Chapter 896: Withdrawal
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The thick mist dispersed and revealed the bloody sun.
This sea region was now in ruins after the battle. Ship debris and dead bodies were floating everywhere.
Because of the heavy mist and its disadvantageous position, the Union Navy withdrew from the battle after a while.
Edward watched them leave and chose not to pursue.
He sighed and asked a shell in his hand, “What are the post-battle results?”
“We’re still counting. We lost six extraordinary ships, but luckily, the four legendary ships are all safe. Only Sun and Sea God suffered some damage to their hull. However, the damage to sailing battleships and various other battleships was severe. More than seven thousand people died.”
After hearing the shell’s response, Edward almost fainted.
These seven thousand people were elite sailors who had required a lot of effort to find and hire.
After all, the foundation of the pirate empire Augustus was too weak.
“As for the Union Navy, I believe they lost much more than us. We destroyed eight of their ironclads and twenty of their auxiliary ships, and more than ten thousand of their crew members died.”
…
“It seems like none of us benefited from the war… My skills are still far behind the Pirate Emperor!” Edward sighed.
“Although it was a very close victory and we suffered a lot of damage, as long as we can keep control over the sea routes within coastal waters, the Union Navy won’t be able to pass through safely… Furthermore, it will take quite some time for the Opher Continent to recover from their losses. They might be willing to cooperate to form a union because of their greed and anger for the short term, but they will definitely be unwilling to crack a tough nut. Hence, the threat to the empire is gone…” Nymphadora’s clear voice echoed from the shell.
Naval wars were costly to everyone whenever they happened.
After experiencing this war, the Opher kingdoms would surely not do it again.
Therefore, the following would be endless negotiations.
With that, the first threat to Augustus since its founding was finally gone.
…
Outside the real world.
Nine enormous swords formed a chaos sword array.
The Monster Ruler roared continuously, releasing tremendous power. However, it only made the sword array shake a bit.
Looking at this situation, it would take a very long time to break through.
However, Fang Yuan would certainly not give him the opportunity.
Inside the sword array.
Streams of light flowed, changing continuously.
The Sword Qi of the nine swords twined around the huge bat and restricted its actions.
“I’ve weakened and extracted the Deep-Sea Stalker’s power, and it has fallen into a deep sleep due to the seal, just like Eternal Nightmare… I will do the same to you!” Fang Yuan appeared, his voice loud and clear.
Of course, existences similar to him would naturally not die so easily.
In fact, it was because what he was facing in this Great Voyage World were merely these rulers who were like incomplete Demon Gods.
Even in a one-on-one battle, he could easily defeat all of them. However, it would be very difficult for him to prevent all of them from escaping.
Even someone as strong as the Spiritual Realm’s Celestial Thearch could only seal those Demon Gods.
Fang Yuan was sure that even if he were to die now, his consciousness would still exist in the river of time, waiting for opportunities to revive instead of vanishing completely.
“You want to take away my power and authority? I-Impossible!” the huge bat roared. “I would rather die than let you benefit from me!”
“You don’t have the freedom to decide your life and death currently!”
Colorful clouds rose from Fang Yuan’s head. A stream of white light shot into the sky, leaving behind a Great Dao.
“The Dream Master Dao of Creation is all-encompassing, which includes your deep-sea power and rules!”
He smiled lightly. Nine streams of Sword Qi were shaking and absorbing something from the huge bat, causing extreme pain to all the sea monster heads, making them scream loudly.
“You have no choice!”
An illusionary image appeared in Fang Yuan’s right hand.
Many sea monsters were surrounding it and roaring.
The symbol of the Pirate King—King’s Throne!
“Your strongest horn was once used to build King’s Throne. Now, since I’ve gained control over King’s Throne, I also have the key to deal with you!
“If you want to blame someone, blame the pirate who deceived you!”
The illusionary image suddenly turned into a black horn.
Following Fang Yuan’s command, the horn stabbed into the monster’s body violently.
“Ahh!!!”
A sharp and loud scream rang out. The speed the power was transmitting at suddenly increased by more than ten times.
“In fact, although Evil Gods look forward to the real world, they are scared of it at the same time because they will experience the most amount of restrictions in the real world, and they might even get killed by a mortal!”
The mortals here were among the top Extraordinaries, and some were even comparable to gods.
If not, they would not have been able to turn the Sea God into a warship nor use a contract to trick the Monster Ruler.
“I will definitely come back one day!
“I am Monster Ruler… I am the source of all monsters, so I will never be gone!
“I will eventually return to take back my glory and my authority one day!”
