In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.
Every few days, Xiao Chen would walk around the tribe and sense the changes in the land. The gathering of the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi in the entire mountain city had reached a bottleneck.
The Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi in the vicinity of the entire mountain city was more than ten times that of the outside world. Within the mountain city, even the places with the weakest Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi gathered were more than twenty times that of the outside world. Under the nourishment of the abundant Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi, the entire Gu Yuan Tribe would undergo a qualitative change in a few years.
Within a month, more than sixty low-ranked combat divisions came to the Gu Yuan Tribe to pay tribute and leave their names on the Ten Thousand Tribe Stele. They became the Gu Yuan Tribe's vassal tribes.
In this way, the Gu Yuan Tribe had a total of one hundred and thirty-five low-ranked human combat divisions. Most of these human combat divisions were low-ranked and had no more than three Blood Refining Realm cultivators. There were only a dozen or so low-ranked and middle-ranked human combat divisions.
These human combat divisions were close to the Gu Yuan Tribe and were located within a radius of thousands of miles in the Wasteland. The Fallen Dragon Ridge was small, so the human combat divisions were relatively denser. There were more than one hundred and thirty-five combat divisions within thousands of miles. The remaining human combat divisions that had not come to the Gu Yuan Tribe to express their vassal allegiance had mostly migrated thousands of miles away.
Xiao Chen was not anxious about this. The Gu Yuan Tribe wanted to suppress the entire Fallen Dragon Ridge. As long as these human combat divisions were still in the Fallen Dragon Ridge, they would have to crawl under the Gu Yuan Tribe's feet sooner or later. When that time came, it would not be so easy for these human combat divisions to submit to the Gu Yuan Tribe.
In this month, many more scattered human combat divisions came to join the Gu Yuan Tribe. There were even two low-ranked human combat divisions that gave up their tribal lands and joined the Gu Yuan Tribe. The number of people in the Gu Yuan Tribe continued to grow and had already grown to more than five hundred thousand people.
The number of soldiers had also reached more than thirty thousand. According to the map on the animal skin scroll, there were three primordial stone veins and more than ten foundry veins. Every day, tens of thousands of primordial stones and foundry veins were mined for the tribe's consumption.
In the mountain city, there were constantly new bluestone houses and bluestone buildings being built for the new clansmen to live in. The number of new faces in the tribe increased, and the voices became much noisier. Sometimes, one could even hear the sound of disputes.
Xiao Chen sat cross-legged in the depths of the tribe's main hall. At this moment, his Spiritual Will was connected to the entire tribe's Fate Essence Pillar above the tribe, so he could clearly see the situation in the entire mountain city.
A large number of scattered combat divisions had been absorbed into the Gu Yuan Tribe. For the Gu Yuan Tribe, this was the only way to integrate. Many scattered combat divisions had come to join the tribe, so they naturally wanted to compete with each other and compete for the tribe's favor. There were even some among them who were unwilling to live a normal life and wanted to attract the tribe's attention.
However, many of the Gu Yuan Tribe's tribesmen were not involved. In the past two or three years, the Gu Yuan Tribe had expanded several times and absorbed people from the scattered combat divisions. This time, the number of tribesmen they had absorbed was even greater. In the future, the number of tribesmen they would absorb was even greater.
Compared to the old middle-grade and upper-grade combat divisions, the Gu Yuan Tribe had already experienced a rapid increase in the number of tribesmen. What the Gu Yuan Tribe was experiencing now was their initial state.
The strength of a low-grade combat division and the reputation of a middle-grade combat division carried the Fate Essence of a high-grade combat division. If they did not develop as soon as possible, the Gu Yuan Tribe would be devoured by the endless Fate Essence Pillar and be destroyed.
Therefore, the Gu Yuan Tribe could not care less. As long as the tribe's strength could be improved, there would be time to slowly work together in the future. People's hearts could not be changed overnight. Moreover, the overall situation of the entire tribe was related to Xiao Chen. Even if someone was plotting against him, they would not be able to hide under the Fate Essence Pillar.
A month ago, Xiao Chen had followed Qing Yu to the extreme east of the Fallen Dragon Ridge to visit his mysterious master. He had already figured out why Qing Yu had said that the Gu Yuan Tribe was related to his master.
Qing Yu's master was a descendant of the Fallen Dragon Ancient City that had been destroyed tens of thousands of years ago. The Gu Yuan Tribe had inherited the ruins of the ancient city and absorbed the remaining Fate Essence of the ancient city into the tribe. It could be said that they were the inheritors of the ancient city.
Their descendants had been passed down from generation to generation for tens of thousands of years to protect the entire Fallen Dragon Ridge. This was also the reason why the Fallen Dragon Ridge had not become the territory of a middle-grade combat division even though it was only separated by a mountain from the Giant Rock Valley.
As the protectors of the entire Luolong Ridge, the bloodline of the Ancient City told Xiao Chen that the entire Luolong Ridge was facing a great crisis. Even they, the bloodline of the Ancient City, did not have the confidence to deal with it. Therefore, they needed to unify the Luolong Ridge and unite all the human combat divisions. Otherwise, when the crisis erupted, the Luolong Ridge would no longer exist in the human world.
The two of them talked for an entire day before Xiao Chen immediately returned to the tribe. Regardless of whether the mysterious elder's words were true or not, it was absolutely right for the Gu Yuan Tribe to unify the various tribes in the Fallen Dragon Ridge and increase the tribe's strength as soon as possible.
