Alleria reached out and felt the air.
"This place gives me a familiar feeling, as if I've returned to Eversong Woods!"
"No, sister, the vitality here is even more vigorous than in Eversong Woods." Sylvanas took a deep breath and expressed her feelings.
Eversong Woods, nourished by the energy of the Sunwell, enjoys spring all year round with favorable weather. It's a similar golden hue, but that's merely from a vial of water from the Well of Eternity. Compared to land directly blessed by Freya, Eversong Woods is ultimately inferior in terms of both life energy and arcane energy concentration.
Galen gazed into the distance, taking in the entire valley. At the entrance to the Vale of Eternal Blossoms was a golden staircase, leading to the center of the valley where a shimmering lake lay.
Zhou Zhuo explained that according to records passed down from a thousand years ago, the lake was called the Lake of Blossoms, and east of the Lake of Blossoms lay the plains of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms: Midsummer Plain.
At the entrance to the passage stood two lifelike giant mogu statues, holding long spears. The spears were crossed, guarding the palace complex in the valley.
That was the later emperor's imperial palace, with three huge palaces built against the mountain.
The refugees did not enter the palace complex to the east. According to the Golden Lotus's plan, they would head south to a place called Mistfall Village at the foot of the southern mountains, which was a sanctuary for the pandaren.
Here, they would not have to worry about food and would only need to wait for the war to end before they could return to their homes and rebuild.
Galen and the others arrived at a gazebo below the two statues, called the Gilded Pavilion, where Taran Zhu of the Shado-Pan and the elders of the Golden Lotus were already waiting.
Taran Zhu waved at Galen, signaling him to come over. After Galen jumped off the yak and sat down in the gazebo, Taran Zhu introduced him to the situation in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
"Galen, the refugees have been arranged to the south. The guards of the Shado-Pan and the Golden Lotus will protect them. Currently, members of the Golden Lotus have moved into the eastern palace, which was once built by the pandaren ancestors for the mogu emperor."
At this time, an elder of the Golden Lotus interjected, "We will establish a Golden Lotus branch inside, mainly responsible for coordinating the logistics of the Shado-Pan Assault, the Serpent's Spine Regiment, and the Alliance Allied Forces."
This was a young elder who was visibly restrained when facing Galen.
From his inadvertent glances back at the other Golden Lotus elders, Galen knew that he was just an unlucky guy pushed to the front.
Who told Galen to have such a high status—Lord of the Alliance, Friend of the Celestials—and be so difficult to talk to? Coupled with Galen's seemingly selfless attitude towards the pandaren, it made the people of the Golden Lotus feel helpless.
Who told the pandaren to be in need of help?
It could only be blamed on the Four Celestials for keeping Galen's Star Spirit Envoy identity so secret, preventing the pandaren from knowing that the mantid's premature attack was Galen's doing. It was estimated that these elders would be furious.
"Highlord, the northern palace in this complex is called the Two Moons Shrine, the eastern one is called the Seven Stars Shrine, and the central one is the mogu imperial palace. I wonder which one you prefer for the Alliance's garrison?"
Galen was quite familiar with the Two Moons Shrine, after all, he was a Horde member during that time, but adults don't do multiple-choice questions!
He wanted them all!
But…
He couldn't do whatever he wanted yet. He had to give Taran Zhu and the Four Celestials some face. When the turmoil in Pandaria subsided, the Vale of Eternal Blossoms would be closed again, and that would be the time for him to occupy it.
"In that case, I'll choose the Two Moons Shrine!" Galen looked back at his two lovers and chose the northern palace.
The pandaren also acted quickly, led by Aryia Sage, with the assistance of more than a dozen pandaren mages.
Among the pandaren race, the monk profession had the largest number, followed by shadow warriors as rogues and sharpshooters as ranged attackers. Spellcasters were a rare profession among the pandaren.
This was a legacy of history. When Shao Hao ascended the throne, he received a prophecy when he visited the jinyu elders: their allies, the highborne, were becoming increasingly addicted to arcane magic, abusing the power of the Well of Eternity and inviting great disasters.
As allies, the rational pandaren began sending envoys to advise them, but the increasingly arrogant highborne ignored their allies.
