Chapter 437 – Next Plan

All the forces in the continent didn’t expect this war to end so fast. It lasted much shorter than what they expected.

The end of the war was too sudden, too fast, and the victor seemed to be the Purcell Family, which were at the disadvantageous position since the beginning. Those with discerning eyes could see that the victory of this was was solely because of one person, Zhao Hai!

They didn’t think that Zhao Hai would be a person from the Buda Clan, they also didn’t think that Zhao Hai’s prowess as a Dark Mage could be this strong. His enemies were simply looking to die. Most importantly, a Dark Mage was known for being able to increase his army as the battle continues on. Naturally, Dark Mages have their own limit as to how much undead they can command. However, this limit seems to not exist with Zhao Hai. The undead that he currently controlled has probably reached 100 thousand by now. This was the same quantity as a 7th rank Dark Mage can handle.

Although almost every Dark Mage didn’t summon undead, there were some of them who specialize in cultivating them. If these people use all of their energy to summon undead, they could summon at 6th or 7th ranks for an army numbering 100 thousand.

Naturally, all of these undead are common undead, unlike Zhao Hai’s advanced level undead.

However, those who didn’t face Zhao Hai in the battlefield had no idea how strong his undead were. Therefore, although they were surprised that Zhao Hai can control 100 thousand undead creatures, they didn’t pay much attention to this matter. What they paid attention to were some other points.

First, Zhao Hai’s status. When Zhao Hai revealed the Wild Dragon Banner, the people knew that Zhao Hai’s true identity was Buda Clan’s Adam Buda. He now changed his name to Zhao Hai, which surprised the people on the Continent.

In the past, the Buda Clan wasn’t very famous in the continent, this was because the Buda Clan were still emerging Nobles, for the major powers, this didn’t merit their attention. Only when the Buda Clan was given the Black Wasteland did they became famous. Everyone in the continent knew where the Black Wasteland was. For the Buda Clan to be transferred there was akin to giving them the death sentence. This was the reason why the name of the Buda Clan was still on the minds of everybody.

Second point, the toxin from the Water of Nothingness actually had an antidote. For the Radiant Church as well as the Great Clans, this was a serious attack. Before, the Radiant Church and the Great Clans would use the Water of Nothingness as a deterrent weapon against experts. No expert was willing to lose their strength, that would be worse than killing them.

Because of this, a lot of experts had no choice but hire themselves into the Great Clans as well as the Radiant Church. Because only by doing so will they be spared from the Water of Nothingness.1

But now, it was known that the Water of Nothingness has an antidote. For the Experts on the continent, this was definitely a good thing, because they didn’t need to be afraid anymore. Of course this information was also a huge blow to the Radiant Church.

Third point, the matter about the 9th ranks. The alliance between the Radiant Church and Boris had set out four 9th rank experts as well as two high-level Divergent Ability users. But with such lineup, they were still extinguished in less than two hours. This made all of those who were paying attention feel as though something was stuck in their throats, their hearts were jumping crazily, this development was too scary.

At this point, the major powers in the continent now had two things to consider, those powers under the control of the Radiant Church, and the matter about having Dark Mages in their armies.

It has been a long time since the last major war. Because of this, people have forgotten how terrifying Dark Mages were in the battlefield, they forgot the advantages of having Dark Mages.

But with the recent war in the Purcell Duchy, people now had an image of the Dark Mages’ appeal. For the profession to surprisingly turn the tides of war, this was something that all those who were paying attention to the event recognize.

Compared to all these people, Zhao Hai actually didn’t think much of these. After he eliminated the 9th ranks, he started to deal with those mercenaries who remained in Purcell Duchy.

The mercenaries didn’t expect Zhao Hai to kill the 9th ranks this quickly. They haven’t even thought that Zhao Hai would defeat the 9th ranks. Because of this, the mercenaries didn’t retreat far away, and instead, they even prepared themselves to attack Casa City.

