In the Giantree City.
There were 3 Heroes waiting for their notifications.
Rao Jian the gnome, Xiao Long the lizardman, and Xia Jun the kobold.
These 3 Heroes possessed mediocre talents, which in usual cases, would be tough to achieve anything outstanding with. However, they were fortunate enough to be chosen as the reserve members of the Dragon’s Shadow Heroes Guild.
The Dragon’s Shadow was a special Heroes guild created by a great Demon King behind the scenes with the purpose of assisting the Demon King himself, gathering intelligence and commercial trading.
Nevertheless.
A reserve member was still only a reserve member afterall.
The three always felt insecure regarding this matter.
Now that so many days have passed, they fear that things might have taken a change. It was inevitable that the three were worried out of uncertainty.
Just then.
The Demon King issued an order to have the three enter the Darkness City and undergo their initiation ceremony.
The three were ecstatic at the news.
They hurried to the teleportation site of the Giantree City, where a draconian priest was permanently stationed there and was solely responsible for the teleportation.
After verifying their identities, the priest activated the teleportation field.
The three Heroes then arrived at the legendary Darkness City.
The Darkness City was laid in the very heart of Darkness Valley.
It was built by the great Demon King with a tremendous amount of time and effort. The scale of its currently developed area was comparable with that of the Giantree City.
If one would use reconnaissance type skills.
The players would certainly be surprised to find that every single building here had their own stats.
[Darkness City Walls] Level 3 Normal Structure. +50% sturdiness to all facilities within the city walls.
[Darkness City Draconian Dwelling] Level 2 Normal Structure. +15% recovery speed, draconian residents receive additional +15% recovery speed.
[Darkness City Advanced Warehouse] Level 3 Normal Structure. +20% warehouse space, -90% deterioration rate for materials of Level 3 or below.
[Darkness City Advanced Arrow Tower] Level 3 Normal Structure. +50% field of view, +50% sturdiness, +50% range, +25% accuracy.
[Darkness City Grand Plaza] Level 3 Normal Structure. Automatically cleans existing trash and dust, automatically repairs damage within 10%.
[......]
From the smallest structures such as wells and roads to the largest buildings like the grand plaza and the city wall.
All of the Darkness City buildings came with their own stats.
These normal rank buildings were not procured from blueprints, they were the fruits of the High Draconian Laborers’ hard work, constructing day in and day out.
These little bonuses should not be underestimated.
Individually, they might not be significant.
However, when viewed from an overall and long term perspective.
Darkness City was definitely the most efficient and comfortable city to reside in.
When the great Demon King first designed the city, he aimed for a composite and multi-racial cohabitation city.
Hence.
In addition to the central area which was the draconian district.
The overall style of the city was similar to the one within a movie from the Demon King’s previous life, Zootopia.
Zhang Nu designed the residential areas based on the different sizes and living environments of various species. From the smallest race such as fairies to the largest creatures like giants and dragons, every species would be able to make their home within this city in the future.
The Demon King had an ambition to conquer the entire world.
The main city should naturally be built with a goal of becoming the world’s central capital city.
Along the way, the three saw not only the continuous rows of conventional buildings, but also the special structures including the temples of Nature and War, the Altar of Inferno, the Lifespring, the Tower of Detection, etc.
There were not many people in the Darkness City at the moment.
The primary inhabitants were still draconians.
Still, the city was bound to be lively and prosperous in the future.
The three Heroes approached and entered the intimidating Demon King’s castle. It was tinted in dark golden tones, majestic as well as domineering, brimming with an imposing sense of oppression. Just the presence of the draconian guards posted within and outside the castle made their heart pound and their legs weak.
They were too terrifying.
Every single one of them were not inferior to the top-class Heroes.
This place was virtually impregnable.
How could any Hero break in?
The three Heroes finally met the Demon King in the grand hall. They hastily prostrated themselves on the ground in obeisance, as if they were subjects being granted audience by their king.
“You may rise.”
The Demon King spoke calmly.
The high priest Li Si approached with three scrolls in hand.
