Chapter 321 – Three Epic Two-Stars

On the tenth day since the establishment of the Wolfhead Mountain base, the pervasive killing intent in the world grew increasingly dense.

Scouts from the Jackalwere could vaguely be seen in the surrounding areas.

Most of these scouts from dominant forces couldn’t escape the sharp eyes of the War Falcons, let alone evade the wraith patrol squads equipped with their ‘grudge radar’ hacks.

The Tianyuan Territory had captured many scouts, though little valuable information could be extracted from their minds.

This was expected.

Mu Yuan dispatched more patrol and assassination squads to compete, hunt, and clash with scouts from the monster factions in the surrounding mountains and forests.

They undoubtedly held the upper hand.

Every Tianyuan soldier was elite, and they excelled at small-scale special operations.

However, several Tianyuan units exploring and expanding into distant regions encountered enemy ambushes. Among them, the exploration team led by Bone Two was surrounded by enemies at a location over two hundred kilometers north of the territory.

The battle was extremely challenging.

Bone Two commanded over a hundred elite undead, including several Skeleton Lords and Ghost Generals. Along the way, this team had eliminated many formidable monster foes.

Yet, the ambushing enemy force was even larger, with as many as twelve Fourth Order BOSS-level enemies, two of whom were Tribal Chief-level powerhouses—their combat prowess no less than that of Bone Two, who had already advanced to the Fourth Order.

Additionally, over a thousand elite monsters surrounded them.

Bone Two’s exploration team was outmatched, and more than half of the elite undead fell in battle. Fortunately, Deadbone had prepared a contingency. He had developed a resonance link method between the ‘Undead Holy Mountain’ and the ‘Undead Territory,’ leaving several seeds of power in Bone Two’s Undead Territory to be activated at critical moments.

In this battle, one such seed shattered, transforming into the Nether River and crushing the monster horde.

After repelling and driving back the monster tide, another seed shattered, channeling the power of Undead Resurrection to revive all the fallen skeletons and ghosts.

“Dangerous, it was far too dangerous!”

Upon learning of the situation, Deadbone immediately rushed to Bone Two’s location to provide support.

He was deeply shaken.

After all, he had only left nine seeds of power in Bone Two’s Undead Territory. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to leave more, but this was the maximum number he could preserve.

His power was indeed limited, too weak.

Mu Yuan promptly adjusted the strategy, ordering several exploration teams to pull back.

“At present, Jackal Fang is conducting probes and mobilizing troops, making it an unsuitable time for long-distance expansion. If we truly wish to explore and expand, we must first decisively defeat and repel an attack from Jackal Fang on the frontlines.”

Otherwise, they would have no choice but to remain holed up, making slow progress.

If the enemy were to exploit a fatal weakness, they could easily find themselves in a life-or-death situation.

This ambush was also partly due to Bone Two’s somewhat reckless advance.

After the main forces shifted from exploration to ‘defense and patrol,’ the Tianyuan Territory consistently held the advantage in skirmishes. However, this was nothing to boast about.

“Huh? Isn’t it me and the boss tearing through everything?”

Sario had a big question mark hovering over its head, having just slaughtered several Fourth Order BOSSes alongside the boss.Deadbone was already busy with other matters, so Bone Four, inheriting the spirit of steadiness and the Tianyuan Will, explained, “Jackal Fang has only been testing us all along, far from exerting their full strength. Moreover, monster factions are never short of high-tier powerhouses. Losing a few Third or Fourth Order fighters probably doesn’t even count as a scratch to them.”

Indeed, it wasn’t even a scratch.

After all, the influence of Jackal Fang likely spanned dozens of regions as large as Shiling Town. They had subdued and integrated all the monster camps and tribes within their territory, forming one large tribe after another.

These tribes boasted countless powerful individuals.

Yet for Jackal Fang, even if all these large tribes were wiped out, it probably wouldn’t be a crippling blow.

However, Jackal Fang still had to guard against other forces, and many of these large tribes were located very far from Wolfhead Mountain. Traveling long distances was no easy task.

Thus, Lord Mu changed course and directly eradicated the Kobold Tribe located about 320 kilometers northeast of Wolfhead Mountain.

By the time he wiped out this tribe, many of the intelligent kobolds had already fled, taking with them numerous materials and treasures.

As a result, the defensive strength of this large tribe had significantly weakened. With just the main force of his Undead Legion, the Tianyuan Territory managed to annihilate the tribe.

While the intelligent monsters could escape, the Filth structure ‘Blood Pool’ built within the tribe couldn’t be relocated in a short time.

Deadbone reached out and purified both Blood Pools.

