"A Tree of Life!"
The young city lord's eyes went wide.
The other elves' expressions were even more exaggerated.
The elven elders ended up directly falling on their butts.
At this moment, their minds had completely lost the ability to think.
The Tree of Life is a common elven legend and ancient story.
Tens of thousands of years ago, there was a time when a powerful and prosperous elven empire existed. The Tree of Life was something that was created back then.
After the peak of the elven empire's prosperity, it eventually declined and fractured.
Afterwards, the method for growing a Tree of Life was lost to the elven race.
In current times, there are no more Trees of Life to be found on the continent. Who could have imagined that the legendary Tree of Life would directly appear right next to Giantree City in such a shocking way.
It completely goes against common sense and all knowledge!
During the age of the ancient elven empire, to grow a Tree of Life required an enormous amount of time and investment. How could it just suddenly appear out of nowhere like this now.
Not only were the young city lord and her group shocked by this scene, the citizens of Giantree City were nearly all also stunned.
That was practically a miracle.
It's a miracle from the Goddess of Nature!
Zhang Nu took a look at the relevant effects of the Tree.
Other than unlocking elven units, it also came with the following effects:
[Tree of Life]: Level 3 special structure. Within a radius of 10km, all units recovery speed +80%, aging speed -50%, all stats for elves +25%, training effectiveness for elves +100%, increase growth speed of plants.
As expected, the Tree of Life's effects are very powerful.
It increases recovery and slows aging.
For elves especially, it also has additional stat increases while at the same time improving elves' training effectiveness, and the effect is very high at that.
Finally, the Tree of Life's powerful life energy can also nourish all life forms within its area of effect. Plants especially will grow at ten times the rate.
This effect is basically identical to that of the level 1 spirit fields.
The Tree of Life's radius of effect reaches up to 10km from it. This area of effect is far beyond that of a normal spirit field. The surrounding plains can basically thus all be remade into spirit fields, gardens, or orchards.
One can imagine just how much value it can produce.
As expected of a top class level 3 blueprint.
The huge amount of gold and resources that Zhang Nu spent was worth it.
Zhang Nu was very satisfied either way, "Lady Nancilia. Do you elves like this gift of mine?"
The young city lord came back to herself.
She practically bounced three meters into the air in joy, "Wow! It's just amazing! Such abundant life energy! I feel like I'm submerged in a hot spring. Thank you, Your Majesty. We'll definitely properly protect the Tree of Life."
This Tree was mysterious in it appearing out of nowhere, but what did that matter?
The Tree of Life is the real thing!
For the elven race, being able to stay near the Tree of Life is absolutely the best living environment ever!
The young city lord no longer had any reservations about the Demon King governing Giantree City anymore. She even has thoughts that the Demon King might be a divine emissary sent by the Goddess of Life.
How else could he have created such a miracle?
Zhang Nu could observe the loyalty values of the elves steadily climbing. From now on, there won't be any more elves who would dare to question the Demon King's right to rule Giantree City.
Of course, besides just winning hearts and minds, he also can't slack on the military might.
The greatest value of the Tree of Life for the Demon King is the fact that it unlocked many new units in a single go.
Of them are:
[Elf Warrior]. Level 1 Elite. Costs 150 gold.
[Elf Mage]. Level 1 Elite. Costs 300 gold.
[Elf High Warrior]. Level 2 Elite. Costs 1500 gold.
[Elf High Mage]. Level 2 Elite. Costs 3000 gold.
[Elf Dragonhawk Knight]. Level 3 Elite. Costs 15,000 gold.
[Elf Dragonhawk Mage]. Level 3 Elite. Costs 30,000 gold.
[Ancient Tree High Priest]. Level 3 Lord. Costs 150,000 gold.
Zhang Nu discovered that elven units are very expensive.
The Level 1 Elite elf warrior actually costs 150 gold. Compare that to the similarly level 1 Elite draconian soldier, which costs only 100 gold.
However, be it in attack or defense power, the draconian soldier is obviously stronger.
From that point of view, summoning elves doesn't seem to be worth it.
Truthfully though, that kind of comparison isn't actually all that accurate.
The draconian warrior is his racial unit after all. It's generally going to be the most cost effective. Plus, theoretically speaking, so long as their upkeep can be met, then there's basically no upper limit to the number that can be summoned.
A truly mature Demon King can't just rely on his own racial units though.
All races have their own specializations and advantages.
Although draconian soldiers are very much perfect combat units, the elf warrior has distinct advantages in certain aspects.
For example, the elf warrior is capable of melee combat white at the same time being supreme archers. For another example, their vision is better and they're dexterous and agile, making them far better at scouting and whatnot.
All in all, a Demon King should have all kinds of monsters following him.
Only by combining the specialties of all kinds of units can the strongest army be forged.
Zhang Nu also noticed that among the units unlocked by the Tree of Life, there's a Lord leveled "Ancient Tree High Priest". This is even stronger than the current draconian general and draconian priest, but only one can be summoned.
Well, he's flush right now, so he just directly summoned it.
A mature elven beauty wearing dark green robes flew on down from the Tree of Life before respectfully kneeling down before him.
