[Error: Datalink failed. Running internal diagnostics. Communications Equipment damaged, patchwork repairs detected, only rescue beacon and theft report functions are available.]

Rescue Beacon?! Remian hesitated. What would happen if he called for a rescue? Would he be able to find a way for this alien civilization to cure him? Would they be friendly? Or would this gamble end up destroying both him and this Qi World?

Thinking about the people who built the Pod, Remian felt a.s.sured that they were unlikely to destroy this world off-hand. It was much more likely they would try to sell the locals their products in an Always Happy manner because Always Happy Means More Sales.

Then again, doing so would change this world forever. Was it worth it?

Everything to gain for him, but this world's destiny would be changed irreversibly.

Oh, come on, that wreck in the Red Mists meant they were coming here already anyway, or may already be on the way searching for their fallen s.h.i.+p. It's possible, even likely… no, downright probable… that the Always Happy aliens would eventually come here and set up shop.

Or they could enslave the entire population of 'savage' locals and sell them off as cheap domestic labor. After all, to an advanced civilization, the low-tech people of this world could be seen as tribal barbarians, always fighting among themselves at the drop of a hat, and the most prevalent form of government this world had was outright tyranny. This was a world where might made right openly, and the greatest law was the whim of the greatest power.

Anyway. To send out the beacon or not. Just what would happen to this world if he did….?

[A local wouldn't hesitate.] Death noted in amus.e.m.e.nt. [Only you would be morally worried about consequences to everyone else. A local would only care about the benefits to himself and his own.]

[Well, I'm an alien here, you know.] Remian sighed. [If I do this, I will have to do it in a spa.r.s.ely populated area, try to avoid affecting the locals as much as I can. I'll fly the Pod back to the Red Mists forest and send the signal from the s.h.i.+pwreck's location.]

***

Meanwhile, Remian bought five Green Jade Vitality Pills at a Tier 5's affiliate's discount price. He ate one immediately, was.h.i.+ng it down with nano-filtered, quadruple-processed water from the Food Processor (though contained in a locally-fas.h.i.+oned stoppered gourd that tasted mildly like winter melon).

Those pills were bought at 320,000 each. After buying more supplies, more clothes for himself and Xiao Yan and giving Xiao Yan some spending money of her own, Remian was left with a little over 210,000 Black in his bank account.

Oh, that's right. The Alchemist Guild set him up with a bank account and he even had a crystal bank card to go with it. He still carried a few thousand Black around in bank notes, though.

"Are we planning a long trip?" Xiao Yan asked as they hand-carted more and more supplies to the pod.

"Yeah."

"How far?"

"I'm told it could take years if we go on foot. That's why we're flying."

"And how long would flying take?"

"If we were Sky Qi experts? One day will do. But I don't know how fast Sky Qi experts fly compared to the Pod, so I'm expecting anything between a day and two weeks."

"Where are we going, really?" Xiao Yan really wanted to know now.

Remian broke it to her. "We're going to the Grand Luo Continent."

***

Meanwhile, back on Remian's home world, from the west a fleet from Libertaria arrived. Led by a mothers.h.i.+p the size of the Flame Emperor, the thirty s.h.i.+p fleet docked only briefly at KarGoth then made their way to the Nine Kings Range Battlefront.

From the east, the Song Clan from the Dragon Empire sent word that they, too, were sending in a fleet. Seeing KarGoth overburdened with the Libertarian fleet when they arrived, Song Chen directed them to his own territory, the Bog Marshes in the Eastern Edge Region. He shared with his clan his ambitions to build the Great Docks of his dreams.

At the same time, Tim sent a horde of Lynxmice and men over to the Blood Lands to start his Nightshade Farm. Lynxmice weren't much help in a fight against Spectres, after all. They were much better at digging holes and planting farms.

As for Remians airport and training center at Rocky Thorns… the town was built, the airport was ready and in fact, received and repaired many airs.h.i.+ps damaged in the fighting, but the training center saw no progress whatsoever.

KarGoth itself was ramping up heavily on mining. Arnold's Frames Workshop was given an entire hill overnight and was forced to expand exponentially with the skyrocketing demand for Combat Frames. Agility and magical barriers were the top requests of everyone ordering a Frame, and the orders were backlogged three years.

