75 Path of Sovereigns

When the guard saw the 70 or so brigands return, he asked, “Why is it just you guys? Where’s the Second Master?”

The brigands, who had been instigated into rebellion by Zhao Fu, understood that this moment would decide their futures, so they did not dare to make a mistake. One of the brigands at the front smiled and said, “The Second Master told us to come back first to report the situation!”

One of the guards nodded and said, “Alright, I’ll go and let the First Master know.”

“Wait!” One of the brigands quickly grabbed the guard before signaling to the other brigands to go in and carry out the plan.

“What is it, brother?” the guard asked with a confused look on his face.

The brigand smiled, put his arm around the guard, whispered into the guard’s ear, “The Second Master, the Third Master, and the 4,000 brothers who went out have already died. A powerful sir has surrounded our stronghold; if you want to live, do as I say.”

The guard was terrified and immediately nodded to show that he understood.

This news started to spread throughout the stronghold, causing a strange atmosphere to descend. Every one of them feared death, but some of them were loyal to the First Master to the death. Most of them were killed by the brigands who turned to Zhao Fu’s side.

At this moment, the First Master was pacing around within the main hall, feeling deeply unsettled. He couldn’t help but feel that something was off.

“Transmit my orders! Send some people to see if Old Second has come back yet!” the big brother yelled, and a turned brigand pretended to heed the orders and walked out.

If this was a normal village, one would be able to tell if there was a rebellion about to take place if one looked at the Popular Support. However, the Popular Support of bandit or brigand villages were already in the negatives, so it was impossible to tell.

At this moment, a brigand walked in with a few dishes of food and a pot of wine. After walking into the main hall, he looked at the unsettled First Master and said caringly, “First Master, please don’t be worried; perhaps the Second Master and Third Master will return together soon. You didn’t eat anything for lunch, so this lowly one especially made a few dishes for First Master. Please eat some and don’t tire yourself out, or we’ll all be incredibly worried.”

The First Master originally had no appetite and didn’t want to eat, but when he heard how considerate the brigand was, he felt a trace of warmth in his heard and nodded, saying, “Alright, put them down!”

“Yes, yes!” the brigand quickly replied as he set the dishes down in front of the big brother before saying, “First Master, this lowly one will pour the wine for you.”

Following this, the brigand poured out a cup of wine and held the cup with both hands as he passed it to the First Master.

The First Master received the cup, and without even thinking about it, he drained the cup in one gulp. Immediately, the brigand’s caring smile turned into a cold one.

The First Master saw the change in the brigand’s expression and felt a deep sense of shock. He instantly realized what had happened, but he coughed up a mouthful of blood in the next moment. He stared hatefully at the brigand and fell to the ground, dead.

The brigand coldly smiled and kicked the First Master of the Three Flood Dragon Stronghold, who had reigned above 5,000 brigands, off his seat onto the ground.

With the First Master’s strength and temperament, it was possible that he would have become a formidable and ruthless tyrant in the future. However, he had met Zhao Fu quite early on, and he had fallen into such a situation.

There was no lack of talented people in this world, whether they were heroes, champions, tyrants, or good-doers. There were billions of creatures, and only their blood could forge the sovereign throne. The path of a sovereign was something that was created by the corpses of countless extraordinary people.

It had gotten quite dark, and torches started to be lit within the stronghold. After Zhao Fu and his soldiers arrived at the entrance of the stronghold, all of the brigands put down their weapons and knelt on the ground. Zhao Fu brought in his subordinates and accepted their surrender.

When the brigands saw the powerful army that Zhao Fu led, they felt a sense of immense pressure, and they did not even dare to raise their heads. Afterwards, matters were taken care of quite smoothly, and a total of 800 brigands had surrendered. Zhao Fu’s soldiers then killed 20 or so brigands who had unpardonable crimes and rescued 100 or so women who were from the Hundred Flower Village.

After taking care of these matters, Zhao Fu went to the strange stone platform in the stronghold and looked at it.

[General Platform]: Can raise soldiers’ morale. Special stats: Can allow three people to change their professions to General, and soldiers’ stats can randomly +1.

This special structure was quite good. It could allow Zhao Fu to have an extra three Generals, and it also randomly gave +1 to soldiers’ stats. Zhao Fu ordered his soldiers to demolish it, which gave him the blueprint for the General Platform, and he planned to rebuild it in the Great Qin Village.

Zhao Fu then went to the Barracks and took a look at the single Profession Change Stone Stele there:

[Brigand]: F grade Military. Description: One of the military units that commits evil everywhere. Effect: Receives the skill [Slash].

Following this, Zhao Fu went to the Storehouse. He was only planning to take a quick look, but he unexpectedly found some pleasant surprises. Within the Storehouse, he found a dark ore.

[Black Iron Ore]: Grade: Gold, Description: Can be used to forge Gold grade equipment.

Zhao Fu smiled and put the Black Iron Ore, the money, and the equipment into his spatial ring.

Now that he had quite a bit of money, he was no longer using the spatial ring that only had 10 square meters of space. His current spatial ring had a storage of 300 square meters, and it was the largest spatial ring that could be bought in shops. It was Silver grade and cost 400 or so gold coins.

Finally, Zhao Fu went to the stronghold’s main hall. He was surprised to find that it was a Silver grade village, and he chose to conquer it and [Relocate] it, netting him 100 Achievement Points and 6,200 EXP for the Great Qin Village.

He gained a lot from attacking the Three Flood Dragon Stronghold, and after resting there for the night, they returned to the Great Qin Village the next day. Zhao Fu ordered some people to rebuild the General Platform, and of the 1,100 subdued brigands, he chose 1,000 of them to join the army and split the remaining 100 or so to help out around the village.

Zhao Fu and his subordinates once again brought a large number of corpses to the region of bones and used the Heaven and Earth Refining Formation to refine them into Grade Orbs. Luckily, they were mostly A grade corpses, so they did not consume too much energy – otherwise, there may not have been enough energy to refine them all. The energy stones in the jade channels from before had already been completely emptied, and Zhao Fu was already using the ones that he had bought from Qin Nan.

After refining the A grade corpses into Grade Orbs, Zhao Fu took out the corpses of the three Masters. They were refined into one SS grade Orb and two S grade Orbs. The SS grade Orb belonged to the First Master, and the other two orbs belonged to the Second and Third Masters.

After returning to the surface, Zhao Fu gave the A grade Orbs to the soldiers who had done well in the battle. As for the S grade Orbs, Zhao Fu once again conducted a competition. This time, the competitors were not only tested in their fighting prowess but also their overall abilities, such as adaptability and tactics.

The victors of the competition were a male Elf called Yassi and a Grey Dwarf called Shandi, and Zhao Fu gave them an S grade Orb each. As for the SS grade Orb, Zhao Fu had long since decided who to give it to.