The Lord’s Empire

Out of the 301 Gnomes, Zhao Fu added 100 Gnome Crossbowmen into his army. After returning to the Great Qin Village, he re-established the Gnome Village and the bandit village.

He then went west of the Great Qin Village, took out a blue cube, and pressed it against the ground. Following this, blue light rippled out as a system announcement sounded, “System announcement! Would you like to use this City Creation Stone?”

Zhao Fu replied, “Yes!”

The hazy images of a few structures appeared and gradually solidified as another system announcement sounded out, “Please give this village a name!”

Zhao Fu thought about it and decided that since this village was established west of the Great Qin Village, it would be called Westwood Village.

After naming the village, four figures slowly appeared. One was a white-bearded elder and the other three people were the Blacksmith, Apothecary, and Tailor. The white-bearded elder was B grade while the other 3 were C grade. Following this, Zhao Fu brought over 10 or so people from the Great Qin Village to build some basic buildings for the Westwood Village.

Zhao Fu then went to the space of bones and placed the bandit leader’s corpse on the altar. He activated the Heaven and Earth Refining Formation and obtained an S grade Orb. By now, they had used around 1% of the remaining energy stored in the energy stones and would be able to refine about another 100 corpses or so.

As for who Zhao Fu would give this S grade Orb to, he had long since made the decision: Li Wen. Zhao Fu felt guilty towards him because he had voluntarily taken the Skeleton General profession and had been sent into the darkness every day to explore the passages.

“Li Wen, here!”

Zhao Fu called Li Wen over and personally handed him the orb.

Li Wen knelt on one knee and looking incredibly excited and moved that Zhao Fu would think of him first. He thanked Zhao Fu profusely before choosing to use the orb.

The Grade Orb shined with a slightly blood-colored light and floated to Li Wen’s head. It slowly enlarged until it became a bubble that surrounded Li Wen’s entire body. Within the bubble, Li Wen tightly closed his eyes as if there were intense changes happening, and after a while, the bubble disappeared and Li Wen’s grade rose to S grade.

After he saw Li Wen’s grade rise, Zhao Fu went back to the surface.

Now, Zhao Fu had conquered 11 villages. There were 6 Human Villages, 3 Goblin Villages, and 2 Gnome Villages, and he now had 1,800 soldiers in total.

Now that he had such a large army, Zhao Fu thought about launching some attacks against the Orc Village 100 kilometers away. Of course, Zhao Fu would not be so stupid as to reveal his own villages; rather, he wanted to see the Orc Village’s true strength. Compared to living in fear of a possible Orc attacking every day, it was better for them to take an active role.

Zhao Fu once again gathered his army when a Gnome Mechanics Scholar ran over and said something to him. A look of delight appeared on Zhao Fu’s face and he decided not to set out for now. Instead, he decided to remain in the Great Qin Village for another few days. During this time, he gave the soldiers to Bai Qi to do some training.

A few days later, Zhao Fu once again gathered his forces and brought some food, preparing to move out.

Suddenly, Zhao Fu’s body trembled as a system announcement sounded out in his mind.

“You have received an oracle message!”

A strange look appeared on Zhao Fu’s face; he had almost forgotten about his Demon Priest profession. The so-called oracle message was most likely from the ‘god Kerr’.

Zhao Fu looked at the oracle message and saw that it wanted him to develop the number of believers and make a sacrifice.

After looking at the oracle message’s contents, Zhao Fu slightly frowned. He could make a sacrifice, but he wasn’t willing to make his villagers believe in a god to increase Kerr’s believers. After all, Zhao Fu did not believe in any gods – he believed that man could conquer nature.

Suddenly, he remembered that the Heaven and Earth Refining Formation’s description said that it could ‘refine anything.’ Zhao Fu mumbled to himself, “Then… can it refine godly spirits?”

After this thought appeared in his mind, Zhao Fu started to feel quite excited. Plans rapidly formed in his mind and he had a feeling that it was possible for them to succeed.

The god Kerr didn’t know that Zhao Fu was starting to have wicked thoughts about it, and of course, Zhao Fu wouldn’t directly go and kill a god. First off, he did not have the power to cross the plane of existence, and even if he could, he and his soldiers would be instantly killed. Even though that god Kerr was a weak godly spirit, it was still a godly spirit, and it definitely wasn’t something that Zhao Fu could fight against.

Zhao Fu understood all of this clearly, but he had a crazy idea. However, he wouldn’t think about it for now – it was best to deal with the Orc Village first.

Finally, Zhao Fu and his soldiers set off.

…………………………………………………………………

The sky was overcast, making the lighting quite dim, and the wind that blew through the trees was quite chilling. Zhao Fu and his soldiers had traveled for a few days and had traveled 100 kilometers away from the Great Qin Village. Because there were a few Grey Dwarves leading the way, Zhao Fu and his soldiers found the Orc Village quite quickly.

The Orc Village was situated at the bottom of a mountain, and there were definitely more than 5,000 Orcs. There were 1,000 or so elderly, women, and children, and the remaining 4,000 were Orc warriors. The Orcs were all incredibly tall and muscular, and they had grey-white skin. Their faces were terrifying, wore beast skins, and normally held hatchets or maces.

Zhao Fu knew that his side would definitely not be able to win if he launched a direct attack when facing so many Orcs. The Orcs had incredibly powerful bodies, and ordinary people would have a hard time fighting against them. However, Zhao Fu’s soldiers had various professions and profession bonuses, so things would be slightly better for them.

If it was just Zhao Fu’s soldiers, it would be quite difficult for them to defeat the Orc Village, so Zhao Fu fell into deep thought.

Bai Qi said, “Your Majesty! You should look to see if there are any other factions around here. After all, we’re from over 100 kilometers away, so we should gain some information before creating battle tactics.”

Zhao Fu nodded in response and understood that he was being too hurried. As such, he asked the Grey Dwarves to introduce him to the surrounding powers.

After listening to the Grey Dwarves, Zhao Fu learned that there were three big factions in the surrounding 50-kilometer radius. One was 18 kilometers to the south, a Goblin Village with around 5,000 Goblins; another was 21 kilometers to the west, a Kobold Village with around 4,000 Kobolds; and the final one was 20 kilometers to the east, an Elf Village with around 3,000 Elves.

After receiving this information, Zhao Fu’s mind felt much clearer.

In his mind, he had two choices. One was to ally with the three villages to defeat the Orc Village. With the Orcs’ brutal and barbaric tendencies, the surrounding villages must have suffered at their hands, so it was quite possible that the alliance would succeed.

The second method was to pit the three villages and the Orc Village against each other. That way, not only would he be able to destroy the Orc Village, but he would also be able to devour the other 3 villages without wasting his own forces.