A lot of guest magi on the way to the warfront stopped by Three Pines to take a look at the Black Ruins relics, to see what they could see, learn what they could learn, and maybe take a little something worthwhile if they could take it without causing too much trouble. Unfortunately most of them simply couldn't make heads or tails of what they examined. Of those who made discoveries, one accidentally blasted himself into ashes, one ended up nailing his foot into the ground, and the third one completely disappeared and had not been seen since.

As for the war itself…

The tides turned again with a fourth Tier 8 Spectre emerged. Once again, the Tier 8 Spectres and Emperor-level defenders were matched in number. The defenders' advantage was lost. The Flame Emperor called upon the Deep Emperor to come back from the north and help out, but received no response. As for the Earth Emperor, Mal'thor-dras had only just woken up and promised to come help quickly.

Three days later, he still hadn't arrived. Reports from younger drakes coming from Dragon Lake indicated that Mal'thor-dras had not even left Dragon Lake, in fact. He seemed to have woken up very hungry and spent the entire past few days eating breakfast. At his fearsome rate of consumption, the youngsters were worried that Dragon Lake could run out of Tier 5 fish.

By then, the number of Mindy's new fightercraft built in Fal'Herim brought to the warzone for 'quality testing' reached three hundred. Had they all been fielded at the same time, KarGoth simply wouldn't have enough volunteer pilots to man them all. But over a hundred of them had taken damage from long-range Spectre attacks and required downtime to repair, repairs which the limited facilities at Nine Kings Mountain Range were ill-equipped to serve. With the bigger, slower airs.h.i.+ps taking to Remian's Rocky Thorns Airport and KarGoth's Airport for repairs, they ended up limping all the way back to Fal'Herim to get fixed.

"Too slow." Mindy shook her head every time she considered her little fighters and their performance. "The fighters are too slow. The repairs are too slow. Pilot training is too slow. Everything is too slow!"

Two days following, the Libertarian fleet arrived at the Nine Kings Range.

"Give us the area with the heaviest fighting!" Admiral Campbell requested.

"Uh… that would be the middle." George managed, trying his best not to feel overawed by the military staunchness he was sensing from all these army officers.

"You're the commander-in-chief?" Campbell's eyes narrowed.

"Um… there isn't really one." George half-wilted. Then, he brightened. "Would you like to volunteer?"

Song Chen frowned at him, and Mindy grimaced, but Campbell simply nodded as if it was all to be expected. "Certainly. I want a detailed list of military forces and a s.p.a.ce three times the size of this tent to set up a proper command center."

"Uh… we'll see what we can do…" George hesitated.

"On second thoughts, forget it." Campbell straightened. "Lieutenant! Send out my orders! I am taking command of the entire defense force, and will be commanding from the flags.h.i.+p!"

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Darian and Tim glanced at George. "You know the dragons won't listen to him, right?"

George gulped. "They won't?"

They really didn't.

Neither did the rest of the Wilds.

"Come on, guys! Forward, like he said! We're all on the same side, here!" George tried to coax them.

But none of them would move. In fact, George noticed a distinct trickle of wounded Wilds limping away from the warfront entirely.

"Why…? Why can't everyone just work together?" George asked. "The whole world is at stake…"

"Then where's the whole world when the danger is here?" Mindy scoffed.

"At least they're here!" George raged. "Why can't you see that? At least they came to help!"

"Thirty s.h.i.+ps? One mothers.h.i.+p, five cruiser-cla.s.s, ten galleon-cla.s.s, and fourteen frigates." Mindy shook her head. "Doesn't Libertaria have hundreds of airs.h.i.+ps? They didn't even send one hundred."

"That's a lot more than what everyone else is sending!" George spluttered.

"And I'm thinking we should stop shouldering so much of the burden and let everyone else send more before we resume the fight." Darian said darkly. "I'm tired of bleeding and seeing our subordinates die while everyone else just sits back and do nothing. Now these clowns jump in and try to boss us around… even I won't have it, much less the Wood Emperor! I'm out."

"Out?!" George gaped. "Darian! DARIAN! Come back!"

But of course, he wouldn't.