The twenty odd refugees from the Northern Barbarian Wasteland stepped onto solid ground, filled with relief, awe, and unease.
Then they gathered closely together and ventured deeper into the Barbarian Wasteland.
Everyone gripped their weapons and bows tightly, as if facing a deadly enemy.
Everything here was unknown.
Everything was dangerous.
Meng Tuoluo wore a tight leather outfit and had disguised herself. She looked no different from most Near Humans. Since many Near Humans did not have tails, she even attached a fake one.
She had also darkened her face with dye, making herself far less dazzlingly beautiful. Otherwise, a woman of such extraordinary beauty would attract endless trouble on this land.
Even so, despite the disguise and the hidden features, several Near Human warriors still eagerly tried to impress her, casting admiring glances her way.
Even with her face concealed, she still possessed an irresistible figure. Her natural beauty simply could not be hidden.
So she put on a loose robe, concealing her alluring curves.
The group of more than twenty people continued deeper and deeper inland.
In truth, the Black Widow Meng Tuoluo had not come alone.
There were three of them.
The other two, one man and one woman, were experts from the Motuo Empire. They had also blended into the refugee group. They were both Meng Tuoluo’s subordinates and also her supervisors.
After travelling one hundred li inland,
A griffin’s cry suddenly echoed through the sky.
A female griffin rider swooped down from above.
The Near Human refugees immediately panicked and all raised their bows towards the griffin.
The female rider was naturally Duo Ning of the Flame Demon Tribe. Her duty was to patrol the surrounding area on her griffin, locate refugee groups, and guide them to the Flame Demon Tribe.
Hovering overhead, Duo Ning called out,
“Are you homeless refugees down there?”
Meng Tuoluo quietly slipped into the crowd, making no effort to stand out.
She had a mission.
Her true identity was a spy sent by the Motuo Empire to Rakshasa City, directly under Princess Naxue.
A warrior named Tie Ji stepped forward from among the refugees.
“Yes. We’ve come from the Northern Barbarian Wasteland.”
Duo Ning looked surprised.
“You’ve only just arrived in the Southern Barbarian Wasteland?”
“That’s right.”
Duo Ning smiled.
“Our Flame Demon Tribe is the home of all Near Humans and welcomes refugees of every race. In the Flame Demon Tribe, you’ll have houses to live in, clothes to wear, and food to eat. You’re all welcome. If you’re willing, I’ll lead you there.”
The refugees below were instantly overjoyed.
So the Southern Barbarian Wasteland truly was a paradise for Near Humans.
They had only just landed, yet someone was already willing to take them in.
Their desperate journey across the sea had not been in vain.
The refugees immediately began discussing it quietly.
“Should we go with her? Could it be a trap?”
“We’ve only travelled a few dozen li inland and someone’s already recruiting us. There might be even more tribes ahead looking for refugees. Shouldn’t we compare our options first?”
“Exactly. We should compare them all and choose the strongest tribe with the best treatment.”
“But it won’t hurt to have a look. If their conditions aren’t good enough, we can simply leave and find another tribe.”
The leader of this refugee group was Tie Ji.
He had once been the young chief of a Near Human tribe in the Northern Barbarian Wasteland.
He was thirty two years old and possessed considerable strength, having reached the level of a Six Star Great Magic Warrior.
Several hundred people had originally fled south with Tie Ji.
Now only a little over twenty remained.
About ten were originally his own tribesmen, while the rest were refugees from other Near Human tribes.
Thus, Tie Ji naturally became the leader.
After hearing everyone’s discussion, he turned to Meng Tuoluo.
“What do you think?”
Meng Tuoluo replied,
“Let’s go and take a look first.”
Thus, under Duo Ning’s guidance, the refugee group headed towards the Flame Demon Tribe.
Meng Tuoluo kept her head lowered, doing everything possible to remain unnoticed.
…
The Flame Demon Tribe was expanding at an astonishing speed.
More and more refugees arrived every single day.
Eventually, problems began to appear.
There were fights.
There was theft.
There were people refusing orders.
Some even encountered old enemies among the refugees.
