"The autumn harvest just ended, and it’s barely winter. What are these Beastmen up to now?"

"And what are these Moon Elves thinking?"

The Elf Professors and the academy’s headmaster, whom Zhang Yi had sent to the Elf Mage Academy to teach the Elves Magic, were also furious. The actions of these Beastmen and Moon Elves were now directly threatening their interests!

They had finally encountered a powerful Elf Tribe, and Zhang Yi had "persuaded" these smaller Elf Tribes to join the Elf Alliance. After surviving the autumn tax levied by the Moon Elves, and seeing that the Elves from Moon City had truly provided them with weapons and the payment for their autumn tax, these Elf Elders gradually began to follow Zhang Yi’s previous orders and joined the preparatory Elf Mage Academy.

These Elf Elders and Elf Leaders, who had lived for hundreds of years, were not unaware. They knew this was Zhang Yi’s attempt to strip them of their power—to make them relinquish their authority, retire, and accept comfortable, token positions. But seeing that the Elves from Moon City had kept their promises and given them hope for revenge, these Elf Elders and Elf Leaders from the smaller tribes decided to take a gamble. They placed their hopes of striking back against the Moon Elves on this group from Moon City!

Of course, other factors were at play. As soon as the autumn harvest ended, under Zhang Yi’s orders, the Elves from Moon City went out into the countryside to launch a major propaganda campaign. They made sure every Elf in every small tribe that had joined the Elf Alliance knew the truth: they had weathered the Main City’s tax collection so easily only because the Elves from Moon City had made a great effort, paying the tax-in-kind on their behalf. This allowed them to experience their first good winter in the dozen or so years since rebelling against the Moon Elves!

Who was responsible for all this? Thanks to the propaganda campaign by the Moon City Elves, the Elves of the small tribes would never forget.

As for the few extremely disobedient Elf Elders who were causing trouble and trying to seize power, after Zhang Yi gave them a chance and they still refused to change, he, in collaboration with Elf Elder Falco, brought them all to Judgment and stripped them of their original authority. Zhang Yi provided these Elf Elders and Elf Leaders with good food and lodging precisely to keep them pacified. For them to act up now was nothing short of a slap in his face.

Zhang Yi had to stay in this Small Magic Plane for a full four and a half years. He had only been here for the first six months, yet these Elf Elders were already so restless. If this continued, wouldn’t they eventually try to overturn the heavens? These were not just any ordinary Elf Elders; he had to come down on them hard.

Zhang Yi also used this incident to make an example of them, thoroughly warning the other Elf Elders and Elf Leaders to behave themselves. Many of the Elf Elders, who had been deftly stripped of their original authority by Zhang Yi and sent to the Elf Mage Academy to teach Elf Magic to others, also came to a realization. They couldn’t expect this new group of Elves to help them overthrow the Moon Elves while also using the opportunity to seize power within the Elf Alliance. They realized that having their cake and eating it too was simply not an option.

After this warning, many of the original Elf Elders and Elf Leaders settled down.

As expected, trying to absorb a number of Elves equal to my own forces all at once is still difficult! Moreover, this is only after drafting a third of the Elves from each Elf Tribe. A considerable number of them still have to remain in their original tribes to guard against sudden inspections from the Moon Elves and to fool their scouts.

However, after weathering this storm and establishing his authority, Zhang Yi’s gains were enormous. Without even having loaded a reproduction-type Divine Domain Card, his military forces had tripled!

And from sales to the smaller Elf Tribes—to those Elves who remained in their tribes and had not come to Moon City—he obtained a massive amount of resources just by selling crossbows and arrows. This was enough to trade for an entire warehouse full of Iron Ore, which was now stored in his Divine Realm. Furthermore, the barter system introduced by the Elf Alliance that Zhang Yi had established allowed him to reap a bountiful harvest! Various special metal ores that even the Mountain Dwarves had never seen before and many special magic plants and herbs that even most Elf Mages had never encountered now filled the various warehouses in his Divine Realm.

Upon receiving orders from the Elves of this Small Magic Plane, the Mountain Dwarves in his Divine Realm worked day and night. Their hammers struck with such force that they threw sparks, yet a huge pile of orders remained unfinished. It got to the point where even Dwarf Leader Copperbeard Ironhammer, who had originally just come along for the journey, returned to Zhang Yi’s Divine Realm after seeing that his people truly couldn’t keep up. Wielding his Middle-Grade Semi-Divine Artifact, the Hammer of the Earth, he too began swinging a hammer in the blacksmith shop, forging new weapons.

Ever since Zhang Yi had subdued the small Elf Tribe of Elf Elder Amos and witnessed its wealth, he knew that he must not, under any circumstances, underestimate these small Elf Tribes. These small Elf Tribes had all moved out from the original Elf Main City. Each and every one of them came from a once-prominent lineage and still possessed a profound heritage. Otherwise, how could these small Elf Tribes possibly contend with the nearly ten thousand Moon Elves in the Main City? Wasn’t it precisely because they had this heritage that the Moon Elves had to hold back, not daring to strike a fatal blow, and could only slaughter one or two Elf Tribes to intimidate the rest?

But Zhang Yi had never expected this. He had just finally managed to stabilize the Elves in his Elf Alliance using the autumn tax as an opportunity. It had been less than half a year since he entered this Small Magic Plane, and in the middle of winter, no less, yet the Beastmen and the Moon Elves were suddenly making a major move?

"Let the Elf Scout who delivered the intelligence come in and report what’s going on," Zhang Yi commanded.

At his side, Elf Corps Commander Feiyana nodded and had the Elf Scout outside come in.

The moment the Elf Scout entered and saw Zhang Yi, he immediately knelt. "Greetings, great Elf God!"

After Elf Corps Commander Feiyana’s guards secured the area and confirmed there were no newly recruited Elves from the Elf Alliance nearby, the Elf Scout called out again, "Greetings, great God of Nature!"

Seeing that the Elf Scout had not forgotten his instructions, Zhang Yi nodded and said, "What is the situation?"

The Elf Scout hurriedly reported, "According to the intelligence we’ve gathered, as well as information from the Elves who infiltrated the suicide squads, this winter, a group of Dark Elves of unknown origin provoked the Beastman Legion on the border and has now arrived outside the Moon Elves’ Main City!"