Chapter 3: Going Home
I followed the two of them into a “room”, and the bull-headed demon skeleton followed me in as well. There were ten people sitting in the room, five in black robes and five in grey robes. Seeing a skeleton following me, all ten people had a look of relief in their eyes.
“Brother Lei, let me apologize for what happened earlier. At first, we only wanted to scare you away, but then one of our skeleton soldiers was silently defeated by you, so we thought you were here to fight us, so…“ said one of the grey-robed men.
”It’s nothing, I can understand,” I said.
“We have seen your talisman, and we didn’t expect that you, at such a young age, would already have such a high level of magical attainment. That talisman is too miraculous, and none of us can understand it, so we would like to hire you as a guest consultant. Each year, you can come here at a time convenient for you to teach us.”
I understood. He wanted me to teach them how to make this talisman. I did not agree, but instead narrowed my eyes and asked in return, ”Are you subject to a lot of restrictions here? For example, food, clothing, gold coins, magic stones, crystals, corpses, and so on.”
One black-robed man said, “We do lack some of these items. I wonder what Brother Lei intends to do?”
“I can supply you with 100,000 gold coins every year, and corpses every day.”
The twelve people on the other side were silent. After a while, the black-robed man asked, “In exchange for what?”
“I am the fourth prince of the Empire of the Setting Sun.”
The eyes of the ten people on the other side suddenly lit up, and they all shot their gazes at me at the same time. It was only after a while that the light in their eyes dimmed.
I suddenly felt that there was an additional soundproof barrier in front of me. I saw the ten people in front of me whispering for a while, and then they fell silent, and the soundproof barrier was removed.
“An additional 40,000 gold coins per year, and after the task is completed, it will be announced that the whole country can practice, research, necromancy and dark magic,” said the gray-robed man from before.
I knew you would agree. People who practice such forbidden studies will naturally be inclined to kill. Coupled with the many benefits I have given, of course they will agree.
“Fine,“ I agreed, ‘it’s settled then. I’ll build a spatial teleportation array here, which will be beneficial for both sides to strengthen ties. Don’t worry, this array can only teleport ten people at a time, and only ten times a day, and only I can teleport.’
”I was wondering how we could stay in touch, and I didn’t expect Your Highness to have such a method,“ Kaiqiang said.
”I still don’t know the names of the two presidents and everyone else.“
”I, James, President of the Dark Association.”
“Rust, President of the Necromancer’s Guild.“
…
The two guild presidents did not ask me why I was here. Being worldly-wise, they certainly would not ask such embarrassing questions.
”Since we have become allies, I will be honest. The talisman of attraction cannot be carved without having cultivated Taoism to the eighth level.”
Everyone looked at me with disappointment and a hint of doubt.
“I didn’t carve the talisman either. I got it by chance,” I lied casually. “But I still have ten talismans here. You can take four to start with.” I generously handed over four talismans.
“Thank you very much,” Kaiqiang quickly took the four talismans, as if he was afraid that I would change my mind.
“There’s one more thing,” I said with a smile as I looked at everyone. ‘I’ve prepared a mantra especially for you. The magic you practice has an excessive yin energy, and this mantra is about how to balance yin and yang. It will surely be of great help to you in improving your appearance and increasing your power.’
Everyone in the room was stunned. Just after meeting, I gave a big gift. James, the president of the Dark Association, took the paper from me and read it carefully before passing it to Rast, the president of the Necromancy Association.
“Thank you for your gift, Your Highness. It is a pleasure to work with you,“ said Rast, the president of the Necromancers’ Association.
”Your Highness, would you like to stay here for a few days?“ James asked.
”No, I need to rest for a few hours. I have to leave at dawn, and I still have some things to do.“
”Your Highness, would you like to rest first or set up the spatial formation first?” James asked.
“I will set up the spatial formation before resting. I will also need two helpers with relatively high mana when setting up the formation.“
”Okay, I will send two people to help you,” James said.
…
This nap was not a sound one. The alliance with these two associations is a combination of interests, and the foundation is not yet very solid. I am afraid that they will turn me into a zombie, so I mobilized twelve horned monsters (horned monsters are one of the most terrifying of the seventh-order monsters), ten pterodactyls, and ten wind-breathing monsters to patrol around me constantly. Five hours later, just as dawn was breaking, I was ready to set off.
“Your Highness, to make it easier for us to keep in contact, we will send someone to be by your side,“ said Rast, the head of the Undead Association. They even want to put a spy by my side, thinking that this will prevent me?
”Okay, who is it,“ I said.
”It’s Kaiqiang’s granddaughter, Cathy.“ I froze for a moment, wondering why it was the old man Kai’s granddaughter.
Old man Kai brought a girl with him from afar.
”Cissy, you will accompany this Your Highness from now on.”
“Is this the little brother?“ Cathy ran up to me and gently patted my head. ‘You’re so cute, Grandpa, thank you, I finally have a little friend to play with.’
”Little lady, you’re very pretty too,“ I said, taking Cathy’s hand.
”Your Highness, Xier is only ten years old, she can serve you in the future,” said old man Kaiqiang.
“Thank you, old Kai. Old Kai, I’ve left you a present.“ I told old Kai where the zombie I had transformed was located: ‘Old Kai, you need to pay more attention in the future, and change the potion more often for him.’
”What did you do?“ old Kai said with some confusion.
”You’ll find out when you use it in the future,” I said mysteriously, without explaining.
“Little brother, come, I’ll hold your hand. Grandpa said we have a long way to go, so don’t get tired,“
”We don’t have to walk, little sister. I have a cow, and we can ride on its back.” I casually summoned an iron cow, and asked Cathy to get on it with me. But there was nothing to sit on the back of the iron cow, so I asked them for something to make a saddle.
“Goodbye, everyone,“ I waved goodbye to everyone.
”Goodbye, Grandpa,“ this is Cathy’s farewell.
Walking on the road, I used a flying cloud talisman on the iron cow, and the speed of the iron cow immediately increased ten times. After waiting until I could no longer see them, Sister Suizi appeared in front of us.
”Who are you?“ Cathy shouted at Sister Suizi in defense of me.
”Little sister, she is my sister Suizi and also the person who protects me,” I said.
“Ah, so you’re the little brother’s sister, I’m sorry.” Cathy’s nervous face relaxed, and she said in a pretentious adult voice, ‘Sister Suizi, you come up here too, walking is so tiring.’
I waved my hand at Sister Suizi, who gave a slight smile and lightly climbed onto the ox’s back to sit behind us. The two of us, the little ones, sat on the ox’s back, kept making trouble, and kept pestering Sister Suizi to tell us stories.
Before we knew it, time had passed. At 19:00, we arrived in the realm of the orcs. After another hour, we reached the foot of the mountain where the base was located. I collected the iron bull, summoned two minotaurs, and Cathy and I each rode on the head of a minotaur. The three of us then headed up the mountain.
We had just reached the middle of the mountain when we saw Yuri and his sister rushing down the mountain. “Your Highness, you had us worried sick,”
“Yes, you sneaking off like that, almost made us worry to death, you’re so inconsiderate.“ Even Yuli, who had always been very kind to me, couldn’t help but scold me.
”Don’t worry, look, I’m back safe and sound! Besides, at the time, Xuan was protecting me, no one could hurt me at all.“
”Who are these two?” Seeing that I was fine, the two of them noticed the things next to me: ”Where did you get these two Minotaurs from?”
“Oh dear, that’s a long story…“ I told everyone about my experiences over the past few days, although of course I didn’t tell them everything. There were many things even the two people next to me didn’t know. Everyone was captivated by my story, and they were just as nervous as I was during the thrilling parts and just as happy as I was during the happy parts.
”So the threat of the Nine Dragons Sword no longer exists!” The voice of Clan Chief Bachxiang came from next to me. I didn’t know when the five clan chiefs had arrived.
“There shouldn’t be any problems. The Nine Dragons Sword flew for 150 li and has long since left the Changbai Mountains. But we can’t be too careless. We can’t reduce the number of patrols yet. We’ll have to wait at least a month and see how things develop.“
On the way back to the base, Sui He and Cathy were dumbfounded and kept asking questions.
”Young master, we’re back.“ It turned out to be the two groups, Wood and Water, who had returned to find out what happened.
”Why don’t you tell everyone about the situation in the Changbai Mountains?”
The Mu and Shui teams gave a detailed account of the situation in the rivers and lakes, government, demons, and grassland tribes around the Changbai Mountains. In short, the situation in the northeast is very chaotic, with all kinds of forces present, but apart from the government, no one else can gain much advantage. Even the government has many restrictions here.
“The people from the Water Group will set off tomorrow to help train the people of Qitian Village. The main focus will be on intelligence gathering. Three months later, we will send 500 people to infiltrate restaurants, teahouses, hotels, casinos, martial arts schools, gangs, and even pharmacies in various parts of the northeast. If possible, brothels, we should also plant our people there. Another 100 people should go to Beijing more secretly, and they should also mainly enter the above industries, or if that doesn’t work, enter other industries. Remember not to have more than two people in one place, and also pay attention to controlling the local gangsters.“
”Yes.“
”Konstantin, from now on you will be responsible for collating and mining all kinds of information, and you will report directly to me.“
”Yes.”
“Everyone, is there anything while I was away?“
Everyone shook their heads.
”Young master, I have something,“ said Paganini.
”What is it, Patriarch?“
”Our clan has a secret method that can evolve Minotaurs into Minotaurs.”
I was stunned. There is still such a method, but it is possible to think about it, as long as the genes are changed.
“As long as they are constantly stimulated, allowing the Minotaur’s power to continuously erupt, after breaking through a certain limit, the Minotaur can be transformed into a Minotaur Demon,“ Paganini said.
”Okay, these 23 Minotaurs will be taught to you.” I summoned the Minotaurs and let them follow Paganini.
Next to the original six-star magic array, another magic array was set up, which was connected to the Necromancy Association and the Dark Association. I used my primordial spirit and Cathy’s blood to carve a talisman, so that both Cathy and I could pass through the magic array. By the way, I rebuilt the six-star magic array between Dragon Mountain and the Orcs. One end is on the ground floor of the base, and the other end is in the area of the Winged Clan. Six people from each of the five Orc clans, the Winged Clan, and my own party can pass through the magic array freely, and of course they can also bring others through.
As soon as Cathy and I passed through the magic circle, Cathy threw herself into Kai’s arms, “Grandpa, I saw so many strange things over there,” and the little girl rattled on about what she had seen and heard at the base.
When she heard that there were orcs (the winged ones she didn’t see), undead, and dark wizards, there was disbelief on the faces of the others. I had three reasons for letting them know about the orcs: first, to let them know that I was not a weakling, but a powerful person, and if they betrayed the alliance they will bear dire consequences; second, I heard from Zhang Lao that necromancers and dark magicians are indeed hated as much as orcs, and will be hunted down if discovered. Letting them know this will make them feel more at ease; third, if I can even use orcs, I will never abandon them.
“I didn’t realize that Your Highness is so charming and broad-minded. I believe our cooperation will be very enjoyable,” said Rast.
“I just came today to try out the magic circle. I’ll come back tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, and I’ll bring food and corpses.“ There was plenty of food at the base, and supplying 300 people was really no big deal. As for corpses, the slave traders threw dozens of them away every day, so it wouldn’t be a problem to get a dozen or so.
”The most important thing is corpses. We can temporarily solve our food problem ourselves, but without enough corpses, we can’t study many black magic and necromancy spells. So please make sure to bring the corpses here soon.”
“No problem. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going now.“
”Your Highness, please take care.”
…
I first gave Suizi and Cathy an identity. One is my personal bodyguard, and the other is my maid. Then I went to meet my parents.
After arriving home, I discovered that my father and mother had gone out to play, that is, they set off just a day after I left, and they didn’t even bring my younger brothers and sisters. Fortunately, if I had stayed away for so many days, my father would have definitely suspected something. When I arrived home, my third brother interrogated and lectured me. There was nothing I could do, as I was in the wrong, so I had to admit my fault. After that, my younger brother and sister happened to find out that I was hanging out with them again, and they insisted on hanging out with me. I thought about it and decided that there was nothing to worry about (the main reason was that I wanted to hang out), so we went out to play with some friends.
…
The day of delivery was approaching, and the members of Team Gold had returned to base. Zhang Lao took Team Gold and Team Wood with him. Ten thousand orcs were escorting the shipment, while three hundred winged people were serving as air power. There were even ten necromancers accompanying them. In fact, there was no danger this time. The gold coins were all in the card. They only needed to place the goods at the designated location, and someone could attach the half gold coin intact to hand over the goods.
The reason for letting everyone come out is to let them gain some experience, and the necromancer is there to collect bodies. In fact, they also have a secret mission to subdue a few more mountain fortresses. Although Zhang Lao is leading the team, it is actually Lu Weixian who is in command. After all, marching and fighting is not a vendetta. There is no problem with Zhang Lao charging into battle, but he is not up to the task of commanding an army of more than a thousand people. Lu Weixian has been familiar with military books since childhood, and he has inherited the warlike qualities of his ancestor Lu Da. Although he lacks experience in leading troops, he is definitely much better than Zhang Lao.
Along the way, Lu Weixian and his men easily subdued more than 20 mountain fortresses, with a total of more than 25,000 people. To put it another way, these people were all poor people, villagers from the foot of the mountain. They really couldn’t get by, so they went up the mountain to band together to resist the monsters, demons, and bandits. When they ran out of food, they would go down the mountain to loot.
Lu Weixian and his men travelled along the way, spreading the word that if they surrendered, they would be given food, drink and clothes, and they would be guaranteed work. Hearing this, the bandits all came out of their mountain fort to surrender before they could even threaten them with their army. Even the nearby bandits and the villagers below came to join them. At first, Lu Weixian and his men were afraid that there would be too few people, and the publicity was sensational, but in the end, they lowered their flags for fear of others knowing. It is also true that if they were not forced by their livelihood, these honest villagers would not have joined the bandits.
But this has made things difficult for me. There are now 20,000 more mouths to feed, and if you add their wives and children, it will quadruple again. Four gold coins per person per year will cost 320,000. Of course I can’t let that happen. After half a year, I will send these people out, and in the future they can support themselves and their families, and maybe even make some money for me.
The delivery went smoothly, but since the other party did not expect so much cargo, they made Lu Weixian and the others wait for ten days. They urgently called for reinforcements. It was only after ten days that they were able to transport the goods.
On the way back, the people in the gold and wood groups received my order to stay at the newly conquered mountain village and teach martial arts. The 10,000 troops then began to search the area around the mountain village, hunting for monsters. My order was to capture them alive if possible. The 10,000 troops were divided into five groups, searching separately and communicating with each other using magic.
There are quite a few monsters around these mountains. There are five Minotaur (3rd rank) dens, each with at least 300 of them, three Ogre (5th rank) dens, each with an average of more than 100, as well as Pig-headed Monster, Corpse-devouring Worm, Slime Monster, Hard-shelled Insect, Night Demon Leopard, Ghost Roc, Flashing Eagle, Griffin, and so on, as well as the terrifying Stone Monster (8th rank) and Wyvern (8th rank). No wonder these people cannot survive on their own, it would be strange if there were so many monsters that could survive.
Zhang Lao and the others only captured some of the monsters of level 6 and below alive. As for those above level 7, they were driven away from the vicinity of the mountain village, and they did not even dare to touch the level 8 ones (the casualties would be too great). The monsters here come in groups. There are two dragon nests, each with more than 20, and there are also more than a dozen stone monsters. Zhang Lao had no way to deal with them, so he had to let the army return to the base first while he figured out what to do here.
Even so, the mountain villagers already regarded this army as saviors. You have to know that normally, monsters of seventh rank and above generally don’t bother them, but rather, ogres, minotaurs, griffins, and the like often come here to loot. Although most of the monsters were either tamed or driven away, the villagers not only did not disperse, but instead settled more firmly in the mountain village. In the past, they had also paid to hire some mercenaries, bounty hunters, and even bodyguards to go and kill the monsters, but it seemed that they could never be killed. After they were all killed, a large number of them would reappear within a year. After a while, the villagers ran out of money to hire mercenaries anymore, and they could only go up the mountain (the monsters rarely went up the mountain, and the mountain was well defended).
Just as Zhang Lao and the others were on their way to deliver the goods, I was also busy with my own affairs. The 200 iron cauldrons that the Minotaur tribe had specially made for me had been transported to the second basement. A month ago, I had the Orcs open another large hole next to the hall, and now these 200 cauldrons were placed here. I had 70 robots in the second basement and 130 robots in the first basement. Each of the 200 robots was watching over a cauldron. I had programmed the alchemy process into their smart brains, so they could make alchemy for me.