Chapter 29 Part 3

Had they forgotten how Mother World Tree had turned the tables in a desperate situation?

“Silver Moon is already aware,” Suer said. “People from the Church of the Silver Moon will arrive secretly very soon. They are very adept at dream therapy. Knowing now that the key to freeing the mind-controlled Dwarves lies in their dreams, simply isolating them and entering their dreams separately will resolve this.”

Xia Xifeng asked worriedly, “Could there be spies within the Church of the Silver Moon?”

Suer snorted coldly, “Definitely. But now that I’m awake, no spy will be able to infiltrate Green Sand City.”

The “dragon eggs” were the reverse scales of the Black Dragon Suer. The thought that he might have lost the “dragon eggs” while in slumber had roused the temper Suer had cultivated over many years, bringing it back to the state it was when he’d first left the Dragon God’s Divine Domain to wander the world.

Just looking at Amuruo’s stern, City-Lord-appropriate expression showed how foul Suer’s mood was.

Xia Xifeng patted his chest in relief, “That puts my mind at ease. Mr. Suer, Qin Lang and I have written a development plan for the Knight’s Domain. Please give us your guidance.”

Suer’s gloomy expression softened once more. “Good. You’re both very diligent, but you must also pay attention to rest. You’re still young and need plenty of sleep and play. Even if the Apocalypse is right before your eyes, you can’t be wound so tight…”

As Suer leafed through Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang’s plan, he started rambling and nagging.

Amuruo breathed a sigh of relief.

Nag them, just don’t nag me. He quietly retreated and left Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang’s study.

Leo and Perila were lurking outside, sneaking peeks.

Amuruo clenched his fists and gave each of them a knuckle rap on the head. “Don’t let Suer find out. He’s in a terrible mood right now.”

Leo stuck out his tongue. “How bad could it be? Bad enough to hang you, teacher, from a tree?”

Perila took a step back to avoid getting splattered by blood.

Leo’s head received a heavy blow. He crouched down, clutching his head.

Amuruo said, “If you have time to be a smart mouth, go do real work. Suer wants Sunflower Valley to merge into Feng and Lang’s Knight’s Domain.”

Leo, still holding his head, looked up. “The old folks are lazy, but the younger ones helping Feng and Lang manage the Knight’s Domain is fine. But if we get too involved in external affairs, the matter of us being the Sun’s Favored can’t be kept secret anymore.”

Amuruo said, “Starting today, there’s no need to keep it secret.”

Leo stood up, the playful expression fading from his face. “Teacher, are you sure? Has the situation deteriorated to this extent?”

Amuruo furrowed his brow. “Yes.”

Perila clenched his fists, his brow tightly furrowed.

The Sun had never needed faith. Living beings would naturally have faith in the Sun.

When the Sun’s Favored Ones publicly revealed their identities, it meant the Twin Suns—who hadn’t even taken the field during the War of the Gods—were formally projecting their influence into the Mortal Realm.

Was this a Divine War, even broader in scope than the War of the Gods?

Amuruo said irritably, “It seems the Suns are too lazy, so lazy that even you two, Their Favored, are too lazy to use your brains. Haven’t you seen the situation clearly yet? It’s not that the Suns want to enter the fray; it’s that the Suns have already been beaten, and They don’t even know it! I’m guessing They’re so stupid They won’t realize it until death is at the door, then cry out in shock, ‘Ah, how am I injured? Ah! I’m actually dying?!’ Two giant idiots!”

Under the stunned, horrified gazes of Leo and Perila, Amuruo gave each of them another knuckle rap. “Two little idiots!”

Qin Lang came out and called Amuruo, who was trying to slack off, back inside. Suer wanted Amuruo to help revise the plan.

Watching Amuruo’s departing back, Leo rubbed his head. “Perila, you always say I don’t respect the Gods. Look at the teacher! I even suspect that if our Gods descended, the teacher would point at Their noses and curse them out.”

