Chapter 020: Division

Soon, the warrior from the Dodge tribe returned. “Dwarf King,” he said, still accustomed to calling him by that title. “Our chief wants to see you.”
As the dwarf warrior spoke, the city gates slowly opened. The Dwarf King, along with Basha and Du Fan, headed straight to a certain place.
In front of a building that resembled a palace, the Dwarf King stopped and sighed upon seeing it. “The Dodge tribe still loves luxury.”
With that, he led Basha and Du Fan inside. Inside this palace-like building, there were male and female servants; even Du Fan could see human servants there.
Clearly, these human servants must be members of the tribe living in this palace, brought here through some means. Initially, in the Yifu tribe, Du Fan had held different views about the old chief’s style, which was quite different from that of the dwarf tribe. Seeing the chief’s residence of the Dodge tribe further overturned Du Fan’s long-held belief that all dwarves were simple-minded.
“Phile, what did you do to Karu?” A voice suddenly rang out as they entered a hall.
“Uncle Kro, Karu tried to kill me but was instead killed by me,” the Dwarf King replied casually.
This Kro was Basha’s mother’s uncle, so it was only natural for the Dwarf King to call him uncle as well.
“Sigh, that kid Karu is too hasty!” With that, a dwarf dressed rather plainly suddenly stepped out from behind the hall door. He stopped in front of the Dwarf King, Basha, and Du Fan. “Since you’ve come from afar, I can’t neglect proper etiquette. Come inside and sit with me.”
This dwarf was the current chief of the Dodge tribe.
In a lavishly built hall, the four of them sat in four different directions.
“Phile, what terms do you want to discuss with me this time?” As soon as they sat down, Kro got straight to the point.
“Uncle Kro, to prevent such rebellions in the future, I hope you’ll divide your Dodge tribe into three groups, with each group numbering around two hundred thousand, living separately,” the Dwarf King replied directly, given Kro’s straightforward approach.
“Phile, it seems you want to undermine our Dodge tribe,” Kro said, giving the Dwarf King a deep look.

“Not bad, uncle. To prevent such rebellions from happening again in your Dodge tribe, I had no choice but to do this,” said the Dwarf King.
“What is rebellion? Phile, tell me—back then, you took control of the dwarves from our Dodge clan. Isn’t that rebellion?” Kro suddenly became agitated.
“That’s not rebellion,” the Dwarf King said with a smile. “I became the Dwarf King because 132 clan leaders elected me. It was the will of the dwarf race!” He emphasized his words at the end.
“Kro, I call you uncle out of goodwill! You should know that in the past, any clan that dared incite others to rebel would face terrible consequences! This time, I don’t want to kill any more of your Dodge clan members. I just want to separate you. Won’t you agree?” The Dwarf King’s expression suddenly changed.
“Phile! Is this your attitude?” Seeing the Dwarf King’s change in expression, Kro’s face also changed immediately.
“Hmph! My attitude is that you must split into three clans. That’s my stance, Kro. Do you really think you still have the right to negotiate with me now?” the Dwarf King said.
At this moment, Du Fan finally saw the legendary and powerful Dwarf King.
Strength meant everything! Now that Karu was dead and their allies had been defeated, with just the remnants of the Dodge tribe, did they still have any leverage to negotiate?
I might as well split your clan—whether you agree or not, it will happen!
“Kro, if you don’t do as I say, prepare for my army to arrive! I won’t hesitate to erase the entire Dodge tribe from the history of the dwarves!” the Dwarf King said harshly again.
“Do I still have a choice?” Hearing the Dwarf King’s words, Kro realized he would no longer be given a chance.
The Dodge tribe truly no longer had the means to resist the Dwarf King.

And so, the once-mighty Dodge tribe among the dwarves was forcibly divided by the dwarf king into three tribes, separated by thousands of miles from each other. From then on, even if the Dodge tribe wanted to rebel together, they would likely have no chance. With such a vast distance, it took days just to send a message, making even ordinary tasks extremely troublesome, let alone secretive and well-organized acts of rebellion.

After dealing with the Dodge tribe, the dwarf king immediately turned his attention to punishing the Tatta and Bilu tribes. Unfortunately, the four Tatta Metal Brothers who were captured were ordered by the dwarf king to be hanged! This incident filled Du Fan with sorrow—not just because of the sacred status of the Tatta Metal Brothers, but also because when they combined forces, they created the Purple Gold Dwarves, whose strength was truly formidable.