Accumulating strength was crucial to the development of the Gu Yuan Tribe. Even if something unexpected happened, the Gu Yuan Tribe would still be powerful and Xiao Chen could still wield his weapons to trap the disloyal subjects. Therefore, after Xiao Chen returned to the tribe, he immediately summoned the many elders and chiliarchs in the tribe and gave the order to absorb the people of the scattered tribes as soon as possible, consolidate the soldiers, and unify the Fallen Dragon Ridge.
On that day, when Ao Shan and the other combat divisions fled in defeat, the Gu Yuan Tribe did not take advantage of their victory to pursue them. Over the past month, there were no more conflicts, as if the previous incident had never happened.
However, Xiao Chen understood that this was only the calm before the storm. The two sides were already in a deadlock. Only when one side completely collapsed could the entire Fallen Dragon Ridge regain its peace.
Therefore, both sides were accumulating strength. The next time they fought, it would be a battle to the death!
At the peak of the ancient mountain.
This was the rear hall that extended from the back of the Gu Yuan Tribe's meeting hall as Xiao Chen's residence and resting place.
After rushing back from the easternmost part of the Fallen Dragon Ridge, Xiao Chen handed over all the tribe affairs to the elders of the tribe. Other than walking around the tribe every few days to comprehend, he spent the rest of his time practicing martial arts.
In just a short month, his martial arts cultivation had reached the peak of the First Heaven of the Heavenly Building Realm. For a martial artist who had forged the Heavenly Building Realm, as long as they did not encounter a bottleneck and had sufficient resources, the cultivation of this realm would improve very quickly.
After exhausting all the primordial stones and elixirs that the Gu Yuan Tribe had mined for the past month, Xiao Chen's cultivation had naturally reached the peak of the First Heaven of the Heavenly Building Realm.
In his Zhou Tian Qi Sea, a 10-storey pavilion stood. Except for the bottom storey which was the foundation of the Mountain River Seal, the other nine storeys had been lit up, shining with purple-cyan flowing light, which was a sign that the entire pavilion was filled with battle qi.
Although the Mountain River Seal had become the foundation of the Heavenly Building Realm, the Dongtian space in it had not been affected. Xiao Chen could still freely enter and exit it. At this moment, the Dongtian was once again filled with a large number of elixirs that Xiao Chen had transplanted.
Martial artists forged the Heavenly Building Realm. Once the Heavenly Building Realm was forged, the remaining space was constantly filled. Each storey of the pavilion could be regarded as a source of battle qi. As the saying went, when the qi sea was full, the Heavenly Building Realm would be infinitely large.
However, if a martial artist wanted to break through the Heavenly Building Realm, he not only needed to fill the Heavenly Building Realm with battle qi, but also needed to brand his own supernatural martial arts in each storey of the Heavenly Building Realm.
The so-called divine arts practitioner was a martial artist's comprehension of a kind of martial arts, secret techniques, or heaven and earth. It could even be the soul of a fierce beast or some kind of spiritual object of heaven and earth. He could manifest it in the Chong Lou and form a martial arts divine art that belonged to him or her.
After finishing his cultivation, Xiao Chen stood up and walked out of the back hall towards a side hall. In the side hall, three elders and some chiliarchs were all waiting for Xiao Chen's arrival.
The layout of the side hall was simple and rough. There were only a dozen bluestone chairs.
"Clan head!"
When Xiao Chen arrived, all the martial artists in the side hall immediately stood up and saluted him.
"Elders, chiliarchs, clan head, how's the preparation of the soldiers?"
"Reporting to clan head, our Gu Yuan Tribe now has more than five hundred and fifty thousand people. Other than the ten thousand elite soldiers that originally belonged to our tribe, we've recruited two new ten thousand battle masters from the newly accommodated tribe!"
Nodding slightly, Xiao Chen continued, "Third elder, clan head, weapons, armor, ordinary herbs, and other resources have been prepared!"
"Reporting to clan head, the clan's craftsmen are speeding up the forging of weapons and armor, but this time, our Gu Yuan Tribe has added two new ten thousand battle masters. These new soldiers come from the various scattered tribes, so we're short of armor and weapons. It will take another ten days for all of them to be equipped with armor and weapons!"
After pondering for a moment, Xiao Chen continued, "From today onwards, Ding Shan and the other ten thousand battle masters will no longer be the chiliarchs. The chiliarchs of the thousand battle masters under them will be the newly promoted chiliarchs!"
"Late Blood Refining Realm martial artists are barely qualified to be captains. Ding Shan will be promoted to be the captain of the elite battle masters of our Gu Yuan Tribe. Mu Wuya and Xiao Huangliang will be the captains of the two new ten thousand battle masters. As for the other eight chiliarchs, they will be appointed separately!"
"The two new ten thousand battle masters formed by the scattered tribes will be split up and merged together to form a new ten thousand battle masters!"
"The centurions and decurions of our Gu Yuan Tribe will be transferred to the two new ten thousand battle masters to assume the positions of centurions and decurions. Ensure that half of the original thousand battle masters will be made up of centurions and decurions of our Gu Yuan Tribe!"
"The three captains will be appointed by the chiliarchs under them. The three of you will be selected from the Blood Refining Realm martial artists of your tribe. Inform me of the names of the selected martial artists, and I will make the final decision!"