Chapter 2034 - 2027: Let’s Start Recruiting
All the prisoners lifted their heads, their gazes falling on this unfamiliar young man of the Ice Demon Race’s Royal Family.
In every one of their eyes there was a hateful kind of despair. They had all once fought bloody battles for their own tribes, and after being arrested by Ice King City’s law enforcement teams, they waited full of confidence for their own Clan Leaders to come bail them out.
Ten days passed. No one came to visit them. They still held onto hope, thinking maybe the chaos had caused too much damage and loss, and the Clan Leader just couldn’t find the time for the moment to come bail them out.
A month passed. They believed the Clan Leader had simply forgotten this matter; maybe once he remembered, they would be able to go home.
A year passed. Some people were bailed out one after another. After asking around they learned that to bail out anyone below the Peak of Dao Realm, all it took was paying a certain amount of Supreme Coins. But once you surpassed the Dao Realm, you needed Supreme Crystals to get them out.
One by one they sank into extreme disappointment, because they knew very clearly that the price to bail them out was too high, and they had already been abandoned by their own tribes.
Their future would be forever imprisoned in this lightless detention center, waiting for that utterly illusory chance to ransom their freedom.
"Who are you? We don’t know you," a Dao Realm limit Ice Demon expert said. "But I can feel Royal blood flowing in your veins."
"I am a descendant of the Rift-Sky Royal Family, that branch that was expelled from Ice King City!"
"Rift-Sky Royal Family?" Many present had heard about that era’s events; they were not unfamiliar with the story. They were just curious why this exiled Royal was now back. Was he not afraid that what he was doing was basically walking to his own death?
"As you can see, I’ve come back alone to Ice King City. I’m going to take back everything that is mine, so I need your help," Zhang Menglong said. "Your former tribes abandoned you. Your hearts must be full of hatred toward them, right?"
No one spoke, but their eyes proved that Zhang Menglong had jabbed right into what they were thinking.
They had clearly paid a massive price for their tribes, yet ended up abandoned. That kind of hatred was already at the level of ’endure it and you’ll be sterile for life, take one step back and your whole family drops dead.’ If their leaders were standing in front of them right now, they would definitely question them to their faces.
As for whether they could ransom themselves, and how many Supreme Coins it would take, they didn’t care anymore, because up to now, those people hadn’t even bothered to pay them a single visit.
"My Life Levels are mediocre. As you can see, I’m only at Sixth-Grade Peak of Dao Realm. Under me there are only a dozen or so people whose strength hasn’t even reached one hundred times the Peak of Dao Realm. With just us, there’s no way to pull off those things. But with you—it’s different."
"Why should we help you?" another Ice Demon expert said. "Just because Royal blood flows in your veins?"
"Because I’ve got money!" Zhang Menglong said with over-the-top arrogance.
"Money? You’re just one man. How could you be richer than those Royal Tribes? A tribe of ten million people—the wealth they possess is beyond your imagination. They’ve even established their own estate as their headquarters in Ice King City, where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold.
"Pah, pah, pah, you call that thing an estate? Don’t smear the word ’estate’ like that," Zhang Menglong said. "Levitz, tell them how rich I am."
Normally, faced with this group of Dao Realm limit experts, Levitz probably wouldn’t dare let out even a fart. But now he had more than enough confidence. "My lord built an estate right next to the City Lord’s Mansion, even grander than the City Lord’s Mansion itself. It cost fifty million Supreme Crystals!"
"Hahaha, stop bragging. Fifty million Supreme Crystals? Even the City Lord couldn’t take out that many Supreme Crystals. If all the tribes pooled everything together and scraped up a hundred thousand Supreme Crystals, that would already be incredible."
"Don’t use your narrow vision to judge my lord," Levitz said. "This is the Supreme Weapon our lord bestowed upon us. Do you have one?"
A Supreme Weapon appeared in Levitz’s hand. The mighty power surging off that weapon made all the prisoners gape in shock.
The number of Supreme Weapons owned by the entire Ice King City could be counted on one hand. They had once asked their own leaders for one—just a single Supreme Weapon could multiply their strength several times over—but those things were purely priceless; it wasn’t something they could get just because they wanted it.
Yet this Ice Demon in front of them, whose strength was only at eighty times the Peak of Dao Realm, actually owned a Supreme Weapon they had dreamed of for so long!
"Every one of us has a weapon and a suit of armor, all bestowed by our lord!"
This sentence completely flipped everyone’s view of Zhang Menglong on its head.
"I came today to ransom you, at two thousand Supreme Crystals per person, right?" Zhang Menglong stretched out his hand, and with a clatter a rain of Supreme Crystals fell to the ground. Whether it was tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, you couldn’t count them at a glance, but it was definitely enough to bail every last one of them out of this damned place.
"Become my subordinates and I can give you the same treatment: one Supreme Weapon, one set of Supreme Battle Armor!" Zhang Menglong continued to unleash his big move. "And I’ll give each of you a welcome gift of ten thousand Supreme Crystals. As long as it doesn’t involve leaving this world, I won’t interfere with how you use them."
"What do you want?" The Supreme Crystals and Supreme Weapons in front of them made it almost impossible to refuse Zhang Menglong. And they knew very well that if they missed this chance, they had no idea how much longer they would remain trapped here.
"Loyalty. Absolute loyalty!" Zhang Menglong said. "I have a secret art that can let me control your life and death at any time. As long as you accept this condition, everything I just said I can fulfill for you immediately!"
The place instantly fell into a deathly silence. Here, they had no freedom, but if they left, their lives would no longer be their own. Yet aside from that, they could practically obtain everything—and they could also begin their own revenge.
"Give us some time to think!"
"No problem," Zhang Menglong smiled. He believed these people would definitely give him a satisfactory answer.
...
Zhang Menglong returned to his estate with Levitz and the others. The next day, Zhang Menglong received news from the detention block: those people had agreed to his terms!
Besides those fifty-eight Dao Realm limit experts, there were also several hundred experts above ten thousand times the Peak of Dao Realm, and several thousand above one thousand times!
Bailing all of them out only cost a few hundred thousand Supreme Crystals, but what Zhang Menglong gained was a batch of subordinates a hundred percent loyal to him.
Even more excited than Zhang Menglong were Levitz and the others. This was the first step in the rise of their newly emerged tribe in Ice King City!
"Start recruiting," Zhang Menglong ordered. With this core team in place, next came their period of frenzied expansion. "I want our tribe to become the strongest tribe in all of Ice King City in the shortest time possible!"