In the blueprints, this area was designated for a colossal military base, encircled by a satellite city, with every detail of amenities and entertainment meticulously planned. Surrounding the city was a vast, fertile plain, over five thousand kilometers wide and long, riddled with numerous lakes and rivers. This area was destined to become a massive granary, supplying high-quality natural crops, fresh meat, and dairy products. There would be expansive farmlands, countless flower fields, ranches, and processing zones; the yields here were intended to satisfy the needs of nearly ten billion Roman people.

As the utmost priority, the construction of this military base had to be completed with all possible haste. All defensive emplacements must be installed, and all defense systems must be laid out promptly—Perbolt was acutely aware of this. Neither the Terran Federation nor the other emerging powers would hesitate to cause trouble or sow discord within this grand granary.

Without armed defense, this granary was nothing more than a massive joke in the eyes of certain parties; a single gene bomb could wither every crop overnight.

For the Romans, who were extremely particular about their quality of life, the synthesized sludge produced by food replicators simply wouldn't suffice. To ensure the orthodox Romans supported the rule of the First Roman Kingdom, countless minutiae had to be executed to perfection. Paramount among these was the requirement that every orthodox Roman dining table must feature fresh pure wheat bread, fine aged wine, and generous cuts of tender beef and lamb.

“These idiotic swine!”

The military base was critically important. Perbolt had specifically rushed here to inspect the construction progress, but what he saw and heard gave him a severe headache.

The noble Romans would never personally engage in such infrastructure work; the Roman officials present were merely overseers. The primary labor force consisted of vast numbers of Servile race troopers piloting heavy construction machinery. Furthermore, several hundred thousand robust Servile soldiers, brought over from the Roman Knights’ Star Base, were participating in the construction. These beings possessed traditional craftsmanship used for erecting grand temples, and in Perbolt’s calculations, they could at least handle menial tasks.

Having previously witnessed a meticulously restored hyper-gigantic temple on the lands of these Serviles, Perbolt believed their craftmanship was quite commendable. What Perbolt had failed to anticipate was that these simple-minded brutes were only capable of building temples; anything even slightly high-tech was strictly off-limits to them.

He watched in dismay as a dozen Servile warriors—each about five meters tall, entirely encased in biological carapaces grown directly from their musculature—gleefully dragged a thick communications fiber optic cable. With a loud snap, the cable laying machine in the distance crashed to the ground. The hundred-ton cable layer was being pulled and rolled haphazardly across the dirt by these men whose brains seemed to have been entirely replaced by muscle. The three Spirit race operators inside were violently jolted, spitting blood and suffering countless fractures.

A nearby excavator suddenly encountered a monolithic stone boulder perhaps several tens of meters in diameter. A few Spirit race servants directed several massive, earth-brown Servile warriors to help shatter the obstacle. These warriors rushed forward with fervent excitement. Gritting their teeth, they swung their fists with all their might, smashing the giant rock into dust. Along with the boulder, the integrated excavator was pulverized. These Servile warriors, naturally capable of emitting high-frequency shockwaves, attacked without reservation; the powerful oscillations vibrated every component of the excavator, along with the trapped Spirit race servants, into fine molecular fragments.

Several kilometers away, an underground river was suddenly breached. Massive amounts of groundwater rushed to the surface, rapidly spreading outward. In the blink of an eye, the water flooded large sections of the construction site. Simultaneously, several Dwarf Servile warriors, barely a meter tall with entirely black skin, shrieked in unison. They raised their small white crystal staves and screamed with all their might. A blizzard swept across the ground spanning two kilometers, the biting cold wind whipping up snow and hail that swept over the site, freezing the floodwaters gushing from the subterranean river, and freezing every person on site.

“These idiotic swine!”

Perbolt cursed again. He was beginning to realize that involving these Servile troops from disparate races in foundational construction was an absolute catastrophe. Beyond turning the worksite into an incomprehensible, unmanageable mess, they were utterly useless. Perhaps they could erect magnificent, glorious temples when collaborating with their own kin on their ancestral lands, but teaming them up with other races resulted in disaster.

Perbolt fell into deep thought. This was not just about building a military base; the performance of these Servile soldiers had suddenly revealed something else of paramount importance. If these Serviles, who seemed to lack basic intellect, were deployed on a battlefield, wouldn't they wipe out all their allies before even reaching the enemy?

