Chapter 716 – Rising Sun City
When he heard Lizzy’s answer, Zhao Hai gave a satisfied nod and said, “Good, good. These defensive lines wouldn’t only help in dealing with the Demons, it will also help with resisting the Divine Race as well. Also, we should consider a path of retreat. If we turtle up in the Buddha Empire for too long, the Demons and Divine Race might join up to deal with us. On the other hand, if we are able to give up some areas of the Empire, then it might become a battlefield between the Demons and the Divine Race. Make sure that there aren’t too much supplies on those defensive lines. It wouldn’t be easy to get those excess materials during a ma.s.s retreat.”
Lizzy and the others nodded, then Zhao Hai looked at their faces and said, “Now that everything has been arranged, you should go and rest. I’ll use this time to show my face to the ma.s.ses, otherwise, my absence might cause some panic.”
Lizzy and the others nodded, then Laura looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Brother Hai, you should be careful. You’re very crucial to the survival of the continent. We’ll definitely lose this war if you fall.”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Rest a.s.sured, I won’t die that easily. In fact, my disappearance has nothing to do with me being injured, I broke through. Since I needed a lot of energy, I decided to go inside Bubble and absorb the energy inside the Blood Pool. Moreover, s.h.i.+ying gave me his Demonic Core, supplementing my energy. At the same time, the lotus has been placed in the Blood Pond as well. Now, the lotus has become my Life Treasure. At this point, even if the Demon Dragon King’s group gangs up on me, I still wouldn’t be in any danger. So you don’t need to worry.” When Laura and the others heard this, they let out a sigh of relief. They were afraid that Zhao Hai had encountered a heavy injury. If that were to happen, then the impact on the continent would be great.
Laura and the others’ worries about Zhao Hai were without no reason. If Zhao Hai was really hurt, then his s.p.a.ce wouldn’t he used. And if there was no s.p.a.ce, then the transfer of both troops and supplies would be very difficult. Most importantly, without the s.p.a.ce, the powerful undead wouldn’t be used. This will leave the defense of the Ark Continent to the various native powers. For these people to go against the Demons and the Divine Race would be a disaster for the entire continent. Zhao Hai looked at their expression and said, “It’s fine, there’s no need to worry about me. Just go and take a rest. I’ll go have a look outside, I’ll take care of the unfinished work. Cai’er is still here as well. Cai’er, I’ll have to trouble you.”
Cai’er smiled and said, “Young Master is too polite. I also have some control over the s.p.a.ce. Moreover, I really don’t need to take a rest. Young Master can rest a.s.sured that I shall arrange everything.”
Zhao Hai nodded, then he turned to look at Laura and the others and said, “Well, you heard it. Go and take a good rest. Shue, Berry, you two go take a rest as well. The recent days have been too hard on you.”
Berry smiled and said, “I’m fine, Brother Hai. I’ll be coming along with you. I’m a G.o.d-rank expert as well, I don’t need to rest.”
Zhao Hai looked at Berry and then nodded, “Alright, then you and Shue go with me. You also need to undergo some fights before comprehending your own Domains.” Then Zhao Hai’s body disappeared along with Berry and Shue. Zhao Hai appeared in Demon City first, he wanted to see the situation there before heading towards Rising Sun city.
At this time, there weren’t any people in Demon City, everyone has retreated, leaving an empty city behind. Zhao Hai looked at the state of the city and couldn’t help but sigh. The present Demon City looked like a ghost town, not a single sound can be heard inside it. The ground was also filled with junk, making it look bleak. But on the bright side, there weren’t any deaths here because of a fight.
Shue also looked at Demon City and felt quite awkward. Just yesterday, this place was filled with people. Now, there wasn’t anyone in this place. The mercenaries and adventurers here had no choice but to give up their homes, it was a bit sad to think about.
Zhao Hai flew above Demon City and looked at the Demon camp in the distance. The Demons were still busy right now. It seems like they weren’t planning to stop building their city. Zhao Hai can even feel ten G.o.d-ranked aura emanating from their camp.
Zhao Hai sighed and said, “It looks like the Demons are catching up. But this is also good. The stronger they look, the more attention they would attract from the Divine Race. Let’s go and take a look at Rising Sun City. I’ll leave some G.o.d-ranked undead there before heading towards the Radiant Empire to take a look why the Divine Race are still yet to take action . After all, they just made a huge move.”
After saying that, Zhao Hai used the s.p.a.ce to immediately teleport to Rising Sun City. Rising Sun City was the closest place to Demon City. The distance between Rising Sun City and Demon City was only five small towns. Because of this, Rising Sun City was considered to be the second stronghold after Demon City.
