Book 12, The Descent of the Gods – Chapter 14, A Visit From Yale
Yulan calendar, year 10034. June. The flames of war erupted once more in the Yulan continent.
The Yulan Empire, O’Brien Empire, and Baruch Empire formed an alliance and began to launch a large scale war, the likes of which hadn’t been seen for millennia, against the weaker Rohault Empire, Rhine Empire, Holy Union, Dark Alliance, and great plains of the far east.
The spiritual leader of the great plains of the far east, the War Saint Tulily, having already received the warnings of the War God and the High Priest, knew that he was not to go against these plans.
In addition, Tulily owed a debt to Linley. In addition, Tulily himself didn’t wish for the warriors of the great plains of the far east to throw their lives away for no purpose, under the destructive forbidden-level spells of Grand Magus Saints. Thus, Tulily had already sent out his own Saint-level disciples to discuss the situation with all three Kingdoms of the great plains.
Although the three Kingdoms hadn’t immediately agreed to surrender to the Baruch Empire, they didn’t refuse flat out either, for now.
As for the Holy Union and the Dark Alliance, their higher echelons had been wiped out, and they had virtually no Saints left. The two major alliances were like a pile of loose, formless sand.
A unit of the O’Brien Empire’s army passed through the northern corridor of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts and entered the Holy Union. The Kingdoms and Duchies of the Holy Union which had access to good intelligence reports, upon learning of the destruction of the Sacred Isle and the elimination of the upper echelons of the Radiant Church, had begun to secretly meet with the representatives of the O’Brien Empire.
Actually, it was the O’Brien Empire itself which had intentionally spread the word of the destruction of the upper echelons of the Radiant Church.
In addition, this was true. The few lucky survivors of the Radiant Church weren’t able to cover it up, even if they wanted to. Clearly…the Holy Union had already become nothing more than a relic of history. The O’Brien Empire’s conquest of it was nothing more than a matter of time.
At least for now, it appeared to be only a matter of time.
As for the Dark Alliance, their situation wasn’t much better than that of the Holy Union’s.
But of course, the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows had many members who were scattered throughout the lands. Although their headquarters had been destroyed and only a very few Saints were left, they still had many of their mid-level managers, most of whom were ordinary mortals.
A rule of thousands of years had resulted in these two churches possessing great influence.
The remnants of the Radiant Church and the Cult of Shadows, especially the Zealots of the Radiant Church, weren’t willing to give up.
The power of religious faith truly was very strong.
By relying on various methods, be it gentle or bloody, the two major churches which had survived for ten thousand years were able to somewhat stabilize their internal situations. They wanted to prepare to do battle against the Yulan Empire and the O’Brien Empire. Until the last moment came, they didn’t want to give up.
At the base of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, on a desolate road in the Southeast Administrative Province of the O’Brien Empire.
A strange person covered in a green cloak was standing amidst the desolate road, staring at his surroundings. The only thing that could be seen from within those two long sleeves was a pair of chicken claw like fingers, which demonstrated that this person should be an extremely old man.
Only…
His eyes were an oily green color, like the eyes of a wolf in the night.
Behind him, there were a total of nine figures covered in silver cloaks. These voluminous silver cloak covered figures were all standing behind the old man respectfully like servants.
“Yulan continent. So this is the Yulan continent…” The ancient, low voice rang out from the old man dressed in the green cloak.
“Cough, cough…” The sound of coughing could be heard. This green-robed old man seemed to be rather frail.
Suddenly, two youths riding handsome horses appeared, galloping across the desolate road. For some reason, when the two youths saw the green robed man and those nine mysterious silver-cloaked men, they felt a cold shiver in their hearts.
These two youths consciously decided to pull their horses aside, planning to leave from the other side of the road at high speed.
They didn’t want to get too close to these seemingly mysterious people.
“Humans…” Seeing the two youths ,the green robed old man’s oily green eyes flashed. He was so skinny that nothing more than a layer of skin was left on his bones, and when his bony, claw-like hand stretched out, a strange, invisible force suddenly bound those two youths.
