Twenty-Sixth Floor of the Tower of Babel

Li Qing entered the room and sat down outside the glass window, finding that he had arrived just in time.

The battle for the Royal City within this room was fierce and spectacular.

The Merfolk were like knights, riding giant octopuses, shells, sharks, crabs, and all sorts of Exoskeleton Sea Giants.

The lower halves of these holy knights were submerged within the heads of the colossal beasts, controlling them, while their strong upper bodies wielded ancient tridents, launching their assault.

Half-human, half-beast.

This was a brand-new exoskeleton mecha version.

"Attack the Imperial City of Atabia!"

"Kill the tyrant!"

The army, well-trained, emerged from the sea and charged towards the central, supreme Royal City located on land.

He began to feel amazed.

This war was more mythical than myth itself, an assault by tens of millions of soldiers, each one perfected to the extreme.

It was truly magnificent.

But it looked like it would go on for a long time, and the most crucial thing was that he was hungry.

"Should I go find something to eat first?"

Li Qing thought.

He couldn't help much anyway.

But soon, the Pope arrived with a group of high-ranking Cardinals.

They began their daily report.

The Pope stepped forward from the group and knelt on the ground:

"Lord, we have discovered that the Great Emperor of Atabia has accelerated the construction of the Tower of Babel. There must be a major problem!"

"The Great Emperor of Atabia has gradually relinquished all authority, completely ignoring our evangelism, and has concentrated all his power into the Tower of Babel. It has already gathered the one hundred billion smartest minds of all the Atabians, with no one exiting."

Atabia's elite forces had been hollowed out.

If it weren't for this leaderless situation, the remaining ignorant populace wouldn't be so easily influenced and misled.

"Therefore, we have also accelerated our progress. We will now initiate the decisive battle, ordering the army to attack the Royal City, capture the Great Emperor of Atabia, and kill the Emperor!"

Li Qing listened to the report.

The Pope's decision was correct.

Although he had been building the church for two and a half days, he knew how to lead an army.

Launching a full-scale attack in advance was the best choice. Who knew what he was developing?

Li Qing pondered for a moment and then directly replied, "Overthrow the tyrant, and may God be with you always!"

Swish.

Holy Light descended.

They prostrated themselves, saw the light, recited the Holy Words, and prayed fervently, confessing their original sins to the Lord.

"May the Lord awaken my soul and guide us on the path of righteousness!"

Seventy seconds later.

The entire guard detail received a blessing.

The morale for this war instantly soared. The gods were watching this Holy War, and morale completely skyrocketed. This elite unit began to charge to the front lines, attacking the Royal City.

"May the Lord grant us sharp blades!"

Rumble!

The army was orderly, their fighting spirit soaring.

"Do the Lord's justice and fight for the Lord!"

They raised their awakened Divine Artifacts and struck down their enemies.

"May the Lord awaken my soul and guide us on the path of righteousness!"

Li Qing just watched silently.

He suddenly remembered Ning Guochang's description of the scene when his two armies clashed.

He said it was a terrifying, catastrophic war scene, as magnificent as a myth.

At that time, Li Qing felt his words were too bland, but now he finally understood its magnificence.

"Attacking the Royal City, we can use them to force the Emperor of Atabia's hand," Li Qing mused.

This siege battle would clearly not be won in a short time. The empire's most elite troops were defending the Royal City, seemingly stalling for time to complete the final Tower of Babel.

The empire's elite troops were formidable.

Their war technology for building Exoskeleton Sea Giants was a full major level above the civilian technology of the Church of Light. Even with Li Qing helping them awaken their weapons, it could only bridge some of the gap.

Li Qing seriously doubted they would be able to break into the imperial city by noon!

After all.

Ancient warfare was all close-quarters combat.

A siege lasting an entire day was completely normal.

"I should have eaten breakfast first."

Li Qing thought.

"The pre-battle rally has already happened, boosting the army's morale. There's nothing more for me to do. It's not too late to eat now."

He took out his phone, keeping an eye on the monitoring feed to prevent any accidents, and then left.

He hurried out to buy breakfast, then returned to the living room with his laptop.

Half an hour had passed by the time he got back, and they were still fighting!

"I knew I wouldn't miss anything."

Li Qing showed a look of 'as expected'.

After watching for a while, he moved to the living room, about seven or eight meters away, and started playing on his computer. He glanced at the comments from yesterday.

It seemed that marketing accounts from various platforms had been driving traffic, and the video had already reached 3.81 million views, becoming the number one most-viewed video on the entire platform recently.

