In the meantime.
After the two-day tour.
Marilyn returned to Silver Spring City.
She immediately summoned the elders and called for an urgent meeting.
The elven chieftain openly announced her intention to follow the young Elven King, join the ranks of Darkness City, and aid the Dragon Demon King to unify Chaos Forest, as well as bring peace and order.
This decision of hers was too appalling.
The several elven elders strongly opposed it.
The elven tribe had no objections whatsoever in following the Elven King. But in regards to pledging allegiance to a Demon King, they were very reluctant and had difficulties accepting it.
However, Marilyn had a headstrong and stubborn personality.
She believed in what she had seen with her own two eyes and what she had personally investigated and looked into. She simply overruled the objections and settled this discussion.
The words of this meeting had spread from the council of elders.
The elves of the Silver Spring were flabbergasted and bewildered.
They could not understand their leader's decision.
Why did she make such a shocking revolution?
To have the elves ally themselves with a Demon King and other foreign races?
The elves of the Silver Spring City were alarmed by the news. If it were not for Marilyn's accumulated prestige over the years, she would have been impeached and removed by the council of elders.
Marilyn was mentally prepared for the dissent and backlash.
At first glance, this decision was indeed difficult to accept.
Nonetheless, it was the correct choice.
The unification of the Chaos Forest was inevitable. The elves of Silver Spring City should not defy this fate just because of their conservatism.
Marilyn was confident.
She still had enough accumulated prestige from the past years, and she could still hold back the internal pressure and protests for a short time.
As for the future? When the elders and the people of the tribe visited the Giantree City and personally had a look at the city and the Demon King for themselves, they would surely no longer oppose the decision.
At this moment.
The Hero guild underground the Silver Spring City.
Dozens of Silver Spring City Heroes gathered to hold an urgent meeting.
"This is preposterous!"
"Marilyn is preparing to defect to the Dragon Demon King!"
"Do you guys think she's been mind controlled?"
"If the forces of the Demon King arrive, will there be any place left for us to stand?"
"Unacceptable, we have to stop this! I would rather have Silver Spring City destroyed than letting the Demon King succeed!"
"..."
The Heroes had sensed that the situation was grim for them.
They started to plan their escape routes.
One of them stood up and suggested, "Let's head north and join the Thunder Empire. The lord of the Kolo region in the south is a Hero."
"This Count Kolo has recently been trying to instigate a conflict between the Dragon Demon King and the Dwarf Clan. He even offered a generous reward to the forest Heroes."
"I think this is a good opportunity for us."
As these words were uttered.
The crowd of Heroes found these suggestions made sense.
Those who had lived in Silver Spring City knew.
That the elves and dwarves to the east were mortal enemies.
This enmity sprouted two hundred years ago.
When the Silver Spring tribe had just migrated to Chaos Forest, the elves and the dwarves did not get along.
The initial spark of conflict was only a small dispute over territory.
And yet, this small matter.
Like a snowball rolling down the hill, it escalated and grew out of proportion.
Eventually, they fought.
The elves were initially losing ground and were in danger of being driven out by the dwarves.
However, a major mine accident occurred, causing a significant loss of life among the dwarves and severely depleting their forces and strength. They were forced to stop their assault and abandon their advantage.
The elves were finally able to catch their breath and promptly established a city.
There was a widespread suspicion within the dwarves that the elves were responsible for the mining accident.
This then led to conflicts between the elves and the dwarves for almost two hundred years, and instead of resolving the feud, the hatred for each other only grew deeper.
In recent decades.
The dwarven clans had become increasingly powerful.
They had been seeking opportunities to completely drive out the elves.
The Heroes had considered this plan as a feasible one, as they could both prevent the Demon King from obtaining the Silver Spring City, as well as completing the high bounty offered by Count Kolo of the southern Kolo region.
However.
While Silver Spring City was undergoing unforeseen changes.
Zhang Nu had returned to Darkness City.
He had learned of the news that Nancilia had successfully persuaded the Silver Spring tribe chieftain.
The Demon King was very pleased by her performance. This young city lord was still very much able to be of use, without her intervention, this matter would be very difficult to resolve.
Elves were not gnomes.
It was highly unlikely to force a surrender out of them.
Although Zhang Nu had confidence in taking down Silver Spring City through violent means, however, in the process of battle, the vast majority of the elves would perish, ultimately only a broken city on the verge of death would remain.
An outcome like this would not serve anyone.
'The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.'
Of the three target cities, one was already in hand, the other was close at hand, and the last one would follow suit soon enough. Zhang San had personally led an army to assault the city of trolls.
This city was the weakest among the three targets.
With the strength of Zhang San and the draconian legion, it was unlikely to have any variables to occur during the conquest of this city. This was essentially a sure victory.
Zhang Nu patiently awaited the news without haste.
In the meantime, he decided to sacrifice a batch of souls in hand.
He gained a Level 4 soul and 21 Level 3 souls from Bloody Fortress, as well as 1 Level 4 soul and 15 Level 3 souls from Thousand Fangs City.
Zhang Nu first sacrificed the 36 Level 3 souls.
[You've sacrificed a Level 3 Hero's Soul. 212 talent points gained!]
[You've sacrificed a Level 3 Hero's Soul. 209 talent points gained!]
[You've sacrificed a Level 3 Hero's Soul. 221 talent points gained!]
[...]
After sacrificing 36 souls, he gained 7,560 talent points.
Zhang Nu originally had only 1,052 talent points left.
He now had a total of 8,612 talent points.
He had two choices.
He could sacrifice a Level 4 soul to get at least a thousand talent points or he could choose to keep the Level 4 soul and use Level 2 souls to make up the remaining talent points.
Zhang Nu decided to keep the Level 4 soul.
