Or were the stragglers' sources of information mistaken? Had they ended up in an alien race's city, rather than Zhang Lie's conquered sura capital? Or perhaps the news they had read online was mistaken, and Zhang Lie had never intended on building a city in the first place...

The two hunters were quite confused.

By the rock forest, the leader of the rock spirits finally recognized his new reality.

The resplendent jewels studded into his giant form had all been knocked off, and the golden veins running through his body had all been tarnished. If Zhang Lie weren't mistaken, the rock spirits would quickly find a new leader to replace him.

After all, the strength of these rock spirits depended on the quantity and quality of unusual ores, minerals, gems, and jewels their bodies possessed.

The leader of the rock spirits frowned.

"Human fighter, it's less that we're unwilling to leave and more that we can't leave. We rock spirits live off of these rocks; without a sufficient quantity of rocks in our vicinity, we would starve of hunger."

Zhang Lie's eyes were piercing. "I don't expect there are many such rocks left in this rock forest, are there?"

The leader of the rock spirits began to hesitate.

"If there were more, you lot wouldn't be undergoing mass hibernation," Zhang Lie pronounced.

Hong Xi's eyes widened. "Is that what they were doing before we came to the rock forest?"

When they arrived, none of them had seen any of the rock spirits, only piles upon piles of gigantic rocks. Each of those rocks had transformed into a rock giant upon their arrival.

Zhang Lie replied coolly, "There are more rock spirits than you think. Most of the gigantic rocks we saw on our way in actually had rock spirits embedded at their very center. However, some of the rock spirits have already died of hunger, and they'll forevermore remain nothing but a rock. Of course, most are still alive, and they're conserving their energy by doing nothing."

The leader of the rock spirits sighed. "You know far more about the rock spirits than I could ever have guessed. I'm very curious about how you came by this information."

Zhang Lie smiled. "That's unnecessary information. I think the rock spirits are suffering from a serious shortage of rocks, aren't they? Otherwise, we would have been encircled by far more than a hundred rock giants. There's nothing to admit or deny any longer. The quantity of rocks in this forest has diminished to the point where it's impractical to sustain the rock spirits. I assure you, your clan will benefit by joining my city."

"You have a large quantity of rocks at your disposal?"

Zhang Lie shrugged. "Not in large quantities, no, but I own an extremely large territory. I can promise you your fill of all the rocks that lie within it."

The rock spirit's eyes brightened. If that were really the case, the rock spirits would be saved.

"How large is this piece of land, and how many rocks lie within it?" the rock spirit continued.

Zhang Lie smiled with his teeth. "You would do well to remember that this is not a negotiation."

Indeed, Zhang Lie had made his point clear from the beginning: either the rock spirits joined his city, or he would annihilate them all.

"Su Hong, help the leader of the rock spirits count how many rock spirits remain in his tribe." 

Su Hong nodded.

The leader of the rock spirits sighed. "I need to discuss this with the rest of my clan. Can you give me some time?"

"You'll have three days, nothing more."

That night, the hunters chose to camp out in the rock forest. Zhang Lie lay on a giant rock as he glanced up at the starry sky. A shadow suddenly appeared by his side.

Sun Mengmeng exclaimed, "Ah, so you're here! I was searching all over for you."

Zhang Lie knew who it was from her voice alone.

"Yes, what's the matter?"

"I'm bored. Would you like to chat?"

"Haha, very well. What do you want to talk about?"

"I simply don't understand why the rock spirits acted as they did. They were out of sustenance, so why would they continue to waste away here? Why not search for a new source of rocks?"

"The races who live for centuries on end have a different perspective on life than we humans, after all. Perhaps they've grown used to being sedentary, just like tortoises."

"But even tortoises would start running if they faced a threat to their lives!"

"It's because the number of rocks in the region has been dropping steadily, rather than precipitously. Initially, perhaps they thought it would be sufficient for the entire clan to cut back on their rock intake, but as the quantity of rocks in the vicinity dropped more and more, they became less and less able to send scouting expeditions into the distance. Either for lack of ability or lack of courage, they chose to remain here and await death instead."

"How do you know all this, Zhang Lie?"

"This is all just a hypothesis.  If you want confirmation, ask the rock spirits when you see them."

When Sun Mengmeng did so, she found that Zhang Lie had been entirely correct.

Three days later, the rock spirits were prepared to migrate en masse. They dug up all the rock veins remaining in the rock forest, dividing them equally among every member of the clan as they set out toward the former sura capital.

The rock spirits seemed prepared to die halfway along their journey, but it ended far more quickly than they had expected. As they stepped past the city gates, the rock spirits were all astounded.

The leader of the rock spirits asked, "Does all this land belong to you?"

"For the moment, I suppose."

The rock spirits were all jubilant—with such a large piece of land, there was sure to be a sufficiently large quantity of rocks to keep them going for a long time.

They began to cheer.

As expected, the rock spirits found a gigantic quarry near the sura capital, one large enough that none of the rock spirits needed to hibernate any longer, and one which would allow them to start working for Zhang Lie.

This was within Zhang Lie's expectations: the sura capital would have been built in a place with an abundance of natural resources around them. Perhaps there weren't as many rocks in this particular quarry as there had been in the rock forest, but there were likely multiple such quarries all over the land.

These rock spirits could each be assigned to a different quarry to serve as guards. After all, as long as they had a handy source of rocks, they could transform into rock giants that would never be defeated.

When the twenty-meter tall rock giants appeared in sight, the Yeluo clan were all shocked. They looked at each other gravely, as though they were preparing to die on foreign soil.

As the giants continued to approach, some of the fighters asked, "Chief, shouldn't we run? It's not like this is our valley, after all, and there's no need to defend it to the last."