NEC Chapter 138: Chen Mo's Schemes, Divine Court's Pressure

Under the leadership of the great and wise Lord Chen Mo, Vast Sea Territory finally had its own eyes, the Vast Sea Territory Security Bureau.

With this foundation, even separated by the vast desert, Vast Sea maintained clear understanding of the wars raging across the continent.

Lynn, as the head of the city defense forces, brought Lin Zhong, the director of the Vast Sea Security Bureau, to report the latest external war developments to the lord almost every day.

Nominally, Chen Mo's Vast Sea was a subordinate territory of Cloudmist Domain, and also a frontier territory of the Emerald Duchy. Although separated from the battlefield by a desert, it could barely be called "adjacent to the front lines," requiring close attention.

Lin Zhong was Lynn's nephew, his own nephew.

But in Vast Sea Territory, you really couldn't say Lynn was practicing nepotism.

The reason was simple: there were too few people here who had received proper education and possessed qualified work capabilities.

Lin Zhong, despite his young age, had already reached the position of Second Deputy Officer of the Mission Intelligence Department at a major city's mercenary guild in the southern Crescent Moon Federation through his own abilities, this was almost the ceiling ordinary people could reach.

Chen Mo had also traveled through the Crescent Moon Federation, spending a fortune to buy qualification for studying at a magic tower, and deeply understood the corrupt situation of officialdom there.

According to the traditions of the Crescent Moon Federation, the top position went to relatives of important people, the second position went to local powerbrokers of the guild, and only the Second Deputy Officer was the one who actually did the work.

Being able to reach this position showed that Lin Zhong indeed had some capabilities but having ability alone wasn't enough.

Lynn had no sons, and his elder brother died early. Lin Zhong was essentially raised by Lynn, and it could be said that the middle-aged mercenary had spent all his life's savings on this nephew.

At several key promotion junctures, Lynn even borrowed at high interest rates to grease palms and smooth the way, finally pushing Lin Zhong to his current position.

Before this, Lynn had sighed more than once, "Our family has finally produced someone in official circles. You hold this position well, and you won't have to do those life-threatening jobs like your old uncle."

But recently, his uncle had written asking him to come to that newly established frontier territory in the north.

Lin Zhong was a perceptive person. He believed his uncle wouldn't harm him, or rather, his uncle must have encountered serious trouble.

Faced with his uncle's summons, Lin Zhong didn't hesitate for a moment. He decisively abandoned the wealth and comfort of the southern paradise and traveled day and night, plunging headfirst into this desolate Vast Sea desert.

After arriving, the ridiculously young lord simply asked a few questions about his background, waved his hand casually, and Lin Zhong directly took office as the head of the territory's external intelligence agency.

Lin Zhong was also a determined person. He tirelessly toured the territory for several days without rest, then returned, shook the sand off his body and declared, "Uncle! I need to change my name!"

The official reason was that intelligence agencies were secretive organizations, and since he had worked in "enemy countries," changing his name would be more appropriate.

Privately, Lin Zhong spoke frankly to Lynn, "Uncle, I think your success and this name were chosen particularly well. Lynn, Lynn, this 'En' represents the lord's vast grace, doesn't it?"

"The first half of my life was wasted because I never met a lord whose grace was truly as high as heaven. Now that I have, shouldn't I soar to great heights!"

"So from now on, I'll be called Lin Zhong, loyal to the lord! Loyal to Vast Sea! Loyal to the city defense forces!"

After taking office, Lin Zhong skillfully established a basic intelligence system covering the southern kingdoms.

Vast Sea Territory was wealthy, the mercenary system was particularly suitable for infiltration, and most importantly, Lin Zhong only needed basic intelligence, he didn't require people to do any life-threatening espionage work.

So very quickly, the Vast Sea intelligence system began providing the territory with continuous information about neighboring countries' movements. Chen Mo even knew about Greenspine Kingdom's definite plans to attack before most people did.

The Vast Sea intelligence agency was often ordered to collect seemingly insignificant information that was publicly available in the markets.

At first, Lin Zhong didn't know why the lord wanted to collect this market information, but since there were orders, he just carried them out.

The method was simple: find a few underlings to walk along the merchant routes, record prices, observe stock levels, and collect information about bulk transactions, then the intelligence was in hand.

This year, to conceal their war intentions, Greenspine Kingdom strictly ordered all trading companies to control grain prices, making everything appear normal. But there was still transaction information.

