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The seven-day siege of the Tiannan Pass finally came to an end, and we managed to capture the most important stronghold in the Southeast before the arrival of reinforcements...

With this victory, Chen Qing, who now also occupies Jiangnan, the West Sea, and nine counties in the Southeast, has secured a quarter of the Central Plains, governing a population of a hundred billion!

Jiangnan...

While all of Jiangnan was in a state of jubilation, Jiang Xiaoling immediately reported the battle update to the higher-ups and also conveyed everything she had observed across Jiangnan.

Following her report, it once again sparked research in the operations room.

Hundreds of analysts had already thoroughly evaluated the strategic value of the territories in the Demonic World map; Chen Qing’s current holdings only further affirmed their value to the authorities.

"Elder Zhang, should we release these data on Chen Qing?" Wu Xiaoli asked, looking at the expert’s data report with a mixture of emotions.

According to the records, the territory Chen Qing occupies accounts for a quarter of the Central Plains by area - certainly the dominion of a king.

In terms of quality, it is also of the highest caliber.

Jiangnan boasts the most waterways in the Central Plains, facilitating commerce and providing an excellent environment.

The West Sea is connected to the foreign nations of the Western Sea and although it does not have the prosperity of the island nations of the Eastern Sea, it possesses a high potential for development.

The Southeast, historically known as the granary, complements Chen Qing’s Divine Path System perfectly.

With the advantages it offers at the onset of the second version, the benefits are quite exaggerated. ..

"Let’s not hurry..." said Elder Zhang as he rubbed his palms together, clearly excited: "Have the intelligence agents’ data come through? With Chen Qing’s current power, what are the odds of him prevailing against a true ancient power in a simulation?"

"The intelligence on Divine Path Gameplay has been severely lost; it’s difficult to estimate the strength it could develop.

.." Wu Xiaoli responded with a wry smile. "All we know is that if Divine Path Gameplay could capture the Central Plains’ fate, it would have great potential. But as for whether it can withstand the ancients head-on, no one knows. After the game was released, Divine Path Gameplay was the last to be updated. Following that, Pu YunChuan fell seriously ill and was hospitalized, stalling the progression of the project’s version. "

"Owing to its initial difficulty, hardly any players were able to develop through Divine Path Gameplay, making data collection very difficult..."

Hearing this, Elder Zhang furrowed his brows.

He had seen the relevant materials; this type of gameplay required a solid foundation from the very beginning of the game.

Otherwise, once the ancient legacies began to rise in popularity, the chances of new developments would diminish.

To date, none of the players’ data has shown the ability to survive the second version of the game using this method.

According to the records, the most successful player had once occupied seven cities in the Eastern Sea and had managed a month-long confrontation against the awakening Dragon Palace—an exemplary result from a Divine Path player.

That single achievement led to a surge in the number of Divine Path players in new zones.

However, not long after, the policy against the Digital Life Project came under severe opposition, and the network suffered a colossal setback.

To prevent enterprises and forces from developing privately, the Federation collectively shut down the internet, and the whole world fell into the most chaotic period ever seen.

It was not until three years later that the Digital Life Project restarted, and the network recovered. Then, everyone was eager to jump on the bandwagon. Who would care about a game that was popular years ago?

Lacking sufficient data, no one could clearly say whether this so-called Divine Path Gameplay possessed the capacity to challenge the ancients. It was uncertain whether investing heavily in Chen Qing’s force was a correct move.

"But the combat achievements are indeed significant.

.." interjected another expert, Elder Zhang: "Based on our years of research, when the second version descended, Ghost Domain was certainly among the top ancient powers, both in terms of initial outburst and sustained force in the later stages.

