The Value of Pantera World

Though they had won the battle, Saine appeared exceedingly pleased yet composed before others.

But when he turned back to meet with the other high-ranking Dominators of Wizard Civilization, his expression beneath the Faceless Mask became grave once more.

"The Pantera Star Territory frontline is a new battlefield beyond the fronts our Wizard Civilization has planned and laid out over the past several thousand years."

"Wizard Civilization cannot provide this protruding frontier star territory with unrestricted, all-out aid at any cost."

"Our true battlefield lies farther behind us," Saine said in a deep voice.

"Since the Evil Tide Civilization's Vanguard Legion has arrived, and revealed more than a dozen Evil Emperors from the outset—"

"Now that we have already exposed most of our strength, the Evil Tide Legions and Dominators arriving here afterward will likely be even more numerous."

"Next, we should intensify resource extraction in the Pantera Star Territory and make certain preparations for what follows." Saine's words won the approval of the other Dominators present.

Every Dominator summoned before Saine was a true member of Wizard Civilization's upper echelon.

Those Alliance Dominators were not qualified to appear here. Even Aitokan, Pantera World's strongest being, who had performed admirably in the previous battle, had no idea what Saine and the others were secretly discussing.

It was rather tragic, really. While native beings of Pantera World such as Aitokan had already begun mobilizing the strength of their entire civilization and the Surrounding Starfield, preparing to resist the Evil Tide crisis on the Pantera Star Territory frontline and protect their homeland—

Saine and the other Wizard Civilization Dominators, fresh from a victorious battle, had already made preparations for the worst-case scenario: retreat.

And as Saine's words fell, rapacious resource extraction across every plane in the Surrounding Starfield, including Pantera World, was bound to begin.

The Evil Tide Army had already arrived. At this point, Wizard Civilization no longer needed to keep up appearances with the Pantera beings.

Before, they might still have given some consideration to environmental protection and maintaining friendly relations with native Pantera World species such as Aitokan's people.

But at a time like this, who had the leisure to worry about anything else?

To obtain the various resources Wizard Civilization needed in the shortest possible time, some things had to be sacrificed in the end.

Still, Wizard Civilization's table manners were fairly decent.

No matter how many resources and minerals Saine's Wizard Civilization legions excavated from Pantera World and the Surrounding Starfield, they would follow the Rule Contract previously signed with Pantera World's beings and share a portion of the profits with them in the form of Magic Coins.

The more resources Wizard Civilization ultimately extracted, the greater the amount of Magic Coins Pantera World's beings would receive.

With such a vast sum of Magic Coins at their side, even if these Pantera World beings retreated and relocated to the Wizard Star Region in the future, they would certainly live well.

It could even be said that, given the immense resource wealth nurtured by the Pantera Star Territory, they would live better than the beings of more than ninety percent of Alliance Planes.

But unfortunately, such an outcome was not one Pantera World's beings were willing to accept.

If the same happened to Wizard Civilization, Wizard Civilization surely would not accept the pain of losing its Mother Plane either!

Yet the Star Realm was this cruel. If one refused to accept it, what could one do?

Wizard Civilization was, at the very least, a powerful Top-Level Civilization. It had allied with many plane civilizations and Star Realm experts, allowing it to serve as this star region's last hope and contend head-on with Evil Tide Civilization.

But what did Pantera World have?

Aitokan and Phantom alone, two late-stage Level Seven Dominators? It was simply a joke.

When Saine and the other Wizard Civilization powerhouses held their secret discussion, they had avoided Aitokan and the others because they had recognized the determination of Pantera Star Territory beings to defend their mother civilization.

The plight of refugee civilizations such as Tidex, in particular, had pierced the hearts of Pantera World's peace-loving beings.

No matter what, they would not retreat! This was Aitokan's promise to the countless trillions of living beings in his race.

Saine's assessment of Pantera World beings' decision was that their courage was commendable, but rationally speaking, it meant little.

