Berserk Beast City.
The city lord's son, the Hero Tu Xiuming, had finished his preparations for his expedition.
This is his ninth time subjugating a Demon King.
The previous eight times were all exceptional successes.
This expedition is to deal with a very strong Demon King near Berserk Beast city. Based on the information he has, 30 Heroes have already fallen to him.
Although this Demon King is strong, Tu Xiuming didn't think much of it.
This particular Demon King is merely a matter of course.
The most important target that he had recently locked onto isn't here, but over in Darkness Valley several hundred kilometers away.
Currently, within a thousand kilometers around, the most famous Demon King around is none other than the dragon Demon King of Darkness Valley.
Based on the reliable information that Tu Xiuming has, this Demon King has completely taken control over the elves' Giantree City. He's never heard of any other Demon King who has done anything like that.
Not only did he take over Giantree City, he had even destroyed Du Mingfeng's Ironblooded Heroes Guild.
Even Tu Xiuming's elder brother from Berserk Beast City, the Master of Ten Thousand Gaim of the Berserker Army, ended up defeated and killed in Giantree City.
All those accomplishments are awe worthy.
However, not only was Tu Xiuming not intimidated, he even felt unusually excited.
The stronger and more dangerous the Demon King, the greater the reward they'll yield, which corresponds to greater aid to his growth.
As for his elder brother Gaim's death?
Heh, he was utterly unbothered, and in fact he even kind of wants to smile at it.
The city lord of Berserk Beast City has around a hundred sons. Gaim and Tu Xiuming's body's previous self were the two most exceptional of those sons.
Ever since Tu Xiuming descended as a Hero, he had rapidly grown in power via hunting Demon Kings, and he had already surpassed Gaim.
And since Gaim has already died, doesn't that mean that he's the only choice left to be the heir of Berserk Beast City?
Thus, not only does Tu Xiuming not hate the Demon King for killing Gaim, he even needs to thank the Demon King for doing the job for him!
After the end of this Demon King subjugation, he'll be personally taking on the dragon Demon King.
As gratitude, he'll grant the Demon King a quick death.
"Boss!"
"We're done preparing!"
At this time, two Heroes came over to him.
Those two were both Tu Xiuming's subordinates.
The taller and skinnier one is named Feng Wan, a level 3 Hero. He's very strong and is by no means any weaker than Wang Gang, who he had sent out before.
The other, stockier and shorter one is named Fang Hou, a level 2 Hero. Although his level is a little lower, his combat power is close to that of a level 3. He's especially specialized in stealth and escape.
Tu Xiuming ordered them, "You two head over to Darkness Valley and record the designs, geography, and military setup with a memory crystal. Hand it over to me when I get back."
Feng Wan and Fang Hou nodded, "Don't worry. We'll definitely get the job done."
Tu Xiuming emphasized again, "Make certain to be careful. Do not let yourself get discovered no matter what. Retreat the moment you're noticed. You must not get into any conflict with the Demon King."
Those two aren't as informed as he is, so they don't know just how strong the Demon King of Darkness Valley is yet.
Tu Xiuming doesn't have the time to explain too thoroughly either, so he made one more statement, "Even Wang Gang ended up falling there, so don't go following him."
When they heard that, the two Heroes reacted with alarm.
Wang Gan, Li Dingnan, Jin Ying, and Peng Sihai are some of Berserk Beast City's most accomplished and famed solo Heroes. Recently, there were rumors that they had died, and only now did they finally learn how they actually died.
"Don't worry boss!"
"We'll only scout!"
"We'll absolutely not get conceited and do anything extra!"
"If the Demon King detects us, we'll retreat right away. We definitely won't take any risks!"
Tu Xiuming nodded, satisfied, "Go then. So long as you properly finish this job, then when I take over Berserk Beast City, you'll be guaranteed positions as Masters of Ten Thousands."
"Yes!"
The two Heroes rode on a drake beast.
Drake beasts are a type of tamed beast produced near Berserk Beast City. Although its name has drake in it, it doesn't actually have any relations to dragons.
Although it doesn't have any draconic bloodline, as a level 2 wind type monster, they're extremely fast and especially suited for scouting or raids.
After the two Heroes have left, Tu Xiuming went to his personal squad.
This is a squad formed of the most elite of Berserk Beast City. Their strength is such as there are few factions in Chaos Forest capable of rivaling them.
"Move out!"
"This time, I'll have us finish this quickly!"
"First we'll eat up this appetizer, and then we can have the main course!"
Tu Xiuming led his demon subjugation squad and went forth to his appetizer in great spirits.
...
At the same time, after some testing and research, Zhang Nu finally accepted Rao Sai's group of three.
The three of them became members of the Dragon's Shadow.
Dragon's Shadow. Zhang Nu gave the Hero guild this name in order to represent that this Hero guild was born from beneath the shadow of the abyssal dragon.
He hopes that this organization will spread all over the continent in the future to collect information and undertake tasks for the Demon King. To do all kinds of things that a Demon King himself may not find convenient to do himself.
Every single Dragon's Shadow Hero's identity must be kept secret. After all, if the fact that they were working with a Demon King was exposed, then those Heroes will be unable to move among the Heroes anymore.
Zhang Nu decided to support these three Heroes and have them form a merchant company named the "Shadow Dragon Merchant Company". They'll use Giantree City as their base to expand out and earn profits and gold for the Demon King.
Of course, Zhang Nu is a person who understands caution.
Although he did accept the three Heroes, he's still not able to trust the three just yet. They still need to be observed a while longer.
After the probationary period is over, they can be promoted up.
