Book 8: Chapter 118: Returning to his hometown? (End of book)
Duke Masalan’s attitude in front of Feven was very strong and it could even be considered arrogant, but he was only a frontline commander and naturally couldn’t represent the entire Marlow Empire.
Compared to Duke Masalan, the Marlow Empire’s official channel’s stance was more tactful.
But no matter how tactful they were, the Marlow Empire’s attitude was clear. They definitely wouldn’t agree to the ceasefire treaty that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce proposed.
Or to put it more accurately, they wouldn’t accept the terms the Frestech Chamber of Commerce gave.
For the Marlow Empire, they already had the absolute advantage. As long as they continued like this, they would defeat the Lampuri Kingdom eventually. If they really defeated the Lampuri Kingdom, they would become the only powerful empire on the Sines Continent that would dominate the Sines Continent.
In this situation, to make them choose surrender was a joke.
This was the direction that the Marlow Empire wanted to see.
While they were stalling the peace talk matters with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the Marlow Empire never stopped their movements. They strengthened their attacks on the Lampuri Kingdom.
The Lampuri Kingdom actually had a serious internal strife that appeared at this time.
In the territory of the Antila Kingdom, the restored Antila Kingdom army suddenly appeared and attacked the Lampuri Kingdom army stationed in the Antila Kingdom.
Since it had happened so suddenly and there weren’t many Lampuri Kingdom troops stationed in the Antila Kingdom, they had been annihilated by the Antila Kingdom army.
At the same time, in the Sack Kingdom territory, an army that claimed to be the Sack Kingdom army started attacking the Lampuri Kingdom.
Then adding in the Falk Kingdom guerilla force that had been accepting aid from the Marlow Empire the entire time intensifying their attacks, the Lampuri Kingdom’s internal situation had become a mess.
This naturally greatly affected the battle power of the Lampuri Kingdom’s frontline army, being defeated again and again by the Marlow Empire army and being chased back. They had completely given up all the Candra Empire territory that they had seized from the Marlow Empire.
If the Marlow Empire took a step further, they would be invading the Lampuri Kingdom’s land. The people of the Sines Continent were filled with doubts at this time.
What was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce doing?
Since they had failed at the first peace talks with the Marlow Empire, half a year had already passed.
During such a long period, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had only been talking about truce and had never taken any substantial action.
This really made people doubtful.
Could it be……that what the newspaper said were true? The Frestech Chamber of Commerce really was weak now and didn’t have the courage to enter the war, so they didn’t declare war on the Marlow Empire?
Very few people were willing to accept this.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce had been founded for over fifty years and other than being weak in the first few years, in the other forty years, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had always had a strong attitude. While at the same time, they represented incomparable power.
It had to be known that twenty years ago, even the two empires working together couldn’t defeat the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
But now the Frestech Chamber of Commerce didn’t dare meddle in the war between the Marlow Empire and the Lampuri Kingdom?
If the Marlow Empire really invaded the Lampuri Kingdom’s territory and even destroyed the Lampuri Kingdom, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s invincible image over the past decades would be destroyed.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce that lost their invincible image would lose all their position on the Sines Continent, becoming just a normal company.
Moreover, if the Marlow Empire destroyed the Lampuri Kingdom and unified the Sines Continent, they wouldn’t give the Frestech Chamber of Commerce any room to survive.
Even if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had built a strong foundation on the Magic Cloud Continent, if they had lost the Sine continent, would they still be as strong as before?
The Marlow Empire might even invade the Magic Cloud Continent after they had built up their power.
With such an analysis, people found that not just the Lampuri Kingdom, even the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was pushed to the border of life and death.
If the Frestech Chamber of Commerce watched the Lampuri Kingdom’s situation deteriorate, then the consequences could be imagined.
If they were to take action, did the Frestech Chamber of Commerce have enough power?
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce finally made a move when faced with the doubts of countless people.
It wasn’t just a single move, it was like a bolt of lightning.
In April of year 3334, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce announced that since the Marlow Empire didn’t agree to the peace talks, to preserve the peace of the continent and to avoid more civilians being harmed, they would adopt more intense actions to urge the Marlow Empire to choose peace.
As for the intense actions……
In April of year 3334, two Frestech Chamber of Commerce fleets invaded the Marlow Empire’s northern coast. They destroyed three port cities in just half a month and then with two other Frestech Chamber of Commerce fleets, they completely blockaded the Marlow Empire’s northern coast.
