Chapter 644: Plan to Raid the Feysac Empire

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For the next two days, Hobert stayed in Angel City in the Southern Continent, discussing with Conrad and Donna about quickly establishing effective rule in the Saint-Sern Basin.

The first step was to conduct thorough research to determine the distribution of the population, arable land, and mineral resources in this plain and mountainous area, and then formulate a systematic takeover plan.

On the other hand, Hobert discussed military suppression of the basin and the construction of defensive lines with officers led by Seel.

Hobert had no intention of coexisting with those local lords and generals; he wanted to establish more effective rule, not engage in "proxy rule."

He had already sent people to notify all the local lords and generals in the territory, asking them to come to Angel City to meet Duke Hobert, and then announce that all their land belonged to the Duchy.

Finally, he would ask them who agreed and who opposed.

However, because transportation in the Southern Continent was very inconvenient, some local lords would not be able to reach Angel for about a week, so after Hobert arranged for the garrison and mystics here, and built the teleportation array, he temporarily returned to Backlund.

Yesterday, Dophis came to report that Princess Alice had invited Hobert to the palace as a guest.

Hobert knew that the other party definitely wanted to talk to him about the teleportation array. The war between Loen and the Feysac Empire had been fierce on the southern shore from the beginning, and the first batch of reinforcements from the Western Front of the Loen Kingdom would not reach the southern shore until at least tomorrow.

This was the result of immediately mobilizing troops after the outbreak of the war. Hobert did not think the Loen military would move so quickly. Even if it was that fast, a train could only bring a regiment to support them. How many trains could Loen spare in a short time?

Following basic etiquette, Hobert first sent Dophis to the palace to report to the princess that he had returned to Backlund and to inquire when it would be appropriate to meet.

The answer he received was: Meet immediately.

So Hobert changed into formal attire, rode in a carriage to the palace, and met Alice and Georgina in a nicely decorated garden.

However, they did not immediately discuss business. Instead, Georgina began by talking about the situation in the Southern Continent.

At this time, the Loen Kingdom was not only at war with the Feysac Empire in the Northern Continent, but also fierce battles were taking place between the colonial armies of the two countries in the Southern Continent.

Hobert smiled and said, "As long as the Duchy's armory is built, we can contain a portion of the enemy's forces. Right now, the Duchy's strength is not even enough to complete its own defense."

Alice said, "Don't rush, you still have some time."

Just as they were talking, Amyrius entered from outside, and Alice invited them to a reception room.

Although it was called a reception room, it was more like a command room. The table was covered with maps, as well as tools for measuring maps.

On the wall was a huge map, outlining the entire situation in the Northern Continent with red and blue lines.

Alice opened her anti-eavesdropping sealed artifact, and after inviting everyone to sit down, she said to Hobert, "The indiscriminate bombing of Backlund by the Feysac Empire has angered all the people and soldiers of the Loen Kingdom, so we have decided to plan a bombing of the Feysac Empire!"

Hobert was stunned. The royal family's purpose in finding him was not quite what he had expected.

Alice continued to say to Hobert, "But this war came too suddenly, and we don't have enough manpower to dispatch, so we need you to send enough Beyonder forces to protect the airships in this bombing."

Hobert asked, "How many airships are planned to be used for the bombing?"

"24!"

Hobert smiled: What bullshit "not enough manpower to dispatch"! This is clearly a suicide mission. They plan to have the power of the 'Creator' jump into this fire pit!

The three of them looked at Hobert, and Hobert considered for more than ten seconds before saying, "Yes, but I have two conditions."

Alice breathed a sigh of relief: "Speak."

"First, we will command this battle!" Hobert said.

"Of course!" It was Amyrius who answered him: "However, we will designate the bombing target."

Hobert asked, "Where are you planning to bomb?"

Amyrius replied: "Of course, it is the capital of the Feysac Empire, Saint Millon."

Hobert thought for a moment and then said, "With so few airships, it's only enough to bomb the industrial area of Saint Millon."

Alice leaned back in her chair: "You decide the bombing range, as long as it is Saint Millon."

For the Loen Kingdom, as long as a bomb falls on Saint Millon, even if it falls on the rural areas of the suburbs of Saint Millon, it is a huge victory.

The symbolism of this sneak attack is more meaningful than the actual damage caused to the enemy.

Moreover, this battle can be used to arouse hatred between the Beyonders of the 'Creator' forces and the Feysac Empire. For the Loen Kingdom, it is a very worthwhile deal.

But when Hobert said the second condition, Georgina and others didn't think so.

Hobert said: "The second condition is that Loen needs to provide some industrial technology."

Alice asked, "Which aspect?"

"Wait a moment." Hobert unscrewed his pen, took a piece of white paper from the table, and handwritten a list of technical requirements.

