Chapter 97 – Basic Gifts

The White River Soaring Dragons group chat was buzzing with constant notifications.

The newcomers were all expressing their joy at surviving the ordeal.

He saw that Liver Emperor had performed quite well, with his entire territory remaining relatively intact.

Tan Moumou had even achieved his expected goal, breaking into the top hundred of the leaderboard—99th place still counted as top hundred.

This was a great honor.

Seeing this, Lord Mu casually sent his congratulations.

However, the group chat wasn’t filled with much joy, as two new lords had unfortunately fallen in battle during the trial.

“This is the trial.”

“And it’s only the beginning.”

“For official lords, the Eternal Continent remains fraught with dangers, and one must always remain cautious.”

Mu Yuan silently reminded himself that since he had embarked on this path, the only way to achieve stability was to advance step by step, step by step, until he reached the pinnacle of strength.

He walked out of the Mage Tower, striding forward under the brilliant sunlight.

“Tap tap~”

“Huff huff~”

The recently resurrected Skeleton Warriors quickly threw themselves into busy work.

They stripped usable armor, collected Soul Sand scattered all over the ground.

Then incinerated and purified the worthless monster corpses.

Mu Yuan also had many tasks to attend to.

He needed to check for oversights everywhere and remain vigilant against potential monster attacks.

“The final monster wave appeared rather abruptly—where did they come from?”

Soon,

Through the Hurricane Falcon, he discovered a massive crater only two or three kilometers away from his territory.

The crater was deep and dark, seemingly leading underground.

Mu Yuan couldn’t help but suspect that the enemies came from below ground.

But now was naturally not the time to explore or dwell on this matter. He went forward to assess the losses.

Some troops had fallen in battle.

Three Silver Slimes, one Imperial Guard, one Sharpshooter.

Even more Skeleton Warriors had fallen—dozens at least throughout the battle. This highlighted the preciousness of Undead Resurrection, truly deserving its title as a divine skill.

“The Thundercoil Tower and other defensive structures consumed roughly over four Soul Crystals throughout the trial… mostly used in the final battle.”

“Deadbone’s Death Corps required even more resources, draining five Soul Crystals of energy at once. According to him, this wasn’t even the limit.”

“Other expenses, such as troop recovery and equipment repairs, consumed another three or four Soul Crystals.”

War truly was fought with Soul Crystals.

And this didn’t even include the repair costs for territory buildings.

However, while expenditures were high, income was even greater. This battle had been like a meat grinder, and Mu Yuan had lost count of how many monsters Tianyuan Territory had eliminated.

“Under the influence of the Crimson Mist, monsters became frenzied, which seemed to squeeze out their potential, resulting in much lower drop rates than before. But even so, the sheer numbers…”

“Reporting, Lord! Dolai found many tasty things, lots of Soul Sand, and Remnant Souls~”

Captain Dolai dragged a huge bundle to show it hadn’t been sneaking snacks.

In its human form, it counted on its fingers:

“There are about six Soul Crystals. As for Remnant Souls, there are one hundred… one hundred twenty-seven Random Remnant Souls, thirty-six One-Star Remnant Souls, forty-nine Two-Star Remnant Souls, and seventeen Three-Star Remnant Souls.”

“And four Rare Remnant Souls.””But it seems a lot of Soul Sand fell into the cracks, what a huge loss! No way, I need to flip these areas over and search several more times!”

After saying this, Dolai dropped the large bundle and rushed out energetically to continue digging through the soil.

Mu Yuan roughly calculated the gains. He didn’t know how other territories were faring, but he was certainly profiting.

For other Lords, they weren’t losing either – obtaining the ‘Official Lord status’ was an enormous gain in itself.

Besides this, there was also the gift from the Eternal World after passing the trial.

“Ding~!”

He murmured softly.

The prompt sound rang as expected.