In previous years before harvest season, major grain merchants would release old grain from storage months in advance to prepare for buying large quantities of new grain at low prices. Otherwise, old grain would spoil over time and occupy storage space.

But this year was different. Although grain prices appeared stable on the surface and old grain was indeed being sold, the buyers were rarely individual customers, almost all were major players, specifically front companies for powerful nobles within the kingdom.

This meant the nobles were hoarding grain!

Well, war was coming.

At the lord's side, Lin Zhong learned this comparative analysis method and was amazed.

What impressed Lin Zhong even more was the lord's composure.

"Report to the lord, latest intelligence: Greenspine has conscripted reserve troops from five territories and they've already moved north."

"Hah, as expected!" The lord nodded nonchalantly, "The count must have sent word, he knows? Fine, no need to worry about it!"

"Report to the lord, urgent news from the front: great victory for Cloudmist Domain!"

The lord smiled slightly, "I knew that old fellow had skills! Well, he is my superior after all, send a letter of congratulations."

"Report to the lord, Greenspine and Cloudmist Domain fought a decisive battle at Purple Rose City. Cloudmist suffered a crushing defeat, and there are rumors that Earl Liuyun has already fallen..."

The lord showed slight regret, "That old fellow, so fragile? He wouldn't really be dead, would he? Great, another Everchant Essence wasted!"

After that, whether it was the heir's escape, Liuchuan's succession, Cloudmist's civil war, or the loss of territorial control, the lord remained calm and composed, at most occasionally sighing softly.

Each time Lin Zhong returned, he felt moved, this was truly remaining calm in great events, unchanging even if mountains collapsed before him!

Until that day, a letter from Crescent Moon City, with slightly hurried handwriting, was presented to Chen Mo's desk.

The letter was written by Frost.

[Father is dead. I'm a little sad, but not very sad.

A few days ago he still wrote asking me to meet some child from a noble family he fancied. So annoying!

He said you like acting impulsively, but I don't feel that at all...

But he's dead now. Never mind, I won't blame him anymore.

I don't want to waste away in Crescent Moon. The people here all look down on me, and now that Cloudmist Domain is gone, they look down on me even more!

I'm planning to go home.

Well, I'm very strong now, and I have all those things you gave me. I want to go back and fight.

Even if I have to die, I want to die beside my mother.

You should also be careful. Who knows, when the year is up, those bad guys might come attack you too. You must be careful!

I'll tell you a little secret: that elf badge I gave you, if you place it on the elf altar in Red Tree Highlands and let the full moon's moonlight shine on it for a while, a secret phrase will be projected to the center of the altar.

With it, you can enter the elf forest! It's very safe there. If you encounter danger, just hide there.

You absolutely! Absolutely! Cannot tell anyone else!

Oh no, is my handwriting very ugly?

I've been practicing swordsmanship lately and my hands are full of calluses. I can barely hold a pen anymore. So ugly!

You won't laugh at me, will you?

I miss you a little, Chen Mo.

You should... sometimes think of me too, right?

I won't write anymore. If I keep writing I'll want to cry again.

I'm sleepy.

Goodbye!]

Chen Mo's clenched fist slammed hard on the hardwood table, producing a loud thud. It was the first time Lin Zhong had seen something called ferocity on the face of his usually graceful and elegant lord.

"Damn!"

"Call that priest over here!"

More than ten minutes later, the territory's resident bishop Avery hurried in, facing the lord with an ashen face, completely bewildered.

"If, I mean if, I were to use forbidden curse-level weapons, what price would it take for the Divine Court to eliminate the divine punishment for this?"

As soon as the words fell, everyone around immediately dropped to their knees.

The lord was going mad! He didn't want to live anymore!

In the legends of the Starry Continent, those super mages who had grown to the third-tier realm and could mobilize the power of heaven and earth could indeed unleash world-destroying forbidden curses like Meteor Fall and Doomsday Judgment.

However, all the great powers recorded in history had, without exception, suffered devastating strikes from so-called "divine punishment."

In terms of the Starry Continent's divine historical view, the gods protected this world, and any enemy attempting to destroy the Starry Continent would face supreme divine punishment, this also matched most people's understanding of the world.

Of course, after Chen Mo sent large amounts of local legends, information, and intelligence to Blue Star, through quantum computer batch analysis and comparison and archaeologists' careful investigation, after collating and interpreting every word and phrase, a completely different understanding emerged.