As a result, Lingling established a Law Enforcement Hall and organised a three hundred man patrol force dedicated to maintaining order.
To intimidate everyone, his punishments were far beyond merely severe.
Anyone involved in a fight, regardless of who started it, received one hundred lashes each, five days in prison, and five days without food.
Anyone who used weapons in a fight was executed immediately, regardless of the reason.
Anyone caught stealing was executed immediately.
Anyone refusing orders was executed immediately.
Naturally, such harsh laws were only temporary.
Once the tribe became stable, the regulations would certainly be revised.
But at present, the tribe was expanding every day.
Countless refugees joined daily.
Lingling simply lacked enough trustworthy people.
His original foundation consisted of barely over one thousand people, yet they now had to manage more than ten thousand.
Every possible danger had to be eliminated before it could grow.
Extraordinary times demanded extraordinary measures.
For more than ten consecutive days, executions were carried out every day.
Trials were held publicly.
Executions were carried out publicly.
Lingling wanted people to be grateful.
He also wanted them to be afraid.
When the tribe’s population exceeded fifteen thousand, Lingling finally decided to expand the Flame Demon Tribe.
The original fortress covered only three or four hundred mu.
It was no longer anywhere near large enough.
Although the speed of expansion had far exceeded expectations, Lingling had already planned everything.
The existing fortress would become the Inner City.
Outside it, an Outer City would be built.
The planned area of the Outer City was approximately three square kilometres, roughly four thousand five hundred mu, more than ten times larger than the Inner City.
The new city walls would stretch for around seven li.
Construction remained the same as before.
Earth walls would first be built, then covered with thick layers of stone.
Although these earth walls contained no steel framework, they would still be incredibly strong.
Their framework consisted entirely of Ironwood.
Ironwood was an exceptionally dense and tough timber.
It was extremely rare.
Every Ironwood tree within two hundred li had already been cut down by Lingling using his Dark Gold Great Sword.
Thus, the entire tribe became an even larger construction site.
Everyone worked frantically.
Lingling himself became so busy that he slept less than one hour each day.
There was simply endless work waiting for him.
More than anything, he longed for a genius administrator.
He also desperately needed an expert in spiritual power.
Most of his time was now spent meeting the leaders of newly arrived refugee groups.
As the population grew daily, new administrators and military officers had to be appointed every day.
The original talents under Lingling were nowhere near sufficient.
He had to discover capable people from among the newcomers.
The Barbarian Wasteland respected martial strength.
Military officers naturally tended to come from the strongest warriors.
But he also needed to identify spies hidden among them.
This required powerful spiritual perception.
Someone who could instantly tell whether a person was lying.
Someone who could see through another person’s motives and character at a glance.
When Lingling appointed officials or officers, talent and strength came second.
Loyalty came first.
He would never promote anyone who was treacherous or cruel.
Within the entire Flame Demon Tribe, only one person possessed sufficiently powerful spiritual abilities.
Lingling himself.
Thus, almost all of his time was spent interviewing and appointing new officials.
At times like this, Gouli’s value became obvious.
She was arrogant, vicious, cunning, and selfish.
The questions she asked were often unexpected and extremely sharp.
People’s true reactions and personalities were quickly exposed.
These days, she had become Lingling’s assistant, helping interview the leaders of refugee groups seeking to join the tribe.
Lingling was busy, but compared to the others, his work was relatively light.
He only had to meet dozens, sometimes over a hundred people every day.
Suomo, Duoduo, Duolong, Gangtuo, and the others were far busier.
Every day they reorganised the army.
Every day they trained soldiers.
Before one batch of recruits had even completed integration and training, another batch would arrive.
Within only twenty days, Suomo, Duoduo, and the others had all become noticeably thinner.
Their voices had grown hoarse.
Suomo in particular had to train troops, supervise construction, and oversee the tribe’s defences.
He barely slept.
Getting two or three hours of sleep every four or five days had become a luxury.
Left with no alternative, Lingling practically fed them restorative medicine like ordinary food.
Every original member of the Foreign Army was assigned to mentor the newcomers.
They cared about their daily lives and their state of mind.
