Chapter 684: The First Millennium, Hounds of the Primordial Wastes

In New Calendar year 780, the Red Emperor fell into deep slumber in the deep void.

At this time, Atlantis was in the depths of autumn. The maple groves of the Red Emperor Capital turned a fiery crimson overnight. From atop the city walls, the entire mountainside looked like a frozen river of flame.

People admired the late autumn scenery as they always did.

Everything was as usual.

For the citizens of Sacred Aola, the Emperor's slumber was nothing unusual. He had slept before, and every time he awoke, he had become even more invincible. This had become an expected pattern.

The empire's operations did not stall because of the Emperor's absence.

In New Calendar year 793, Halden formally established its nation.

This people, who had once styled themselves as Masters of the Skies, finally regained their own national identity after years of being grounded on the earth.

The nation-founding ceremony was held in Cloudperch City.

The Halden people used their proudest technology to illuminate the entire city as bright as day. Fireworks bloomed into beautiful patterns in the night sky, lasting a full shichen, drawing wave after wave of cheers from the crowd.

The day after the ceremony.

The King of Halden signed a unification contract with Iron Royal Duke Sorog in the dragon court of the Aola Royal Capital.

The terms of the contract were identical to those of other Atlan vassal states.

The Kingdom of Halden retained its autonomy but formally recognized Sacred Aola's suzerainty. In military, diplomatic, and cross-regional affairs, it accepted the empire's unified coordination while enjoying the Star Network access, Cloud Rail connectivity, and the protection of the collective defense system provided by the empire.

For the following decades, Sacred Aola did not expand outward.

The fruits of Atlan's unification needed to be digested, the internal potential had yet to be fully released. More importantly, it was not advisable to launch major military campaigns while the Emperor slept. This had always been Sacred Aola's tradition, a proven and prudent strategy tested many times over.

So the empire's power began to turn inward, extending beyond city walls, deep into once-dismissed undeveloped wastelands.

The wilderness was tamed piece by piece.

Mages unleashed large-scale soil improvement spells, turning hardened clumps of earth soft and fertile. Dense forests were carved with passable roads as towering ancient trees yielded to both sides under nature spells, creating straight corridors.

Even the most remote mountain regions received Cloud Rail branch lines extending inward.

Aola's engineers erected Star Network relay towers across the plains, and the empire's communication network gradually covered every inch of land incorporated into its territory.

As time passed, the empire's habitable area grew steadily at a rate of one percent per year. The population climbed, and new cities appeared on the map one after another.

This was Sacred Aola's golden age, and also Atlantis's golden age.

The empire enriched itself amidst peace and order, growing more prosperous with each passing day.

In New Calendar year 843, Iron Royal Duke Sorog entered slumber.

Six years later, in New Calendar year 849, Fire Princess Samantha also stepped into the depths of the Dragon Nest.

The slumber periods of these two blood kin arrived almost back to back, only a few years apart.

We had anticipated that, and left detailed proxy plans before their slumber.

But unfortunately, when Gordon's eyes closed, a vacancy appeared in Sacred Aola's power center.

In that situation, as before, Gordon took over the empire's helm.

As the Iron Royal Duke, his style was completely different from Sorog's.

If Sorog could be described as an iron hammer, striking down with blunt force and no room for hesitation, never flinching before obstacles, then Gordon was more like a bearing, preferring to find balance among various interests, maintaining the smoothest operation with the least friction, allowing power to transmit seamlessly.

He did well, yet the empire still encountered some troubles.

However, the problem did not lie with Gordon. He had done everything he could.

The problem was that the Red Emperor's slumber had exceeded everyone's expectations.

From 780 to now, over seventy years had passed.

The Emperor still showed no sign of awakening...

Previously, the longest the Master of Aola had ever slept was just over fifty years, never this long. Many young people were born while the Emperor was already asleep. They grew up only seeing the Red Emperor's image in books and murals.

After New Calendar year 850, the empire's development began to slow.

The vigorous upward momentum hit a ceiling.

This was no one's fault. Developable territory always has its limits, technological progress cannot maintain explosive growth forever, and any growth curve will eventually flatten.

The empire encountered the bottleneck that every unified regime inevitably faces.

A system without external expansion will sooner or later reach saturation.

Saturation meant stagnation, and stagnation meant friction. When everyone could no longer easily obtain more, they would start eyeing what others held.

One day, territorial disputes emerged.

The Lothrian Kingdom and the Divine Kingdom of Theo clashed in several small-scale conflicts along their border, the cause being a newly discovered magic crystal vein.

