Great Demon King - Chapter 351.2

They likewise lacked the fortuitous chances of the little skeleton, and a part of Han Shuo’s memories. Neither had they absorbed an enormous amount of elements from the heavens and earth like the other three zombie fellows. Moreover, because their starting rank was already much higher than the zombies and skeletons, they’d even tried to resist Han Shuo’s effort to improve their physical bodies. Perhaps due to these reasons that despite being strong, they were still a far cry from the four of little skeleton inner circle – the undead creatures who Han Shuo had tempered first.

“Father, they will listen obediently from now on.” The little skeleton pointed at the three trembling evil knights, saying to the silently pondering Han Shuo.

“Heh heh, you can take them back. My mind is a bit of a mess right now.” Han Shuo smiled with the little skeleton. Then, when he was about to cast the spell, Han Shuo suddenly looked at the undead creature that was the little skeleton’s steed and asked, “Right, what is this strange fellow? Why have I never seen it before?”

“Oh, he was a bone demon originally. Father found me lots of good bones last time. I dismantled this bone demon and used some of those fine bones to create its wings, so it turned out looking like this. Father, did I make it ugly?” After answering, the little skeleton asked Han Shuo, somewhat embarrassed.

“No, it looks very nice.” Han Shuo replied, before sending the little skeleton and three evil knights back to the strange world. With his connection with the little skeleton, Han Shuo sent the three evil knights to the little skeleton’s territory. From now on, those three were destined to become its underlings, to be its vanguard.

“When did you have the ability to refine undead creatures?” After the little skeleton and three evil knights disappeared, Han Shuo muttered with a heart filled with shock.

Although the little skeleton’s enhancement on that bone demon was a simple dismantling and reassembly the bones, Han Shuo could see from this action that the little skeleton was simply incredible. He was sure that the little skeleton had received that enhancement method from his memory. Otherwise, the little skeleton certainly wouldn’t have had this ability.

That the little skeleton had unconsciously grown into this existence was a big, pleasant surprise for Han Shuo. For someone who had personally created this miracle, the little skeleton’s rapid development had astounded Han Shuo in the beginning. Now it had transformed to excitement and ecstasy. The more he thought about it, the more he was satisfied of his masterpiece.

Deep down in his heart, Han Shuo had regarded the little skeleton as his own child, so he was supremely excited when the latter had called him “father”. He had some difficulties adapting at first, but after the little skeleton left for the other dimension, Han Shuo felt a kind of longing. Han Shuo suddenly realized that he’d seen the little skeleton as his child from very long ago. His doting and worries for the latter were indeed the behaviors of a father to his child!

“Ahh, child. I finally have a child!” A while after the little skeleton left, Han Shuo inside the Cemetery of Death threw back his head and let out an insane laugh to the heavens. His laughter was full of joy and excitement.

The three evil knights had emerged, but the twelve mystical demons still needed some more time to take shape. The evil knights only needed to absorb some energy, so this process naturally didn’t take much time, However, the twelve yin demons were an evolution to another form. This process was much more complicated than an energy absorption process. The timeline would naturally be longer.

After dark dragon Gilbert swallowed the magic core of the green dragon, he nested in the Cemetery of Death and fell into hibernation. His huge body curled up into a ball, his scales and skin sometimes overflowing with stinky liquid and some lights flashing within his body.

Gilbert’s evolution might take quite a while in the Cemetery of Death. Han Shuo didn’t continue studying archmage necromancer rank magic anymore. Seeing that everything was proceeding in a good direction in the Cemetery of Death, he once again returned to Brettel City.

Having left Brettel City for some time, Han Shuo saw that life here had suddenly become much more bustling upon his return. The streets were pathetically deserted in the past, and it was practically impossible to see anyone walking back and forth.

However, when Han Shuo released the yin demon to make a circle upon his return, he suddenly saw many changes had occurred unknowingly in Brettel City. As city lord, these changes greatly pleased him.

Because the mountain people on the surrounding mountains had migrated into Brettel City, the city’s population had increased. In addition, the merchants outside had flooded the city in pursuit of profit. Not only did they bring various daily necessities, some of the bold merchants had even opened up shops in Brettel City.

After the demand for food was met, those merchants started to sell luxurious clothes along with the daily necessities. The population of Brettel City wasn’t high, but the young men who’d joined the city guard had earned a good monthly salary.

Every month, the honest young men in the city all received gold coins which were used to improve the originally poor life of their families. As long as each family had a young man at the right age, the entire family could live in style in Brettel City. Enthusiasm for enlisting in the military was unprecedented. Some young men in Seamist City even took the risk to come here to enlist as their life’s last chance.

Unknowingly, the number of city guards had increased to five thousand from the original three thousand. With the war crazy Dorcas here, Jack didn’t need to spend gold coins to forge equipment for the soldiers. Dorcas was commanding his men to compete with Faulke’s elite knights, seeing who did the best in punishing the bandits around Brettel City.

Dorcas and Faulke worked extremely effectively. Not only had they wiped out two bandit organizations, the gold coins looted from their lairs was enough to equip the soldiers. Brettel City had gone from its initial humiliation to proactively striking out in retaliation. The city had gradually risen up within the span of a few months, garnering the attention of the seven grand duchies. The seven grand duchies who were originally tangled in the mess of battle suddenly halted with a truce.

The seven grand duchies all had the same feeling – the wolf is coming!

After the yin demon finished touring around Brettel City, Han Shuo listened to a report of the city’s current situation from Dick and Chester. Dorcas and Faulke were still personally leading a thousand city guards in a sweep through the some of the large bandit groups in the surrounding area.

