Axe wasn’t a fool. He understood what his father was thinking about. He was also confused about what was happening in the Ark Continent.
After seeing Axe’s expression, Axe’s father nodded secretly inside. He felt that Axe had matured in the recent days, this was what he wanted to see.
At this time, a report suddenly came in from outside, “Reporting to the Patriarch, the scout has come back.”
Axe’s father stared for a moment before a smile appeared on his face, then he immediately said, “Let him in.” Then the guards complied and then opened the door to let the person in.
The scout was a middle aged person, likely over 30 years old. However, he looked spirited in his tight suit. This suit was also necessary for those who drove magic armors.
The man arrived in front of Axe’ father and then gave a salute, “i have seen the Patriarch.”
Axe’s father nodded and said, “Lev, tell me the situation.” Naturally, it was impossible for Axe’s father to know about every magic armor user in the family. However, Lev was an exception. He was a G.o.d-rank magic armor driver. Moreover, he ranked among the best G.o.d-rank magic armor drivers in the family. The magic armor he drove specialized in stealth. Since it’s important that they know the situation regarding the Ark Continent, Axe’s father decided to send Lev out. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have sent him for common errands.
Lev’s deep voice answered, “It’s highly probable that we’ve spotted the Ark Continent. But the strange thing about it is there is n.o.body present in their cities by the sh.o.r.e. There’s no sign of any battle either, it looks like people just moved by themselves. All the houses are empty. And from the way the dust had settled, the place had been empty for over three months.”
Axe’s father stared. Meanwhile, Axe’s expression changed as he looked at Lev and said, “Over three months? Then does this mean that when I met Zhao Hai, the Ark Continent was already like this? Lev, did you only look a at the cities? How about the other parts of the continent?”
Lev replied, “I looked through two cities and some villages. Same thing, everybody had moved out. Everything that can be of use has also been taken away. Moreover, it seems like they weren’t hurried upon leaving. The place was cleanly left behind.”
Axe’s face turned difficult as he turned to his father. Axe’s father looked at Axe and then smiled, after that, he comforted his son, “Axe, it’s fine. Don’t think about it too much. It seems like Zhao Hai has deceived you. When you met him, they were already moving away. But no matter where they moved, the Ark Continent is still here. They can’t take the Ark Continent with them. It’s fine as long as we get the continent for ourselves. Lev, you go take a good rest.” After giving a salute to the two, Lev turned and left. After Lev went out, Axe’s father frowned and said, “Things are more complicated than we thought. Why did the people from the Ark Continent move out? And where did they move? The appearance of our spatial crack shouldn’t be the reason why they moved away. It seems like we need to check much further into what happened.”
Axe calmed down as he sat on one side of the room. He’s really angry at Zhao Hai’s deception. He thought that he had cheated Zhao Hai, as it turns out, he was the one being cheated.
After thinking about this, Axe couldn’t help but clench his jaw. The feeling of being played wasn’t very good.
Axe’s father looked at Axe and smiled, “Axe, don’t be mad, its fine. You’ll get to meet more of these kinds of things later on. Go return to your s.h.i.+p, manage it well.”
Axe took a deep breath, he nodded before giving his father a salute and leaving. Looking at Axe’s departing back, his father smiled. He didn’t say anything else. In his mind, these were things that young men need to experience.
What Axe’s father didn’t know was that Zhao Hai was observing them. After Axe went out of the room, Zhao Hai sighed and said, “It’s a pity, I thought we’d have much more things to get out of this. But I didn’t expect Axe’s father to be this insightful. The O’Neal family is really extraordinary.”
Laura gave a nod, then she turned to Cai’er and said, “Cai’er, did you manage to translate it properly? To be honest, I’m quite surprised that you’ve managed to learn the Atlanta Plane’s language in such a short time.”
Cai’er smiled and said, “There’s nothing surprising about it. I’ve been watching Axe Island for a while. Although the people were very busy, they always talked with each other. After watching them for a long time and doing some a.n.a.lyses and calculations, it’s natural that I managed to learn their language. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with the translation.”