The alliance between the kaldorei empire and the pandaren empire was severed from then on, and the pandaren closed the borders of Pandaria for this reason.
However, as former allies, the pandaren made a final effort. Before their delegation left the night elf capital, they gave the highborne a gift.
It was a treasure chest designed by pandaren artisans, said to contain all the arcane magic they needed. The elves accepted the gift and hid it in a royal tomb in the Temple of Eldarath.
However, when the box was opened, it was empty. It turned out that the pandaren's gift was a wise piece of advice to the highborne: all the arcane magic they needed did not exist; in other words, they did not need any arcane magic at all.
The box and the message it conveyed continued to be preserved in this tomb ten thousand years later, but as history recorded, the pandaren's wisdom was ignored by the highborne.
Because of the highborne, the pandaren regarded arcane magic as a scourge, but they did not completely abandon the mage profession like the night elves led by Tyrande and Malfurion.
Instead, they retained a lineage of mages in the Mystics of the Shado-Pan, who adhered to the pandaren's detached mentality, researching and using arcane magic to a limited extent.
Galen did not agree with this. Azeroth, as a high-magic world, nurtured powerful Star Spirits. Even without the existence of the Well of Eternity, the orderly arcane energy leaking from the surface was considerable.
Look at the archmages of Dalaran, they had neither the Well of Eternity, nor the Sunwell, nor the Nightwell, but they still burst forth with destructive arcane light.
Moreover, Azeroth had the Burning Legion as its destined enemy. Abandoning the mage profession, a weapon of mass destruction, was simply cutting off one's own arm.
Galen had always believed that the level of development of a civilization depended on the use of energy. In Azeroth, magic and magic-related engineering were the primary productive forces of Azeroth, and that was how he operated.
For example, Stromgarde now had permanent portals to the capitals of various countries, allowing them to arrive at their destinations almost instantly when needed. All of this was because tens of thousands of mid-level warlocks from the Heart of Origin injected energy and maintained the portals daily.
The streets in the city were also equipped with automatic magic lamps and magic brooms like those in Silvermoon City, which were simply too convenient.
Although Galen was a mediocre mage, he had the strength of a demigod as his foundation. With ample magic power and the help of the Pandaren mages, a legion-level portal was quickly activated!
As the suzerain state of the Alliance, the Eastern Kingdoms Alliance was the first to step into the portal, led by the Stormgarde delegation!
"Hahaha! Danath, long time no see!"
Galen saw that the first one to cross the portal was actually his cousin, and he immediately gave him a bear hug.
He thought Gandalf would be the first to come, but the old geezer let Danath come first.
...
"You, you're not acting like a king, not acting like a leader, leaving the huge mess of the Alliance to run around... messing around!"
Danath looked resentful. Galen was too irresponsible as a hands-off leader. The Alliance was doing fine, after all, it was a political union where everyone lived their own lives, recuperating, restoring the population, and trying to heal the wounds caused by the Burning Legion and the Scourge.
As long as Azeroth didn't experience large-scale turmoil, Galen wouldn't need to worry too much.
The problem was...
Stromgarde was in a period of explosive growth!
Originally, it only had Arathi Highlands and Tol Barad Island, but thanks to Galen's years of management, it gained new territories such as Northshire Province, Wetlands Tol Bayen Port, Badlands mines, Borean Tundra Farshire County, Howling Fjord Giant Plains, and other territories. Moreover, these were truly the private territories of the Trollbane family, not lands to be enfeoffed to other nobles!
Of course, there were many territories that Galen attributed to his own private domain and did not include in Stromgarde's official certification.
Twenty-one years have passed since the opening of the Dark Portal, enough for a generation to grow up. The explosive growth of territory and population has led to busy government affairs.
After becoming king, Galen formed the Hand of the King in the country to help him handle government affairs. As a result, he was only settled for the first two years when his child was just born, staying obediently in Stromgarde. Now that the child is older, able to run and jump, Galen immediately took the whole family out to play!
This made Galen's old father and Danath suffer. Sauras was fine, at most he just went back to his original job, occasionally using his old age as an excuse to go to the Throne of Heroes headquarters to spar with a group of martial souls.
Ah, yes, yes, yes, uncle, you are old, are you worthy of the Springs of Life that you drink like water?
Only Danath was working hard and worrying about everything.
