The World Online

23rd day, afternoon, Feng Qiuhuang made a hurried trip back to Fallen Phoenix City.

During the Battle of Japan, through the valiant killing of the blazing legion corps, Feng Qiuhuang had successfully upgraded to duke. This trip back to Fallen Phoenix City was to apply for the Capital City upgrade quest.

It seemed like not long later, the China region would welcome its third Capital City.

…

The next morning, Qiongzhou Prefecture Governor Hai Rui was ordered to get to Edo to become the Yingzhou Governor.

Ouyang Shuo selected Hai Rui because first, he was from Qiongzhou, so working there for too long would have a bad influence. Secondly, he was really talented, but he did not know how to work with superiors. As a result, he was suitable for working alone on an island.

Appointing Hai Rui as the Yingzhou Governor was Ouyang Shuo giving him a chance.

With Hai Rui there, Ouyang Shuo would be able to take his mind off the heavy administrative matters and understand the global country war situation.

Asia Continent.

Apart from Japan being destroyed by China, just last afternoon, along with Seoul falling, Korea was also taking down. After Baiqi destroyed Nanzhang, he would probably take down Zhenla within the next two days.

Great Xia winning on all three fronts made them the greatest winner in the world.

Not mentioning other rewards, Ouyang Shuo had earned a million in terms of just the merit points alone. He was now only 400 thousand away from the highest Son of Heaven rank.

Ouyang Shuo was really curious what special rights Gaia would give to the Son of Heaven rank. In the Chinese world, Son of Heaven was a great phrase best used to describe Zhou Tianzi.

Compared to the Battle of Annan, Great Xia had destroyed four countries at once this time. However, the merit points he got were not as much as when he wiped out Annan, and that was after the country war extra points.

The reason was that the Battle of Annan was a one-on-one, where Ouyang Shuo earned 600 thousand to 700 thousand merit points just by killing combat occupation players.

The country war month was different. With large amounts of players joining, he enemy players basically were not settled by the army and were split around. As a result, the merit points Ouyang Shuo got were greatly reduced.

Apart from the country wars including China, Java successfully wiped out East Timor while Johor took down Brunei. Like that, only Java, Johor, Luzon, Piao country, and Siam were left in ASEAN.

Out of these five countries, Johor, Piao, and Siam had signed a contract with Great Xia not to attack one another. The next ones Great Xia would attack would be Luzon and Java.

Luzon was another tough nut to crack, and it was on the same level as Annan. As Great Xia was not connected to it by land, taking it down would be really difficult and needed to be well planned.

Java was even more terrifying. They had over 20 million players, double that of Japan. Just the guards housed in the imperial city reached 20 million, and it was not something Great Xia could shake now.

Now, after Java had taken down East Timor, it was even more terrifying.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo decided to attack Luzon first and then capture Java. If both countries were smart, they would form up a close alliance to go against the threat of Great Xia.

‘I must find an opening!’ Ouyang Shuo had a rough thought in his heart.

Apart from ASEAN, the war matters of India went really smoothly, wiping out their inland threat and becoming the game region with the highest power connected to Tibet.

India was the only country in Asia that could go up against China. Not mentioning other reasons, their player count was also at 100 million, and its imperial city Delhi had 10 million guards.

Just thinking about it made one feel numb.

This was also why India was weaker than China; it only had one imperial city.

Apart from India, the Persia Empire west of China had already quietly risen up. After the country war, it would probably enter the country establishment phase.

Ouyang Shuo, who paid close attention to the System Notification, noticed that before the country war month had even ended, the top 10 dukes were born. Feng Qiuhuang was just the seventh.

St Petersburg Lord Pushkin, Rhine Lord Manstein, Bengalore Lord Durava, Avic Fort William, and Vic City Henry were all on the list.

Even Caesar smoothly upgraded to Duke rank and was ranked 10th on the list.

Apart from the top 10, there were still a batch of Lords that made it to duke but did not get a notification.

After the country war month, the game world would officially enter the battle of empires. People who had not gotten to duke were destined to be eliminated.

Apart from Asia, Ouyang Shuo paid close attention to the North America battle situation.

News had it that the Dawson empire had already taken down Panama and taken control of the Panama Canal, taking control of the naval route between the Pacific and the Atlantic.