Rising Sun City was quite a big place. It’s original population was about 1 million. At this time, it has become part of the defensive line. On the five towns between Demon City and Rising Sun City, other than mounted scouts, not a single person can be seen.
Besmir and the others had already used the spatial rift in order to fall back to Rising Sun City. When they obtained Zhao Hai’s order to retreat but didn’t see him, they became immediately worried.
It wasn’t only Besmir’s group who was worried. The people in Rising Sun City shared the same sentiment as well. Although Zhao Hai provided a spatial rift for transport, his absence made a lot of people very bothered.
Zhao Hai might have given the order for retreat, but the one who delivered it was actually an undead that was under his command. This wasn’t Zhao Hai’s usual actions, so it was not strange that people were quite anxious about the situation.
Everyone who retreated from Demon City were very worried. But fortunately, their hearts were still stable. In any case, Zhao Hai’s spatial rift have proven that he was still around. Maybe the reason for his absence was him being tied up someplace else.
Zhao Hai didn’t ride his Bone Dragon this time, instead, he just straight up appeared inside the city. When Zhao Hai came out, he was immediately spotted by some Elven Archers, who couldn’t help but cheer out loud.
Although these Elves were arrogant, they weren’t fools. When they saw Zhao Hai’s fight with the Demons, they immediately became aware of how strong he was. They also understood that without Zhao Hai, defending against the Demons would be impossible. Zhao Hai glanced at the people inside Rising Sun City. There were nearly 500 thousand people in the city, most of them were from Demon City. This made Zhao Hai feel relief. Then he turned his gaze towards the defenders on the walls and nodded as he waved his hand and summoned his undead outside the city.
This produced another round of cheers. These people couldn’t help but feel at ease upon seeing Zhao Hai. Normally, seeing undead would make them feel disgusted, but now, it seems like these undead had become much more lovable.
Zhao Hai flew down towards a nearby Dwarf and then smiled, “Brother, can you take me to the General’s residence? I have some matters to discuss.”
The Dwarf immediately replied, “Of course, Elder, come with me.” Then the Dwarf’s two small feet quickly led Zhao Hai towards the residence. Zhao Hai couldn’t help but smile at this scene as he led Shue and Berry forward.
It didn’t take too long before they arrived in Rising Sun City’s City Lord Mansion. The City Lord’s Mansion has now become the General’s residence, Besmir and the others were here. The one with the highest authority in the City was now Besmir along with the Captains of the reinforcing armies. But since their numbers weren’t much, Besmir still held a higher command.
When Zhao Hai arrived at the General’s residence, the guards at the gates immediately gave him a salute. Then one of them ran into the mansion without even saying anything, telling the people inside that “Mister Zhao Hai has come”. Zhao Hai was amused at the man, then he turned to the Dwarf that led him and then said, “Thank you brother. Here’s take this as grat.i.tude.” Then he gave the Dwarf a bottle of his distilled milk wine.
The Dwarf was ecstatic at the gift, he immediately bowed to Zhao Hai and said, “Thank you very much, Elder Zhao Hai.” Then he turned around and ran. From his expression, it seems like he was eager to show off to his companions. Zhao Hai didn’t care much about it as he turned and walked into the General’s residence.
Just as he entered the mansion’s gate, he immediately saw Besmir, Julian, Gellar, and Barres along with several Human soldiers. The soldiers were all looking at Zhao Hai with curiosity.
Besmir led the others forward to greet Zhao Hai before giving a salute and said, “Mister, welcome back. Please follow us inside.’
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Alright, then I’ll be impolite. By the way, how are things going on here?”
Besmir quickly replied, “Mister, everything has been completely prepared. Not only here, the others cities have settled down as well.” Zhao Hai nodded. Then he followed the group into the mansion. The battle room was much larger than the one back in Demon City. Not only were there more maps present here, there were even some soldiers doing logistics as well as a sand table in the middle of the room.
Zhao Hai inspected the room and gave a satisfied nod and said, “This is a great room. This looks more like a battle room compared to the one in Demon City. Right, tell me the arrangements.” Then he went towards the sand table.
Besmir and the others arrived by the table as well. Besmir beckoned to the sand table and said, “Because of the short time, I can only make this simple sand table. Along with Rising Sun City, the other cities already has troops stationed inside as well as some mobile cavalry and scouts. In order to make the battle and retreat more convenient, we asked our Dwarf brothers to dig tunnels between the cities. However, since the workload is too much, there aren’t much results yet. I believe that after Rising Sun City gets connected to the other cities, then we can act more united compared to now. Retreat and reinforcements would be carried out through those tunnels, making transport a lot less troublesome.”