Chương 157: Development, Development

West-Hayden, as one of the three orthodox mages "exiled" to the frontier by the Mage Guild, had long occupied a somewhat awkward position within the Alliance. When it came to open warfare, his rudimentary, low-tier spells looked like pathetic parlor tricks compared to the crushing volleys of massed flintlock musketry. When it came to baseline agriculture, his aristocratic hands were far too delicate to ever grasp a common hoe.

However, the exact moment Li Qinwu walked into his quarters drenched in sweat and hurled a crude blueprint outlining "The Tactical Application of Magical Arrays to Propel Industrial and Agricultural Output" onto his desk, the eyes of this frustrated human mage instantly illuminated like twin lanterns. In the human realms, magic was treated exclusively as a luxury commodity—reserved entirely for aristocratic vanity and high-stakes warfare.

Never in history had a Grand Archmage ever deigned to lower themselves to study how to accelerate the growth of common wheat, or how to manipulate mana to increase the thermal output of an industrial forge. But this was precisely the utilitarian calculus Li Qinwu championed! He harbored zero interest in academic vanity; he demanded absolute, raw functionalism. West-Hayden immediately established a permanent laboratory within one of Iron-City's grand warehouses.

Li Qinwu promptly assigned 50 of the most cognitively alert Hobgoblins to serve as his dedicated research apprentices, alongside an unlimited, continuous supply of raw ores, magical flora, and system Denars. Within a mere two months, this makeshift "Alliance Bureau of Magical Industry" successfully delivered two distinct technological breakthroughs that left Li Qinwu thoroughly ecstatic: The first was the Thermal Amplification Array.

Utilizing high-purity sulfur ore excavated from Sulfur-Village, West-Hayden successfully configured a rudimentary array charged with dual dark- and fire-attribute mana directly beneath the foundation of Iron-Orc's primary blast furnaces. Once actively triggered, the array caused the interior operational temperature of the furnaces to instantly surge by $30\%$.

This did not merely drastically compress the raw time required for smelting; it simultaneously resolved the long-standing metallurgical crisis of separating heavy impurities from low-grade local iron ores. Staring at the continuous streams of incandescent, molten iron pouring from his high-tech furnaces, Iron-Orc's massive jaw split into a wide grin.

He immediately beat his chest and gave an ironclad guarantee that he would successfully manufacture every single suit of heavy plate armor and all the specialized musket munitions required by the expanding legions before the conclusion of the winter season. The second breakthrough was the Micro-Gathering Leyline Array, engineered specifically to revolutionize regional agriculture.

Collaborating closely with Miss Hana, West-Hayden successfully synthesized the life-attribute particles utilized in high-tier healing magic with foundational water-attribute mana, engraving the resulting composite array directly onto the central water management hubs of the hundred-goblin labor villages.

Following rigorous field testing, the agricultural data revealed that any irrigation water channeled through the active arrays significantly bolstered the baseline disease resistance of the local crops, while simultaneously halving the raw "awakening timeline" required to break down newly reclaimed wild soil. For an Alliance trapped in a phase of hyper-aggressive territorial expansion and starving for stable, mature fields, this was an absolute godsend.

While West-Hayden conducted non-stop scientific research day and night, Li Qinwu's grand infrastructural expenditure blueprint continued to rumble forward across the frontier. For every cluster of 10 labor villages established across the geometric grid, the state systematically erected a permanent, heavy stone Fort drawn straight from the Mount & Blade system to serve as the local township capital.

These heavy fortifications did not merely operate as strategic garrisons; they served as Li Qinwu's primary "cheat-code logistical granaries." Roughly every ten days, Li Qinwu would swing his leg over his massive black warhorse and systematically track down the paved highways, conducting a sweeping tour of every single completed township Fort across the realm.

The moment he passed through the gates of a local fortress, he would immediately access his internal system interface, releasing massive, cascading cascades of system oats, wheat, and preserved dried meats directly into the subterranean storage vaults of the keeps. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. To the eyes of the external world, the Sovereign Alliance possessed a miraculous, mathematically impossible abundance of grain.

