Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 258 The Northern War Begins: Long-Range Airlift Showdown Between Summer Eagles
The "glorious" victory on the western front of the Xiyue Federation did not cause much of a stir in the Starry World. At most, it was just a topic of conversation among the noble lords during their leisure time, in their courtyards, and even on their bedsides.

The nobles dangled their jeweled rings, offering condescending comments.

"Those long-eared guys have been causing trouble in Xiyue for so long, they've finally learned their lesson!"

"Ha, those useless bunch from Xiyue, they can't even keep an eye on the long-eared monkeys in their own forest."

"Good, let them cause some chaos. That way, they won't be nowhere to be seen during battles, but they'll be very eager to claim the spoils!"

"Hmm, the orcs are peaceful this year, so Green Pine is about to make its move, right?"

"It seems so! They've gone all out this time, planning to swallow the jade whole!"

"It would be best to swallow it. I've been eyeing the jade mines north of the city for quite a while, I've just been waiting for an opportunity..."

Dressed in formal attire, amidst the clinking of glasses, the amber-colored liquor shimmered in crystal goblets, reflecting the elegant faces of the guests.

For these high-ranking figures from various countries, the minor friction between the elves and the Moon Stream was nothing more than a minor ailment. What truly concerned them was the Turquoise-Emerald War, which was close at hand and of vital interest to them.

The time for war for humanity has come.

With the final harvest complete, the battle between turquoise and emerald suddenly ignited the Crystal Lands.

The outbreak of this great battle was primarily due to the cooperation of the orcs. It was late autumn, and in previous years, the orcs would have already been preparing to retreat after their autumn hunt at this time.

However, so far this year, there has been no sign of the Orcish royal court launching a large-scale military operation. Based on past experience, it is judged that the Orcs will not be coming this year.

Some were overjoyed, some were disappointed, and some were heartbroken—yes, I'm talking about those "non-returning" tribes who sold themselves to the orcs.

For a long time, these "non-returning" tribes were trampled by orcs and despised by humans. In their increasingly distorted philosophy of survival, the only moment of joy was to carry the orcs' trampling to insult and scorn the humans who rejected them.

Over time, even their appearance changed. Their eyebrows and eyes seemed to deliberately imitate the savagery of orcs, but because of their human origins, they looked out of place, exuding an indescribable awkwardness and strangeness.

So much so that, compared to normal humans, these "beast-like" humans can be identified at a glance.

However, no matter how obsequious they were or how hard they tried to please the orcs, the orcs never truly regarded them as one of their own.

Therefore, they were even more eager for the orcs to win than the orcs themselves, and they longed to complete a thorough transformation by destroying their "original families." The "Never Return" were even more resolute than the orcs in their attitude towards attacking the human race.

Unfortunately, they ultimately couldn't influence the Orcish court's decision; the Orcs wouldn't be fighting this year.

In their three previous raids to the south, the orcs had gained little advantage, incurring huge expenses and meager gains, even suffering heavy losses and wounding several generals from the wasteland orcs. This was hardly worthwhile.

What's the point of a war if you can't even get anything?
Especially given that the spring hunt yielded no results once again, Skyfrost City was becoming increasingly powerful, and the "King of the Enemy Territory" was maintaining a more stable rule, the voices supporting the autumn hunt were already somewhat subdued.

Then, the humans gave the orcs an important stepping stone.

The war between the Green Pine Kingdom and the Emerald Duchy has reached this point, with Green Pine encroaching on more than a third of Emerald's land. At this stage, the two sides are almost locked in a life-or-death struggle, with no possibility of stopping midway.

In order to create a stable northern environment for its full-scale attack on the Emerald Duchy and to create a precious window of time, the Green Pine Kingdom, through its behind-the-scenes supporter—the Mistmoon Divine Court—expressed its desire for a temporary truce to the Orcish Royal Court in an extremely secretive and tactful manner.

To this end, they secretly paid the orcs an astonishing sum of "ceasefire compensation." The source of this huge sum, of course, was the wealth they had been plundering from the former Emerald Duchy's territory, now under the control of Green Pine.

The orc royal court was happy to go along with it and agreed to this "gift".

While the Green Pine Kingdom was making final preparations for war, it was also carefully observing the movements of the orcs on the border.

After repeatedly confirming that the orc army had no intention of marching south, at the end of November, just as the autumn harvest was completed, the Green Pine Kingdom commanded a large number of combat and auxiliary troops secretly mobilized from its seven major territories to launch a full-scale attack on the beleaguered Emerald Duchy.

The war quickly escalated into a fierce battle.

As for the human civil war in the north, the Supreme Military Command of the Vast Ocean Cloud Mist, after a brief assessment, decided to ignore it!