In the definition of East Xia's expert group, the spiritual energy-filled Starry Continent was like a computer with abundant processing power, using spiritual energy as basic energy to maintain the operation of this extraordinary world.

And those so-called gods were not guardians at all. On the contrary, they were like a group of parasitic trojan programs, attempting to steal the processing power of this central computer through various means to strengthen themselves.

The "central computer" itself seemed to lack active cleaning consciousness, and its core processing power was strong enough that for the small-scale theft by trojans, as long as it didn't significantly interfere with system operation, the system itself wouldn't bother to intervene.

However, if these "gods" deeply affected the normal operation of the world itself, then these trojans might be purged from the system.

This was the so-called: if gods destroyed the world, they too would face divine punishment.

Even the Seven-Eyed God, currently one of the top major deities, could dig channels if you asked, but wouldn't dare destroy a city.

This had led to unwritten rules among the gods, all divine miracles displayed lacked significant offensive power.

At most they could bend the rules slightly, like adding divine effects to weapons, but actually taking action was not allowed!

Otherwise, if gods could freely intervene in worldly wars, the Mistmoon Federation, with the strongest divine authority, would have unified the continent long ago.

By the same logic, whether it was new forces from outside or great powers grown within this world, once they possessed world-destroying capabilities, they would be considered serious viruses disrupting the "central computer's" system operation.

Viruses were a greater threat than trojans.

So if the system couldn't handle them itself, it would relax control over trojans and let the trojans eliminate these viruses.

The trojans were happy to do this, after all, they existed to steal processing power to strengthen themselves, not to crash the system. But viruses were different.

If these things actually crashed the system, what would the trojans feed on?

To some extent, both sides formed a peculiar symbiotic relationship.

When East Xia's expert group interpreted gods from this angle, Chen Mo suddenly understood one thing: why gods didn't particularly care about ordinary believers, only valuing high-level believers.

Because ordinary believers' level couldn't provide support for gods to steal processing power.

Only priests, high priests, and others who could draw spiritual energy from the stars for cultivation could transmit the "processing power" gods needed through various prayers, sacrificial rituals, and ceremonies.

Taking Chen Mo himself as an example, East Xia was equivalent to the god behind him, and Chen Mo was the god's high priest in this locality.

By transporting special medicines, magic crystals, and other things East Xia needed from the local area, Chen Mo received the god's favor, various divine gifts flowed in continuously.

In this process, because these things were truly insignificant, the Starry Continent's central processor couldn't be bothered to glance at them.

But if Chen Mo really brought over a big nuclear bomb and set it off in this world...

Sorry, if you wanted to smash everyone's rice bowl, everyone would smash your head first.

As for the effect, just look at whether any third-tier mages could still be found on the continent.

Third-tier mages, known as "those closest to gods," had legends of being feared by gods, but actually, most of their deaths were due to "possessing powerful weapons, killing intent arising spontaneously!"

After all, if you gave a Blue Star internet user a nuclear bomb that couldn't be exchanged for money, they'd just finished arguing with someone online and the nuke would already be detonating.

Don't ask why, the sweet party must die, heretics cannot remain.

When Lord Chen Mo asked the Mistmoon Divine Court's resident bishop this question, Avery, who had just been promoted from zero to first level, was scared silly.

"It can't be used! Really can't be used!"

Avery couldn't care about the Divine Court's dignity anymore and directly knelt down, hugging Chen Mo's legs.

"Lord, I am utterly loyal to you! Even hiring a guard for the temple requires approval from the council! I would never deceive you!"

"Divine punishment cannot be stopped!"

Everyone around desperately tried to persuade him, finally getting Chen Mo to calm down temporarily.

But it didn't matter what happened to Cloudmist Domain, the little girl couldn't be ignored.

If the family back home learned something happened to Frost, Chen Mo felt that even if he had hope of returning to Blue Star in this lifetime, he'd have no face to meet his family.

When those old academicians came to give him a piece of their mind, he'd probably die of shame on the spot.

"Lynn, is there any way to stop Frost!"

Lynn furrowed his brow tightly, his expression grave, "This letter didn't come through mercenary guild express mail, so it was delayed considerably on the road. Given our territory's special distance, calculating the time, Lady Frost might have already... already reached Cloudmist!"

"Then what can we do? Can we mobilize troops to somehow extract Frost?"

