Chapter 159: Chapter 159: The Azure Gold Empire's Movement and Solving the Distance Problem
As the month of Autumn Veil began, the essence of autumn grew more pronounced. The plains surrounding Shimmering City were tinged with a pale yellow hue.
Sunan made his way to the central palace without hindrance.
While passing through the courtyard, he spotted three children with delicate features playing, surrounded by over a dozen maids.
Noticing Sunan, the eldest boy ran over, calling out "Uncle" and hugged Sunan's leg.
The younger boy and girl followed, curiously eyeing Sunan.
"Sir!"
The maids, catching up, greeted respectfully.
Sunan waved his hand, crouched slightly, and patted Abbott's head with a smile.
"Where's your father?"
"Father is in the council hall," Abbott replied cheerfully.
Sunan smiled and looked at the other two children.
"You must be Wes and Adela."
Wes was Key's second son, and Adela was his first daughter.
"How do you know our names?" Wes asked, tilting his head in confusion.
Adela, too young to speak much, simply sucked her finger and stared wide-eyed at Sunan.
"Because I'm your uncle."
"What's an uncle?"
Sunan chuckled, not answering, and patted the little one's head before turning to the maids.
"Take good care of them."
With that, Sunan left.
As he walked away, Abbott watched longingly before turning to his brother, tapping his head.
"Silly, uncle is father's brother. Everyone says uncle is a very powerful person."
Wes seemed to understand a little, but soon his attention was captured by a butterfly, and he ran off to chase it.
In the council hall, Key was discussing matters with the ministers.
From the days of Blackstone City to the present Starlight Duchy, Key's forces had grown significantly.
There were many new faces unfamiliar to Sunan.
The dozen or so people in the hall were all high-ranking nobles of the duchy.
Sunan recognized only a few, such as Bred, Joton, and Stali.
Compared to ten years ago, Bred and the others appeared more weathered and aged, streaks of silver in their hair.
Even the strength of a grand knight couldn't resist the ravages of time.
Thankfully, years of living in comfort kept their complexion rosy and spirits high.
Among the ministers in their forties and fifties, Key appeared quite youthful.
At thirty, he was in the prime of his life.
With legendary strength, he was far from aging.
"Lord Sunan!"
Seeing Sunan enter, everyone stood and saluted.
Key smiled and gestured to dismiss them.
"That's all for today. We'll discuss other matters tomorrow. You're dismissed."
Bred and the others acknowledged and tactfully left.
The hall quickly emptied, leaving only Key and Sunan.
Once the servants brought tea and left, Key smiled and said:
"It's been months since you last visited. Have you been busy with the new base?"
Sunan had mentioned the base relocation to Key.
Though a bit disappointed, Key respected Sunan's decision.
Moreover, Base 1 wouldn't be abandoned entirely, remaining as a transit point.
As long as that place existed, Shimmering City's residents felt more secure.
"It's almost done."
Sunan took a sip of tea, then changed the subject.
"I read the dispatches. The Azure Gold Empire has been restless lately?"
Though he spent most of his time underground, Sunan never ignored the surface world's situation.
Every month, the Starlight Duchy compiled important information into dispatches for the high nobles and also sent copies to Sunan's study.
According to the dispatches, the Azure Gold Empire had been conducting frequent military exercises near the duchy's bordering cities for the past two months. The royal advisors speculated that these actions might be a cover for military maneuvers.
"The duchy's existence threatens the Azure Gold Empire's control in the southeast region. It's not surprising that the emperor would act against us," Key said calmly.
For other rulers, learning that their nation was targeted by the Azure Gold Empire might cause panic or seem daunting.
But Key was different.
Because the Starlight Duchy had Sunan.
Others might not know, but Key was aware of the Star Alliance's power, established by Sunan underground.
Truth be told, the Star Alliance's military might even surpassed the Starlight Duchy's.
With such a reliable ally, Key had no worries.
However, this was also the main reason the Azure Gold Empire targeted the duchy.
With Sunan, the duchy was like a young lion with immense potential.
The Azure Gold Empire wouldn't foolishly watch the duchy grow and potentially challenge them for dominance in the southeast region.
Key understood that if not for concerns about Sunan, the Azure Gold Empire might have already attacked the duchy.
"What do you plan to do?" Sunan asked.
"Though we're not fully prepared, if the Azure Gold Empire declares war, we'll be ready to fight."
Key said confidently, his tone full of assurance.
"The only issue is the royal wizard, known as the Staff, who belongs to the same wizard organization as you, right?"
"Yes," Sunan nodded calmly. "I'll find an opportunity to talk to him."
If the Staff truly supported the Azure Gold Empire's war efforts, then there was nothing to discuss—only a battle on the field would settle things.
Even if they belonged to the same Forest Cabin, Sunan wouldn't hold back.
Time flew by, and soon it was the month of Frostfall.
The first snow finally came.
White snowflakes blanketed the land as cold winds howled.
Inside Dragon Forest, it remained warm and spring-like, with a pleasant climate.
On the thirteenth floor of the Dragon Bone Tower, in Cultivation Room 3.
Though called a cultivation room, it employed spatial folding technology, covering an actual area of about a square kilometer, one of the tower's three large cultivation rooms.
The entire room was transformed into a dim cavern environment.
Sunan hovered next to a stalactite, watching the young dragon antelopes joyfully frolic in the large cavern.
After deciding to establish the Dragon Antelope Ranch, Sunan immediately began implementation.
However, establishing the ranch wasn't as simple as capturing a group of dragon antelopes.
