After allocating land to all the giants, Xiao Fei recruited another batch of personnel.
One hundred people per city, for a total of five hundred, with a giant who could barely count assigned to train each city.
With Xiao Fei's current foundation, maintaining a standing army of five hundred was still quite strenuous.
Firstly, the daily food and drink for five hundred people would consume the food from dozens of mountains. No one in the history of the giant realm had ever supported such a massive army.
The crops he had planted in his space were not yet ripe.
The meager amount of grain in the warehouses of the five city lords would not last long enough to supply so many people.
Besides food and drink, everyone also needed at least one decent weapon.
These giants had no weapons before; those who worked had hoes and cleavers, and at most a few large wooden clubs.
If Xiao Fei wanted to train them into an army, they would definitely need proper weapons, otherwise, they could not form combat power.
Previously, equipping one hundred and thirty people had depleted all his accumulated resources over the years.
Because of the giants' immense size, materials that could make a great sword for a human could only make a toothpick for a giant.
Therefore, each long spear made for a giant had to be as thick as a pillar, with a diameter of over ten feet.
The raw materials required were, as one could imagine, substantial.
When the giants had invaded the Southern Wilderness Continent before, he hadn't seen them wielding any particularly good weapons; they relied solely on brute force.
After he took control of the five cities, he had ransacked the original city lords' homes, but only found a small amount of materials, enough to arm about twenty to thirty people.
This quantity was still far from what he needed.
At this moment, a seemingly thin young man was reporting the information he had gathered to Xiao Fei, while picking his nose.
"Reporting to Lord Xiao, according to my subordinates' reconnaissance, if you walk along the direction of the setting sun for one hundred and eight thousand li from here, there is a giant mountain. This mountain is ten thousand feet high and is called Black Iron Mountain. It is rich in a type of black iron essence that can be used to forge weapons."
The thin young man's name was Da Zhuang. When he was young, he was so thin due to lack of food that his parents, worried he wouldn't survive, named him Da Zhuang.
In the end, the child did survive, but he never grew strong. He looked like a very tall, very thin stalk of straw.
However, perhaps because the proportion of muscle in his head decreased after becoming thin, Da Zhuang appeared much more alert than others.
Xiao Fei possessed the talent of Bo Le, and from over four thousand giants, he discovered this rare talent to be responsible for scouting and gathering information for him.
"Who currently occupies this Black Iron Mountain? How many people do they have?"
"Reporting to Lord Xiao, Black Iron Mountain is currently occupied by a family surnamed Cheng. The Cheng family has over fifty members."
After receiving simple training from Xiao Fei, Da Zhuang quickly mastered the task of reconnaissance and information gathering.
Xiao Fei nodded and asked again.
"How is the investigation into the One-Eared Bandit coming along?"
Da Zhuang pinched a large piece of booger from his nose, rolled it into a ball, and flicked it onto the wall with a flick of his finger.
He then wiped his nose with the fleshy part of his palm before replying.
"The One-Eared Bandit hasn't shown himself recently, and we haven't found him yet."
Xiao Fei was very satisfied with how much information Da Zhuang had gathered in such a short time.
"Good! Well done!"
"Today, I will reward you with a fish."
As Xiao Fei spoke, he took out a wriggling small fish and handed it to Da Zhuang.
Upon seeing the fish, Da Zhuang's saliva instantly flowed several yards. He wiped his hands and took the small fish.
The giant realm was primarily land-based with very little ocean, making fish a rare commodity. Fish could be considered a luxury.
This fish, which would be considered too small to even make a few pots of stew by cultivators in the Tian Yuan Realm, was only a palm-sized little fish to the giants.
"Thank you, Lord Xiao!"
"Praise be to the almighty Lord Xiao!"
Da Zhuang wiped away his traitorous drool before respectfully accepting the small fish.
After Da Zhuang left, Xiao Fei sat on his chair, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest, contemplating the next course of action.
He lacked resources at the moment and could only resort to plundering.
After all, from this point forward, Xiao Fei regarded the entire giant realm as his personal possession.
Including the Black Iron Mountain he had just discovered, it should rightfully belong to Xiao Fei.
Since it would be his sooner or later, his plundering it now was merely taking possession a bit earlier.
After only a moment of thought, he stood up from his seat and walked out of the great hall.
...
The giant realm was vast, with cities separated by great distances.
Therefore, the one hundred and eight thousand li mentioned by Da Zhuang sounded very far, but in reality, with the giants' size, they could reach it in just a few days of travel.
At this moment, Xiao Fei walked at the very front of the procession, followed by one hundred fully armed giants.
Since advancing to the Integration Realm, his height had increased significantly. He was now half a head taller than ordinary adult giants.
This greatly boosted his confidence. Previously, he always liked to mingle among the masses, but now he stood at the very front, in the most dazzling position.
The group marched for three days, and finally, from afar, they saw the black, ten-thousand-foot-high mountain.
"Lord Xiao, we have arrived! It's that black mountain up ahead."
"Lord Xiao, how should we ascend the mountain? Should we charge directly or launch a surprise attack?"
Han Yi, under Xiao Fei's influence recently, was now capable of asking such complex questions.
"No need for such unnecessary actions!"
"With my great generals Han Yi to Han Ten, and our one hundred elite soldiers, and holding the absolute advantage, we shall simply press forward directly."
Upon hearing this, Han Yi realized that Lord Xiao was personally praising him!
A surge of heat immediately rushed to his heart. He let out a loud roar at the crowd and led these one hundred laborers towards Black Iron Mountain.