The developers still haven't forgiven the players.

Although the surrounding forces are all referred to as the Ministry of War, the actual name of this large tribe should be Mountain Rhyme.

Shanyun Military Department.

That's right. Strictly speaking, the so-called Ministry of War is no different in essence from tribes like Xishi and Gaoshi; the only difference is in size.

If the Xishi tribe were to grow to this size, it would also be renamed the Xishi Military Department.

Rumor has it that there are even more powerful tribes in the distance, and Shanyun Military Department is just one of their subordinate military departments.

Jiang Chen had only been in this world for three years, and such behemoths were still far from his reach. He could only listen to them as rumors and had no opportunity to learn about them in person.

However, he was certain that the humans in this world did indeed live in tribes and had no concept of a nation.

This is not because of the antiquity of the era, but purely based on considerations of reality.

Historically, there have been many outstanding individuals who attempted to establish dynasties.

However, if an individual possesses supernatural powers, the cost of maintaining stability in the form of a state would be ridiculously high. It's impossible to station a million troops in every small county town, right?

Since we can't achieve real control, there's no point in piecing together a framework.

As nature progressed over time, these scattered tribes, which developed around the strong, became the optimal solution.

Normally, the strongest person in a tribe is the chieftain.

Therefore, although this form is called a tribe, it is closer to a combination of feudalism and city-state.

Just like the Xishi tribe to the Shanyun military department, they were nominally under its jurisdiction, but most of the time, the two sides did not have a close relationship.

Jiang Chen strode towards the city gate, blending seamlessly into the flow of people entering the city.

He knew in his heart that he could act more freely in his hometown, but now that he was in the Ministry of War, he had to be more restrained.

The Shanyun Military Department has a population of nearly one million and is said to have 400,000 soldiers. Even if Jiang Chen suspects that this number is exaggerated, it is still quite staggering even if the number is cut in half.

His current strength is equivalent to a centurion in the Ministry of War, which is quite amazing for his age. However, there are probably hundreds of centurions in the Ministry of War who are at the same level as him or even stronger.

Fortunately, he wasn't planning to cause trouble; he was just buying some things and wasn't going into the inner city.

Incidentally, the city of Shanyun Military Department is divided into an inner city and an outer city.

The management of the outer city is actually quite relaxed. Even people from other tribes can wander around freely as long as they are human.

The only heavily guarded area was the inner city, which was a large mountain located in the center of the city and could be seen from outside the city.

As mentioned before, the top of this mountain was actually a battlefield.

To be precise, it is a passage connecting to the outside world.

The world we keep talking about actually refers to the land beneath our feet.

The human race calls this world the Human Realm.

But that's actually the victor's perspective.

For all the myriad races of the heavens, this is their ancestral land.

Yes, countless races actually lived in this world long ago.

However, the human race produced seventy-two emperors in succession, and through the combined efforts of seventy-two generations, they drove all the other races out of the human realm, and to this day, they have not lost an inch of land.

The reason they are collectively referred to as the myriad races of the heavens is that these countless races, driven out of their ancestral lands, do indeed live in their own small worlds.

Simply put, the human realm is a giant bubble, while the smaller worlds inhabited by other races are countless smaller bubbles attached to this giant bubble.

Opening a small opening to deploy troops is fine, but if the opening is too big, the small bubble will directly merge into the large bubble, and then the alien races living in this small world will have nowhere to run.

Ultimately, given sufficient strength, stationary bandits are much easier to eliminate than itinerant bandits.

But it is clear that countless races that have been driven out of their ancestral lands do not want to return for a moment, and will send their troops to harass them whenever they have the chance.

That's how the two alien warrior groups that annihilated the Xishi tribe came about.

Fortunately, the alien races cannot open a passage just anywhere; only a place with a strong spiritual energy can withstand the pressure of conflict between worlds.

The human race doesn't have a good solution to this; they can only try their best to block these passages.

The Shanyun Military Department guarded a passage.

Of course, these things actually have nothing to do with Jiang Chen at this stage.

After entering the city, he did not visit Sister Jiang, who had been taken away by the old man from the Ministry of War, but went straight to the outer city market.

Ignoring the hawkers' cries along the way, Jiang Chen walked into an unnamed shop in a corner of the market.

"Hey, people from the little tribe, they've come to our Shanyun again to beg for food."

Before he could even get a good look at the shop's layout, a sarcastic voice reached Jiang Chen's ears.

Hearing this, Jiang Chen was not annoyed.

"Don't make wild claims lightly; only the truth can be a weapon that hurts people."

He looked around the shop and said softly, "Looks like your business has been bad lately."

The shop owner's face darkened, and he angrily burst into curses: "You brat, what I hate most is your sharp tongue! Whether my business is good or bad is none of your business!"

Jiang Chen smiled and did not continue to argue.

He met this old man who ran the shop on his last visit to Shanyun Military Department.

It's worth mentioning that he entered the shop out of curiosity because he noticed that there was no signboard and he couldn't tell what the shop sold just by looking at the store.

The old man initially ignored him, but after Jiang Chen stayed in the shop a little longer, the old man seemed to sense something and became incredibly enthusiastic.

However, the old man's enthusiasm was not aimed at getting Jiang Chen to buy anything. His rambling conversation seemed to be just to bring the two of them closer.

He even patted his chest and assured Jiang Chen that whatever Jiang Chen wanted to buy, he could just tell him and that he could find anything that the Shanyun Military Department had and sell it to Jiang Chen.

Even though Jiang Chen said he needed a more advanced military strategy manual, the old man did not refuse. After leaving for a while, he returned with a scroll of beast bones containing the military strategy manual.

Such a selfless friendship, like that between friends of different ages, involved taking Jiang Chen out for a lavish meal.

After spending an entire day laying the groundwork, Jiang Chen was still marveling at the simple and honest folks of the Ministry of War when the old man suddenly revealed his true intentions, saying he wanted to take him as a disciple.

It was at that time that Jiang Chen realized that the old man who ran the shop was no ordinary person.

He could guess that the other party intended to take him as a disciple, most likely because they had seen through his cultivation level.

Even disregarding the fact that he has only been cultivating for three years, at his current age, possessing the strength of a centurion is enough to call him a genius.

However, Jiang Chen was already prepared to rely on the players' power, so he naturally refused the old man outright.

The old man had gone to such great lengths, only to be rejected outright by Jiang Chen, who showed him no respect whatsoever. The old man immediately flew into a rage and kicked him out.

Therefore, even after some time had passed, the old man's attitude towards Jiang Chen, who came to visit again, was still extremely unfriendly.