Armipotent

A lot of people complained to Tang Shaoyang about the sudden recall. They were progressing in the Dimensional Tower. But before they could make actual progress, they got the call. Everyone returned, including the girl’s party.

He received the resentment stares from the girls except for his Minister, Li Shuang. Li Shuang was the only one who was relieved with the recall. It seemed like the adventure stressed her out.

Before he could brief the actual situation with his Generals, he had to explain everything to the girls first. When he mentioned Aqura, that calmed the girls down. A war against the demon, especially when he mentioned the details that Aqura was a world in the last phase of the game.

After the briefing, each of them returned to their respective post before going to Aqura. They left him alone in the room as if they had forgotten about their complaints.

“Can you handle the Tarrior’s meeting, Mengyao?”

Zhang Mengyao was the last girl to leave the room. He asked her to brief the actual situation with the other generals.

The Supreme General halted her steps at the door. She turned around and squinted her eyes at him. He thought she would refuse, but then she nodded, “Okay, but you have to attend the briefing too. You know a lot of the details than me. See you in…. Thirty minutes.”

Tang Shaoyang finally had the time to meet her daughter again. He informed the recall when he was fighting the Demon Sovereign. The people from the Dimensional Tower returned quicker than him. He had not gotten the time to play with her daughter.

He rushed back to his room only to find Xiulan was just sleeping a few minutes ago. He missed the timing to play.

Delia, Li Shuang, and Jasmine were here. They got here to see their daughter as well, but they also missed the timing and ended up having tea with Elin and Ava.

He went to the girls and asked them, “So, how’s the dimensional tower’s adventure?” There was no time for him to ask them how the adventurer was. The moment he came back, they were asking about the actual war situation. Since it was a war, Zhang Mengyao thought it was something similar when they fought the Divine Church.

“I don’t want to join them again!” Li Shuang was the first one to answer that. It seemed like she did not have a good experience with the adventurer. Her answer caused Jasmine and Delia to crack a smile.

“But you have to, Sis Shuang. That’s not terrible aside from the camping. We have to bring a good bed next time,” The Queen had an issue with their sleeping situation. Understandable as that was the Queen’s first time experiencing sleeping with a sleeping bag in the wilderness.

“It’s quite fun. We should do it more often. Girls’ time,” The youngest girl had no complaints. She rated her experience as fun, meaning she enjoyed it.

“Fun? How can you call that fun?” Li Shuang could not believe what she heard from Delia, “How can it be fun when you are facing that giant monster. That’s still too much for me. I won’t join the next adventure.”

They shared the story of their adventure with Tang Shaoyang. After ten minutes, Delia then focused on Tang Shaoyang, “The war is on my world….” She hesitated to speak.

Tang Shaoyang, of course, knew what Delia wanted to say, “I haven’t found your father. That stupid Adventurer Guild keeps bothering me, then that church and also the demon. We can visit Aqura if you want to look for your father.”

Delia’s expression brightened, nodding her head furiously. She was separated from her family because of the contract she made with Tang Shaoyang. The System teleported her alongside Tang Shaoyang when the Clown God triggered the game.

“But what about the war?” Delia did not want to bother Tang Shaoyang when there was an ongoing war.

He waved his hand, “I have taken care of my part. And the war is in the Demon Continent, very far from Waskin City.”

It was not really a war, but training for the Tarrior. The demon had lost their leaders. The current demon’s force was headless, without their leader. He recalled them to grind up their levels before continuing the Dimensional Tower’s run.

Thirty minutes quickly passed, and he received a call from Zhang Mengyao. Jasmine followed him, and Li Shuang returned to her post.

There was a lot of work for The Minister with two kingdoms, one adventurer guild, and a temple decided to be part of the Tang Empire. From the sound of it, she was more happy with tons of work than going to the Dimensional Tower again.

*** ***

Assembly Room

All military force was under one name, Tarrior, including the former vassal. The vassals would have to choose one person to lead their former army and be granted a Marshal position.

