“Crack, crack, crack…”
Then, coffin after coffin split open, and death warrior after death warrior emerged.
In the end, twenty-five death warriors knelt neatly before Lanling.
Pale and cold, undying and indestructible, each one’s combat power approached the peak of Demon Martial Grandmaster.
Within the entire damaged castle, yin energy surged to the heavens, and killing intent surged to the heavens.
Gouli alone as a single death warrior was already so powerful. Now there were fully twenty-six, making their combat power even more heaven-defying.
However, this was merely the beginning.
Perhaps in the future, Lanling would have thousands, even tens of thousands of death warriors.
At that time, he would be sufficient to sweep across the entire Raksha Domain and establish the powerful Flame Demon Empire.
Walking out of the castle, Lanling stood at the highest point of the Silver Tribe’s mountain peak, overlooking this vast land.
From now on, there would no longer be a Silver Alliance.
However, this hundred thousand square kilometres of land, at least for now, did not completely belong to Lanling.
If nothing unexpected happened next, Naishu would lead the great army of the Black Devil Banner to attack the Flame Demon Tribe.
Only by thoroughly defeating the Black Devil Banner army would this hundred thousand square kilometres of Silver Alliance land completely belong to Lanling. Only then would the several hundred thousand people of the Silver Alliance truly submit willingly to Lanling and join the Flame Demon Tribe.
Just as when Lanling thoroughly destroyed the Chimera Tribe, he gained Du Yan’s loyalty. When Lanling thoroughly destroyed the Silver Alliance, he gained the loyalty of Constantine and the others.
This should be called the leapfrog rule.
You defeated me, yet I still refuse to submit. But if you defeated my leader, then I will submit to you.
“Let us go, return to the Flame Demon Tribe,” Lanling said.
The former site of the Chimera Tribe.
The leader of the Raksha knights escorting Ninian home roared angrily, “Audacious! Do you know who we are?”
The Raksha cavalry were directly subordinate to the Raksha Royal Clan, so they had always looked down upon everyone. When arriving at lower tribes, let alone chieftains, they did not even put the alliance leaders of the various tribes in their eyes. At this moment, though they were somewhat intimidated upon seeing centaurs, they remained arrogant.
Xie Li II said, “Then I would like to hear just who you are.”
The Raksha cavalry leader said, “We are Raksha cavalry directly subordinate to the royal clan. If you dare plunder us, you are offending the dignity of His Majesty the Raksha King.”
“The Raksha King?” Xie Li II said. “Before, we centaur tribes greatly respected him and would not offend him. But now, we centaurs have found our own master, found the god we believe in. Whatever Raksha King can go to the side, hahaha.”
Then, amid a burst of screams and cries of agony.
Several hundred centaurs charged up, trampling several dozen Raksha cavalry into minced meat.
Though the Raksha cavalry were elite, compared to centaurs they were still too weak.
“Little wench, come with us. Wash yourself clean and await our master’s favour, hahaha.” Xie Li II stepped forward, looking down at Ninian from above.
She was about to fall into Lanling’s hands once again.
Only this time, as a slave.
Before, though Ninian had been repeatedly deceived and toyed with, she had after all been in a position of power, and had even several times been able to put Lanling in a life-threatening situation.
And now, she was actually to become his slave.
Instantly, grief welled up in Ninian’s heart. She knelt on the ground and wailed, “Heaven has no eyes. Chimera divine beast, you are our totem, you are our belief. But now your people have been slaughtered, the tribe named after you has been destroyed. Where are you? Where are you?”
Ninian’s voice was like weeping blood, hoarse and torn, filled with endless pain and sorrow.
The reason the Chimera Tribe bore this name was because long, long ago, this tribe possessed the incomparably powerful flying beast, the Chimera.
This flying beast possessed a lion’s head, a viper’s tail, a massive body, and could breathe fire.
Moreover, every many years, the Chimera would even undergo a transformation.
For example, within a nest of Chimera beasts, a two-headed Chimera would appear.
The two-headed Chimera’s body was at least three to five times that of an ordinary Chimera, and its combat power was more than tenfold. It could not only breathe fire, but also spit poison.
However, once a two-headed Chimera appeared, within several years no new Chimera beasts would be born.
Although a single two-headed Chimera’s combat power was ten times that of an ordinary Chimera, it seemed to seize the right to exist of a hundred ordinary Chimera beasts.
Many, many years ago.
The Chimera Tribe gave birth to a three-headed Chimera beast.
Correct, a three-headed Chimera beast, unseen for thousands of years.
A two-headed Chimera already seized the right to exist of a hundred Chimera beasts. What did the birth of a three-headed Chimera beast signify?
Basically, it signified the extinction of the Chimera beasts.
From then on, for decades no new Chimera beasts were born, exceeding the longest lifespan of a single Chimera beast.
