Chapter 836: Penelope’s Confidence, Ocean God (2)
Under the sea, the architectural style naturally differed from that on land. The houses in Coral City took inspiration from the structures Ji Chen had encountered in the Heraklion City dungeon, and they were built using nearby underwater rock formations.
Construction on the second underwater settlement began yesterday. Ji Chen named this settlement “Sea Abyss City.” It was located in a vast underwater trench, several miles wide and stretching for dozens of miles on the north side of the New Moon Islands. Looking down from above, it resembled an abyss, hence the chosen name.
Sea Abyss City was slightly smaller than Coral City, but its defense capabilities were significantly better due to being surrounded by cliffs and deep trenches, unlike Coral City, which had open sides.
Ji Chen also proposed a bold idea to Thotmudo and Theod. He suggested that the underground workshops could produce hollow pipes connecting Coral City, Sea Abyss City, and the Crown of the Ocean. This would allow residents to travel freely between the three locations without relying on Deep Sea Roamers or Alchemy Submarines.
This idea piqued the interest of the two dwarves, who immediately expressed their willingness to research and manufacture the pipes.
Similar to the two rapidly developing underwater settlements, the Crown of the Ocean was also experiencing rapid growth. Each day it grew stronger in military, economic, and civilian aspects, all heading towards normalization.
This was all in preparation for the potential crises that may arise in the future, or those that were inevitably approaching.
The battles between the various divine realm armies on the continent were becoming increasingly intense. Initially, they showed some restraint, but as their own side gradually fell into a disadvantage, they began to loosen up in order to regain the upper hand.
Although the orderly divine realm army tried to keep the battles away from the settlements as much as possible, once they started, they couldn’t afford to consider too much. Countless lives perished in the mutual warfare between the two sides.
The casualties were not much less than those caused by the demons.
Moreover, as more and more players gained control of minor authorities, they began to intervene in the battles between the divine realm armies, causing the situation to become increasingly chaotic. The fighting gradually spread from the wilderness to the cities.
Recently, several dark divine realm army groups directly attacked the cities where the orderly divine realm army was stationed. The aftermath of the battles instantly killed seventy percent of the city’s population, and another seventy percent of the remaining residents were killed in subsequent battles.
Only one in ten residents of a city managed to survive, with corpses littering the streets.
On the other hand, the war between the demons and the orderly faction was gradually coming to an end.
The armies of the Elven Empire, Markus Empire, Light Church, the subsequent participation of the Dragon Island dragons, and the forces of various sizes from the eastern continent formed a huge army, divided into several groups to counterattack the Hogsback Mountains defense line, as well as the weakened Void Legion.
Under the command of the Markus Empire, they launched a large-scale military operation called “Thunder” from land, sea, and air.
On the scheduled date, they successfully annihilated sixty percent of the Void Legion’s forces and reclaimed tens of thousands of miles of land.
After the remaining Void Legion forces were defeated, they retreated under the command of the Void Lord to the Fallen Hills at the southern end of the eastern continent.
Here, this was the place where the Void Legion first descended, baring its fangs.
After a long and arduous struggle, the orderly faction finally drove away these hated invaders, greatly boosting their morale.
They seemed to have some pride in their hearts. Not only Ji Chen could defeat demons and demon lords, but they could also reclaim their homeland with weapons in their hands and steadfast courage.
Although there were considerable losses along the way due to continuous battles, they seized the momentum and launched another attack, not giving the enemy a chance to catch their breath.
Soon, they initiated a battle called “Thunder Chase.”
Millions of troops from the eastern continent stretched for hundreds of miles, holding onto the belief of victory, almost simultaneously launching a massive assault on the Fallen Hills, which cut across the southern end of the eastern continent.
The battle had no suspense from the beginning.
The Void Legion was already in decline, losing both troops and territory. Their war-driven philosophy quickly drained their resources after suffering several defeats.
Meanwhile, the Dark Divine Army, which they regarded as their ace, was firmly entangled by the Orderly Divine Army and couldn’t free itself, only watching helplessly as the Void Legion crumbled step by step.
In an attempt to salvage the situation, the Void Lord personally intervened with his elite forces, but the Orderly side had already anticipated this move. Powerhouses from the Elven Empire, the Dragon Island Dragons, and the Markus Empire among other top-tier forces ambushed him.
