Chapter 290 – Epic Building, Staff of Heavenly Authority

In the Land of Trials, within the personal space.

Mu Yuan’s figure appeared here, surrounded by seven treasures floating around him, each radiating a sapphire-blue glow.

“As expected, no purple light.”

He wasn’t surprised.

The gap between the Epic grade and the Excellent grade was particularly vast. This was true for military units, as well as for buildings or other creations.

Epic-grade Miracle Buildings were even rarer than Epic lives.

“It is said that the most precious reward for clearing the third region’s Yellow Giant Tower is an Epic-grade Random Remnant Soul.”

Thinking of this, his interest in the Yellow Giant Tower waned.

Epic military units? Who are they trying to fool?

This Yellow Giant Tower—let’s just not bother with it.

Of course, he couldn’t clear it anyway. Mu Yuan estimated that with his current strength, he might be able to pass the first and second levels of the Yellow Tower, but truly clearing it was beyond reach.

Shen Linglong, the Linglong Lord whom he had met a few times, was currently challenging the Yellow Giant Tower.

She was a Level 7 Great Lord.

She had no subordinates who had reached the Legendary Realm, and her top-tier Fourth Order units were not as strong as his Tianyuan General. However, Mu Yuan didn’t assume that his overall strength surpassed Shen Linglong’s.

A Lord’s power was often not reflected in individual strength but in collective might.

Whether it was Shen Linglong, who was on the Dragon Gate List, or the Amber Lord, who performed unremarkably in the Land Between Worlds, their greatest strength lay in their legions.

Barring any surprises, they possessed true Army Soul Legions with over a thousand members.

However, mobilizing an entire legion was inevitably less flexible than deploying individual elites. When Lords explored the Wilderness or searched for treasures, they usually brought only a few elite troops, not an entire legion maintaining a seamless formation while advancing steadily… that would hardly be efficient.

“Clearing the Yellow Giant Tower is still far beyond my reach, and the difficulty of the higher regions grows increasingly unreasonable…”

“It is said that the highest region has never even been set foot in.”

Mu Yuan shook his head, realizing he was getting ahead of himself.

He turned his attention to the treasures before him.

Among the seven treasures, aside from the three Excellent blanks, the rest were all top-tier items. Even if a Lord had a large amount of contribution points, it would be difficult to exchange for these treasures on the Taixuan Covenant Platform.

After all, they were often out of stock.

“The value of the Hero’s Token goes without saying. As for this certificate… well, let the generals who haven’t yet been promoted to Heroes compete for it among themselves.”

The remaining items were three: the Guiding Beacon, the Selectable Blueprint, and the Upgrade Stone.

「Beacon of Commerce」

「Grade: Excellent」

「Description: A special Guiding Beacon. After erecting this beacon, it will significantly increase the territory’s appeal to special talents. Additionally, a territory possessing this special beacon has a chance to attract mysterious merchants traveling through myriad worlds to briefly stop here.」

Mu Yuan stroked his chin. “Mysterious merchants?”

He had never heard of them.

Perhaps they were a type of special individual, top-tier among merchants. If one was fortunate enough to encounter them, a Lord might be able to purchase some rare items from these merchants?

But at what cost?

If it was a transaction, what would a Lord need to pay to acquire such precious treasures?

“Too little information. Only when encountered will it become clear.””Regardless, setting aside the merchant, this Outstanding-grade landmark also has the ability to attract special talents. That alone is enough.”

He could never have too many talents.

Mu Yuan picked up another treasure glowing with blue radiance.

「Miracle Blueprint·Self-Select (Outstanding)」

「Description: You may choose one type of miracle building blueprint within your cognitive range.」

「Note: Please select the blueprint within one hour. Exceeding the time limit will result in a random Outstanding blueprint being generated.」

“Within cognitive range” meant the user themselves had to at least be able to name the blueprint.

It couldn’t be used to select a building blueprint with desired capabilities that the user couldn’t accurately identify.

