Chapter 161: Seizing the Demiplane! [Seeking Recommendation Votes]
Time quietly approached November.
With the army sent by Soren clearing most of the undead on the Southern Coast, the refugees gathering near the city began to return home. The Temple of Agriculture took the opportunity to expand its follower base, and the priests and druids of the Agricultural Goddess started distributing winter wheat seeds for free to the refugees, subsequently settling them on the lands around Spearwind Hills. Since some cities had already been destroyed, Adele Isabella also suggested that Soren expand the territory, leading to Spearwind Hills annexing the territories of three nearby cities, thus expanding the area by about five hundred square kilometers. Most of the original nobles in these territories died due to the Plague, and the surviving bloodlines were all side branches, lacking the qualification to contest for inheritance.
Likewise.
With Soren as a hidden support, the Duchess of Red Dragon began to target the nobles in the Rosad Duchy; the undead had retreated hundreds of kilometers away, closer to the borders of the halfling territories, and the necromancers abandoned this land, starting to roam elsewhere to spread death. Their task was to spread death, thereby collecting the power of death to assist God of Death Naraku and the Undead Lords in leveling up. The population on the Southern Coast had decreased by about half after this disaster, and the remaining population consisted almost entirely of those under the protection of large cities, thus they set their sights on other locations.
For example, the Shire region, which had hardly been affected from the beginning until now.
The halflings were well protected by their deity, and to this day they hadn’t faced significant impacts. However, as far as the undead were concerned, they had no such reservations; the halfling race was their next target.
Meanwhile.
In Modo City on the Overseas Islands, due to the approach of the New Year, the City Hall began its third population census.
The population census in Modo City was conducted almost every year, but this year was slightly different; under Soren’s arrangement, the High Priest started to conduct a census of the church’s followers as well. With the assistance of witches, the entire census process went swiftly, and a few days later Soren received a document.
“Very good!”
Soren smiled as he looked at the numbers reported, saying, “You all did well.”
The population of Modo City was growing rapidly.
Now, with the combined population from Treasure Island and nearby islands, the total population within the boundaries of Modo City had reached about four hundred thousand. This was mainly because Soren had completed planning for the city, where housing and farmland could sufficiently support the large population demand. This number continued to increase, and it was expected that next year the population of Modo City could exceed six hundred thousand. According to statistics from the City Hall, many wealthy families from outside the region wanted to migrate to Modo City to escape the turmoil, resulting in the City Hall receiving a significant amount of extra tax revenue. Then, there was the number of Soren’s followers, which marked a clear and substantial increase.
Initially, Soren’s followers were mainly concentrated among the half-elves, but now the number of his followers in Modo City alone had reached around three hundred thousand, reducing the previously dominant proportion of half-elves to just one-third.
This had a lot to do with Soren’s domain of “Rule.”
Due to the prosperity of Modo City, many humans had become general followers of Soren, and that number continued to steadily increase.
“Modo City alone has three hundred thousand followers, and if we include other areas, there should be around one million followers. That means if I level up to [Strong Divine Power], I won’t be unable to bear the consumption.”
Deities cannot level up recklessly.
If there isn’t a sufficient base of followers, blind leveling up will only lead to a decline in divine power; generally, maintaining a Strong Divine Power requires at least one million followers. If there aren’t that many followers, the deity’s power will gradually decrease and ultimately regress back to [Medium Divine Power]. Conversely, if the number of followers is sufficient, even a deity with [Medium Divine Power] can slowly advance, possibly reaching Strong Divine Power over several hundred years. The expansion of Modo City guaranteed Soren’s number of followers, meaning that now he only needed to supplement his Divine Value and Divinity Value to become Strong Divine Power. In fact, it proved that Soren’s initial layout was correct; if he hadn’t established Modo City, acquiring followers would have required him to rely on priests to slowly spread the word like other deities, which is a very slow process that wouldn’t be possible without hundreds of years.
………………
The Bone Domain.
This is a demiplane located between the spirit realm and the underworld, born over three thousand years ago, and its creator is said to be a Demigod Lich.
Throughout the long history of the Multiverse, many powerful figures who rival gods have appeared, and the Demigod Lich is undoubtedly one of the closest types to a deity. Many Demigod Liches have tried to acquire the power of true gods, but so far only one Lich God has obtained it through luck. The mysteries of divinity are not easily attained, and the gods do not allow others to interfere lightly. However, the legacy of this Demigod Lich has undoubtedly remained, which is this demiplane that took him hundreds of years to cultivate. Compared to other spellcasters, the Demigod Lich had enough time to squander, so this demiplane was already quite substantial at the moment of its creation.
Demiplanes grow gradually over time.
Thus, the Bone Domain, nestled in the gaps between the spirit realm and the underworld, continued to expand, ultimately nearly equating to the size of a small principality.
Over the span of more than three thousand years, the Bone Domain gradually became stable, and following the fall of the Demigod Lich, this demiplane moved ever closer to the underworld, ultimately becoming attached, almost like the moon orbiting the Earth. Consequently, this demiplane also became a stronghold for the undead; the underworld is the territory of the God of Death, and many powerful undead unwilling to affiliate with the underworld gathered in these demiplanes. For a long time, this demiplane was controlled by a powerful Winter Ghost, a creation of the Demigod Lich, possessing horrifying power.
However, later this Winter Ghost was killed by a servant of the God of Death, and a powerful Bone Lord took over here.
He called himself the “Skeleton King.”
Yet in fact, very few paid attention to his title, as basically every powerful Bone Lord liked to refer to themselves as the Skeleton King.
The outbreak of the Plague led this Bone Lord to covet the souls of the Material Plane, but cautiously, he did not deploy all his army; rather, he retained a portion to defend this demiplane, fearing that others would seize it.
And today!
Under a gray-black night sky, near the edge of the Bone Domain, a blood-red portal opened.
On one side was the gray Death Domain, and on the other side was the dark red, torrid highlands within the portal, where countless restless and excited demons appeared on the other side of the portal. Once the entire teleportation array stabilized, immediately two lesser Balroth demons excitedly flew up, diving straight into the Bone Domain.
For demons, nothing is more interesting than raiding other demiplanes from the Bottomless Abyss!
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(PS: Tomorrow there will be an advertisement for a game. Gradually building connections, trying to do something.) (To be continued ~^~)