Jasmine was one of the Marshals now. The Malecia Kingdom was no longer an independent kingdom, but a city. She was given a territory to manage, and The Malecia Kingdom’s army joined Tarrior as a Legion of Army.

That was how many vassals integrated into the Tang Empire. For the small vassal, a single and small faction. They were combined with the other factions. They were granted a territory to manage, and they had to choose one person to be a marshal and another one to be the mayor of the city they would manage.

That was the work of Li Shuang and Zhang Mengyao. That way, The Tang Empire’s army grew bigger, and the empty territory was not abandoned just to be infested with zombies and mutated beasts.

Tang Shaoyang took the honored seat while Zhang Mengyao explained the current situation. Moonsong and Alton were absent. They had not returned from their trial. The Elven Kingdom was represented by someone new, someone he did not know.

Alisha inherited the throne, but she was a different type than Virion who led his own army. It seemed like she chose someone to replace Virion’s position to lead the elves in the Tarrior. He was glad that there was no further implication after the incident.

The surprise came from the former Beast Coven. The beasts and the beastmen agreed to have the Moonlight Tribe lead them. With the absence of Moonsong, Sylvia took her father’s post. He was not informed his wife would lead the Beast Coven. It surprised him as well that Sylvia was interested in the position. He thought one of the elders from the Moonlight Tribe would hold the temporary position.

Zhang Mengyao informed everyone it was not a war, but more like a military exercise. She explained why it was a military exercise. They fought the demon not because the demon had done something to the empire, but to grow The Tarrior in level.

Wei Xi heard this for the first time, and he furrowed his brow. He did not like the idea of mindless slaughter even though their target was the demons.

The moment Zhang Mengyao finished the briefing, he raised his hand to voice his thoughts.

“Is it possible to convert the demon into our side instead of killing them all? I think that will be more beneficial for us than killing them.”

He just felt wrong to do so for their selfish motive. The motive of fighting the demon sounded inhuman to him. If Tang Shaoyang had killed their leaders, then there was no need to slaughter the demon. The demons no longer possessed a threat without their leaders.

“His Majesty tried to do that, but the nature of the demon in Aqura is ferocious. They looked at us, humans, as something they must kill and conquer. Before His Majesty fought the demon….”

Zhang Mengyao had the same opinion as Wei Xi at first. But she changed her mind when she heard what the demon did to the Artorakh Kingdom. No survivors in the Capital, children were on display as their trophies. She agreed with Tang Shaoyang that the risk of integrating the demon into the empire was not worth the benefit.

Wei Xi frowned deeper when he heard what the demon did. Not just him, the others also had the same reaction.

“We can enslave them, but I don’t want to develop this slavery culture in our empire regardless of their races,” as Zhang Mengyao said, she gave a look at Tang Shaoyang.

She was telling him not to do a slave contract anymore with that single glance.

“Maybe we can try to take the demon children and raise them. But I don’t dare to guarantee they will forget what we did to their parents. That might bite us in the future.”

Zhang Mengyao thought of several solutions, but there was really nothing ideal that came to her mind. Each solution had the following risks that might endanger the future of the empire. All in all, she would rather kill them or leave them alone. But leaving them alone was not a choice because The Emperor had made the decision to obliterate the demon.

Wei Xi let out a sigh. He no longer objected to killing the demon.

Jasmine raised her hand, “You said there are Demi-God Ranks in the demon’s army. I don’t think our army is strong enough to fight them with the absence of Vice Supreme General Alton and Marshal Moonsong.”

She knew Tang Shaoyang would not join them in the fight. He told her himself earlier, and then she heard there might be many Demi-God Rank Demons. She was concerned that if Tang Shaoyang did not join them.

“Don’t worry about it. The Adventurer Guild in Aqura would oversee the war and help us in the war. This announcement is for later but I will tell you now. The Adventurer Guild is The Tang Empire’s vassal in Aqura. They have three God Ranks, and many Demi-God Ranks that will assist us in the battle.”

The briefing continued for another half an hour. Zhang Mengyao answered them all without needing Tang Shaoyang’s help. He just sat on his chair, listening to the discussion from the side. In fact, he learned a lot