Perila said, “Shut up. Do you think you’re as strong as Mr. Amuruo?!”

Mr. Amuruo was definitely more than just a Demigod, wasn’t he? Perila even suspected that Mr. Amuruo might have, in the past, literally pointed at a God’s nose and cursed them to their face.

Later, when the two shared this speculation with Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang, Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang both had very strange expressions.

More than just curse.

Saving the world, slaughtering gods was just a daily dungeon run.

Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang suspected that Mr. Amuruo’s exasperated, “I’m disappointed in you” demeanor might have come from a certain dungeon where he’d actually beaten up the Twin Suns.

The Twin Suns hadn’t taken the field during the War of the Gods; maybe Their injuries hadn’t even healed yet.

Harboring not a shred of respect for the Gods in their hearts, the two players secretly grumbled.

With Green Sand City’s pillar of support awake, the heavy burden on Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang’s shoulders suddenly lightened.

The System’s rewards had also been distributed. Besides various materials, Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang’s levels had finally reached Level 50, barely qualifying them as elites.

Although, before they even became elites, they had already slaughtered gods in dream dungeons ←_←.

Sneaking Outer God projections were truly weak.

The Church of the Silver Moon arrived, and the members of the Dwarf Merchant Caravan found peace, one after another.

Officially, the Dwarf Merchant Caravan had been recalled by the Dwarf Kingdom and left Green Sand City ahead of schedule.

Lana remained in Green Sand City, moving into Leo’s home.

Lana, having been in contact with the power of an Outer God, was very dangerous. Although the Dwarf King loathed Amuruo, he also knew that only Amuruo could protect this sole living witness.

The Church of the Silver Moon confirmed that the Dwarf Merchant Caravan members’ dreams had been twisted by an Evil God, separating them from the Silver Moon’s protection.

The Dwarf King was deeply frustrated inwardly.

His grand ambitions to defeat Amuruo, annex Green Sand City, and found the Dwarven Empire hadn’t even gotten underway, and now a Divine War was brewing again?

By Dwarven lifespans, the Divine War was something from ancient times.

The Dream World had been at peace for too long, so long that aside from the ageless long-lived races and beings who had stepped into the Legendary Realm, everyone else had come to regard the War of the Gods and the crisis of a world reboot as mythic tales to tell with a laugh.

Amuruo and Suer notified the Elven and Human Empires about the Evil God matter.

There were always those who wouldn’t believe the blade was already swinging their way until they felt the pain themselves. The various powers became entangled, and global undercurrents surged.

But all of this had nothing to do with Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang, who were, for the time being, mere Pioneer Knights.

They could finally settle down and focus on construction.

With the Apocalypse approaching, even if the Sun didn’t fall, war was imminent.

The two abandoned their initial ideas and moved directly towards building the Knight’s Domain as a fortress city.

Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang used this world’s fortress-city blueprints as a base, adding elements from the “fortified manor” concept from their own world’s history—they played Western fantasy games, but also Chinese historical games.

The Knight’s Domain’s farmland, pastures, workshops, and other production and living facilities were all built within the city walls.

A ring of walls, a ring of houses, farmland, pastures, and workshops.

Between each ring of walls were similarly laid-out “small towns” that could defend themselves independently.

In peacetime, when the gates between the walls were open, the roads of each small town connected, making it look like an ordinary city from the outside.

When the Knight’s Domain expanded, they simply needed to follow the same pattern and continue building “ring-shaped towns.”

Currently, the Knight’s Domain’s “rings” numbered only two, capable of housing ten thousand people, all covered by the Mana Network Stabilizer.

Most Pioneer Knights’ domains started with a humble castle and a dozen or so thatched huts.

The moment Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang’s Knight’s Domain—still unnamed—was completed, it was already on the scale of a small town.