[Death Flame Contract] A special item. A contract constructed with the power of Death Flame. Those who violate the content of the contract will suffer a tremendous backlash. The violator's HP will be permanently reduced by 50, and all their stats will permanently reduced by 20. At the same time, the violator will be subjected to Death Flame devouring their body.
This was a contract scroll.
Zhang Nu was a vigilant person.
For these Heroes, he had to take extra insurance.
For this purpose, Zhang Nu had spent nearly 300,000 gold coins to purchase thirty various contracts from the Demon King market, which every member who joined the Dragon’s Shadow had to sign.
Contract type items were not cheap.
This kind of deed could only be done with deep pockets.
But of course.
The Dragon’s Shadow Heroes Guild was not expected to be a large guild.
If it was a guild with the size of tens of thousands of members.
No one could pull off this kind of contract insurance on so many members, no matter how wealthy one was.
Zhang Nu stated, “Sign this contract. Become an official member of the Dragon’s Shadow Heroes Guild and the Darkness City shall be your strongest backing.”
“Understood!”
The three did not hesitate.
They immediately signed the contract.
From this moment on, they could not defy Zhang Nu's orders, nor could they do anything to betray the Darkness City, or they would surely be devastated by the Death Flame.
Zhang Nu was very pleased.
This was the last batch of Heroes.
If Zhang Nu were to include Su Yan.
The Dragon’s Shadow guild had 31 members in total.
Except for Su Yan, who had the information of every Dragon’s Shadow member.
The others were uninformed about the size and scale of the Dragon’s Shadow guild, nor do they know any other members other than their group.
For safety’s sake.
The Dragon’s Shadow members were connected and contacted through a single link.
Even if there was a defection or something else went wrong, in the worst case scenario, only the members on the particular link would be affected. Hence, there would not be much of an impact on the guild.
Zhang Nu asserted, “Each and every group of Dragon’s Shadow Heroes has their own tasks and responsibilities. Your group is assigned to develop the Dark Dragon’s Chamber of Commerce into a bigger and stronger one.”
“Darkness City, Giantree City and Berserk Beast City have abundance of resources, as well as numerous craftsmen and alchemists. What we need now is a market!”
Rao Jian said confidently, “Please rest assured, Your Majesty. We were all used to be businessmen. The Dark Dragon’s Chamber of Commerce will definitely dominate the markets of the major forest cities.”
“Not enough!”
The great Demon King shook his head.
The major forest cities of the Chaos Forest.
These were supposed to be short or medium term goals only.
Zhang Nu would take over every forest city in the Chaos Forest and the cities would belong to him sooner or later. Specifically dispatching people to seize their markets would be just a redundant act.
The great Demon King exclaimed, “I want a bigger, broader, and longer-term market!”
The three Heroes’ faces turned pale, “Your Majesty, then what you want is…”
Zhang Nu continued, “I want the Dragon’s Shadow Chamber of Commerce to become the top merchant guild in the continent. I want my caravans to travel to every profitable place, establish stores in every profitable city and not just limited to making small fortunes in the Chaos Forest.”
The three were appalled.
The Demon King was actually this ambitious?
Though they were shocked by his ambitions, they were also thrilled.
The bigger and bolder the Demon King’s ambitions were, the greater the investment would be, and the greater the chance for them to change fate and make a name for themselves. The three decided to seize the opportunity no matter what!
Rao Jian, the gnome hurriedly requested, “Please, Your Majesty, point us to a direction.”
The great Demon King pondered a while and answered, “The three major forces surrounding the Chaos Forests are the Thunder Empire, the Sunset Empire, and the Azure Water Federation. The Dark Dragon Chamber of Commerce is only starting out, which is why we can only pick one of their markets to enter.”
“The Thunder Empire will be the first to be ruled out. This empire is extremely ambitious and is very likely to be at war with Chaos Forest in the future. They will definitely restrict any commercial activities from the forest.”
“The Sunset Empire is also not a good pick. This empire is militarily formidable, but their commerce is not as flourished as the other two. They are also exceedingly conservative and xenophobic. They will not welcome any races other than human beings.”