Therefore, when Zhao Hai made his undead attack their camps, the mercenaries were ill prepared. And adding on the strength of the undead, all of them were immediately forced to run away. In the end, about 100 thousand managed to escape the Purcell Duchy, the other 100 thousand remained and would forever be part of Zhao Hai’s undead army.

After doing all of these, Zhao Hai gave Evan word that he would be leaving Casa City. He came to Purcell Duchy only to expel the attackers, he didn’t come here to do anything else.

Evan also understood Zhao Hai, and since he still had a lot of matters to deal with in Purcell Duchy, he didn’t stop Zhao Hai leaving.

Zhao Hai also knew about the amount of difficulties that Evan would face. Casa City was a big city, it cannot produce enough grain for its consumption, so the grains would have to be brought from outside. Although the Purcell Family had a stockpile of grain, it was not enough to feed everyone in the city. Even though the enemies didn’t manage to take down Casa City this time, they still managed to heavily damage the grain producing lands around the city.

So now, the Purcell Duchy was once again experiencing food problems. But this time, nobody decided to hoard the grains. The shops in the city also didn’t try to raise their prices. They knew that using this method to deal with the Purcell Family was no use.

Before Zhao Hai left Casa City, he also gave Evan a lot of grain, enough for the City to survive its food crisis. Since the Purcell Family would have to buy grain from someone, they might as well but from him.

After dealing with the problems of the Purcell Family, Zhao Hai didn’t immediately return to Sky Water City, instead, he went back to Iron Mountain Fort. He was ready to carry out his plan to make the 9th ranks in the Carrion Swamp his subordinates. With them on his side, the major powers in the continent would have no choice but see him as someone equal.

They weren’t afraid of other powers in the continent since they could just escape to the Space. But if those powers really did want to deal with Zhao Hai, he would have no choice but to hide inside his Space for his entire life.

Zhao Hai didn’t want that kind of life, he wanted to be able to give a good life to his people. So he had no other choice but to become strong and powerful. Although his status wasn’t low, it still came from Megan. At this rate, there wouldn’t be a lot of people in the continent who would give serious respect to the Buda Clan. The respect would have to be caused by the Calci Family.

But Zhao Hai already knew that depending on the Calci Family wasn’t a good choice. Nor does depending on Charlie. All of those scenarios are just him having fake strength, in the end, it wasn’t his own. He wanted to have strength and respect that was fully his. The Calci Family is a Great Noble Family, they could sacrifice almost anything for the benefit of the family. Although he was now their son-in-law, he could still be sacrificed at any time.

Moreover, Zhao Hai didn’t want to be know as the Calci Family’s son-in-law forever. In the future, he wanted people to regard him as the Patriarch of the Buda Clan, and not a son-in-law of the Calci Family.

…

This time, Zhao Hai was preparing to stay in Iron Mountain Fort for a few days not only because he needs to carry out his plan, but to take personal command of the fort and deal with those people who would be sent to the Black Wasteland by the major powers of the continent.

Zhao Hai was almost certain that that people would come and investigate him the moment he revealed his identity. Now, every power in the continent knew that he was from the Buda Clan. And they also knew that the Buda Clan was now residing in the Black Wasteland. From this, they would certainly send people to come and see the situation there.

If an ordinary person would come, then it would be easy, just kill them and that’s the end. But if they send a 9th rank expert, then matters would get complicated.

Therefore, after Zhao Hai returned to the Black Wasteland, he immediately released every single one of his undead. About 800 thousand undead roamed the entirety of the Black Wasteland. As soon as they see an intruder, they wouldn’t be polite.

At the same time, Zhao Hai also had Megan fully explore the Black Wasteland. Currently, the entire Black Wasteland was covered by Cai’er’s poisonous mist. Zhao Hai had also almost finished improving the land, making them fertile farmlands to be used in the future.

