield of sea rice increased significantly, almost doubling the original yield.
In addition to the plantation by the sea, after consulting with Ji Chen, Wilus expanded the sea rice fields to the sea surface, creating a large number of floating raft-like water farms connected by chains, planting a large amount of sea rice in them.
Due to the protection of the Ocean Crown territory and Lord Ji Chen’s talents, the sea surface around the New Moon Islands was very calm, and the waves were not violent at all, completely capable of accommodating these rafts.
The rafts were interconnected, filling up a large area of the sea surface west of the main island, and also allowing the production of sea rice to reach a very considerable level, filling the warehouses with food storage, and easily supplying the entire Ocean Crown.
Too much food accumulation would only lead to waste, so these grains were also exported on a large scale to supply the elves and other forces soldiers fighting in the southern mainland, adding another channel for increasing income to the Ocean Crown.
And quite a lot at that.
Transporting food from the homeland of the Elf Empire would incur considerable losses, but if purchased directly from the Ocean Crown, they could catch a favorable wind to and from the southern mainland, saving a considerable amount of expenses for the round trip.
The shrewd noble elves soon agreed eagerly and gave their full support.
Not only food, but the powerful industrial capacity of the Ocean Crown also produced large quantities of weapons and equipment, war machinery, and even cannons on a daily basis.
This led to a strange phenomenon: soldiers setting sail from the northern mainland had nothing on them, not even a bag of food, a set of qualified armor, or a handy weapon.
But after passing through the Ocean Crown, all these things were immediately provided.
Wearing a set of dwarven-crafted armor, holding a fine steel weapon in hand, carrying a powerful bow made from precious forest wood on their back, and even each hundred-man team had a set of lightweight mobile field cannons or three mobile ballistae.
It could be said that everything was available.
The more intense the battle, the more prosperous the sales of products from the Ocean Crown became. Sometimes, as many as thirty to forty thousand pieces of weapons and equipment could be sold in a single day.
In the past, shipyards, repair yards, inns, restaurants, and other industries were all striving to complete the territory’s industries. Now, they had become industries that made money hand over fist, earning quite a hefty sum of gold coins every week.
Ji Chen didn’t keep these gold coins. On the spot, he would use them to purchase various rare resources, and raw materials, buy merchant ships, and reinvest them into production, forming a virtuous cycle.
The workshops in the underground lizardman world were increasing at a rate of one per week. The rich magma resources and ore resources in the underground world provided a continuous stream of raw materials for workshop production.
The industrial railway had already covered most of the underground world.
The rumbling locomotives connected various veins, workshops, entrances, and exits, further increasing production efficiency.
From ore still in the veins to weapons ready for export, the entire production process took no more than a day, and even when the weapons were being packed, they still retained the temperature from forging.
Amidst the tension of war and the rapid development, the giant turtle returned to the Ocean Crown with about a dozen ships full of dwarf refugees, once again adding fuel to the high-speed operation of the Ocean Crown’s machinery.
The first batch of dwarf refugees, numbering around eight thousand, arrived, with a considerable portion of them being qualified dwarf craftsmen whose forging skills were superior to those of lizardmen and humans.
Ji Chen offered them protection, and in return, they had to contribute corresponding labor for this protection.
These dwarf craftsmen were not responsible for forging, but for researching higher-tech and more difficult projects such as machine tools, mold manufacturing, and assembly lines.
Basic weapons and equipment were churned out on assembly lines, whereas premium, tailor-made ones were meticulously crafted by hand. The shift towards industrialization represented the inevitable trajectory of future progress, highlighting the unmistakable significance of this shift.
The construction of the second large port in the New Moon Islands was also in full swing, which would greatly enhance the Ocean Crown’s capacity to receive ships.
Dramatically, war acted as a catalyst, accelerating the development of the Ocean Crown and the New Moon Islands. Everything was changing rapidly..