Galen didn't know there was a problem in his backyard. He quickly approved today's important documents in the palace's office hall.
Galen protected Stromgarde very well. The Horde army and the undead Scourge failed to cross the Arathi Highlands' Wall of Thoradin and the Thandol Span to enter the kingdom's core territory.
After more than twenty years of development, Stromgarde's population has grown from 800,000 to 3 million. Its territory has expanded northward from the Arathi Highlands to the Hillsbrad Foothills, and southward to encompass the Northeron Highlands and the Wetlands. It also has numerous overseas colonies outside the Eastern Kingdoms, making it extremely powerful.
In addition to Stromgarde's original citizens, the total population of Galen's Heart of Creation base is also growing explosively, approaching the 50 million mark, with most of the combat units stationed in Draenor.
Fortunately, these units do not require much management. Galen appointed Medivh and Khadgar as governors of Draenor, Aegwynn as governor of Kalimdor, and Torsedrin was responsible for the night elf forces, with the assistance of more than a dozen legion commanders. Galen basically didn't have to worry too much, just kept producing troops.
Now, nearly half of the small goal of 100 million has been completed.
However, the Heart of Creation needs several more years to upgrade again!
After finishing his work today, Galen summoned the Shadowblade spies who had been waiting for a long time.
Valeera and Onyxia, who had transformed into human form, walked into the council hall. Judging from the clashing auras between the two, they didn't seem to be getting along very well.
Galen had vaguely heard about this. With the increase in the number of races under Galen's command, the Shadowblade organization was also expanding rapidly, encompassing human shadow stalkers, orc assassins, draenei broken, gnoll rogues, and recently, some pandaren wanderers have also joined under Tao Ya's leadership.
The addition of each race represents the birth of a Shadowblade elder.
Onyxia has now become an elder in the Shadowblade organization. In addition to a group of dragonspawn modified by Nefarian to serve as golden dragon spies, she also controls a group of human stalkers.
The predecessors of this group of stalkers were called the Syndicate, a complex bandit criminal organization. Their members were mainly Alterac nobles exiled after the Alliance-Horde wars.
They did not recognize Alterac's new king, Daval Prestor, and launched a huge rebellion under the leadership of the former nobles Duke Fal'khest and Aiden Perenolde, once occupying parts of the Alterac Mountains and Hillsbrad Foothills.
They operated in the Alterac Mountains and surrounding areas, plundering large amounts of wealth through combat, assassination, deception, and theft, while trying to reclaim their ancestral territory and restore their noble status.
During that time, Galen happened to go to the ancient era, wasting nearly ten years in the time tunnel.
When he returned, the Syndicate had already been destroyed by Nefarian. The leading former Alterac royal family members, Aiden Perenolde and Grand Duke Fal'khest, were purified by holy light dragon breath. Other heinous leaders were also brought to justice, and only the elite members were absorbed and incorporated.
Originally, everyone belonged to the same force, working together for Galen. Galen also encouraged healthy competition, but the reason why these two were at odds was their different styles.
The former Syndicate rogues under Onyxia were okay in terms of professional skills, and Valeera couldn't find any fault with them, but the problem was that this Alterac princess also had a golden dragon spy squad!
Golden Dragon Spies!
Listen to the name, it's already golden, what kind of spies are they!
Their concept of infiltration is: as long as you kill everyone, no one will find out they infiltrated!
I don't know where they heard this concept from, and there is also a saying circulating within the Shadowblade: Third-rate assassins kill their target. Second-rate assassins kill everyone who discovers them. First-rate assassins kill everyone they see.
This is simply a blasphemy against the Assassin's Creed. You are already covered in golden light, wouldn't it be better to be your holy priests, why pretend to be stalkers?
Fortunately, as the leader of the Shadowblade, Garona promptly rectified this chaotic statement, removed the golden dragon spies from the Shadowblade, and severely suppressed Elder Onyxia.
When Galen learned about this, he didn't express any opinion.
He vaguely remembered that the classic saying seemed… probably… might have been something he said casually, and it happened that Onyxia was accompanying him that time…
Ahem!
