Sovereign of the Ashes

Although the sea legion led by White Stella had temporarily separated from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army, Tourmaline stayed with Sein and the others.

Lavender Harmony Plane was a scenic world with rare purple soil and an abundance of water vapor resources.

Tourmaline took an immediate liking to this world upon her arrival.

Unlike the uncomfortably small microplanes, Lavender Harmony Plane, a low-level world with a weakened planar will, was perfect for powerful and massive beings like Tourmaline to roam freely.

After reaching Lavender Harmony Plane, Tourmaline managed to convince Sein to play with her for a while.

Despite her fierce and majestic appearance as a draconic beast, Tourmaline was still a child at heart.

In contrast, her older siblings had a far more serious demeanor.

Black Oblivion had been focused on plundering resources in another star domain, while the White Stella was busy leading the sea races and had reportedly gained significantly in the Wild Star Domain.

The Magus World Army, led by Lorianne, had not yet completely subdued the millions-strong subgorilla army of the Lavender Harmony Plane.

These creatures, with their mixed bloodlines, did not possess the fierce resistance of purebred Wild Gorillas.

Burdened with debts amounting to tens of millions of magicoins, Lorianne bore the pressure of her financial woes on her slender shoulders.

Yet, she rarely revealed her distress to others, choosing instead to bear her struggles silently.

While it was impossible to neutralize the threat of the millions of subgorillas entirely—any sudden appearance of a Gorilla God could stir them into revolt—they were still valuable commodities.

These creatures could be funneled directly into the vast Magus Alliance market, which could easily absorb a trade volume of millions of enslaved beings.

Even if this number were multiplied tenfold, the market could still digest it.

Among the millions of subgorillas, around ten thousand were Rank One or higher, making them the most valuable elite slaves.

Although the remaining ordinary creatures were not as valuable, their sheer number still represented a significant source of revenue.

Lorianne, along with Black Oblivion and the other magic beast kings, calculated that apart from the long-term benefits of occupying Lavender Harmony World, the most immediate gain seemed to be the potential revenue from selling the subgorillas as slaves and cannon fodder.

After all, manpower was also a type of resources.

Black Oblivion, at the outset of his career and eager to establish himself within the Magus Alliance, was willing to temporarily become a slave trader.

In the Magus Alliance, those who engaged in slave trade were invariably figures with profound backgrounds.

Handling small-scale transactions involving hundreds of thousands or even millions was one thing, but dealing on the scale of tens of millions, particularly when it involved large quantities of elite enslaved creatures of Rank One or above, was a different matter entirely.

Within the Magus Alliance, such dealings were synonymous with a level of influence and power that made them formidable players not to be trifled with.

Typically, only the Magus World and a few other large-sized worlds within the Magus Alliance were capable of managing such high-level transactions.

Although Black Oblivion had no prior experience in the slave trade, he had an uncle who was an expert in this field and operated a much larger business.

Leveraging this family connection, Black Oblivion was acquainted with several key figures in the industry.

Initially, Lorianne had planned to offload these subgorillas through contacts in the Capiche Business Alliance.

However, upon learning that Black Oblivion had access to superior channels, she deferred this aspect of the operation to him.

Thus, the conflict in Lavender Harmony Plane quickly evolved into a large-scale slave capturing operation.

Not just the subgorillas soldiers were targeted; many healthy adult males were also rounded up by Magus World’s forces.

Despite the Lavender Harmony World’s relatively weak planar energy, the reproductive capacity of these subgorillas was remarkably high.

The sheer number of subgorillas in this world was pushing beyond what its natural resources could sustain.

From this perspective, the Magus Civilization’s aggressive reduction of the subgorilla population was actually helping the Lavender Harmony World by preventing the rapid depletion of its natural resources.

To ensure the long-term, scientific, and sustainable development of this low-level plane under her control, Lorianne planned to implement a “harvest season” every thirty years to manage the subgorilla population in the Lavender Harmony World.

After all, these creatures were “renewable resources”.

This strategy positioned Lavender Harmony World as a potential key producer of enslaved creatures for Lorianne’s purposes.

Any visionary tower master and grand master of a knightly order would cultivate a plane to produce enslaved creatures for various uses.

For instance, the stone-skinned dwarves commonly found in the Order of the Fiery Molten Mountain’s army were actually cannon fodder specifically bred and maintained by Oneille, the Rank Five knight.

Although Lorianne had been using her world laboratory to mass-produce plant creatures as basic cannon fodder, relying solely on a single type of enslaved creature could lead to complications in the future.

For example, her plant legions were poorly suited for assaults on pyro elemental planes.

Having a diverse array of enslaved creatures could help mitigate such limitations.

***

The conflict in Lavender Harmony Plane lasted a year and a half, it could have been shorter if their objective was solely to conquer this world.

The complex task of capturing hundreds of thousands to millions of subgorillas was a very time-consuming process.

During this time, Lorianne’s space fortress functioned effectively as a transport ship for enslaved creatures.

Observing the immense space fortress floating beyond the plane, Black Oblivion and other magic beast kings displayed evident envy.

As newly emerged powerhouses, they were not financially capable of purchasing such massive war platforms, which cost tens of millions of magicoins.

Although Black Oblivion could potentially afford it, his innate hoarding nature as a dragon made him reluctant to part with his treasures.

Even Tourmaline, a relatively young dragon turtle, had her own collection of rare treasures.

Black Oblivion, being older and having received more favor from the elders in their family, undoubtedly possess even greater treasures.

Motivated by the sight of the space fortress transporting five million subgorillas into the starry depths, Black Oblivion declared, “I’ll earn enough to buy a space fortress with my own power!”