Mu Yuan pondered.

“There are many types of Outstanding-tier buildings, and I’m familiar with the names and abilities of quite a few.”

His mind flashed with the various miracle buildings and their general capabilities he had memorized while browsing high-tier information.

He had coveted some of them, thinking that if he had sufficient contribution points in the future and they were available on the Taixuan Covenant Platform, he would definitely exchange for them.

For example, the Outstanding building ‘Energy Well’ could gather and store considerable amounts of energy, either powering an entire city or being used to charge and amplify specific miracle buildings and facilities.

Another example was the Outstanding building ‘Clarity Dragon Field’. This was a cultivation and breakthrough training ground that could significantly enhance a cultivator’s Comprehension Ability and assist users in breaking through higher-level bottlenecks.

And yet another example…

There were many good options, but he could only choose one.

However,

“No matter how powerful Outstanding-tier buildings are, they can’t compare to assembling an Epic building.”

「Gathering the three Outstanding-tier buildings ‘Arcane Nexus’, ‘Spell Furnace’, and ‘Arcane Astrolabe’ allows combination into an Epic-grade miracle building.」

And now, to collect all three components and construct the Epic building, he was only missing…

One core component – the Arcane Nexus.

The timing was ripe; the glory of the Epic building was about to bloom.

「Ding!」

「Prompt: Self-select blueprint has been converted to miracle blueprint ‘Arcane Nexus (Outstanding)’.」

The blueprint floating before him, emitting a hazy treasure-blue glow, slowly transformed, revealing magnificent gilded architectural schematics.

Mu Yuan stored the blueprint, feeling somewhat excited.

However, to combine the Epic building, he first needed to construct the Arcane Nexus. He glanced at the construction requirements on the blueprint and assigned material acquisition tasks to Sophia on Blue Star and Seventeen at Stone Ridge Town.

Procuring the main materials would take time.

Constructing the Arcane Nexus would also require some time.

So, he picked up the final treasure.

「Troop Building Upgrade Stone」

「Grade: Special」

「Description: A special item used to upgrade troop buildings. The Lord may choose one of the following three options to upgrade a troop building.」

「①: Can increase the base grade of recruitable troops within the troop building by one tier, with the maximum not exceeding Fourth Order. After enhancement, the higher-tier troops that have a small or minimal chance of being recruited from this building will also be correspondingly upgraded.」

「②: Can increase the recruitment capacity of the target troop building. After enhancement, based on the building’s grade and recruitment numbers, the monthly recruitment capacity will increase by 3 to 10 times.」”③: Can enhance the environmental effects of target Unit Buildings. After enhancement, the area of environmental transformation by the Unit Building will be significantly expanded, while the upgrade speed of specified unit series within the range will be improved.”

“Three enhancement directions then.”

Mu Yuan pondered.

His own Treant Forest and Icy Spirit Cold Pool were both Third Order Unit Buildings, capable of recruiting basic units at the Third Order · Rare One-Star level – Treants and Ice Spirits.

If upgraded by one order, the recruitable basic units would advance to ‘Treant Guardians’ and ‘Snow Maidens’.

Correspondingly, there would be a small chance to recruit ‘Ancient Treants’ and ‘Winter Snow Maidens’, and an extremely small chance to recruit ‘War Treants’ and ‘Daughters of Winter’.

No wonder this enhancement couldn’t exceed the Fourth Order at maximum.

If it could surpass the fourth order, it would mean that Lords could have an extremely small chance to recruit Epic units from this Unit Building.

This treasure only shimmered with treasure-blue radiance, unable to break through the chasm to Epic.

Even so, for other Lords, raising the recruitable units by one basic order was still a huge profit. Enough to make countless people covetous.

For Mu Someone, this kind of enhancement wasn’t particularly necessary.

“Either choose two, or choose three.”

