Elara examined everything closely, but even after looking thoroughly, she still couldn't find the source of those insect-like creatures.
The last entry in the "Divine Book" recorded a sudden meteor shower from the sky.
Then everything ended abruptly.
Elara touched the ancient bamboo slips. Maybe because of the special material, even after so many years, they only had slight wear. Some characters on the corners were a bit hard to read, but the main content remained intact.
...So, was it that sudden meteor shower that destroyed this once highly advanced civilization?
But since that earlier civilization had developed to such a high level, with advanced warships, battle armor, and even legendary mutant war beasts, how could they still have failed to stop the falling meteors and been completely destroyed?
Could it be because too many meteors fell, or they were just too large?
However, based on Elara's understanding of the current world, none of the united nations on the continent have recorded ancient meteor showers or similar events. Even on the geographical maps, there are no signs showing impact from huge meteors.
Elara felt confused, but since she had never seen a meteor strike herself, she couldn't be sure how much destruction it could cause.
Over the span of two months, Elara read the "Divine Book" while also teaching the technical officers the basics of how to build docks and sea vessels.
At the beginning of the second month, Oswyn's research had a major breakthrough.
With the help of the "Eye of All Things," Oswyn finally found a method to initially suppress the egg worms.
He discovered several herbs that resisted the egg worms. By using various medical techniques and mixing in healer blood, he successfully made a special pill.
After taking this pill, a person's blood would produce a certain substance for three months that prevents the worms from parasitizing the body.
When Oswyn wrote this to her in a letter, he also mentioned that once the special pill was developed, their medical division immediately began mass production. They had already produced nearly fifty thousand of these special pills.
These would first be used by the troops returning from the south. After that, the medical division would continue producing large quantities so that the entire military, and eventually every citizen of the Plumera Kingdom, would have emergency pills ready for use.
After proudly sharing this news, Oswyn told Elara he had also spent time over the past few months studying the relationship between her puppet egg gu and the egg worms.
He combined that research with his experience in developing the special pill and successfully improved the egg gu's resistance.
Elara's living and dead puppets had advantages that normal people did not. They were only controlled by gu worms, so as long as the gu worms weren't consumed, the puppets could never be parasitized.
Now, Oswyn had upgraded the gu worms so they could no longer be consumed by egg worms. Once Elara's puppets took the modified gu worms, the issue would be completely resolved.
There would be no more incidents like those few black hawk puppets that were swallowed and disappeared.
After writing about this, Oswyn urged Elara to quickly send her army of one hundred thousand Puppet Soldiers to Marigold City. He had already produced more than ten thousand upgraded gu worms. At most, in one more month, he would be able to fully upgrade her Puppet Soldiers army.
They would then be completely immune to egg worm parasitism.
After receiving Oswyn's letter, Elara immediately ordered her Puppet Soldiers army to head toward Marigold City.
Once Elara had finished teaching the basics of sea vessel and dock construction in Yan Hai City, she sent a letter to the Ministry of Commerce and Engineering.
She told the road-building teams to pause their other work and first build a direct southern road from Marigold City to the southernmost part, Gujin Sea, and Yan Hai City. Over a month had passed by the time this was arranged.
After months of training, the technical officers from the Ministry of Works were now capable of independently building docks and ships. Seeing this, Elara stepped back and let them continue on their own.
She then began her journey north back to Marigold City.
When she finally returned, Oswyn personally came to the city gate to welcome her.
He told her, with a tone both cheerful and slightly proud, that in just this one month, working overtime, he had successfully upgraded all one hundred thousand of her Puppet Soldiers army.
Now, her army no longer had to fear being parasitized by egg worms.
In fact, they had become Elara's most powerful force against the strange soldiers infected by egg worms. Undying and unbreakable.
Over the next few days, Elara first inspected the upgraded army of death puppets that Oswyn had prepared for her. While she was at it, she also replaced all the insect eggs in her hands with the upgraded versions made by Oswyn. After that, she dealt with some important internal affairs in the Plumera Kingdom, then received two letters from Prince Leland and Prince Yu.
Since the northern expedition and their successful revenge by destroying the Salvia Kingdom, the Gladiolus Kingdom had been busy consolidating its returning and newly acquired territories. Prince Leland began reforming internal development while continuing to expand eastward.
In the past few months, under his personal command, the Gladiolus Kingdom had significantly expanded its territory to the east. They pushed all the way to the central region of the continent, even bringing several third-class small countries into their domain. These countries were situated between the major northern Petunia State and the major southern Celosia State but not close to either.
Even before attacking those small countries, Prince Leland had carefully confirmed that none of them were backed by forces stronger than Gladiolus. He even sent envoys in advance with supplies to establish relations with nearby second-class countries and confirmed that those small countries had no ties with them before launching the attack.
But once Prince Leland conquered those countries and expanded his territory, all the nearby second-class countries, except the eastern female-dominated Carnation Kingdom, suddenly turned hostile. They claimed the conquered countries were their vassals and refused to negotiate, immediately preparing to unite against Gladiolus.
This situation was clearly unusual. Second-class countries in this world were already very powerful, and each typically focused on its own development. It was rare for them to suddenly unite, especially just to target another second-class country with no prior conflict.
With several second-class countries uniting and pressing in, Gladiolus was suddenly under great pressure. One of those countries was even a major second-class country, stronger than Gladiolus on its own.
Prince Leland tried to send envoys to negotiate, but none of the attempts worked. It was as if those countries had suddenly gone mad, only thinking of invading and attacking Gladiolus.
With no other choice, Prince Leland wrote letters to Elara and Prince Yu.
After reading the letters, Elara told the System to bring up Gladiolus's status panel and its diplomatic network panel.
Gladiolus was now considered an upper-mid power among medium second-class countries and was quickly approaching the level of a major second-class country.
Its relationship score with the Plumera Kingdom was the second highest among all nations, already over four thousand points.
In the past few months, as Plumera had rapidly expanded its trade, it had also built strong business partnerships with Gladiolus.
So whether for maintaining economic ties or supporting an allied country, Elara could not ignore the situation.
Three days later, Elara replied to both Prince Yu and Prince Leland, then set off with fifty thousand elite soldiers who had taken special pills and one hundred thousand upgraded Puppet Soldiers created by Oswyn, heading east toward Gladiolus.
Since Dahlia Kingdom lay between Plumera and Gladiolus, Elara would pass through Dahlia first on her way.
Prince Yu mentioned that he was already waiting for her within Dahlia and would join her as soon as she arrived so they could head east together.
However, Elara didn't expect something a bit strange to happen before she even reached Dahlia.
As she traveled eastward and left Plumera's borders, she started to feel like someone was watching her from afar.
She sent her Puppet Soldiers to investigate, but they found nothing.