Published: February 13, 2025
Cloud Summit Villa.
Ye Zhongming sat in his villa, sipping tea slowly as he waited for Liu Zhenghong.
With just one day left until he returned to the All Races of the Universe, Ye Zhongming didn’t hold much hope regarding the research on the boundaries of the Desert Secret Realm, but if he could obtain relatively clear results, he would feel more at ease when he departed.
Xia Lei entered, filled Ye Zhongming's cup with hot water, and then sat beside him, hugging his arm.
“It’s rare to see you so quiet,” Ye Zhongming chuckled.
“Am I usually that loud?” Xia Lei pouted, playfully pinching Ye Zhongming’s arm.
“What I mean is, have you encountered any troubles?” Ye Zhongming asked, gently squeezing Xia Lei's face, which felt even smoother than it had ten years ago.
Xia Lei sighed softly, “It’s not that there are troubles, but the two new secret realms have been quite troublesome. They aren’t providing us with much help at the moment, and instead, we have to invest a large number of troops into them. Since you explored the two secret realms, each has sent in four main battle teams in the past two days, totaling eight main battle teams and over a million soldiers.”
Ye Zhongming listened quietly, fully understanding what Xia Lei was saying.
When cannons roar, gold flows.
Sending eight main battle teams into the Cloud Summit wasn’t simply about filling them with manpower.
To ensure the troops' physical condition, their diet would obviously need to be enhanced in both quality and quantity.
When facing different life forms, equipment must also be adjusted. For example, while dealing with life on Earth, the sharpness of weapons is a critical attribute aside from skills. However, in the Titan Secret Realm, one would need to choose weapons that are longer, larger, thicker, and tougher; otherwise, they would break after just a few exchanges, rendering them useless in battle.
Since it was war, various consumables would have to be prepared, such as arrows, shells, various energy sources, medicines, and alchemical items, among others.
Especially for a superpower like Cloud Summit, which excelled in these areas, it heavily relied on numerous support items, and the consumption during each battle was immense.
Moreover, there was also the issue of battle losses, which was quite a headache.
In addition to the casualties of the precious soldiers from Cloud Summit’s various teams, there was also the loss of equipment, battle beasts, genetic life forms, and various auxiliary devices. Each item required a significant amount of resources to replenish.
Even for a massive entity like Cloud Summit, a single war could deplete their resources substantially.
Although Cloud Summit would gain several times more profit than what they had consumed after each war, that was a matter for the future and not something that could be resolved overnight. Therefore, to maintain financial balance, Xia Lei had to think hard and calculate meticulously.
The two secret realms didn’t seem like places that could be completely occupied overnight, and it was uncertain how long the battles would last. Xia Lei had to ensure that Cloud Summit wouldn’t be dragged down by these two locations.
“It would be easier if it were just the two secret realms. Here on Earth, there isn't much movement to the north and the Southeast Asia region, but to the west and east, conflicts are likely to escalate immediately, requiring a large number of troops.”
Xia Lei habitually frowned.
“Although our policy is to develop alongside other forces to ease our troop pressure, there are simply too many places to deploy troops. Therefore, we’ve already begun the third large-scale military expansion in Cloud Summit, this time at an unprecedented scale, directly increasing twelve battle teams, totaling 1.5 million people. It will require enormous funds to arm and train them.”
“I took a considerable number of people, which has greatly increased your pressure,” Ye Zhongming said apologetically, gently ruffling Xia Lei’s hair.