Before the war, Hobert's team had already drafted the technologies that their forces urgently needed and held many meetings to discuss them. Hobert had originally planned to ask the Loen Kingdom for these technologies as soon as he had the opportunity.

Hobert's list had 15 major items and 22 minor items.

It covered confidential fields such as machine tool manufacturing and mechanical manufacturing, as well as transportation-related fields such as ships, trains, and carriage manufacturing.

In addition, there were some technologies that were not very difficult to master but required constant trial and error to master, such as alloy casting, sugar making, chemical industries, textiles, etc.

These were all centuries of technological accumulation in the four countries of the Northern Continent. At the same time, these were also fields that Hobert himself was relatively unfamiliar with. At most, he could only point out a general direction to his subordinates. It would take constant trial and error and a huge time cost to master these technologies.

Alice looked at the list and sighed: If these technologies were given to the Southern Balam Duchy, and they had enough funds for construction, at most ten years... No, with Hobert's execution, it wouldn't take ten years at all, and the Southern Balam Duchy would have about the same strength as the four countries of the Northern Continent.

After taking a deep breath, Alice began to bargain with Hobert, and finally only agreed to 10 major items and 16 minor items of technical support.

Regarding this negotiation, Alice obviously gave way. In Georgina and Amyrius's view, such conditions were worth it even if a few demigods of the "Creator" forces died in the upcoming raid, and besides, Hobert could not send a large number of demigods to participate in the war.

After they agreed, the next step was for the Loen Kingdom's Ministry of Industry to contact Hobert's subordinates and receive technical data.

What Alice didn't know was that Hobert had already sent Todd to recruit workers from some heavy industrial cities on the southern shore of Midseashire. The new job promised to bring their families with them and included food and accommodation.

Because several industrial cities could hear gunshots every day, many people were worried that the Feysac Empire's army would break through the Loen Kingdom's defenses, so a large number of skilled workers were recruited in just two days.

Currently, Todd is using trains to transport them south and using the Backlund teleportation array to go to Longtail Island.

The machinery of various light and heavy industrial factories on Longtail Island has basically been put in place. All of them are orders from the Loen Kingdom, and these skilled workers can start work when they go.

It is expected that in October, the industrial base on Longtail Island will be fully operational. At that time, while meeting its own industrial needs, Longtail Island will also be able to meet at least one-third of the industrial needs of the Southern Balam Duchy.

After talking about the bombing of Saint Millon, Alice asked the servants to bring a pot of tea. Everyone drank a few cups of tea and rested for a while before talking about the teleportation array.

Hobert had already prepared for this: "There are two ways to cooperate. The first is to charge per teleportation array, 200,000 pounds per array."

"One is to sell you the blueprints and the method of praying for power, which includes 8 teleportation arrays, which is a 1+2+5 cooperation model."

"That is, when our people set up the first teleportation array, you can watch from the side. For two teleportation arrays, our people will teach your people how to set them up."

"For the remaining 5 teleportation arrays, you will set them up yourself, and our people will only provide certain supervision and guidance."

"For such cooperation, if you want exclusive cooperation rights, the price is 4.6 million pounds! If you don't require exclusive ownership, it is 3.6 million pounds."

"If you don't have a suitable target for praying for power in the later stage, you can pray for power from the 'Creator'. We will discuss how to settle the specific prayer each time at that time."

Alice and the other three felt that the second method of cooperation was very novel and more inclined to the second method, but that was the second stage of cooperation.

Amyrius said: "We hope to start the first method of cooperation and establish 6 teleportation arrays between the west and the southern shore of Midseashire."

Hobert nodded: "Although we have not yet met our own demand for teleportation arrays, we can help you build them first. Next week..."

Amyrius took a deep breath and interrupted Hobert: "Can it be built within two days?"

The Loen military is now too late to learn the technology of the teleportation array. They very much need a way to complete the support to the southern shore of Midseashire as soon as possible.

At this time, the war on the southern shore of Midseashire was unprecedentedly fierce, and at the same time, the Feysac Empire's offensive from the gap between the eastern Minsk Mountains and the Amantha Mountains was also very fierce.

They must have been scouting for a long time, seizing a large number of positions right from the start, causing heavy casualties to the Loen military.

The Western Front soldiers need to quickly complete their eastward transfer, and the supplies from Backlund need to be rapidly transported to the front lines.

Therefore, Amyrius couldn't bother with any negotiation skills and directly stated the most urgent needs.

Hobert pretended to be stunned for a moment, then pretended to think for a while before saying, "I will personally arrange it for you, and you will definitely be able to use it within two days."

In fact, only Hobert and Fors have mastered the blueprints for the teleportation array. This batch of teleportation arrays will definitely be arranged by Hobert, but everyone feels comfortable hearing him say that.

Moreover, he expected that the Loen military would not have time to study the blueprints of the teleportation array at the beginning. The two cooperation models he mentioned are actually sequential cooperation methods.

