Chapter 013: Three Years Later

The snow-white twelve-winged ancient dragon also did not respond to the four-winged ancient dragon before it. Instead, it opened its gleaming dragon eyes and stared at Long Yi for a while. After a long pause, as Long Yi began to tremble, the dragon suddenly spoke up.

“Uncle Tarim, it’s been years since we last saw each other. I never expected to meet you here today.”

“Tarim! Tarim!” Hearing this name, Long Yi’s entire body trembled violently as he suddenly let out a loud roar.

“Haha! I never thought that after tens of thousands of years, someone would still remember my name!” Long Yi said excitedly.

“Uncle Tarim, I’m Pabsa from the Hanhai family!” said the snow-white twelve-winged giant dragon.

“Little Pabsa! It’s you!” Long Yi was extremely excited again. “I really can’t believe it! Back then, I fought alongside your father in the War of the Gods. Your father perished in that battle, yet his son has grown into a twelve-winged ancient divine dragon!” Long Yi said emotionally.

Suddenly, Long Yi flew down in front of Pabsa and bowed his head. “Tarim greets the Dragon Emperor!”

Following Long Yi’s example, Long Er to Long Shi Er all transformed into giant dragons, bowed their noble dragon heads in front of Pabsa, and greeted him together.

Among the ancient dragons, once a dragon evolved into a twelve-winged ancient divine dragon, that dragon would become the Dragon Emperor of all ancient dragons. All ancient dragons were required to obey this Dragon Emperor unconditionally!

With the realization that they knew each other, things became much easier. It turned out that there was only one race in the entire Sky City—the ancient dragons! After the War of the Gods, the Supreme God, witnessing the downfall of the gods, established a rule prohibiting the existence of divine beings on the continent. As a result, the Sky City was also within the bounds of the continent. However, this rule set by the Supreme God did not apply to races like the ancient dragons.

Inside these ancient giants’ bodies, it was not divine power but ancient dragon power that flowed. With such an advantage, these ancient dragons would often go after the deities residing in the Sky City, forcing them to use their divine power and sending them to the divine realm. As for those who hadn’t reached the divine level, it was even easier—they were simply driven out of the Sky City!

In this way, the entire Sky City became the domain of the ancient dragons.

Thanks to the abundant spiritual energy in the Sky City, over tens of thousands of years of evolution, one twelve-winged Dragon Emperor emerged among these ancient dragons! As a result, the ancient dragons’ position in the Sky City became even more secure!
It should be noted that this twelve-winged Dragon Emperor possessed the power level of a supreme god—except for lacking a supreme divine essence and creative abilities, his combat strength was on par with any supreme god!
Soon after reaching an oral agreement with the Dragon Emperor, Du Fan returned to his own territory.
To express his gratitude for Du Fan saving his uncles, the Dragon Emperor gave him a snow-white whistle. The purpose of this whistle was that once the Church summoned the Archangel Corps, Du Fan only needed to blow it, and the Dragon Emperor would lead his clan to help Du Fan repel the Archangel Corps!
With this whistle, Du Fan’s worried heart, which had been anxious at the thought of the Archangel Corps, could finally rest.
Although he had never seen or heard of the Archangel Corps before, from what others said, its members were angels with at least two wings! Though angels were not gods, their combat strength could rival that of gods!
These summoned Archangels were nothing like those Desire Angels and Throne Angels who had been exiled to the continent in the past!
Those exiled angels had been weakened to the level of domains or sacred ranks before being sent there, so they could stay on the continent for only a short time. Such exiled angels couldn’t compare to the directly summoned Archangel Corps at all.
Of course, these summoned Archangels, due to their divine power, could also not remain on the continent for long—once summoned, they could only exist on the continent for half an hour!
Of course, half an hour was more than enough for the Archangel Corps to completely turn the tide of a war.
…
Not long after Du Fan returned to his territory, Fischer immediately signed a contract with Oscar. The terms of the contract were that the Gavin Empire would recognize Oscar’s achievements in the Frozen Alliance, and both sides would each control nine duchy territories, temporarily ending the war.
After handling these matters, Fischer also began to mobilize the full strength of the Gavin Empire in preparation for war against Du Fan. The vast Gavin Empire had an army of three million soldiers!