「Prompt: Obtained Outstanding Two-Star Remnant Soul ‘Frost Giant’.」

「Prompt: Obtained Miracle Blueprint ‘Large Lightning Coil Tower Blue’.」

「Prompt: Obtained Miracle Blueprint ‘Cultivation Chamber Green’.」

「Prompt: …」

——

「Large Lightning Coil Tower Blue」

「Description: The final upgraded version of the Thundercoil Tower, capable of gathering and unleashing more powerful lightning attacks.」

「Note ①: The Large Lightning Coil Tower can Charge with electromagnetic energy to increase the lethality of a single attack, with a maximum Charge time of 10 seconds.」

「Note ②: The Large Lightning Coil Tower can absorb electromagnetic energy transmitted by smaller Thundercoil Towers. For each additional Thundercoil Tower channeling energy, the single-attack lethality of this structure increases by 30%, and the maximum Charge time increases by 1 second.」

Mu Yuan: “!”

Without Note ②, this Large Lightning Coil Tower would just be an ordinary Outstanding-grade defensive structure. If a lord only had one or two Rare-grade Thundercoil Towers at home, the boost to the Large Lightning Coil Tower would be minimal.

But,

what he possessed was a permanent Thundercoil Tower blueprint!

Thank you, Shen Linglong!

Even limited to Tier 4, if used properly, the lethality this Large Lightning Coil Tower could unleash would be absolutely immeasurable.

Praise! High praise!

It arrived just in time.

Mu Yuan immediately headed to the Secret Realm to purchase the main materials required for constructing the Large Lightning Coil Tower.

At the same time, he adjusted the construction plan for the smaller coil towers—he had originally intended to use these defensive structures to snipe high-tier intelligent monsters. The Thundercoil Tower was already one of the Rare-grade defensive buildings with the strongest single-target destructive power; even a Fourth Order BOSS with an insufficiently robust Physical Body could be severely injured by a single strike if caught off guard.

But now, these smaller coil towers had an even greater value—powering up the Large Lightning Coil Tower.This requires construction around the large electromagnetic coil towers.

The large thundercoil towers must be within the firing range of the smaller coil towers to receive energy replenishment from them.

……

The defensive lines at Wolfhead Mountain were being constructed layer by layer. Those generals and elites who weren’t scheduled for patrol duty were seizing every moment to enhance their strength.

The elites on patrol duty continuously hauled the enemies they had slain to the Soul Shrine.

Thanks to nature’s bounty, Mu Yuan’s growth in troop numbers across various types remained rapid even after losing the Blue Star platform. In recent days, the increase had even surpassed the period of large-scale procurement from Blue Star.

The two major categories—the undead and human races—each now totaled over 10,000 units.

Currently, the number of troops in Tianyuan Territory far exceeded that of the residents.

Fortunately, managing troops was simple and effortless—the skeletons could survive long-term in the Skull Graveyard without consuming any Soul Sand for maintenance. The militiamen required food, resulting in higher “maintenance costs,” but Tianyuan Territory now had no shortage of ordinary food supplies.

The only issue was that barracks were being built one after another, taking up considerable space.

Had the Skull Graveyard not been upgraded, it wouldn’t have been able to accommodate so many little skeletons.

With the increase in low-tier troops, the growth rate of Evolution Points also rose significantly.

Now, even with Mu Yuan distributing evolution opportunities evenly and regularly evolving batches of low and mid-tier soldiers, on average, one epic-tier life form could be evolved every two days.

Epic-tier units in Tianyuan Territory were beginning to emerge in large numbers.

「Your troop ‘Bone Twenty-Nine’ bathes in the evolution miracle and advances to ‘Skeleton Lord’.」

「Your troop ‘Chen Eight’ bathes in the evolution miracle and advances to ‘Polar Star Arrow’.」

「Your troop ‘Winter Snow’ bathes in the evolution miracle and advances to ‘Frost Lord’.」

「Your troop……」

With a major battle approaching, Mu Yuan prioritized evolving a group of junior commanders who could contribute more to the war effort.

Among them, the number of junior commander-tier Skeleton Lords had increased to 21.

The number of junior commander-tier Polar Star Arrows had also grown to 10. Even with two of them away from the territory, there were still eight epic-tier Arrow Gods available for the defense of Wolfhead Mountain.

The only drawback was that these eight Polar Star Arrows were at relatively low ranks, merely at the Third-Order Warlord Tier, and they didn’t possess Seventeen’s extraordinary talent in the mental Dao. Otherwise…

“If I had eight Seventeens defending the city—no, not even eight, just four Seventeens would be enough to completely annihilate all invading Fourth Order BOSSes.”

In defensive battles, Seventeen’s deterrence against Third and Fourth Order intelligent monsters was probably no weaker than that of a Legendary Realm expert.

What a pity he didn’t have a single Seventeen at the moment.

