Chapter 013: Gothic

“Fisher, it’s not that I don’t want to help you. As you know, with my godly cultivation level, if I reveal it outside, I’ll likely be forced to ascend to the divine realm right away.”
“Actually, a godly expert on the main roads is no different from an expert at the peak of their domain. Fisher, you’re already such an expert! If you can’t handle it, I certainly can’t either,” the Ancestor immediately replied after hearing Fisher’s words.
“Besides, Fisher, as you know, I can’t go outside. Otherwise, those old guys might attack the Gavin Empire all at once, and that would be a loss outweighing the gains!” the Ancestor suddenly said.
“Those old guys?” Fisher asked in surprise upon hearing this.
“Yes, Fisher. On this continent, there aren’t as few godly experts as you think. Do you know why, over the past few hundred years, our Gavin Empire has withstood so much and still stands strong? It’s because of the pact I made with a few others—so long as I stay within this courtyard, they can’t attack the Gavin Empire, either openly or secretly!” the Ancestor suddenly revealed.
“Of course, none of us can leave our respective areas either,” the Ancestor added.
“Really? Ancestor, why would you sign such an agreement? Wouldn’t that restrict you all?” Fisher was still surprised.
“There’s no other choice!” The Ancestor showed a strange expression upon hearing Fisher’s question. “Back then, we were forced into this pact as well.” He said it with an awkward look.
Hearing this, Fisher was speechless. He really couldn’t imagine who else on this continent could force a god to do something against their will.
“One of those who forced us was your mentor,” the Ancestor said without any shame, revealing the truth to Fisher.
Upon learning that it was his own mentor who forced those godly experts to sign the pact, Fisher nodded in understanding.
……
“Break through!” Du Fan immediately said, looking at the city ahead.
Before Du Fan lay Gothic City, the capital of the Hebrew Province.

The governor of this province in Hebrew was a highly notorious figure in the Gavin Empire. After becoming the governor of this province, this Gothic governor boldly renamed the original city of Hebrew as City of Goths.
This Gothic was actually a cousin of Fisch. Logically, such a close royal relative should never have become the governor of such a small province. But this Gothic was utterly incompetent, and within the incompetent royal family, he could only be appointed as the governor of a province—one that was quite small at that.
The reason he was assigned to this province back then was to minimize the scope of his destructive influence!
As expected, once he took control of the province of Hebrew, he immediately caused chaos everywhere!
Upon arriving in his territory, the governor first dismissed all officials and then put them up for auction. As a result, those officials in the province of Hebrew could no longer do anything good beyond exploiting the people.
Taxes and various levies in the province of Hebrew became astonishingly high!
Because of this, the people of the province of Hebrew could no longer stay there, and gradually many began to migrate to other places. At that time, this Gothic governor actually sent troops to blockade the province of Hebrew, preventing its people from leaving! Eventually, anyone who wanted to leave the province had to pay a large sum of money as a deposit before they could leave.
It was said that the deposit could be recovered upon return, but by the time people returned, it had long been seized by those officials under various pretexts, leaving little left.
Even so, many people still tried to migrate to other provinces despite losing large sums of money as deposits. But then, this Gothic governor went even further! To leave the province, not only did one have to pay a deposit, but also had to leave a direct relative as a guarantor in the government. If that relative failed to return, they would be sold into slavery!
It can be said that this Gothic governor was infamous throughout the Gavin Empire. However, as a core member of the royal family, he enjoyed significant immunity, allowing him to rule tyrannically in the province of Hebrew for over thirty years, bringing suffering to the people.
“Attack the city!” Carol ordered immediately.

Looking at the city before him, Du Fan felt amused. That Gothic governor had amassed countless riches under the pretext of building city walls, yet the walls in front of him were no taller than ten meters! Not only were they short, but they were also in terrible condition!

The Gothic governor, who thought his territory was deep within the empire and that war was impossible there, had never even considered thoroughly repairing the city walls! Little did he know that today, Du Fan had led the Northern Legion to attack his city! At this moment, the Gothic governor was hiding in his underground secret chamber, along with his wives and children, waiting in terror!

The low and dilapidated city walls, along with their worthless defending troops, saw the Northern Legion approaching like fierce demons from afar and immediately dropped their weapons and fled at top speed. These troops, acting like street thugs, knew well how to read the situation—when faced with unarmed civilians, they would pounce like hungry wolves, but upon seeing the Northern Legion, they scattered like birds and beasts.

