Autumn of Year 2522 of the Empire.
In the Fountain of Fontainebleau Palace.
Amidst the fragrance of cornflowers, irises, red roses, and carnations, Laing was slowly immersed in the bath water.
Yuan Zhisheng did not seem like a human anymore. Every step he took was accompanied by a green light and shadow. His every move was like an ancient god of war descending to the mortal world, or like the ancient gods patrolling the mortal world with their carriages in the ancient elven wars.
Laing's physique had become even more burly, but he deliberately suppressed his body from expanding further because it was not time yet.
Under his streamlined muscles, countless psionic torrents were surging. Among them, the silver psionic energy was the Emperor's gift. The Emperor's DNA had become half of the Gray Knight's, while the golden torrents were Marcador's last gift. Compared to the righteous, the Bearer's power was actually more of an evil villain's ability, such as mind control, crazily torturing the souls of others, and banishing the opponent directly into the depths of the subspace.
However, the strongest ability Laing obtained after becoming a demigod was called Oblivion Shadow. This allowed the original incarnation to summon a spirit of his to fight side by side with him. This spirit had about 50% of Laing's combat strength, and could imitate Laing to release various psionic skills and directly participate in the battle, but could not be too far away from Laing.
Even so, Oblivion Shadow was probably the most precious treasure left behind by the Emperor and Marcador. It allowed Laing to multitask while also changing the situation of the battle at the most critical moment. When necessary, Laing's physical body could instantly switch positions with the spirit. This would cause Laing to lose half of his psionic energy and stamina, but the flexibility and tactical effect far exceeded the price.
To give an example, at the last moment of Horus's rebellion, the Emperor personally led the Royal Guards, the Silent Nun, and the mechanical clergy to fight countless Chaos Demons in the underground network under the palace. The Primordial Demon Draconian almost killed the Lord of Humans on the spot. At the critical moment, the Emperor used this move to switch positions with the Spirit Body and avoided Draconian's fatal blow.
This was different from Flash. Flash required some preparation time and could be interrupted, but Oblivion Shadow did not. At any time, including the moment when Laing's real body was seriously injured or even dead, he could easily switch places with Oblivion Shadow and avoid death at the cost of losing half of his spiritual energy and stamina.
Laing had to go through six tests before he finally became a demigod. After Macado's guidance, he easily passed five of them. He played with his gun in front of Khorne, drank soup at Nurgle's table, divided the loot in Tzeentch's house, jumped in front of the Emperor, and passed Shang under the Ancient Holy Platform.
Laing spent more than three months to successfully overcome Perverted's test.
It had to be said that Perverted had a lot of tricks, which shocked Laing. In particular, some of the unique skills of the great demons under him made Laing spend a lot of energy whispering.
For example, (already deleted) or (already deleted). There were even (already deleted) and (already deleted) and (already deleted). There were even (already deleted)!
In addition to the indescribable and indescribable, Perverted also made a strange move. A group of muscular bird demons wearing leather and iron chains blocked Laing's way. When the forest demon reached out to Laing and issued a royal invitation, Laing believed that it would be difficult for anyone to refuse.
There was also that song. Laing could f * cking sing it.
"Why can't I fly out of the world of flowers ~ So I'm a drunken butterfly ~"
Laing sang it subconsciously, then shook his head with a bitter smile.
It took more than three months for Laing to finally overcome his shortcomings in this aspect and successfully resist the temptation of Perverted.
The original body began to realize that he was no longer a human, or at least not a complete human. The current Laing was a combination of the "human" in the subspace concept and the "human" in the mortal world concept. He was still a human, but not completely a mortal.
Comfortably leaning against the side of the bathtub, Laing took a monocle from the tiles beside the bathtub, leaned out, and began to read the news sent in by Teresa and Veronica from outside.
Yes, although Laing had been in seclusion for a few months, just like his father who had been sitting on the toilet for ten thousand years, Laing was also aware of what was going on in the outside world. The Lake Fairy, MI7, and Talleyrand sent information to the training room on time for him to browse (if he had time). His psionic power could also slightly detect what was going on in the outside world.
The aftereffects of the breakthrough were still present. The seven scattered forces in Leon's body were now scattered all over the place. He still needed some time to straighten everything out. Also, he had been watching Pervert's performance for too long. Leon's vision was now equivalent to a person with medium to high myopia. He also needed some time to recover.
Moreover, Laing knew that even if he was the Sun King, there would always be a day when he would come to an end. The royal power was not eternal, and he could not rule Brittany forever. The Knight King's Kingdom needed to rely on its own system and beliefs to continue.
Over the years, the knights, nobles, and bureaucrats had formed a habit of "listening to His Majesty and doing as he says". They lacked the ability to think and make decisions on their own, and this incident was just the right experience for them.
There was also Devonshire. He was a talented general who could command soldiers, and a talented commander who could command generals.
At the same time, Laing also wanted to see if the Old Guard was at risk of evolving into the Roman Praetorian Guard.
The first thing he opened was Berliat's report.
In the report, Berliat wrote that more than half of Estalia had fallen. Due to the lack of support from the bureaucrats, the knights and nobles were slow to mobilize their own troops, and the millions of refugees in Estalia ended up with only about 1.1 million people, including 300,000 youths who had successfully retreated to Brittany. They were currently settled in the Duchy of Braon and Karkazon.
Due to differences in language, culture, beliefs, and living habits, several large-scale conflicts broke out between the Brittany and the Estalian refugees almost immediately after they came into contact. The Brittany looked down on the Estalians, and the Estalians also blamed the chivalrous people for not providing support sooner. Neither side was willing to give in to the other.