Unspeakable, unspeakable, how could I, Galen, be the kind of person who creates trouble for his subordinates?
The two beautiful ladies stood in front of Galen, ready to start reporting their work.
Valeera crossed her arms in front of her chest, her long legs dazzlingly white. She raised her chin slightly, signaling Onyxia to start first.
"You go first."
"Why should I go first?"
Onyxia, wearing a purplish-red dress, was unhappy. When she was expelled from her golden dragon spies, this guy was the most active!
"Then I'll go first!"
Valeera hadn't realized the seriousness of the situation.
"Why should you go first!"
Although Onyxia's original evil bloodline was cleared after the soul was light-forged, and she became much more cheerful and sunny after using holy light, her stubbornness and willfulness in her bones did not change. At this moment, facing Valeera, who had some small contradictions with her, she was displaying this personality to the fullest.
Sure enough, Galen keenly noticed that the blood vessels on Valeera's forehead had already appeared in the shape of a tic-tac-toe, and her hands had been clenched into fists, her knuckles turning white from being pinched.
"Enough!"
Galen interrupted the two people's farce with a soft shout, and then pointed at Onyxia and said, "Onyxia, you go first!"
Onyxia was stunned for a moment, then looked aggrieved, as if she had failed in her duel with Valeera.
However, she nodded and took a step forward, saying, "Master, my mother has successfully created twilight dragons according to your method. They are currently being raised with all their strength. I believe they will soon grow and form a legion-level combat force. The high-level members of the Twilight's Hammer are very satisfied with the birth of the twilight dragons and have revealed their next plan to my mother!"
Galen nodded in satisfaction: "Very good, but you must remember that these twilight dragons are dangerous. You must firmly control them. When the time is right, they will give the Twilight's Hammer a fatal blow!"
Onyxia sensed Galen's hidden worry and said again: "Master, you don't need to worry about the twilight dragons at all. My mother has controlled all the twilight dragons with the black dragon clan's secret method. We will not let them cause harm to this world."
Galen was silent, expressing doubt about the so-called secret methods of the Black Dragon clan.
He remembered that after Sinestra created the first twilight dragon, she implanted a shard of a dragon soul into his body to achieve control.
As a result, that twilight dragon, under Krasus's verbal persuasion, became filled with a desire for freedom and rebelled, ultimately perishing together with Sinestra, which led to Deathwing acquiring the final research results.
Galen didn't believe that Sinestra could succeed in this life in doing what she failed to do in his previous life, so he decided to add an extra layer of insurance just in case.
Galen took out a metal box from his backpack and gestured for Onyxia to come over.
"This is a box of small insects. You understand their purpose. Feed them all to the twilight dragons. I want to be able to pinpoint their location at all times!"
Onyxia nodded understandingly.
"Go get some rest! Tomorrow, before departing for the Broken Isles, complete this task."
Having said that, Galen thought for a moment and added emphatically, "Also, reassure Lady Sinestra. The things I, Galen, guarantee will never be broken. Let her hold firm to her will and not let the power of the Old God dominate her will!"
The power of Y'shaarj's Heart is not so easy to control. However, with Lai and Galen jointly applying a seal to suppress the heart's consciousness, the Dragon Mother should be able to withstand the Sha of Pride alone.
Onyxia left the council hall carrying a box of mechanical insects. Now it was Valeera's turn to work.
"Highlord, there's been new information regarding Zandalar Island, which you asked me to focus on."
Valeera was much more professional than Onyxia, having already organized and classified her information: "The remnants of the golden fleet that fled from Pandaria have returned to Zandalar. The failure of this plan has led to many Zandalari priests questioning Prophet Zul."
"Oh?"
So, Zul was being attacked by the masses.
"Does our Dark Prophet have any countermeasures?"
As a seer capable of foreseeing the future, if he failed to predict this crisis in advance, Galen would lower Zul's danger rating in his little notebook.