No matter how many thousands of new immigrants were processed into the borders, and no matter how rapidly the professional military expanded, the grand state granaries remained perpetually filled to the absolute brim. This continuous, visible miracle caused the grassroots human residents and the local kobolds to revere Li Qinwu as an absolute living god, while simultaneously granting those red-and-green clad company commanders an almost fanatical level of absolute confidence when executing state mandates.

"Follow Emperor Li, and your bowl will never run dry of meat broth!" This crude, straightforward idiom rapidly evolved into the most widely circulated truth across the hundred-goblin villages. Time flowed forward like molten iron pouring from the grand crucibles of Iron-City—relentlessly consumed by intense, coordinated physical labor and brutal military drill. In the blink of an eye, five full months had elapsed since the grand vanguard had officially withdrawn from the borders of the human kingdom.

The ancient, dense, and historically terrifying Monster Forest was being systematically devoured by the relentless advance of the Alliance's industrial machine, replaced entirely by a thriving, highly developed socioeconomic corridor stretching across dozens of kilometers. The base-10 bureaucratic apparatus was now operating with impressive, clockwork precision.

Clad in their distinctive bright red short-sleeved shirts and matching shorts, and sporting official metallic rank insignias across their shoulder epaulets, the newly evolved Hobgoblin civil officials brandished the first edition of the Alliance Foundational Literacy Manual, bellowing directives within the local night schools scattered across every township.

Any stubborn peasant or dense laborer who failed to properly identify their assigned village grid lines was ruthlessly stripped of their official meat rations and dragged out to clear the wild frontiers alongside the Earth Dragons. Under the ironclad state policy of "No Literacy, No Meat," the baseline illiteracy rate of the Alliance was plummeting at a staggering, historically unprecedented pace.

It was on this exact day, within the central staging grounds of the Royal Guard's 1st Regiment stationed at the foot of the White Mountain, that an absolute, earth-shattering martial roar suddenly erupted into the sky. Li Qinwu had been conducting a routine inspection of Gob-Spear's training progress within the military cantonment when the deafening roar arrested his attention.

He casually pulled up his internal soldier management interface; looking across the roster of the 1st Regiment, he found that the golden icons representing "Tier-5 Units" had officially, completely illuminated across the entire regiment following months of absolute hellish drill and continuous experience farming at the Underworld Tree! Three thousand elite warriors, each standing at a towering 1.

95 meters, their physical frames composed of dense muscle and steel-hard bone, and their eyes radiating the cold, unblinking glare of seasoned killers, stood in perfect, flawless geometric formation beneath the morning sun. They had officially evolved into The Sovereign Taotie Imperial Guard —the apex military vanguard of the state. Every single warrior stood clad in heavy, dual-layered precision steel plate armor hand-forged using Iron-Orc's newly optimized blast furnaces.

They gripped massive, armor-shattering heavy battleaxes within their broad palms, while large-caliber flintlock pistols hung securely from their reinforced leather utility belts. The sheer volume of raw, suffocating martial aura radiating from the silent formation was enough to cause the ambient air to turn heavy and stagnant. Gob-Spear stood at the absolute front of the legion, clad in a crisp, tailored red-and-blue regiment commander's dress uniform. His hand rested firmly upon the hilt of his officer's sabre.

Striding forward with long, measured paces toward Li Qinwu, he brought his steel boots together with a sharp, resounding metallic snap.

"Report to His Imperial Majesty! The 1st Regiment of the Royal Guard is officially at absolute full strength, completely outfitted, and has flawlessly concluded all tactical training arrays! We await your direct strategic commands, Sire!!" Gazing upon this ultimate instrument of absolute state violence that he had personally forged from the ground up, the lingering undercurrent of deep anxiety Li Qinwu harbored regarding the long-term threat of the Kingdom of Sathos finally, completely dissipated from his chest.

"Superb work," Li Qinwu declared, extending his hand and gripping Gob-Spear firmly by his armored shoulder. His gaze swept slowly across the massive, black horizon of razor-sharp steel and unyielding plate armor, his voice dropping into a low, echoing rumble.

"Keep your blades sharp, and your powder dry. Before long, it won't merely be this isolated Monster Forest that bends to our will—this entire continent shall tremble beneath the march of your boots." The iron talons of the Alliance had officially, completely unfurled. And across the distant horizons of the human realms, the quiet geopolitical winds that had remained stagnant for over half a year finally carried the faint, distinct echo of approaching thunder.