My lord is busy right now, dealing with affairs on both the north and south fronts. He can't interfere with the dogfighting for the time being.

The northern route refers to the Bailu Plain.

Unable to fulfill their desire to incite the orcs to march south, the "Unreturners" had no choice but to set their sights on the White Deer Plains. With certain forces deliberately fanning the flames, a new round of infighting among the plains orcs has begun, which is also their old tradition.

Large tribes fought against large tribes, small tribes fought against small tribes, and vassal armies fought against vassal armies. Of course, there were also human resistance armies that fought under various banners of "restoring Bailu" and "restoring the mountains and rivers," all of which lit up one beacon after another on the Bailu Plain.

Amidst the chaos, Xuan Shui City was both being attacked and occasionally intervening against other tribes, all under the guise of the "Shadow Claw" tribe of the cat clan and the "Stone Hoof" tribe of the bull clan.

The southern route continues the conflict between the elves and the Stream Moon.

The group of "forest long-eared monkeys" that the humans had mentioned had now recovered.

On the south side of Silvermoon Forest, northwest of Whitestone Outpost, the elves mobilized a large number of high-ranking warriors and druids to clear a clearing between a valley and a forest, where they erected a sign for a field airfield.

On this open ground, the tree people used their enormous bodies and roots to repeatedly roll and compact the soil, and the druids applied simple earth-stabilizing spells to create a simple but sturdy runway.

Along both sides of the track, flags symbolizing elves were planted, and rows of cursors powered by faint magical energy were neatly placed on the ground, like a long serpent of light lying on the ground, guiding the track's location in the morning mist.

The morning mist had not yet completely dissipated, and the dark forest still carried a faint fragrance of trees. Elder Aiona, accompanied by several high-ranking elf elders and Major Fungus, looked up and gazed into the distance.

At one point, Elder Iona’s signature ear, which was almost level with the top of her head, twitched very slightly.

She heard a roar from the sky, a roar that did not belong to any known creature.

"It's here!" In the eager anticipation of the elves, a huge metal construct tore through the morning mist, emerged from the clouds, pointed straight at the ground, and after circling a few times, landed precisely on the runway.

This is the "Nine Heavens Six Types" heavy-duty UAV from Dongxia. It weighs nine tons and has a maximum payload of ten tons. Its streamlined fuselage reflects a cold metallic luster, making it particularly eye-catching in the morning light.

The reason for using drones is that Chen Mo currently does not have any "pilots" under his command. He has some who can ride griffins and forest eagles, and even a few orc air cavalry prisoners who can ride wyverns, but he has no experience in flying airplanes.

Currently, Hanhailing has placed several flight simulators, but without real instructors to guide the flight, it is unlikely that manned aircraft will be used in the short term.

For this reason, although Lord Chen Mo's altar transport capacity is now capable of supporting transport aircraft of the "Fat Girl" level to reach the stars, due to practical considerations, at this stage, only relatively lightweight drones without personnel requirements can be used to carry out transport missions.

As the drone landed steadily, the battlefield observation team of Han Hai Territory approached, set up a perimeter, and Major Junzi, holding a communicator, sent a message to the Han Hai Territory command center.

"Report to command center: The Jiutianliu heavy-duty UAV has arrived at Baishi outpost airport. The surrounding environment is safe. Please confirm!"

A faint hissing sound came from the communicator, followed by a brief silence.

Major Jun noticed that the giant metal bird was surrounded by several dark, rotating devices at an extremely slow speed. Clearly, the command center was using the drone's onboard cameras to scan the environment.

About ten seconds later, the reply came: "Silver Moon Airport, the command center has confirmed that the drone security protection system has been remotely deactivated. The Class B authorization code has been sent to your terminal. Please check and execute the activation procedure."

Security protection refers to the self-defense weapon system carried by the Jiutianliu UAV. Its predecessor was a reconnaissance and strike integrated unmanned mother aircraft and a high-altitude firepower platform. Although it is now used as an unmanned transport aircraft, it still carries two short-range air-to-ground missiles and hundreds of kilograms of high explosives.

If the hatch is forcibly opened without remotely disabling the safety protection, the Jiutianliu UAV will not hesitate to launch missiles and then explode on the spot.

Major Jun bent down to confirm that the indicator light in a concealed location on the fuselage had turned green before cautiously approaching and entering the authorization code on the panel that popped up next to the cabin door.

The authorization code he has is divided into two parts, A and B. Only he knows part A, while part B needs to be issued by the command center when the aircraft arrives. Only by combining the two can the opening of the drone cabin be completed.

A crisp unlocking sound rang out, followed by a low hissing sound of air release. The metal hatch slowly slid open to one side, revealing the neatly arranged cargo hold inside.

