Chapter 237 – Tianyuan Defense System

Tianyuan Territory, City Lord’s Mansion.

The moon hung high in the sky, veiled by a faint, lingering crimson hue.

Outside the territory, the roars of monsters grew more numerous with each passing night.

“Preparations must be made soon.”

“Preparations to withstand the monster tides.”

“Additionally, during this Dragon Court competition, Mount Luofu Master and the others seemed to have provided some cover for me, but…”

But the exposure of Tianyuan Territory was only a matter of time.

As long as the territory continued to grow stronger, it would inevitably face enemies from the depths of the wilderness and hostile nations.

It was just that Mu Someone was too dazzling, which would accelerate this process.

Therefore, he had to prepare in advance and plan for the worst-case scenario.

Mu Yuan projected the list onto the wall.

This was the exchange list of the Taixuan Covenant. For bringing honor to Taixuan in the Dragon Court competition, aside from 50 recruitment slots for Dragon Court Land, he had also received a large sum of Taixuan Contribution Points.

Back in the day, the ‘Nine Profound Nurturing Fluid’ that Lord Mu had constantly yearned for only cost a mere 1000 points to exchange.

He decided to splurge and exchange for two more bottles.

However, now that he was already a Third-Order Warlord Tier expert, the Nine Profound Nurturing Fluid wouldn’t be of much use, though it could still help solidify his foundation. What if there were additional benefits?

It wasn’t expensive anyway.

With money to spare, he could afford to be willful.

Mu Yuan mainly wanted to exchange for two types of treasures—those that could enhance the territory’s defense and those that could generate income.

The former needed no explanation.

As for the latter, he needed to continuously purchase Remnant Souls. Although money didn’t equate to Remnant Souls, without money, he certainly couldn’t buy them.

Exchanging precious Contribution Points for Soul Crystals was the most foolish choice.

He had made such an exchange back in the day.

But back then, he had no other options and urgently needed Soul Crystals. Now, he definitely couldn’t do that.

“Either exchange for rare treasures and sell them to other lords in exchange for large amounts of Soul Crystals, or… exchange for money-making assets that could generate continuous income.”

Mu Yuan exchanged for several Miracle Blueprints of Golden Fertile Soil and some rare crop seeds.

The Spring of Vitality blueprint, however, showed ‘out of stock.’ It seemed this building was much rarer.

“Not long ago, the Guangyuan Merchant Guild finally obtained approval for potion sales and could sell medicines in the shop rented in Stone Ridge Town. According to market research, potions like the Vitality Potion, which have no side effects, always sell well. In that case…”

「Building Upgrade Stone」

「Grade: Excellent」

「Description: Can be used to upgrade the tier of Miracle Buildings (excluding Unit Buildings), with a maximum upgrade not exceeding Excellent grade.」

Using this upgrade stone would allow the Spring of Vitality to be upgraded to Excellent grade, significantly increasing its output and the quality of its products. The upgraded spring might have a small chance of producing a few drops of Water of Life.

Mu Yuan did the calculations and concluded that upgrading the Spring of Vitality was worth it.

He also tentatively selected some treasures that could be quickly sold for large amounts of Soul Crystals.

Tentatively decided.

Compared to wealth, enhancing the territory’s defensive capabilities was the top priority at the moment.

Mu Yuan called Isloria to discuss together.

“The rare-grade permanent City Walls blueprint, Lord, you’ve already selected it. Well, that should suffice. Exchanging for an Excellent-grade one wouldn’t be worth it.”

After all, permanent blueprints were too expensive.The original purpose of building city walls was merely to block the numerous ordinary monsters.

The rare-grade ‘Blackrock Wall’ was sufficient. If powerful monsters appeared, they could be handed over to his generals for targeted elimination.

He had plenty of generals here capable of slaying great foes.

Isloria continued, “Based on your budget, we can probably exchange for three to four outstanding-grade defensive structures and the corresponding construction materials. My suggestion is to focus on single-target damage, preferably with weakening and control capabilities.”

“As for area-of-effect damage, we have Dolai and the Spell Furnace, so we’re not lacking in that regard at the moment.”

Lord Mu understood the reasoning perfectly well. His main purpose in summoning Isloria was to press her into service, browsing through this dazzling exchange list together.

Currently, the territory’s most powerful trump card was indeed the ‘Nine-Headed Roaring Thunderflame Dragon.’

Although this large-scale spell shared the same name, it was actually ‘Thunderflame Dragon v3.01,’ with destructive power and coverage far exceeding the original version.

It wasn’t that the spell formula had been improved.

Rather, the one who inscribed the spell had become countless times stronger than before.

This referred to General Dolai, the spell power source.

The current level-three Spell Furnace now stored a new version of the ‘Myriadwood Green Vine Dual Array’ and a total of three ‘Nine-Headed Roaring Thunderflame Dragon’ spells—one large and two small. The large one occupied 10 storage slots, while the small ones occupied 5 each.

Moreover, following Mu Yuan’s suggestion, when creating the large Thunderflame Dragon spell, Dolai entered the ‘Limitless Devour’ state before condensing the thunder and fire elements. Just this single spell kept Dolai and Isloria busy for three full days and nights.

They had only completed it last night.

Even Mu Someone couldn’t imagine its power. There were drawbacks too—the overly violent energy could not be finely controlled, naturally making it unusable within the territory or even nearby.

It needed to be launched much farther away.

To compensate for the limitations of large-scale spells, Mu Yuan and Isloria spent half the night selecting two defensive structures.