Lynn gritted his teeth and replied, "Lord, please forgive me! It's not that we subordinates are greedy for life and afraid of death, but the distance is truly too great. Even if the entire territory mobilized, we'd only have a few thousand new soldiers, far inferior to Greenspine Kingdom's large army."

"Even with the heavy weapons you've acquired, lord, if we encounter mage legions, or if the enemy army surrounds us from all sides, or besieges without attacking while waiting for opportunities to ambush, then..."

Chen Mo slowly sat down.

Actually, he understood all the reasoning.

A territory born just over half a year ago, sparsely populated, not yet fully emerged from slavery, wanting to challenge an established continental power was truly overestimating itself.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so furious as to consider using nuclear weapons, Blue Star's forbidden curses.

After accepting reality, Chen Mo gradually calmed down, lit a long-absent cigarette, took a few puffs, and issued a series of commands.

"Intelligence department, comprehensively increase surveillance on Cloudmist. Deploy more undercover agents. Find Frost somehow and tell her to retreat first, come to Vast Sea here, and we'll figure out how to recover the territory together!"

"Have the field army establish a forward base on the Cloudmist Domain border to monitor enemy movements. If Lady Frost approaches this border, we can actively engage to provide support if necessary."

"In the name of the Lord of Vast Sea Territory and subordinate lord of Cloudmist Domain, immediately draft diplomatic documents! Send them to Greenspine Kingdom and the Crescent Moon Federation! The language must be strong! Condemn Greenspine Kingdom's invasion of our sovereign Cloudmist Domain!"

"Emphasize that if Earl Liuyun's direct descendants are unfortunately captured, please treat them according to the Continental Noble Treatment Protocols! Our Vast Sea Territory is willing to pay the price! As long as they're safe!"

"Understood! My lord!"

"Avery!"

The still-shaken bishop immediately bowed, "Lord, please command!"

"Use all your Divine Court connections! Ask High Priest Farrell, or even higher-level cardinal bishops to mediate! Pressure Greenspine Kingdom! Protecting Frost means protecting the friendship between our Vast Sea Territory and Mistmoon Divine Court!"

"As long as Frost is safe and sound, I, Chen Mo, will reward handsomely!"

"Also, continue directing human and mineral resources toward military industry. Prepare for major battles if necessary!"

When Chen Mo was making these targeted deployments, the little girl had already begun her killing spree in Cloudmist Domain.

Good news kept coming, leaving Chen Mo both happy and worried.

He was happy that with various powerful equipment, especially super-tier mounts, Lady Frost seemed to be in an invincible state of mobile warfare. Small groups of professionals couldn't defeat her, small-scale cavalry couldn't stop her, large army corps couldn't catch her, and within Cloudmist Domain, plenty of people were willing to conceal her tracks and interfere with pursuit.

She could even occasionally rally old subordinates to attack enemy strongpoints, distribute food and weapons, and cultivate resistance forces in the mountains and forests.

Thinking of that once naive little girl who had now become a legendary warrior goddess of the southern frontier, Chen Mo felt a strange sense that fate played tricks on people.

He was worried because enemies couldn't possibly let her run rampant forever. The longer it went on, the greater the possibility she'd be targeted.

Enemies began implementing scorched earth tactics, and Frost's achievable results declined sharply. Greenspine also went straight to the core, sending a protest letter to Mistmoon Divine Court, expressing strong dissatisfaction that Mistmoon had provided super-tier creatures like unicorns to aid their enemies.

Mistmoon Divine Court didn't particularly care about Greenspine Kingdom but the dwarves' dissatisfaction put enormous pressure on the Divine Court.

High Priest Farrell personally rushed to Vast Sea to explain to Chen Mo face to face.

"For this battle, Greenspine Kingdom promised the dwarves all of Cloudmist Domain's mineral exploration and mining rights, gambling establishment licenses, and lending house operations."

"If Cloudmist can't be held, they can't continue attacking the Emerald Duchy. If the Emerald Duchy doesn't sue for peace, the war can't stop."

"If the war doesn't end, dwarf merchant associations can't do business in Cloudmist."

"The Divine Court has now issued a divine oracle that if this matter still cannot be resolved, the Divine Court's beast tamers will go to Cloudmist!"

High Priest Farrell's voice wasn't loud, but every word was distinct and extremely jarring.

"If the unicorn is truly recalled from the battlefield, I fear... I fear that young lord will be in mortal danger!"

"You... should try to persuade her!"

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