Chapter 008: Return to the Continent

The continent, the south—Du Fan’s territory.
By now, hundreds of thousands of soldiers had gathered here. Each soldier stood proudly in formation. Even when some small, usually annoying creatures flew by, they seemed pleasing to them today—all because their leader, Du Fan, had returned.
This time, Du Fan’s return was truly grand. The Bimong tribe and the Earth Dragon tribe marched south in large numbers. The army, initially thinking it was an enemy attack, quickly armed itself and stood ready outside the city gates, brimming with fighting spirit. If it weren’t for Du Fan appearing in the sky in advance, these two groups might have clashed.
What surprised Du Fan the most was that his army had grown to 600,000 members in just a short time since he left, without any orders given. These young men had voluntarily joined the army. Yet, an army remains an army—no matter how eager the civilians were to join, most were eliminated after strict trials.
Those selected were naturally proud, but those not chosen also had their own plans. They somehow obtained uniforms and carried knives, picks, forks, and similar weapons—numbering nearly 8,000, if not 10,000.
Despite the towering heights of the Bimong tribe, resembling those of a palace, neither the regular nor the irregular troops showed any fear. Standing in the sky, Du Fan could sense that his soldiers were even excited.
Yes, excited—full of fearless enthusiasm, like a pack of wolves in the desert, unafraid of their enemy’s strength. Such a fierce group was hard even for Du Fan to believe was his own army.
After a brief speech, the troops finally returned to their camps. Yet, the nearly 10,000 irregular troops remained standing firm, refusing to leave.
“Guys, go home. Your mothers are calling you for dinner,” Du Fan said, clearly puzzled by these troops. Without military discipline, they could easily cause chaos, leading to a situation Du Fan certainly didn’t want to see.
“Third brother, what’s wrong?”

At this moment, Basha and Lumba came over one after the other. Seeing them, Du Fan seemed to see a savior; he hugged them and looked at the ragtag army before him, then used amplification magic to shout, “Everyone, if there’s a way for you to join the army—although you won’t be sent to the front lines to fight, all soldiers will still respect you greatly. Will you do it?”
“Sure!” Hearing Du Fan’s words, the entire ragtag army shouted in unison, with an unstoppable momentum that was no less than that of the regular army.
“Good.” Du Fan nodded in satisfaction and patted Basha beside him, then shouted again, “This is my second brother, the Dwarf King Basha. As for the methods the dwarves use to make weapons, I don’t think you should look down on them. Without a good team for weapon production and proper logistics, even the strongest army is useless. Now, let the Dwarf King state the requirements!”
“Requirements?” Basha glared angrily at Du Fan, who had a sly expression, realizing he had been tricked by this kid. But with so many people around, he had no choice but to reluctantly shout, “As a race that makes weapons, I only know that if you don’t have a strong body, you won’t even be able to lift a hammer. So, everyone over 1.81 meters tall with strength step forward.”
As soon as Basha finished speaking, the immediate response shocked the three powerful figures present. In an instant, everyone over 1.8 meters tall stepped forward, standing at attention and waiting for orders.
“These people are mine. None of you two can take them from me.” Basha was stunned as he watched the thousands of ragtag soldiers before him, all of whom were taken away by Basha within three minutes.
Although the remaining ragtag army still had great momentum, their height was much lower than before. Yet, Lumba was satisfied with them.
“Ahem.” Lumba cleared his throat and calmly said to the ragtag soldiers, “Hold your hands behind your heads in the opposite direction and do 100 squat jumps in place.”
Lumba had intended to make most of them give up, but unexpectedly, everyone actually followed his instructions right away. However, only a few thousand people managed to persevere. Then, Lumba took these few thousand people back to the dwarf tribe’s camp.

