Arrival! The Mysterious Douluo Continent!

While the other fourteen main warships of the Sun Moon Empire could not compare to the Tianyang in terms of overall performance and specifications, they possessed the same types of weaponry, differing only in quantity and quality.

For instance, the Mingyang and the Moyang were each equipped with only four 355mm main cannons, and their various secondary batteries numbered only 28 each.

Their other specifications were even more inferior. The remaining twelve warships were equipped with main cannons of only 255mm caliber, capable of firing only level-seven soul-guided shells. Their maximum destructive power was equivalent to a level-90 soul master frantically absorbing soul power from the outside, compressing it to the limit within their body, and then detonating it at full force. Their lethal radius was only a little over one hundred meters, and they carried fewer than 20 secondary cannons, falling far short of the three flagship vessels in all other metrics.

The remaining forty-three vessels were auxiliary craft, including torpedo boats, small gunboats, submarine hunters, and transport ships. Though small, they were an indispensable part of this invincible fleet!

The Yan Yang Fleet was not only exceptionally well-equipped, but its officers and men were also among the most elite in the entire Sun Moon Empire military. For example, the current commander of the Yan Yang Fleet, Yang Bingming, was not only a veteran naval officer in his seventies but also one of only two level-92 ninth-rank soul masters in the entire Sun Moon Empire navy!

It must be known that, excluding special existences like Cang Ming who were soul beasts in human form, there were only twelve or thirteen ninth-rank powerhouses in the entire Sun Moon Empire to date. Yang Bingming was one of them!

Furthermore, among the ten thousand officers and men traveling with the Yan Yang Fleet, there were over three thousand marines! One-fifth of these men were soul masters, and they included quite a few seventh and eighth-rank powerhouses! Within these three thousand marines, a special forces unit of over three hundred soldiers had been organized. This special unit was named the Sea Demon Special Forces, meaning devils of the sea!

Their equipment was even more sophisticated than that of the already well-equipped marines! They were a super-elite unit created by the Imperial Navy of the Sun Moon Empire in accordance with the military reform plan of Xu Mochen! Yang Bingming had even guaranteed to Xu Mochen that these three thousand marines alone would be enough to easily handle a soul master legion of ten thousand led by a Titled Douluo!

While listening to Yang Bingming's account, Xu Mochen pondered and weighed the strength currently at his disposal, while simultaneously using his Smart Brain to carefully recall the contents of the original work. According to the original text, the Douluo Continent should currently be in a period where the two great empires and Martial Soul Hall coexisted, and Tang San should only be six years old!

The entire Douluo Continent should be in a situation where Martial Soul Hall was the sole dominant power, with the two great empires vaguely uniting to resist them! However, Xu Mochen was also clear that the contents of the original work could only serve as a reference; one could not ignore them, but one could not believe them entirely either!

After all, if one were to treat all the content of the original work as the reality of this world, one would definitely make a grave mistake! Not to mention anything else, the sheer number of idiotic actions in the original work, as well as the frequent retcons and power-scaling collapses, would never occur in reality—or if they did, there would certainly be a reason for it!

Although Xu Mochen initially inferred that, with the exception of a few individuals, the intelligence of most people in this world was generally lower than that of the people on Blue Star, this did not mean that the people here were foolish enough to be played in the palm of his hand.

However, Xu Mochen had long since made plans for this. In fact, under his guidance, the attitude of the Sun Moon Empire's top brass toward the Douluo Continent was simple, summarized in sixteen characters: offshore balancing, supporting the weak against the strong, covert infiltration, and seizing opportunities for plunder! To put it bluntly, they were to act as a "black hand" far away from the Douluo Continent!

Of course, doing this was a helpless move for the Sun Moon Empire. After all, to the Douluo Continent, the Sun Moon Empire was a mysterious and unfamiliar country far across the ocean, and it differed greatly from them in terms of ethnicity, culture, systems, ideology, and development trajectory.

Precisely because of this, the arrival of the Sun Moon Empire would inevitably make the various forces on the Douluo Continent highly vigilant. If the forces on the Douluo Continent were to unite as one against outsiders, the Sun Moon Empire's room for maneuver would become very small, and it would be extremely difficult to carry out military deterrence when necessary!

After all, the Sun Moon Empire's leadership did not believe that only they possessed the ideology of "those who are not of our race must have a different heart." Acting rashly and incurring the collective hostility of all parties on the Douluo Continent would definitely not be a good thing for the Sun Moon Empire!

To successfully carry out infiltration and plunder, brute force alone would never work; one could only win through strategy. The way to win through strategy was to avoid showing direct aggression, and instead generously project the image of a "peace-loving," "non-aggressive," and "profit-seeking" merchant nation, thereby causing the various parties on the Douluo Continent to lower their guard to a certain extent.

