The Demon Horn Empire now had three worlds, the Great Qin Empire had four, and with the three worlds divided from Green Shade, that made ten worlds in total. Yet the alliance consisted of only eight worlds. If Great Qin and the Demon Horn Empire combined their strength, they could already confront the alliance head-on.
Thus, the alliance, which had originally held a great advantage, no longer seemed so dominant. Some proposed drawing in more worlds, while others suggested simply attacking the two empires directly and eliminating this future threat.
But the battle losses such an attack would cause were something the alliance did not wish to bear. The alliance was made up of countless factions from various worlds, with an enormous number of people and even more opinions. Its authority could not be unified, and none wished to shoulder such massive losses.
In the end, after much quarreling, the alliance still did not make a move against the two empires. It could only watch helplessly as they annexed two worlds and continued expanding their strength.
The alliance's weakness and fear of death stood in stark contrast to the two empires' unceasing growth. This caused some within the alliance to lose confidence in it and secretly cultivate goodwill with the two great empires.
The Great Qin Empire received dozens of envoys from major factions. Zhao Fu naturally had no time to receive them personally, but he was very interested in something sent by one faction: the method for producing Spirit-Extinguishing Crystals.
Spirit-Extinguishing Crystals were not used against people of Apocalypse World, but against creatures beyond the worlds—that was, beings from outside Apocalypse World.
Once a nation advanced into a kingdom, going to the battlefield beyond the worlds was mandatory. A kingdom needed to obtain authority from there in order to