Chapter 106 – Hero Festival

The evolution of transformative power altered Mu Yuan’s procurement plans.

This was partly due to having gathered sufficient troop type varieties, and perhaps also related to his breakthrough into the first-tier Professional level.

Would there be further changes in the future?

He wasn’t sure, but seizing the present moment was what mattered.

“Sentinel guards and archers belong to the Human Race category.”

“Skeletons and Specters fall under the Undead category.”

As for Treants? Their classification wasn’t the plant system but rather the natural system, which could be understood through the effects of the Treant Forest.

Thinking this, Mu Yuan flipped through the troop information and ultimately selected two types of natural system Remnant Souls, preparing to purchase them for testing.

…

To the north, approximately thirty to forty kilometers from Tianyuan Territory, a bluish-grey large bird soared among the clouds and mist. Its sharp eyes pierced through the faint white fog enveloping the land, surveying and scanning below.

From time to time, it let out cheerful, piercing cries.

Bird Lord is no longer a weak bird, you know~!

Recalling the past, when it had to venture out cautiously, barely escaping death while being chased by mere harpies – now, the world is vast, the heavens and earth expansive, where couldn’t Bird Lord go?

Whoosh~!

Several enormous birds with brown-red wings, resembling bloodthirsty giant eagles, swept across the distant sky. These were the rare two-star monsters ‘Bloodthirsty Warhawks,’ numbering a full seven!

The culturally limited Asun couldn’t identify them, only feeling these large birds were bigger than itself and seemed somewhat troublesome… Of course, Bird Lord wasn’t easily intimidated, but saw no need for conflict, especially while carrying out the Lord’s mission. Otherwise, mere red-feathered birds…

The Bloodthirsty Warhawks turned their heads, seemingly noticing something.

Storm Asun instinctively startled, executing a 360-degree spiral nosedive maneuver, vanishing into the vast forest within the blink of an eye, narrowly avoiding… an unnecessary conflict.

It continued northward.

Upholding its mission, Asun avoided several conflicts, trounced some minor monsters, and when discovering important targets, actively initiated Vision Sharing to transmit intelligence to the great, supreme, noble, and unparalleled Lord.

“The goblin troops that previously attacked the territory likely originated from this tribe,” Mu Yuan pondered.

In Asun’s vision was a monster settlement nearly as large as the Snakefolk Tribe, though after just a few days it had become deserted, occupied by a pack of Gnolls rummaging through everything, leaving the entire tribe in disarray.

This was his property! How could he endure such injustice!

He immediately dispatched General Dolai, transported by a Hurricane Falcon, for an airdrop operation.

“Besides this tribe, Asun also discovered several conspicuous large monster camps along the way, encountering countless Professional-tier monsters.”

The Eternal Continent remained fraught with dangers indeed. He had no doubt that continuing northward would lead to encounters with Elite-tier, or even Commander-tier monsters.

This was also related to Asun’s northward trajectory.

The further north into the Northern Lands, the deeper one ventured into wilderness areas. To the south lay the Taixuan Alliance, with the nearest official city roughly several hundred kilometers away.

Still quite distant.

As for official outpost towns, one or two were relatively closer, within a hundred kilometers.He could choose a day to go and take a look—by dispatching a certain general and then directing them through a mental link, it would be almost equivalent to him going there personally.

However, this did not mean that heading south into the territory of the Taixuan Alliance was necessarily safe.

Within the Taixuan Alliance’s territory, there were still dangerous and forbidden lands scattered throughout. These areas had no human settlements, and even if one ventured thousands of miles deep, it would be difficult to find any trace of human presence.

In the southern regions of the Xuan Nation, batch after batch, year after year, new lord territories descended sporadically across the Twilight Plains. The Twilight Plains was merely a general term for a great domain, and within it, there might be Gloomy Forests, lava lands, frost-covered woods, and other high-risk areas where no new lord territories would appear.

Around the spawn points of new lords, the monsters might be weak, or the dangers might be overwhelming—both scenarios fell within the scope of “low-risk zones.”

But as lords continuously expanded and explored outward, there was no telling when they might stumble into a “high-risk zone.”

…

Mu Yuan never left his residence, yet his mind was multitasking.

One part of his consciousness browsed the images shared by Asun; another guided Dolai; another kept an eye on the territory, occasionally giving pointers to Lu Liu; and yet another controlled several Hurricane Falcons, patrolling the perimeter of Tianyuan Territory, constantly scouting.

Even under such circumstances, he still had another part of his mind placing orders for remnant souls on the forum and glancing at the situations of other players.

“Brothers, managing refugees is no easy task. Dozens of people are in chaos, and if you’re not careful, they start fighting or even starve to death… How do I solve this?”

“Exactly! I just sent these refugees out to mine, and more than a dozen of them starved to death. They’re so fragile! The way those refugees look at me seems a bit off too—troublemakers! They’re all troublemakers!”

“Lord, you may be suspected of violating the Refugee Management Convention. Please take note!”

Many new lords were complaining.

Some thought that goblins and other such troops were already “troublemakers,” always running around and hard to command. Only when they actually had to manage refugees did they realize the difficulty.

On top of that, lord players also had to worry about finances, construction, security, and other issues. Even if they worked themselves bald, they couldn’t be in multiple places at once.

And their own troops, aside from fighting and killing, couldn’t do anything else!

“There are ways, everyone. You can hire players with management skills or look for talent among the civilians and assign them positions, letting civilians manage civilians.”

However, the former was not entirely reliable, while the latter required time for observation and selection, and even then, they weren’t as dependable as troops.

What lords most wanted to rely on were their own loyal troops, who could unconditionally execute orders.

Mu Yuan glanced at Lu Liu and Seventeen, who were guiding the refugees;

He looked at Deadbone, who was leading a team to explore on his own;

He looked at Red Robe, who silently patrolled the territory’s perimeter, tearing apart stray monsters without a sound; and at Asun, who didn’t need his supervision and occasionally sent back images on its own.

He nodded slightly, “Troops with self-awareness are truly great.”

But when he thought about the second-generation lords who were currently spending lavishly, supported by their elders, and introducing large numbers of precious troops and miracle buildings, he felt that he was still too weak.

His strength was far from enough.

A veteran lord remarked, “The best way to share the burden of heavy tasks is to recruit troops who can awaken to self-awareness and possess extraordinary talents, or simply cultivate a hero.”This sounds like the glib talk of an expert—who doesn’t know that Heroes are the right-hand men of Lords? Yet, those who truly possess Heroes are almost all veteran Lords.

If they were veteran Lords, would they still be troubled by such trivial matters?

“Generally speaking, Hero’s Tokens are extremely rare, but you newly appointed Lords do have a chance to recruit a Hero. Even if the odds are slim, everyone can strive for it.”

“That is the Hero’s Ceremony, which occurs only once every three years.”

“This is a Secret Realm with unique mechanics, likely one of the benefits the Eternal World grants to newly appointed Lords. When the ceremony begins, the entrance to the Secret Realm will connect to each new Lord’s territory. And now, it seems two and a half years have already passed since the last three-year cycle.”

“Seize this opportunity, lads! Back in my day, I narrowly missed the chance to recruit a powerful, voluptuous, and enchanting female Hero. This is something I’ll regret for the rest of my life!”

(End of Chapter)