He had two Level 4 souls in his possession.
One was obtained from killing He Tianzong in the Bloody Fortress, the other was from killing the head of the ogre Heroes in Thousand Fangs City.
To a Demon King.
Talent points were all the same.
Level 4 soul was a rare high level Hero's Soul.
Rather than just exchanging it for talent points, it could be utilized as a material.
Zhang Nu had a stock of over a hundred Level 2 souls, so even if he set aside some for Chen Guoguo, it would still be sufficient.
[You've sacrificed a Level 2 Hero's Soul. 22 talent points gained!]
[You've sacrificed a Level 2 Hero's Soul. 20 talent points gained!]
[You've sacrificed a Level 2 Hero's Soul. 21 talent points gained!]
[...]
After going through 70 Level 2 souls.
He gained a total of 1470 talent points.
This had brought his overall talent points to 10082.
Finally, Zhang Nu could activate another Level 4 talent.
Zhang Nu's remaining two Level 4 talents were both of the time and space attribute type. Such talents were exceedingly rare, and needless to say, incredibly important.
After much hesitation.
He activated Time Control.
[You've activated the Level 4 talent "Time Control"!]
[Time Control] Talent Skill. You have gained the ability to influence the flow of time in the surrounding environment. The higher the MP consumed, the greater your control over the flow of time will be. You can currently control up to ten times the flow rate.
The effect of this skill was simple.
Zhang Nu could speed up or slow down the flow of time in his surrounding environment.
With his current strength, he could accelerate or decelerate the speed of time by ten fold.
In the future, as his level increased and his strength grew, his ability to control time would become more powerful, and the range of this skill would also expand.
Without a doubt, this was a dynamic skill.
Nonetheless, time was relative.
If the skill was used well, whether in offense or defense, it would be a godly technique, capable of turning impossible tides.
"What an incredible talent!"
"The power over time is more rare and precious than that of space."
"Even throughout the continent, the existence of time magic talents is probably exceptionally rare and scarce!"
But of course.
Zhang Nu was far from being complacent.
Currently, he was only at an entry level in his control over time.
Zhang Nu opened up the Demon King Trading Channel and immediately saw several successful transaction messages.
[Trade successful, gold -180,000, you gained "Blueprint: Spirit Field" x1!]
[Trade successful, gold -180,000, you gained "Blueprint: Spirit Field" x1!]
[Trade successful, gold -300,000, you gained "Level 3 Normal Building Upgrade Scroll" x1!]
Zhang Nu's spirits were lifted.
Before he departed, he had put down the purchase orders and set the prices for it.
After nearly three days, the processing fees alone had cost him tens of thousands of gold, and he had finally received two copies of Spirit Field blueprints.
Apart from the Spirit Field blueprints.
There was also a Level 3 upgrade scroll.
These items were currently awfully rare and scarce.
Even after Zhang Nu offered a price slightly higher than the market's, it still took him so long to receive trades.
He decided to temporarily withdraw his purchase orders and wait a few days before raising the price again to continue his search.
Why did he not raise the price immediately, you ask?
Because people were greedy.
Zhang Nu believed that if he had just taken down his previous orders and immediately replaced them with higher price ones, the sellers who were anxious to sell would no longer be in a hurry to do so.
With the blueprints in hand, Zhang Nu unhesitantly expanded the Spirit Fields with it.
Issues such as 'not enough farmers' would never exist.
Leaving aside the fact that there were enough elves residing in Giantree City for work relocation in Darkness City, there were still more than 100,000 elves in Silver Spring City.
In the field of farming and plant cultivation.
Elves inherently had high talents for it.
While he was at it, he took a look at the current situation of the territory as well.
During this period.
The development of the territory was particularly fast.
Both the size of the land and the population had grown immensely
Now, just the population number of his draconian people was already close to 30,000.
Among them.
Logistics Corps: around 13,000 Draconian Laborers, around 5,000 High Draconian Laborers, around 2,000 Draconian Craftsmen, and around 200 Draconian Mastercraftsmen.
Combat Corps: about 15,000 Draconian Soldiers, about 2,400 High Draconian Soldiers, ???? Draconian Super Soldiers, 100 Draconian Battle Mages, 30 Draconian Mystic Battle Mages, 25 Infernal Draconian Warmonger Royal Guards, 15 Infernal Draconian Mystic Royal Guards, 25 Draconian Generals, 10 Draconian Priests, 1 Draconian Marshal, 1 Draconian High Priest, 1 Earth Drake Grand Marshal, and 1 Sky Drake Archpriest.
As for the other units.
Excluding the undead units.
The orcs, the elves, the ogres and the beholders came to a sum of around 20 to 30 thousand.
This number was only the total of Zhang Nu's directly affiliated troops. The size of his vassal troops and civilian population was even more massive.
The Berserk Beast City and Thousand Fangs City.
The orcs and ogres were all fighters and warriors.
Among the two, every single ogre was an elite unit.
The total combat power of the orcs, elves, and ogres reached a scale of around 100,000, which was a force comparable to a formal army of the empire!
Suffice to say.
There was no shortage of soldiers.
He wanted to build a stronger supply system.
He desired to obtain a bigger financial income.
There was no need to mass summon draconian units for the meantime.
Zhang Nu decided to invest more to cultivate more high-end soldiers and implement the elite route.
Of course.
This would require money.
In fact, lots of it.
Fortunately, in terms of gold reserves, Zhang Nu had nearly 5 million in number.
The financial growth of his several territories was also booming.
He was still accelerating the process of his conquest and occupation, ultimately working towards the goal of unification of Chaos Forest.
During this process, he could obtain a large amount of gold and resources, which was enough for him to establish an ace army.