Relying on the four southern provinces, Du Fan was able to assemble an army of 700,000, while for the Gavin Empire, with its fifty-plus provinces, gathering a military force of three million was not difficult either. The real challenge lay in determining the combat effectiveness of such a massive army. Before Fischer could take action, Du Fan launched an attack first. His first target was the Duke of Wei’s southern army. Without the support of the underground world, Duke Wei’s southern army was utterly defeated in just one battle! In this final battle of the southern army, none of the important members of the Wei family showed up—Duke Wei and Randy seemed to have disappeared suddenly from the continent, vanishing without a trace! In the palace of the Gavin Empire, Fischer was furious! Severely injured by Long Ba, the ruler of the Gavin Empire immediately thought that Duke Wei must have played a cruel trick on him. Otherwise, it would have been too coincidental to encounter Du Fan and his men right at the last location of the Sky City! Just as Fischer wanted to confront Duke Wei, the messenger sent to summon him reported that the entire duke’s residence was empty! After wiping out the southern army, Du Fan turned his forces directly toward the other provinces. Relying solely on the elite troops of the northern army and the 300,000 strong soldiers he had trained in the south, his forces advanced unstoppable, like a storm breaking through barriers! The entire Gavin Empire was divided into northern and southern parts by the imperial capital. That autumn, in the southern province of Pajet, Du Fan completely destroyed the western army! The 500,000-strong force led by the western army was either killed or surrendered—virtually annihilated! At the advice of his advisors, Du Fan adopted a policy of allowing local officials to continue governing the occupied areas, as long as they had a good reputation there. However, in every place he conquered, he would overthrow the local Light Church. If not for the negative impact on his reputation due to his actions against the church, Du Fan’s tactics would have been considered exemplary! After conquering the entire southern part of the Gavin Empire, his army suffered almost no losses. Such achievements were unprecedented in the history of wars across the entire continent! That winter, Du Fan continued to lead his troops northward. In the northern regions, once under the control of the northern army, he defeated the eastern army—encompassing nearly a million troops in total!

By now, of the four main military forces of the Gavin Empire, aside from the Northern Legion still in Du Fan’s control, the other three had all been wiped out by him! Under Du Fan’s relentless attacks, by the third year, the Gavin Empire was in a state of existence in name only. Apart from the imperial capital and a few nearby provinces, the rest had fallen into Du Fan’s hands or declared independence! As for those independent provinces, Du Fan was too lazy to deal with them; in his eyes, they were merely neutral forces. With his military forces turning sharply downward, Du Fan’s advance was now directly aimed at the Gavin Empire’s capital! By this time, Du Fan’s army had reached one million strong! His original 700,000 troops, combined with the elite forces he captured from the defeated Gavin Empire, made his army participating in this campaign total one million! As Du Fan advanced, Fischer had already withdrawn all his forces inside the capital, pulling back all external defenses. It must be said that Fischer’s move was entirely correct—external defenses could not stop Du Fan’s army at all, and concentrating all forces in the capital was indeed the right strategy. … After nearly three years of conquests, although Du Fan was still young, his face already displayed the calm, composed demeanor of a great commander. After surrounding the Gavin Empire’s capital with his million-strong army, Du Fan sat on the Green Shuttle, along with a group of experts, and gazed at the towering city walls. Looking at the capital, Du Fan was filled with mixed emotions! It was here that he had experienced many memorable moments—the fierce rivalries with Roland Academy, and his outstanding performance during the coup in the capital! Even now, he could still hear his father’s advice: if Fischer’s forces faltered, Du Fan should take the chance to escape immediately. And that night, Fischer activated all eight forbidden magic cannons in the city and fired them straight at the Prince of Zhenbei’s Mansion! Except for Du Fan and Princess Angel, who had absolute protection, everything was reduced to ashes! At these thoughts, tears silently streamed down Du Fan’s face. Seeing his tears, Naixiu and Ringtone quietly approached him and hugged him tightly. Behind Du Fan stood a group of experts.

Basha had returned to the territory of the dwarves in the Dusk Mountains. As the dwarf king and the only god-tier expert among them, Basha was required to stay in the dwarf lands within the Dusk Mountains. Moreover, Du Fan no longer lacked god-tier experts by his side. George, Allen, Moses, and Naixiu, who had merged with divine essences, had fully become god-tier experts! Add to that the twelve mid-tier gods of the ancient dragon race, mid-tier gods like Raymond and Lambowan, and even ancient Bimons like Lawrence, who, though not god-tier experts, were equivalent to them! What was strange, however, was that Du Fan still couldn’t reach the god tier, despite having merged with a vast amount of divine essence—such essence powers had reached an enormous level within his body—but he simply couldn’t break through to the god tier! Du Fan accepted this reality. Among the experts he had encountered, almost all had reached the god tier after merging with divine essences. It seemed that reaching the god tier wasn’t that easy—this was what Du Fan had always believed. As the energy within him shifted, the tears in Du Fan’s eyes vanished completely. Leaving behind his green shuttle, he soared into the air and arrived at the gates of the capital of the Gavin Empire. Then, he began to speak loudly. His voice, enhanced by amplification magic, could reach throughout the entire capital! The Gavin Empire’s military force numbered in the millions, with over six million residents! And there was more than just one amplification magic—thanks to the magic enhanced by numerous god-tier experts, its reach could cover the entire Gavin Empire! “Fisher, be a man and come fight me!” Du Fan’s voice, like thunder, echoed continuously over the skies of the Gavin Empire. “Fight me.” “Fight me.” His voice echoed, spreading far and wide.