Or rather, he wants to earn both of these sums of money.

Alice and the others didn't know the inside story. When they heard that Hobert was going to personally handle the teleportation array, they thought their manpower was really insufficient, and that Hobert was indeed a good friend to do this kind of work with the identity of a Sequence 3 Beyonder, the leader of the dignified "Creator" Beyonder organization.

So, when Amyrius, on behalf of the Ministry of Defense, paid the huge sum of 1.2 million pounds, he hardly hesitated.

As for the total cost of these six teleportation arrays, it was only over one hundred thousand pounds, because Hobert recently had Dophis buy eight gemstone mines in the Southern Continent, and the cost of making teleportation arrays has greatly decreased.

What Hobert didn't expect was that diamond mines were not even as expensive as silver mines, because gemstone roughs in the Southern Continent couldn't be sold at a high price at all. They only became valuable after being taken to the Northern Continent for cutting and setting, and then hyped up by merchants.

But most of the money was earned by the processing and sales companies. In the Southern Continent, a rough stone the size of several hundred pounds can be sold for tens of thousands of pounds after being cut and set in the Northern Continent!

Those small diamonds and gemstones worth thousands or hundreds of pounds in Backlund, their rough stones are sold by the cartload.

However, operating diamond mines is often extremely risky, because in people's minds, due to the hype of merchants, this thing has about the same value as gold, so many adventurers will try to plunder diamond mines.

But the problem is that diamond mines are not as profitable as gold mines at all, and rough stones are often unsalable, but maintaining the security of the mines is a huge expense for investors.

So Hobert only spent more than two hundred thousand pounds to buy eight mines and hired a specialized cutting team in Backlund, immediately achieving gemstone freedom.

After discussing the teleportation array, today's meeting came to an end. Hobert returned to the Earl's mansion and immediately used "Travel" to go to Tony Manor in Bayam.

Chief Osment immediately came out to greet him. After arriving at the reception hall, Hobert went straight to the point without even drinking tea: "Have the family members who are planning to advance to 'War Bishop' prepare, I have an excellent opportunity for advancement here."

Osment's eyes lit up: "Yes, I will ask His Highness Raymond to select the members for advancement later."

Then he asked, "What other preparations do we need to make?"

"We need to send out two more demigods and eight Sequence 5s to assist in this battle. I will pick up the people tomorrow morning." Hobert paused and said seriously, "There may be some casualties."

"I understand," Osment said, "Some casualties are inevitable in the advancement of this pathway."

Hobert nodded, and while getting up, he said, "Please give my regards to His Highness Raymond. The war has begun, and I still have some affairs to attend to. We'll chat when we have the opportunity."

Osment quickly said, "Mr. 'Favored', there is a small matter I hope to get your help with."

"Please speak."

"Can we expand the Tony family's team? Let more Beyonders serve the 'Creator'?" Osment said sincerely.

After the Tony family's Beyonder team went into service, Osment and other high-level family members realized that the Balk family had been completely incorporated into the "Creator". All of their family's more than one hundred Beyonders are currently serving the "Creator".

The Tudor family also has a total of more than sixty Beyonders serving the "Creator", and it is said that Angus, who followed Hobert in the early days, has already been promoted to demigod with Hobert's help.

The Tony family suddenly felt that their strength was very marginalized in the "Creator"'s forces, and they were actually on the same level as the "Temperance Faction", which was not very involved. How could this be allowed?

That's why Osment made such a request.

Hobert smiled helplessly: "Okay, after this raid is over, I will add ten places to your team. Let Pix choose the people."

Pix is the commander of the Tony family's Beyonder unit.

For Hobert, there are currently more than two hundred and sixty Beyonders under his command. This does not include the "Assassins" of the Demoness Research Society, and the "Apprentices" of the Traveler Research Society.

These Beyonders are enough for him to cope with the current situation. His plan is to wait until the Southern Balam Duchy is ready to start a large-scale external expansion, and then find an opportunity to completely incorporate the Tudor family and the Tony family.

Hobert quickly left amidst Osment's thanks.

The other affairs Hobert mentioned were that Intelligence Officer Xio was scheduled to submit the investigation report on the third batch of Aurora Order members today.

In the study of the Earl's mansion, Hobert received the materials compiled by Xio.

Because many members have already been assassinated, the four members of the third batch have all changed their residences.

Fortunately, the intelligence network established by Xio has begun to take shape, and he has found their new residences.

According to the surveillance of Xio's subordinates, two Aurora Order members in addition to the information given by Hobert have also been identified.

Hobert smiled and said, "I really didn't expect that these lunatics would be so patient this time."

Xio reported, "I actually felt that someone was following me during the investigation, but I pretended not to know all along."

Hobert nodded, thought for a moment, and then said, "Assassinate these targets tonight."

