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"I never expected this..." Chen Xuanfeng was slightly surprised to hear about the situation in the Mermaid Empire for the first time.

"In fact, the Mermaid Empire had long considered exploiting the southeastern sea route to amass wealth and compensate for their own resource deficiencies. However, at that time, humans dominated the continent, and the Mermaid Empire had no opportunity to extend its influence into human trade. Even in dealings with human smugglers, prices were often slashed by more than tenfold. If Yellow Dragon offered to help the Mermaid Empire gain control of the sea route, it would indeed be enough to align the Mermaid Empire to their side. With control of the trade route, the taxes from the route would be secondary; the important thing is that the Mermaid Empire could exchange the vast treasures of the ocean for abundant resources from the human world, significantly improving their standard of living. This is what truly moves a nation. As for the issue with the elf nation, there isn't necessarily a conflict. The high elves have no interest in human trade and cannot compete with the mermaids for underwater dominance. As long as the mermaids don't provoke them excessively, there won't be any large-scale conflict between the two."

"This is intriguing. Yellow Dragon can save a lot of military resources and naturally free up more strength to deal with future battles. The Mermaid Empire, which has always been on the periphery of the continent's power struggles, would gain an opportunity for development. If the elf nation doesn't intend to invade the human world, they would merely gain a somewhat annoying neighbor without any real loss. However, if they do march into the southern continent, the mermaids, concerned about their interests, would become their enemies. Apart from the potential long-term impact of allowing the Mermaid Empire to grow stronger, the entire plan is beneficial and harmless to humans. It's a brilliant move." Chen Xuanfeng synthesized the information provided by Hai Ruo, silently piecing together the cause and effect, and realized that this move involved the interests of all parties, with an incredibly intricate layout. He couldn't help but admire it while starting to ponder countermeasures.

However, such grand strategies that influence the fate of nations are not something that can be resolved in a moment. Moreover, Chen Xuanfeng didn't know much about the Mermaid Empire, so he couldn't immediately think of a solution. Therefore, before that, he decided to address another matter.

A factor that could potentially influence the continent's situation.

Among the four non-human nations, the last and most chaotic one—the underground world.

Since three non-human nations have already been drawn into this war that will decide the fate of the continent, neither the orcs nor the humans can afford to let the last variable remain outside the battlefield. Moreover, this variable is tied to the last forbidden spell, namely the movements of the forbidden spell caster residing in the mercenary empire.

Since humans have already gained an advantage with the Mermaid Empire, they must reclaim it on the other side.

As the main body of the underground world is not in the east, it is believed that human influence has not yet reached the core of that dark world, so it's not too late. However, once humans successfully establish their influence there, they will undoubtedly free up an elite force, which would be a terrible development for the orc alliance.

The underground world is complex in terms of races and terrain, with no unified system, making it the most chaotic place. Yet, it is also extremely xenophobic. Anyone entering there must be prepared for constant attacks. If a powerful force enters, it would provoke the entire underground world to unite against them. Therefore, neither the orcs nor the humans have been able to determine the future direction of this place.

After careful consideration, Ye Ge appears to be the only one capable of this task—the elder sister of the elf sisters, who has dark elf heritage, and remains in the elf nation wielding the "Tiger Soul Blade."

Heroic Werewolf Scroll: How Deep is the Underground City?

The underground world, as the name suggests, is a dark world formed by countless natural and unnatural caves and underground ruins from various eras, interconnected like a massive insect nest or ant colony, full of strange and wondrous paths. The highest exit reaches the peak of the Never-Setting Mountain, while the deepest caverns are even below the magma layer. Its scope is not limited to the continent; even on overseas islands, one can occasionally find entrances to the underground world. Thus, no one knows exactly how vast this underground world is.

Interestingly, in this underground world, there is almost no influence from what is called "earthquakes." This multi-layered world is traversed by massive energy channels called "earth veins" and "star wheels," which connect the elemental planes and the outer astral realms. These magical channels act like an invisible skeleton supporting the material foundation of this world. Thus, underground caves not protected by earth veins collapsed millions of years ago, while those within the earth vein structure remain standing even in the face of earthquakes that could trigger landslides and tsunamis. This enables countless underground creatures to flourish in the sunless depths, eventually forming a force that no surface creature can ignore.

Of course, when people generally refer to the "underground world" in the context of non-human forces, they are not talking about all the creatures underground. After all, the underground is too vast, and more than half of its inhabitants never have any contact with surface creatures, so their threat can be ignored. The primary forces capable of influencing or threatening the surface are the dark elf communities.

The dark elf is also a branch of pure-blooded elves, forced to migrate underground thousands of years ago due to various conflicts. Compared to the high elves, wood elves, and night elves on the surface, they are more robust, fiercer in temperament, and more skilled in combat. In terms of magical abilities, the dark elf, living in perpetual darkness, long ago completely abandoned "star magic," while their "plant magic" has significantly declined and mutated due to the nature of underground plants. Even the "elemental summoning magic" innate to elves has changed, as the dark elf has abandoned their worship of the natural goddess and instead revere the Spider Queen Lolth, allowing them to summon only dark and shadow elements now.