Chapter 207: Multi-line investigation

God Bo possessed an aggressive nature and a desire for expansion. Once he conquered Wuzi Wang’s kingdom, the next step would surely be to investigate the death of the Apostle in the overlapping area.

The loss of three Apostles in a row was a significant blow to any pantheon.

Without a passage, the gods and their Apostles couldn’t enter the fragmented worlds, but they could still pull off minor tricks. Like the Whistleblower, they could introduce harmful species to cause trouble.

One couldn’t wait for the enemy’s fist to hit the face before thinking of counterattacking.

Lu Yao decided to take the initiative and preemptively eliminate God Bo.

Strategically belittle the enemy, but tactically take them seriously.

He inquired in detail about the matter from Sarina.

God Bo was a true deity, fundamentally different from apprentice deities. Lu Yao’s past experiences in divine battles were not quite applicable here.

After pondering for a while, Sarina said, “The gods have four abilities: constructing divine palaces and totems, drifting of divine nations, ranking in the pantheon, and shaping a Divine Body.”

A divine palace is an advanced form of a deity statue, capable of housing other statues to obtain divinity.

Totems are extensions of miracles, with different deities able to create different totems. Totems provide better protection for believers and generate some incredible special effects.

Drifting of divine nations refers to gods bringing a world into the crawling zone, embarking on a journey through the dimensional space.

During this process, gods can adjust the drifting direction of their divine nation or burn the power of faith to propel the entire nation forward more quickly.

However, since the object of this action is a world—even if it’s just a part of a fragmented world—it requires a significant amount of faith to slowly push against the forces of dimensionality. This is also the origin of the crawling zone.

For most divine nations, drifting is the norm. Only when encountering danger do gods burn faith frantically to steer their nation swiftly to avoid and redirect.

Ranking in the pantheon means leaving one’s name in the pantheon, henceforth having a ranking among the gods. The rank is related to one’s Divinity and Divine Body.

The outstanding among them are recruited by the chief gods and titled deities, becoming their subordinates.

Lastly, gods can shape a Divine Body. Within their own divine nation, they can arrive anywhere in an instant.

Lu Yao summarized it as: banding together, rowing, ranking, and creating alts.

What reassured him was that the gods couldn’t truly control their own worlds, not even capable of rowing, let alone having the ability to edit worlds like the Golden Plains.

The gods were like sailing a clumsy little boat, searching for new worlds in the unpredictable sea.

Most of the time, they were drifting, avoiding dangerous vessels and chaotic currents.

Sometimes, they would engage in boarding battles with each other, like God Bo’s realm and Wuzi Wang’s kingdom—winner takes all, the loser falls.

In this process, the strong emerge, gaining the support of more powerful titled deities or even chief gods. From then on, they have an organization, a powerful backing, and can grow more securely.

Titled deities generally adopt a laissez-faire approach to their subordinates to maximize the growth potential of each divine nation and subordinate.

This approach has a downside: relatively independent gods find it difficult to receive timely rescue from titled deities when in danger. Only when the chief gods initiate a large-scale divine war do all subordinates get summoned to gather.

That is to say, God Bo is currently isolated.

***

Having understood the macro situation of the gods, the next step was to focus specifically on God Bo.

Lu Yao shifted his perspective to the war front.

The Fearless Empire’s soldiers were arranged in neat squares. Dressed in uniform chainmail, carrying large round shields, and wielding spears or bows, they advanced steadily under the command of their officers.

The empire’s army had a clear division of labor, with mounted scouts specifically exploring the surroundings, frontline shield bearers and spearmen, archers protected in the middle, and many militiamen in the rear responsible for supplies. Mules carried bags of food, forming a long supply line.

The entire battlefield was managed in an orderly manner.

Among them, there was a type of large Transcendent creature, the Sand Lizard.

【Sand Lizard LV12】

Health Points: 343/343

Mana Points: 1/1

Damage: 10

Defense: 15

Speed: 5

【Thick Skin】

Innately possesses higher health points.

【Keen Smell】

Sharp sense of smell can detect the traces of enemies.

【Endurance】

Can maintain long-distance movement for a long time under hunger, heavy load, or injury, possessing excellent endurance.

The Sand Lizard’s combat panel was unremarkable, but after continuous domestication and training, they were well-suited for coordinated combat as required by the military.

Some Sand Lizards had large crossbow mechanisms mounted on their backs. Soldiers would wind them up and launch thick crossbow bolts, capable of destroying the ground stone fortresses created by the Wuzi people from a distance.

Lu Yao then looked to the other side.

Compared to the empire, Wuzi Wang’s kingdom was somewhat lacking.

Firstly, the Wuzi people relied on throwing stones for combat—indeed, this left Lu Yao dumbfounded.

Initially, the stones they threw were not ordinary, being a special weapon that would shatter upon hitting the ground, causing an explosion.

