Chapter 477

Chapter 477

Lorant looked around at the surrounding cliffs. Indeed, the fortress seemed to be moving a lot, but it was actually being extremely careful. For the surrounding cliffs, Yixiantian Fortress’s movement could even be called 'gentle.'

Aside from some loose soil and small, already loosened stones on the surface of the cliffs, there were hardly any large rocks that shifted during this movement.

It was like Zhang Fei embroidering flowers—delicate despite its appearance.

This was largely due to the many past experiences and painful lessons people had learned.

The mountain pass guarded by the Magic Council had been continuously cracking and expanding over a thousand years, mainly because mages often acted recklessly, causing massive destruction.

The Lopulo Mountains, seemingly indestructible and the last barrier for all intelligent beings, were actually quite peculiar. Sometimes, the strikes of legendary mages couldn't even cause a small rock to break, while at other times, even a slight impact could lead to the collapse of an entire cliff.

The unpredictable Lopulo Mountains were as changeable as a child’s mood, always prone to surprises. Therefore, although each mountain pass had an astonishing number of professionals, the organizations guarding the cliffs worked hard to prevent accidents.

Lorant kept this in mind. His Blue Star cave appeared hidden and stable, but it still needed careful handling.

Otherwise, if the cliff were to crack, the cave could end up like Yixiantian. Of course, it was more likely that the cave entrance would be completely sealed off.

The entrance to the Lopulo Mountains was a heavy burden and a responsibility the goblins had to shoulder, so they were more concerned about whether they could continue to guard the pass if the canyon expanded.

But for Lorant's Blue Star, his Lopulo cave was a great opportunity. If the cave were to collapse and be completely sealed off, all of Blue Star’s early preparations would go to waste.

His investments, his future city plans, and his expansion plans for the Blue Star territory would all fall apart!

All that money and effort would be wasted!

The mere thought of such a scenario made Lorant shudder uncontrollably.

No, even if the sky falls and the earth crumbles, his cave must remain intact!

Shaking off that chilling feeling, the store owner took to heart Jacqueline's advice.

When building the fortress later, he had to be extremely careful, and if needed, Fa Meng or Xiao Lan could secretly lend a hand behind the scenes.

In short, the cave must not collapse under any circumstances.

Absolutely not! Even if it did collapse, it had to leave a mountain pass and not bury everything!

Having quietly resolved this, Lorant refocused his gaze on the moving fortress.

When something far larger than anything that should move is coming right at you, it inevitably creates an overwhelming sense of pressure.

Lorant rubbed his arm, trying to shake off the eerie feeling in his heart.

He glanced at Fa Meng floating beside him, camera in hand like a tourist snapping photos, and subtly touched the bracelet on his wrist. When he instinctively reached into his pocket, Lorant suddenly remembered he hadn’t brought the baby today, so he couldn’t calm his nerves by stroking its soft fur.

Still, having Fa Meng and Xiao Lan around helped ease Lorant’s nerves. With these two around, even if the Yixiantian Fortress came at him—or attacked—Lorant was sure he’d make it out unharmed.

These two S-level companions gave Lorant a strong sense of security.

After about an hour, the slow-moving Yixiantian Fortress finally moved from its original position to a spot not far from Lorant and his companions.

This meant that the massive, heavy fortress had moved approximately one kilometer forward in that hour.

By this point, the light at the fortress core had started flickering, dimming and brightening intermittently.

It was like a dying Ultraman, telling everyone it was nearing its limit.

“It’s over,” Jacqueline, clearly an experienced hand, sighed in relief and surreptitiously put away her sketchbook. When her gaze accidentally met that of a goblin attendant, she nodded haughtily, earning a look of admiration from the attendant, as if she had been intently watching the fortress's movement the entire time.

“The condition of the Yixiantian Fortress shows that the legendary-level crystal core’s energy has been completely drained,” Jacqueline explained to Lorant. “That fortress core is an energy black hole. I have no clue where all that energy went.”

Lorant's eyes widened in shock.

This was a legendary beast crystal core! If used for long-distance teleportation, it could have let him flash back and forth across the continent for half a month!

Yet it was completely drained in just one hour?

That’s terrifying!

