Both the Forest Giant Lizard and the Quadruped Winged Beast were not expensive.
But there was no need for a mass summoning.
If tens of thousands of such beasts were summoned at once and their numbers were more than actually needed, then the expense of feeding them all would be very costly.
The Forest Giant Lizards were so cheap, it was such a bargain.
Instead of feeding and raising them for the long term, it might be better to just slaughter them for their meat.
What a pity.
It turned out that this species of giant lizards' meat was actually very sour, inedible and poisonous.
Otherwise, for the price of 20 gold per lizard, summoning them specifically for slaughter might not be a bad idea to make a fortune.
The capturing of Berserk Beast City yielded a huge gain.
Zhang Nu's gold reserve has reached a whopping amount of 3 million.
That was an outrageous amount of gold.
If the other Demon Kings knew about it.
They would probably go insane from envy and jealousy.
For things such as gold, the more there were, the better.
Zhang Nu also needed more diversified income sources.
There were currently three main territories: the Darkness Valley, the Giantree City and the Berserk Beast City.
Darkness Valley was the primary base camp.
There were numerous utility structures within.
For instance, the two temples of goddesses, the White Bone Mausoleum, the Tower of Fog, the Barrier Tower, the Detection Tower, etc. All these structures required a lot of gold just for daily maintenance.
In addition, the daily food consumption of 20,000 draconians, several thousands of goblins, plus some minotaurs was extremely substantial.
Fortunately, the farms were doing well.
The variety and quality of seeds supplied by Chen Guoguo were also improving.
This had allowed the yield and the quality of the medicinal herbs and crops to rise steadily. Hence why the goods always maintained their competitiveness in the Demon King's market.
The profit it brought in not only covered the costs of the territory's daily upkeep.
The average net income it could generate daily was more than 100,000 gold.
Furthermore, due to the increase in number of the craftsmen, especially the appearance of the Draconian Mastercraftsmen, has enabled the ores mined from mineral deposits to be crafted into fine equipment for sale. These sales also raked in an additional 8k to 10k of daily income.
This was a good start.
In the future, with more and better ore supply, as well as higher manufacturing level of the territory, the income generated from equipment sale would not lose out to herbs and food.
The business and operations of the Darkness Valley were mature and stable.
Now, both the Giantree City and Berserk Beast City were even more worthy of looking forward to.
The Giantree City's alchemist and botanist teams have just been established.
A total of almost 10,000 elves have been employed and gradually invested into the fields of planting and medicine refining, which were about to usher in a spurt of development.
As for the Berserk Beast City, which was still in need of rebuilding.
It now also had a massive gold mine and dozens of various smaller mineral veins ready to be mined. As long as enough labor was invested into the mining operations, the income it could bring would not be inferior to that of the Darkness Valley.
The structures of the organization have been laid out.
All that was needed now was patience.
Zhang Nu could live a good life of lying down and counting money just by making good use of his existing resources.
However, even if one did not have to worry about the far future, the immediate risks could not be ignored, especially the two obvious and major risks in sight.
The first one was the enormous seal of the Giantree City.
The seal was still stable for now.
But ultimately, it was still a giant time bomb.
The creature within the seal was still so ferocious even in its current state.
If that thing was allowed to break free, the consequences would be unfathomable.
The second risk was the Divine Sword Heroes Guild.
Zhang Nu did not doubt the words of the hero, Liu Qingcheng.
The Thunder Empire was probably planning to secretly control the Demon Kings, and then indirectly control the entire Chaos Forest. The Divine Sword guild was their vanguard force.
The scale and strength of this Divine Sword Hero Guild was far superior to the Iron Blooded Hero Guild, furthermore, they had the support of an empire behind the scenes. Zhang Nu must not be careless whilst facing them.
After thinking it through, Zhang Nu decided to expand his army.
This time, he took out 1.5 million gold at one go, recruited an additional 5000 Draconian Soldiers, then upgraded 500 of them into High Soldiers, and 100 of them into Super Soldiers.
He continued to spend 150,000 gold to increase the numbers of his Draconian Generals by 10, and another 90,000 gold for 3 Draconian Priests.
The current line up of Zhang Nu's army was: 13300 Draconian Soldiers, 900 High Draconian Soldiers, 155 Super Draconian Soldiers, 50 Draconian Battlemages, 20 Mythic Draconian Battlemages, 5 Draconian Warmonger Royal Guards, 25 Draconian Generals, 8 Draconian Priests, 1 Draconian Marshal and 1 Draconian High Priest.
Zhang Nu still had nearly 1.4 million gold left.
But he did not intend to spend all of it.
The remaining gold could be saved as a reserve fund, or spent part of it to purchase various supplies, especially gemstones which would be used in large quantities in the future.
Su Yan walked into the castle, "I carefully selected the first thirty members according to your requirements.This is the list of the reserve members. Please take a look at it, Boss."
Zhang Nu took a sweeping glance.
Most of them were Heroes that got put in the dungeons.
Only a few of them were recruited by Su Yan from the outside.
Not a single one of them were Level 3. All of them were Level 2 Heroes. These potential members seemed a little shabby, but there were no other choices.
Su Yan herself was only a Level 2.
It was indeed difficult to invite reliable Level 3 Heroes at the moment.
These reserve members, despite being only Level 2, generally had a special talent or a skill that made them well suited for intelligence work, reconnaissance and investigation, and so on.
This was in line with expectations.
"Not bad, that will do for now. Wait until I finish preparing the contracts. They will need to sign it to be considered an official member of the order."
The Dragon Shadow Heroes Guild would be of great use in the future.
The members of the guild could be few in numbers, but they must be absolutely reliable, and a contract must be signed, so as to be sufficient insurance.
It was always appropriate to be cautious.
Even if it would cost more.