The Marlow Empire’s northern fleet that fought the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s fleet were completely destroyed and not a single ship returned.
At the same time, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards with twenty thousand soldiers, three thousand Magic Tanks, and five hundred combat Magic Airships sent out from the Black Rice Wasteland. In just a single week, they pacified the rebellions in the Sack Kingdom and the Antila Kingdom before heading northeast, entering the small Rodin Duchy to enter the Marlow Empire.
In May of year 3334, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards and the Marlow Empire’s west garrison fought a fierce battle.
In just a single day, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards destroyed the Marlow Empire’s defensive lines and approached the Marlow Empire’s territory.
In June of year 3334.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards had fought the Marlow Empire’s army twenty seven times without a single defeat. They had defeated seventeen Marlow Empire regiments and three royal guard regiments, suffering no more than 10% casualties. They pushed towards Duke Southgate’s territory.
Duke Southgate immediately announced that he was separating from the Marlow Empire to form the Southgate Duchy.
At the same time, in the Marlow Empire’s territory captured by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there were many rebellions by nobles. There were several large and small duchies that had been formed.
On the other side, the Lampuri Kingdom’s army coordinated with thirty thousand Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards, routing the Marlow Empire army again and again. They took back the territory of the Candra Empire from the Marlow Empire army.
This time, the Lampuri Kingdom and Frestech Chamber of Commerce allied army didn’t stop at the Marlow Empire border. They smashed right into the Marlow Empire’s territory with unstoppable force.
At the same time, on another battlefield to the distant east, ten thousand Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards along with fifty thousand Levin Continent soldiers landed on the Sines Continent’s east coast. They worked with the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom army to quickly defeat the eastern alliance’s army.
In just a single month, the eastern alliance’s army was destroyed and the alliance was disbanded.
The eastern countries chose to sign a «Peace Trade Cooperation Treaty» with the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom, ending the war that lasted many years on the Sines Continent’s east.
In February of year 3335, the Lampuri Kingdom, the Rudson Kingdom, the Drake Kingdom, the Nozdormu Business Union Kingdom, the Candra United Federation States, and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards created an allied army to invade the Marlow Empire.
Under the pressure of this allied army, Emperor Marlow declared that even if the jade seal was burnt, they would not allow their country to fall to the enemies. He stated that he would resist the allied army with all his nation’s power.
In April of year 3335, the allied army launched a great attack on the Marlow Empire, finally defeating the Marlow Empire army who suffered a loss of over one hundred and thirty thousand casualties.
In the end of April of year 3335, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce used two long range Magic Missiles with Magic Nuclear Warheads of unparalleled might to hit the two military industrial bases in the Marlow Empire’s north. Destroying their final hope of resisting.
In June of year 3335.
After negotiations, the allied army finally accepted the unconditional surrender of the Marlow Empire.
In March of year 3336, Emperor Marlow announced his abdication and that the Marlow Empire would restructure themselves. They would change from being an empire to being the Marlow United Federation States, abolishing the monarchy.
The first president of the Marlow United Federation States would be Duke Southgate.
With this, the chaos of war that had filled the Sines Continent for twenty years had finally ended.
###
Another twenty years passed in an instant.
After twenty years of peace on the Sines Continent, the entire Sines Planet had developed in peace for twenty years.
During these twenty years, the magic technology of this world took another step forward.
In the civilian field, many magic machines became popular and lives became much more comfortable than twenty years ago.
The biggest change was the large spread of the magic communication network.
The current magic communication network wasn’t like it was twenty years ago. Just when it came to sound and image transfer, almost anything could be transferred on the magic communication network.
People could even use the magic communication network at any time to contact anyone else through it.
With this network, all the people of the Sines Planet had become connected, almost becoming one entity.
Another big change was the transformation of transportation.
The Magic Airships had already spread to the point where many rich families could even buy small Magic Airships for personal use.
When it came to public transport, although faster cars, Magic Airships, and ships kept appearing, they were no longer the main method of transportation.
The transport array that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce promoted twenty years ago had already replaced all personal and commercial transportation.
With the transport array, people could even instantly go between the Sines Continent and the Magic Cloud Continent, a length of over ten thousand kilometers.
