Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'-Chapter 1277 - 273: Empire Line: Toward the [Spiritual Deer] Ending (67)

Once the war began, Li Aozi realized that the Oxiulia Empire had already failed.

The troops collapsed like an avalanche, the borders continuously crumbled, and even the capital, Destiny Fort, was repeatedly harassed. The entire country's farmland turned into wasteland, with a faint green dust lingering in the air.

As the capital, what was once a bustling metropolis had turned into ruins, with skyscrapers becoming dilapidated rubble, and the intricately built gardens by the Royalty were set ablaze, while now corpses floated in the once-clear inner lake.

Most people were suddenly attacked by Earthlings in their sleep, their bodies burned by high-energy radiation until only bones remained, clothing and fat set ablaze. Once the attack occurred, they frantically rushed into rivers, yet the damage from radiation didn't cease with the current, instead spreading the pollution into the water.

The rare fish and species that the Empire had tributed from various vassal states floated miserably on the water's surface, their bellies charred, while the beasts bred in hunting grounds mutated, breaking free from enclosures, roaming the streets with glaring red eyes, salivating, searching for prey among the living in the city.

The small teahouses, streets, and civic gardens that Oshen and others used to visit had long turned to ashes under the initial nuclear strike. Now cold, pitch-black snowflakes drifted in the air, dancing with the cold wind.

The True Martial Party's awakened Spiritual Warriors were the first to recover combat power.

Within hours of the strike, the Empire's parliament was in a state of collapse, officials and government from various places were paralyzed. The awakened Spiritual Warriors, after separating from the Divine Country, immediately took Li Aozi's holy decree and rushed across the nation.

Faced with secrets, they didn't bother concealing their identities, directly displaying their porcelain skin to exempt themselves from radiation damage.

Fortunately, Li Aozi did not use local elections for officials but instead appointed state officials from the central government to manage local affairs, so the Empire didn't immediately fall apart. As long as new court officials and armed forces arrived in the disaster areas, governance could be promptly re-established.

Even though the government required time to rebuild, Li Aozi's army did not directly station within the cities. They would secretly construct their own bases, and thanks to confidentiality controls, the Imperial forces did not suffer extensive damage in the vast city attacks, at least not to the extent of being severely crippled, right?

Then, what was the cost?

Since the military, government, Royalty, and parties didn't suffer a fatal blow, it means that all the strikes were borne by the people.

There were no longer pedestrians or creatures on the streets, only withered trees and scattered trash being blown by the wind, dark grey volcanic rocks covered the ground. Before the war started, Li Aozi had heavily developed geothermal energy and established a series of excavating plants and ore sorting smelting centers, but now their ruins were forgotten on this desolate land.

There were 1819 cities like Destiny Fort. Frankly speaking, ninety percent of the entire territory within the Empire had been reduced to scorched earth.

From above, aside from the distant firelight, the city was only silence and desolation. Several deep pits on the ground marked where nuclear bombs had fallen.

Even worse, the depth of these pits reached several kilometers, with sewage and floating debris at the bottom.

Sparks occasionally appeared in the air, as if there were still violent energy reactions throughout the city, and those sparks, like mysterious magical elements, carried a hint of abnormality, but unfortunately, the attacks from the Secret Society were filled with the materialistic technology.

This was not some kind of magic, but an expression of Earth's civilization.

Destiny Fort, the entire Oxiulia, had fallen into a stagnant state. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Even though time no longer advanced, this land could never return to its former state; this tragic city became a symbol of the tragic fate post-nuclear explosion.

On this barren land, it seemed nothing continued to happen.

...or so it seemed?

After breaching the Arthur Divine Nation, due to the explosion destroying the secret meeting room, Li Aozi and others had to return to the Imperial Palace in Destiny Fort to openly discuss and deliberate various matters.

This led to a large number of Oxiulia ministers and soldiers watching as a group of porcelain-skinned Spiritual Warriors swaggered into the Empire's territory.

"Those people don't seem right, they're not ascenders of the day, are they?"

"Look at their skin color and armor, even their accent is off when they speak."

"Could they be... Primordial God Clan?"

"Descendants of defeated soldiers? Or simply those wretched ones who lost beyond the Abyss back then and fled into the Starry Abyss?"

Even Li Aozi didn't expect that, after several millennia, the people of Border Abyss still didn't quite accept the Primordial God Clan, with many ministers feeling humiliated seeing Oshen and others enter the palace for court meetings, still participating in state affairs as a party, and refusing to enter the hall at the same time.

But this was not a major issue, as far as Li Aozi was concerned, there would be more and more Divine Clan within the nation in the future.

He walked into the palace, casually placed the Holy Sword beside the throne, tossed aside his cloak, sat cross-legged in the king's seat, and said blandly to the civil and military officials below:

"Well then, to what extent has the situation deteriorated?"

"Your Majesty."

The one who spoke was the Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party of the Empire – Messervey Duken. The old man with a beer belly pushed his monocle and said: