Chapter 57: The Fourth Calamity

Chapter 57: The Fourth Calamity

“Are you sure this is your domain? Not the beastmen’s?”

Stepping out of the portal in Duofei City, Yu Sheng’an stood atop the city walls, staring dumbfounded at the endless tide of beastmen armies outside.

“I discovered it first,” Aphnora said with utmost seriousness.

“Just this one city?” Yu Sheng’an jerked his thumb over his shoulder, pointing behind him.

A group of native inhabitants of the domain, their aesthetic heavily influenced by Vias, gazed at Aphnora with reverence.

As for their looks toward Yu Sheng’an—their expressions were full of suspicion and confusion.

Clearly, they couldn’t comprehend what kind of existence this man, who had suddenly appeared beside their goddess, truly was.

“Mhm. When I found this domain, civilization here hadn’t even begun. I relocated some people here, and it took a hundred and ten years to develop this city with a population of a million!” Aphnora’s tone carried a hint of pride.

“Over a hundred years? Tsk tsk. Give any random man a group of women, and in a hundred years, he could create an entire race. And all you managed was a single city?”

Yu Sheng’an looked torn between laughter and exasperation. “My dear Aphnora, this is an entire domain we’re talking about! A small world! Instead of expanding by clearing the mist and claiming land, you just circled around this one city?”

Aphnora didn’t quite understand what he meant by “clearing the mist,” but she could roughly guess. With a pout, she defended herself, “I surveyed this domain thoroughly! Aside from mineral resources and various wild beasts, there’s nothing particularly special here. Besides, scattering the population would make them harder to protect.”

“Holy— I can’t even with you. A wealth of mineral resources isn’t special?”

Yu Sheng’an covered his face, realizing he had vastly overestimated Aphnora.

It wasn’t that she lacked power or experience.

She was simply ignorant!

No matter how intelligent she was, she couldn’t create what she had never seen before.

And given the closed-off, medieval-like cultural traits of Aizear, it was unlikely to give rise to any groundbreaking ideas or civilizations.

In the end, he had placed too much faith in the influence of a Divine Spark and the passage of time on a person.

It was like comparing a hundred-year-old farmer living deep in the mountains to a ten-year-old city kid—the latter’s knowledge and perspective would still surpass the former’s.

“I called you here to fend off the beastmen invasion, not to lecture me!” Aphnora snapped, her pride wounded.

Yu Sheng’an’s look of disbelief made her feel deeply insulted.

Though she had to admit, he did seem extraordinary.

Just half an hour ago, his analysis of the Music Godhood’s authority had given her a moment of clarity, as if clouds had parted to reveal the sky.

But being looked down on still stung. She was the Music Goddess, after all!

“Right, right. You’re so pretty, whatever you say must be true. My apologies!”

Yu Sheng’an nodded repeatedly, raising his hands in surrender. His words were blatantly insincere, yet for some reason, Aphnora’s cheeks flushed slightly.

Ugh, what a scoundrel!

Not a single serious word from him.

“So, what do we do now?” Aphnora changed the subject.

“We’ll have to shift our strategic objective. At this point, it’s not the beastmen invading our domain—it’s us invading theirs.” Yu Sheng’an sighed helplessly.

As far as the eye could see, countless beastmen poured out of the portal erected in the forest.

Upon closer inspection, aside from the burly warriors, a significant portion of them were the elderly, weak, sick, or disabled.

The beastmen were laden with bundles large and small, carrying loads on their shoulders and in their hands, looking for all the world like a massive family relocation.

Clearly, the beastmen had already set their sights on putting down roots here.

Not that their strategy was unusually aggressive—it was simply how the beastmen had always operated.

Across the multiverse, the beastmen were undoubtedly one of the finest warring races. Even the abyss demons of the large domains, renowned for their combat prowess, had to concede defeat.

Not that the abyss demons couldn’t defeat the beastmen—it was just that demons, infamous for their twisted chaos, struggled to maintain the discipline and obedience required of an army.

The beastmen were different.

They were massive in size, naturally powerful, highly obedient, fearless in the face of death, and most importantly—their reproductive rate was astonishing!

Though most beastmen had more brawn than brains, their sheer population ensured the emergence of many exceptional shamans and even mages.

The entire race was undeniably formidable in battle!

Of course, they had one glaring weakness—their explosive reproduction rate meant their demand for land was insatiable.

