Chapter 134: The Family's Decision? Dwarf Meeting!

"You—you said what?"

Boer's voice was out of tune.

"I said, I refuse."

Roko repeated it word for word.

"Vanguard Valley now has 350,000 people; they all brought their families and fled from all over the Bulake Kingdom, and only here did they find a place to settle down."

"If I leave, what will happen to them?"

"The war in the Royal Capital won't end in a day or two."

"Short, half a year or a year; long, three to five years, or even longer."

"For such a long time, you want me to abandon my territory, abandon my people, and take a mere few hundred knights to be consumed in that bottomless pit of the Royal Capital?"

"Forgive me, I cannot comply."

"Presumptuous! Simply lawless!"

Boer was completely enraged.

He slammed the table, and a powerful pressure belonging to a Bronze Peak Knight erupted from him.

"Roko Raymond! Are you trying to betray the family!"

The terrifying aura surged toward Roko like a tide.

The air in the hall seemed to have frozen.

Hart's face turned deathly pale; under this pressure, even standing became incredibly difficult.

Fura's pretty face also turned pale, and she subconsciously wanted to block in front of Roko.

However, Roko just raised his hand slightly.

A pressure that was equally powerful, or even more solid and domineering, was quietly released from him.

It was a terrifying pressure that had been tempered through the fusion of three powers and the test of life and death, carrying a trace of destructive aura.

The two pressures collided silently in the air.

There was no earth-shattering roar.

Boer's violent pressure, like a stormy sea, the moment it touched Roko's introverted and domineering pressure,

was like snow meeting the blazing sun.

It melted silently.

Moreover, Roko's even more powerful pressure turned into an invisible mountain, slamming down hard on Boer.

"Pfft!"

Boer's body shook violently.

He felt as if his chest had been slammed by an invisible giant hammer.

His entire body stumbled back three steps uncontrollably.

With every step, he left a deep footprint on the hard stone floor.

His face, which had been flushed red with anger, turned deathly pale in an instant.

He looked at Roko in horror.

That look was as if he had seen some most incredible monster.

"You, your strength..."

"Bronze Late-stage?"

No.

That wasn't right.

The intensity of this pressure had far exceeded the scope of an ordinary Bronze Late-stage.

It was even a notch stronger than him, an old-school Knight who had been immersed in the Bronze Peak for many years!

How could this be possible!

Didn't the intelligence say he had just broken through to Bronze Mid-stage?

How long had it been?

A month? Or two months?

He had actually broken through again?

And he had directly crossed a major realm, possessing strength comparable to, or even exceeding, the Bronze Peak?

Boer felt his worldview was about to collapse.

This cultivation speed could no longer be described as genius.

This was simply a monster!

"Thirteenth Uncle, we are family, not enemies."

Roko slowly stood up.

He walked toward Boer step by step.

With every step he took, the pressure on him grew heavier.

Boer felt like a small boat in a storm, ready to be torn into pieces by this terrifying pressure at any moment.

He wanted to resist, but found that the Battle Qi in his body was running sluggishly under the shock of this pressure, and he couldn't even raise a thought of resistance.

"I don't want to attack you."

Roko walked up to him and looked down at him.

"So, put away your ridiculous pressure and that set of so-called family laws."

"Here, in Vanguard Valley,"

"what I, Roko Raymond, say is the rule."

Domineering.

Extremely domineering.

Boer's lips trembled; he wanted to say a few polite words to regain his dignity.

But in the end, he couldn't say a single word.

In the face of absolute strength, any words seemed so pale and powerless.

"Of course, my refusal to return to the family is not to betray the family."

Roko saw that the timing was about right, and the pressure on him slowly retracted.

"On the contrary, it is for the future of the family that I must stay here."

He turned and walked back to the main seat.

"Martina."

"Yes, Roko."

Martina, who had been silent, responded and walked forward.

In her hand, she held a stack of thick, prepared documents.

"Mr. Boer."