Then, the Sun Moon Empire only needed to constantly incite internal conflicts on the Douluo Continent, provoking mutual hatred and even war! Then, the Sun Moon Empire, far away overseas, could take the opportunity to infiltrate, providing support to the weaker side to resist the stronger side through various means, and then reversing their support when the stronger side showed signs of decline.

By maneuvering between the various forces and waiting for the best price, they could play both sides to reap huge profits! Once all parties had fought until they were exhausted and their hatred was completely irreconcilable, they would then formally enter the fray to reap the final benefits! They would become the only winner behind the scenes of the chaotic world!

However, all of this was easier said than done. To this end, Xu Mochen needed to have a general understanding of the real Douluo Continent before he could formulate a corresponding plan.

Thus, over the next few days, Xu Mochen either devoted himself to cultivation or closely monitored the fleet's progress. Occasionally, he would converse with the Sun Moon Empire's naval officers, the Shadow Guard, and diplomats, ensuring they were fully prepared at all times.

In the blink of an eye, ten days passed. Along the way, the fleet carrying Xu Mochen did not encounter any major trouble. In fact, they did not encounter any severe natural disasters or large-scale attacks by sea soul beasts. Occasionally, some ignorant sea soul beasts would try to come forward to investigate, but they were quickly scared off by the fleet's cannon fire.

Just like that, with everything going smoothly, all the personnel on the ships finally saw the outline of a continent appearing on the horizon through their binoculars! "Look! It's a new continent! We found it!" Someone shouted, and the naval officers and men on every ship erupted in excitement!

They swarmed to the decks, scrambling to grab binoculars to get a better look. Fortunately, high-ranking naval officers arrived in time to restore discipline, bringing order back to the ranks, though the excitement of everyone remained impossible to suppress!

While Xu Mochen and his party appeared much calmer, their hearts were still surging. Finally, heaven had not let down those who worked hard; the adventurous voyage of the past ten days had not been in vain! All their efforts would be worth it with the discovery of the Douluo Continent! As the fleet drew closer to the coast, many wooden sailing ships drifting on the sea appeared before them.

These wooden sailing ships did not look very large; the biggest ones were only comparable to the smallest ships in their own fleet. Of course, this was only a massive difference in size; in reality, the gap in actual performance was countless times greater than the gap in size!

By this time, the sailors and fishermen on those wooden sailing ships had clearly noticed this fleet, which was so massive that it completely transcended any of their imagination or cognition! Looking at this invincible fleet of unknown origin, rumbling forward with black smoke billowing from their ships and an incomparably terrifying aura, they stared with wide eyes, constantly shaking their heads and rubbing their eyes, desperately trying to confirm if they were dreaming.

Were they hallucinating because they had been drifting at sea for too long? The jaws of the sailors and fishermen nearly hit the deck! Their mouths were open wide enough to fit a goose egg! Some who were less resilient or more superstitious were so frightened that they immediately knelt on the deck, praying desperately for the mercy of the gods. Even those who hadn't knelt down were already trembling all over, shrinking their heads like ostriches, terrified that the fleet might notice their existence!

The Sun Moon Empire fleet naturally noticed these people, but compared to the people themselves, the officers and men of the Sun Moon Empire fleet were more concerned with the attire of these sailors and fishermen and the construction of their ships.

In the end, the Sun Moon Empire's leadership reached a conclusion: I fear it is just as Xu Mochen said—the technological development of this country is not even as good as the Sun Moon Empire of six years ago! Let alone compared to the current Sun Moon Empire! These ships, which relied purely on sails and oars and lacked any soul-guided technology, were likely no different from paper when facing their invincible fleet.

However, observing the culture and customs was one thing; for now, the most important thing was to find a nearby dock where they could moor their ships. Well, judging from the current observations, the largest tonnage of ships on the Douluo Continent probably reached seven or eight hundred tons at most, and the docks matching them likely weren't much bigger.

Therefore, trying to find a port on the coast of the Douluo Continent that could accommodate these fifteen steam-powered ironclads was a pipe dream. The fleet had no choice but to settle for the next best thing: finding a slightly larger port that could accommodate the forty-three smaller ships without them running aground. As for the people on the large ships, they could simply transfer to the smaller ones to reach the shore.

Finding a nearby dock was not a difficult task. After all, seeing so many ships near the coast, and even some larger ones, meant that a suitable port should exist not far away. After some searching, the Sun Moon Empire's fleet soon found a suitable port.

Of course, the sea ships near the port either fled in panic or the crew jumped overboard to escape. Even the people on the port who saw this invincible fleet approaching were already terrified, crying and fleeing in all directions!

This scene left the people of the Sun Moon Empire feeling both amused and frustrated. Were they really that terrifying? Everyone was scared like this, fleeing in all directions as if they had seen a flood or a wild beast. If things continued like this, how could diplomatic activities proceed? They would likely be branded as demons descending before they even began to understand each other!