Because of this new transportation method, many people no longer had a concept of distance.
Wherever they lived, as long as they wanted to see someone else, they could contact them with the magic communication network and then using the transport arrays, along with a short distance Magic Car, they would be able to get there.
If it wasn’t for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce restricting personal transport arrays, the rich people might even erect their transport arrays in their home. They could connect it to the network which would make traveling even easier.
But even so, the rich families could buy small personal Magic Airships, so it was much more convenient than a normal person.
With such a convenient method of transportation, people felt that the planet under them had become smaller and they turned their eyes to the endless universe.
With the lead of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, even if transport arrays could let them go to Alice and Tildis, to other planets, and to even further galaxies, the countries still developed their own space industries.
Because Xu Yi had said that although you could transport between the Sines Continent and the Magic Cloud Continent, you still have to travel a bit by yourself to reach your true destination.
It was the same in space.
Even if the transport array could send you to a planet that had been explored, if you needed to do something in space, the transport array wouldn’t help and you could only do it yourself.
With the lead of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there were already countless outer space bases established aside from the Sines Planet.
The latest spaceship could even reach hyperspace velocity because of new breakthroughs with transport magic.
In the last successful experiment, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s Explore Spaceship had even left the galaxy that the Sines Planet was in through hyperspace travel.
With this successful experiment, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s magic research facility’s chief Evita had said that the next step was, as long as the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could determine galaxy coordinates, they would be able to conduct true interstellar travel.
No one doubted the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and everyone was expectant of the true space age that Xu Yi had talked about before.
###
Xu Yi was standing in the center of the transport array on Alice, feeling a bit nervous.
It was a bit funny when he talked about it. Even if he was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s former chairman and the person with the most power, the researchers and even many normal people had experienced traveling through the stars before him. This would be his first time.
Even if it was only once, Still and the others had protested, saying that they didn’t want him to take this risk.
If it hadn’t been a rare loss of temper from him, he might not even be able to take this trip.
“Sir chairman, are you prepared?” A Frestech Chamber of Commerce staff member nervously asked Xu Yi.
“Yes, you can begin.”
The staff member nodded with a head already covered in sweat. He pressed the button and activated the transport array.
The scene in front of Xu Yi dimmed and lit up before he found that the scene in front of him hadn’t changed much.
There was a voice that sounded beside him that reminded him that he was no longer on Alice.
“Sir chairman, how is your first time leaving Alice?” Lucian asked with a smile.
Xu Yi looked at him and gave a cold snort, “A kid like you came twenty years earlier than me.”
Lucian broke out in laughter.
As the first person to go through the transport array and arrive on an unknown planet, he had the qualifications to be proud.
“Sir chairman, let me go with you after this.” Lucian said as he led Xu Yi to another transport array.
“What is the latest report?” Xu Yi asked.
Lucian’s expression became serious.
“Based on the latest report yesterday, they’ve discovered life on planet B339 and the exploration team even saw the large life form.”
Xu Yi ignored the protests of everyone as he insisted on entering the transport array to go to planet B339 that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce discovered at the beginning of the year. It was because the exploration team had said that they had found traces of life on that planet.
Now that he heard Lucian say that they had found a large life form, Xu Yi became excited.
The Fresteech Chamber of Commerce could travel to planets with transport arrays, but those were the ruins left behind by the Abyss Demon Race.
The exploration was just exploring each one of these transport arrays.
Since there were signs of life on star B339, it meant that the Abyss Demon Race might have stayed on that planet and he might finally be able to find the Abyss Demon Race.
But the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had already discovered planet B339 for four months now and hadn’t found a trace of the Abyss Demon Race which was strange to Xu Yi.
Normally speaking, these transport arrays were left by the Abyss Demon Race, so they wouldn’t miss out on the strange changes, right?
“Large life forms? What kind of large life forms?”
“They sent some blurry images, please take a look.” Lucian took out a picture from his pocket for Xu Yi.
Xu Yi couldn’t help being surprised when he took a look.
Because there wasn’t a frame of reference, the image wasn’t too clear. But the sharp head and tail, along with the two fins on the side made it look……like a shark.
There weren’t sharks on the Sines Planet, so this was certainly an alien life form.
But seeing this familiar appearance, Xu Yi couldn’t help revealing a strange look.
