132. Annihilation

Luo Xuan closed the forum, closed his eyes and pondered. He tapped his fingertips lightly on the desktop, his heart far from calm.

The current situation on the mainland is far worse than he had anticipated.

The Heavenly Feather Empire and the Orc Empire seemed to have gained a respite by sacrificing the Holy Kingdom of Loen, but this only postponed the disaster, not resolved it.

The most terrifying thing about the undead is that they fight to sustain themselves, growing in number the more they fight.

Once the defenses of the Kingdom of Saint Loen completely collapse, countless high-ranking undead will spread outwards like a tidal wave.

When that time comes, the Tianyu Empire and the Orc Empire will be the first to be affected.

Luo Xuan believed that even if the high-ranking officials on the orc side didn't understand such a simple question, the high-ranking officials on the Tianyu Empire side certainly wouldn't be confused.

But they did it anyway.

Either he's genuinely stupid, or there's some inside story that Luo Xuan doesn't know.

Luo Xuan leaned more towards the second point; he didn't believe that the top leaders of the leading forces standing on the continent would be fools.

"However, no matter what, harming one's neighbors is ultimately just a short-sighted solution," Luo Xuan muttered to himself.

After saying that, Luo Xuan shook his head with a slight chuckle. These things were too far removed from him and were not something he needed to worry about right now.

Luo Xuan doesn't yet have enough strength to concern himself with other places; he hasn't even fully controlled the small area surrounding his territory.

The fish-men and lobster-men in the nearshore area have not yet been dealt with, and further afield there is a coral crab waiting to be dealt with.

In addition, there is the vanished leader of the Sea Spirit remnants, who is like a hidden bomb, ready to explode at any moment.

Currently, all Luo Xuan can do is continue to strengthen his own abilities.

Everything else is meaningless; only his own strength is Luo Xuan's greatest reliance.

Luo Xuan secretly made a plan in his mind: first deal with the fishmen and lobster people in the near sea, then keep an eye on the coral crabs' movements and not provoke them.

Nereia was instructed to stay in the sea and keep a close watch on the ocean conditions, and to report immediately if she spotted the leader of the Sea Spirits.

In addition, we should continue to increase the territory's resource production and defense measures as much as possible.

With this in mind, Luo Xuan turned his thoughts to the construction of his territory.

As development continues, Luo Xuan has gradually realized that the current level 3 resource points are starting to fall behind.

However, if he were to explore further outwards, there would be no more resource points on land for Luo Xuan to occupy.

As mentioned before, Luo Xuan's territory is located on the edge of the Tianyu Empire, with Luoyue Valley to the north and Luoyue Territory to the east, leaving very limited room for Luo Xuan to develop.

Therefore, Luo Xuan had no choice but to turn his attention to the ocean.

Compared to land, the ocean is undoubtedly a treasure trove waiting to be discovered.

There are islands of varying sizes in the ocean, most of which have harsh environments, but some are rich in resources.

In addition, the seabed also holds many resources waiting to be discovered.

However, before that, the surrounding fishmen and lobster people need to be cleared out so that Luo Xuan can develop the area with peace of mind.

. . . . . .

On the seabed, near the coral reefs.

The turbid silt has not completely settled, and fragments of broken coral reefs still float in the seawater.

Azathoth and Nereia would come to the vicinity every now and then to check on the condition of the coral crabs.

The coral crabs remained lying motionless in the coral reef area.

If it weren't for the symbiotic corals still on the coral crab's shell, Azathoth would have thought the coral crab was dead.

However, whether it is dead or alive, as long as the coral crab does not approach the nearshore waters, Luo Xuan's order is to leave it alone.

Azathoth and Nereia kept this in mind, and observed only from a distance.

After witnessing the coral crab easily eliminate the remnants of the sea spirits, the fishmen and lobster people in the vicinity tacitly stayed away from this area.

This meant Luo Xuan didn't have to worry about waking up the coral crabs because of the fighting between the fishman tribes.

Afterwards, Azathoth and Nereia returned to the Tidefowl tribe and continued to lead them in the war against the Reeffowl tribe.

However, as Luo Xuan requested, Azathoth and Nereia controlled the intensity of the battle very well.

After each battle, not many fishmen died on either side, so the number of fishmen was gradually reduced by slowly simmering them like a frog in boiling water.