Laing sighed slightly. Macado was right. The conflicts between mortals due to race, country, culture, and beliefs often only needed a little spark to ignite, and then a chain of hatred would form.
Fortunately, at this time, the Estalians were extremely confused about the future. It was a state of extreme absent-mindedness where they did not even have any hope of reclaiming their homeland.
It was fine. There was no need to fight anymore.
At this time, as the legitimate descendant of the Sunwatcher Family, Juan Carlos Sunwatcher's appearance quickly won over the hearts of all the Estalians. Juan was an Estalian, and his military exploits and fame spread far and wide. The Estalians were proud of him and had always regarded him as their own child. Logically speaking, after the main bloodline of the Sunwatcher Family was cut off, Juan was originally the legal successor of the Duke Magritte Family. He had previously given up, but now that most of the bloodline of the Sunwatcher Family was dead, could he reluctantly pick it up?
Of course he could! According to the law of succession, the remaining hundred or so knights of Estalia immediately declared Juan to be the legitimate heir of the Magritte Family and swore loyalty to him. There were even people from Estalia preparing to crown Juan as the Duke of Estalia. A military organization, the "Estalian Militia", was quickly established with the support of the Brittany.
For the knights, nobles, and bureaucrats, this was the result of a game. Both sides could accept it. Juan was Duke Hagen's son-in-law. Just like how Laing married Suria, if he married their daughter, he would be one of them. The bureaucrats were naturally familiar with Juan, so it would be easier to communicate with and control him. As for Juan's loyalty to Laing, there was no problem.
If the world dropped the title of Duke, Juan would have no reason to refuse.
However, Laing was still not satisfied.
His original plan was to release the ownership of Estalia's land and redeem the military authority from the knights and nobles.
In other words, he would release them and allow the knights and nobles to reap sufficient benefits in the process of reclaiming Estalia. In exchange, he would completely take over the military authority and army from the knights and nobles, turning these nobles and nobles into simple landlords.
Don't underestimate this step. This step was very important as it was the key to further centralizing power. Why did Laing implement a military rank system previously? Wasn't it because military ranks were the symbol of nationalization of the military?
Just like how Laing, a Baron, could directly give up the title of Duke. I wasn't even your vassal. Why don't we change this relationship to one where Laing is a Lieutenant Colonel and the other side is a General?
Unfortunately, the reform had already entered the deep end. How could the knights and nobles possibly give up on the military authority that they had held in their hands for thousands of years? For the time being, they wouldn't resist Laing's command of their army. Firstly, there were benefits. Secondly, Laing's prestige was too high and he was too strong. The knights and nobles didn't want to oppose Laing.
However, I can choose not to cooperate. This method of relying on Laing's personal prestige wasn't complete. It wasn't easy to unify the command, and it wasn't easy to cooperate.
Even the Empire on the other side of the mountain took advantage of the great Holy War. The country was destroyed and everything had to be restarted. Only then did Ludwig take back a portion of the military authority from the nobles.
"A generation can only do what a generation can do." Laing smiled bitterly. This was the only way for now.
Then, there was the second piece of information regarding the Empire's war against Chaos in the North.
Kislów Castle had already fallen under the attack of Wilic – the World Spellcaster. Obviously, the Chosen One of God wasn't satisfied with this little achievement. He immediately gave the order to attack the Empire.
Hundreds of thousands of Army of Chaos came down south, while the Empire only had less than 30,000 Northern Allied Army. The 60000 Empire troops organized by Emperor Karl-franz were racing against time in order to reinforce the border. Many troops that set off could never reach their destination. The Orcs and Green Skins were thirsty for slaughter and frequently obstructed the advance. Entire regiments were wiped out by the spreading plague. Some soldiers died of exhaustion and were abandoned by their desperate comrades by the side of the road. Others left the troops and fled their homes to protect their loved ones.
At this moment, in the North, the commander in charge of protecting the Empire was the Grand Baron and Kurfürst of Hocke, Edbrand Rudenhoff. He carefully planned a series of powerful counterattacks and flexible tactics to stall for enough time. Then, the Emperor's reinforcements finally arrived. Rudenhoff quickly realized that he had become the leader of close to one-third of Hocke's Imperial Guards and one-fourth of the Emperor's army. After receiving powerful reinforcements, Rudenhoff finally had the capital. In the Battle of Rupert, Rudenhoff led the Empire's army to defeat the World Spellcaster army and personally used the iconic Hocke's long-barreled musket to blow up Wilic's head.
Of course, Wilic wouldn't die from a single bullet. However, the mercury in his head forced the Chaos Spellcaster to retreat. Without the guidance of their master, the World Spellcaster army collapsed in the wind. The Empire once again won hope.
It was already autumn. At the very least, they had survived this year.
Everyone knew that this wasn't the end. The hundred thousand men of the World Spellcaster army couldn't even be considered as the vanguard of Eichahn's world-destroying army. They were just a scouting team. The true vanguard, the Kurgan Warlord, the Eternal God's Chosen Deputy General, and the three hundred thousand strong Kurgan army were still gathering on the other side of the mountain pass. They would arrive at the northern border of the Empire in the spring of next year at the earliest. The sixty thousand men under Rudenhoff's command (who had suffered losses in the war) were just a fraction of this vanguard.
Laing didn't comment and continued to read the next message. This message was jointly sent by Aurora and Teresa from MI7.
This was news about the "Reincarnation of the Human Emperor", Wo Teng, who had appeared out of nowhere.
His appearance brought about a huge upheaval to the political situation of the Empire.
What kind of huge upheaval?
Thinking of Karl-franz, Emilia, and Frey Derick, Laing revealed an interested expression and continued reading.
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