Five men, each supporting their pregnant bellies, understood the situation the moment they saw Elara. One held his stomach and started crying uncontrollably. Another, under the influence of the Puppet Soldiers, looked at her with wary eyes he couldn't suppress.
Elara looked over each of them and asked about their situations one by one. With the Puppet Soldiers' restraint ensuring truthfulness and confirming none of them had lingering loyalty or feelings for the Saintess of the Lotus Phoenix Sect who had caused their pregnancies, Elara told them about Elijah. She explained that once they returned with her to Plumera Kingdom, they could either go back to the palace with her or live independently.
As for the children they carried, since the method of conception was special and abortion was not an option, they would have to give birth. If they strongly wished to raise the child themselves and were sure they had the energy and ability to do so, Elara would not insist on taking the children.
If they didn't want to raise them or felt they couldn't, she would take the children back to Plumera Palace.
Just like with Elijah, regardless of their choices, Elara would give them enough support money to live comfortably.
With the Puppet Soldiers' influence, their emotions gradually calmed. They understood Elara was being truthful. After thinking in silence for a long time, they all said they were willing to go with her to Plumera Kingdom. Whether they would live independently like Elijah or return to the palace, they leaned more towards the former. They were too frightened by their previous imprisonment and feared falling into another similar abyss.
Elara did not rush them for answers. She told them to think it over slowly and they could tell her after the Petunia Kingdom matter ended and they returned home.
That same evening, after seeing the five pregnant men, Elara finally received a compiled set of documents gathered over nearly a month. They were delivered personally to her by one of Petunia Kingdom's Three Dukes, Duke Qinglian.
That night, with the documents in hand, Elara began her research by lamplight.
The materials were complete, not only covering the past five years of Petunia Kingdom's domestic affairs, but also data from all over the world gathered by the Celestial Crafts Pavilion.
With the System's help, many datasets could be scanned and compiled directly into tables.
But as Elara looked at the summarized data, her brows furrowed more and more. The uneasy feeling she'd had grew stronger with each clear dataset.
In the past ten years, many Puppet Soldier incidents had occurred around the world without her knowledge. Nearly half of them had signs of people from the Dark Sky Hall or the Nether Hall appearing beforehand.
Especially in the past five years, these incidents had become more frequent worldwide. Places where members of the Dark Sky Hall and Nether Hall had appeared had a significantly higher rate of Puppet Soldier outbreaks.
Thankfully, the Sacred Servant Temple managed to suppress these outbreaks before they spread widely.
But at this rate Elara looked at the System's Puppet Soldier statistics table that was increasing at an alarming rate and felt sure the exterminated Puppet Soldier eggs weren't truly gone.
Over the years, the Dark Sky Hall and Nether Hall had continued appearing frequently around the world despite being hunted by the Sacred Servant Temple. Their activities were increasing, not diminishing.
This increasing trend in the data was so dense it seemed something huge and unpredictable was about to happen.
With furrowed brows, Elara studied the data all night by candlelight.
The next morning, after reviewing all the data, she asked the System to generate a separate continental map. She had all the outbreak points of the Puppet Soldiers, and the places where Dark Sky Hall and Nether Hall had appeared, marked.
Looking at the map, now nearly covered in red dots, Elara's eyes suddenly twitched. She quickly rolled up her sleeves and pulled out a massive 1A sheet of paper, traced the continental map onto it, and used red cinnabar ink to mark all the red dots exactly as the System had.
Then Elara suddenly stood up, face grim and brows tightly furrowed. She took the map and went to find Arieck, Prince Zhongli, and the Three Dukes of Petunia Kingdom.
"Something's wrong. Very wrong. Based on the data over the last ten years, every time people from the Dark Sky Hall or Nether Hall appear, Puppet Soldier outbreaks follow in at least one third of those places."
"In the past year, this delay has shortened. Now outbreaks occur within just one month of their appearance."