“If I choose two, applying it to the Treant Forest and Icy Spirit Cold Pool would indeed have considerable effect. After all, I can only recruit about ten Treants or Ice Spirits per month. However, the trump cards of my Tianyuan Territory are neither Treants nor Ice Spirits.”

Rather than improving weaknesses, it’s better to enhance strengths.

At this moment, in the silent area of the Orange Giant Tower, the orange light point standing at the very top, after releasing an extremely dazzling brilliance, shot up into the sky and disappeared.

“Another big shot has broken through the Orange Giant Tower. I wonder which Senior from our Taixuan it is?”

Outside the Orange Giant Tower, a young Lord emerged from the tower. Gazing up at the tall tower, he exclaimed in awe while filled with determination, “But I’m still young. Sooner or later, I’ll be able to conquer this area too.”

Simultaneously,

In another parallel Challenge space, a prince from the Eternal Star Empire stepped into the Orange Giant Tower · Seventh Level.

“Finally reached this level.”

“They say the guardian of this level is the famous military god ‘Shield of the Sky’ from the ancient Holy Radiance Empire. But times have changed. Today, I, the Thirty-ninth Prince, will show this military god what it means to be a chosen one of the new era!”

A confident and proud smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

To pass this level in one go and thoroughly shock the guardian, he had deliberately stayed at the sixth level for some time.

And now, he would ascend to godhood.

“Come forth, my generals.”

One, two, three… a total of five Epic generals cultivated to the Fourth Order or even Fourth Order Peak were deployed to various towns.

The Thirty-ninth Prince issued an extremely confident Challenge declaration to the guardian.

“A prince from a contemporary powerful nation?”

The old General guarding the level heard this and his expression turned grave.

The times had indeed changed.

He had just been given a hard lesson by a young Lord from the new era.

And this one seemed even more confident.

Half an hour later,

Boom—

The surging monster army breached the towns.

The monsters formed military formations, systematically eliminating the top-tier experts one by one.

The Thirty-ninth Prince was dumbfounded.The old General guarding the pass stared wide-eyed, “Just this? Only this?”

“Kid, with such limited ability, who gave you the courage and confidence?”

The old General felt that perhaps this era hadn’t completely changed after all.

…

Western Tianyuan Territory.

The Skull Graveyard.

This place was shrouded in dark mist, with not a single ray of sunlight visible throughout the day. From its depths came occasional piercing howls that made passersby shudder with unease.

This was one of the Forbidden Lands within Tianyuan Territory.

However, without needing any orders, no resident would dare trespass into this area.

At this moment, Mu Yuan’s ears echoed with countless mournful wails, yet he didn’t feel chilled—instead, it felt like returning home. These howls were very familiar to him; they were the Specters singing.

Sometimes, “clack-clack-clack” sounds could be heard interspersed among them—that was the Skeletons providing accompaniment for the Specters.

After walking forward for a while, one could see countless Skeletons and Specters covering the hillsides of the grave mounds in the distance.

Hundreds of Specters flew over, swirling around him while emitting joyful hisses and cries.

Passing through the grave mound area, he arrived at the ‘Great Pit’ zone.

This was a pit dug shovel by shovel by the old Skeletons who had Awakened consciousness, still densely packed with Little Skeletons inside.

“The Skull Graveyard is indeed getting somewhat crowded.”

The actual area of the Skull Graveyard wasn’t small—it was larger than a Rank 1 territory.

However, Tianyuan Territory simply had too many undead creatures.

And for these undead creatures to enhance their cultivation speed and slowly increase their Rank, they needed to frequently remain within this area.

“The Skull Graveyard region is actually slowly expanding. If we invest undead Materials or construct some undead buildings, we could accelerate this process. However, for me, this expansion speed is still too slow.”

This was the imbalance between territorial expansion and the growth of undead troop types.

If the number of Skeletons continued to increase, it would likely affect their natural development speed.

Conversely, if this special Treasure Land’s grade improved, the leveling speed of undead troops would be further enhanced.