Though they held neither military nor administrative positions, they acted as temporary guides.
They led by example, teaching newcomers how to work and how to live within the tribe.
Every day they also wrote reports detailing the personalities, thoughts, and behaviour of those under their guidance.
At first, each veteran only mentored around ten people.
Now each one looked after fifteen or even more.
All of these reports eventually reached Lingling.
He had to read them as quickly as possible, identify unstable or dangerous individuals, and also discover talented newcomers worth promoting.
Reading more than a thousand reports every day would have driven almost anyone mad.
Even with his powerful spiritual strength, Lingling found it overwhelming.
At times like this, he longed even more for the female shaman Yin Ji to join the Flame Demon Tribe.
She was a true strategist.
Her spiritual power was formidable.
She understood human nature.
If she joined the tribe, she would become Lingling’s greatest assistant and an outstanding administrator.
Unfortunately, unless she found herself completely abandoned by Alfonso, she would never join Lingling.
…
Two days and two nights later,
Tie Ji finally led the group of more than twenty Near Human refugees to the Flame Demon Tribe.
Duo Ning had only guided them at the beginning.
After explaining the route, she resumed her patrols on her griffin, searching for more refugee groups.
When Meng Tuoluo’s group arrived, the first thing they saw was an enormous construction site.
The expansion of the Outer City had begun three days earlier.
Thousands of people were digging earth, carrying soil, and compacting the city walls.
Every single person was covered in mud.
Every single person worked with all their strength.
Tie Ji’s group exchanged puzzled looks.
“What kind of tribe is this? They don’t even have proper houses or city walls.”
“Could this just be a trick to recruit labourers?”
“I’m certainly not doing filthy work like that.”
Many members of the group began voicing their complaints.
Such reactions were actually quite rare.
Most Near Humans who joined the Flame Demon Tribe had wandered homeless for years.
They had survived countless brushes with death.
They had endured endless suffering.
Every day had been a struggle against hunger and death.
Not a single tribe in the Southern Barbarian Wasteland had accepted them.
Years of homelessness had made the opportunity to join the Flame Demon Tribe seem unimaginably precious.
Meng Tuoluo’s group, however, was different.
Their tribe had only recently been destroyed by the Motuo Empire.
They had only just arrived in the Southern Barbarian Wasteland.
Apart from the deaths suffered during the sea voyage, they had not yet experienced true hardship.
They had barely entered the Southern Barbarian Wasteland before someone came to recruit them.
Naturally, they assumed many tribes were competing for refugees.
During the voyage they had wished only for somewhere to survive.
Now they believed they had the luxury of comparing their options.
Meng Tuoluo said,
“Since we’re already here, let’s go inside and have a look. We haven’t had a proper meal in days.”
Tie Ji agreed.
At the very least, they could eat first.
Thus, the group entered the Flame Demon Tribe.
…
Today, another one thousand three hundred people joined the tribe.
All the newcomers gathered in the enormous square to eat together.
Everyone devoured their food hungrily.
Meng Tuoluo had intended to eat slowly and gracefully, but to avoid attracting suspicion, she deliberately ate just as ravenously as everyone else.
“Everyone, stand. Welcome the Chief.”
Today’s officer in charge of order was Lei Tong.
He shouted loudly.
Immediately, all one thousand newcomers stood up, put down their bowls, and looked towards Lingling.
Every day, Lingling personally met the newcomers.
Every day, he gave them a speech.
His speeches were never overly emotional.
Yet because they carried powerful spiritual influence, they were deeply compelling and overwhelmingly persuasive.
Lingling smiled as he looked across the crowded square.
“Eat first. We’ll talk after you’ve finished.”
The moment she heard his voice, Meng Tuoluo’s heart trembled.
She slowly raised her beautiful eyes.
She made no sound.
Not even her expression changed.
But inside, her heart shook violently.
Although Lingling’s face had changed.
His aura had changed.
His voice had changed.
Even his race had changed.
This face…
Still retained traces of Soren everywhere.
Meng Tuoluo could not say she recognised him immediately.
But she recognised at least sixty percent of him.