The upgrades to the Natural Ancient Wood and the Immortal-Demon Symbiosis Pavilion consumed a total of 200,000 Immortal-Demon Stones and 2,000 Soul Crystals.
Both were top-tier Level 6 troop buildings. However, the Natural Ancient Wood could only breed 96 Natural Woodmen daily, whereas the Immortal-Demon Symbiosis Pavilion could summon 128 Immortal-Demon Symbiosis troops.
The quantity was a full third less, clearly indicating that the Natural Ancient Wood was of a higher level than the Immortal-Demon Symbiosis Pavilion.
However, as they were both top-tier troop buildings, the gap would gradually narrow as the troops grew.
Still, these two top-tier troop buildings combined might not be as precious as a unique troop building.
After all, unique troop buildings were inherently powerful.
Immortal-Demon troops were destined to stand at the pinnacle of all races in this world—powerful, noble, and beyond blasphemy.
Therefore, the number of Immortal-Demon troops Xiao Mo could reincarnate from his Immortal-Demon Reincarnation Pool was actually the smallest.
If Xiao Mo hadn't had the freebies from the Initial Troop Expansion Blueprints, his Immortal-Demon troops would have been the fewest among all lords.
While a smaller troop quantity might not show significant drawbacks in the early and mid-game, its disadvantages would gradually become apparent in the late game.
Furthermore, the development speed of the Immortal-Demon small city was fast, and the Immortal-Demon Reincarnation Pool was upgraded with unusual frequency, far surpassing that of billions of other lords.
Even now, few lords had managed to upgrade their troop buildings to Level 5, let alone to Level 7 like Xiao Mo.
The reason Xiao Mo's strength could steadily suppress all billions of lords currently was precisely because his development was fast, his troop numbers were vast, and his power was immense.
At this current stage, no lord other than Xiao Mo would dare to even conceive of possessing millions, or even tens of millions, of Immortal-Demon Stones.
Xiao Mo not only dared to think about it, but he now held them in his grasp. His initial troop building had been upgraded to Level 7, and his two other top-tier troop buildings were now at Level 6.
Even a Level 6 troop building required 100,000 Immortal-Demon Stones and 1,000 Soul Crystals. These figures represented immense wealth, even for top lords.
The number of top lords who could currently muster such resources was exceedingly small.
Therefore, generally speaking, top lords would need at least another ten days to half a month of development to upgrade their troop buildings.
After all, their strength and development speed were not just a little bit slower compared to Xiao Mo's.
Many things Xiao Mo could achieve, they could not, and things Xiao Mo couldn't do, they certainly could not.
This was a vicious cycle. As time passed, the strong would grow stronger, and the weak would become relatively weaker.
This vicious cycle would become even more pronounced as the game progressed into its later stages. Of course, the gap between troop legions might gradually shrink.
Moreover, the resources in each region were limited, and the stronger individuals would occupy more resources.
The struggle for resources was, in fact, the true essence of the war for supremacy among myriad races.
After all, resources were finite, and currently, the resources on the entire Primordial Continent were likely already allocated by the strong.
In this world, the empires in the central region undoubtedly possessed the most resources.
They had sufficient strength to occupy more and better resources, and conversely, it was precisely because they possessed so many resources that they could maintain their high-and-mighty status.
Territorial forces descending from other worlds could only be scattered in the peripheral regions filled with endless crises, developing little by little.
Therefore, the initial competition for resources was between territorial forces and regional indigenous forces, followed by strife among territorial forces themselves.
Once territorial forces developed strength, such as unifying their respective regions, they would naturally become unsatisfied with their current resource holdings, or rather, they would desire more resources for development.
This would then lead to wars between regions, just as Xiao Mo had envisioned: establishing the Immortal-Demon Kingdom, unifying the Endless Abyss region, and then beginning the offensive against the Dark Forest region.
Xiao Mo firmly believed that before long, large-scale regional wars would erupt, involving countless lords.
Countless lords would be eliminated or forced to become lone wanderers.
In the end, only the lords who managed to survive would be able to obtain more and better resources, upgrade their territories, upgrade their troop buildings, enhance their territorial forces, and boost their personal strength.
This was the future trajectory of the peripheral regions of this world, but Xiao Mo did not need to worry about these matters for now.
At least, internal regional wars would not occur in the Endless Abyss region at present, because there were very few lords left who dared to stay here.
The remaining lords were probably still contemplating whether they had the courage to remain in the Endless Abyss, let alone the courage to contend with Xiao Mo for its resources.
Therefore, Xiao Mo had effectively seized the resources of the entire Endless Abyss region, making it almost impossible for his territorial forces not to develop rapidly.
The opposing alliances clearly understood this point, which was why they were determined to attack Xiao Mo.
After all, it was an entire region's worth of resources; who wouldn't be envious?
Furthermore, they couldn't stand seeing Xiao Mo dominate, occupying the resources of an entire region, developing ever faster, and keeping them perpetually suppressed, leaving them struggling for breath.
Moreover, in their minds, they had always believed that if they could defeat Xiao Mo and raze the Immortal-Demon small city, they could then occupy the Endless Abyss region and use it as their second base.
At that time, their territories would inevitably develop more rapidly than those of other territorial forces and become increasingly powerful.
Xiao Mo's acquisition of the godhead and his unique troop building were merely the triggers. These alliance members likely spent their nights dreaming of how to kill Xiao Mo, step on him, and ascend to the pinnacle over the corpses of countless lords.
This was the primary reason why these top lords decided to launch this war. As for the ordinary lords who answered their call, they were merely cannon fodder in their eyes.
The more cannon fodder, the better, in their opinion, as it would reduce the expenditure of their own vital forces.
Therefore, these top lords had been continuously calling for resistance against Xiao Mo in the public chat, hoping to attract more cannon fodder to fight for them.
Consequently, some lords, having understood this, had formed neutral alliances.
However, more people could only see their immediate interests, or were inherently greedy, and thus joined the alliance army.
Yet, they did not know that the top lords who formed the alliances did not regard them as allies, but merely as tools.
As tools to gather a large army, these troop legions were sent to the front lines, serving as cannon fodder for their own preservation.
As long as their objectives were achieved, what did it matter if more ordinary lords were eliminated? It would simply save them effort later on.
Xiao Mo understood these matters, which was why he disliked forming or joining any alliances.
After all, in a world like this, there were no eternal friends, only eternal interests. How many individuals like that young child could there be in this world?