“Aaaah!” “Aaaah”!
The two youths felt that they could no longer move, and then, they began to fly up in the air, their bodies no longer under their own control. They shot out like arrows towards that green robed old man, causing them to scream in terror.
“Crunch!” “Crunch!”
His two hands gripped the skulls of the two youths, who instantly began to quiver and shake, their bodies spasming as though they were having a seizure.
“Oh, War God, High Priest? And that legendary Dragonblood Warrior?” The old man murmured to himself, and then turned his oily green eyes to peer into the eyes of the two spasming youths. “Poor children. I will give you your eternal release.”
And then, the two youths fell to the ground, but their bodies no longer had any aura at all. They were dead.
“What a pity. These two souls were too weak. Absorbing them was of little benefit to me.” The ancient man took a long, comfortable breath.
Absorbing souls?
If anyone else was near and had heard this, they would have been utterly terrified.
But the nine silver-cloaked men behind him maintained their silence, waiting respectfully.
“The Yulan continent is about to begin an era of major, large-scale warfare. This is an excellent opportunity for all of you. Go, children. Don’t disappoint me.” The ancient voice of the green-robed old man rang out, and the nine silver-cloaked figures all fell to one knee. “Yes, Grand Warlock!”
And then…
‘Swoosh’ ‘Swoosh’.
The nine silver-cloaked figures transformed into nine silver dots, disappearing into the horizon. They were so fast that if Linley and Desri had seen them, they would have felt astonished.
“Yulan continent. Ten thousand years…it has changed so much.” The green-robed old man let out a quiet sigh. “First, recover my strength. When I have the chance, then I’ll go pay a visit to Lord Beirut.” And then, with a movement, the green robed old man transformed into a blur and disappeared.
Baruch Empire. Dragonblood Castle. The main hall.
“Big brother Yale, you came at an unfortunate time. A few months ago, my big brother started to engage in closed door training.” Wharton said helplessly towards Yale, who had come to visit.
“Third Bro is in meditative training again?” Yale frowned.
“What’s wrong? Is there some problem? Why don’t you talk to me about it. I might be able to help.” Wharton said with a laugh. He knew exactly how close Yale and Linley were, and so Yale’s affairs, he naturally would get involved in.
Yale hesitated for a moment, then said, “Wharton, can’t Third Bro come out and have a quick meeting with me?”
Wharton said apologetically, “Big brother Yale, I am sorry, truly. This closed door training session is different from the previous ones. This one is rather important. Before beginning his training, my big brother had already issued an order that unless something extremely, extremely important came up, we were definitely not to permit anyone to disturb him. Actually, even if I agreed to let you see my big brother, we would still need to get the permissions of Mr. Zassler and the others as well.”
Dragonblood Castle viewed Linley’s training as an issue of paramount importance. No matter how close one’s relationship with Linley was, they definitely wouldn’t be permitted to go meet with Linley unless there was absolutely no other recourse at all.
“If that’s the case…” Yale paused for a moment.
“Then Wharton, I won’t disturb Third Bro. Anyhow. I have some other affairs to attend to. I’ll leave for now.” Yale said.
As far as Dragonblood Castle was concerned, Yale’s visit was just a small affair. No one paid much attention to it.
The next day.
The imperial capital of the Baruch Empire. The imperial palace.
Cena strode into the flower garden, smiling towards Yale who was waiting for him there. “Chairman Yale, I am truly sorry to have made you wait for so long. Chairman Yale, please, sit.” Cena, upon hearing that Yale had come to visit, had immediately put down everything he was working on to come meet Yale.
After all, Cena knew how close Yale and Linley were as well.
“Emperor Cena, I was in no rush. Your matters are of more importance, your Imperial Majesty.” Yale said with great modesty.
Although when Cena was young, Yale had met him and played with him while meeting Linley, Cena was now the Emperor of an Empire. Within the imperial palace, Yale’s attitude still had to be very respectful and modest.
“Chairman Yale, don’t stand on so much ceremony. Why are you standing on so much ceremony with me?” Cena chortled. “Speak, what is it? If I can help, I definitely will.”