Lorant immediately questioned whether his Blue Star Fortress should adopt such a mobile mode.

At this level of energy consumption, whether the Blue Star Fortress could move seemed irrelevant!

"Completely drained?" He looked at Jacqueline in disbelief. "That’s insane!"

"Who could deny it?" The witch shrugged. "Though that legendary beast’s crystal core had already been partially used before the goblins bought it, even a full core would have lasted only about another hour and a half."

"This thing is a bottomless pit for energy. If it weren’t used so rarely, no one could afford to maintain it."

Hearing the crystal core wasn’t at full energy, Lorant silently sighed in relief.

While depleting an entire legendary beast crystal core in one hour and nearly three hours for a full core were both extreme, the latter at least didn’t make building such a core seem hopeless.

After all, most cracks in the Lopulo Mountains aren’t that long. Places like the Yixiantian Gorge are already considered long for a Lopulo Mountain entrance. Among all the mountain entrances, only Pokara and one called Mailuso, controlled by the Knights, are longer than Yixiantian.

Normally, the mountain walls at a Lopulo Mountain entrance are about ten kilometers long at most, meaning that three or four legendary beast crystal cores would be enough to move the fortress from one end to the other.

This thought made Lorant silently relieved.

Thinking about it this way, it didn't seem like an unacceptable situation. If necessary, he could always head to the southern desert to borrow a crystal core from a giant sandworm.

Jacqueline, unaware of Lorant's thoughts, continued, "But there’s no other way. The Magic Council has had a research group for a long time, trying to use magic to achieve what the goblin core can do."

"But those idiots have been utterly useless. After years of research, they've achieved nothing but repeatedly reminding people of how crucial the goblin core is as an invention," Jacqueline said disdainfully. "The so-called magical cores they developed can't even move a normal house."

Jacqueline scoffed, "You might as well hope that the Berserker Association's brutes find a way to increase their strength a hundred thousand times and carry the fortress forward themselves!"

Lorant slowly wiped a drop of cold sweat from his brow.

It seemed that Aunt Jacqueline harbored no small amount of resentment toward the Magic Council!

What on earth did those guys do when the Beast Tower was in decline?

However, Jacqueline's tangent actually reaffirmed Lorant's determination to collaborate with the goblins.

If nothing else, the fact that this technology was unique and irreplaceable was more than enough to attract Lorant.

As for how to build his fortress, Lorant already had his own ideas. All he needed was to leverage the goblins' technology to bring his vision to life.

The core was definitely going to be installed in the fortress.

However, whether and how to use it would be up to Lorant, depending on the situation at the Blue Star Fortress.

As they spoke, Yixiantian Fortress retracted its wheels, and the entire structure settled back onto the ground.

The small mechanical arms on either side of the fortress worked even faster. The mountain walls here were much wider than the fortress’s original position, leaving about two meters of space on each side.

The mechanical arms were already suspended on metal plates jutting out from the fortress to maintain balance while moving. When the fortress stopped, the distance made the massive structure sway back and forth, teetering dangerously.

One set of mechanical arms clung to the mountain wall, barely keeping the fortress upright. The other side swiftly began expanding the fortress.

The two-meter gap allowed the mechanical arms, with a steady supply of metal materials, to construct a row of rooms at an astonishing pace.

The newly expanded rooms seamlessly blended into the mountain wall, looking as if they had sprouted from the rock. Once one side was done, the arms on the other side followed, embedding the fortress snugly into the mountain wall without a single gap.

Though the fortress had moved and settled into place, the deafening noise from its relocation drew a surge of beasts to the mountain range, putting immense pressure on the defense line.

Lorant frowned. Seeing the goblins’ heavy casualties, he knew the defense line would soon collapse.

At that point, even the newly positioned fortress would likely struggle to withstand so many beasts.

Without intervention, the goblins would face devastating losses and be overwhelmed for a long time.

Lorant’s fingers instinctively brushed the bracelet holding Xiao Lan, poised to act at any second.

If he weren’t here, it would be one thing, but today he was here, witnessing everything. There was no way he could let these damned beasts run rampant here.

He certainly couldn't stand by and watch the flesh-and-blood goblins be swallowed alive by the beast tide right before his eyes!