The World Online

Chapter 1157 – A Dark Day

Gaia 6th year, 2nd month, 5th day, Chinese New Year’s Eve, Shanhai City.

Yet another Chinese New Year’s Eve. Due to the large influx of players, Shanhai City was more lively this year, tand he streets and alleys were filled with never ending amounts of people.

Hundreds of theatre stages, numerous temple fairs, uncountable numbers of fireworks, dazzling amounts of merchandise and items, and various performances let the players who lived in Great Xia realize the rich cultural deposits of the top dynasty in the world.

“One cannot see such a stunning scene even in the imperial cities!” Players were in awe.

Within the Xia Palace, it was the same as last year, with the royal family reunion dinner underway. Compared to last year, the family was less careful and wary and more confident.

Within a year, many family members smoothly passed their exams and entered the offices. Some even held important positions and were active in the official field.

Even so, their respect toward Ouyang Shuo only grew.

Toward the family members, Ouyang Shuo similarly treated them with both gratitude and authority. During the year, there were a few family members who were flagged by the Regulatory Department, and Ouyang Shuo mercilessly gave them the cold treatment.

After the feast ended, Ouyang Shuo invited the elders to the imperial garden to have some wine. The younger generation were like wild horse let loose as they ran into the vibrant night life of Shanhai City.

For this year’s New Year’s Eve, Gaia did not do any new activity.

Five years had passed, and players had adapted to the game world. They did not need Gaia to make things interesting, and each person naturally had their own celebratory activities.

Gaia could finally take a break in this aspect.

…

1st day of the New Year, Great Xia held a giant and solemn heaven worshipping ceremony using the traditions and rights of the Son of Heaven, announcing the orthodoxy of Great Xia.

The entire ceremony strictly followed the ancient traditions and gave those who witnessed it a cultural lesson.

Regarding the ceremony, Ouyang Shuo decided not to invite the various kings and emperors over.

Great Xia had not established absolute power in the region and to invite them over was not right. Bragging to them now would instead make them annoyed.

Although that was the case, after the end of the ceremony, Ouyang Shuo still sent envoys to send the cured meat from the ceremony to the various dynasties. It was both him sending a message and also him trying to bring them closer.

As for whether they accepted his intentions or not, it was up to them.

…

The following week was the Chinese New Year holiday.

Until the 2nd month, 13th day, the offices opened once more, signaling the start of a New Year.

The moment the Imperial Court opened, there were a bunch of official matters including the civil law, punishment law, business law, the full-scale industrialization as well as farmland reclamation, and more.

The plans of the entire year would start in spring.

Although winter was not over, Great Xia had already woken up and had started to run swiftly. Along with the various strategies landing, Great Xia would welcome a new round of transformation and upgrade.

After releasing all the new laws, Ouyang Shuo did not remain in Shanhai City to officially begin his month of touring. He was prepared to use the month to complete his tour of the various legion corps in the wilderness.

Even during the holiday, the army was not fully on holiday.

Not to mention others matters, but just the beasts that kept coming out from the caves was enough of a problem for them. Just as Ouyang Shuo had predicted, even during the holiday period, the beast wave showed no signs of weakening.

On the contrary, it was even more intense.

While Ouyang Shuo toured, he would often meet lone beasts. These beasts that escaped the net were a huge problem to local order and safety.

The not eye-catching Neovenators were light ghosts, expertly attacking lone travelers or sneaking into villages to hunt families.

The Imperial Court had already instructed the provincial government office to set up prefecture level reserve forces and set up militia organizations in villages to be an added layer of protection against the beasts.

Only then did the situation turn slightly better.

Great Xia had a total of 64 legions spread all over the dynasty. In a month, Ouyang Shuo could only do a short tour, which was why the soldiers were really touched.

Especially those old ones who had fought alongside Ouyang Shuo. They had not seen him in a long time. Being able to shake hands and chat with the king again made them touched to the point of tears.

These old soldiers were the true soul of Great Xia.

