Rapid Expansion

Watching Robert's unusual excitement, Ye Luo flashed a victorious smile and walked toward him. "Good. I'll take that reaction as your acceptance of my offer. Starting today, you're the lord of the Huaxia Zerg's Morton territory and the city lord of Morton's main city. I'll give you permission to choose two thousand people from among my subjects and form a force to maintain order in the city... As for everything else, you can keep running it as before..."

Ye Luo passed Robert, their shoulders brushing. "Now, my lord, carry out my first order. Assemble your team immediately, then open the warehouses. Send all the energy crystals and ore outside the city. I'll be waiting for you at the City Lord's Mansion... Remember, you have only one day..."

Ye You, Ye Yi, Ye Zhang, Ye Meng, and Ye Wang followed behind Ye Luo. Ye You walked up to Robert and patted his shoulder. With unusual care, Robert smoothed out his wrinkled prison uniform. "Well, we all thought My Emperor was wasting his time, but clearly, he still has a final shred of mercy for you humans. From where we stand, I really hope you do something foolish, like an assassination or poisoning. Heh. Then I could order the army to flatten this city outright..."

"Ye You..." Ye Luo had already gone a long way when he suddenly noticed Ye You had fallen behind. He immediately turned around and called out.

"Coming..." Ye You hurried to catch up.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing, My Emperor. Just having a little heart-to-heart with Robert..."

"You two have feelings for each other now?..."

"Well, feelings can develop when you talk..."

"Father, w-what do we do?" Angelina looked at Robert in bewilderment. Just then, a girl's desperate screams suddenly rang out from a nearby house. "Help! Help me! Let go of me! Let go!"

As it turned out, a thug who thought the Demon Beasts were about to sack the city had decided that, with death staring him in the face, he might as well give in to his worst impulses. He sneaked into a house he'd coveted for a long time, killed the girl's parents, and then prepared to enjoy what he considered life's greatest pleasure with her!

If he was going to die either way, dying in a woman's arms was a hundred times better than dying cowering in some corner!

"Beast!" Angelina roared, her eyes red. But she didn't even need to act. A Zergling at the city gate shot into the room like an arrow, seized the man by the throat, and dragged him outside!

"Fear and the unknown will lead to even more tragedies!" Watching this unfold and imagining the panic gripping Morton's people—and the crimes that might follow—Robert's eyes suddenly hardened. He turned to look at his daughter, then at Clot and Chelman, who had remained loyal to him and stood by his side until now. Bowing his head, he said softly, "I'm sorry. I may have to disappoint you all..."

Clot and Chelman exchanged glances, immediately understanding Robert's decision.

The two sighed and knelt on one knee. "Lord Robert, we understand your choice. Besides, we swore our loyalty to you long ago. Until your weapons are turned against our own soldiers for the sake of those Demon Beasts, our oath still stands!"

"Thank you both!" Robert helped them up, his face full of gratitude. Then his expression slowly turned solemn. "Clot, sound the alarm. Have everyone gather in the central plaza!"

Today was destined to be a turbulent day for Morton.

When the main city's bells rang out once more, the people followed the sound and the calls to assemble echoing through the streets, obediently making their way toward the central plaza. The Demon Beasts still hadn't entered the city, and the people wanted to know what was happening. Even some of the more timid ones chose to join the crowd when they saw others heading out. After all, humans were social creatures, and joining a group made everyone feel safer.

In the central plaza, Robert—the main criminal scheduled to be punished that day—stood high on the platform. That spot had once belonged to Warwick.

As more and more people gathered, Robert suddenly spoke. "My people... my former people, Morton's main city has fallen..." His heavy voice silenced the crowd.

"Then what about the Demon Beasts? Where are they?"

"Are the Demon Beasts going to eat us?"

"Are they still using us as bait, waiting for the kingdom's other armies?" The crowd quickly erupted into a hubbub again.

Robert took a deep breath and shouted, "Silence!!!"

"You've all got it wrong. The Demon Beasts don't see us as food, and they're not using us as bait. They... they see us as their people!"

"..." This time, it was the crowd below who stared in disbelief...

Ye Luo leaned against the attic of the City Lord's Mansion. From here, he could see everything in the central plaza and hear every word Robert said.

"My Emperor, the battle report is ready. We lost a total of seventy-one thousand Zerglings this time, none of the Lurkers, and three Iron-Armored Cockroaches."

Ye Luo nodded. "Seventy thousand Zerglings. We used only seventy thousand Zerglings to take a human metropolis with a population of one million. It seems our current fighting strength is already invincible against kingdom-level cities!"

That was the terrifying thing about the Zerg. Archimedes had once said, "Give me a fulcrum, and I can move the Earth." Ye Luo, however, could proudly declare, "Give me enough energy, and I can devour the Earth!"

In ten days, Ye Luo had not only upgraded the base to level three, but also amassed six hundred thousand Zerglings, three thousand Flying Ants, twenty thousand Hydralisks, one thousand Lurkers, one hundred Healing Aphids, and two thousand Iron-Armored Cockroaches! The seventy thousand Zerglings he had lost were no big deal to him. With the endless supply of resources from the Shallow Sea Continental Shelf, he could make up for those losses in a single day.

Suddenly, Ye Meng came rushing in from outside, brimming with excitement. He was holding a wooden chest in his arms. "My Emperor, I found something good! Something really good..."

Looking at the burly man, Ye Luo couldn't help smiling. "What could be so good that you're this excited?"

"Level 2 Energy Crystals!" Ye Meng set down the chest and gently opened it. Crystals radiating all sorts of strange light immediately came into view.

Ye Luo stepped away from the window and approached the chest. He picked up a red crystal. It radiated a warm energy, and the processed crystal gave off a faint musky scent. Yet the Zerg's distinctive sense of smell still let Ye Luo detect the faint trace of blood lingering on it. "This is a Demon Beast's Demon Core!"

It looked exactly like the Demon Cores they had dug out of Demon Beasts' brains. The difference was that it contained much stronger, purer energy.