A few more people had messaged him asking for authorization, and Li Qing had once again reaped a windfall, earning over ten thousand yuan.

"Not bad."

Seeing that he had nothing to do, Li Qing decided to capitalize on the momentum and took ten minutes to screenshot the scene from last night, the serene and beautiful ocean city.

As for the war happening before him?

It was better to keep it low-key and not upload it.

[A Day in R'lyeh, the Underwater City, Awakening Cthulhu!]

The video thumbnail was another beautiful image of the underwater city, with a line of text:

[Grinded to Death! Spent 191 Hours, Frame-by-Frame Polishing, Animation of R'lyeh, the Underwater City from the Mythological Seas!]

And at the bottom of the video, there was a plea for sympathy:

[Wuwuwu, I've gone bald from staying up for this video. In this era of marketing accounts, everything is being copied. I'm so tired, just destroy it all. This is probably my last video.]

[I can't upload the high-resolution video, I'll leave the link in the pinned comment for you to download.]

He clicked upload.

This might indeed be his last video.

Li Qing had originally planned to make quick money. This next video would likely bring in a good profit, and the two videos combined would be enough for his temporary expenses. He'd worry about money again if he needed it later.

As soon as he posted the video, people started clicking on it.

And comments quickly followed.

[Wuwuwu, no! Is this a master's ripple? No! It's all the fault of those marketing accounts!]

[OMG! You beast, you grinded for nearly two hundred hours again? Do you have two hundred hours in a day?]

[Not necessarily. The master is clearly working with a team. Each person works a few hours, totaling two hundred hours. And the footage, I've seen it, it's still the same city overview, it's simply amazing! It's still the daily life of the sea folk, and the camera angles haven't even changed. The production difficulty for the second video is much lower.]

[Stop joking. The master's move is clearly a declaration of loyalty, they must have found a boss. A boss must have approached them now, which is why they're stopping the videos.]

A bunch of people analyzed it, thinking that such exquisite and beautiful CG technology was amazing and that someone must have invested in it.

They never imagined that

Someone was genuinely the type of lazy bum who just wanted to make a quick buck to tide them over and then quit.

Others analyzed the video.

[Master is amazing! This city, compared to the last one, has many changed buildings. It's like several years have passed, and even some residents' appearances have changed. Their neighborly relations are still the same.]

[Right, that mysterious tall tower has already reached eight stories. This must be years later.]

Last night, the Tower of Babel was indeed eight stories high. This morning, it was twenty stories, and it was still growing.

[Whoa, why does this tower look so much like a traditional Chinese pagoda? It's really out of place with Cthulhu's R'lyeh.]

[It is indeed out of place. This tower must have some deep meaning. Isn't it R'lyeh? Perhaps this tall tower is reviving or sealing a Cthulhuian evil god!]

A bunch of armchair experts were fabricating theories out of thin air.

[Wait, you're saying this tower is reviving Cthulhu? Then it might actually look like this!

In the West, ancient-style pagodas of this shape are not out of place!

Don't disbelieve me. Do you know where China's octagonal pavilion-style pagodas came from?

Some sources say that the prototype of these pagodas was built by ancient people based on the human spine, embodying a kind of human aesthetic. Look at the tower in the video, doesn't it somewhat resemble a human spine stuck into the ground?]

Li Qing stared blankly.

A human spine?

This segmented, white Tower of Babel, towering over the land, does indeed resemble one. A spine that large, what are they building with it?

A bunch of cells from a primitive, backward era, still playing with low-level fish, where would they get the leap in civilization level to have the advanced human gene blueprints to build this?

The next moment, Li Qing immediately thought of a possibility.

Ning Guochang had lived inside for so long, they must have the human gene blueprints.

The human spine has twenty-six vertebrae. If this tower has twenty-six floors, then it truly is a spine. The development team is amazing!

This city's aerial view, citizens coming and going. Although the plot isn't explicitly stated, there's actually a main quest behind the scenes.

R'lyeh's Cthulhu, the Great Old One, is reviving in this city! Don't stop updating, looking forward to the next episode of the Old One's revival! R'lyeh city in chaos!

"I just casually posted a short video, and they could guess this? Amazing." Li Qing put down his computer.

His gaze shifted to the distance.

He noticed that the Tower of Babel in the entire Royal City already had twenty-five floors, and it seemed the final, twenty-sixth floor, the spine, was about to appear.