The reconnaissance drone quickly located the lair of these mountain spirits, hidden at the very top of the mountain range, where the entire mountain was occupied by them.
He had underestimated the number of these mountain spirits.
This entire mountain range housed at least over a million mountain spirits.
This was understandable; to deploy nearly a hundred thousand mountain spirit warriors during the day, this was nothing for such a vast mountain spirit tribe.
To wipe out such a large mountain spirit tribe with his thousand men was daunting, but entirely feasible.
It would require time.
He communicated with Diao Chan.
"Chan'er, how was your harvest?" Zhou Yan asked.
"The harvest was ordinary, not many monsters encountered along the way," Diao Chan replied.
"Where are you now? Send me your location," Zhou Yan asked.
"Alright." Diao Chan sent her location to Zhou Yan.
Zhou Yan clicked on it, sent his own location to her, and said, "Chan'er, come to my location tomorrow. There's a large tribe here, with an estimated million enemies."
"A million! So many, I'll depart tomorrow!" Diao Chan was indeed surprised and quickly replied.
After chatting with Diao Chan for a while, he spoke with others.
The others were far from his location, so he didn't ask them to come.
One piece of good news was that Chen Qingzhi had discovered quite a few resources in the ruins, even a few intact buildings.
He curiously opened his territory and examined the attributes of these buildings.
One was a D-quality [Small River], capable of forming a small river.
As for its purpose, it depended on how it was used.
The second was a C-quality [Arch Bridge], the function of which was self-explanatory.
The last one, also C-quality, was a [Fish Pond], which could be used for raising fish.
These three buildings were excellent, and he was looking forward to seeing what they would evolve into.
He continued to review the footage from the reconnaissance drone.
He discovered that the entire mountain spirit tribe wasn't just monsters; they even had defense towers.
And quite a few of them.
This mountain spirit tribe completely occupied the entire mountainside and had established decent defenses.
These defense towers were all of the lowest tier.
They were mostly arrow towers and catapults, with no elemental defense towers, which significantly reduced the threat to him.
The entire tribe lacked stone walls, only a simple fence. These fences wouldn't require much effort to destroy.
The mountain spirit tribe did have some means.
He saw some mountain spirit cavalry, these spirits riding mounts resembling hounds. This was likely the trump card of the mountain spirit tribe.
He just didn't know their exact numbers.
Many mountain spirits lived in caves, and it would take considerable time to fully explore all the information about the mountain spirit tribe.
Continuing his observation, he unexpectedly discovered other things about these mountain spirits.
They also cultivated farmland, fruit trees, and various crops. This area was on the back of the mountain range.
Many farmlands, fruit trees, and other crops were planted there.
Upon closer inspection, these mountain spirits were still working at night. Were they this diligent?
He zoomed in on the image and realized he had been mistaken.
Those working were not mountain spirits, but enslaved other races. These races were quite peculiar, resembling orcs.
And not just orcs, but several other races as well.
Were these mountain spirits so powerful that they could enslave so many races?
However, considering the sheer number of these mountain spirits, ordinary smaller races would indeed have no advantage against them.
He wondered if there were any dwarves among them; if so, that would be excellent.
Around these farmlands, many mountain spirits, wielding whips, were lashing the working races.
This was very much like the practices in primitive tribes.
He looked at another area and discovered some quarries and iron mines. Without exception, these goblins enslaved many races to labor day and night.
Every enslaved slave was fitted with handcuffs and shackles.
Even a few five-meter-tall orcs were no exception.
He was very curious how such large orcs were captured.
In the footage, he saw many mountain spirits with peculiar appearances.
These mountain spirits had black skin and were roughly the same height as humans.
Their status seemed very high, like nobles or even leaders among the mountain spirits.
Suddenly, a black flash of light appeared, and he lost contact with the intelligent reconnaissance drone.
"Damn it, what is the origin of these black mountain spirits? They could even detect this high-tech equipment!"
He was very surprised and dared not underestimate this group of mountain spirits; there were indeed powerful individuals within such a large tribe.
"Lost over a million spirit coins."
An intelligent reconnaissance drone cost over a million spirit coins, and it was destroyed just like that. He was determined to get it back from the mountain spirit tribe.
As for what abilities these black mountain spirits possessed, all would have to wait until tomorrow.
After a night of rest, he led his soldiers towards the mountain spirit tribe's main base.
He had people purchase ten more intelligent reconnaissance drones; these things were quite useful.
He deployed them to scout the surrounding terrain, looking for any hidden mountain spirits to avoid ambushes.
After all, he had just annihilated a group of mountain spirit warriors yesterday, so he assumed the mountain spirits would be on guard.
As it turned out, his guess was correct.
These mountain spirits had ambushes set up along the road, and many mountain spirits were also lurking and scouting.
He dispatched small units of soldiers to eliminate these scouting mountain spirits and then arrived at the mountain spirit ambush point.
This location was no longer far from the mountain spirit main base.
The surroundings were filled with various traps and mechanisms.
However, Zhou Yan already knew all of this.
He felt that these traps and mechanisms should not be wasted.
Therefore, he began to lead his soldiers around these traps and mechanisms, flanking the mountain spirits from another direction.
Then, he launched his attack!
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!!"
A volley of arrows rained down. To their dying moments, these mountain spirits had no idea how they had died.
They could not have imagined how the enemy had bypassed them and arrived at their rear.
They tried to break through the arrow cover but failed to do so until their deaths.
Then they began to flee backward, momentarily forgetting the traps and mechanisms they had designed.
As a result, they personally experienced the taste of these traps and mechanisms.
The entire forest echoed with the wails of the mountain spirits.
Using their own designed mechanisms against them.
A perfectly logical operation.
There were tens of thousands of these mountain spirits.
In the end, a large portion of them died in the traps they themselves had designed.
Zhou Yan began to collect treasure chests and their weapons.
Then he inquired about Diao Chan's location.
Diao Chan replied that she would reach his location in a few hours.
Upon understanding this, Zhou Yan continued up the mountain, eliminating more monsters.
These mountain spirits had also set up numerous sentry posts at the foot of the mountain.
There weren't many, only about a hundred mountain spirits guarding them.
To them, these were simply incapable of resistance.
A single volley of arrows eliminated them.
This was a road carved out by the mountain spirits, leading all the way up the mountain.
With ten intelligent reconnaissance drones, no mountain spirit hidden sentry could escape.
The mountain spirits on the mountain had no idea they had arrived.
He eliminated the sentry posts set up by the mountain spirits all the way to the foot of the mountain spirit's lair.