Yale said, “Then, Emperor Cena, I’ll speak plainly. My visit this time is to request your help, Emperor Cena. Emperor Cena, you are currently beginning large-scale warfare against the Rohault Empire, are you not? And you are winning a series of battles.”
“Right.” Cena nodded slightly.
He was wondering why Yale mentioned this.
“I have a request that is perhaps a bit excessive.” Yale said.
“Oh?” Cena looked at him.
Yale chuckled, then said, “This is the situation. I know that the alliance of your three major Empires has the goal of completely conquering your opponents. These battles will definitely be very fierce, and I also trust that your Baruch Empire will have captured many of the enemy’s soldiers.”
“That is correct. What of it?” Cena looked at him.
It was normal to capture the enemy’s soldiers in warfare.
In addition, the goal of this war was to conquer the entire Rohault Empire. How could the imperial clan of the Rohault Empire submit to them? Naturally, they would fight back.
“Emperor Cena, the vast majority of those enemy soldiers that you’ve kidnapped will be used as slaves. I would like, Emperor Cena, to ask if you would be willing to sell all of the soldiers you’ve kidnapped to my Dawson Conglomerate?” Yale finally got around to making his request.
Cena instantly began to frown.
Sell all of the captured enemy soldiers to the Dawson Conglomerate?
Generally speaking, captured enemy soldiers would be used as cannon fodder in future battles, or put to work in building roads, mining, clearing forests, and so on and so forth. All types of hard, manual labor. Perhaps a small portion of the slaves would be sold off.
But…to sell all the captured soldiers to a single Conglomerate?
This was indeed rarely seen.
The reason for this was because in this sort of large scale, ‘total war’ type of warfare between major Empires, each Empire would probably have roughly two or three million active duty soldiers, with perhaps millions more in reserve. This sort of war of utter annihilation would generally result in many captured soldiers. For example, if a large army was destroyed, it was possible that a hundred thousand people would be captured.
Over the course of conquering the Rohault Empire, the number of captured soldiers would definitely be in the hundreds of thousands, or perhaps even more.
Several hundred thousand soldiers, even enslaved, were still a capable military force. To give such an enormous military force to a trading union?
“This…” Cena hesitated.
Although this was Yale, Linley’s big brother, Yale really was asking for quite a bit. He wanted the Baruch Empire to sell all of their captured soldiers to the Dawson Conglomerate?
“Emperor Cena, what are you worried about? Our Dawson Conglomerate neither has a large amount of territory, nor do we have Saint-level experts such as Third Bro. They are just some captured slaves.” Yale persuaded. “Emperor Cena, I hope you can help me out.”
Yale’s words were said with great sincerity.
“Chairman Yale, in the past, your Dawson Conglomerate never got involved in the slave trade. Why are you buying so many captured soldiers now?” Cena asked.
Yale laughed. “That’s an internal secret of the Conglomerate. We’re currently working out a special developmental plan.”
Cena was silent for a few more moments, then looked at Yale.
Actually, the captured soldiers were of limited use to the Baruch Empire. After all, their goal was the destruction of the Rohault Empire. Thus, there was no question of ransoming the soldiers back to the Rohault Empire after the battle was concluded. In addition…as Cena viewed it, so what if he sold the slaves to the Dawson Conglomerate?
Could it be that the Dawson Conglomerate also wanted to rule the world?
What a joke!
After all, the true foundation of any Empire was its most powerful experts!
“Alright. I agree.” Cena said.
“Emperor Cena, thank you, truly.” Yale instantly smiled. “You really are helping me out tremendously. Thank you so much, truly.”
Cena and Yale chatted for a while longer, then shared a lunch together before Yale left.
After Yale left, Cena was still puzzled as he pondered this matter carefully. “Why is the Dawson Conglomerate suddenly entering the slave trade for no apparent reason? In addition, based on what I know, Yale and Uncle are on extremely close terms, but Yale himself is an extremely valiant figure who almost never asks difficult favors from others. But this time…”