「Necropolis Tower (Outstanding)」

「Description ①: Can gather necrotic energy and project necrotic beams. Those struck by the necrotic light will suffer not only conventional energy damage but also endure life drain, slow, weakness, and blindness.」

「Description ②: The Necropolis Tower is recommended to be built in areas abundant with undead energy. Simultaneously, this defensive structure can enhance the lethality of its necrotic beams by absorbing surrounding undead energy from the environment.Description ③: The Necropolis Tower has output levels of regular levels one, two, three, and unconventional levels four and five that require external assistance.」

This structure was perfectly suited for construction within the Skull Graveyard.

Its range radius could cover most of the Tianyuan Territory.

The second defensive structure was named ‘Crystal Spire,’ with capabilities similar to the Necropolis Tower. Its lethality was slightly weaker than the former but possessed long-range target-locking ability.

These two outstanding structures, combined with the stationed generals throughout the territory, roughly formed the defensive system of Tianyuan Territory.

For the third outstanding structure, Mu Yuan selected not a defensive building but a special structure—the ‘Arcane Astrolabe.’

Afterward, Isloria purchased a batch of array foundations and tools, preparing to deploy more defensive barriers, detection barriers, and shielding barriers throughout the territory.

…

Secret Realm: Elven Courtyard.

Mu Yuan once again sought out the Cold Moon City Lord to help him purchase goods on his behalf.”After all, Contribution Points can’t be traded, and exchanging such a large amount of treasures isn’t easy. You understand, right, Senior Han Yue?”

Understood, understood.

But how annoying!

She was the prestigious Cold Moon City Lord! How many times had she acted as a proxy buyer for Tianyuan now? But thinking carefully, she was the one who recommended Tianyuan for the Dragon Court competition, so wasn’t she ultimately responsible for this Contribution Points exchange?

Forget it, indeed only someone of her stature, Lady Han Yue, could exchange large amounts of treasures on Tianyuan’s behalf.

“Let me see… Well, the Miracle Buildings you’ve selected are quite practical. Good, I thought you would choose…”

She originally wanted to say evolution items, High-Tier Remnant Souls, Dragon Court Land slots, but just as she was about to speak, she remembered Tianyuan didn’t need these at all, and promptly changed her words.

“I thought you would choose a second or third-tier Unit Building, but for your current situation, defensive buildings are indeed more important. The ‘Arcane Astrolabe’ is also good – with clever arrangement of spell ripples, it can detect enemies from long distances. When combined with defensive buildings later, it can achieve precise elimination of powerful foes.”

Mu Yuan nodded.

With this Arcane Astrolabe, someone like the previous A-class Agent Victor would likely be detected before even setting foot in the territory.

However, he had a deeper reason for choosing this building.

Both the Arcane Astrolabe and Spell Furnace were components of a certain epic building. And now, only the ‘Arcane Nexus’ remained.

Two days later,

The Cold Moon City Lord, who complained about the trouble but acted with swift efficiency, brought him the proxy-purchased treasures.

“Here, check them. If everything’s correct, sign here.”

“And this – it’s an additional item gifted to you from above. But it’s best not to use it unless absolutely desperate. Such items are extremely rare. When you become stronger and don’t need it anymore, remember to return it – you can exchange it back for Contribution Points.”

It was a white jade-like item with two fine cracks already visible.

「Rune Stone · Divine General」

「Description: Can summon a Divine General with legendary combat power to fight according to your commands. The Divine General can be maintained for up to three hours.」

「Note: Remaining uses (1/3).」

Mu Yuan stared at it for a long moment before silently putting it away. “I will.”

…

The next day, with rumbling sounds.

Within the Skull Graveyard, a black tower twenty to thirty meters tall stood among the grave mounds. Surrounding it were gathering black mists that continuously drifted around the Necromancer Tower.

At the tower’s peak, a black hexagonal crystal slowly rotated.

“Since the Necromancer Tower was built, the death energy between heaven and earth has increased by approximately 0.03%, and it should still be rising.”

Deadbone contemplated.

Mu Yuan gazed at this excellent building that perfectly blended with its surroundings and didn’t appear particularly magnificent, saying, “Probably, the Necromancer Tower has accelerated the circulation of death energy. Actually, the Skull Graveyard is slowly expanding too, just not noticeably.”

“If we could build more undead-type buildings here, we could probably increase the graveyard’s expansion speed, or even make it evolve.”

The Frost Dragon Sario looked at this Necromancer Tower, which didn’t seem particularly large in its eyes either.

Its large eyes revealed even greater confusion.

“Can this thing really kill powerful enemies?”

Mu Yuan glanced at it. “Why don’t we test it out.”

Defensive buildings need drills so they won’t fail at critical moments.The Frost Dragon, unrivaled in the world, naturally would not fear such a minor challenge.

“Come and fight!”

It hovered in the air dozens of meters high.

Soon, a dim light flashed from the Necromancer Tower, and a beam of black light struck the Frost Dragon directly.

Very quickly.

But the Frost Dragon remained unharmed.

The Dragon Soul and Dragon Armor granted it extremely strong defensive capabilities.

“A mere small tower, how could it harm this Dragon?”

“Then, let’s try the second and third levels of energy output.”

Mu Yuan spoke.

Deadbone controlled.

Soon, a much deeper dim light flashed from the Necromancer Tower, and an extremely condensed necromantic beam shot out.

Without pause, a third, even darker beam pierced through.

Instantly, a huge gap was blasted open on the Frost Dragon’s wing, countless black particles dissipating.

It crashed down from midair with a thud.

After a long moment, it belatedly let out a confused…

“Huh?”

It was knocked down just like that? What just happened!

Second update…

(End of chapter)