In order for these lands to be fully sustainable, Zhao Hai also began to prepare the waterworks system of the territory. As long as the waterworks gets completed as well as having watersheds implemented, the Black Wasteland would be transformed into the best farmland in the continent, making it the largest granary in the future.

These days, Megan was always in awe. She didn’t expect that the legendary Black Wasteland would look like this. And since it was still winter, the ground outside was full of snow. Megan grew up on the coastlines, she wasn’t able to see this scene before, this made her very excited everyday.

Aside from Megan, Little Jin was very excited as well. This little ape has not seen snow before. So when he came here, he was scared at first, but he quickly got used to it. He followed Megan and played around in the snow everyday, they enjoyed it very much.

Naturally, the factories inside Iron Mountain Fort were free for Megan to see. Especially the assembly line production that Zhao Hai has set up, which was an eye-opener for Megan.

Although Megan didn’t involve herself much in the matters of the Calci Family, she still learned a lot of things. So the naturally understood the usefulness of this assembly line method of production. Once could clearly see how it can greatly improve working efficiency.

Of course, there were some products that weren’t made using the assembly line method, examples of these were the blankets and carpets made by the Beastmen. Even if the method can be applied to those products, Zhao Hai chose not to do so, since if they did so, the carpets and blankets would lose their special touch. The products would be the same as those produced by the Multi-purpose Processing Machine.

When a person creates something, his feelings and efforts would naturally be reflected on his work. And this sentiment would be felt by those who bought the product. This was the biggest difference between products made by a machine and made by hand.

It has to be acknowledged that there were some things that were better when made by a machine, it can even be said to be close to a perfect product. But this perfection itself was precisely its shortcoming.

Those who make something by their own hands would find it impossible to make zero flaws in their work. But these flaws carry the feelings and personal touch of its maker. People arent’ perfect, and products that they make should be the same, perfectly made products do not exist.

Zhao Hai didn’t allow blankets to be made using the assembly line method. However, the other things were. Zhao Hai had a lot of products being made in Iron Mountain Fort. And most of these were made with the assembly line method.

Zhao Hai didn’t prevent Megan from telling the Calci Family about his production method. In all honesty, the only thing that Zhao Hai didn’t want Megan to tell the Calci Family was the situation in Iron Mountain Fort, anything other than that, Megan can freely say.

Zhao Hai knew that Megan had feelings for him, because of this, he didn’t want to place Megan in an awkward position where he couldn’t talk about anything in Iron Mountain Fort. He knew that there was no way for Megan to keep everything a secret, otherwise she wouldn’t have anything to talk about with her family, and Zhao Hai didn’t want that.

While they were staying in Iron Mountain Fort for several days, Zhao Hai began to deal with the Magic Beasts inside the Carrion Swamp. In fact, Zhao Hai had already regarded Carrion Swamp as his own back garden. And since the beasts in his back garden weren’t very obedient, all he needed to do was make them his subordinates.

After Zhao Hai greeted Green and the others, he lead Laura and the others to Flower City. The moment they arrived at Flower City, Megan begame stunned. Although Iron Mountain Fort had become a second Flower City, the place was too small. It was the first time for Megan to see a big city, enough for 500 thousand people, just like this.

The most important thing was that almost everything in the city was comprised of Cai’er. In the endless facade of flowers, Megan almost lost herself, the place was too beautiful.

Excluding Megan, even Laura and the others were continually awed by the beauty of the city. Everytime they come here, they couldn’t help but stare blankly at everything. The place was that beautiful and magnificent.

In order to make Megan happy, Zhao Hai decided to stay inside Flower City for three days. In the meantime, Zhao Hai let out Zhao Wen to see what the other 9th rank experts of the Carrion Swamp were doing, and then select their first target.

Since they weren’t very strong, they would start looking for the weaker ones. And after bringing it to the Space, they would continue on to the next target, slowly moving towards the stronger Magic Beasts. This way, the Magic Beast Alliance would get weaker and weaker until Zhao Hai subdued every single 9th rank inside the swamp.

1. What logic is this?