One had to admire the ancestors of the Roman Knights. They had spent countless millennia manipulating these Servile races until they were perfectly docile and obedient. The breeding lines of these Serviles had been subjected to the curses of the Roman Knights, ensuring that over these long years, not a single sufficiently intelligent brain had evolved. Of course, this benefited the Romans immensely; they needed fiercely loyal, fearless cannon fodder, not highly intelligent subordinates.

However, for Perbolt, who desperately lacked manpower and faced the task of rebuilding an entire new nation from scratch, this very trait that benefited Roman rule was now a monumental hindrance. Without utilizing these Servile warriors, he simply lacked the necessary personnel to complete the enormous infrastructure projects. Yet, employing them seemed destined to postpone the completion of these projects indefinitely.

“My dear Mr. Gu Yechen, when will you return with our people?” Perbolt suddenly found himself intensely longing for Gu Yechen’s arrival. How many Romans could Gu Yechen bring back? How many Spirit race Serviles could he reclaim? Perbolt deeply understood why the Spirit race held such a special position among the Roman Serviles; they were nearly the chief administrators of all Roman Serviles, and for good reason.

The individual combat strength of the Spirit race might be weaker, but they were fiercely loyal, and more importantly—they were intelligent enough!

Thud. A Servile warrior resembling an upright-walking giant scorpion slammed headfirst into a heavy pile driver. The support steel column inside, nearly a meter in diameter, was severed by the blow. The thousand-meter-tall column crashed down, flattening over a dozen slow-moving Servile warriors who couldn't react in time. The kin of those tragically slain Serviles became enraged. They dropped their construction equipment and charged towards the still-dazed giant scorpion, brandishing their weapons. Amidst flashes of blades, dozens of nearby giant scorpions were hacked into bloody pulp by the enraged Servile fighters. Caught up in the slaughter, the charging Serviles began to howl and attack every non-kin warrior in sight, plunging the area into chaos.

Nearly a hundred Roman overseers rushed forward in fury, wielding high-voltage stun prods and unleashing a barrage upon these creatures who possessed nothing but muscle instead of brain matter. The million-volt high-tension arcs struck their bodies, managing only to produce a few wisps of smoke. These thick-skinned brutes yelped in pain, their bodies twitching slightly, before hastily dropping their weapons and grabbing engineering machinery, haphazardly resuming work across the site.

If these brainless brutes ever went to war, they would undoubtedly eliminate all their allies first before fearlessly charging the enemy! Perbolt helplessly recognized this truth; these creatures, consuming vast resources daily, had only one possible destination: the battlefield.

“Yazak, you handle it. Figure out how to manage these things.”

“You sort it out!”

Perbolt rubbed his temples in frustration, then turned and walked away with calculated irresponsibility. These beings, made of muscle with no brains, were the loyal enforcers created by the Roman Knights; let the actual Roman Knights figure out how to manage them. He would see if Yazak and the others could devise a solution. Perbolt, for his part, had run out of ideas for them.

Frowning, he walked down the small mound. Perbolt nervously glanced left and right, careful not to be seen. He noticed no one conspicuous nearby; his retinue waited for him beyond a small grove of trees ahead. Perbolt quickly lifted the hem of his robes and vigorously scratched his lower body. It was strange; since parting ways with Gu Yechen that day, Perbolt had been excessively agitated these last few days. Aside from handling essential duties, he had spent every waking moment cavorting with his collection of Queens and Matriarchs.

Admittedly, this surging vitality pleased him greatly; he noticed significant improvements in his stamina and endurance. However, his body was undergoing other subtle, peculiar transformations—changes that made him uneasy. Did he require a comprehensive physical examination? It seemed his body was genuinely amiss.

“I must go pay homage to the great War God Meyer; perhaps the omnipotent one can offer me aid.” Perbolt frowned, giving another strong tug below his robes before walking into the small wood with a troubled expression.

This grove consisted sparsely of broadleaf trees unseen on Earth. Their shape resembled oaks, but the oldest trees at the center of the wood were five times the size of the largest oak on the planet. Countless aerial roots hung down from the massive branches, plunging deep into the ground, while serpentine roots snaked across the earth, spreading hundreds of meters in all directions. A multitude of vividly colored, small parasitic flowers bloomed upon these roots, carpeting the ground like an enormous, multicolored tapestry.

Several individuals Perbolt was currently least inclined to see were leaning against these aerial roots amidst the flower sea, grinning as they watched Perbolt approach.