Outside the entire Ica plain, there was a windbreak forest belt. This windbreak could also act as a guardrail. Most of the trees in this windbreak were like birch trees, tall and straight. Between the big trees, there were also thorny vines and thorny grass.
Thorny vines and thorny grasses were very common on the continent. Many villages were afraid of being attacked by magic beasts, so they would plant thorny vines and thorny grasses outside of the village. These things weren't very useful against high level magic beasts, but for some low level magic beasts, they were still very good protection.
The entire Ica plains was said to have millions of acres of land. Such a large piece of land, if one wanted to encircle it, one would need a lot of trees. This showed how big the Purcell clan was.
The Ica plains also had a special feature. This feature could not be found in other places, only in the Ica plains, there were no civilians, no small nobles. In addition to the Purcell clan's army, there was only one kind of people living in the Ica plains, slaves.
Yes, in the Ica plains, there were no civilians, all of them were slaves, all of them were slaves of the Purcell clan. The Ica plains were so big that it would take at least hundreds of thousands of people to cultivate all the land here. Some of these hundreds of thousands of slaves had already settled down here. Now, in the entire Ica plains, there were already millions of people living here, millions of slaves! What kind of concept was this?
In the Ark continent, a medium sized city had a permanent resident population of only a few million. A small city had a permanent resident population of only a few hundred thousand people. In other words, the Purcell clan had a medium sized city with a permanent resident population of only a few hundred thousand people.
Big move, absolutely big move. With this move, the Purcell clan could be regarded as one of the big clans in the Aksu Empire. It was no wonder that they would hit them when they were down.
The old king of the Aksu Empire wanted to deal with the big clans, and the Purcell clan was one of them. The Buda clan was a knife in the hands of the old king of the Aksu Empire. It could be said that the engagement between the Buda clan and the Purcell clan would be impossible without the pressure of the old king of the Aksu Empire.
Although Evan Purcell had some friendship with Ya Guang's father and could be considered as a good friend, but as the patriarch of a large clan, he couldn't make too many decisions. Even if he was the patriarch, there were many things that he couldn't control.
To be honest, Evan was a pretty good person. When he was young, he went out to train and coincidentally met Adam's father. The two of them chatted happily and became good friends in the end.
Later, when Evan became the Grand Duke of the Purcell Duchy, he wanted to help the Buda Clan. But when he became the Grand Duke, he discovered that there were a lot of things that he couldn't do.
Sitting in that position, he had to shoulder the responsibility of the entire Purcell Duchy and protect the interests of the old nobles. Therefore, when he became the Grand Duke of the Purcell Duchy, he was already on the opposite side of the Buda clan.
Moreover, in the Purcell clan, in addition to the Patriarch, there was also an Elder's Council. This Elder's Council was composed of some of the Purcell clan's direct descendants or collateral descendants of the clan. These Elders used all kinds of interests to weave a big net, firmly trapping the Patriarch in it, making him unable to move.
Later, when the old king suddenly passed away, the new king's bloody ascension, and the Buda clan's calamity, Evan wanted to help, but he couldn't. In the end, he could only use his own strength to save Adam's life. It could be said that if Evan didn't secretly help, Green and Merine wouldn't have been able to save Adam.
But the matter of him secretly helping the Buda clan was known by the Elder's Council. Those Elders united to put pressure on him, greatly weakening the Patriarch's authority.
Evan also felt that he was now a puppet, but what could he do? In the end, he was still a member of the Purcell clan. The Purcell clan's blood flowed in his body, and his bones were branded with the Purcell clan's imprint. It was impossible for him to break away from the Purcell clan.
Therefore, in the eyes of outsiders, he was the Grand Duke of the Purcell clan. But Evan understood that he was just a decoration, a decoration placed there to look good, a decoration for the Elders to use.
As for Ryan Purcell, although she was Evan's daughter, she didn't get along with him. This was because Ryan's mother was the daughter of an Elder who didn't have the surname Purcell. She married Evan in order to better control him.
It was because of this reason that Ryan wasn't close to her father. Instead, she looked down on Evan. On the contrary, she was very close to her grandfather.
The Purcell clan, because of the pressure of the old King, allowed Ryan to be engaged to Adam. Now that the Buda clan had fallen, the Purcell clan naturally wanted to break off the engagement. But they couldn't put down their face, so this matter was dragged on.
But now that Ryan was chasing too closely, and her grandfather really loved her, they sent people to the Black Waste to check if the Buda clan's people were dead. If they weren't, then they could go up and stab them. But they didn't think that they would annoy Zhao Hai so much that he would think of releasing insects.
