Chapter 468: Shipwreck Overseas

At the entrance of the Sacred Oak Temple in Silverleaf City.

Morning light filtered through the dense branches of the Silver-leaf Oak, casting dappled shadows on the ground below.

The temple gates were tightly shut, with two elven guards holding bows standing before them like a pair of silent sculptures.

Lothlorien stood before the temple entrance, his gaze fixed on the two elven priests bowing before him with lowered heads.

"How many days has the meal delivery been stopped?"

Alia lowered her head.

She had actually wanted to speak up midway through.

But she didn't dare.

She was afraid that her own small concerns might seem trivial.

So several times she picked up the tray, only to put it back down again.

Lothlorien nodded slightly.

"Yes." Alia said softly.

Before she could finish speaking, she heard footsteps behind her.

A knight in silver armor strode over, bowed, and said: "Lord Lothlorien."

Lothlorien took the report.

His gaze lingered on the newspaper.

The knight's voice carried a hint of gravity.

"Who attacked those half-elves."

"But what's strange is..."

The Ancient Tree Council sent people to assassinate those half-elves.

"The kingdom built because of you."

Lothlorien's eyes narrowed slightly.

The knight raised his head.

"Things outside the Council..."

"A bunch of people who can't even cross the Shadow Mountains."

"Yes." The knight lowered his head.

In fact, this was indeed true.

The elves only stayed within the Emerald Crown.

They didn't care about the outside world.

To the Ancient Tree Council, those matters were nothing more than trivial affairs outside the courtyard.

Not worth stepping out of the garden for.

The knight saluted and left.

"Yes." Alia answered.

Lothlorien turned and walked along the corridor.

Alia waited until that figure completely disappeared before finally letting out a long breath.

"Lord Lothlorien's presence is getting more and more terrifying."

She patted her chest.

"Mhm."

Selene acknowledged with a soft hum, following behind Alia as they walked into the temple.

As she crossed the threshold, her gaze casually swept toward the end of the corridor, the direction Lothlorien had disappeared.

She was still thinking about that matter Lothlorien had mentioned earlier.

It seemed that after she left the Empire, His Majesty had done quite a few interesting things.

She withdrew her gaze and followed Alia through the temple's front hall, heading toward the inner chamber surrounded by tree roots and vines.

They had successfully infiltrated the interior.

Now, they just needed to wait for the Autumn Brewing Festival to arrive...

At the Slime City Palace.

Chen Yu was crouched at the oak table, a stack of official documents spread out before him.

These papers seemed endless, like they could never be finished, but he was already used to it. After all, Little Flower and Silver Sparrow handled the vast majority of the paperwork. What sat before him was merely going through the motions.

Silver Sparrow's voice echoed in his mind: "Master, the first batch of Construction School mages has arrived at the Royal Capital and are currently touring Mudun."

"Oh?" Chen Yu looked up. "Much faster than expected."

"Yes, just as you predicted, after touring the industrial city of Mudun, these mages show absolutely no intention of leaving."

"According to Master Samuel, several of them have already approached the local officials, hoping to participate in the engineering projects."

"Some have even gone further."

Chen Yu wagged his tail with delight.

The Construction School, Dawn City.

Those grand mages who had once harbored such pride.

Now they couldn't bear to leave after witnessing Mudun.

The gel blueprint in his hand.

That machine combining magic and engineering.

And Anvil's side had also been making progress.

He had to admit, this old dwarf really had some tricks up his sleeve.

Anvil had taken the design he'd provided and successfully built a magic furnace exceeding the royal standard, which had earned him a personal invitation from a southern kingdom's monarch.

By now, he was probably already on his way to the south.

As for how many dwarven blacksmiths would follow.

Based on the momentum so far, it shouldn't be a small number.

Chen Yu thought to himself.

With things going this way.

The Empire's development would only get smoother from here.

As for how long it would take to build the magic furnace on a large scale.

Gelda's main structure was sequential.

The bottleneck lay in the production of Alchemical Gel and the Empire's financial strength.

Speaking of finances, he had some new ideas.

He flipped through another document on the table, a draft for astral exploration cooperation that he'd had Silver Sparrow draw up.

He planned to reach an exchange and cooperation agreement with the Exploration Assembly of the Dawn Council.

The Council's mages would lead expeditions deep into the Astral Realm to explore those floating wrecks and the black dragon's lairs, while also doing some "looting" work on the side.

First, these mages were experienced and far more reliable than the Empire's own adventurer guild.

Second, the spoils of exploration could be split between the Empire and the Council, providing a stable and secure source of income.

As for why the Father God of the dragon race would tacitly allow these things... Chen Yu had only recently learned the reason.

It turned out that as the faith in the Giant Dragon Father God had weakened, a new evil and chaotic black dragon god had been born among the black dragon race.

They worshipped darkness and destruction, slowly devouring the Father God's faith, and had established secret altars deep within the Astral Realm.

Although most black dragons still maintained the ancient faith of the Father God, more and more black dragons were leaving the dragon nests and turning to embrace this "Black Dragon God."

Not only did they devour the Dragon God's faith, but they would even attack other dragon clans.

This kind of behavior was probably similar to heretics among humans.

Since that was the case, Chen Yu naturally wouldn't be polite.

He planned to use the banner of "cleansing the nests of heretics" and lead a group of mages from the Exploration Assembly to visit those black dragon lairs one by one.

He had to say, these black dragons that had lived for hundreds of years were truly wealthy. A single nest could yield at least hundreds of thousands of gold coins.

Even if these gold coins were shared among all the mages.

The Empire's financial revenue would still multiply several times over, leaving it with a stuffed belly.

The best part was that this kind of operation.

Those surviving black dragons wouldn't dare to report it.

They had to endure the humiliation silently, perhaps even claiming that the lairs had been attacked by the forces of the Black Dragon God.

It was practically legal looting!

Chen Yu was tallying up his finances when Silver Sparrow's voice suddenly sounded again.

"A long-distance transmission from the teleportation tower, a distress signal from the Empire's overseas fleet!"

"Distress?"

Chen Yu's thoughts snapped back.

He remembered that Jack had recently led a fleet overseas.

He closed his eyes and extended his consciousness along the gel network, stretching toward the distant direction.

A moment later, an indistinct scene appeared in the darkness.

But something felt off.

His vision was blurry.

This connection felt unstable, like a signal being continuously distorted.

Chen Yu was surprised.

By all rights, he had established solid connections with all the slimes.

Why was the connection so unstable now?

Just as he was wondering, a tremendous roar suddenly came through the image.

It was the roar of cannon fire, followed by the sound of wood splintering and the continuous slapping of water.

"Damn it! Those pirates blew up our storage room, all our property is gone!"

Jack's voice came and went, mixed with howling winds, sounding especially urgent: "Don't let those Medusas get close, don't look into their eyes!"

Then the voice suddenly became clearer: "Miss Nilly, have you contacted His Majesty?"

"The signal seems a bit poor..." Nilly's voice carried uncertainty. "Let me try again."

After a brief silence, Nilly's voice suddenly warned: "Your Majesty, if you can hear this, do not open a Fissure to come here. This is the Sea Whirlpool, different from other places!"

The Sea Whirlpool?