Therefore, the Chimera Tribe’s divine beast died out and went extinct.
As for that three-headed Chimera beast? At first the Chimera Tribe held tremendous hope for it, viewing it as a gift from the gods of heaven.
However, decades passed, and this three-headed Chimera beast displayed no offensive power whatsoever. It could not even fly, and its body was very small, only one-third the size of a griffin.
Even a griffin that had just learned to fly could bully it. It completely lacked the bearing of a divine beast. It was completely weak, stupid, and clumsy.
Thus, it changed from a divine beast into a cursed object of misfortune.
And during that period, the Chimera Tribe frequently encountered natural disasters and plagues. Everyone felt that this three-headed Chimera monster had brought the curse.
So one night, the chieftain and the council of elders decided to execute this three-headed Chimera.
And the place of execution was the volcano.
They threw this three-headed Chimera into the volcanic magma, burning it alive.
Strangely enough, from then on, the Chimera Tribe’s misfortune ended.
However, this matter was after all not done openly. The Chimera Tribe had actually executed its own totem divine beast. If this spread, it would be a massive scandal.
So after executing the three-headed Chimera, the Chimera Tribe’s leadership constantly proclaimed to the outside that this three-headed Chimera divine beast had gone to distant lands to train, to absorb the essence of heaven and earth. But it would still protect the Chimera Tribe. When the Chimera Tribe encountered annihilation, this three-headed Chimera divine beast would certainly descend from the heavens, save the Chimera Tribe, and burn all enemies to death.
“Three-headed Chimera divine beast, where are you? Your tribe has been destroyed, your people have been slaughtered.”
“Three-headed Chimera divine beast, where are you? Where are you?”
Ninian’s mournful voice, using all her strength, resounded throughout the sky above.
Xie Li II laughed and said, “Save that strength for screaming beneath my master. He will certainly make you feel pleasure beyond life and death, screaming until your throat is raw, hahaha.”
Having spoken, Xie Li II fiercely grabbed her by the neck and threw her into the carriage.
“Go,” he commanded.
Xie Li II and Du Yan, escorting Ninian and two carriage-loads of gold coins, hurried towards the Flame Demon Tribe.
And just at this moment.
The Chimera Tribe’s volcano suddenly trembled violently, and the fiery red magma churned.
Beneath the bottomless magma, a massive eye slowly opened.
Lanling returned to the Flame Demon Tribe.
In just ten or so days, the entire Flame Demon Tribe had undergone earth-shaking changes.
After Lanling defeated Naishu and gained the allegiance of the centaur tribe, Near-Human exiles coming to join him were endless, even exceeding two to three thousand per day.
It was not only from the Silver Alliance. Exiles from within several thousand li all flocked in.
It was not only Near-Human exiles. There were also other races who had reached dead ends, native barbarians, continuously coming to join.
In short, during these ten or so days, not counting the Raksha people who came to surrender from the Silver Alliance, the Flame Demon Tribe’s population increased by fifty thousand.
Therefore, the Flame Demon Tribe’s total population had already exceeded one hundred thousand.
If adding the Raksha people, the population had already exceeded four hundred thousand.
All the tribal people of the Silver Alliance ultimately could not withstand hunger and cold, and came one after another to kneel outside the Flame Demon Tribe. A small portion also left the Silver Alliance for other territories of the Black Devil Banner.
Of course, this group of people could not leave the Silver Alliance.
All who attempted to leave were completely exterminated by the centaur patrol cavalry.
Moreover, the over three hundred thousand tribal people of the Silver Alliance, that is, the Raksha people, were third-class citizens in the Flame Demon Tribe.
All of them could only live outside the city walls, and ate even worse food, yet their work intensity did not decrease in the slightest.
At this time, the entire Flame Demon Tribe had already formed a pyramid shape.
Three hundred thousand Raksha people were at the bottom of the pyramid. Above them were twenty to thirty thousand native barbarians. Above them were over seventy thousand Near-Humans. Finally, there were the thousand-man original Suo Mo foreign army.
As for the centaur race, they served as Lanling’s whip of world destruction. Gouli and the death warrior regiment served as Lanling’s sword of world destruction.
These two forces naturally stood above all races.
Do not speak of fairness and justice. Even on modern Earth where civilisation is already highly advanced, true fairness and justice are impossible, let alone in a primitive and backward barbaric world.
Here, the pyramid structure was the most reasonable.
To state a very bitter and sad fact, after the Qing Manchus entered the Central Plains, the Manchu population was merely one percent of the Han population. How could a mere several hundred thousand people rule tens of millions or hundreds of millions of Han people?
They relied on precisely this kind of pyramid structure.
The Manchu Eight Banners were at the very top of the pyramid.
The second layer was the Mongolian Eight Banners, considered the Manchus’ allies and servants.
