Volume 11: Chapter 2 – This Kind of Base
Mu Zi surveyed the crowd and found that everyone’s gazes were on her. She continued to say, “We just need to set a limit to how many people we will recruit. It won’t be a problem to sustain then. You’ve been living together for such a long time so there definitely will be feelings towards each other. It’ll be the best outcome if everyone could stay together. Of course, if people want to leave after eliminating the Monster King, we’ll definitely reward them with some money and send them on their way. We’ll follow my plan for those who want to stay to create a new God’s village. This is just a draft plan that I thought up after hearing Zhang Gong’s words. We’ll still need to discuss with everyone on the specifics. I’ve spoken too much and earned everybody’s ridicule.” Mu Zi retreated back to my side after saying that.
Zhan Hu laughed. “Younger brother’s wife, you don’t have to be so courteous and what is there to be ridiculed for? Your plan that you proposed is awesome! I agree with your plans. We’ll discuss this matter with the elders after heading back.”
Xiu Si smiled. “Mu Zi is worthy of being the Demon race’s princess. She’s really good at weighing the pros and the cons. Your plan isn’t bad so I also agree.”
I was secretly happy as I clearly knew that Mu Zi’s talk had shortened the distance between everyone and made it easier for them to interact after this. Her thoughts were much more well rounded than mine. I nodded. “Alright, since nobody has any further opinions, we’ll go with this plan.”
About a dozen of men suddenly appeared before our group, just when we just decided on the future plans for the base. They uniformly bowed. “Greetings to the God’s envoys.”
I smiled. “We’re all brothers. Why are you so courteous then? How is our base now?”
The dozen of them lifted their bodies from their bowing positions. One of them said, “The base is in good conditions. The patrol team noticed you when you first arrived at the mountain range. The elders have brought a few people to come to receive your return. The matters regarding the God envoys’ display of powers at the Ström Fortress has been spreaded throughout the base. Everyone really admires your power.”
Xiu Si said, “How can we trouble the elders to come receive us? Zhang Gong, let’s quicken our pace.”
I nodded before instructing everyone to quicken our pace. I suddenly thought about something along the way. I asked Xiu Si, “Big Brother Xiu Si, didn’t you mentioned that you’ll give me a surprise after returning to the base? What is it? You can tell me now, right?”
Xiu Si laughed. “I still can’t tell you now. You’ll know after reaching the base.”
“You’re being mysterious! I also want to know what it is now.” Mu Zi commented while staying by my side.
I raised Sukrad’s staff to summon Xiao Jin, who was flying in the air. “Forget it, I’ll find that out soon.”
We were already reaching the base while we chatted. We just need to get over the mountain before us before the home that I had left for so many days would be in view. A 300 men squadron appeared at that mountain peak at this moment. The leader of that group was the five elders from the God’s village. The crowd that were following behind them shouted, “We welcome the Gods’ envoys and brothers’ return.”
We quickly flew to the mountain. It had been quite sometimes since we last met with the few elders. There was some traces of hardships shown on their faces, but their vigor was still as hale and hearty as they smiled heartily when they looked at us.
“Elders, we’ve returned.”
The great elder said, “Zhang Gong, you’ve done perfectly well this time. Ah! Your face has really…..”
I smiled. “Everything has passed. It seems that you know about our matters extremely detailed!”
The Great elder replied, “Information gathering is crucially important to us. We’ve set up a hundred men squadron to is specialised in gathering the various informations from the continent. Let’s quickly head back to our base.”
When the 500 men following us met up with the crowd, the atmosphere momentarily became lifely. Everyone happily went over the mountain to head back to the base.
I received a shock after looking at the base. This was completely different from the slightly worn down village when I left. It looked just like a city and the surrounding mountains formed the city’s natural walls. The entire city had been segregated into a few districts. There were densely arranged stone houses on the eastern side , an area filled with crops on the western side of the city, a plain land at the south that had a few hundred people in training and the north side of the city that we were currently heading to. There were currently over one thousand people lined up in an orderly formation.
The great elder said, “The houses made from stone are sturdier and last longer so we’ve changed to it from the originally wooden houses that were built here. There are now lookout posts located throughout the surrounding mountains. There’ll be 300 men constantly patrolling daily. Everyone takes turns to either train or to farm. The base already has its conventional way of operation.”
I said emotionally, “Elders, you have really suffered. I didn’t expect that the base has already built its foundation in such a short period of time. I heard from Big Brother Xiu Si that our base is 3000 men stronghold when they left. How many are there now?”
The Great Elder smiled. “There’s still 3000 of us. It won’t be a problem for us to provide for 10,000 people, according to the scale of the base. However, we few elders, have considered that there might be a problem in food shortage if we were to recruit more people, which will affect our fighting strength. Thus, we decided to maintain the number of our forces to be 3000. Our group will become the main forces resisting the Monster King when it appeared.”
Xiu Si and I smiled at each other. “Elder, we’ve thought about the same thing. Haha! Let’s head back to the base. Big Brother Xiu Si said that there’s a surprise for me. I wonder what that surprise will be.”
With complex gazes, the few elders looked simultaneously at Xiu Si. I suddenly got the feeling that I was being schemed against.
We entered the base under the escort of 2000 people. Everything had been arranged in an orderly manner. The five elders had really put in lots of effort into this base!
We had arranged for a banquet at the large plain area of the base to celebrate our success that night. Everyone, excluding those on duty, was having lots of fun. I had explained the plans that Mu Zi had told us earlier in the day to the elders during the banquet and had gotten their approval. Everything had gone back to its smooth path after the ordeal from going to the Demon race.
The banquet was nearing its end. Since everyone’s cultivation wasn’t weak, they still had a clear mind, even after drinking a lot of alcohol. Xiu Si smiled strangely at me before standing up, “Zhang Gong, I’ll give you the surprise now.”