As for the lobster man, he remained the same as before, swimming around on the periphery and looking somewhat restless.

But as soon as the fishman got close, he quickly left.

Luo Xuan was also unsure of the lobster-men's plans, and could only remind Azathoth and Nereia to be a little more careful.

The current focus remains on eliminating the remaining forces of the two murloc tribes.

Once the numbers on both sides have been reduced to a certain level, Luo Xuan can send Azathoth and Nereia to easily destroy both tribes and completely annihilate the two great merfolk tribes.

After the merman tribe is destroyed, Luo Xuan will have plenty of time to deal with the lobster people.

Therefore, as long as the lobster people don't get involved, Luo Xuan is happy to leave them alone.

Time passed slowly under these circumstances, with large numbers of murlocs dying or being injured every day in both murloc tribes.

However, there were also dissenting voices within the merfolk tribe.

The large number of deaths quickly alerted some of the more level-headed merfolk, who hoped the war would end.

But how is that possible?

Even if the merfolk leadership agreed, Azathoth and Nereia would not.

However, it's strange.

Any merman who voices dissent will die in battle the following day.

Nereia seized the opportunity to spread the message that they wanted to cease hostilities because of fear and cowardice, and that it was precisely this fear and cowardice that caused them to die in battle.

After this happened several times, the murlocs in the tribe soon stopped mentioning a ceasefire.

The war raging on the seabed continues to erode the manpower of the two major fishman tribes, slowly but steadily burning away their lifeline.

However, no fishman dared to say anything, nor could any fishman say anything.

Even many tribal leaders are now caught in a dilemma, having been drawn into the situation.

The sounds of stone hammers clashing with bone spears, and the wails of dying fishmen, have gradually become the norm in the ocean recently.

The fishmen went from initial excitement to fear, and now to numbness. They no longer felt anything and simply continued their battle with the other side.

Even the few sane merfolk will die in battle due to the interference of the seawater controlled by Nereia.

Gradually, no one talked about a ceasefire anymore. Everyone knew that the fighting had reached such a point that even if they wanted to stop, it was impossible to stop.

Hatred has permeated both murloc tribes, and no murloc has been spared.

About a week later, all the able-bodied men of the two merfolk tribes had died out, and the tribes were visibly declining.

During this time, Luo Xuan did not forget about development, recruiting skeleton soldiers every day to collect moon coral on the mudflats.

As the number of skeleton soldiers increased and time passed, Luo Xuan acquired two more Moonlight Corals.

Luo Xuan did not simply recruit skeleton soldiers indiscriminately. When he recruited the tenth skeleton soldier, he stopped recruiting.

Ten skeletons are enough to handle some daily tasks; too many would be a burden.

Luo Xuan hadn't forgotten that when he wanted to train Nereia, he struggled to find enough leadership points and had to borrow equipment from Shen Ce.

Before we knew it, it was already late August.

Luo Xuan planned to completely wipe out the two major merfolk tribes before the end of the month.

With both merfolk tribes having devoted all their energy to the war and neglecting daily production, the resources stored in both tribes were running low.

However, since most of the able-bodied men had died or been injured, it was clearly unrealistic to send the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled members of the tribe out to hunt.

Therefore, they can only choose to gather seaweed and coral around their territory and catch some small fish and shrimp to fill their stomachs.

Unsurprisingly, the two gathering teams clashed again, and the battle unfolded in a "chicken fight" style.

The two gathering teams, composed of the elderly, the weak, the sick and disabled, had long lost the ferocity they once displayed on the battlefield.

Without the merman warriors clad in shell armor, only some old and frail mermen remained, trembling as they continued to fight, clutching their scattered weapons.

The fierce battles in the sea had ceased, leaving only clumsy slashing and feeble pushing.

Their roars were hoarse and weak, but hatred was etched into their bodies.

Even though they were either old, weak, sick, or disabled, neither side backed down and they continued to attack each other with bloodshot eyes.

The blood seeped from the wound and mixed into the seawater, then gradually spread into the distance.

"They've reached their limit. It's time to complete the Lord's mission," Nereia concluded.

"Don't rush into action. What's the situation with those lobster-men?" Azathoth asked calmly.

Compared to Nereia, he had been with Luo Xuan for a longer time and understood Luo Xuan's thoughts better.