But then again, beneath the pressure of a civilization-ending crisis, how many people could truly remain "rational"?

Faced with Pantera World's present predicament, Saine and the others could only sigh inwardly and take it as a warning. In the future, Wizard Civilization absolutely could not follow the path of those refugee civilizations, nor that of Pantera World today.

Those who fell behind would be beaten.

Only one's own strength was fundamental.

Without strength, one would be utterly unable to fight back against powerful enemies. One might even have one's own property schemed away by so-called "allies." Sold off and still counting money for the buyer—what a miserable thing that was.

Saine had never considered himself a good person.

Nor did he believe Wizard Civilization was truly the most righteous civilization in the Star Realm.

But whether it was Saine himself or Wizard Civilization, they merely hoped to live better amid the dark and cruel law of the jungle that ruled the Star Realm, and to fulfill certain pursuits in their hearts.

In this world, there was no right or wrong, nor any so-called justice or evil.

There was only victory and defeat.

After Saine and Wizard Civilization's other upper echelons concluded their secret discussion, Wizard Civilization and the Wizard Alliance's extraction teams visibly intensified their resource development efforts across Pantera World and the planes of its Surrounding Starfield.

Aitokan, the late-stage Level Seven Dominator, clearly had some objections to this, because he had learned from the Grand Priest that the Mother Plane was somewhat uncomfortable with it.

It was worth mentioning that Pantera World's Grand Priest was the Guardian of this Large Plane. She was also Aitokan's wife and Nettini's Mother.

Thus, Nettini, the Level Six woman representing Pantera World at the Twenty-Seventh Wizard Alliance Assembly, truly held an exceptional status.

Faced with Aitokan's slight displeasure, Saine brushed it aside by saying they needed to gather more resources to help construct the frontline.

Saine's answer indeed left Aitokan speechless.

After all, he had personally watched the Magic Energy Metal Frontline Wizard Civilization had built outside the Pantera Star Territory reach a scale so astonishing that even he was left dumbfounded.

Not to mention the sheer number of Wizard Civilization Dominators gathered here, along with the unimaginably massive Wizard Civilization legions.

As for how much Wizard Civilization had truly invested and spent during this period, Aitokan genuinely had no idea.

Aitokan and the other native beings of Pantera World did not know just how valuable resources such as their world's "God Metal," "Kajared Gem," and "Laser Crystal" were to Wizard Civilization.

Laser Crystal, this rare type of crystal, had only been newly discovered on Pantera World by Galente Federation fleets within the past few hundred years.

It was an offensive crystal exceptionally suited for mass installation across fleet formations. After researching its properties, the Federation had even wanted to embed it into giant mechas to enhance their combat capabilities.

The light-element energy ray factors it possessed had unexpectedly remarkable effects against Evil Tide Civilization.

Some of Saine's fleet formations had been enhanced with Laser Crystal in recent years and had performed quite well in the previous opening battle.

The longer Saine and the other Wizard Civilization powerhouses remained on Pantera World, the more keenly they felt just how abundant and varied the resources contained within it were.

As time passed, even the discovery of new top-grade resources on Pantera World by Wizard Civilization exploration teams no longer surprised these Wizard Civilization Dominators.

It was no exaggeration to say that Pantera World's beings had been sitting atop a treasure mountain without realizing it!

And that was not even counting the extraordinarily rich and plentiful wealth of species genes possessed by Pantera World, which had made Wizard Civilization's Zerg unable to put it down.

The genes of numerous Pantera World creatures, including Hammer Halberd Rhinos and Pterosaurs, had already been extracted by the Zerg in recent years.

Even the Bairen Empire wanted to represent Wizard World in introducing Pantera World's Pterosaurs and various Sub-Dragon species.

"If I had the choice, I truly would not want to abandon this land of treasures." Saine could not help but let out a sigh that represented the sentiments of most Wizard Civilization powerhouses who understood Pantera World's value.