Beast God Bruhman would invade a large domain every so often.

On the surface, it was to plunder resources and food, but in truth, it was to cull their numbers and refine the elite.

If they dared invade large domains, medium-sized domains limited to gods and small domains restricted to demigods were naturally fair game.

Once a small or medium domain was discovered, the starving minor tribes among the beastmen would scramble to mobilize en masse.

After all, gods of small and medium domains couldn’t physically enter—only their projections could intervene, and Forbidden Magic was out of the question. This meant the intensity of war was inherently limited.

Victory hinged more on conventional military strength—so why fear anything?

This was the fundamental reason Beast God Bruhman could boldly declare, "In a small domain, no one is a match for the beastmen!"

"We invade?" Aphnora struggled to shift her mindset.

"Isn’t that obvious? Look—they’ve already moved in with their families. And us? Aside from this one foothold, what else do we have?"

"Then… what do you suggest?"

"Do you have a sandbox model?"

"Sandbox model?"

"It’s a scaled-down map of the domain’s mountains and rivers, reduced by millions of times," Yu Sheng'an gestured.

"I can make one immediately." Aphnora glanced at the now-quiet beastmen and said, "Let’s discuss this in detail at the temple!"

"Fine."

With a thought, Aphnora inscribed a short-range portal and took Yu Sheng'an away from the city walls.

The next moment, the two appeared in the temple at the heart of Duofei City.

Aphnora raised a hand, and countless grains of sand and dust gathered from all directions.

Under her formidable magical control, a massive sandbox model, roughly three zhang in length and width, materialized in the hall.

The mountains and rivers on the model were lifelike, with even the rivers appearing to flow endlessly—clearly simulated by water magic.

Seeing this display of skill, Yu Sheng'an couldn’t help but think, This girl isn’t completely useless after all.

"Will this do? Should I make it bigger?" Aphnora asked humbly, already realizing that in matters of war, she might indeed be outmatched by this scoundrel.

"This is enough."

Yu Sheng'an responded and began circling the sandbox model.

After carefully inquiring about Duofei City's resource reserves and combat units, his expression grew even grimmer.

Currently, Duofei City was completely at a disadvantage, with only a handful of high-tier combatants.

The local forces of Duofei City, having long been sheltered by Aphnora, had grown rusty in battle and were essentially a disorganized rabble.

Now, the city relied entirely on Aphnora's Magic Tower for protection.

With Aphnora's power, keeping the city from falling was hardly an issue.

But the problem was—believers needed to eat.

A metropolis with a population of millions had an enormous demand for food, and the Magic Tower couldn’t possibly cover all the farmland.

If this stalemate continued, Duofei City's believers would be in grave danger.

Once believers began dying en masse, would there even be any point in protecting this city for a god?

So they had to find a way to leave the city—at the very least, to secure the farmland.

But how easy was that?

Beast God Bruhman was ruthless—his cross-domain portal had been built right outside Duofei City’s gates, a blatant display of suicidal human-wave tactics.

Leaving the city was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

Given this, how could they possibly fight this war?

Aphnora, observing Yu Sheng'an’s grim expression, broke the silence after a while. "Since we’ve formed an alliance, this domain should rightfully have a place for you. I can assist you in constructing a domain portal to summon your followers and believers."

Her words sounded pleasant, but the subtext was clear: she wanted Yu Sheng'an to send reinforcements.

"You’ll be disappointed—I have no believers."

"What?" Aphnora was stunned.

"I’m an atheist."

"…" A profound sense of absurdity assaulted Aphnora’s mind. A god telling another god that he was an atheist—was there anything more ridiculous than this?

"Our priority now should be to build as many Magic Towers as possible and seize more land before the beastmen fully occupy the domain," Yu Sheng'an said, gesturing at vast stretches of unclaimed territory.

"That would be extremely difficult. Bruhman will surely send scouts across the domain. Once they discover we’re building Magic Towers, they’ll undoubtedly dispatch troops to obstruct us."

"They can harass us, and we can harass them. To be honest, guerrilla warfare is my specialty." Yu Sheng'an’s face brimmed with confidence.

"But where will the soldiers come from? Didn’t you say you have no believers?"

"I have no believers, but I have the Fourth Calamity!"

"The Fourth Calamity?" Aphnora looked utterly bewildered.