I was originally a general, a proper meritorious noble, and now you want me to handle government affairs?
Galen wanted him to be both civil and military, cultivating him into a regent... to death...
Danath was suffering in his heart!
Bang, bang, bang!
In the bear hug, Danath "gently" patted Galen's back to express his "miss" for him...
"Chen, how much hatred does this human have for Galen!" Yrel's eyes twitched when she heard the sound of the palm hitting his back, and she asked Old Chen beside her in confusion.
"Yrel, don't talk nonsense. This is Danath Trollbane, Galen's cousin. As far as I know, the relationship between the two is extremely good!"
"Are you sure?"
"That's right..." Old Chen's voice became lower and lower as he spoke, obviously not so confident.
After the Stromgarde thousand-man team arrived, Galen asked them to wait in the square at the entrance of the Shrine of Two Moons. Later, the Kingdom of Lordaeron, the Kingdom of Kul Tiras, the Kingdom of Gilneas, the Kingdom of Stormwind, the Duchy of Alterac, the Kirin Tor mages, the high elves, the dwarves, the Nightfallen elves, the tauren, and the night elves appeared in the Shrine of Two Moons in turn.
After many years, it was another reunion of old friends. Turalyon, Jaina, Prince Liam and his sister Princess Tess, Duke Bolvar, Duchess Katrana, Gandalf, the high elves were represented by Sylvanas and Vereesa, the dwarf representative was Brann, the Nightfallen elves were led by Thalyssra, the tauren were represented by Little Baine and his wife Mayla Highmountain, and the night elves were represented by Thossarian.
This Alliance army completely stunned the Golden Lotus and Shado-Pan leaders. They knew the Alliance should be strong, but they didn't expect it to be so strong!
These leaders were all legendary figures!
There were also ten thousand high-level professionals!
Most of them were professional soldiers!
The Pandaren exchanged glances, knowing that this was a sure thing, they had found a backer!
"Champions of the Alliance! This! Is Pandaria, an ancient and mysterious continent."
"The Pandaren will be new members of our Alliance, but they are currently encountering a little trouble created by enemies."
Under the huge maple tree at the entrance of the Shrine of Two Moons, Galen was surrounded by Alliance members, and he directly began this war mobilization.
"For the enemies of our friends, what are you best at??"
The Alliance soldiers remembered the green-skinned orcs, the Burning Legion, the putrid skeletons, those were their former enemies, and they had all been defeated by them!
The Alliance army, full of martial spirit, shouted: "Beat them down! Break through them! Blow them up!"
"Very good, worthy of being my Galen's soldiers! Do a good job, the Pandaren allies will not treat each of us badly!" Galen was very satisfied with this answer!
"Long live Trollbane! Long live the High King!"
Hiss!
This long live might be a blessing to ordinary people, but for Galen, it was almost a curse!
But facing the Alliance soldiers with faces full of reverence, Galen was unable to refute for a while.
Ah!
I don't listen, I don't listen!
Ten thousand turtle chanting scriptures!
Eh hey!
That night, a grand bonfire party was held on the plain below the Shrine of Two Moons platform, and the Pandaren and the Alliance officially began friendly exchanges.
What!
Your Four Winds Valley's grain and herbs can be harvested twice a month? Let me take a moment!
What!
The various races of your Eastern Kingdoms Alliance can pull out a million-strong army? Let me take a moment!
What!
Your Pandaren's vaults have endless precious materials and gold, and can produce five thousand tons of wine a year?
What?
The Alliance's naval fleet has several thousand ships?
After a round of drinking, the Pandaren secretly decided: This Alliance, we Pandaren are joining!
The Alliance also didn't hold back, Pandaria was too rich, the Pandaren were too honest, we are determined to make friends with you, this time we must help our new friends chop something as sincerity!
The two sides hit it off and prepared to sign the alliance treaty the next day. It just so happened that the leader of the Alliance was in front of them, and representatives of various forces were witnessing, and the Pandaren said that they had caught up.
The Alliance countries also welcomed their joining, this Pandaria is too rich in resources, our Alliance is in need of you!
Soon, the Alliance army was reorganized, with six thousand melee professionals, two thousand spellcasters, and one thousand various healing professionals forming a unified legion, led by Turalyon.