When the dwarf king ordered the execution of the Metal Brothers, Du Fan even tried to intercede for them, but the dwarf king outright rejected his pleas. “If I release them, then those who plan rebellion in the future will think they can act as they please, believing I won’t punish them. That would turn our dwarf race into complete chaos.” With that, the dwarf king made it clear to Du Fan that releasing the Tatta Metal Brothers was absolutely impossible.

However, one thing was good news for Du Fan: under the dwarf king’s pressure, the dwarves of the Bilu tribe agreed to migrate en masse to Du Fan’s territory. The dwarf king said nothing about this. Back when he first met Du Fan, he had promised that as long as the tribes were willing to follow Du Fan, Du Fan could bring them under his rule.

Soon, after deciding to migrate to Du Fan’s territory, the Bilu tribe set off on the third day. Over two hundred thousand dwarves moved in a long, winding procession toward the human lands, the Gavin Empire, and Du Fan’s province of Siluo.

Contrary to many people’s expectations, the dwarf king did not carry out a major purge following this rebellion. He stopped after executing the four Tatta Metal Brothers.

At this point, sensing that everything related to the dwarf race was mostly settled, Du Fan finally realized he had been away for too long and had no idea what was going on in his own territory.

While the Dwarf King was still in Glass City, Du Fan wanted to bid him farewell. At the same time, he also wanted to ensure that the five thousand cavalry members of the Dwarf race that the Dwarf King had promised him would be assigned to him.
“Indeed, I do plan to send five thousand knights from the Black Panther Knights to assist you,” the Dwarf King said firmly. “But these will all be soldiers from the reserve force.”
From the start, Du Fan had asked whether the knights from the Black Panther Knights would be sent, and he soon received confirmation from the Dwarf King—that he indeed intended to assign five thousand knights from that group to help Du Fan.
To his surprise, the Dwarf King was only willing to give him the reserve force.
“Your Highness, at least some regular troops should be given, right?” Du Fan pleaded.
“Just call me Uncle Phile,” the Dwarf King said with a smile.
“Uh, Uncle Phile, if you only give me the reserve force, that won’t do. The reserve force is merely a group of soldiers in training; they’re far inferior to regular troops. Uncle Phile, don’t trick me! At least include some regular troops so they can lead the reserve force. In case of war, these reservists won’t suffer unexpected losses just because they’re new to combat.” As soon as the Dwarf King asked him to call him uncle, Du Fan immediately agreed.
“Du Fan, you can’t say that. Even my Black Panther reserve force isn’t much stronger than your human cavalry,” the Dwarf King replied with a laugh after hearing Du Fan’s argument. “I estimate that one member of the Black Panther reserve force can match ten of your regular human knights.”
The Dwarf King was right. Even the reserve members of the Black Panther Knights were far stronger than human regular knights. Many of them had been trained for hundreds or even decades at the Black Panther Knights’ training base. The reserve knights there had trained for at least eighty years! That meant such a long period of training—equivalent to a human’s entire life—would naturally result in knights of great strength and skill.

“But, Uncle Phile, as you know, among our human race, there is also a religious knight order known as the Sacred Knights. Such an order is not much weaker in strength compared to my Black Panther Knights.” Hearing the Dwarf King compare his Black Panther Knights with those of the humans, Du Fan quickly brought up the Sacred Knights.

The Sacred Knights were also one of humanity’s top knight orders. Their members were carefully selected from various parishes, gathered together for training, and from among them, the most outstanding knights were chosen to join the true Sacred Knights. The rigor and intensity of their training were widely recognized as the strictest in the world.

Moreover, from the initial selection of children for training, only those with great martial talent and deep devotion to the God of Light were chosen. Thus, the Sacred Knights were utterly loyal to the Holy Church!

“The Sacred Knights are indeed formidable. That knight order can rival my Black Panther Knights. But, Du Fan, if you say that, do you mean you want to confront the Holy Church? With your current strength, you’re still far behind, aren’t you?” The Dwarf King said, looking at Du Fan with a half-smile.

Book 40: Past and Present