"Thank you, my lord, for summoning me!"
"This one shall serve you with my all!"
The young city lord was very curious.
She started looking over this unfamiliar brethren.
She could feel that this elf is very strong!
"This one is?"
The Ancient Tree High Priestess answered on her own, "I'm an elven priestess of the tree from a faraway elven country. I've appeared here to answer my lord's summoning!"
The Demon King's summoning ability, is it?
The Young city lord already knew that Demon Kings seem to have the ability to summon minions.
She just never imagined that it wasn't just the draconians of the abyss world who would answer the summoning. That he could even summon elves from a faraway nation.
"From today on, many more elves will continue to be brought here."
"They will join Giantree City and become your comrades."
The young city lord was very happy, "That's great! Giantree City is an elven city, so we'll warmly welcome fellow elves from anywhere else!"
The elven elders were quite happy as well.
The recent tulmults had weakened the elves of Giantree City by quite a bit.
If many more strong elves were to join them and replenish the strength that the elves had lost, then that's obviously a good thing for Giantree City.
Zhang Nu then spoke to the Ancient Tree High Priestess, "You're the first to descend from this Ancient Tree, and you're the priestess and guardian of the ancient tree as well, so from now on, you'll be known as Gu Yi!"
The Ancient Tree High Priestess immediately replied, "Thank you, my lord, for granting me my name!"
Zhang Nu planned to summon up another 2000 elf warriors and 500 elf mages. In total, it will cost him another 450k gold.
This is by no means a small amount.
Before he conquered Giantree City, Zhang Nu would have had a very hard time using so much gold in one go.
However, after taking Giantree City, he now has abundant riches, so even such mass spendings won't feel like too much of a burden anymore.
With these additional 2,500 elves, not only has the Demon King army greatly increased in power, they're also enough to take over the defenses of Giantree City.
This way, the entirety of Giantree City, from the protective barriers, to the arrow and magic towers, to all other miscellaneous defenses will now be controlled by his own elves.
As for the military forces made of the other elves?
Zhang Nu naturally won't waste them either.
After those military forces are properly reorganized, they'll also become part of the Demon King army. They'll be put to great effect in future battlefields.
Zhang Nu was completely swamped with work over the next few days.
He spent all his time on the development of his territory and the reorganization of Giantree City.
...
At the same time, 500 km away.
Something related to Zhang Nu was currently happening.
Here stands a mighty looking city on a desolate mountain.
Its name is feared within a thousand kilometers: Berserk Beast City.
"What?"
"Failed?"
"Gaim was killed!"
An old orc, as fierce looking as a lion, heard the nightmarish news.
He let out an enraged roar and a powerful wave of qi was released from his body, stirring up cutting tempest right in that room.,
Cuts appeared all over the pillars, walls, and floors.
The unlucky orc who reported the news was flayed all over.
Although he was covered in blood, he still didn't dare to move a single muscle.
"Damned Giantree City. Damned elves. My hatred won't be quenched unless I kill all of you!"
At this moment, a young orc stepped forth.
"Father, from the information that we got back the reason why we lost this time is mainly because the assassination failed. Thus allowing Nancilia, who should have been killed, to work together with the Demon King, causing the elves to turn on our forces the moment the battle started."
The old orc frowned, "You're the one who recommended those four Heroes!"
The young orc replied, "That's where the problem came from. Those four Heroes have quite the fame among us and they're very experienced in infiltrating Demon King territory. Given their strength, logically speaking, they shouldn't have failed..."
"I think the problem is with the Demon King. We should send out more spies and collect information about the Demon King and his minions."
Given how things have progressed, this is the only way now.
The old orc coldly spoke, "It looks like there are great differences in strength between individual Demon Kings. You need to get stronger as soon as possible."
The young orc gave a confident smile, "I believe that it won't take long before I can reach level 4, making me the furthest ahead by far among current Heroes."
"Of course, an extremely strong Demon King appearing now isn't a bad thing either. If I can kill such an extremely strong Demon King, then not only can I easily reach level 4, I'll even be able to push my Berserk Beast Qi to a high rank of mastery!"
The old orc was very satisfied.
He has hundreds of sons.
Of them, two of them are the most exceptional.
One is Gaim, and the other is the one before him now.
This son was originally slightly weaker than Gaim, but ever since he became a Hero a month or so ago, his growth has been terrifying with the support from Berserk Beast City.
Currently, he has far surpassed Gaim, approaching the gate to level 4.
The fastest way for a Hero to improve in strength is to kill Demon Kings.
The stronger the Demon King killed, the greater the improvement gained.
The old orc doesn't understand the logic behind it.
However, if Berserk Beast City were to gain another being capable of fighting against a level 4 Lord in addition to himself, then their might and influence would greatly increase!
When that time comes, what would Giantree City matter anymore?
Everything within a thousand kilometers will all be ruled by Berserk Beast City!
The old orc is just very concerned about the Demon King that has now appeared near Giantree City now. His instincts tell him that this Demon King is certain to be a major threat sooner or later if he's not dealt with.