The Prime Minister of the Markus Empire personally took action, together with other Orderly powerhouses, injuring the Void Lord but failing to kill him. The Void Lord utilized his spatial talents to escape.
Following a week-long “Lightning Chase” campaign, the Void Legion in the Fallen Hills was essentially wiped out. Only a handful of its senior leaders and remaining forces followed the Void Lord into the void, vanishing without a trace.
At this point, the conflict in the Eastern Continent basically ended with victory for the Orderly faction. The continent, once almost overrun by demons, finally returned to the embrace of Order.
As for the distant Western Continent, the conflict concluded even earlier than in the East.
With the Decay Lord obliterated by Ji Chen and the rear base at the Mordor Strait destroyed, the Decay Legion uncontrollably spiraled into decline. They were swiftly routed by various forces from the Western Continent, including Gnomes and Half-Orcs, collapsing several days earlier than the Void Legion.
However, unlike the latter, the Decay Legion was almost entirely wiped out. From the Decay Lord at the apex of the pyramid to the foot soldiers at the bottom, they were almost completely exterminated, with only scattered demons escaping the slaughter.
Yet, the subsequent Western Continent nations dispatched large armies to thoroughly clear every inch of land, further eradicating the remaining demons of the Decay Legion.
The conflicts on both the Eastern and Western Continents were settled.
Only the Southern Continent remained, where the Orderly faction continued to advance triumphantly. Currently, not only have they reclaimed the highlands of the Ronnie River upstream, but they have also cleared the source of water pollution, allowing cities along the middle and lower reaches of the river to once again have clean water sources.
The Greed Legion had been driven back into the vast desert of the southern part of the Southern Continent. They were still squeezing the limited resources in their rear base to send wave after wave of new demons to the front lines.
However, losing large swaths of land and lacking sufficient resources to replenish, they couldn’t produce enough demons, and their decline was gradually becoming evident.
With three continents reclaimed out of the five, only the Southern Continent remained, and the dawn of victory was already visible. The Orderly faction was incredibly excited.
Just like tens of thousands of years ago, they had once again defeated the demons, successfully defending their homeland and the land essential for survival!
Under the shocking and joyful news, much of the anxiety and worry brought by the conflicts with the Divine Army had dissipated, and the nations were engulfed in joy.
Meanwhile, in the heavens above.
Within the Oceanic Divine Realm.
The twelve Oceanic Deities sat around a round table, discussing fervently.
“We can no longer remain indifferent. I can feel our followers dwindling, all snatched away by that human who isn’t even a god!”
“Indeed, his ambitions are boundless. The idea of establishing his Oceanic Faith aims to assimilate all oceanic races and coastal human believers, seeking to completely sever the faith upon which we rely for survival!”
“It’s exactly what those dark deities are trying to do!”
“This is even more despicable than the dark deities. I have never seen such audacity. If he’s like this before becoming a god, imagine how much worse he’ll be after ascending?”
The Oceanic Deities speak out, their faces showing a mix of resentment, anger, and disdain towards the human, along with a hint of mockery and disdain.
In truth, there was also some fear in their hearts.
The Oceanic Divine Realm was no longer as glorious as it once had been. The entire divine realm could only influence so many followers, and for every new deity that emerged, a portion of followers had to be divided. Moreover, the potential of this human could not be underestimated; he might even have directly ascended to an intermediate god.
The number of followers an intermediate god could “consume” was much greater than that of a lesser god.
Among the twelve Oceanic Deities, nine were lesser gods, and three were intermediate gods.
This divine hierarchy had been maintained for tens of thousands of years, and now suddenly, there was a high probability of the emergence of a intermediate god, one who arrogantly seized resources in such a blatant manner.
How could they ever have accepted this!
“1 proposed that we immediately dispatched the Divine Army and used force to compel that human to abandon his godhood. If he refused, then we would have eradicated him directly!”
“I seconded that!”
“Agreed!”
Soon, without exception, all twelve Oceanic Deities had cast their votes in favor.
The Oceanic Divine Realm immediately sprang into action. Mighty divisions of the Oceanic Divine Army poured forth, marching mightily towards the mortal realm..