Among the former Romania nations, Lothrian had once been far stronger than Theo. Back then, Lothrian was the regional hegemon, and Theo was merely an unremarkable ordinary kingdom.

But now... Theo was already fully comparable to Lothrian.

It had experienced rapid growth within Sacred Aola's framework, its industry and military both greatly enhanced, even surpassing Lothrian as it stood today.

Both sides claimed mining rights and faced off for an entire winter.

Gordon dispatched an arbitration team. After multiple rounds of negotiations, the vein's ownership was finally settled, awarded to Lothrian, but mining profits had to be shared with Theo.

It was a compromise.

Both sides accepted.

That was only one of the problems.

Not long after, trade disputes followed.

A price war broke out between Halden's refined metals and the existing metallurgical guilds of the Atlan native nations. Both sides kept undercutting each other, throwing the market into chaos.

After a half-month-long industry conference in the Red Emperor Capital, stability was finally restored, and a complete pricing system and distribution plan was hammered out.

These were still minor issues.

The most troublesome was racial friction.

Sacred Aola was an empire of multiple races. Previously, prejudice between different races had gradually faded during the prosperous era, with everyone cooperating and helping each other.

But when resources became tight, the problems resurfaced.

For now, it was just grumbling and complaints, but this discontent was like dry firewood. Once enough accumulated, a single spark could ignite it all.

Gordon was overwhelmed, spending his days shuttling between factions to maintain balance.

In New Calendar year 873, earthquakes struck frequently in Atlantis's central region, far exceeding normal geological activity cycles. The earth trembled violently in the dead of night, waking countless sleeping people.

Then, a rat infestation began to run rampant.

As if following the command of a unified will, rat swarms surged out of ground fissures in groups, invading farmlands, gnawing on crops, contaminating granaries, and nesting and breeding in city sewers.

Plague spread along with the rat infestation.

The empire urgently mobilized priest teams and sorceresses to treat the sick, and the Star Network repeatedly broadcast epidemic prevention directives, but infection numbers kept climbing. The shadow of plague loomed over the central region.

In New Calendar year 874, Sacred Aola identified the source of it all.

A deep underground survey brought the truth to light.

Deep beneath the central region, a massive ratfolk kingdom was thriving and multiplying in sunless caverns.

The ancestors of these ratfolk were merely ordinary rat swarms polluted by Abyssal energy, but after generations of mutation, they had developed a considerable degree of civilization.

Or rather, a distorted society that relied on frantic reproduction and blind expansion as its survival strategy.

Their king was a colossal ratfolk abomination.

Its mind had been corrupted by the remnants of Abyssal power. It was born with the talent to control rats and rapidly mutate other rats, and its mind held only a single thought.

Gnaw through the earth, surge onto the surface, and turn Atlantis into a pasture for the rat horde.

That same year, Gordon issued the extermination order, the most decisive military command he had given during his tenure.

The chrome dragon Claudia led an elite force, breaking into the underground through a fissure that the rat swarms had tunneled open.

In less than three days.

They traversed winding underground passages, smashed through layer after layer of ratfolk guards, and reached the heart of the ratfolk kingdom.

The chrome dragon laughed, crushing the ratfolk king with three swipes of her claws, turning it into a pulp of flesh. The entire nest collapsed, and the surviving ratfolk scattered in every direction.

The central region rat infestation subsided rapidly within a month of the ratfolk kingdom's destruction.

In New Calendar year 889, the Abyssal corruption remnants underground were completely cleansed.

That same year, Iron Royal Duke Gordon issued a far-reaching order.

He commanded the nations to organize forces to explore and develop Atlantis's underground world.

Surface development had reached its limit, and the underground was an untouched blank canvas. The sparks of conflict had just begun to flare, but they were extinguished by the new resources and space brought by underground development. New possibilities opened up once more.

Interests began to flow again, and friction naturally cooled.

In New Calendar year 912, the exploration of the underground world was essentially complete.

Its scale was limited, merely a system of caverns beneath the Atlantis Continent's crust. Though the passages and chambers were vast, they were still confined within the crust.

But in this dark domain, Aola's pioneers discovered rich rare mineral veins and large quantities of magical flora that only grew underground. The wealth beneath the earth gave the empire a new round of growth momentum.

That same year, Sacred Aola encountered a familiar life form.

The fungus king.

It had once dominated the Ser Wilderness, one of the regional kings, controlling vast stretches of the wilds through its enormous mycelial network. It was one of the most difficult existences among all wilderness life to eradicate.

