Rapid Expansion

Watching Robert's intense agitation, Ye Luo flashed a triumphant smile and walked toward him. "Very well. I shall take this reaction of yours as an acceptance of my offer. From today on, you are the Lord of the Huaxia Zerg's Morton territory, and you shall also serve as the City Lord of Morton main city. I can grant you the authority to select two thousand individuals from among my subjects to form an enforcement squad to maintain order in this city... As for everything else, you may continue to operate according to your previous methods."

Ye Luo brushed past Robert as he walked by. "Now, my Lord, go and execute my first order. Assemble your team immediately, then open the warehouses. Transport all energy and ore outside the city. I will be waiting for you at the City Lord's Mansion... Remember, you only have 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, meticulously straightening the man's wrinkled prison uniform. "We all think His Majesty is wasting time, but clearly, His Majesty still harbors a final shred of mercy for you humans. From our perspective, I truly hope you do something foolish—like an assassination or poisoning. Heh, because then I could order the grand army to simply flatten this city."

"Ye You..." Ye Luo, having already walked quite a distance, noticed Ye You lagging behind and immediately turned to shout.

"Ah, coming!" Ye You trotted over to catch up.

"What are you doing?"

"His Majesty, nothing, just exchanging pleasantries with Robert..."

"You two have pleasantries to exchange?..."

"Pleasantries are just something you develop as you talk..."

"Father, w-what do we do?" Angelina looked at Robert in a daze. Just then, a girl's heart-wrenching screams erupted from a nearby house: "Help! Help! Let me go, let me go!"

It turned out that a thug, believing the magical beasts were about to slaughter the city and feeling his end was near, had let his malice take hold. He had snuck into a house he had long coveted, murdered the girl's parents, and intended to enjoy the greatest pleasure of his life with the girl.

Since he was going to die anyway, he figured dying on a woman's lap was a hundred times better than dying in some corner filled with fear!

"Beast!" Angelina roared with bloodshot eyes. Before she could even move, a Zergling from the city gate shot into the room like a sharp arrow, clamped its jaws around the man's throat, and dragged him out!

"Fear and the unknown will only lead to more tragedies!" Watching this scene and imagining the panic of the people of Morton, along with the potential for even more crime, Robert's eyes suddenly turned incredibly firm. He turned back to look at his daughter, and at Clot and Chelman, who had remained loyal to him and accompanied him to this point. He lowered his head and said softly, "I'm sorry, I... I may have to disappoint you all."

Clot and Chelman exchanged a glance and immediately understood Robert's choice.

The two sighed and knelt on one knee. "Lord Robert, we understand your choice. Furthermore, we have long since sworn our loyalty to you. As long as your weapons are not used to pierce the chests of our own soldiers on behalf of those magical beasts, our loyalty remains valid!"

"My thanks to you both!" Robert pulled them up with a look of gratitude, his expression slowly turning serious. "Clot, go ring the alarm bell. Have all the people gather at the central square!"

Today was destined to be an unsettled day for Morton.

When the bells of the main city rang out once more, and the subjects followed the sound and the calls echoing through the streets, they began to gather obediently at the central square. The magical beasts had not entered the city for a long time, and the people were desperate to know what was happening. Even the timid ones, seeing the crowds outside, chose to join in; humans were social animals, after all, and joining the collective provided a sense of safety.

In the central square, Robert, who was supposed to be the primary criminal of the day, stood tall on the high platform—a position that had originally belonged to Warwick.

As more and more people gathered, Robert suddenly spoke: "My subjects... my former subjects, Morton main city has fallen..." Robert's heavy voice left the crowd in dead silence.

"Then, what about the magical beasts? What about those magical beasts?"

"Will the magical beasts eat us?"

"Did they just use us as bait while waiting for the kingdom's other armies?" Soon, the crowd was once again filled with clamor.

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

"You have all guessed wrong. The magical beasts do not view us as food, nor did they use us as bait. They... they have accepted us as their subjects!"

"..." Now, it was the turn of the crowd below to wear expressions of disbelief...

Ye Luo leaned against the balcony of the City Lord's Mansion, a position that offered a perfect view of the central square and allowed him to hear everything Robert said.

"His Majesty, the battle statistics are in. This time, we lost seventy-one thousand Zergling, zero Lurker, and three Iron-Armored Cockroach."

Ye Luo nodded. "Seventy thousand Zergling. We traded only seventy thousand Zergling for a human metropolis of a million people. It seems our combat power is now invincible among kingdom-level cities!"

This was the terror of the Zerg. Archimedes once said, "Give me a fulcrum, and I can move the Earth," but Ye Luo could proudly say, "Give me enough energy, and I can devour the Earth!"

In ten days, Ye Luo had not only upgraded the base to Level 3 but had also accumulated six hundred thousand Zergling, 3,000 Flying Ant, twenty thousand Hydralisk, one thousand Lurker, one hundred Healing Aphid, and two thousand Iron-Armored Cockroach! The loss of seventy thousand Zergling was truly trivial to Ye Luo; with the constant supply of resources from the Shallow Sea Continental Shelf, such losses could be fully replenished in a single day.

Suddenly, Ye Meng ran in excitedly, holding a wooden box in his arms. "His Majesty, good stuff, good stuff indeed..."

Looking at the burly man, Ye Luo couldn't help but laugh. "What good stuff has you so happy?"

"It's Level 2 Energy Crystal!" Ye Meng set the box down and opened it gently. Inside, various crystals emitting peculiar glows immediately came into view.

Ye Luo leaned over from the windowsill toward the box and picked up a red crystal. It carried a warm power; the crystal had been processed and emitted a faint scent of musk. However, the Zerg's unique sense of smell still allowed Ye Luo to detect the faint, lingering scent of blood. "These are the magic cores of magical beasts!"

However, they were identical to the magic cores they dug out of the brains of magical beasts, except the power contained within was far more potent and pure.