Dorcas held the advantage as a leader with outstanding military strategies, while Faulke’s army possessed the standard equipment of knights. The two seemed to be secretly competing as they launched violent raids at the surrounding bandit groups. During this process, their subordinates became increasingly adept and competent at fighting, gradually gaining the spirit of it.

“Bryan, the number of merchants coming to the city isn’t small. According to the current situation, Brettel will definitely become a big city and attract the immigrants.” Jack laughed, jiggling the flesh on his face. He carried on, “I can already see the mountain people come down soon. Now that the benefits and treatments in Brettel City are this good, it’s much more profitable than their mining job.”

“We don’t have to wait for long. The five mountain chiefs have already made this decision. Except for Adleman who lacks ambition in his old age, the four other chiefs all want to lead their subordinates down to become the official army of Brettel City.” Dick looked at Han Shuo and smiled wryly, “Those four fellows have been urging me so many times already. They wanted me to tell Your Lordship about this, but Your Lordship hasn’t been in the city so this matter was delayed.”

Han Shuo’s mind raced when he heard Chester’s words. He asked with a seemingly very interested expression, “What is this about? Aren’t they doing very well with mining ore?”

“This depends on who we compare it with. To the native civilians, their mining income is pretty good. But to compare with the city guards’ benefits, their money from mining isn’t enough to support the daily expenses of their subordinates.”

“Up until now, the mountain people had been faring not so poorly. Now that Your Lordship greatly improved the soldiers’ treatment, it’s much better the mining income. Moreover, Dorcas and Faulke have collected a great deal of weapons, armor and even gold from wiping out the bandits. This income from violence far exceeds that from mining.”

“The seven grand duchies are locked in chaotic fighting, which make it a place of easy profit. Be it selling weapons, warhorses or directly robbing the bandits, they are all the fastest means to accumulate wealth. My Lord, Brettel City developing this quickly is also due this reason – plundering the wealth of others.”

“Hehe, to the mountain people, following Your Lordship is obviously much more promising than mining. Not to mention that Dorcas and Faulke also brought some bandits back to be slaves. With these slaves, the mines don’t need too much manpower. The mountain folk are all good fighters with their strong bodies. It’s a matter of course that they have the idea to join the army.” Dick explained to Han Shuo.

As Dick finished speaking, Han Shuo smiled and said, “It seems everything is for ‘profit’. However, how is the loyalty of these mountain people?”

“My Lord, with you here in Brettel City, do you think they’d dare to be disloyal?” Chester suddenly asked back with a smile.

Chester’s boot licking was perfect timing. Han Shuo smiled and mused for a moment, saying, “The number of mountain people capable of fighting from the five mountains is about ten thousand. That number will double the amount of Brettel city guards. If they decide to join, all the war chariots and stone-throwing catapults at the city gates’ can be in operation.”

“Brettel City currently is overflowing with capital, the prospects of future development goes without saying. This matter of expanding the army is imperative! Ten thousand mountain people will make truly fine soldiers. They’ve been clashing with the bandits for many years, there’s no doubt about their fighting ability. I think this is very interesting, but I just don’t know if the mountain people are actually sincere.”

“My Lord, regarding their illustration of sincerity, I think they are sincere.” Dick immediately guaranteed upon hearing Han Shuo’s words.

“Oh, how do you know that?” Han Shuo smiled superciliously, looking at him and asking again, “You can make the decisions in their stead?”

Dick was about to say that he was a mountain man but upon hearing Han Shuo add the question at the end, he couldn’t help but smile wryly, “My Lord, although I cannot make decisions for them, but I know how they think. As long as Your Lordship acts with moderation, with their current trust and gratitude towards Your Lordship, they will definitely be willing to listen to your command.”

“Is that so?” Han Shuo fell silent for a bit before speaking to Dick with a smile, “Well then, help me pass my words to the mountain people, I’m also glad to let them join the army, but their team must be spread out, their original leaders cannot keep leading.”

“In addition, all of the mountain army leaders will start from the rank of captain, and can only return to their original rank through meritorious battle service. For now, all of the mountain people must be under our lead. I will allow them to join the army if they can agree to these conditions, sharing the same treatment as our soldiers.”

Han Shuo was thinking for himself as well. The number of mountain fighters combined from the five mountains was about ten thousand. If they were still left under the control of their original leaders, it could bring about unbearable damage if they nursed the idea for rebellion after entering Brettel City and outnumbered the guard.

Defenses against the hearts of people were mandatory. Now that Han Shuo was sitting on this position, even if he wasn’t thinking for himself, he had to be responsible for his city people. Though he believed that the mountain chiefs wouldn’t dare to rebel, there was no guarantee for absolute in everything. Everyone could have this kind of wild ambition. Han Shuo didn’t want to risk the lives of the civilians.

Moreover, the mountain chiefs were still young. Whether or not they were suitable to command so many soldiers needed to be judged through their true abilities. In the low likelihood that these young chiefs were useless good-for-nothings, not only would Han Shuo lose his gold, it might create a latent danger in Brettel City.

Since becoming the city lord of Brettel City, Han Shuo’s attitude and bearing had also developed along with assuming his position. He was becoming increasingly careful and mature. There was no longer any single minded ruthlessness like he had in the past.

“Good, I will definitely pass on Your Lordship’s words.” Dick didn’t dare guarantee anything else after hearing Han Shuo’s words, because his conditions were indeed somewhat harsh.