Particularly, their unique ability of Evil Spirit Possession could muster a force of high-level military units in just a year or even months, giving them a formidable initial advantage. "

"Many powers had to gather enough believers and blood essence to resurrect one or two ancient creatures, which took much longer than the Ghost Domain. According to the records, during the initial launch of the Demonic World, out of one hundred districts in the second version, seventy-six of them were dominated by the Ghost Domain from the early stages. Their explosive power was even better than the top-rated Celestial Serpent Palace. This time, Chen Qing’s confrontation with the Southern Barbarians was a direct encounter with all the forces of the Ghost Domain.

He managed not only to drive out the evil spirit soldiers of the Southern Barbarians at the very beginning but also to seize the largest Tiannan Pass in the Central Plains. "

"This display of military strength sufficiently proves that he is a force to be reckoned with!"

"Hmm..." Elder Zhang nodded slightly, complexity in his gaze. This was different from number one, who achieved success through cunning. In just three years, at this critical juncture of the ancients’ arrival, Chen Qing had created a force from scratch, showcasing his capability and understanding of the game.

Could it be... that guy really was Pu YunChuan?

"Do not announce it publicly for the time being..."

"This..." Everyone was momentarily dumbfounded, especially the experts who immediately grew agitated: "Elder Zhang, such good data—if released—will certainly persuade the legislators from other Federation regions. This, in turn, would relieve the pressure on our energy supply in the Huazhong District. You’ve seen it over the years; several of our energy sources have sent alarms. If we continue like this, chaos is bound to ensue! "

Wu Xiaoli didn’t attempt to persuade, she merely watched indifferently, because she knew persuasion would be useless. Elder Zhang was a dominant person and all dominant people share one thing in common—that once they’ve made up their minds, it’s very hard for outsiders to change it!

She also knew what Elder Zhang was scheming.

He was a formidable man, but formidable people often have great ambitions, and this time was no different. His clear intention was to let the Huazhong District monopolize the project!!

Being from Huazhong, she naturally hoped that all the benefits would be cornered by her compatriots, but she didn’t like such high risks.....

The huge energy supply had already exacerbated the contradictions in Huazhong.

Within the five districts, Huazhong District’s energy output was the highest, its citizens the most industrious, with the highest efficiency and output, yet they also had the longest working hours and the shortest leisure time. ....

The root cause was that a large amount of energy was being used for trial and error above; the Huazhong District was the most willing to spend on experimenting with new network areas. Strategically speaking, this was for a better future, but would that future really be better?

No one knew!

Just like this time, aside from the strategic energy reserves that hadn’t been used yet, half of the nation’s energy was being spent on this project.

If they didn’t secure external Federation involvement to support Chen Qing’s private energy contributions, they feared the input would need to be doubled, which meant.

.... they would have to tap into the energy reserves. ....

And that’s not to mention, it seemed the opposition’s intention was to bypass safety assessments completely and directly introduce a population into Jiangnan!

The ancient era was about to dawn, how miserable the lives of those in that world were, they knew all too well from what they had heard from the King of Qin. What would happen if they let the populace go there to struggle for themselves?

After doing this, would Huazhong truly have a better future, or would it..... completely bring collapse upon those below? No one could say for certain.....

--------------------------------

"Why escape now?"

In the Southern Wilderness region, several players were fleeing. The moment Chen Qing withdrew his troops, the Dragon Mother secretly sensed danger and immediately led the team to run.

This scene stunned the other players.

The grey-clothed man who followed Dragon Mother to escape first still didn’t understand and asked the person in pursuit.

"If we don’t escape now, we’ll be unable to!" Dragon Mother’s face was ashen: "Chen Qing obviously knew that we could use the ’Second Blessing’, he knew this intelligence, so he set this trap, the intensive offensive was to force us to use our last trump card!"

The other person was startled, but still puzzled: "How did he learn our internal intelligence?"

To devise such a plan, one must have complete understanding of the inner military strength and deployment of the entire Southern Wilderness alliance; otherwise, such a gamble on military strength would not be worth the losses.....

"That’s exactly why I’m running." Dragon Mother spoke in a lowered voice: "We have a traitor among us!"