…
Finally, the huge bat, which was left with only its bones and skin, roared.
Its body exploded at the same time, turning into powder.
Rays of aquamarine light emerged, and Fang Yuan’s Creation Great Dao absorbed it.
“The Demon God realm is to form a Great Dao and use it to influence the Heavenly Dao rules in higher dimension worlds… To progress further, one has to plunder or comprehend other Dao paths to complement their own Great Dao and finally form a complete Heavenly Dao!”
Fang Yuan now understood why those Demon Gods liked to descend to the lower realms.
In a lower dimension world, the Heavenly Dao was so weak that even Sages could influence it, much less those powerful Demon Gods.
As long as someone was willing to put in enough effort and plan carefully, they could benefit a lot from it.
Furthermore, in some of the smaller worlds, there could be some unique Dao paths that they could absorb to enhance their foundations.
That was exactly what the existence who deprived Da Qian’s Dream Masters of their Dao path did.
“Speaking of which, it lacks a bit and still isn’t complete. Now, I’ve agglomerated these remaining bits and absorbed it to become my Great Dao. I will absolutely fight until the end…” Fang Yuan’s expression was grave. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s in this world or the Spiritual Realm, but he will definitely discover me once I go to the Mental Demon Realm. Fortunately, I’m now no longer so powerless.”
According to his estimates, that existence should be still in the Demon God level, but his realm was much higher.
Based on the number of Dao paths that he had plundered from the lower dimension worlds, his Great Dao could be very close to the Heavenly Dao already!
The ‘Heavenly Dao’ here was not like those in the lower dimension worlds, but one in a higher dimension universe!
In other words, if a true Mental Demon Heavenly Dao existence came to the Great Voyage World, this world’s will would be replaced in an instant, and all the rules would be reset by that existence. He would be able to control the life and death of the Evil Gods, and the power would be beyond imagination.
“Such power is actually kind of similar to my stats!”
Fang Yuan retrieved his Nine Palace Sword Array and fell into deep thought.
Although the ability of his stats window had been restricted when he had entered this world, its rate of recovery was extremely fast as time passed.
Furthermore, with the addition of the Augustus Empire’s fate of the nation, which was enhanced by its success in the earlier war, Fang Yuan was able to recover even faster since he was the Pirate Emperor.
Therefore, all these factors combined enabled him to sweep away all the Evil Gods and hit the Deep-Sea Rulers hard.
“The Deep-Sea Rulers, these four Evil Gods who rule the deep sea, Eternal Nightmare, the Deep-Sea Stalker, and the Monster Ruler have all been beaten by me… what about the Seabed Wanderer?”
There was no trace of that Evil God nearby at all. It was obvious that he had escaped when Fang Yuan retrieved his Sword Array.
There were no idiots among the Evil Gods.
Since the Seabed Wanderer was not caught, and he was unable to break through the Nine Palace Sword Array, he naturally could only escape.
Once an Evil God wanted to escape, Fang Yuan was not completely confident that he could stop them. Therefore, he decided to just let it go.
“My stats window is breaking its seals, and I have reached the Demon God realm. I’ve unknowingly become so powerful already…”
Fang Yuan smiled lightly. The sky and the ground inverted, and he returned to the real world.
Splash!
A strange but unique atmosphere surrounded him, giving him the mysterious feeling that he was at the center of history.
However, Fang Yuan was very used to this feeling, so he merely smiled and remained silent.
Surrounded by the flow of history, his Creation Great Dao and the Omnidirectional Divine Demonic Armament Dao became very excited. They were becoming stronger and stronger as they absorbed some kind of mysterious thing.
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!” Someone approached hurriedly while Fang Yuan was immersed in the flow of history. “Good news! The Imperial Navy defeated the Union Navy!”
“Well, come in!”
Fang Yuan composed himself, asked the soldier to come in, and took the report.
Actually, it was not really a ‘victory’ since both sides had experienced many losses. Their success was a very close one.
Regardless, no one would hurt the foundation of the newly-emerged Augustus Empire after this.
“Next, our internal goal is to confer new nobles, cultivating the ruling class to protect the throne. Externally, we must restrict the mainland’s trade and control the Golden Sea Route to force the other countries to negotiate…”
He had thought of these tasks since the very start, and they could be easily accomplished with a few official documents.
“After this war, Augustus has established a foundation, and I have also gained a lot. It’s time to leave…”
Fang Yuan put down the report, feeling gratified.
Of course, he would not leave right away because he was someone with a sense of responsibility. Once he left, the empire would immediately collapse.
Thus, he decided to stay longer to stabilize the empire and select an heir for it.