“The Dawn Empire?”
Xia Jin actually knew a little bit about this familiar name.
Of course, the only keywords she could find in her memories were that it was a very distant country, extremely large, and incredibly powerful.
Indeed, the Kingdom of Clear was considered the strongest force in the immediate region.
However, even as a princess of this kingdom, her impression of the Dawn Empire remained one of invincibility.
Or rather, the entire royal family believed it was a nation they could not afford to provoke.
Naturally, the distance between the two was quite far. The reason the kingdom was so familiar with that nation was because its southern neighbors, the two great nations of Mia and Novien, had both established the Dawn Church as their official state religion and accepted protection from the Dawn Empire.
As for the Kingdom of Clear itself, commoners had also begun to gradually embrace the faith of the Goddess of Dawn.
Furthermore, the orthodoxy of this religion originated from the Dawn Empire, and all believers were required to make a pilgrimage to the City of Dawn every few years.
After several such trips, those who returned spoke of a country of incomparable splendor, a nation shrouded in divine light.
This had a very negative impact on the kingdom. Although no significant changes were visible in recent years, Xia Jin felt that if this continued, problems would inevitably arise.
“Forget it, the Dawn Empire is truly too far away.”
Xia Jin shook her head. She felt that even if they wanted to interfere after she went to war with the Kingdom of Clear, it would be impossible for them to send a massive army all at once.
To her, once she reclaimed the kingdom's ancestral lands, her momentum would be unstoppable. Regardless of whether it was some empire or some divine cult, they would inevitably be crushed under the blades of the swarm.
Could a future interstellar civilization really lose to a bunch of petty natives?
Over the following week, her main force began to gradually push northward.
Of course, this process wouldn't be too fast. Xia Jin estimated that after pushing 300 kilometers, she would begin to attack westward—meaning she would circle around the northern side of the Glowing Forest and turn to invade the vast forest territories further west.
In fact, the area of the Border Forest was extremely immense. It wasn't just the vast lands to the north; the massive expanse stretching thousands of kilometers to the west and southwest (west of the Kingdom of Clear) was all part of the forest. Relatively speaking, the magic beasts to the north were stronger, while those to the west were weaker.
In this way, during that week, at least five magic beast lords clashed with the swarm.
The battles that broke out between the two sides displayed a primal madness, with swarms of monsters slaughtering each other across the land. Although the swarm only deployed a few thousand units, the outcome of the war was decided the moment it began.
During these few days, Xia Jin began to increase the number of queens, raising the count to fifty in one go.
With their reproductive capabilities combined with the current bases, the number of insects added daily actually reached over 4,000.
Naturally, it was impossible for every insect to be a combat species; drones actually accounted for about 500 of them.
The reason for increasing the drones was mainly because the resources they were obtaining now were too abundant; with their current capacity, they simply couldn't absorb it all in time.
In the territory that originally belonged to the Goblin Kingdom, the swarm's frantic scouring continued.
Remaining goblin individuals were essentially hunted to extinction, and ordinary magic beasts failed to escape the same fate, all of them turning into energy for the swarm.
It could be said that Xia Jin's forces had begun to enter a stable phase of rapid troop production, unconsciously growing to a scale of 36,000 insects.
Among them were 4,000 drones and 32,000 combat insects (with 5,000 of those stationed in the city-state region for conquest).
As for energy reserves, they had currently reached 300,000.
The reason the increase wasn't faster was that the consumption rate was too high, as most of it was used for mass-producing troops.
Two more days passed...
At the edge of the Border Forest.
“Sir, the forest is just ahead.”
A man with a rapier at his waist ran up to an officer on a warhorse and spoke very respectfully.
“Mhm. Everyone, get ready. Scouting the forest is the Count's order. It's very likely we'll be besieged by magic beasts during the process, so everyone stay sharp.”
“Yes, sir!”
The dozens of knights and over a hundred soldiers in the rear all responded in unison.
A zergling hidden in the distance immediately transmitted the scene back.
Knowing the situation, Xia Jin immediately ordered the zergling to retreat.
For no other reason than the fact that those who had arrived were the private army of Count Amelo.
“He sent so many people... It seems the situation in the forest has already made him wary.”
On one hand, the City of Darkness had been completely conquered; on the other, the magic beasts in the forest had abnormally decreased, and adventurers were constantly going missing.
Under these circumstances, someone with a keen intuition like Amelo couldn't possibly fail to notice.
Especially since the forest was ruled by mythic kings, as a noble on the kingdom's border, he couldn't afford not to be vigilant about the situation here.
Sure enough, he had now dispatched these several hundred soldiers.
Rate on N.U.