「Prompt: Use ‘Troop Building Upgrade Stone’ to upgrade the Skull Graveyard?」

「Prompt: Enhance the Skull Graveyard’s environment and bonus effects?」

「Yes!」

Mu Yuan stood with his hands clasped behind his back.

Before him, the magnificent Strange Stone flowing with treasure-blue radiance gradually dissipated amid tinkling notification sounds.

An invisible force spread out, like spring breeze nourishing the earth, as if all things were preparing for revival—of course, in the undead version.

The black mist between heaven and earth suddenly surged like tides, while Yin winds rose in wave after wave.

Within the graveyard, countless Skeletons and Specters raised their heads. Even the low-Rank Skeletons that hadn’t yet developed intelligence instinctively danced with joy.

For a time, the mournful wails within the graveyard area grew increasingly frequent and intense.

The grayish-black soil marking the Skull Graveyard’s boundaries also began spreading outward inch by inch. This gray soil represented deathly stillness, yet differed from the decay of the Land of Filth—it contained rich death energy.

Within these boundaries lay the paradise for the undead.

Outside these boundaries, however, not a trace of death energy’s erosion could be found.

Inside and outside formed what seemed like two different worlds.

As the grayish-black soil spread, Mu Yuan realized he could control the direction of this area’s expansion according to his will.”This is quite excellent, as it won’t affect the planning and development of the territory’s core area and southern region.”

Thus, the lifeless land spread westward, with numerous grave mounds emerging upon it. Above the swirling black mist, faint phantoms of scattered coffins and tombstones could be glimpsed.

It was akin to the territorial expansion during a territory upgrade.

The upgrade and transformation of the Skull Graveyard lasted a full two and a half hours before concluding.

Mu Yuan observed from his Lord’s perspective and nodded slightly, “The area has expanded by approximately 5.5 times.” Previously, although the Skull Graveyard was only a First-Order Unit Building, its land area was not much smaller than that of the Treant Forest and Icy Spirit Cold Pool. Now, the Skull Graveyard’s domain far surpasses the latter two.

Thick black mist drifted above it.

The black mist surged like rolling black dragons, creating an eerie and terrifying atmosphere.

Beneath the black mist, within the graveyard, structures stood tall. Most were buildings constructed by the self-aware undead, with a few being Miracle Buildings.

One of the three Breakthrough Dojos owned by Tianyuan Territory was located within the Skull Graveyard.

At this moment, the churning black mist converged toward the Breakthrough Dojo, forming swirling vortexes one after another. Soon, powerful auras rose successively from within the dojo.

This marked the breakthroughs of the elite undead who had been diligently training inside.

“Three Bone Generals, two Ghost Generals, and one Vampire Count have broken through to the Third-Order Warlord Tier, while twenty-one elites have advanced to the Second-Order Elite Tier.”

“I didn’t expect such a pleasant surprise.”

This was only the beginning.

With the upgrade of the Skull Graveyard, it was believed that the undead on this land would be able to reach greater heights at an accelerated pace, establishing the renowned prestige of Tianyuan Territory.

Mu Yuan loaded the undead-type template and stepped inside, immediately feeling a sense of ease and freedom.

Not far away, Red Robe had chosen a new, more sinister large grave mound for herself. She sighed with contentment, “Ah, this feels much more comfortable to sleep in~”

Sario took deep breaths, unable to resist soaring into the air and circling overhead, like a Husky Dragon frolicking with joy.

Mu Yuan: “…”

He couldn’t help but feel that this Treasure Land upgrade had been wasted.

Undead General, however, was reliable. He stated, “The concentration of death, shadow, and other elements in the environment has increased by at least 6.3 times compared to before. I am attempting to guide and absorb them, which can effectively enhance my basic three attributes and expand the Undead Holy Mountain.”

Glorious Tianyuan’s radiance, my bones are duty-bound!

The soul fire in his eye sockets flickered even more vigorously.

…

Two days later,

“Ding! Dang! Dang!”

