56. Gathering and Intimidation

Mo Fei had already decided that once Elder Auf and the others were prepared, they would march on the Nars Empire and establish a military stronghold—the City of Death—within its borders. Mo Fei was even toying with the idea of founding a Death Empire.

In truth, Elder Auf, Cain, and the others had long harbored the ambition of creating an empire. It need not be vast, but it must possess formidable military strength—enough to deter any other empire from daring to invade. This assault on the Nars Empire might well be their opportunity.

Mo Fei was easygoing by nature, the sort of person who would never provoke others unless provoked himself. Yet, after conquering the Nars Empire, how was he to govern such an enormous territory? The Nars Empire was more than twenty times larger than Mo Fei’s current domain.

Unbeknownst to Mo Fei, Elder Auf and Cain had already devised their own plans. Mo Fei still thought that after the conquest, he could simply leave the management of the new lands to them. But this time, Elder Auf was resolute in his intentions...

In the City of Death, within the council hall:

“Elder, are all the supplies ready?” Mo Fei inquired.

“Lord Governor, everything is nearly prepared, but since we are about to subdue an entire empire, we must ensure our provisions are more than sufficient,” the elder replied.

“You’re right, Elder. By the way, how is the training of those fifty thousand new recruits from the Elven Kingdom coming along?” Mo Fei asked.

As it turned out, when Irene heard Mo Fei’s plan to attack the Nars Empire, she hurried home to tell her mother. The very next day, Irene returned, leading fifty thousand newly gathered elves, empty-handed, into the City of Death. “Brother, how can you hope to defeat an empire with just these few people? Mother said that not only are we allies, but we are family. So here you go—Mother sends you fifty thousand elven archers.”

Though she had promised archers, they arrived empty-handed, which left Mo Fei with little to do but smile wryly. Still, the addition of these elven archers greatly increased the City of Death’s chances of victory.

“The last batch of elven archers trained for only two months, and with that experience, this group should be ready in no more than a month. Elder Auf’s preparations will also take about a month, so our timing will be perfect,” Cain said.

“Then, Elder, make sure to gather extra supplies, and Cain, redouble your efforts with their training,” Mo Fei instructed. After a pause, he added, “Didn’t the elven beast tamers recently train many more battle-ready magical beasts?”

“Lord Governor, are we to expand our cavalry forces?” Cain asked, brimming with excitement.

“Yes, Lord Governor. With the new magical beasts we have trained, together with those previously set aside as reinforcements, we can now assemble a cavalry force of twelve thousand...”