The elven warriors, who had been waiting nearby, began unloading the cargo under the command of a Silvermoon Guard captain.

This batch of supplies, airlifted directly from the Vast Ocean, included replenished composite bows, some alloy arrows, special medicinal herbs and potions that the elves could not obtain locally, as well as a small amount of other special strategic materials.

The elves had just finished unloading the cargo when they immediately filled the cabin to the brim.

Life-giving spring water sealed in a special container; concentrated "source essence" in a crystal bottle; live samples and seeds of unique plants from the Silvermoon Forest that Major Fungus specifically requested to be collected after his investigation; and a large number of books, scrolls, and paper documents plundered from various parts of the seized Whitestone City, especially the former city lord's mansion and the libraries of several major families...

Loading complete, the cabin closed, and the Nine Heavens Six roared once more, soaring into the sky and heading back towards the Han Hai Territory.

This cross-racial "airlift" system is the most efficient support method Chen Mo could come up with under the existing conditions.

Having obtained resources from the vast ocean in this way, which seemed to fall from the sky, the emotions of the elven race were quickly stabilized.

The experienced Elder Aiona had already begun to weigh in her mind what additional bargaining chips she should offer—perhaps more Spring of Life, perhaps allowing the people of the Vast Ocean to enter certain elven holy lands, or perhaps promising to maintain consistency with the Vast Ocean Territory on more matters—in exchange for Chen Mo's further support.

Her goal was clear: if the defense of Qingze City was in danger, she would try to get the Han Hai Territory to mobilize these amazing aircraft, which far exceeded the altitude and range of the air force, to send reinforcements to Qingze City, which was still blocked by the raging flood on the other side of the Beilu River.

Aiona knew that the Vast Ocean Territory did not want to appear in this war, but there is always a price to pay.

If all else fails, you can try asking Princess Liushuang, the most outstanding junior among the elves! Her words still carry weight.

I'm afraid she might have ulterior motives and no longer want to speak up for the elf...

When the transport plane returns to Hanhai, the supplies will be unloaded at the airport and immediately transferred to the restoration plant's warehouse before being sent to Dongxia without delay.

Dongxia has been very busy lately, so busy that it's practically taking off.

On the ground, they were busy bickering with bald eagles, exchanging blows and engaging in all sorts of open and covert attacks.

At this crucial moment in the competition, the bald eagle's leader adopted a neurotic escalation strategy, launching surprise attacks on Dongxia from time to time, aiming to make it impossible for anyone, including himself, to predict his next move.

In the crazy, money-burning space field, rockets carrying landers from both sides were being launched one after another toward the moon. Especially in the two months after the discovery of the eggshell components of the "Hatching Multi-Clawed Monster", the White Eagle and Dongxia families seemed to be under a spell. Dongxia launched six rockets, while the White Eagle launched a total of eleven.

Well, the bald eagles fired five shots, so they actually sent six shots up, resulting in a tie, with neither side gaining an advantage.

The liveliest place is in the sea.

Various warships, civilian ships, scientific research teams, unmanned probes, and underwater vehicles, numbering in the thousands, patrolled the sea area, creating a jagged exploration line between the two sides in this region, from the Four-Clawed Sea Serpent to the Jasmine Griffin.

Almost every day, new submarines are launched, and all of them are manufactured by Dongxia.

The relevant manufacturing units in Dongxia have already completed their construction plans to the fullest extent. On the one hand, they are providing detectors for their own navy and coast guard, and on the other hand, they are rushing to complete orders placed by bald eagles through various third-party companies via transshipment companies.

Submarines aren't particularly difficult to manufacture; bald eagles can make them themselves. However, to produce such a large quantity in such a short time, only the Eastern Xia can do it.

As for why Dongxia would build a submarine for the other side?

Dongxia once did a careful calculation: the profit from an order to produce a high-end underwater detector for the bald eagle's OEM company, after deducting all costs, was just enough for Dongxia's own relevant units to produce another product of the same model at cost price.

Perfect hedging balance!
Driven by the mentality that money earned should be spent, Dongxia decisively chose to rationally reduce its production capacity.

Make your opponent feel like you're ahead, but don't let the lead become too big!

The bald eagles didn't hold back either. It was just a matter of printing more money and issuing more debt. They let their lackeys in the east buy some, their little brothers in the north buy some, their own reserve center buy some, and then let companies with a market value of tens of billions place orders worth trillions to boost the financial market. In the end, the leader and the congressmen made a fortune.

For a time, behind this seemingly fierce and endlessly expensive exploration competition, a bizarre "win-win" scene actually emerged!
(End of this chapter)