And looking at the site supervisors—the Green Sand City Lord’s nephew—and the main construction force—the Dwarven Sage Envoy Delegation and the Green Sand City Official Construction Team—and the fact that the Mana Network Stabilizer’s testing was personally inspected and accepted by City Lord Amuruo and the Dwarven Great Sage…

Hmm… Sign up, quick!

The independent Professionals who had been watching from the sidelines wanted to slap themselves.

The newly built Knight’s Domain had very high requirements for citizens wanting to register, so the independent folk had been in wait-and-see mode.

Professionals with the necessary skills naturally hoped to directly gain residency in Green Sand City’s inner district.

They were all on the waiting list.

Now it seemed this Knight’s Domain’s conditions were almost on par with the inner district. The first batch of residents would surely get all sorts of perks.

Joining this Knight’s Domain would also make it much easier to later obtain Green Sand City inner district residency.

Just as the Knight’s Domain’s registration office finally became packed with applicants, the queuing independent folk heard devastating news: the Halflings from Sunflower Valley on the outskirts of Green Sand City had all joined the Knight’s Domain. Even Halflings who already had Green Sand City inner district residency had switched their registration.

They watched helplessly as the available slots shrank by nearly a tenth.

N-no matter, there are still several thousand slots left!

At that moment, the Church of the Silver Moon and the Church of the Sun announced their establishment within the Knight’s Domain. All clergy and their families had pre-booked residency registration slots, directly becoming citizens of the Knight’s Domain.

Another nearly one thousand slots gone.

The independent folk: “???”

W-well, that’s normal. A Knight’s Domain would definitely build a church eventually; this was just happening a bit ahead of schedule.

There were still several thousand slots left!

Immediately following that, several hundred Dwarves came to settle.

The independent folk: “…”

You Dwarves have your own kingdom! What are you doing running to the Free Alliance?!

……

“The family members of the caravan members have all agreed to move to Green Sand City,” the Dwarven Great Sage said wearily. “Perhaps they will eventually form new families here in Green Sand City. When that time comes, please keep a slight watch over the children left behind by the caravan members.”

Convincing the Dwarf Kingdom to entrust the caravan members’ families to Green Sand City had cost the Dwarven Great Sage a great deal of effort.

Xia Xifeng said seriously, “Rest assured.”

He and Qin Lang were already drafting detailed laws and regulations, striving to make the Knight’s Domain sprint directly into a society governed by law.

Education subsidies for minors, resident welfare policies, and more were also being formulated.

They were already buried in colossal debt; adding a bit more debt barely made a difference.

Once the assembly-line Magitech Device factories were built and opened the market for affordable Magitech Devices accessible to everyone, everything would get better. Xia Xifeng cheered himself on.

The Dwarven Great Sage said, “I trust in your moral character.”

Mr. Suer had an exceptionally keen eye for people. The Halflings of Sunflower Valley also had an outstanding reputation. Those whom they jointly valued were definitely people of excellent character and ability.

The Dwarven Great Sage departed. He still had countless matters to attend to and could no longer happily shut his door and immerse himself in research. Truly disheartening.

With the first batch of residents including large numbers of Halflings and Dwarves, all the “industrial and agricultural” talent was at hand. Xia Xifeng and Qin Lang didn’t need to worry about the Knight’s Domain’s initial construction.

Not long after, the Elven Empire, Human Empire, and Dwarf Kingdom jointly announced the truth behind the Dwarf Merchant Caravan ambush and issued a joint warrant for the “Blood Moon Evil God Cult.”

During class, Xia Xifeng asked Suer, “Teacher, I heard the truth about the Dwarf Merchant Caravan ambush has been made public? Isn’t that too high-profile?”

Xia Xifeng was slightly worried about alerting the enemy.

Suer said gently, “No need to worry. What should be afraid are the things lurking in the gutters.”

Making this high-profile announcement wasn’t their decision—it was the response of this world’s Gods.

[I see you, vermin.]

Initiate a Divine War? No problem.

Roll up sleeves, bare those arms.

Let us fight openly and honorably!