The cavalry of the Night Tribe moved like a steel torrent, advancing slowly but steadily. Barbarian warriors fell one after another, crushed beneath the weight of superior armor and tactics.
The disparity in equipment was glaring. For the barbarians, this battle was no longer about victory, but survival.
"Those who surrender will not be killed!"
Ye Zhan's voice thundered across the battlefield. After breaking through the barbarian front line, the morale of their enemies had plunged to rock bottom.
Turning his horse around, Ye Zhan surveyed them coldly, blood still dripping from his blade. His gaze alone warned of another charge if they dared resist.
Hudson, who had miraculously survived the brutal clash, glanced at the fallen corpses littering the ground. Around him, the remaining barbarian warriors trembled, their will to fight completely shattered.
"We surrender!" he finally shouted, his voice cracking under the weight of defeat.
The words echoed across the battlefield.
Here, on the Black Soil Plain, glory and pride were meaningless illusions. Survival was the only truth. When faced with certain death, surrender was not cowardice—it was instinct.
In this harsh land governed by the law of the jungle, surrender was neither rare nor shameful.
At Hudson's signal, barbarian weapons clattered to the ground. Ye Zhan let out a breath of relief and quickly ordered his men to disarm the prisoners.
Despite the scale of the confrontation, casualties on both sides totaled only around 3,000. The real damage had been to morale. With their spirit crushed, the barbarians offered no further resistance.
Meanwhile, back in the Black Soil Stronghold, Su Xingyu received word of the victory. Without delay, he personally led 20,000 warriors toward the conquered stronghold, preparing to take control of the barbarian tribe.
Though the enemy had fallen, the aftermath was far from over. Hundreds of thousands of barbarians remained—an unwieldy mass of people who needed to be handled with care.
Ye Zhan was an excellent battlefield commander, but logistics and population management were another matter entirely. Su Xingyu knew this had to be his responsibility.
Sending out nearly all the Night Tribe's warriors had left their home territory at its most vulnerable. But with all neighboring forces already subdued, leaving behind a few tens of thousands to defend the homeland was sufficient. Besides, the cavalry's speed meant they could return swiftly if anything went wrong.
After nearly two days of marching, Su Xingyu and his army arrived at the first barbarian stronghold.
To avoid any incidents, Ye Zhan had wisely chosen not to gather the defeated barbarians into one location. Instead, he held them in separate camps and began screening the tribal leaders.
When Su Xingyu arrived, Ye Zhan was already waiting outside the wooden walls of the stronghold, which spanned a vast area—comparable in size to the combined territory of the four Giant Tiger Tribes.
"Chief, I won," Ye Zhan said proudly, dismounting and striding up to greet him.
"Well done," Su Xingyu replied with a rare smile, not holding back his praise. "Where are the barbarians now?"
"There were too many to risk anything, so I locked them up in separate groups," Ye Zhan explained. "But don't worry, Chief. I've been providing food daily. They won't starve."
"Good. Take me to them," Su Xingyu said, amused.
The captured stronghold held over 100,000 people. After their defeat, they were split into three groups and imprisoned. Stripped of their weapons and armor, they posed little threat even if their numbers were greater.
Without the direction of their leaders, the simple-minded barbarian warriors made no attempts to revolt. They stayed quiet in the prisoner-of-war camps, waiting for their fate to be decided.
Su Xingyu had no intention of relocating all these people to the Night Tribe. It wasn't practical. The population was simply too large. Housing alone would be a massive problem.
Even if he did move them, the newly conquered land would still need people to manage its mines and plantations. Constant relocation was expensive, time-consuming, and inefficient.
He already had a plan.
Su Xingyu intended to bring the tribal leaders back for re-education and loyalty assessment. The strongest barbarian warriors would be absorbed into the Night Tribe's army. Some members of the Night Tribe would then be moved here to oversee operations and stabilize the area.
It would take one or two years to fully assimilate the barbarian tribe—but for Su Xingyu, absorbing hundreds of thousands of people within that time was an excellent bargain.
That night, Su Xingyu repeated the same technique he had used just a month ago.
He revealed the divine power once more, showing these barbarian natives a force they could neither comprehend nor defy.
If he had unleashed this display during battle, perhaps it would've struck greater fear into their hearts. But Su Xingyu believed that revealing divine might after their defeat had a more lasting impact.
Gods, after all, should remain aloof—only appearing at pivotal moments, never cheapened by overuse.
After stunning the barbarians with his divine display, Su Xingyu moved swiftly to offer incentives. He spoke of the Night Tribe's prosperity, their strength, and the benefits they extended to all who joined them.
He wove their rise into a tale of destiny, presenting the Night Tribe not just as conquerors, but as the future.
With the promise of rewards and the threat of divine retribution, it didn't take long. Barbarian warriors, moved by awe and practicality, began to pledge their loyalty.
For the tribal leaders, Su Xingyu personally examined their data panels. Those with high loyalty were allowed to remain in charge and continue managing their people.
The rest—those deemed unreliable—were reassigned to the Blood Red Forest for hard labor. That new outpost was desperately short on manpower.
Su Xingyu spent five days in the barbarian lands, organizing every last detail.
He mapped out where each group would go and who would be in charge. Only after stabilizing the region did he allow himself to take stock of what they had gained.
The cost of victory had been real. Even with every advantage, the Night Tribe had lost thousands of soldiers. The barbarian casualties were even higher, with over 5,000 dead.
But the rewards far outweighed the losses.
In population alone, the Barbarian Tribe added 330,000 people to the Night Tribe. When counting all the affiliated tribes, the total population now exceeded one million.
The resources were equally staggering. The barbarians had controlled a blood spirit flower plantation and two medium-sized blood crystal veins, plus two small fine iron mines.
In existing stockpiles, they had 300,000 units of blood crystals and 20,000 blood spirit flowers—goods they had planned to trade in the spring. Now, all of it belonged to the Night Tribe.
With this influx of population and materials, the Night Tribe's strength was poised to ascend to a new peak.
Although Su Xingyu could not leave just yet, Ye Zhan had to return to oversee other matters. But before departing, there was still one final task Su Xingyu needed to complete.