Laura nodded, “If that’s true, then the O’Neal Patriarch is really quite the character. The issues he just said are key reasons for our departure from the Ark Continent.”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “He’s quite a character indeed. He’s the Patriarch, so how could he be simple. But it’s not time to deal with them right now, we’ll keep monitoring them and wait until they discover the spatial rift. I really didn’t expect them to have gone straight to the Rosen Empire. It’s interesting to think which one they will discover first, us or the Underworld.”
This time, it was Lizzy who opened her mouth as she said, “I didn’t expect their route to deviate like that. Moreover, their s.h.i.+ps are quite fast, they actually went straight towards the Rosen Empire. With how the Underworld has progressed, I reckon they’d find the undead first.”
Zhao Hai nodded, “That’s highly probable. Right, there’s no need to pay much attention to them right now. It’s fine as long as we take a look at them from time to time. Cai’er, don’t forget to collect more data about their equipment, the more the better.” Cai’er gave him a nod.
After that, Zhao Hai adjusted the monitor to show the Divines in the Taurus Continent. They’ve been quite patient, completely out of Zhao Hai’s expectations. Zhao Hai didn’t think that those people would take this much time just to make a base. Moreover, their base looked more formidable than any city.
Their entire base took up an entire mountain range, almost just like how Zhao Hai made his base on the Accra Mountains. They had hollowed out the inside of the mountain.
Although the Divines didn’t have iron armor beasts to dig, one shouldn’t forget that these people were powerful, and they also had magic to help them. Earth magic was easy for people to use, this allowed them to build their base. This way, they had less burden when building their base compared to Zhao Hai. Since Zhao Hai didn’t have a lot of mages in the past, he had to rely on the Dwarves to excavate the Accra Mountains.
What surprised Zhao Hai the most was the walls of the base, they were covered with magic formations. The construction of these walls took most of the time. It seems like the Divines were eager to turn their base into a solid fortress.
Zhao Hai can understand the approach made by the Divines. It was their exact approach to conquering the Ark Continent. They would build a base and then slowly advance towards the Taurus Continent, pus.h.i.+ng Zhao Hai back bit by bit.
However, Zhao Hai didn’t expect it to do so well because this was the Divine Realm. Back in the Radiant Empire, after the Divines conquered it, the reason they had a continuous stream of supplies was because of the spatial rift. At that time, Zhao Hai was unable to enter the rift, therefore, he wasn’t able to disrupt their supply chain.
But this time, they were in the Divine Realm, and the base of the Divines was constructed by the seaside. The seas weren’t necessarily part of the Divine Race’s domain, their supply chain wouldn’t be that well protected. As long as Zhao Hai’s cuts their supplies off, then that base would just be as good as decoration. It would practically be useless.
Besides the base, Zhao Hai also saw that the Divines weren’t too trusting towards the va.s.sal races that they’ve brought. During the construction of the base, they left the va.s.sal races out. Moreover, they forbade the va.s.sal races from entering the fortress, completely excluding them from everything.
However, Zhao Hai didn’t think about attacking them right now. He wanted to wait until the Divine Realm became more chaotic. At that time, he would cut the Divines off from the other continents and then deal with the fortress.
These days, Bingya provided Zhao Hai with more information. The Divines were getting more and more ruthless regarding their suppression towards their va.s.sal races. Their rules got more and more strict as well. A curfew was imposed, and besides the curfew, no more than ten people from the va.s.sal races could equip themselves with weapons, the va.s.sal races were even forbidden from cultivation.
One could say that the Divines had completely lost their trust in the va.s.sal races. In turn, this made the relations.h.i.+p between the two parties worse and worse. A ma.s.sive battle was starting to come up.
It was precisely because of this news that Zhao Hai wanted to wait until the va.s.sal races finally rebel. If he made a move right now, then the Divines might focus all of their power towards him. At that time, the pressure towards the other races would decrease, making them think twice whether they should rebel or not.
Zhao Hai didn’t want such a thing to happen. He wanted those va.s.sal races to partic.i.p.ate in the war. After all, in turbid waters, it was easier to catch fish by hand.