Several days have passed since the queen's funeral. The atmosphere of sadness and uneasiness has faded a lot with the passage of time, and trade with surrounding areas has returned to its former prosperity.
A few days later, densely packed tents had been set up outside the city walls of Lahmia, where delegations from various countries lived.
The kings and their nobles have returned home to prepare for the Northern Expedition. It will take some time to gather in Laemia again.
The king of Khemri was more decisive than them. He held a simple coronation ceremony in the lost city of Khemri, and after getting to know most of the nobles, he teleported back to Lahmia.
Under the night, fluorescent blue lotus flowers illuminated a large tent on the shore. The newly crowned king of Khemri was jumping from the outer eaves of the palace city to the palace dozens of meters above, regardless of the mud on his feet.
.
Neferata was looking at him and the few stains on the palace wall with displeasure, and Usoran looked at the king's unseemly gesture in the shadows speechlessly.
"Where are those lizardmen?"
Smelling the unique fishy smell of Alkadiza, she asked.
"They built a moist nest underground by the river. Oh, be careful..."
Before he could finish answering the question, the maids had already come up with rags to clean the mud from the king's shoes under Neferata's eyes.
However, they were temporarily unable to do anything about what was happening on the palace wall below. After a group of young girls tried their best to complete the work they could do, they looked helplessly at their master.
Neferata, however, just lowered her four fingers of her left hand to signal them to get down.
Alkadiza looked down at his masterpieces and scratched his smooth chin. Maybe he should take the main entrance. Maybe he should go to the pier tomorrow to find someone who can clean the palace walls?
The two did not dwell on this issue for too long. After confirming that civilians would indeed be allowed to approach the palace, which had not happened in hundreds of years, Alkadiza asked after a moment of silence.
"So what you said at the funeral was true. You will become the Daughter of the Sun? A lizard?"
Seeing that Neferita pursed her lips and said nothing, Usuoran replied.
"Yes, thank you for bringing back those lizard people."
Seeing that Alkadiza was puzzled, Usuoran took out a large pile of papyri that recorded what appeared to be copied lizard-human writings.
"The Skink Priests have provided a lot of information that we have never known. Blood sacrifices will be effective in any civilization. Even if we have lost contact with the gods, blood sacrifices can still be effective."
"Wsolun studied the technical information provided by the lizard people and believes that we can restore the connection with the gods."
As he spoke, Usuoran pointed to another stack of paper written in Nehekhara's script.
"Before the funeral, I asked the Skink Priest who helped us purify Chaos, and he gave two plans."
"The first is to select some priests to believe in another god, conduct large-scale blood sacrifices, and let the foreign gods help us. He asked us to believe in a god named Sotek, the snake god."
"Because our gods have not disappeared, but have broken off contact with us. The divine power given by Sotek can also build this connection."
Having said this, Usuoran paused and looked at Neferata, but the ancestor of vampires obviously had no intention of explaining at this time. He turned around and leaned on the sofa in the distance under the service of the maid.
The leader of the midnight dignitaries could only shake his head and continue.
"The second is to let the magic of their Slann priests help us reconstruct a covenant, forge the covenant of the Daughter of the Sun, and directly replace the previous one in terms of magic concept. They made it with us a few days ago.
Contact."
"We have made a pact to help Neferata become the new Daughter of the Sun."
"If that's the case, maybe anyone can do it, but why Neferata? Are you not satisfied just to be the queen?"
As he spoke, Alkadiza's dark eyes met those cat-like vertical pupils.
"Your father's request."
Usuoran spoke again, and Neferita, who was leaning on the sofa, rolled her eyes and motioned for him to shut up.
But his cousin didn't seem to see it.
"According to hundreds of years of research by Wosolan, it is absolutely impossible for vampires to have children. Death and life are absolutely opposites, at least, in the wind of magic."
As he spoke, Wu Suoran recited the magic words, and the lake in the distance and the green plants of the palace emitted traces of magic energy invisible to mortals, and a small clear spring of life energy condensed in front of him. p>
He took a little bit and dripped it on his hand, and it only took a few minutes to cause blisters on his hand.
"As you can see, according to the newly obtained information, there are special manifestations in the wind of magic."
"Divine power."
"Just relying on your own actions is enough to affect the world. The power of the gods can do things that we originally thought were absolutely impossible."
"Becoming a daughter of the sun means a contract with the gods and the blessing of divine power. She will have the opportunity to give birth to your son."
Hearing this, Alkadiza looked at his queen, and Neferata was obviously avoiding his eyes.