He looked at Xio and said, "This time we have to take a risk. When assassinating the first target, you go yourself."

"I'll give you a talisman. As long as you inject spirituality into the talisman, I can sense it and rush over to support you within three seconds."

Since the other party has not withdrawn the Aurora Order members that Xio investigated, it means that the high-level members of the Aurora Order still want to observe Xio and suspect whether there is a demigod ambush behind Xio?

Then, when Xio carries out the third assassination, they will most likely take action decisively when they find that Xio is alone.

If they don't want to clash with Xio, they will simply transfer those members away instead of continuing to monitor.

Xio took the talisman handed over by Hobert: "Okay."

Of course, she knew that she was going to be bait this time, but because of the help of the "1-107" Imperative Mage Gloves, she was confident that she could withstand the attack of a demigod for three seconds.

Hobert gave her another Sealed Artifact: "This Sealed Artifact has the abilities of 'Travel' and 'Blink'. If I can't take care of you after the battle starts, quickly find a way to leave the battlefield."

He earnestly instructed, "Don't try to do anything to help!"

Xio also said seriously, "I know."

Of course, she knew that even if she had a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact, the battle at the demigod level was not something a Sequence 6 could participate in.

Hobert added, "Because tonight's operation is very risky, you will receive a reward regardless of whether it is successful or not."

"Either the 'Disciplinary Knight' potion formula, or this Sealed Artifact with 'Travel' ability, um, but you can only get half of the usage rights of this Sealed Artifact, and the other half of the usage rights needs to be exchanged for additional merits."

Xio immediately said without thinking, "I hope to get the potion formula."

If she hadn't joined the "Creator"'s forces, she would definitely have chosen the latter.

But it's different now. She found that acting as a judge in the Beyonder Court made the digestion speed of the "Judge" potion very fast.

Judging from the current speed, she will definitely be able to completely digest the potion around the New Year.

Hobert nodded: "Okay."

After discussing the details of the plan, Hobert left Xio for dinner, and the two began to prepare separately.

On Hobert's side, he directly transferred the newly promoted Angus to Backlund to let him experience a demigod battle.

At the same time, Hobert let Dophis also participate in the battle, and be sure to end the battle as soon as possible.

At eight o'clock in the evening, the three demigods were playing poker in Hobert's study while waiting for Xio's signal.

Angus was a little excited about this operation. He had seen Dophis before and knew that this butler was a demigod who was also helping Hobert with some affairs and was someone Hobert trusted very much.

This time, the "Favored" could let himself participate, which also showed that he trusted him.

This gave Angus a sense of becoming a high-level member of the "Creator" Beyonder organization.

In fact, even if he didn't gain Hobert's full trust, he was already a high-level member with his demigod level.

...

In the East Borough of Backlund, Xio got off the carriage early, just like the previous two assassinations, and ran towards the target's residence.

Just as she was about to launch an attack, her spirituality felt something and suddenly glanced at the shadows on the side of the street, but there was nothing there.

Xio took a deep breath, adjusted her state, and quickly launched a surprise attack, ending the battle in just ten seconds, carrying the corpse back to the carriage, and arriving at the residence of the second target.

This time, she still felt as if there was a pair of eyes watching her in the darkness.

In fact, she also knew in her heart that someone must be watching her, so she adjusted her mindset again and carried out the assassination.

As before, she suddenly rushed into the target's room and solved the opponent with one blow.

But soon, Xio felt that something was wrong. The spirituality of this path was very high. In every assassination mission before, the target had been aware of it. But this time, the target didn't react at all.

Just then, Xio saw the target on the bed turn into a black shadow and rush towards her.

Xio was startled and quickly jumped out of the window. As she jumped out, she infused her spirituality into the charm that Hobert had given her.

Just as she felt the warmth of the charm, Xio suddenly felt her body stiffen and her thoughts become unclear. When she came back to her senses, she found that the surrounding streets had become like realistic toys, and four tall walls had appeared around her.

Dong~

A muffled sound came from above, and the top was also covered by walls. The section of the street in front of her was surrounded by these walls.

Xio found that her every movement was becoming slower and slower, gradually like a wind-up toy, moving in jerks.

After her mind had been working for more than half a minute, a worried thought finally appeared: "Damn... I'm... trapped... I don't know... if Hobert... received... the... signal... I... sent."

Xio was indeed trapped, and she was trapped by a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact.

When Hobert and the other two arrived, they happened to see a man wearing a black robe with a mysterious aura and brown hair closing a silver-black jewelry box.

Hobert immediately remembered that this was the "Box of the Outer Deities".

Then Xio would not be in great danger for the next 24 hours.

The man in the black robe holding the jewelry box was Butis, the Saint of the Aurora Order.

Without Hobert giving the order, the three of them immediately launched an attack on Butis.

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