Although he sometimes takes risks, Luo Xuan usually prefers to play it safe.

Therefore, Azathoth was not in a hurry to act when the possibility of the Lobster Man could not be ruled out.

After thinking for a moment, Azathoth spoke to Nereia:

"You go keep an eye on the lobster man's side; I can handle things here by myself."

Upon hearing this, Nereia nodded and turned to head towards the lobster people's tribe.

Half an hour later, both sides were almost exhausted, and in the end, the Tidefish Man's side was the first to collapse.

As for Azathoth, it did not make a move until the two gathering teams had decided the outcome, leaving only a few severely wounded Reefbreaker murlocs helping each other back to their tribe.

The wounded will increase the tribe's burden, something Luo Xuan had taught it before.

Watching the fishmen disappear into the distance, Azathoth withdrew his gaze and turned to swim towards the shore.

It had to tell Luo Xuan that the two major fishman tribes had reached the final moment and could launch a general offensive.

On the shore, Luo Xuan, upon hearing the good news from Azathoth, also showed a slight smile.

However, he did not give the order immediately, but patiently inquired about the situation on the seabed.

For example, how many people are still in the two major merfolk tribes? How much food do they consume each day? Are there still patrol teams, etc.

Azathoth wasn't very clear about the Reef Murlocs, but he did explain the situation of the Frothing Murlocs.

Upon hearing this, Luo Xuan nodded, roughly understanding that the fishman tribe was indeed on its last legs, and not just putting on an act.

However, he did not rush to give the order, but instead inquired about the situation of the lobster people and coral crabs.

"The coral crabs are still the same as before, not moving at all. We go to check on them once every morning and evening."

Azathoth replied, "As for the lobster people, I'm not too sure, but I just sent Nereia to scout ahead, and we should have some information back soon."

By evening, Nereia had also brought back information about the lobster people.

"These lobster people were attacked by the fish people before, and the losses were very heavy, which also caused them a lot of psychological trauma," Nereia said.

"Therefore, even when faced with the war between the two fishman tribes, these lobster people had no intention of getting involved."

"Well, that might not be entirely accurate. From my observation, they seem to want to get involved, but they haven't made up their minds yet."

Nereia gave a detailed report of the intelligence it had gathered.

"So that's how it is, you were scared out of your wits!" Luo Xuan said.

From this perspective, the lobster-man's previous behavior of lingering and swimming on the edge of the battlefield can be explained.

"In that case, let's leave it alone. Azathoth, find an opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the Tidefowl tribe," Luo Xuan said.

"After eliminating them all, head to the Broken Reef Tribe as quickly as possible."

"As for Nereia," Luo Xuan pondered for a moment before speaking, "when Azathoth attacks the Tidefishers, you will keep watch on the perimeter to prevent the Lobstermen from getting close, and also to prevent any from escaping."

"Once Azathoth has finished and is heading to the Broken Reef Murloc tribe, you will be responsible for cleaning up the battlefield, and then follow Azathoth."

Upon hearing this, Azathoth and Nereia exchanged a glance and then nodded.

Azathoth and Nereia acted swiftly, taking immediate action after receiving the mission.

Azathoth first infiltrated the Tidefowl tribe, while Nereia stood guard on the perimeter.

Soon, Azathoth made its move. With its current Tier 1 red quality level 9 combat power, it had almost reached the pinnacle of Tier 1 units.

Moreover, Azathoth is not an ordinary Tier 1 red unit, but a transformed and evolved one, making it even stronger.

Therefore, the remaining old, weak, sick, and disabled members of the Tidefish tribe had almost no power to resist.

Some merfolk died without ever understanding why Azathoth, who had always helped them and was like a god of war, suddenly turned on them.

Some of the Froggy Fishmen thought that the continuous battles had made Azathoth somewhat delirious and mistook them for the Reef Fishmen. Therefore, they called out to Azathoth until their deaths, hoping that it could "come to its senses".

Killing the ordinary murlocs didn't take Azathoth much time; it was only when facing the remaining murloc elders that it took a little longer.

However, by launching a surprise attack first, Luo Xuan easily dealt a heavy blow to his opponent and gained the upper hand.

After a fierce battle, Azathoth annihilated the entire Murloc tribe!