He was a schemer, a doer, and a Zandalari supremacist. He was Galen's biggest obstacle to conquering the Zandalari trolls.
That's right, the Dark Prophet was Galen's biggest opponent, as for the Zandalari God-King Rastakhan…
It's not that Galen looked down on him…
Okay, Galen did look down on him!
It cannot be denied that when he first ascended the throne, he was a wise king. With Zul's assistance, the kingdom's power grew stronger day by day. They both yearned for the Zandalari Empire to become the overlord of the world again and had been working towards this goal.
Two hundred years after Rastakhan took the throne, his queen died in childbirth. The Loa he believed in failed to save his beloved queen, making him feel that life was meaningless, and he became depressed ever since.
He just dropped the burden, and his close comrade, the Dark Prophet Zul, was the one who suffered.
After all, the Zandalari Kingdom was not a monolithic entity. Those high-ranking priests of the Loa had their own agendas. After discovering that the God-King was wholeheartedly favoring Prophet Zul, they began to compete for power and drag the Prophet down.
The Dark Prophet Zul, who was indeed the most powerful charlatan in Azeroth, couldn't withstand the burden of so many pig teammates. Otherwise, in the Battle of Stranglethorn Vale, the newborn Gurubashi trolls would not have been able to withstand the Zandalari army's offensive, plunging Zandalar into a quagmire of war.
"The Dark Prophet quelled the unrest in Nazmir, suppressing the dissenting voices at home, but according to my spies stationed in Nazmir, the Twilight's Hammer was responsible for the Dark Prophet's victory."
Valeera paused for a moment, then continued: "Deep in the Nazmir jungle, there is a mysterious structure. Three of our spies attempted to investigate this structure, but all were lost in it. I suspect that there are things needed by the Twilight's Hammer inside. The cultists there have been active recently."
Nazmir?
Blood Trolls?
"Could their target be G'huun?"
Galen muttered to himself, it should be that guy, only this thing could arouse the interest of the Twilight's Hammer, it's just… could N'Zoth want to devour G'huun, this artificial Old God?
"Highlord, what is G'huun? Why are those cultists going to so much trouble for it?"
Valeera knew about the Old Gods, but as for this suddenly emerging G'huun, probably no more than ten people in all of Azeroth knew of its existence!
Moreover, the elites of the Hidden Blades were at most high-ranking rogues. Entering Uldir would mean certain death for them.
"G'huun, also known as the Sixth Old God…"
"The Sixth Old God?"
Valeera frowned: "Highlord, in the 'Azerothian Chronicles' you wrote, there are only five: Sahratal, Y'shaarj, Yogg-Saron, C'Thun, and N'Zoth. When did a sixth Old God emerge?"
"…"
Why wasn't the sixth one written?
Because he forgot.
"It's not wrong that there are only five Old Gods. The reason why I said G'huun is the sixth but didn't write it is because it wasn't born naturally but artificially manufactured."
When the Titans descended on Azeroth for the second time, they discovered that this world had already been occupied by the Void Lords' minions, who had established a vast Black Empire.
After creating the Guardian system to disintegrate the Black Empire's forces, the Titans discovered that the Old Gods were too deeply connected to this world, and killing them might cause fatal damage to Azeroth.
So the Titans assigned their creations to build a secret laboratory called Uldir, where they studied the organized remains of the Old Gods, wanting to understand their essence and hoping to find a way to solve the Old God threat.
Later, the Titan Guardians went north at the summons of Ulduar. Before leaving, they built several pyramids as facilities to seal the laboratory.
The Titan Guardians thought their seals were stable and secure, but they ignored one fact: a God-made Old God is still an Old God.
G'huun possessed the same corruption abilities as other Old Gods. He was secretly gathering strength, preparing to break free.
Coincidentally, the trolls rose up and built their capital on a pyramid, one of the three seals left here by the Titan Guardians: the Great Seal.
With living beings, G'huun was overjoyed. He began to slowly corrupt the trolls' minds, organize cults, and spread plagues, gradually eroding the Zandalari Empire, once the strongest and most indestructible empire in the world.