Chapter 677: Chapter 375: The Enemy Finally Notices
In other words, although the Association’s infiltration operation already carries the risk of exposure, it has not truly been exposed yet.
Since that’s the case, then naturally nothing could be better.
In the meeting, Shen Yu and the others had no intention of slowing down the infiltration just because the other side was suspicious.
They even intended to become more aggressive.
They knew very well that the current situation would continue either until they were completely exposed, or until the Great Wind Emperor awoke from seclusion.
And when that time came, it would be the outbreak of an all‑out war.
The Association had long since prepared. Although the later they started the full‑scale war, the more the scales of victory would tilt toward the Association, by this point, that tilt would not increase by much, not enough to drastically change the war.
So at this moment, although the Association was still dragging out the start of the war, they no longer cared that much.
They had even begun to focus on how to preserve the spoils of war to the greatest extent.
That was the real focus of this meeting.
"If we集中火力 on the Emperor first and take out the Great Wind Emperor in one go, can we make the entire Great Wind Empire surrender?" Wizard Shen Yu raised this possibility.
But Cultivator Shen Yu denied it.
Cultivator Shen Yu had been infiltrating the Great Wind Empire the longest. Clearly, he was also the one who understood best what would happen to such an Empire if its Emperor suddenly died.
"We cannot look at a transcendent Empire of this level the way we look at a mortal Empire." Cultivator Shen Yu explained, "We must clearly recognize that within the Great Wind Empire, the Great Wind Emperor may appear to be just an Emperor, but in reality, he should be a trinity of Mortal World Emperor, supreme Divine Spirit, and Lord of Faith. In fact, in the hearts of most people, the only reason the entire Empire exists is because of the Great Wind Emperor. Once the Great Wind Emperor dies, the number of martyrs who follow him in death will far exceed half the population; the entire civilization will voluntarily march toward extinction together with the Emperor."
This was indeed a situation that many of the Shen Yus had rarely encountered.
But after careful thought, they had no choice but to admit that Cultivator Shen Yu was right.
For the Great Wind Empire to rise from an Empire as tiny as an ant to its current level, spanning the All Heavens and surpassing myth, was basically all thanks to this Great Wind Emperor.
He had led the entire Empire to forge a brand‑new myth.
It could be said that without the Great Wind Emperor, there would absolutely be no Great Wind Empire.
On top of that, over such an incredibly long period of time, throughout the entire civilization from top to bottom, whether in culture or in institutions, "loyalty" had long been engraved into their bones.
In this situation, the Great Wind Emperor’s formal title should have the word "Sacred" added to it.
He was both the supreme ruler of the Empire in a secular sense, and also the supreme object of faith for everyone in the Empire.
In other words, he was the Empire itself!
In such a case, if he were to fall, the hatred that would be aroused would be unimaginable.
Even if they could fully seize control of the entire Empire, it would still be difficult to ease that hatred within two or three generations.
"By that logic, not only can we not take out this Emperor at the very beginning, we even have to make sure he doesn’t die in the opening phase of the war; otherwise we’ll only get a worthless ruin, and might even have to face an all‑out, consequence‑be‑damned self‑destruction of the entire civilization?" Martial Artist Shen Yu posed this as a question, but although it was phrased as a question, he already had the answer in his heart.
He couldn’t help but sigh.
"That is the reality." Shen Yu was somewhat helpless, but had to continue, "If we want to harvest the Great Wind Empire in a relatively complete form, the only way is to have the Great Wind Emperor initiate surrender after he has already confirmed defeat. Otherwise, we can only obtain part of the spoils as captured gains during the war, and it will be difficult to carry out a systematic reception of the civilization."
When all was said and done, in normal circumstances, wars between evenly matched sides yield the least profit.
They usually only occur in ancient periods of civilization when the situation is hard to see clearly.
Unfortunately, after entering the All Heavens, the relations between civilizations had once again returned to that ancient stage—unable to truly see the other side or themselves clearly.
Seeing the conference hall fall temporarily silent, Shen Yu looked at all the other Shen Yus and gave the final summary. In a deep voice he said, "This will be an extremely arduous war. Our civilizations will all suffer significant losses; some losses may even be permanent. But this is also a war we cannot avoid. Whether it’s the Gray Mist, the High Tower civilization, or certain interests embodied by our opponent, none of them are things we can give up. Since that’s the case, I hope all of you are prepared to go all out for victory—we cannot lie forever on the advantage brought by the Gray Mist Space. Sooner or later we must surpass it and walk our own path."
These words, especially the last sentence, made the expressions of all the Shen Yus stir slightly.
Because these were words that every Shen Yu agreed with.
Up to now, throughout the development of the Agreement, although they had encountered many difficulties, all the Shen Yus had to admit that with the help of the Gray Mist Space, in essence those difficulties had not put them under too much pressure.
Even when Wizard Shen Yu had once faced a Divine Spirit, he had still retained the final option of fleeing that world with many people in tow.
