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Outside the tower, the slaughter had already ended. Under the combined efforts of the elf sisters, no enemy could withstand their attacks, be it at long range or in close quarters. The hundreds of warriors beneath the Hua Yin Tower were completely wiped out.

"Li Jia, it seems the enemy is heading towards the bottom of the sea. Is there something there?" Chen Xuanfeng asked, looking at the reading on the detection orb in his hand.

The artificial being's red eyes flickered twice before she answered, "Yes, according to the scan, there is a huge artificial cavity forty meters below the sea floor, connected to the Magic Tower by a tunnel. Based on preliminary comparisons, it is judged to be the remains of a sunken ancient goblin city."

Werewolf Hero Volume, Chapter 32: "Ancient City - Searching for Traces Over Thousands of Years"

Goblins, a humanoid race with green skin and large ears, standing at most 1.2 meters tall. They have their own language, can craft simple weapons and tools, and know a little about farming and livestock breeding. They live in small tribal groups and are widely distributed across various corners of the Mainland, being the most numerous humanoid race still living in the human world, with a population consistently above twenty million. No matter how much they are exterminated by humans, their numbers never seem to decrease.

Although they are short, intellectually inferior, and possess strong survival instincts, their fertility and viciousness make them a formidable race. With just a couple as a foundation, they can multiply into a tribe of hundreds within a decade, becoming a menace in their region. Many people lump them together with half-orcs and rats as the three races that "become more numerous the more you kill."

Goblins are foolish and avaricious, savage and filthy, weak yet brutal—this is common knowledge. However, those truly familiar with history know that goblins were once the smartest, wealthiest, most powerful, and most legendary race in the world.

They were the world's greatest alchemists, mastering vast and advanced alchemical techniques. They once ruled the entire Mainland, built cities in the clouds, parted the seas for farmland, tamed dragons and titans, and established the most glorious and vast empire. Their reign spanned tens of thousands of years, during which they even created "gods."

The "virtual gods," this ultimate and insane invention, brought about the destruction of the most intelligent race.

Because the ancient goblin grand alchemists' creation of these pseudo-gods nearly overturned the fundamental laws of the world set by the gods, even threatening the operation of the World Tree, all the great beings from the "Divine Realm," "Demon Realm," "Elf Realm," and "Dragon Realm" united for the first time to wage war on the goblin empire. The goblin empire, which controlled over fifty "virtual gods," was equally formidable. This mythical "War of Sealing the Gods" lasted many years. To secure victory, the gods even altered the world's laws several times, eventually annihilating the entire goblin empire. At the same time, all the "virtual gods" were sealed, and dozens of gods on the divine side were grievously wounded, falling into an almost eternal slumber, with no one knowing when they would awaken.

As punishment, the goblin race was not only stripped of their cultural heritage but also cursed by the gods to lose their intelligence and become a stupid and barbaric race. "The descendants of the wise great civilization shall forever live in the most stupid and filthy state, forever subjected to the slaughter and mockery of other races," this was the curse the gods placed upon the goblins, and the goblin empire's civilization vanished into history.

However, the ancient goblin empire was once incredibly brilliant. Even the so-called Twelve Sages' creation of forbidden spells can ultimately be traced back to the alterations of the world's laws and the remnants of law singularities left behind by the "War of Sealing the Gods" and the destruction caused by the "virtual gods." Moreover, the remnants and influence of the goblin empire can still be found in almost every corner of the world and within every race.

For example, next to this Hua Yin Tower, there lies a sunken ancient goblin city ruin deep beneath the sea.

According to the information Li Jia inherited from the Twelve Sages, this was once a coastal fortress city built by the goblins, of medium size, housing over a hundred thousand goblins and equipped with four standard fleets. However, at the beginning of the "War of Sealing the Gods," the city was ambushed by the god of the sea, swallowed by the ocean. Thousands of warships were destroyed before they could even leave the port.

Over tens of thousands of years, the ruins gradually sank to the seabed. The surface remnants had completely disappeared due to the erosion of time and human destruction, but its location was still recorded in the elves' historical texts. As the race that dominated the Mainland after the goblins, the elves had also uncovered much knowledge about shipbuilding here.

A thousand years ago, a human adventurer named An Tuo Ka Hua Yin accidentally discovered an underground city ruin about one-fifth the size of the original site beneath the old undersea ruins. It was then that they realized the city built by the goblins had been divided into upper and lower layers. Although the upper layer had been destroyed, the lower layer remained intact. However, at that time, the first human empire, the "Dragon God Empire," had just collapsed, and the human race's future was uncertain. Naturally, this adventurer Hua Yin did not wish to publicize his discovery and give the elves an advantage. Instead, he secretly contacted a few human mages to establish the Magic Tower here and covertly excavate the ruins, hoping to uncover some significant secrets that could help humans rebuild their empire.

Unfortunately, not every good wish is blessed by the goddess of fate. Although their plan was sound, this location was merely a naval base, and after tens of thousands of years, even the metal had corroded, making it difficult to unearth any secrets. Thus, even until humans dominated the Mainland hundreds of years later, there were no significant findings here. The Twelve Sages only learned of this because one of the mages who established the Magic Tower was a student of the "Cang Hai Sage." (Regarding the relationship between time and the degree of item decay, the setting in this text differs greatly from reality. The main factor is that top-tier alchemical products can largely ignore the effects of time. Given that a divine weapon like the "God Punishment Sword" survived intact after tens of thousands of years following a divine battle, it is conceivable that a well-crafted alchemical military fortress could also partially survive.)