However, the explosive power was very weak, and they were not easy to make, not to mention scarce. More imperial soldiers were injured by the stones themselves.

Thus, the Wuzi people simply changed their strategy to throwing stones directly. Stones didn’t need processing, were everywhere, and were abundant. The Wuzi people were strong and could throw stones long distances.

But this range was no match for bows and Sand Lizard crossbows.

The empire’s arrows were often lit with fire, and upon touching the black mud on the Wuzi people’s bodies, they would ignite, causing them to explode upon contact with external water.

The large crossbow bolts shot by the Sand Lizard crossbows could directly penetrate the bodies of the Wuzi people, causing immediate explosions.

Additionally, the Wuzi people had a special tactic involving subterranean boats.

The subterranean boats would burrow underground, causing the surface to collapse and impeding the empire’s army, leading to casualties.

But with the scouts’ continuous exploration, this ambush tactic gradually became ineffective.

Lu Yao observed for a long time.

From the battlefield performance, the Fearless Empire was indeed striking Wuzi Wang’s kingdom from a higher dimension. The former was clearly experienced, advancing and retreating with measure, firmly controlling the situation.

The latter was desperately trying to slow the former’s advance, yet their land and population were being steadily eroded.

If the empire didn’t mind the losses, they could have steamrolled over long ago.

The previous batch of eleven Wuzi people had been placed by Isabella deep underground next to the northern Dragon’s Nest, waiting temporarily. With the elder of the giant monsters watching over the Dragon’s Nest, there was no worry of problems.

After completing all this, Isabella returned and infiltrated deep into the empire’s territory.

The Wuzi people were quite scattered, each with their own space. The surface was always dangerous for them, and so far, they only had one decent city.

Now their subterranean boats were essentially their houses, able to move and migrate at any time. To call it a kingdom was somewhat overstated; it was more like a loose underground tribe.

On the Fearless Empire’s side, the population was highly concentrated.

They also had only one city, the Capital city, Crystal City. All towns and villages were centered around this gigantic imperial capital, with it as the absolute core.

From a bird’s-eye view, in the U-shaped God Bo’s realm, Crystal City was at the absolute center, with roads and villages spreading out in circles around it.

Isabella learned two spells through “Magic Conjecture.”

One was the “Transformation” spell from the treant Jodi, which allowed her to change her appearance for infiltration and intelligence gathering; the other was the “Flame Surge” from the scaled horned giant slug, a fire spell that could also burn mana, with decent combat effectiveness.

She entered the outskirts of Crystal City, disguised as a mute old beggar woman.

By observing and listening, Isabella first learned the local language, then gradually changed into different identities, and through various means, she figured out the current state of the empire.

Isabella reported, “My lord, the Fifth Fearless Empire has a total population of about 320,000, of which 70,000 are soldiers. Among the soldiers, 40,000 are for reserve and supplementary logistics, militia, and auxiliary troops, with the remaining 30,000 being the regular army.”

Lu Yao thought silently, with over twenty percent of the population as soldiers, just the arrangement and provisions for these soldiers were a huge daily expense.

The empire’s biggest concern was logistics.

Isabella continued, “Before the war, the empire had declared a wartime state, with all food and supplies prioritized for the frontline soldiers.”

“The grains in the rear farms will be uniformly requisitioned by the empire, and each farmer and merchant will be given a wartime price, along with war vouchers as compensation.”

“Cotton, hemp, and metallurgy industries are the same.”

“Once the war is over, the empire will cash in the profits brought by the war through war vouchers, compensating the civilians who contributed in the rear during the war.”

“The empire has always operated this way, so civilians often go through cycles of feast and famine during wars, but as long as it doesn’t last long, they can endure.”

“If they really can’t get enough to eat, civilians will choose to join the army and go to the frontline, where soldiers are less likely to starve.”

“The empire is accustomed to wartime mobilization, and many people long for war because it is the key for ordinary people to get rich and advance.”

“The last war, according to imperial records, was over two hundred years ago. So this divine war between the two worlds has many imperial soldiers very excited.”

Isabella paused, and dialogue boxes continued to appear above her head.

“God Bo’s divine palace is in Crystal City, and the chief Apostle Sote is the current emperor of the Fifth Empire. God Bo almost always stays in the divine palace. Additionally, every village around has built altars to provide the fire of faith for God Bo.”

“On the level of Transcendent power, Crystal City breeds Sand Lizards. God Bo detests Transcendent species that do not obey orders, and it is said that wild Transcendent life has been completely exterminated by the Apostles.”

An idea popped into Lu Yao’s mind.

After repeated deductions, he felt that the plan he conceived was feasible.

***

Half an hour later, Lu Yao returned with a small plastic box from outside.

He rubbed his hands together and sat in front of the computer.

Wearing a pair of rubber gloves, Lu Yao took out an insect from the box.

This was the vanguard of the upcoming operation.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep