Temple of the Blood God.
Nancilia, Marilyn and Ironbeard were holding back the frantic onslaught of the corrupted dwarves pouring in from every direction.
There were just way too many of them.
For these fallen dwarves, the Temple of the Blood God was a sacred site of utmost importance.
These corrupted and crazed dwarves had become too dependent on the foul blood that without the supply from the Temple of the Blood God, they could not even sustain their own survival.
Which was exactly why.
Whoever dared to touch the Temple of the Blood God, was a dire threat to the roots of these dwarves' lives.
Under these circumstances, it would be bizarre if the dwarves did not go crazy.
Marilyn had been battling dwarves for many years, but even she had never seen such mad dwarves and was deeply shakened.
These corrupted dwarves were ruthlessly charging and throwing themselves towards them without a hint of fear or doubt.
The Mystic Dragon Barrier would not be able to hold against these suicidal dwarves for more than a few minutes.
However, just as the group was ready to endure the full brunt of the assault, an unexpected scene occurred before them.
"Arghh! Arhhhhh! Ahhhh!"
The corrupted dwarves were all screaming in agony simultaneously.
One by one, they fell to the ground in pain, their body convulsing. Their corrupted blood was boiling away uncontrollably, and the energy it was releasing ultimately blew them into pieces.
In a blink of an eye, the several thousands of dwarves surrounding the temple perished.
Only foul pools of flesh and blood remained.
"What just happened?"
"This must be the doing of His Majesty!"
"His Majesty has succeeded! He defeated the Underground God!"
Marilyn and Ironbeard were awestruck. They had only defended the temple for less than 5 minutes, and already the battle below was won?
This was simply outrageous.
Although they did not face the false god themselves.
But they could all sense the terrifying power emanating from below the Temple of the Blood God, which was enough to bring them a suffocating sense of oppression.
This False god had been entrenched in Ironheart City for nearly two hundred years, manipulating and controlling hundreds of thousands of dwarves. This was not a feat in which ordinary monsters and demons could ever achieve.
Hence, one could imagine how powerful this false god was!
The few of them were actually mentally prepared to hold out for an hour, or even longer, to buy enough time and space for the Demon King.
Half a minute passed, the majestic figure of the Demon King emerged from the underground of the temple and landed before them, seemingly unscathed.
"Your Majesty!"
"Have you completely defeated it?"
Zhang Nu nodded, "It was an Extraterrestrial Blood Daemon that hailed from ancient times, its lifeform and abilities were unique and peculiar. Fortunately, it was not invincible."
After experiencing this battle, Zhang Nu had a thought.
Even though the Blood Daemon and the Eye of the Evil God were both Level 5 overlords.
The former adversary presented much less of a threat compared to the latter.
Nonetheless, the Blood Daemon was much more difficult to deal with.
The reason being its recovery ability was way too abnormal!
As long as it was not instantly eradicated, it could immediately recover to full health in a blink of an eye.
Even other monarchs would face incredible difficulty taking it down completely.
Zhang Nu used Time Control to slow down the flow of time, thus significantly impaired the recovery speed of the Blood Daemon, and finally finished it off with thunderflame bolts and Death Stare.
This battle remained a cakewalk for Zhang Nu due to the abilities suppression.
The Eye of Death, once activated, could exempt and absorb all necrotic damage, while the Time Control could greatly lower the rate of its recovery speed. Under these circumstances, the defeat of the Blood Daemon was certain.
After vanquishing the Blood Daemon, Zhang Nu obtained 2.1 million gold.
But compared to the rewards he would receive next, this amount of gold was insignificant.
Since the Blood Daemon was the one that infused the dwarves of Ironheart City with its daemon blood.
When Zhang Nu killed the daemon, the deaths of the dwarves caused by the uncontrollable daemon blood were all attributed to Zhang Nu. The scale was appalling.
He took a glance.
He was stupefied.
[You've slain a Daemonized Dwarf. Gold+10!]
[You've slain a Daemonized Dwarf. Gold+10!]
[You've slain a Daemonized Dwarven Warrior. Gold+85!]
[You've slain a Daemonized Dwarven Warrior. Gold+85!]
[You've slain a Daemonized High Dwarven Warrior. Gold+900!]
[You've slain a Daemonized Dwarven Chieftain. Gold+50,000!]
[......]
Countless records flashed before his eyes.
It was impossible to keep up, even for him.
After tallying up the total number of kills, it was around 273,500!
The elite dwarven units made up a significant proportion of the kills.
This massive harvest yielded a staggering 16.5 million gold!
This sudden income of such magnitude completely stunned Zhang Nu.
Not even he possessed this much gold before!
Although it was a pity that over 270,000 dwarves had instantly perished like that, however, in exchange, the massive amount of gold gained was very pleasing to Zhang Nu.
In other words, this was a huge win!
At the same time, another prompt appeared.
[You've conquered Ironheart City!]
[You've gained "Shining Mithminite Chest" x1!]
Zhang Nu was once again exhilarated.
Ironheart City was home to a Level 5 overlord, several Level 4 overlords, dozens of Level 3 overlords, as well as countless elite units.
So in comparison to the treasure chest in the Sealed Land of the Giantree Forest, which was also a Level 5 overlord area.
The reward chest of this city was much better!
A shining mithminite treasure chest.
It was the highest quality mithminite chest!
Without any hesitation, Zhang Nu immediately opened up the treasure chest.
[You opened the Mithminite Treasure Chest. You've gained "Gold" x5,000,000, "Blueprint: Soul Altar" x1, "Blueprint: Dwarven Castle" x1, "Holy Grail of Blood" x1, "Life Gem" x1000, "Dark Gem" x1000!]
Another 5 million gold!
This trip to Ironheart had earned a total of 23.6 million gold!
Zhang Nu had somewhat expected the gold yield would be high, but not this ludicrous amount.
In addition to this, two blueprints were obtained from the chest.
[Soul Altar] Level 5 blueprint. Costs gold x5,000,000, life gem x2000, dark gem x2000. You may summon an Altar of Souls in your territory.
[Dwarven Castle] Level 4 blueprint. Costs gold x450,000, life gem x300, fire gem x150, earth gem x150, light gem x100. You may summon a Dwarven Castle in your territory.
Both blueprints were of exceptionally high quality, particularly the Soul Altar blueprint.
It was a Level 5 blueprint!
As of now, Zhang Nu did not have any Level 5 buildings within his own territory.
Although he had never seen nor heard of such a structure, he believed that its function would not disappoint him.
The Soul Altar was a type of altar building.
Except for the Demon King Altar, the Darkness City only had the Altar of Inferno.
According to Zhang Nu's understanding of altar buildings, this type of building had the ability to upgrade and strengthen oneself or its affiliated units.
The Flame Altar was a Level 4 altar that was already capable of strengthening elite units to become lord units.
The rarity and tier level of the Soul Altar were both above that of the Altar of Inferno
Zhang Nu believed that the Soul Altar's functionality would definitely be superior to that of the Altar of inferno.
The other blueprint, the Dwarven Castle, was a Level 4 barrack-type building.
As a Level 4 barrack-type building, the blueprint was very rare and valuable by itself.
After this great disaster, the population of Ironheart City had declined substantially.
It was time to replenish the population.
In addition to the two blueprints, Zhang Nu also obtained equipment this time, which was quite surprising to him.
Hero's reward boxes were more likely to contain equipment, while Demon King's reward boxes rarely contain equipment, skill stones, or other consumables.
Zhang Nu took a look at the properties of the equipment.
[Holy Grail of Blood] Orange quality special equipment. Spend 1000 MP to summon a cup of blood wine. Whoever consumes the blood wine, their life and death will be in the hands of the owner of the grail. The effect will only be effective against targets of up to Level 5.
What incredible equipment.
The Holy Grail of Blood was akin to an unlimited-use advanced contract.
With it, Zhang Nu could summon blood wine to control the targets that require monitoring.
If the target showed any betrayal or unfavorable behavior, they could be killed in minutes.
It was effective for targets up to Level 5.
Although it was an equipment, its effect was quite practical.
Zhang Nu was very satisfied with this gain.
Zhang Nu then began a series of aftermath work.
First, he found that not all of the dwarves who drank the false god's blood had died.
Some of them were only severely injured and barely surviving due to only the miniscule amount of daemon blood existing in their veins.
Although the daemon blood combustion process could cause significant damage to their bodies, it was not enough to kill these sturdy people, only leaving them severely injured.
After a rough tallying and estimation.
There were nearly 20,000 of these dwarves.
With the daemon blood in their bodies extinguished
Their crazed thirst for blood, as well as their fanatical worshiping of the Blood Daemon vanished alongside it. The surviving dwarves all returned to normal.
In other words, these dwarves could be saved.
Moreover, according to Ironbeard, there are still about thirty to forty thousand dwarves who fled the city due to their refusal to intake the false god's blood.
All together, Zhang Nu could recruit about fifty thousand dwarves.
This number was surprisingly more than what Zhang Nu had expected, not to mention that he also obtained a Level 4 dwarven barracks building, which could provide a large population for Ironheart City.
As for the materials needed for the Dwarven Castle, it was very affordable for Zhang Nu at the moment.
Zhang Nu directly built the Dwarven Castle within Ironheart City, in order to completely occupy this place and rebuild the dwarven city.
[You've built the Dwarven Castle!}
[You've unlocked the ability to summon dwarven units!]
[You've gained a new summonable population: Dwarven Blacksmith +25000, Dwarven Warrior +25000, High Dwarven Blacksmith +5000, High Dwarven Warrior +5000, Dwarven Forge Master +1000, Dwarven Super Warrior +1000, Dwarven War Elder +100, Dwarven Chieftain +5, Dwarven Overlord +1!]
As expected from a Level 4 barrack building.
This would increase the dwarven population by over 60,000.
Not only were there dwarven combat units, but also a large number of dwarven production units.
Zhang Nu scanned the price list.
[Dwarven Blacksmith] Level 1 normal, costs 80 gold.
[High Dwarven Blacksmith] Level 2 normal, costs 800 gold.
[Dwarven Forge Master] Level 3 normal, costs 8000 gold.
[Dwarven Warrior] Level 1 elite, costs 85 gold.
[High Dwarven Warrior] Level 2 elite, costs 850 gold.
[Dwarven Super Warrior] Level 3 elite, costs 8500 gold.
[Dwarven War Elder] Level 4 elite, costs 30,000 gold.
[Dwarven Chieftain] Level 4 lord, costs 200,000 gold coins + 100 fire gems.
[Dwarven City Lord] Level 4 overlord, costs 1,500,000 gold + 1 Level 4 Hero's Soul + 500 life gems.
The prices for the dwarven units were not cheap at all.
However, their capabilities were simply outstanding.
Even the combat-oriented dwarves had excellent craftsmanship.
Not to mention the dwarves specialized in production.
Each one of them was a top-notch craftsman.
If one were to compare the Draconian Mastercraftsmen to the Dwarven Forge Masters.
Draconian Mastercraftsmen were more versatile, They had mastery over enhancement, repairment, enchantment, forging, and construction, with construction being the strongest field.
Dwarven Forge Masters might not excel in any other fields, but their skills and talents in forging were the best of the best.
With Ironheart City and Dwarven Castle, the manufacturing capacity, especially in the forging field, would soar tremendously. It would be more sufficient to forge equipment of utmost quality among the other Demon Kings.
Zhang Nu continued to browse through his player logs.
He was particularly surprised to find that among the dwarves who collectively combusted in Ironheart City, there were one to two hundred Heroes among them.
All of whom were Level 2 or 3.
None of them were Level 4.
These Heroes were killed by the daemon blood within their bodies before they even get a chance to face the Demon King.
Regarding this unexpected yield, Zhang Nu was both amused and exasperated.
When these Heroes descended upon Ironheart City, they could not have been oblivious of the abnormality in their bodies.
For Heroes, as long as they completed one level up, they could eliminate most of the abnormal statuses, as well as disabilities, and thus resolve the daemon blood within their veins.
However, they did not even attempt to correct their corrupted state in time.
Instead, they continued to use foul blood to enhance their strength.
In the end, they met their demise.
No wonder they were all a bunch of weaklings.