Chapter 474 — No One Will Stop

Tifone was a vast nation; its territory, resource reserves, and population were several times those of the Duchy of Cecil!

This meant it could absorb the resource losses incurred in the course of development, could afford ample opportunities for trial and error, and—more importantly—could multiply the dividends of that development several times over!

Even if its efficiency of advance was lower than Cecil's, its sheer size would soon be enough to crush Ansour, to crush Cecil.

So what should Cecil do—what could it do...

Gao Yang turned back and looked at the stack of documents on his desk.

Those were the construction and development plans for the Southern Region's four newly emerging industrial belts in the next stage.

At this stage, there was actually not much Gao Yang could do within the Southern Region—development was the absolute priority; only by burying himself in development and maximizing Cecil's advantage in "efficiency" could he maintain the current favorable situation.

And this process of development had to be steady and controllable.

His territory had already expanded excessively over the past year; he now had no spare capacity to expand again—unless he wanted the Duchy of Cecil to return to the loose, disordered feudal-lord system of the past, the only things he could do within his territory were digest and absorb, and bury his head in building up the tech tree and infrastructure.

And beyond Ansour, he could inflict no direct harm on Tifone; all he could do was dig pits.

The vast imperial machine controlled by Luo Yan? Augustus was already in motion; stopping it was impossible. Better, then, to simply give it a push—to send it advancing in a direction that looked radiantly glorious but was in truth a bottomless abyss...

Gao Yang had to do this—for Cecil's survival, Tifone had to be rendered harmless.

But in the process he also had to find a way to preserve Tifone's development potential... because the Tifone of the future might well also be a force in resisting the magic tide.

What Gao Yang felt most fortunate about now was that the magic-net intelligence he had deliberately released had promptly entered the sight of Luo Yan? Augustus and his brain trust. It was through this opportunity that he could infiltrate his influence into Tifone.

But was Daniel's "magic-net technology" alone sufficient to plant enough poison within the body of that behemoth, Tifone?

Gao Yang judged that this was not enough—the magic-net was indeed of great significance, but Luo Yan Augustus would surely treat this technology from Ansu with caution; he would very likely restrict its application, and even if the "magic-net poison kill" plan succeeded, the damage to Typhon would not be great enough. At most it would waste a batch of manpower and resources in the process—as a vast empire, Typhon could afford the loss.

Some bolder and far more risky ideas were brewing in Gao Yang's mind, and his expression shifted unpredictably as a result.

Hetty finally jolted awake from her sleep. She sat up with a start and saw that Gao Yang had long since emerged from his "meditation" and was standing not far away, while a coat had been draped over her. She was at once nervous and embarrassed: "Ancestor... I... I didn't mean to fall asleep..."

Seeing Hetty awake, Gao Yang's expression quickly softened. He smiled faintly and took back the coat she handed him: "It's all right. A little sleep does you good—you really have been too tired lately."

"Actually, things have been all right lately. Once the production and construction plans were handed down, there wasn't so much to do," Hetty said, her face still flushed and her head lowered in explanation. "It's just that the government hall has been testing the newly installed magic-net document transfer system recently, and we've run into a lot of unexpected problems. They're a bit... thorny."

"Problems are normal when applying new technology," Gao Yang nodded. "Setting that aside—do you have the materials on hand regarding the development of the various industrial zones over the recent period, their output, the willingness of private merchants to invest in factories, the attitudes of the transforming nobles toward factories, and the operations of the Production Coordination Committee and the Department of Labor Protection?"

"I have all of it. I've been organizing it routinely," Hetty nodded, then asked with some curiosity, "Do you need it?"

"I do, but there's no rush. Just compile a comprehensive report for me in the next few days."

"I understand."

Gao Yang gave a slight nod, then murmured as if to himself, "One's own strength is what truly counts..."

……

In the reception hall of the Obsidian Palace, Aldernan, the imperial capital of Typhon.

Grand Duke Pei Yi looked at Emperor Luo Yan Augustus seated across from him, feeling somewhat conflicted.

The war between Typhon and Ansu had finally been postponed, yet any clear-eyed observer could see that this had nothing to do with peace.

Almost immediately after the peace treaty was signed, Ansu plunged into a catastrophic civil war, while the Typhon Empire closed its borders and stood by to watch. Emperor Luo Yan began consolidating the various factions within the country, meeting frequently with the nobility, and continued to push forward the reform of the professional army... Every one of these things was noted by Pei Yi Wendel.

He knew that this emperor of grand strategy and ambition had never given up on Ansu as a choice piece of meat; the current temporary truce merely served to make that meat more tender, more appetizing, and easier to swallow.

He rejoiced that Luo Yan Augustus had successfully shaken off the hereditary madness, and was gratified that the Empire possessed an emperor in whom wisdom and strength coexisted—but he also lamented the demise of the nobility's golden spirit, and regretted the new style of warfare advanced through cunning schemes.

In Ansu's civil war, there was no doubt that Emperor Luo Yan had a hand.

But Pei Yi Wendel understood full well that such dishonorable methods were necessary—for the Empire's interests, the people of Ansu had to make sacrifices.

And not only did the people of Ansu have to make sacrifices; they also had to become nourishment for the Empire's growth.

A middle-aged woman in a mage's robe stood respectfully beside the Typhon Emperor, pointing at the blueprint spread on the table as she explained, "This is what is called the 'magic-net,' but this is the first generation—it's already obsolete. The second generation is more streamlined, but the blueprints we obtained are incomplete, and we haven't found the specific processing method."

Grand Duke Pei Yi looked at the blueprint before the Typhon Emperor—he could see the intricate runes and magical lines drawn upon it. Although all the runes were of the primary tier, the entire array possessed a strange sense of harmony. Though he himself was not a mage, with his passable knowledge of magic he could judge that this magical array had been optimized to an exceptional degree.

This was the key to the rapid rise of that ancient Cecil family of Ansu—the "lost technology" brought by that ancient hero returned from the dead.

Luo Yan Augustus's voice came from across the table: "Pei Yi, I hear the second-generation magic-net is composed of individual 'units.'"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Duke Pei Yi replied. "An Luo captured some refugee Ansu mercenaries who had seen the second-generation magic-net. It's said that those magic-net units are hexagonal rune arrays requiring extremely high processing precision, and their quantity is enormous—they don't look like something hammered out one by one by blacksmiths and rune craftsmen..."

At this, the Duke could not help but frown and sigh. "A pity we have no blueprints... nor have we obtained any physical samples."