Heirs.
So that’s what happened.
"To be honest, it's not that she has no heirs. Lamia's royal bloodline is all her descendants. She gave birth to them before she turned into a vampire."
"This wish now is for..."
Wu Suoran suddenly felt a sense of murderous intent, so he did not continue talking and talked to the King of Khemri.
"Forget it, these are not important anymore. The Northern Expedition is about to begin. Wosolun has some important things to show you. We can go to the warehouse on the east side first. What do you think, cousin?"
Neferata did not answer him, but took a small sip of a cup of fresh blood squeezed out by the maids but drank it quickly to prevent the blood from coagulating.
Wu Suoran knew that this was the default.
The Khemri King had a tough look on his face and wanted to ask something. When the other party looked like he wanted to question, Usoran quickly took him to a noisy room.
Even though it is late at night, the place is still brightly lit, and the golden circuits decorated around it make it look like it is daytime.
Alkadiza slightly covered his stinging eyes and looked at the crowd around the huge object wrapped in cloth. The two lizard-men seemed to be surrounded by some Lybalas.
Behind them is Wosolun, who has revealed his dead head.
Seeing Alkadiza arriving, he immediately waved the staff in his hand to make the cloth on the object float aside, and at the same time said to the King of Khemri in a voice like a broken bellows.
"Let me introduce, these are Lybarath's engineers. In the past period of time, we invited Skinks to help me. They have been trying to repair this weapon."
Alkadiza's eyes were not on him, but on the cyan scorpion that was dozens of meters wide and nearly ten meters high.
"What is this?"
Wosolun pointed to the basket on the side and the large piece of cloth pulling it.
"Just like the Sky Boat and Sky Box, it is an ancient technology and steam structure belonging to Lebaras."
"Since losing contact with the gods hundreds of years ago, this weapon and many other technologies can no longer be built and maintained. Among all the ancient technologies, only a handful like the Sky Box can continue to operate."<
/p>
As he spoke, the Necromancer stroked the rusty surface, which was so rough that it occasionally fell off, and said.
"Originally they should have been glittering, not like this."
"After barely surviving for more than ten years, the last Steam Scorpion can only be left here to rust."
"But now that Nehekhara may have new supernatural powers again, these Lybalas want to repair this weapon so that they can also have the power of the giant beast."
"But the bronze steam scorpion that has been left here for hundreds of years and has become patinated, I think it has little restoration value."
"If you ask me, learning these technologies is enough to make new steam weapons."
His words immediately aroused protests from the Lybalas people, but Vosolun just raised his staff and silenced the Lybalas engineers.
Alkadiza looked at the ancient bronze creation, put his hand on his chin and said.
"Ushabit is in this situation now. It is indeed necessary to supplement the giant beasts. But are there any stronger weapons, for example, to deal with gods?"
Wosolun immediately understood what he was talking about and asked in surprise.
"That usurper is so powerful?"
He even felt that his old teeth that had not been used for hundreds of years had a bit of toothache - if Nagash became a god, then why would he follow Neferata? Just rely on the relationship from hundreds of years ago?
Why doesn't he just go to Nagash?
The almost immobile muscles on the undead's face made it completely impossible for the king of Khemri to detect his mental activities, Alkadiza explained while still minding his own business.
"I'm afraid yes, the bride of Hasa has already felt the obvious distortion."
"You went to meet Hasa's bride in private?"
Wu Suoran asked in surprise.
"I met once in Khemri, but that's not important."
Alkadiza's answer immediately made it almost impossible for Usuoran to hide his identity in the shadows.
He knows his cousin's character.
Neferata has been quarreling with General Ankat since that day, wanting to send troops to pacify all the nomadic tribes on the golden plains. Although the generals prepared sufficient reasons to persuade her to give up, even these generals were angered.<
/p>
If Neferata knew that the so-called daughter of Khasa whom she had humiliated that day would sneak away to Khemri, no one would be able to stop her plan to launch an expedition.
Staring into the evasive eyes of the dark eyes in front of him, Wu Suoran immediately determined that the words of King Khemri were obviously lies.
He did not continue to speculate. The king had left him and approached Wosolun, trying to get the answer to the previous question.
Alkadiza looked at Wosolun with expectation in his eyes and said.
"You were able to deal with the devil last time, this time..."
The King of Khemri was interrupted before he could finish speaking. Wosolun tried to roll his eyes with his dry eyes that could hardly move, but he couldn't do it. He could only knock the thin layer of scalp on the top of his head and said angrily. "Are you kidding me? That devil had a problem with himself that time and had a loophole that I could exploit."