The third layer was the Han Eight Banners, considered the Manchus’ slaves.
The fourth layer was the countless Chinese people.
Next, the Flame Demon Tribe’s focus was to thoroughly perfect this pyramid structure.
Select traitors from among the Raksha people, using Raksha people to govern Raksha people.
Of course, this was only the initial stage.
Later, after Lanling destroyed the Black Devil Banner and defeated the Raksha Royal Clan.
He would ascend to the position of Demon King. At that time, he would be the common sovereign of all races.
At that time, the Flame Demon Empire would instead be able to enter relative fairness and justice.
But now, the power of the Raksha people outside was too great, their cohesion too strong. Lanling had to use cold, brutal methods to govern these surrendered Raksha people.
This cold brutality would not last long. It would continue until the end of the next war.
As long as Lanling thoroughly defeated Naishu’s Black Devil Banner coalition army and swept across the entire million square kilometres of Black Devil Banner territory. At that time, the three hundred thousand Raksha people of the Silver Alliance would no longer be the bottom layer of the Flame Demon Tribe, because they would stand above the tens of millions of Black Devil Banner people.
When a collective is small, one can speak of feelings and loyalty, such as in the foreign army.
But when a collective grows large, one must speak of order.
What is order? It is that I gradually become satisfied with my current position, and have higher aspirations.
What are higher aspirations? That is, there are people worse off than me, and I can climb upwards.
But all of this had to be built upon defeating the Black Devil Banner army.
Speaking of order now to three hundred thousand Raksha people was all moonlight in water, flowers in a mirror.
Among them, who knew how many people longed for Naishu to lead a million-strong army back to kill them, destroy the Flame Demon Tribe, and seize back their belongings.
Therefore, now Lanling had only one choice regarding these three hundred thousand Raksha captives: iron and blood, cold ruthlessness.
Only those who worked got to eat.
Those who did not work hard got beaten.
Thirty thousand Flame Demon Tribe troops, several thousand centaur troops, did nothing else but watch these three hundred thousand Raksha captives.
Moreover, they employed the collective punishment system.
The three hundred thousand Raksha captives were organised into groups of ten, companies of one hundred, and regiments of one thousand.
If one person in a group committed a major crime, all ten were executed.
They encouraged mutual supervision and mutual reporting.
The goal was to thoroughly tear apart these three hundred thousand Raksha people, making it impossible for them to ever unite.
They encouraged Raksha people to betray their own groups, to draw close to the Near-Humans, to join the Flame Demon Tribe’s core power.
These scenes were of course extremely ugly.
But Lanling had no choice.
It was not that he did not want to use brainwashing techniques, not that he did not want to use advanced ideological weapons to move people’s hearts.
But he had no time, nor this environment.
Right now, the Flame Demon Tribe’s true core strength was the Near-Humans, only seventy thousand people.
Yet the Raksha people numbered three hundred thousand. Governing many with few, once major chaos erupted, the consequences would be unimaginable, even destroying the entire Flame Demon Tribe.
Therefore, Lanling directly established an iron rule: Raksha people were not allowed inside the city walls.
Once anyone caused trouble, all were killed.
So every day they killed people. In just three to five days, several thousand people were hanged.
Several thousand corpses hung from the city walls, letting all Raksha people see that the result of disobedience was death.
Wanting to prevent chaos was simple: do not let them be idle. Keep these three hundred thousand Raksha people constantly busy, working desperately every day.
Thus, not long after the second seven-li-long city wall was completed, the third city wall began.
Lanling truly recalled that failed film on Earth, The Promise, in which the royal city had ring after ring of city walls, becoming a laughingstock.
And now, Lanling was actually about to build it out. Truly helpless.
For this third city wall, Lanling directly went for a Great Leap Forward, directly building fifty li, directly surrounding and encircling the entire Mirror Mountain at the mountainside.
In this way, the Flame Demon Tribe’s urban area reached fifty square kilometres, already able to accommodate several hundred thousand people.
Therefore, the several hundred thousand square kilometres of Mirror Mountain land once again became an incomparably massive construction site.
Several hundred thousand people, under the whip, worked desperately.
Lanling returned to the tribe.
He moved into the newly built castle.
Yin Ji was working inside here. She was already insanely busy, and Lanling had not yet gone to see her.
After returning to the tribe, he first went to visit Dina. Her belly was growing bigger and bigger.
Then, holding the little girl, he ate with his family.
Just at this moment, Xie Li II’s voice sounded from outside, saying, “Master, guess what captive I have brought you?”
Immediately after, Du Yan knelt outside the door and said, “Sovereign, while we were on patrol, we encountered Ninian, along with two hundred thousand gold coins. We have brought her here.”
Ninian?
Lanling could not help but look towards the death warrior Gouli at his side.
“Let her in,” Lanling said.
“Yes,” Du Yan said.