Chapter 769 (1/2)

I will be online on the alchemist Discord channel at 8th Nov 2020, 1am GMT 8+ (or 1pm -7th Nov- New York Time I think?) to celebrate the end of The Silly Alchemist. Come say hi! I love talking to you guys.

Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, five years had passed!

The passing of time sure was as terrifying as a flying blade.

However, some people were happy for time to flow so quickly because they had suffered so, so much during this time…

Many people suffered across the mainland. They wished for time to pass quickly because they were all sick and tired of the war.

Ever since Ye Lang and Zhao Yarou disappeared suddenly, the entire situation of the mainland changed. Tensions rose and in the end, war exploded. These empire-scale battles soon spread across the entire mainland.

Some people thought that the war started from the disappearances. They were the centre of the storm, the flashpoint of the fire.

In fact, this was true!

Zhao Yarou’s disappearance didn’t actually cause a vacuum in Soaring Sky so there wasn’t chaos. Her council would not change just because of anyone’s disappearance, including hers.

Her disappearance gave Soaring Sky a very good reason for war too. Because their empress was missing, this was enough for them to declare war against anyone the wanted, as well as mobilise troops empire-wide.

At that point, Soaring Sky announced that they wanted to look for Zhao Yarou in every single kingdom - though they sent military troops to do this.

To send military troops just to look for one person was basically the same as invading and conquering another country. Which country would say yes to this? No one agreed unless they were severely overpowered.

The ones who could not fight naturally accepted the fate of being invaded and became war prisoners. Or they could be called new members of the Soaring Sky Empire.

Once this war ended, the war prisoners and new members of the empire would probably continue to live well. They just had to get used to it, their lives would’ve changed much. Their lives might even change for the better.

But the war never stopped. It dragged on for a long time, complicating the political situation of the mainland. The war prisoners became unwilling to assimilate into Soaring Sky, silently hoping to one day rebel against the empire.

Naturally, the relationship between these people and the empire worsened. Conflicts intensified. More innocents were hurt. The ones who just wanted peaceful lives suffered.

Without ending the war, people would continue to suffer. Dragging on would cause more chaos.

There was a saying that suffering grew exponentially during wartimes.

Many people also participated in this war because of Ye Lang. That was why he could be said as the origin for this war.

This was the weird thing. Ye Lang was the reason why things that shouldn’t have happened, happened.

No matter what, the reason for all of this wasn’t important. The war was going to happen sooner or later.

Many people knew that Zhao Yarou had spent a long time preparing to conquer the world!

In was only a matter of time before Soaring Sky engulfed the whole world!

That was why Zhao Yarou’s disappearance wasn’t really the origin of this. What differed wasn’t the existence of war, but rather who was leading the war.

To the civilians, this war started quite abruptly, out of nowhere. They were quite surprised to see Soaring Sky with so many powerful alchemy weapons too.

Soaring Sky’s invasions were almost unstoppable. Usually, before the other party could defend themselves, the nation would’ve fallen already.

Alchemy was a peculiar thing!

The entire mainland looked at alchemy with fresh eyes. Every kingdom now fought over the best alchemy masters in the world.

The alchemists of Soaring Sky had known the reason for their intense recruitments of alchemists-- to manufacture alchemy weapons!

Although Soaring Sky had a lot of knowledge from the Tiangongyue tribe, they needed manpower to manufacture the weapons. They needed huge crowds of alchemy talents. They didn’t even have to be masters, they just had to know the basics.

That was why alchemists who used to be shunned or weren’t that good were suddenly very useful people. They became very arrogant.

Many people started to enter the alchemy industry, regardless of whether they were good at it. As long as they had a little knowledge, they could get a very good job and good perks.

This was a good option for civilians.

Over this period of time, alchemists became some of the highest-paid jobs in the world. An industry where even normal people could get a stable life.

At the same time, the science of alchemy progressed greatly and was refined too. The world now had advanced alchemy at their disposal.

Refinement of technology was a normal thing for any industry after some time. Other nations did not stop recruiting their own alchemists either. They tried to steal talents from Soaring Sky to slow down their development, at the same time raise their own abilities to fight against Soaring Sky.

No one cared if these nations were ethical or not. Reality unfolded before their eyes. After several years, their dramatic superiority was gradually halted. At this point, half the mainland had already fallen into their hands.

That was the reason why the war reached a stalemate!

At this point of the war, the person everyone thought about most wasn’t Zhao Yarou or the person leading Soaring Sky-- it was Ye Lang!

No matter what caused the war or the stalemate, everything was tied to Ye Lang.

The stalemate was due to Ye Lang although he wasn’t even here.

First, allies that shouldn’t have formed, formed because of him. This was why Soaring Sky still couldn’t win and still couldn’t end the war.

In the beginning, Soaring Sky swallowed Vermilion Bird whole. The two empires were nemeses, everyone knew this was going to happen.

At that point, Soaring Sky hadn’t expected Ai La to act because Soaring Sky’s intentions to conquer the world wasn’t apparent yet. It still was an unbelievable concept to many people.

Swallowing another empire whole was still something very drastic, an impossible task, to everyone.

No one expected Ai La to help Vermilion Bird.

After Soaring Sky had engulfed most of Vermilion Bird, Ai La swooped to the rescue, giving Vermilion Bird a chance to catch their breath, regroup their front lines and set up defences in what was left of their land. As a result, Vermilion Bird wasn’t entirely invaded.

Still, their losses were tragic. They had lost three-quarters of their land!

It wasn’t because Ai La acted too slowly but Soaring Sky was just too quick. Their soldiers and flying boats made them too efficient. Vermilion Bird could barely scramble to act.

Many people wondered why they did not conduct airstrikes with their flying boats. Why did they still have soldiers on the ground?

The answer was simple- Soaring Sky had just mastered the technology of flying vehicles but not much. Since the war had already begun, they merely used these flying ships to transport soldiers.

And who designed this vehicle? Ye Lang!

At this point, Princess Longji desperately wanted to beat Ye Lang up. She just didn’t have the mood to think about it, plus Ye Lang wasn’t going to be there.

Princess Longji had to give up on most of her territory. She led her soldiers to defend what was left.

Although Vermilion Bird lost land, some of there problems were solved. For example, the problem of the heir to the throne. No one really thought about this problem.

After several incidents, it was unanimous that Princess Longji would be the next empress. However, only time would tell how much this title was worth.