The Northern Legion! They had just captured Xiaohan Pass! The guards and defenders of Gothic City had seen those imperial troops before, and in their eyes, those guards were simply outstanding—truly beyond comparison. What were soldiers? Those guards were the best of soldiers—perfect military postures, impressive weapons and armor, along with a fierce killing intent!

Yet, the empire’s 600,000 troops, including those 200,000 guards, were defeated in just one battle by the Northern Legion! After all, those 600,000 troops had Xiaohan Pass as their stronghold! It was said that blood flowed like rivers in that battle!

Hearing that it was the Northern Legion, the one that had defeated 600,000 troops, who were attacking, the defenders of Gothic City lost all courage to fight. Seeing the Northern Legion charging in like fierce demons, they threw away their weapons, removed their armor, and quickly prepared to flee—of course, not to fight the Northern Legion, but to run away!

They fled lightly!

Watching the defenders of Gothic City suddenly flee left the soldiers of the Northern Legion stunned. Could this be an enemy trick?

They quickly sent out a scouting unit, and based on their findings, after realizing there was a scheme at play, the Northern Legion immediately seized control of the entire city of Gothic City!

After entering the city, the first thing Du Fan did was to open the granary where Goth had hoarded countless amounts of food, taking out every last grain and distributing it to the residents of Goth City!
The second thing he did was, under the leadership of his loyal old steward, to enter the basement where Goth was hiding and capture the entire Goth family!
When the whole family was brought before Du Fan, he was quite surprised—this Goth governor actually had thirty-four wives and over twenty children! It was said that these children were still minors, while those who were already adults had long been sent by Goth to the province of Hebrew to help him plunder wealth!
“Hello, Governor Goth. I’m Du Fan,” Du Fan said with a smile.
“Du, Duke Du Fan, hello to you as well,” Goth replied, trembling.
“Well, Governor Goth, since I’ve captured all your wives and children, now tell me what I should do,” Du Fan said with a smile.
“What do you wish to do, my lord?” Hearing that Du Fan didn’t seem like someone difficult to deal with, Goth’s tone softened slightly as he asked in a quiet voice.
“Call me His Majesty Du Fan!” Du Fan suddenly snapped!
“Du-Du-Du-Du…” Startled by Du Fan’s outburst, Goth stammered immediately, unable to say the word “Du” properly!
“Goth, don’t you know that I’ve already established a kingdom in the south? Don’t you know that I am now the king? Yet you still call me Duke Du Fan! Are you deliberately insulting my royal dignity? Do you want to die?” Du Fan roared furiously.
Seeing Du Fan’s furious expression, Governor Goth trembled violently. Suddenly, a foul smell filled the hall—the governor had been scared into urinating due to Du Fan’s outburst.
“Governor Goth! Since you’ve offended me, I order that all your property be confiscated! Do you accept this?” Du Fan shouted.
“I accept, I accept! I accept!” Already terrified by Du Fan’s unpredictable behavior, Goth didn’t dare say no.
“However, His Majesty, please have mercy on my family. Leave them some food—otherwise, they’ll all starve to death!” Governor Goth suddenly pleaded.
“Dare you bargain with me!” Du Fan roared again.

“I dare not. I dare not.” Seeing Du Fan’s furious expression, Governor Goth immediately stopped speaking.
“Hurry up and tell me—how much wealth do you have in total?” Du Fan sat down on a chair, crossing one leg over the other, and asked.
“Twenty-two million,” Goth said in a low voice.
“Goth! Do you really want to die? Before I caught you, I had already investigated thoroughly. Over the past thirty-odd years in Hebrae, your wealth must have been at least eighty million!” Du Fan said angrily.
“If you can’t come up with eighty million today, don’t even think about walking out alive!” Du Fan shouted.
“Your Majesty! But I really don’t have that much!” Goth immediately fell to his knees, repeatedly banging his head against Du Fan’s legs like a bird pecking at grain.
Du Fan stretched out a foot and kicked Goth more than ten meters away. He then drew the Sword of Thunder and placed it against Goth’s neck.
“Eighty million! Not a penny less! Decide for yourself—money or your head!” Du Fan said, staring at Goth word by word.
“Okay, I’ll give it to you! I’ll give it to you!” At this point, Goth kept nodding repeatedly.
As Goth led Du Fan to various extremely hidden corners in the governor’s palace to retrieve the money, Du Fan couldn’t help but marvel that if he hadn’t scared Governor Goth earlier, it would have been impossible for him to find eighty million gold coins on his own!
After distributing two million gold coins to the people of Goth City, voices supporting Du Fan could be heard everywhere in the city. At the enthusiastic request of the people, Du Fan left his troops in Goth City to rest for one night.