「Prompt: Your territory ‘Tianyuan Territory’ has passed the trial and been promoted to a Level 1 territory. Official Lord and official territory functions have been unlocked, including Lord Power and the territory construction list. Details require personal exploration.」

「Prompt: Having passed the trial, you have received a gift from the Eternal World.」

Strands of radiant light descended, just like when the Root of Filth was purified.

Within the light, the forms of several Treasures appeared.

Several Soul Crystals; two special, freely designated rare one-star Remnant Souls marked ‘Bound’; three similarly bound arbitrary breakthrough Materials;

The gift wasn’t abundant, after all, this was a reward every new official Lord could receive.

For most new Lords, two rare Remnant Souls were already quite precious… most new Lords didn’t even have rare troop types at this stage.

The gift wasn’t over yet.

The previous items were just physical objects. Afterwards, warm heavenly light showered down, falling upon the various troop types in the territory.

The weakest in Tianyuan Territory, the mere LV1 Little Skeleton, broke through two consecutive levels within the radiant light.

The slightly higher-level Specters at LV4 and LV5 similarly broke through two levels.

Red Robe at level eight, Seventeen and Lu Liu at level eight, and Bone Five and Bone Six who had just reached level nine, all had their experience bars overflow with the gift’s radiance. Unfortunately, the excess experience couldn’t be stored, which was somewhat regrettable.

Undead Emperor, Asun, Bone Two, and other skeletons all advanced to ‘First Order Level 3’.

The level leader of Tianyuan Territory, Dolai, who had long been at First Order Level 3, directly soared to First Order Level 6.

It seemed that the higher one’s level, the greater the gains from this kind of gift.

If troop losses had been severe during the previous trial, this would have been rather disadvantageous. But no matter how much disadvantage, after surviving the trial, all Lords were like carp leaping through the dragon gate – henceforth, the sky was theirs to roam freely.

While the troop types received enhancements, the Lord naturally gained even more.

Soon, a brighter milky-white light pillar descended upon Mu Yuan. His entire body felt as if soaking in a hot spring, warm and comfortable all over, pores opening as gentle energy essence flowed into him.

Crack—

As if some barrier had shattered, the energy within Mu Yuan suddenly surged explosively, expanding from a small stream only as thick as an index finger to the width of three fingers held together, flowing murmuringly, with a faint tendency to close and form a cycle.

Whether in energy output or energy recovery, it had increased by several times compared to before.

Its application also became more effortless, like a heavy weapon in hand becoming lighter and more convenient. Many advanced techniques he had only understood theoretically before, he now felt confident to execute.

Perfect! Transparent!

Already invincible!

“Is this the experience of the First Order Professional Tier realm? Mere descriptions from others are far from sufficient to convey its profundity.”

As the light pillar faded, Mu Yuan closed his eyes to contemplate for a moment, then suddenly opened them.He extended his hand flatly, forming a fist. The force of the punch surged continuously along his meridians, causing his sleeves to billow and rustle as if whipped by a fierce wind.

A point of white light manifested in his palm, then shot forth like an energy cannon with a resounding bang, leaving a shallow crater in the ground.

If not for the lack of skills, he, Lord Mu, could have easily taken on Bone Two and Bone Three.

But the absence of skills was no real issue.

He was now a formal Lord and would soon wield the Lord Power.

As the basic blessings concluded, the newly promoted territory began its expansion.

Under the Lord’s vision, the wispy white mist at the boundaries receded inch by inch, signifying the spread of the Tianyuan Territory.

It extended over the recent main battlefield, then across the distant, ravaged wasteland, the mass burial pits, the grove further off that looked as if ravaged by a tornado, the rolling hills, and the babbling stream…

Every scene was clearly reflected in the Lord’s vision.

He now had a sufficiently vast territory to plan and develop.

At that moment, the Trial Golden Ranking suspended in the sky began to fade, one territory name after another starting from the very bottom.

Additional blessings from the Golden Ranking began to descend in succession.

(End of Chapter)