"This map and these figures represent the locations where Dark Sky Hall and Nether Hall members have been spotted in the past few months."
Elara spread out the map in front of them without hesitation. She pointed at the densely clustered red dots and explained quickly with the System's calculated statistics in hand.
"Here, here, and here along with these major regions of the world's continents. These places have all been heavily 'attended to' by Dark Sky Hall and Nether Hall members recently."
"But the Puppet Soldier outbreak rates here are far lower than other regions. That's not a good sign because..." Elara's finger shifted directly to the large blue rivers flowing through those regions.
"It's not that the Dark Sky Hall and Nether Hall didn't act in these areas. They released Puppet Soldier eggs into these major rivers. They intend to have these rivers carry the eggs across the entire continent."
When she realized this, Elara thought back to the times she felt the presence of Puppet Soldier eggs every time she left Plumera Kingdom. She also recalled how these sensations always came near water sources.
Those must have been the eggs scattered by Dark Sky Hall and Nether Hall into the water. Carried downstream, they had likely reached countless water bodies.
At those words, the entire room fell silent.
Arieck and Prince Zhongli had already furrowed their brows. The Three Dukes of Petunia stood stiffly in front of the map, their expressions grim as they stared at the densely marked areas.
The areas Elara pointed to were the upper reaches and sources of the main rivers that formed the backbone of the Central Continent.
Each river twisted and flowed across the land, passing through countless countries, serving as the most important water source for many of them.
If people from Huangquan Hall and Anxiao Hall were to release Gu soldier eggs into the sources or upper streams of these rivers, the consequences wouldn't just affect the Petunia Kingdom or its neighboring nations, but the entire continent would be struck by a man-made world-class disaster.
At that moment, seeing the densely packed red dots on the map, as if ready to devour everything, the three dukes of the Petunia Kingdom couldn't help but break out in cold sweat. In their minds surfaced the memory of that continent-wide apocalypse caused by Anxiao Hall centuries ago, a tragedy that was recorded in the histories of many nations.
Could it be that this time, the end-of-world disaster would happen again? And would it still be started by Anxiao Hall and its descendant faction, Huangquan Hall?
"Three Dukes of the Petunia Kingdom, send a letter to Izekiel immediately. Tell him to withdraw his troops and return to the city at once, then notify all cities and counties in the Petunia Kingdom to activate the strictest defense lines. If those people really released the Gu soldier eggs into the upper reaches of those rivers, then by now the parasites may have spread across most of the continent. The full outbreak of the Gu soldier war might be just days away, or it could start at any moment."
Elara was not the ruler of the Petunia Kingdom, but at that moment, after hearing her words, the three dukes instinctively started following her orders.
Arieck and Prince Zhongli also snapped out of it immediately, their brows furrowed as they quickly began arranging their own tasks.
Elara thought back to the past six months. Whether during her distant trip to the Gladiolus Kingdom or now when she came to the Petunia Kingdom, the presence of Gu soldier eggs along the road had become more frequent and intense.
Now, with the map finally in hand, all the unease that had been buried in her heart fully surfaced.
Judging by the density marked on the map, this plan had not just started in the past month. Anxiao Hall and Huangquan Hall had probably been secretly plotting for months, half a year, or even years, preparing to infect the entire continent with Gu soldier eggs and destroy everything.
After staring at the map for a few more seconds, Elara suddenly let go of it, then turned and strode toward Arieck and Prince Zhongli.
"This is urgent. I must return to the Plumera Kingdom right away. During this time, you'd better seal off all movement between regions, set up elite defense lines on city walls, and try to prepare before the full outbreak of Gu soldiers spreads across the continent."
After speaking, Elara handed Arieck the method for making the specially prepared pills, which had already been arranged in advance. Then she used her earring to contact the Plumera Kingdom remotely, ordering them to immediately reinforce all emergency defense lines.
At the same time, she took the five pregnant men and three thousand elite cavalry and rushed out of the city at full speed, heading back toward the Plumera Kingdom.