When it was cleansed by Theo back then, it had fought above its level against the Theo Sword Saint. On the surface, it was slain and torn apart.

But in reality, it had escaped into an underground rift. Through a series of fortunate coincidences, it arrived in the underground world and vanished without a trace.

Several hundred years had passed, and it was no longer what it used to be.

Now, the fungus king was a crown-level life form, ruling all the myconid tribes of the underground world. It had established a special community connected by a spore network, with countless myconids thriving under its nourishment, spread throughout the underground world.

Among the former wilderness regional kings, this fungus king's development was second only to the Lord of Molten Iron.

But compared to the latter, it was still far behind.

For intelligent life that could communicate, Sacred Aola did not intend to liquidate or exterminate it. The empire sent envoys, extending an olive branch to this former wilderness regional king.

The negotiations lasted for months.

Though the fungus king remained wary of the surface dragons, it also knew full well the gap between itself and Sacred Aola.

Attaching itself to the empire was far more promising than opposing it.

In the end, both sides reached an agreement. With Sacred Aola's support, the Myconid Kingdom was formally established, and it signed an alliance with Sacred Aola, acknowledging Sacred Aola's suzerainty. Then it established diplomatic relations with the Atlan nations, and trade routes for underground mineral veins and magical flora were officially opened.

In New Calendar year 931, over a hundred and fifty years had passed since the Red Emperor's slumber.

That year, Iron Royal Duke Gordon's slumber period could no longer be delayed. The Iron Royal Duke and the Fire Princess were still asleep.

Gordon laid out the empire's operational strategy point by point.

Domestically, continue the established route of underground development with no major adjustments. Militarily, maintain the existing defense system with rotating guard duty for the legions. Diplomatically, maintain existing treaties with vassal states with no changes.

The core was just one word.

Stability!

In short, make no major decisions, hold the status quo, and wait quietly for the Royal Dukes and the Emperor to awaken.

And so, after Gordon entered slumber, Sacred Aola continued to operate. The empire's governance system, after centuries of running-in, was mature and efficient enough that daily administrative affairs could proceed normally without Royal Duke intervention.

But as Gordon had feared, the empire no longer had a brain capable of making major decisions.

Without a leader, there was no way to respond flexibly to sudden changes.

Problems indeed came one after another.

Ferocious beasts ran rampant across various regions, with magic beasts suppressed deep in the wilderness beginning to test expanding their territories outward. Cults bewitched the masses, with various sects preaching doomsday theories and anti-Aola ideologies quietly rising. A few vassal states refused to follow the rules, testing the empire's baseline with border skirmishes...

The empire's stability was struck multiple times.

However, these problems were all suppressed by the timely reactions of Aola's lords and the Emperor's claws and fangs.

They may not have possessed the authority of the Emperor himself, but they also wielded tremendous power. Before the Red Emperor, such power might amount to nothing, but on Atlantis, it was enough to crush the vast majority of threats.

And so, the empire, supported by countless hands working together, firmly maintained its stability.

In New Calendar year 945, the Iron Royal Duke and the Fire Princess awoke in the same year.

After Sorog awakened, he took less than a shichen to review all the priority briefings that had accumulated during his slumber.

"Very good."

That was all he said.

The iron dragon truly meant it. In his view, Gordon maintaining the empire's smooth operation while the Emperor and both blood kin were simultaneously asleep had far exceeded his expectations.

As for those ferocious beasts, cults, border frictions...

Merely scab ailments, hardly worth mentioning.

Their existence only proved that the empire possessed the ability to sustain itself even in a prolonged state of leaderlessness.

Next, Sorog began his cleanup work with iron-fisted measures.

Ferocious beasts? Eliminated.

Within three months, all ferocious beasts and magical monsters above legendary tier on the Atlantis Continent were either killed or brought under control. Beast hordes below legendary tier were designated to fixed wilderness zones for managed breeding, with hunting quotas opened up. This both maintained ecological balance and minimized their threat.

Cult members? Arrested and executed!

This matter was personally handled by the Fire Princess.

Or rather, anything related to execution, slaughter, and destruction, this red dragon was extremely enthusiastic about participating.

The number of arrests and the speed of executions were so great that all those with ill intentions were terrified out of their wits. Their strongholds were uprooted one by one, the bodies of their high-ranking members impaled and hung from city walls as a warning. The entire underground network was torn out by the roots within a few short months.

Vassal kingdoms that refused to follow the rules?