Finally, Du Fan looked helplessly at the few thousand people left in front of him. These people had no advantage in height or strength, and although their morale had dropped significantly, their eyes still held hope as they stared at Du Fan.
“Well, you all…” Du Fan pondered for a moment, truly at a loss for words when looking at those few thousand people.
The earlier scene had given them great hope, but if Du Fan said he didn’t need them now, their hopes would instantly vanish, leading to trouble. Such things had been common in Du Fan’s past life. Fortunately, at that moment, Lambowan casually walked over.
“You’re here? That old guy took a bunch of people back earlier—why didn’t you come to me?” Lambowan approached angrily, speaking unhappily at Du Fan.
“The people are right in front of you; I’ve given them to you. I have some other matters to attend to. You’ve gone to the trouble,” Du Fan said with a slight smile before quickly running away.
Seeing the group of unevenly tall miscellaneous soldiers in front of him, Lambowan’s face twisted violently as he shouted, “Du Fan, you bastard…!”
…
“How’s it going?” Du Fan asked leisurely, looking at Lumba, Bashaa, and Lambowan.
Hearing Du Fan’s question, the three were as delighted as if they had won tens of millions in gold coins, and they started talking excitedly.
After hearing what they said, Du Fan roughly understood how these miscellaneous soldiers were being managed by these three clowns.
The soldiers assigned to Bashaa were crafting weapons every day. The originally thin, tall men had now become as strong as dwarfs—so strong that they could even compete in beauty contests.
Those assigned to Lumba were in slightly better conditions than those in Bashaa’s group. Not only were they fed and cared for well daily, but they also lived up to Lumba’s expectations by inventing quite a few weapons in such a short time. Though their functions were somewhat useless and their lethality low, the fact that they could invent weapons already exceeded Lumba’s expectations.

The most painful ones must be the humans left behind in Lambovan’s camp, including some teenagers around sixteen or seventeen. They train alone with the Earth Dragon clan every day. At first, they were beaten until their faces were swollen, but within a few days, they already learned how to dodge. Now, most of them possess strong lower-body skills; it’s no exaggeration to say that most of them can walk through water without getting their shoes wet.

Du Fan clearly hadn’t anticipated the progress of these miscellaneous troops. Now, each of them has mastered an excellent skill. Although a miscellaneous troop member can’t defeat a regular soldier in a one-on-one fight, it’s unlikely for regular soldiers to gain an advantage over them either.

“Du Fan,” Rob rushed in at this moment. Looking at Du Fan, he said, “It’s bad news! Thirteen people have appeared in the camp, each with divine-level cultivation. The weakest one is still a low-level god. What should we do?”

“Boom!”

At that moment, a thunderclap rang out in the cloudless sky. Du Fan, Lambovan, and the others were familiar with this sound and even grew excited.

“That old guy has finally shown up. I thought they’d hidden somewhere,” Lambovan said with a sly smile before rushing out like a whirlwind.

Seeing Lambovan’s urgency, Du Fan and the others also smiled slightly and followed him out one after another.

……

“Haha, you’re still alive?” Raymond sneered when he saw Lambovan approaching, followed by loud laughter from the twelve people behind him.

“How could I die when you’re still alive?” Lambovan teased Raymond before turning to Du Fan and the others who were arriving late and saying, “Look who’s here!”

“As expected, they kept their promise.” Du Fan looked satisfied at Long Yi and the others before saying to Raymond calmly, “Well, let’s go inside and talk. Standing outside isn’t a good solution.”

“Mm…”

The few who had just returned to the meeting room started chatting. Hearing about Long Yi and the others’ situation, Du Fan and the others could only shake their heads helplessly.

It turned out that after returning to the continent, Long Yi and the others began searching for their original clan members. Despite searching many places, they found no trace of them. Even Long Yi and the others began to doubt whether their clan members had survived the War of the Gods.

Raymond’s situation was better. As soon as he returned to the continent, he extorted a merchant guild and spent a while indulging in luxury with the money. However, he had gained some understanding of the forces on the continent.

“Du Fan, your enemy should be Fisher, right?” Raymond looked at Du Fan in front of him, smiled mysteriously, and then continued, “I went to the Gavin Empire some time ago. Guess what I saw? Don’t doubt me when I tell you.”
“What?” Seeing Raymond’s mysterious demeanor, even Du Fan couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity.
“You definitely won’t believe it,” Raymond said to Du Fan as if recalling something, “In the Gavin Empire, almost everyone at home now are women and children; all the men have been taken away to serve as soldiers. Strangely enough, the Arch-Cardinal of the Holy Church keeps going from house to house, using blessings and prophetic spells to brainwash these residents and men. Now, hardly anyone dares to go out on the streets. I sensed their soul energies carefully—there must be nearly a million of them now.”
“A million!”
Hearing Raymond’s words, not only did Du Fan stand up, but the powerful ones present also stood up nervously.
In the past, a battle involving hundreds of thousands of people wouldn’t have been a problem, but with such tense relations now, if a million people fought each other, the most likely outcome would be the Holy Church summoning the Archangel Legions, leading to another Great War of the Gods!