Zhang Nu then took out a skill stone, "This skill is for you."
"This is...B rank skill Rock Golem Form!"
Su Yan was startled in disbelief.
The value of this skill was much higher than the previous ones.
"This reward is just too much. I haven't made many contributions lately."
Zhang Nu replied, "it doesn't matter. I'm planning on giving you another task. This one will be a little dangerous."
Su Yan became enthusiastic, "What is it?"
"Recently, a group of Heroes called Divine Sword Guild appeared in the Chaos Forest. They came from the Thunder Empire in the North. They are enlisting Heroes and even Demon Kings everywhere, which poses some threat and trouble for me."
"I see!"
"Boss wants me to investigate them?"
Su Yan wiggled her fox tail, "Being a spy? It's my specialty."
Zhang Nu nodded, "The Divine Sword Heroes Guild is different from the previous Iron Blooded Heroes Guild. This one is much more powerful and has many strong individuals. You have to be careful! You can't afford to be careless!"
"Understood!"
Su Yan felt exhilarated.
This was another great opportunity to gain some credit.
Zhang Nu was now more assured about this Hero girl.
Her ability and identity could easily gather information to prepare for the inevitable conflict in the near future.
Next.
Zhang Nu began to strategize against the seal in the Giantree forest...With his current strength, it would be a bit tough, but he could give it a try.
He was still contemplating it.
A final decision had not yet been made.
Chen Guoguo sent a private message, "Boss! You there? Something has happened to Nancy! You should come and take a look! She's in a very bad condition right now!"
Zhang Nu was at a loss, "Nancilia have always been in Giantree City, and there's no enemies recently. What could have happened to her?"
Chen Guoguo: "I've no idea. In short, she just fainted."
Fainted?
Could such a thing really happen?
Was it because of illness?
Could someone with a physique of an Elven King even get sick?
He immediately called for his draconian priests and teleported to Giantree City.
The Giantree City executives were in a state of disarray, they did not even have the time to send someone to inform the Demon King. They certainly did not expect the Demon King to arrive so soon on his own.
Zhang Nu frowned, "What's wrong with the city lord?"
The third elder of the Giantree City explained, "Your Majesty, judging from the symptoms of the city lord, it is probably that the power of her Elven King's bloodline has been awakened!"
Zhang Nu did not quite comprehend this.
He asked, "Is this a good or a bad thing?"
"Well, it is certainly good news. Everytime an Elven King awakens, their strength will surge by leaps and bounds, but..."
The third elder sighed, "The power of the city lord's bloodline seems to be unusually strong, so much so that her body can't withstand it. The current situation is very critical!"
Zhang Nu entered the room, only to see the young city lord was lying in the room.
She had a very painful expression, her eyes were firmly shut, her head was full of sweat, and her brows were tightly furrowed.
The elves had never seen such a situation before.
For a moment, they were at a loss as to what to do.
Zhang Nu stared at Nancilia for a while.
Suddenly a relevant prompt message popped up in sight.
[Giantree City Lord Nancilia] ...currently in a state of bloodline awakening. However, due to the overpowering bloodline power, the body is overwhelmed. Without the aid of the Elixir of Awakening, her life is at risk of dying.
Zhang Nu's eyes lit up.
"Do you people know about the Elixir of Awakening?"
The elders of the elves looked at each other. By the looks of their faces, they definitely have not heard of it.
This was getting difficult.
It was at this moment that the young city lord seemed to regain a trace of consciousness.
She opened her eyes and saw a towering figure: "Ah, Your Majesty, why are you here...I'm sorry. I seem to have fallen ill, not even the tribe could do anything about it."
Zhang Nu replied, "Don't worry, you are my important subordinate. I won't let anything happen to you. Just rest well, I'll help you pull through this!"
The young city lord was emotionally moved as Zhang Nu's reached her.
Unlike the anxious elders, the Demon King's tone was firm and confident.
This gave Nancilia a sense of anticipation and assurance.
Zhang Nu suspected that there were two reasons for the current conditions of Nancilia. On one hand, she was far more powerful than most of the Elven Kings in history. On the other hand, her resonation with the Elven King's scepter seemed to have stimulated her bloodline, which was why she was awakening in advance.
No matter what.
She must be saved.
Even if Zhang Nu put aside friendships.
He could not let her die.
Nancilia was not only the city lord of Giantree City.
She was also a subordinate that would at least be a Monarch rank in the future.
The Giantree elves had apparently lost their legacy and inheritance. Surprisingly, no one had ever heard of the Elixir of Awakening.
With a mindset of just giving it a try, Zhang Nu contacted a particular Demon King.
Zhang Nu: "Are you there?"
Mysterious Witch Liang Bai: "Yes! Boss! How may I help?"
Zhang Nu: "Do you know about a potion called Elixir of Awakening?"
Among all the Demon Kings that Zhang Nu knew, Liang Bai was the one with the highest level and accomplishment in the field of medicine and potion concoction.
If even she did not know about the elixir, then the other Demon Kings could not hope to know anything.
Zhang Nu could only look for a method from other sources.
Mysterious Witch Liang Bai: "Oh, I know about the Elixir of Awakening. This type of potion is very rare. It can help some individuals with specific talents to absorb the power of their bloodline."
Zhang Nu: "Can you concoct it?"
Mysterious Witch Liang Bai: "Boss, don't you underestimate me. I've never been beaten in the field of potion making. Even if it's a super rare potion, it's merely a piece of cake to me."
What great news!
Zhang Nu: "Then get me a bottle of this Elixir of Awakening, I'll offer you a satisfying price for it."
Mysterious Witch Liang Bai: "Boss, I can concoct the potion for sure. Money isn't the issue either. However, the ingredients for the elixir are very rare and they are necessarily available in the current market."