Sorog couldn't be bothered with negotiation or arbitration. He directly hanged two vassal kings who had disrupted Aola's order, telling the other nations in the most straightforward way possible that while Sacred Aola was merciful and tolerant, it was by no means lacking in thunderous measures.

Under the Iron Royal Duke's iron fist, Atlantis quickly returned to the right track.

Restless ambitious figures retreated back into the shadows, and the risen dregs were pressed back beneath the water.

The continent was calm, and order was once again stable.

The unease in people's hearts was gradually smoothed away.

And so, time arrived at the first millennium of the New Calendar.

The millennium bell rang in the Red Emperor Capital, shaking every window.

Cloud Rail trains dragged celebratory ribbons across the sky, their carriages adorned with flowers and flags, leaving trails of brilliant color. Star Network signals transmitted festival blessings to every city, with screens and projections flashing scenes of celebration.

The people of Atlantis celebrated the arrival of the new millennium amidst laughter and fireworks.

They celebrated the empire's prosperity and flourishing, its peace and tranquility.

But everyone who looked up at the sky felt that something was missing.

Their Emperor had still not returned. ℯ

From New Calendar year 780 to the present, the great Red Emperor had been silent for over two hundred years.

Over two hundred years...

Enough time for many eyewitnesses who had seen the Red Emperor soar across the sky to be carried away by time.

Now, the vast majority of citizens living on this land had seen his silhouette in statues, his dragon wings in murals, and heard of his feats of slaying the demon king and purging the Abyss in poetry and legend.

But they had never once looked up to behold his presence.

Yet loyalty and faith had not diminished because of this.

Loyalty to the Emperor had long been deeply etched into every system of the empire. Even with the Emperor silent, this aspect was hardly affected.

Time continued to flow, as it always had.

It did not speed up for any nation's development, nor did it pause for any being's slumber.

And in the deep void, the stars stood silent.

Beyond the boundaries of the Bernardo world stretched endless darkness and emptiness. There was no air, no sound, and no trace of life, only the eternal stillness that had existed since time immemorial.

Occasionally, a few wandering meteorites dragged long trails across the darkness before vanishing into the deeper void.

But today, the starfield boundary that had slumbered for countless epochs received an uninvited guest.

An extremely faint, distant point of light flickered at the outer edge of the Bernardo starfield.

If an astronomer happened to notice it among the countless stars, they might think they had spotted a dying red dwarf star. Its dim, reddish glow was indeed easy to mistake for one.

But this point of light's movement pattern was wrong.

Normal planets did not move.

And it... was approaching, moving via faster-than-light spatial teleportation.

One flicker, and it crossed a distance. Another flicker, and it crossed another distance...

This planet, continuously teleporting through the deep void, was performing a displacement similar to spatial teleportation. With each flicker, its distance from Bernardo shortened by a measure.

After an unknown number of teleportations, it suddenly stopped, halting precisely on the boundary line of the Bernardo starfield.

And this planet was the dwelling place of an ancient life form, or rather, its very vessel, the extension of its body and will.

"Egg of Catastrophe," that was its name.

It hung there, making normal planets look tiny and fragile in comparison.

Its volume could almost swallow an entire medium-sized planet whole.

Smaller meteorites and cosmic dust were captured by its gravity, falling toward it and being absorbed into itself, becoming part of its outer shell.

The tectonic plates on the Egg of Catastrophe's surface began to crack.

The earth split apart, mountains toppled, deep valleys closed...

Countless earth and stone began converging toward several fixed centers, as if invisible hands were kneading them into shape. They compressed, solidified, and grew larger and larger.

One, two, three...

Finally, several enormous spherical bodies took shape upon the Egg of Catastrophe, each with a volume comparable to asteroids.

But the most terrifying thing was not their size.

On the surface of these spheres were vein-like patterns that pulsed and undulated continuously.

They were alive.

Or rather, they were part of the Egg of Catastrophe.

The Primordial Wastes itself could not leave the Egg of Catastrophe, at least not yet. But it could extend its tentacles outward first, crossing the barriers of the deep void, reaching toward the blue world slowly spinning in the darkness.

Then, these spheres vanished.

The next instant, they appeared at a distance away. Then they vanished again, appearing even farther.

Spatial teleportation.

They not only possessed life, but also mastered the ability to traverse spatial distances.

The Egg of Catastrophe itself could not perform high-frequency teleportation, nor could it cross too great a spatial distance in a single leap. It was slow.

But these spheres could.

Like a pack of hounds released to hunt, more agile and ravenous than their mother star, they lunged toward their prey, accelerating in the direction of Bernardo.