This also meant the start of the Dawson Dynasty’s expansion toward the outside.

From now on, the Dawson empire would quicken their expansion in the world, fighting for control over the seas with Great Xia. These two giants would probably have a huge period of confrontation.

Next would be Europe.

In this country war month, England, Spain, Holland, France, and the other European countries all surprisingly aimed at Africa and got what they wanted.

The African colonization that happened in history seemed to be repeating itself.

Furthermore, with Great Xia in Africa, the future African continent would be really exciting.

Italy and Greece turned their eyes to Europe, trying to stretch their powers inland and increase their speaking rights in the Mediterranean.

From now on, the entire European continent would welcome a new round of refreshing. The strong would eat the weak till they were all eliminated. Europe, where there were so many countries, would slowly become similar to the Chinese Warring States Period.

Next would be the Arab Empire connected to Persia.

In conclusion, in the future period of time, the Mediterranean Ocean region would not be peaceful. If Great Xia wanted to maintain its presence there, it must face many challenges.

Especially along with the merger of game regions, there would be many super dynasties in the future that would not want to see Great Xia exist.

“The path ahead is long and tough.” Ouyang Shuo was deep in thought.

All of this was just on the surface. Hidden in the chaos were two invisible hands, one Silver Hand and one Academic Faction.

These two seemed like they were not doing anything, but they were actually affecting the situation around the world.

Without Ouyang Shuo, these two hands would probably have started developing themselves from the 5th year of Gaia, slowly ending in a faceoff.

What about now?

Great Xia was stuck in the middle, looking really glorious, but in truth, it was standing on thin ice.

“The world is like a chess game, who is the chess piece and who is the chess master?” Ouyang Shuo still did not have an answer.

…

24th day, afternoon, Xiong Ba and his group arrived in Edo to discuss splitting up Japan.

The north army adventure gamemode players were still waiting to split the spoils of war and had not left Edo. Seeing Xiong Ba and his group, there were some that mocked, some that bragged, and some that scolded, putting him in a bad spot.

Luckily, Ouyang Shuo understood his position and swiftly brought him into the courtyard.

As the two sides did not have any disagreements regarding the splitting of Japan, the negotiation went really smooth.

Ouyang Shuo did not think that Di Chem would know his place so well, “That’s great, at least it saves time and effort.”

Xiong Ba even suggested that he hoped to cooperate with Great Xia on the naval route to America, but Ouyang Shuo rejected it.

Ouyang Shuo saw through the motives of Handan City.

Before the Battle of Japan, Handan City basically monopolized the trade route, and their voyage trading was rising up.

Now, with Great Xia and Fallen Phoenix City stepping it, they were naturally filled with worries.

Not mentioning Fallen Phoenix City, as they did not have much experience in voyage trading. They needed to start from scratch, which was why Di Chen did not pay much attention to them.

The key was Great Xia.

In terms of voyage trading, Great Xia was the master. Even now, with so many territories like the Dawson Dynasty entering, Great Xia was still number one.

More crucially, Great Xia had control of the Straits of Malacca, the Gulf of Aden, the Gibraltar Straits, and Cape of Good Hope; it was an ocean giant.

The moment Great Xia entered the Pacific Ocean, Handan City would not be in as good of a position as before. This was why Di Chen was not willing to see Ouyang Shuo take down Japan.

Till now, the territory economy had become the key element to whether one was strong or not.

On the global scale, any rich territory was basically a trading giant, which was why Di Chen placed a lot of importance on the Pacific Ocean trade route.

Ouyang Shuo’s direct refusal made Xiong Ba dejected. No matter how Di Chen planned, the moment Xiong Ba merged with Handan City, the fate of the Xiong Ba family was linked tightly with theirs.

Both would rise or fall together.

Seeing that, when Xiong Ba was leaving, Ouyang Shuo suddenly said, “Brother Xiong, the times have changed. There is no Earth, and there is nothing that is set in stone.”

When Xiong Ba heard that, he had an evident pause in his step, but he still did not turn around. He just silently left.

Seeing that, Ouyang Shuo sighed.

…

After sending Xiong Ba away, Ouyang Shuo started to hold the sharing of spoils event, all of which were top items.