Martina's snow-white eyes looked at him calmly.

"Before you ask us to abandon Vanguard Valley, perhaps you should first understand what Vanguard Valley means now."

She spread the first document in front of Boer.

"This is the latest census report for Vanguard Valley; as of yesterday, our registered people number 357,000, and this number is still growing at a rate of over a thousand per day."

Boer's pupils contracted imperceptibly.

350,000!

This number already exceeded the vast majority of Baron Territories in the Bulake Kingdom!

Martina did not pause and took out the second document.

"These are the trade agreements and military alliances we have signed with the Stone Hammer Tribe of the Dwarf Mountains, Red Leaf Forest, Earl Adrian, and over fifteen other forces."

"We possess the most stable ore and grain supply channels in the entire Xin Feng Province."

"We also have exclusive agency rights for the dwarves' Obsidian Gold equipment."

"This means that all nobles in the entire Xin Feng Province, and even surrounding provinces, must go through us if they want to obtain the finest equipment."

"These are the net profits Vanguard Valley has earned in the past month."

Martina pushed an account list in front of Boer.

The long string of dazzling numbers on it made Boer's breathing quicken.

He glanced at it roughly; the wealth on it was already quite astonishing!

And this was just one month's profit!

"Thirteenth Uncle, do you still think Vanguard Valley is a worthless backwater?"

Roko's voice came leisurely.

Boer's face turned green and white.

He had nothing to say.

"The war in the Royal Capital is a huge gamble."

Roko continued.

"If we win the gamble, our Raymond Family might be able to go a step further, become a Duke Family, and advance even further."

"But what if we lose?"

"If the First Prince is defeated and the Third Prince ascends, what will be the fate of our families who supported the First Prince?"

"Confiscation and extermination would be the light end of it."

"By then, the entire Raymond Family's thousands of years of foundation will be destroyed in one fell swoop."

"We need a retreat."

Roko's finger pointed heavily at the location of Vanguard Valley on the map.

"And this is the retreat I have prepared for the family!"

"A brand-new base with a population of 350,000, stable allies, and independent self-sufficiency!"

"As long as Vanguard Valley exists, even if we lose everything in the Royal Capital, our Raymond Family will always have a chance to make a comeback. Now, do you still think I should abandon this place and take my people to the Royal Capital to join you in putting all our chips on the same gambling table?"

Roko's gaze pierced Boer like a sharp sword.

Boer opened his mouth and was completely speechless.

He was completely stunned by the blueprint Roko had painted.

He had to admit that what Roko said made sense,

and it was a great truth that he could not refute.

Just then.

Boer's gaze suddenly fell on the cat-eared girl beside Roko, who had been silent from beginning to end.

He seemed to have grabbed the last straw, a flash of ferocity in his eyes.

"Fine! Even if everything you said is true!"

"Vanguard Valley can serve as the family's retreat!"

"You can also stay here and continue to develop!"

"But her!"

Boer's finger pointed sharply at Fura.

"This cat-kin must come back with me!"

He was preparing to forcibly take Fura away to regain some face, and at the same time, to weaken Roko's power.

In his view, although Fura was just a slave, her Bronze Late-stage strength was also a force not to be underestimated on the battlefield.

However, his voice had just fallen.

"Clang!"

A crisp sound of a sword being drawn.

The longsword in Fura's hand was already unsheathed.

In those heterochromatic pupils, the usual inferiority and introversion were gone, replaced by cold, bone-chilling killing intent.

"My life belongs to the Master."

"Whoever wants to take me away must first step over my corpse."

Her voice was very soft, but carried an unquestionable determination.

Boer's face turned incredibly ugly in an instant.

"A lowly slave dares to draw a sword on me?"

"Rebellion! This is truly rebellion!"

He was about to erupt.

But Roko laughed.

"Thirteenth Uncle, it seems you still don't understand the situation."

He reached out and gently blocked Fura behind him.

"I just said."

"Here, I have the final say."

