About a week and a half later, Liu Zhi had gathered enough information to make a rough estimate of the Elephant-men's numbers, troops, and powerful fighters. He couldn't claim to know everything, but he had a general picture.
There were three Elephant-men cities in the entire Golden Region: the Main City, the Ancestral City, and a key fortress city.
On their way back, Liu Zhi and his people had passed near the fortress city. That was why they had encountered an Elephant-men patrol so soon.
The fortress city guarded against the silverized forces from the Diamond Region. The city itself wasn't built there, though; it was built on a mountain.
There were only five hundred Elephant-men in the fortress, yet they defended against the silverized forces' invasion.
According to the information they had gathered, none of those five hundred Elephant-men was exceptionally powerful. The strongest among them were five Elephant-men elders, who also served as the fortress's overall commanders.
The other two cities were different. One stood near the center of the Golden Region: the Elephant-men's Ancestral City, where all Elephant-men were born and raised.
Once they reached a certain level of maturity, they would go to the Main City to live, or serve at the fortress city.
When they were close to dying of old age, they would return to the Ancestral City and die there.
So aside from fifty adult Elephant-men, the Ancestral City was usually home only to those nearing the end of their lives and newly born calves. That made it the easiest city to attack.
However, the scouts sent to gather information always said there was something strange about the Ancestral City. They just couldn't tell what it was.
Finally, there was the Main City, where the Elephant-men usually lived. It stood a little farther