“What is it?” Lucian could see the strange look on Xu Yi’s face and couldn’t help asking this.
“Nothing.” Xu Yi shook his head and stood on the transport array to the next planet with Lucian.
After twenty jumps, Xu Yi and Lucian appeared in another transport array, but the space around them had been compressed.
Xu Yi looked up to find through the light that came from around them, they were completely covered in water.
It seemed like they were at the bottom of the sea.
“Chairman Xu, you’re here.” The first one to come over was elder Lisanya.
After learning that planet B339 showed signs of life, she had rushed here immediately and had already been here for over two months.
Behind her were the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s researchers who specialized in biology standing there with the assistance of life magic.
Xu Yi looked up and asked, “It seems like we’re at the bottom of the sea?”
Elder Lisanya shook her head, “That isn’t 100% accurate. Although through some analysis, the water above us has the same composition as sea water, this is an unknown planet, so we can’t make that conclusion.”
Xu Yi gave a nod of agreement.
When conducting interstellar exploration, it wasn’t too much to be careful.
“Sir chairman, you came right on time. We just translated some words, you can take a look.” Elder Lisanya said.
“Words?” Xu Yi was surprised as he took the paper from elder Lisanya.
“It was the words that we found on a piece of stone after we arrived. Elder Lisanya said that these words were similar to the writing the Abyss Demon Race used ten thousand years ago, so we tried translating them.” A Frestech Chamber of Commerce researcher said from the side.
“Abyss Demon Race letters?” Xu Yi was shocked before quickly reading this paper.
After looking at it, Xu Yi’s expression became incomparably strange.
There wasn’t anything special about the first part. The Abyss Demon Race just wrote that after several decades of exploration and adventure, they finally found a place with an environment close to their hometown, a planet that was suitable for them to settle on. After countless tribulations, they were very happy to arrive in this place.
This was very normal, but when Xu Yi saw the last words, he found that it wasn’t normal at all.
“We don’t know if we can ever return to our hometown, but for people who have gone on self exile like us, since we are here, we should go all out and start a brand new life. We should give ourselves a new name. After the elders discussed it, in order to commemorate our hometown, we will call our race Atlantis.”
The words that the Abyss Demon Race left behind weren’t this and the letters that elder Lisanya translated weren’t like this, but the final words were definitely written as “Atlantis”.
“Chairman Xu, what’s wrong?” Seeing the strange expression Xu Yi had, elder Lisanya asked in a curious voice, “Did you notice something from this?”
Xu Yi turned to look at elder Lisanya, “After arriving in this place, did you go up for a look?”
“Go up? Go up where?” Elder Lisanya asked in a confused voice.
“It’s just up.” Xu Yi pointed up. He looked at the very familiar life forms in the water and took a deep breath. He put a magic barrier around himself and with a thought, he disappeared from the transport array.
Around two minutes later, Xu Yi charged out of the water surface with a splash and then quickly accelerated above the transport array, passing through the atmosphere to reach outer space.
When he arrived at the right position, he stopped and turned to look down at the blue planet in front of him.
Seeing this familiar scene, the planet that he had dreamed about many times, Xu Yi revealed a bitter smile.
“Are you kidding me?”
He suddenly started to fall towards one of the continents on the planet below.
On the east coast of this continent, where two islands were close to each other like the feet that some kind of life form grew.
Xu Yi landed on the bottommost round feet.
After a while, he appeared out of thin air on a beach.
There were quite a few people sunbathing on this beach and the sea breeze made things very lively.
When Xu Yi landed on a tree, he didn’t attract anyone’s attention.
He looked around and quickly came out of the tree to grab someone before asking, “Can you tell me what year it is?”
Xu Yi had spoken in standard Chinese that he hadn’t used in decades now, so he wasn’t fluent anymore.
This person looked at Xu Yi with a strange look before cursing him with Chinese that had an accent.
“Insane person!”
He left after saying this.
After standing there in a daze for a bit, Xu Yi walked to a small beach shop.
There was a small TV that was broadcasting the news there.
“On March 4th, the Central Committee’s General Secretary participated in……”
Xu Yi looked at the familiar figure in the TV and then looked at the calendar above the TV that clearly wrote “2016” before suddenly revealing a smile.
“Good……It turned out that not only did I pass through space, I also passed through time. Then right now……After coming back to my hometown after seventy years, what do I do?”