"Fura is my person, my partner, not some commodity that can be traded at will."

"You want to take her away?"

A dangerous light flashed in Roko's eyes.

"Fine."

"Beat me."

"As long as you can beat me, let alone one Fura, even if you want my life, I'll give it to you."

"But if you lose—"

A cold arc curled the corners of Roko's mouth.

"Then you can leave your life here."

A naked death threat!

Boer's body stiffened violently.

He looked at Roko's eyes, which didn't look like he was joking, and a chill rushed from the soles of his feet to his crown.

Beat him?

What a joke!

He couldn't even withstand one of his pressures.

If they really fought, he probably wouldn't even be able to last one move.

He had no doubt that if he dared to say one more word, this madman who recognized no family ties would really kill him on the spot.

"Fine, fine, fine!"

Boer said "fine" three times in a row.

His face turned green and white, and finally, it turned into a deathly gray.

He knew he had lost today.

Lost completely and utterly.

"Roko Raymond, you are very good!"

He looked at Roko with venomous eyes.

"I will take your words back to the family's high-level leadership word for word."

"I hope you won't regret what you've done today!"

After speaking, he flicked his sleeves violently, not even daring to look at Roko again, and walked out of the council hall with his people, never looking back.

That back view was as pathetic as it could be.

With their departure,

the suffocating atmosphere in the hall dissipated along with them.

Hart let out a long sigh of relief, feeling that his back was already soaked with cold sweat.

He looked at Roko's back, his eyes filled with complexity.

There was awe, worry, and a trace of fanaticism that even he himself hadn't noticed.

"Roko—"

Martina walked up, a flush of excitement on her face.

"We have completely broken with the family."

"No."

Roko shook his head.

"This is not breaking."

"This is called re-dividing the right to speak."

He walked to the huge map, his gaze slowly sweeping across the territory of the entire Xin Feng Province.

From Viscount Wilson's territory to those other wavering small nobles.

Each one was clearly reflected in his eyes.

"Those big shots in the Royal Capital no longer have the energy to manage our borderland."

"Those wolves lurking in the dark have also cast their eyes on the bigger piece of meat that is the Royal Capital."

"For us, this is the best opportunity."

A flame called "ambition" burned in Roko's eyes.

"An opportunity to completely integrate the entire Xin Feng Province and turn this place into our true, iron-clad territory."

Somewhere in the Dwarf Mountains.

Falco straightened his back, his gaze calmly fixed on the magnificent city embedded in the mountain ahead.

He was wearing light leather armor specially made by Vanguard Valley.

Behind him was Mick, who also looked solemn.

This son of an Earl no longer had his usual laziness; his hand was always resting on the hilt of the sword at his waist, his eyes vigilantly scanning the jagged rocks around them.

The air here carried a smell of sulfur mixed with metal, full of a primitive and rugged sense of power.

Walking at the front of the team was the Patriarch of the Stone Hammer Tribe, Bagelumu.

This strong dwarf's face, however, did not look good at this moment.

His brows were tightly furrowed, and that thick beard he was so proud of seemed to have lost its usual luster, hanging on his chest.

"Master Falco, that is Ironforge ahead."

Bagelumu's voice was a bit hoarse.

"The tribal meeting will be held in the Anvil Hall inside."

He turned his head to look at Falco, his eyes filled with worry that could not be hidden.

"Huo Rong of the Fire Beard Tribe has already linked up with at least five tribes; this time, they are coming for our Stone Hammer Tribe."

"What they want is not just the formula for the strong liquor, but also the forging technology for Obsidian Gold."

"This is the foundation of our Stone Hammer Tribe's rise; I—I absolutely cannot hand it over."

Falco nodded, his expression unchanged.

"Patriarch Bagelumu, you must remember."

"You are not fighting alone now."

"Standing behind you is Vanguard Valley, is Master Roko Raymond."

Although his words were not loud, they brought a great sense of peace of mind. ===== CHAPTER 135 =====