Elara's calculations turned out to be quite accurate. On the second day after she rushed back toward the Plumera Kingdom with three thousand elite cavalry and the Uno clan, countless nations and regions across the Central Continent suddenly erupted with large-scale outbreaks of strange soldier insect eggs, just as she had predicted.
These bizarre soldier insects, which had been suppressed and eliminated by the Divine Attendant Palace for so long, were now fully exposed to the various countries. Except for a few nations that had already encountered these creatures before and knew of their existence, most were caught completely off guard. They were shocked and thrown into chaos by these strange, nearly indestructible, highly contagious beings.
Most of the weaker nations couldn't resist the invasion. In just a few days, entire countries were completely overtaken and turned into breeding grounds. Many national armies and even officials were infected and transformed into new soldier insects, which then went on to infect and invade neighboring lands.
This terrifying cycle of infection allowed the strange insect eggs to spread rapidly across the major regions of the continent. Most countries fell into a panicked state of collapse, unable to react or defend against the eerie invasion.
Countless people, seeing these horrific, hellish creatures, couldn't help but recall the world-ending disaster from centuries ago. Many royal families and leaders held ceremonies overnight to pray to the Divine Vein Temple, hoping for divine mercy and rescue. Even more people fled in panic with their families to the nearest uninfected areas.
Starting the next day, Elara's journey back home with her group also became increasingly difficult due to the outbreak.
Any area close to water sources was flooded with large numbers of insect eggs. Even though Elara used maps from the System to avoid heavily infested zones, no matter which route they took, groups of soldier insects would still emerge from time to time and attack.
These attacks were not difficult for her to handle, but they greatly slowed their progress.
Her top priority now was to return to the Plumera Kingdom as fast as possible.
Seeing that the attacks kept happening, Elara brought out the Eternal Tower, which she had seized from Acosta from the Dark Sky Hall. She activated its golden shield-like body, enlarging it to protect the entire group of three thousand living soldiers.
As for the thirty thousand Puppet Soldiers that had been secretly following her, these upgraded dead puppets were no longer afraid of the insect eggs. In fact, in some ways, they had become natural enemies of the parasite insects. Elara didn't bother with them much, only ordered them to follow behind on their own.
The Eternal Tower was the most nearly perfect divine item Elara had ever obtained. As long as it had enough energy, it could expand infinitely and contain all surrounding space.
Although the tower only had about 30 percent of its energy left when she got it, it had once been used as a kind of large protective shield for major regions, similar to defensive formations in cultivation worlds.
So even with only 30 percent power, it was still more than enough for Elara to easily shelter her entire three-thousand-man team within the shield.
Moreover, the remaining energy was consumed very slowly. It seemed that protecting three thousand people was barely a challenge for the tower. It could shield them all without using much power.
With the Eternal Tower's protection, their marching speed increased again. No matter how many sudden attacks came, the golden shield kept all the soldier insects outside, unable to get in at all.
Now that the ambushes were no longer a threat, Elara pushed the group forward at full speed. At the same time, she constantly used the earring communicator to remotely manage the defense efforts inside the Plumera Kingdom.
However, possibly due to the widespread outbreak, the earring previously very reliable since they had taken it from the Dahlia Kingdom started having signal issues. The transmission began breaking up with noise, as if the insects' presence was interfering with the signal.
With the earring disrupted, Elara could no longer receive or send updates to control the situation back home. Her frown deepened, and she pushed the group even faster.
Several days later, after she had managed to rush through about one-third of the return journey, a living puppet black hawk flew in from behind and circled outside the golden barrier of the Eternal Tower.
Elara let it in, removed the item tied to its leg, and found it was a letter from Izekiel.
There weren't many words in the letter, and the handwriting was slightly messy, clearly written in a hurry.
Izekiel thanked His Majesty for the reminder and arrangements, which allowed me, Petunia, to be prepared before this disaster broke out. Unfortunately, it all happened too fast and there was no time to explain in detail. Izekiel could only offer a sacred relic left by the Temple of the Divine Servant to show gratitude, hoping it will be useful to you and the Plumera Kingdom.
May your return be smooth, may Plumera remain unharmed, and may we meet again in more victorious times.
After reading the letter, Elara took out a small jade box the size of a baby's fist that was included in the letter.
When she opened the box, inside was something that looked like pure white jade, glowing softly with a gentle light.
"Ah! Master! This is good stuff! Top-tier stuff! It's an energy block! And a very high-purity concentrated energy block!"
The moment the box was opened and the System saw what was inside, it got excited in Elara's mind.
"Petunia really is a top-tier nation. They even have treasures like this! With this energy block, your Eternal Tower can not only expand its protective range significantly, but the duration of the protection will also be greatly extended! Other divine items low on energy can also be powered directly by this! The cooldowns and limits caused by energy shortages will be much shorter for all divine artifacts."
The System sighed quietly, "Izekiel really is generous! With just this one energy block, Master, we've made a huge gain!"
At the same time, within Plumera Kingdom's borders,
because of some unknown interference affecting the earring, all nine departments lost contact with Elara.
Francis furrowed his brow tightly, continuing to follow Elara's last transmitted orders, constantly strengthening the defense lines of key cities. The seventy-thousand Puppet Soldiers that Elara left behind were also deployed to the areas with the densest swarm of the strange soldier eggs to resist the invasion.
Within Plumera City, the remaining eight departments were also urgently analyzing the current situation and responding accordingly.
Because Elara had already notified all major border cities to prepare their defenses before leaving, especially in the Northern Frontier, Plumera Kingdom was the first in the central-west part of the continent to react effectively when the soldier eggs broke out in large numbers.
So far, not a single city or county within Plumera Kingdom had been breached or infected by the strange soldiers.
Over the past few months, the Medical Department had continuously produced and distributed special pills to the Plumera army, and by now, nearly all soldiers had built resistance to the strange soldier eggs, making them unafraid of infection. This was a huge advantage no other country had!
In addition, over the past few months, the Engineering Department had already installed various upgraded steel mechanism weapons in the city gates and checkpoints. Plumera's border cities no longer needed soldiers to go down and fight in close combat. The mechanical weapons on the city walls alone could wipe out a large portion of the strange soldiers.
Just from this alone, Plumera Kingdom had already surpassed other nations. Even most second-tier countries in the Central Continent that claimed to be powerful could not compare.
In the western part of the continent, Plumera Kingdom had already become the most secure and tightly defended nation after the outbreak of the strange soldiers. While other countries were collapsing one after another in panic, Plumera not only held its ground firmly, but its army and cities remained mostly undamaged. The people of Plumera were also well protected inside the cities, with almost no casualties from the attacks.
However, even though Plumera had firmly held its entire border, the internal departments were still full of unease.
No matter how open-minded Elara's beliefs were or how tolerant she was of her subordinates, it did not change the fact that this was still a very ancient era where the ruler's power was absolute, and officials could not cross that line in any way.