Douluo 2: This Dragon God has too much martial virtue

Chapter 587 Conquest
When Xingluo City officially surrendered, Juzi slowly opened her palm. A golden card, broken in two, lay quietly in her palm, inscribed with the word "Conquer." The card vaguely depicted a king being crowned, but the face had long since been completely erased.

Conquest means taking by force everything that does not belong to you.

She destroyed everything Dai Hao held dear, trampling his dignity beneath her feet, yet she was unable to break the card. It wasn't until the Xingluo Emperor committed suicide on the city wall that the being finally allowed her to break it with her own hands.

Could it be that even the dragon god agreed with the emperor's determination?

The broken card surface gradually turned into fine sand, dissipating from her fingers. At the same time, after a brief silence, the Sun-Moon Empire's army erupted in earth-shattering cheers, the sound waves sweeping across the battlefield like a tide.

But these were not what she should be concerned about. She was allowed to break the conquest card, which meant that her conquest had indeed pleased that person.

News of the Star Luo Empire's fall quickly spread across the continent. Surprisingly, the natives of the Star Luo Empire were treated with unexpected kindness. As the Sun-Moon Empire's Grand Marshal, Juzi had originally only promised to grant some civilians the treatment of Sun-Moon citizens. However, due to the Star Luo Emperor's heroic act of suicide, the Dragon Pavilion granted amnesty to all surrendered former Star Luo Empire civilians, granting them the full rights of Sun-Moon citizens.

On the eve of the Xingluo Empire's fall, momentous news arrived from the north of the continent. The Tianhun Empire crushed the Douling Empire with thunderous force, reuniting the two territories and heralding the rebirth of the Tiandou Empire, a nation that existed ten thousand years ago. However, this unification was incomplete. Princess Xue Lingxun, the former emperor, led nearly 100,000 remnants of her army to break through the siege, disappearing into the mountains of the borderlands.

The touch of golden sand still lingered on Juzi's fingertips, the cool grains carrying a lingering warmth of some kind. She gazed at the cheering soldiers in the distance, a strange premonition stirring within her. The unification of the Eastern and Western empires, achieved at almost the same time, was no coincidence.

When night fell again, Orange looked towards the direction of Xingluo City. There was no more war there, only tiny lights gradually lighting up.

The essence of conquest may never be to seize, but to change. And this transformation has only just begun.

Dragon City, Dragon Pavilion.

Dragon Emperor Douluo Long Xiaoyao stood before the French window, his hands behind his back. As an agent serving the Dragons like Orange, he had received news of Xingluo's demise earlier than any other faction. The soul communicator on his fingertips was still warm, but he remained motionless.

The scene of having a "very pleasant conversation" with the Xingluo Emperor Xu Jiawei a few years ago was still in front of his eyes. He couldn't help but sigh. The emperor finally chose to commit suicide and die for his country. He really deserved the title of a great ruler.

Long Xiaoyao turned around. The dragon from the divine realm, the true ruler of the Dragon Pavilion, was lounging lazily on the sofa, its tail lightly brushing the floor. She clearly already knew everything; her golden dragon eyes were devoid of joy or sorrow. "Xu Jiawei is a respectable man," Mu Xing finally spoke.

Long Xiaoyao understood. In the eyes of the immortals, worldly disputes and the loss of life were indeed insignificant. Even Xu Jiawei, the ruler of a nation, was ultimately just a drop in the ocean. He suddenly remembered those who thought Mu Xing was just a woman, such as the White Tiger Duke Dai Hao, who was currently being executed by a thousand cuts. In her eyes, these so-called military gods and heroes were nothing more than mortals.

But… Long Xiaoyao looked at Mu Xing's profile and couldn't help but ask, "Don't you think it's a pity? That Xingluo Spiritual Pearl, and that complete set of three 100,000-year soul bones… that deal with the Xingluo Royal Family a few years ago, are now gone with Xu Jiawei."

As soon as he said it, he realized it was a stupid question. Sure enough, Mu Xing didn't even raise his eyelids. "Sunk costs don't factor into major decisions. Besides, the immortal grass grows from the Yin-Yang Eye of Ice and Fire, where the Water and Fire Dragon Kings fell. Don't you think grave grass and the dead are a good match?"

Long Xiaoyao was speechless. In the eyes of the dragon race, so-called immortal herbs and spirit bones were nothing more than insignificant things. The Yin-Yang Eye of Ice and Fire, a paradise for mortals, was a place of ruin for the dragon race. Those immortal herbs that spirit masters fought for were, to her, nothing more than weeds growing on the dragon race's graves.

Sunk costs are excluded from major decisions? Di Tian looked thoughtfully at Mu Xing. Since even the immortal herbs and soul bones invested in the Star Luo Emperor could be easily discarded, then eliminating a second-level god who annoyed him didn't seem worth hesitating about. After all, the God Realm had been in turmoil lately, with beings from second-level gods to god-kings falling. The disappearance of another second-level god shouldn't bring divine punishment upon him, especially since he had done even more outrageous things before.

That is to say, the dragon clan is now in decline. Looking back to the past, as the personal guard of the Dragon God, he has done many things like killing nine clans of a clan.

This thought brought a chill to Di Tian's lips. He casually toyed with the tail that Mu Xing had accidentally swung into his palm and began to weigh the feasibility of this idea. If handled properly, perhaps the inherently evil Tang family brat could be used to his advantage, perhaps even drawing the Silver Dragon King's firepower.

Long Xiaoyao felt the sudden heaviness in the air and couldn't help but hold his breath. Although he didn't know exactly what Di Tian was thinking, as a member of the dragon clan, he could sense that some dangerous plot was brewing.

As for the fallen Douling Empire's princess, Xue Lingxun, and her hundred thousand remaining troops, they had long since become insignificant in the strategic landscape of various factions. The structure of this hastily assembled force was laughably unbalanced. There were fewer than a thousand spirit masters, and the remainder were ordinary soldiers who hadn't awakened their martial spirits. Even more ironically, even though there were several food-focused spirit masters accompanying the army, the food they condensed with their spirit power was completely inedible to ordinary people.

This unit's doom was already written in its fate. Without a stable supply line, an army would be like a rootless duckweed, starving to the point of being the sharpest blade. Discipline would be the first to break. Soldiers would turn their swords against their comrades for a piece of rations; entire units might turn on each other for clean water. The survivors would become bandits, sweeping across the wasteland like locusts, only to be quickly annihilated by the harsh winter or the pursuit of their captors.

Long Xiaoyao's analysis was almost cruelly objective: it was expected that the army would collapse on its own within three months.

Long Ge didn't even bother to mobilize a single soldier for this. After all, letting an army destined for destruction fend for itself was the most economical way to deal with it. But Long Xiaoyao's concern wasn't the 100,000 remnants themselves, but the destructive energy these desperate people would unleash before their death.