“Only the Azure Water Federation is the most suitable choice.”
It was hard to make remarks on any other forces too far off from Chaos Forest.
But, for the three closest major forces.
Zhang Nu did some research and has some understanding of them.
The Azure Water Federation was quite peculiar.
It was a joint state composed of nearly a hundred or so small and medium sized countries.
In which the human population only accounted for half of their total population. The other half consisted of various races of the land, forest and sea.
The country was very receptive to foreign traders.
Furthermore, the country’s commerce was incredibly developed and mature.
They had an abundance of islands, sea regions and well developed shipping facilities. It could be regarded as a hub commercial country and capable of trading with more than a dozen imperial forces from farther away.
Whether it was to make a profit or acquire materials, the Azure Water Federation was the ideal choice.
If the Dark Dragon Chamber of Commerce could gain a foothold and establish themselves in the Azure Water Federation, it would be the equivalent of opening a window to the wider world.
By then, not only could one make a fortune, it was also possible to access all kinds of resources to enable the strength of the Demon King, as well as his army to grow stronger.
Rao Jian perked up and assured, “Yes! Please do rest assured, Your Majesty. We will depart right away and we will not let you down!”
Zhang Nu replied, “I’ve made preparations for your group.”
As he spoke, fifteen draconian mastercraftsmen and a hundred regular draconian craftsmen stepped into the grand hall.
In addition to these, there were ten super soldiers and five mystic battlemages who would act as their escorts.
This was the initial team that Zhang Nu prepared for the Dark Dragon Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to manpower, Zhang Nu provided another sum of money, a total of 100,000 Demon King gold coins, which was equivalent to a million of mainland gold coins!
This was not a small sum of money.
It was more than enough for the three to recruit their own troops, as well as penetrate the markets of various cities to enter Azure Water Federation smoothly and establish a foothold there.
That was exactly how potent this investment was.
The Demon King’s ambition and determination were unmistaken and could be viewed in crystal clarity.
Naturally, the three gained greater certainty and confidence.
The Dark Dragon Chamber of Commerce must become bigger and stronger.
The three Dragon’s Shadow members departed with their caravan team as well as their start-up capital.
With such a powerful and solid backing which was the Demon King himself, the caravan would certainly be able to accomplish great achievements.
From this moment onwards, they realized that their fate had been completely rewritten.
Who said Heroes could only succeed through fighting and killing only? These three Heroes had made up their minds to prove the world with their actions that they could thrive with a different path.
After the Dark Dragon caravan went on their way, Zhang Nu let out a sigh of relief.
He had been busy with the affairs of the Dragon’s Shadow guild for the past two days. Zhang Nu had been planting a number of pawns in the process, and the Dark Dragon Chamber of Commerce was the last pawn.
In the long run.
This particular pawn was the most valuable.
Su Yan had sent back the information and Zhang Nu had received it.
However, Su Yan had just completed her infiltration on the Bloody Fortress, and only learned of the purpose of the Divine Sword Heroes Guild as well as the scale of their forces.
As for the specific details, she still needed to carry out further investigations.
The Divine Sword doubtless had Zhang Nu on their radar, but they have yet to formulate a plan to deal with time for the time being.
Both sides were in a phase of quiet and stillness, like the calm before the storm.
Since this was the case, if the enemy would not make a move, neither would Zhang Nu.
Zhang Nu did not intend to strike the first blow.
He would like to see what kind of tricks would the Divine Sword play.
It would not be too late for the Darkness City to engage them after Su Yan made a thorough investigation about the Demon King Alliance and their relevant cities.
Zhang Nu had considered that the situation for the following few days would likely be uneventful.
And there should not be anything major occurring within these few days.
He then made an important decision to attempt getting rid of the seal in Giantree Forest.
As the saying goes, one must quell the internal concerns before dealing with the external conflicts. The sooner such an internal issue was stamped out, the better.
And as a Level 5 overlord area, it would be Zhang Nu’s biggest challenge to date.