Only this way can Zhang Nu invest in the Shadow Dragon Merchant Company and support them in growing without worry. Only then can he trust them to go out and devote their lives to him.
After setting up those initial matters, Zhang Nu returned to Darkness Vally via draconian priests.
He decided to use the blueprint and leveling scroll that he just got.
He already had the materials for the Temple of Nature. After conquering Giantree City, he got quite a lot of life gems and earth gems, more than enough to complete this construction.
As for the location?
He placed it within Darkness City.
[Temple of Nature successfully constructed!]
[All units have gained the Goddess of Nature's blessing!]
The instant the Temple of Nature was successfully built, all of the Demon King's units, be they in Darkness Valley, Giantree City, or even the nearby kobold village gained a buff.
[Goddess of Nature's blessing lv1]. Special status. Max HP +10%, recover an extra 1 HP and 1 MP per minute.
Instantly, the entirety of Giantree City practically exploded.
The elves all felt the divine buff from the Goddess of Nature.
"What's going on? Why did the Goddess of Nature suddenly descend! What did we do that was so special?"
Elves are naturally the Goddess of Nature's most faithful believers.
The fact that the Goddess's power suddenly enveloped the entire Giantree City certainly made all elves overjoyed.
Many elves even kneeled down and bowed to thank the Goddess's grace.
"This divine power."
The elves closed their eyes to feel it more carefully.
They all started shouting out in surprise, "It seems to be coming from the direction of Darkness Valley!"
The young city lord, as a future Elf Queen, had sharper and more accurate senses than any other elf. She was able to speak with confidence, "It's definitely Darkness Valley!"
Now, all the elves were stunned.
The Demon King can't actually be closely associated with the Goddess, right?
Why else did the Goddess of Nature bless the entire population of Giantree City though!
This kind of thing has never happened before. It's never even heard of in fact. It's utterly inconceivable!
With that, the last bit of reluctance in the elves' mind completely vanished.
Doesn't the Goddess's mass blessing make it obvious? Giantree City going to the Demon King's side is definitely the will of the Goddess, and thus the Goddess gave her acknowledgement!
Zhang Nu could see the loyalty values of Giantree City's citizens rise rapidly in leaps and bounds.
This way, his position can't even be called stable anymore.
It can be said that if anyone tries to chase him out of Giantree City, the first to stand up in objection would definitely be Nancilia and her fellow Giantree City elves!
Nice!
Zhang Nu looked over the Temple of Nature's effect.
These temple type structures have very powerful effects.
It can actually add a buff to all units while ignoring race or distance.
Buffs have level differences.
Level 1 is only the normal state.
If he wants to increase the level of the buff, then he can make a sacrifice by spending gold.
Zhang Nu learned that if he spends 20k gold as a sacrifice, then it will activate the level 2 buff. Spending 50k gold will activate the level 3 buff effect. Finally, the level 3 temple can go up to a level 3 buff at most.
The higher the level of these buffs, the greater the effect by several times.
However, the effect of a sacrifice will only endure for 24 hours.
After the 24 hour period is over, it will revert back to the level 1 buff status unless another sacrifice is made.
While Zhang Nu does have plenty of money, there's no actual need to make a sacrifice every day.
Only when it's necessary, like when there's about to be a battle, is there any need to spend tens of thousands of gold to make a sacrifice.
This way, the entire army's HP would be greatly increased, and they can even automatically regenerate HP and MP too. So long as this divine buff isn't dispelled or disrupted, the full combat strength of the army is completely incomparable.
Not bad at all!
The Temple of Nature is indeed a great structure!
Then, Zhang Nu bought another batch of undeath gems from Bloody Giant Wang Shi. He took the leveling scroll and the materials and leveled up the House of Skeletons.
[Note: You've leveled up the "House of Skeletons" to "White Bone Mausoleum"!]
After the successful level up, the level 2 necromantic structure House of Skeletons is gone, and what replaced it is an even bigger, more magnificent, and spookier underground palace made of white bones. It's name is now "White Bone Mausoleum".
The White Bone Mausoleum generates an enormous amount of necromantic energy.
Any undead creature that goes in will quickly have their soul fire replenished and become lively and energetic.
As a unit production structure, the White Bone Mausoleum has even stronger summoning capabilities.
The level 2 House of Skeletons had unlocked 1000 skeleton soldiers +100 skeleton commanders + 50 skeleton mages.
The level 3 White Bone Mausoleum had unlocked 30,000 skeleton soldiers + 3000 skeleton commanders + 1500 skeleton mages + 500 skeleton giants + 100 skeleton generals.
This number is kind of unbelievable.
There are two new units unlocked.
The skeleton giant is a level 2 Elite unit.
The skeleton general is a level 3 Elite unit.
There is no Lord level skeleton unit.
The vast majority of undead units have this unique property. Their summoning cost is cheap, and their upkeep cost is inexpensive too. They're very suitable for mass human wave tactics.
Well, it's fine if there's no Lord unit.
Zhang Nu doesn't find this point regrettable.
It's not like he lacks Lord units anyways, so what does it matter if he has one more or less. Rather, he's actually quite satisfied with the skeleton quantity.
A normal skeleton soldier costs 3 gold, so 30k skeletons will only take 90k gold to summon them all.
These guys can very well be simply tossed on a battlefield to act as cannon fodder.
It wouldn't be painful no matter how heavy the losses are after all. Plus, besides just being cannon fodder, they can also be used as cheap and uncomplaining labor.
Although they're not all that strong, this undead army still has value as a supporting element for the territory.