Polar Star Arrows were easy to come by, but Seventeen was truly rare.

As junior commanders continued to emerge, several Tianyuan Experts who had already entered the general ranks had also made further progress during this period.

The battle-hardened veteran Lu Liu deservedly received the evolution blessing and stepped into the epic two-star rank.

「Prompt: Hero ‘Lu Liu’ has awakened the epic talent ‘Will as Sword’ during the evolution process.」

「Will as Sword: Hero Lu Liu’s willpower is significantly enhanced, becoming sharper and more resilient. When actively activating this talent, Lu Liu can transform his will into weapons such as sabers, swords, spears, or shields. These will-weapons can cut through will and souls, and can also block enemy soul attacks. Additional effects require personal exploration.」The applications of this talent are far broader than what is described on the interface.

Lu Liu discovered that he could transform his willpower into an intangible sword of will, capable of striking and shattering an enemy’s soul.

This could be considered extremely powerful.

Especially when dealing with enemies below the Legendary Realm.

Among Fourth Order BOSSes, very few are capable of igniting the Willpower Light.

Naturally, Lu Liu also gained other benefits from the evolution baptism. For instance, he independently developed advanced skills such as ‘Battle Roar Taunt’. Mu Yuan glanced over them briefly, taking mental note before moving on.

「Prompt: The unit ‘Tree Spirit Grandma’ has awakened the Epic Skill ‘Forest Guardians’ during the evolution process.」

「Forest Guardians」

「Description: Tree Spirit Grandma can enlighten any tree, transforming it into a guardian that protects the forest. The Rank of the Forest Guardians is one major Order lower than that of the Tree Spirit Lord, and they exist for a number of days equal to the Tree Spirit Lord’s Order… Additional energy consumption can extend their duration and elevate their Rank. Simultaneously, the Tree Spirit Lord’s skills can spread outward using the Forest Guardians as anchor points.」

This is a war machine manufacturing skill.

Mu Yuan had Tree Spirit Grandma test it out, and the energy consumption was not significant.

The manufactured Tree Guardians are remarkably powerful, comparable to Outstanding One-Star units of the same grade, with the added advantage of a massive physique.

This is already quite formidable.

Deadbone’s Undead Holy Mountain is also capable of creating undead. The undead weapons it produces can even be elevated to a level similar to its own Rank. However…

Deadbone requires additional Materials to create undead and upgrade their Ranks.

Once an undead falls in battle, it is a permanent loss… though Deadbone possesses revival skills.

The Undead Holy Mountain is a crystal-consuming skill with substantial costs, whereas Tree Spirit Grandma’s Forest Guardians are remarkably eco-friendly and loss-free—truly worthy of the title “eco-guardian treants.”

These past few days, Tree Spirit Grandma has been continuously manufacturing Forest Guardians. For this purpose, it has consumed a great many gnarled ancient trees.

Mu Yuan would have liked to bestow an evolution blessing upon Seventeen, but unfortunately, she is not currently in the territory and cannot be reached.

He also wished to grant Sophia an evolution baptism.

Sophia’s contributions rank among the highest in Tianyuan Territory, and her abilities are particularly valuable for reconnaissance and alert duties. Under the scrutiny of the Crow’s Insight, enemies will find nowhere to hide.

Yet Sophia is also absent.

Thus,

「Prompt: The unit ‘Uta’ has received an evolution baptism. His talent ‘Heaven Rewards Diligence (Incomplete)’ has been fully restored and upgraded to ‘Heaven Rewards Diligence (Complete)’.」

「Heaven Rewards Diligence」

「Description ①: Diligence is always rewarded. Uta can infinitely enhance his basic attributes through training, unrestricted by potential limits. However, when Uta has not yet fully tapped into his potential, training gains are tripled.」

「Description ②: When Uta practices or uses skills, he can continuously increase their proficiency until breaking through boundaries, including Epic Skills. The higher the skill’s grade, the longer the practice time required to break through its limits.」

This is a simple yet undeniably powerful talent.

Before the talent was fully restored, Uta was somewhat constrained by limitations. Now, those restraints have been lifted.

Recently, Uta has been unlocking his ‘Flesh Shackles’, and the duration he can maintain this state grows longer each time, with each improvement being remarkably significant—as if there were no limits at all.After using the skill, his recovery period became shorter than before. Each time was shorter than the last.

He was adapting.

Practicing the skill seemed similar to basic training—before his potential was fully tapped, there was a rapid improvement phase.

How strong Uta was at full burst state, Mu Yuan couldn’t even imagine.

He could only occasionally activate the incomplete version of Heaven Rewards Diligence for self-training. Though his training results were already quite noticeable, they still fell far short of the original version—not even half as effective.

“Lord Power is becoming less and less effective.”

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(End of Chapter)