"Is there no Nagash?"
"My skills come from studying his writings. You want me to use his spells to find loopholes in him?"
Hearing this, Alkadiza had no choice but to give up and walked towards the room reserved for him, sighing as he left.
"It seems that we still have to ask for help from the lizard people."
Time goes by, and after a whole day of busy work, the people of Lahmia soon returned to dusk when they began to rest.
But the troops outside Laemia obviously had no intention of resting. They wore neat blue and gold decorated military uniforms, displayed standard military salutes, and tried to greet friendly forces in this way.
But the people they greeted, the lizardmen, didn't even look at them.
What surprised them instead was a huge rune stone slab floating in the air and its passenger - a huge toad sitting on a suspended stone slab that matched his size and slowly heading towards Lahmia.
.
Beside him, a large number of giant beasts, as well as beasts flying in the sky, along with a large number of skink lizards that were almost as tall as a person and looked like foot pads were running towards Lahmia.
Behind them, there are two strange giant triceratops carrying a strange and complex device that may be semicircular and emitting golden light on its back.
Soon, the king and queen of Khemri had arrived at the square, two-story temporary nest built by the lizardmen outside the city to receive Slan.
As soon as he entered the lizard man's building, Alkadiza immediately judged from the surrounding circuits that the energy of the repaired spiritual vein giant network seemed to be gathered here and transmitted to where it should be.
The sound of frogs croaking like war drums sounded, and Alkadiza then remembered that he was still responsible for diplomacy and looked at Slan in front of him.
The toad looked at Alkadiza without speaking for a long time, then raised his head and looked at the sky. After a while, the frog's grunting sound was heard.
Alkadiza couldn't understand Slangulu's voice at all, and he barely understood it until the skink next to him translated it for him.
"Hot-blooded people, I once supported your civilization so that you could have a stable future in the ancient saint's grand plan, but you let me down."
"Depravity and corruption are all over you. Originally, it was impossible for us to meet again, but the trajectory of the stars has changed. Now, I have decided to give you another chance."
The skink continued to translate, and there were also relatively ferocious marks on his face.
"The power of the engines of the gods continues to weaken. If it continues for thousands of years, it may not be enough to deal with the undead cub."
"There is no spiritual network of the past here, and it will take a lot of time to rebuild. We cannot know the dynamics of this planet now. Otherwise, the power of the gods can be poured on its head now."
"The power of chaos also needs to be purged."
"You need to pay tribute to gold, a lot of gold, to repair the giant spiritual vein network."
Neferata's voice, which had been silent until now, came out from under the black robe that covered her whole body.
"In the short term, we can rely on Lahmian treasury supply, but the gold mines in Nehekhara are limited, and many rely on imports."
"Many years ago, I heard a member of the royal family from an Eastern silk country say that they had discovered a gold mine that could not be dug out in thousands of years."
"Put away your conspiracy, undead cub."
The Skink Priest hissed, drinking to silence Neferata.
While greeting the lizard men on the side, the Skink Priest followed and carried the great Slann into the secret room at the back. After a period of time that Alkadiza could hardly discern, he came out again and pointed at Neferata.
Tao.
"Let her come in. Slan has agreed to reconstruct the contract, and the great Slan will personally perform the initial ceremony."
Neferata walked into the secret room resolutely. Alkadiza tried to accompany her but was stopped by the lizard man.
With a loud noise, the vampire ancestor didn't even have time to look back, and found that the passage behind him had been sealed by a stone mechanism.
She could only bite the bullet and continue to approach the outline of the toad illuminated by the fluorescent lotus.
The other party mumbled and spoke, and a skink priest translated for her.
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Helping you has violated the grand plan to a certain extent, undead cub."
"Reconstruct the contract and the agreement with the hot-blooded species. I will complete it. As for your fate, leave it to your god. The order of the ancient saints will not change."
When Neferata heard the Skink's translation, she waved her claws and immediately wanted to turn into a burst of smoke and escape, but Slann just lightly hooked her knuckles, and she couldn't move anymore.
"You stay here and wait for your fate."
Outside the secret room, no one knew what was going on inside. They could only see that the many golden lines inside were already emitting magical light.
Unlike those blasphemous magics and corrupting magics, the magical aura here makes them feel no discomfort.
It wasn’t until about twenty minutes later that the Skink Priest exited again.
"Slan has started the ceremony and it will not be completed in a short time. Shi Lan said that you need to prepare the army for the Northern Expedition immediately and set off in a week."