Adult dragon antelopes had fixed temperaments, making them difficult to tame, so Sunan planned to raise them from a young age.
He captured a batch of newborn dragon antelopes from the wild, placing them in the cultivation room for personal training and taming, intending to release them to the ranch once they matured.
After several months, the results were satisfying.
Though still somewhat wild, the young dragon antelopes, regularly fed by apprentices, were now less resistant to human contact and touch.
Achieving this in just a few months with adult dragon antelopes would be impossible.
"After two or three years of training, their wildness should be tamed enough to release them to the ranch."
Sunan left the cultivation room, teleporting to the workshop.
Through recent training, his mental power now met the requirements for fusing a level 4 magic core.
His physique had long been enhanced to 55 points through consuming dragon blood fruit, also meeting the requirements.
Subsequently, Sunan synthesized a level 4 magic core and fused it into his body.
As expected, the upgraded level 4 magic core significantly boosted its power.
At full strength, the metal spike storm formed by the magic core took less than half a minute to blast the adamantine golem into a tattered state.
This was a reinforced adamantine golem, a genuine third-circle legendary construct, not the primitive version encountered at the entrance of the Aivigny Laboratory.
"A second-circle legendary construct would likely be instantly destroyed."
"In terms of defense, the rating is about 6500 to 7000, roughly equivalent to stacking six or seven Rings of Extreme Protection."
With such high defense, even a formal wizard would need effort to break through.
Below a formal wizard, unless his mental power was exhausted, breaking through was nearly impossible.
Sunan was most concerned about his mental power consumption, which had barely increased.
"With my current mental power, I can sustain it for about four minutes."
"In high-intensity combat, sustaining it for three minutes shouldn't be an issue."
Notably, Sunan had also researched the last two alternative metals needed for crafting the magic core.
In other words, he now essentially had magic core freedom.
Whenever he wanted, he could mass-produce magic cores.
Currently, the only limitations were cost and his mental and physical attributes.
The level 5 magic core requires 58.65 mental and 71.24 physical attributes for fusion.
As for the level 6 magic core, Sunan estimated it would remain out of reach until he became a wizard.
Nonetheless, this was good news for Sunan.
The magic core wasn't just a trump card; it was crucial for his future advancement to wizardry.
This was why, despite knowing the magic core's synthesis level had limits, he insisted on researching alternative metals.
After spending half a day in the workshop crafting a batch of magical constructs, Sunan returned to his study.
Shortly after sitting down, Karolaina arrived.
"Master."
Karolaina greeted with a graceful bow.
Since joining Sunan, this sphinx noble had consumed plenty of dragon blood fruit and other enhancing potions, her power now exceeding second-circle legendary, stronger than the former Lake U City lord, Yosula.
"What is it?" Sunan asked without looking up, his gaze fixed on his book.
Karolaina respectfully replied, "Master, we've selected locations for the spatial channels."
Sunan finally looked up, stood, and left the study.
"Lead the way."
"Yes, Master."
Inspired by the Dragon Forest's teleportation array, Sunan planned to establish spatial channels between Lake U, Matu, and Orson city-states, connecting them to avoid traveling hundreds of kilometers each time.
He opted not to build teleportation arrays due to lacking the required technology.
Moreover, teleportation technology was generally reserved for wizards. Even with the technology, as an apprentice, he couldn't construct a teleportation array.
Thus, Sunan devised a clever workaround.
Like the connection between Base 1 and Base 2, he set up spatial channels in the three city-states, connecting them to Dragon Forest as a transit point.
Though not enabling real-time teleportation, it achieved a semi-teleportation effect, significantly reducing distances.
After a few trips, Sunan quickly established spatial channels in the three city-states.
The channels connected to a segregated area in Dragon Forest Zone 3, serving as a transit point without access to other areas.
"With these three spatial channels, there's no need for long journeys anymore."
Testing with stone golems confirmed all channels functioned properly, satisfying Sunan.
The underground world, vast and sparsely populated, had far fewer city-states than the surface, with great distances between them.
The complex terrain limited transportation options, often requiring travel on foot or by riding creatures.
This was why the underground world seldom hosted nation-level powers.
Besides the diverse races, the lack of efficient transportation and communication systems hindered information transfer and material exchange between city-states, making unification difficult.
Now, with spatial channels, distance was no longer an issue for the Star Alliance.
Besides solving long-distance travel, the channels offered timely support during wartime.
In less than half an hour, a small golem army could traverse the channels from one city-state to another.
Further, mobile golem armies could be stationed at the transit points.
In the event of war, they could immediately deploy through the channels for support, minimizing response time.
No matter how meticulously the enemies planned, they wouldn't anticipate reinforcements appearing from another army within the city-states.
After all, in the current Starlight Continent, no wizard apprentice built teleportation arrays.
Apart from Sunan, with Dragon Forest at his disposal, no other power could provide such rapid support!
Karolaina understood these implications.
From the moment Sunan proposed the spatial channels, she realized the immense benefits they would bring to the Star Alliance.
With spatial channels, the greatest obstacle to expanding the Star Alliance's territory was resolved!
Watching Sunan's departing figure, a hint of reverence flashed in Karolaina's eyes.
In the Star Alliance, her position was among the closest to Sunan.
Yet even so, she had never truly grasped Sunan's depth.
The more she interacted with him, the more unfathomable he seemed, accomplishing incredible feats, leaving others guessing.
If she once harbored a trace of dissatisfaction with serving under someone, that sentiment had long vanished, replaced by gratitude.
Following this man, she might witness the day the Star Alliance conquered the entire underground world.
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