Ouyang Shuo was also really grateful. There were some things that could not replace loyalty.

After Gaia became a godly presence, even after arriving in Planet Hope, the game world would not stop. It would continue to proceed and become closer and closer to a real world.

Especially to the machines, the game world was a huge hatchery. Along with the game world progressing, the intelligence of the NPCs would only get higher and higher.

When that happened, to the artificial intelligence, the game world would be their real world.

Ouyang Shuo had hopes that regardless of the future, whether they could be instantiated into the real world or not, they could at least see themselves as part of Great Xia.

…

Just as Ouyang Shuo was touring, Silver Hand was silently acting.

After their initial plan failed, they had not given up and activated their nibble plan, setting their target as Morocco Province.

Although Great Xia had fully opened up the port and naval route, with their arrogance, they were not happy with Great Xia having control of a crucial naval passage.

Europe and America belonged to Silver Hand, and they would not allow Great Xia to have such influence in the region. To Silver Hand, it was an insult.

Before the Federation was dissolved, they still had to worry about the academic faction. Now, the two organizations were working together to kick Great Xia out.

At least in terms of the Great Xia matter, they had reached a tacit understanding.

Furthermore, with the former president losing his power in the organization, Azure Badge was walking on another path. This was not good news to Great Xia.

Because of the presence of a teleportation formation, it was not an easy matter for Silver Hand to attack Morocco Province. They needed to be well prepared to face Great Xia’s crazy counterattack.

The first matter at hand was to remove the Atlantic Squadron.

The Atlantic Squadron was Great Xia’s biggest chip in the Atlantic Ocean and the reason why the European Lords did not dare to go too far.

This time, they were not going to keep it in anymore.

3rd month, 1st day, the alliance operation began.

In one month, the Dawson Dynasty Dawson Squadron, the House of Tudor Emperor Squadron, Spain’s Invincible Squadron, Gaule Squadron, and the Portuguese squadron all quietly gathered up. Using the chance when the Atlantic Squadron was on a routine patrol in the ocean, they surrounded them.

Five against one.

Even if the Atlantic Squadron was wary, had extraordinary combat ability, and the 1st magic powered submarine division, they still could not win.

Right after the battle started, Alvaro used the communication compass to inform Ouyang Shuo. Even so, Ouyang Shuo could not do anything.

Not only was it a huge ocean away, it was a naval battle, so the Great Xia Army had no way to assist them.

All that Ouyang Shuo could do was to hurry his tour and quickly return to Shanhai City to discuss strategy. With Ouyang Shuo’s understanding of Silver Hand, since they made a move, they would not give up halfway.

The first thing he thought about was the safety of Morocco.

On this side, Great Xia was discussing, on that side, the two opposing forces were engaged in an intense battle on the ocean.

Ouyang Shuo had instructed Alvaro that under circumstances where they could not win, he would allow them to retreat to the port to regroup.

The port had a minefield, which the enemy squadron would not dare to enter.

The problem was that the alliance squadron had spent so much effort on this trap, so how could they allow the Atlantic Squadron to escape so easily? The entire ocean region was a battlefield, and there was nowhere to retreat to.

In Jack’s words, he was going to use their poison against them to teach Great Xia a lesson to let Ouyang Shuo realize who the boss in the world was.

The destruction of the Free Squadron infuriated Jack.

This battle was the largest scale naval battle in history and lasted for three days and three nights.

In the ocean region near Morocco, blood flowed, pretty much becoming a red ocean. Numerous warship debris were washed onto the Morocco beach, making one terrified.

During this battle, Silver Hand’s super alliance squadron had finally crushed the Atlantic Squadron after paying a heavy price, making them a piece of history.

Fleet Admiral Alvaro and Deputy Lu Meng both died in battle.

It was said that the Spanish tried to persuade him to surrender to lead the Spanish Invincible Squadron once more, but he rejected it and only said, “I’m from Great Xia. I’ll rather die in battle!”

This was a dark day to the Great Xia Navy and the Great Xia Dynasty.