Zhao Hai and Green had already arrived at the periphery of the Ica plains. There were a lot of small villages here, and the people in the villages were also some commoners. Many of them originally lived in the Ica plains, but they were eventually driven out by the Purcell clan. Large tracts of fertile land belonged to the Purcell clan. Now they could only live in the barren hills on the periphery of the Ica plains.
These people couldn't enter the Ica plains. First, because of the Purcell clan's army, and second, because of the windbreak belt on the periphery of the Ica plains.
Zhao Hai and Green were now standing outside the windbreak belt. Looking at the windbreak belt that was at least 100 meters wide, Zhao Hai couldn't help but sigh. "Good work, ah. The Purcell clan is really powerful. Just planting these trees required a lot of manpower."
Green nodded. "This is the strength of a millennium-old family. I heard that the Purcell clan spent fifty years to build these windbreak trees. The amount of manpower and material resources used is innumerable. Just to build this forest, I don't know how many slaves died from exhaustion. Some people say that the number of trees in this forest is how many slaves died."
Zhao Hai sighed. Looking at the dense forest, his heart went numb. Although he knew that Green's words were somewhat exaggerated, he was sure that in order to build this forest belt, a lot of people must have died.
In the dark night, the wind blew the grass in the forest. It seemed that there were countless shadows moving in the forest. Looking at Zhao Hai's heart, his hair stood on end. After a while, he sighed. "Why bother? If we had so many people, I would have restored them to their civilian status. Slavery won't last long."
Green didn't say anything. He just felt that Zhao Hai's words were wrong. The continent's slavery had been around for tens of thousands of years. Now it was still very good. He really didn't understand why Zhao Hai said that slavery won't last long.
Zhao Hai also didn't say anything. He turned to Green and said. "Grandpa Green, it's already late. We'll rest here first. Tomorrow night, we'll go to the plains."
Green didn't oppose. In about three hours, the sky would be bright. In these three hours, they wouldn't be able to do anything. It was better to have a good rest here.
The two returned to Stony Mountain from the space. Everything was normal there. No one came to make trouble. A few days ago, Laura sent a batch of barrels. This batch of barrels was enough to hold two hundred thousand jin of oil. It was enough for Zhao Hai to use for a while.
From Casa City to the Ica Plains, it would only take about five days. During these five days, the oil refinery in Iron Mountain Fort had officially started its operations. The workers used were all undead, even the animals used to pull the oil refinery were scaled wildebeests that had turned into undead.
However, the scaled wildebeests didn't turn into skeletons. Instead, they turned into another kind of undead, zombies.
Zombies were a higher level undead than skeletons. First level skeletons had weak fighting strength, but first level zombies had the strength of a second level warrior. However, to turn a corpse into a zombie required ten times more magic than to turn a corpse into a skeleton. Therefore, most people wouldn't turn a corpse into a zombie.
Although the fighting strength of zombies was very strong, their speed wasn't fast. A zombie couldn't win against ten skeletons. Moreover, it was more difficult for zombies to level up compared to skeletons. Therefore, black magicians generally wouldn't turn corpses into zombies.
However, the fighting strength of zombies wasn't weak. Take the lowest level black iron zombie for example. This kind of zombie's strength was very great, and its skin's defensive ability was very strong. It wasn't worse than ordinary leather armor. If it wasn't for its slow speed, it would be enough to deal with a third level warrior. However, because of its slow speed, even if it encountered a third level warrior, it still wouldn't be able to do anything. However, a first level warrior shouldn't be hit by a zombie. As long as a zombie hit them, even if they didn't die, they would still be seriously injured.
A second level black iron zombie's speed was almost the same as a skeleton's. It wasn't worse than a third level warrior. It was a relatively difficult undead to deal with.
A third level zombie was called a bronze zombie. This kind of zombie had the strength of a fourth level warrior. A fourth level zombie was called a poison zombie. At this level, a zombie could use its own corpse poison to attack people. A fifth level zombie was called a silver zombie. It had stronger defense, greater strength, faster speed, and corpse poison attack.
A sixth level zombie was a silver zombie. A seventh level zombie was a gold zombie. An eighth level zombie was a gold zombie. A ninth level zombie was a true heaven zombie emperor.
However, there wasn't a magician on the continent who could make a fourth level zombie. Making a fourth level zombie was more difficult than making a high level skeleton. Even a third level zombie couldn't be made by an ordinary magician.