In the core area of the territory, a glided golden building, twenty to thirty meters tall, was rapidly taking shape under the efforts of a massive engineering team and the power of miracles.

It was as if a hand of heaven and earth was performing 3D printing, swiftly molding the structure into form.

After a while,

Ding!

Prompt: The Excellent-grade building ‘Arcane Nexus’ has been completed.

“What comes next?”

Isloria also came to the scene, gazing at the building with curiosity.

How would these three buildings combine to form a higher-grade Miracle Building?

She couldn’t figure it out.

Of course, Mu Yuan didn’t understand the principles behind it either. If he could, how could these buildings be worthy of the name “Miracle”?However, the moment the Arcane Nexus was constructed, the names of the three major buildings—the Nexus, the Furnace, and the Astrolabe—began flashing on the territory panel, as if hinting at something.

“The Arcane Nexus is the core component…”

Thinking this, Mu Yuan attempted to drag the names of the Furnace and the Astrolabe on the panel toward the Arcane Nexus.

Instantly, a prompt sounded in his ears.

“Prerequisites met. Proceed with building combination?”

“Note: This combination upgrade requires 1,000 Soul Crystals. Proceed?”

Hiss—

A full 1,000 Soul Crystals!

But as luck would have it, Tianyuan Territory had earned a sum during the Crimson Mist disaster month; Sophia had earned another by capturing wanted criminals on Blue Star; and they had also received nature’s bounty when they defeated the foreign invaders in the Land Between Worlds…

Coupled with the inconvenience of procuring Remnant Souls recently, the territory’s Warehouse had accumulated quite a few Soul Crystals.

As a famous five-star General once said, “Soul Crystals are meaningless if they cannot be transformed into strength to accompany you.”

With this in mind, though it pained him, Mu Yuan had no reason to choose “No.”

“Yes!”

Hundreds of meters away, the Spell Furnace and the Arcane Astrolabe burst into Miracle Light simultaneously.

The two buildings seemed to split apart, transforming into countless exquisitely intricate building components that began to assemble around the Arcane Nexus.

At the same time, the Arcane Nexus soared into the sky.

“Look, the building is flying!” Dolai exclaimed, eyes wide.

In the distance,

the Domain Jammer buzzed as it began operating at full power.

Mu Yuan glanced over. He had placed sixty Soul Crystals inside the jammer not long ago. After a moment’s thought, he said to Dolai, “Keep an eye on it. If the Soul Crystals burn too quickly, add more.”

“O…okay.”

Above the territory, with the Arcane Nexus at its core, countless illusory scenes spread out.

Just like when they usually constructed Miracle Buildings, a three-dimensional blueprint was first outlined, and then the building’s physical form began to construct itself inch by inch from the bottom up.

Only this time, he didn’t need to invest any Materials or dispatch laborers for assistance—the building was constructing, spreading, and expanding on its own.

A massive shadow spread out.

It was like an island, suspended high in the sky.

“So big,” Dolai uttered an uncultured exclamation.

“How did the Nexus, Furnace, and Astrolabe combine to form such a colossal structure?” Isloria couldn’t comprehend it either. But it was the incomprehensible that made her tremble with excitement. Her desire to explore soared infinitely.

After a while,

a massive structure, resembling a pyramid and an inverted pyramid joined together, hung high in the sky like a star.

Soon, the building, which covered an area at least the size of several football fields, slowly faded from view in the sky.

The shadow was gone, but Mu Yuan knew that the massive Epic building stood firmly in place.

“Ding!”

“Prompt: You have constructed the special building ‘Scepter of Heavenly Authority Epic.'”

——

「Scepter of Heavenly Authority Epic」

「Description: A combined defensive structure integrating manufacturing, detection, and striking capabilities, possessing immense power.」

「Abilities:”①. The Scepter of Heavenly Authority possesses abilities such as levitation, movement, concealment, and defense. When operating in low-power mode, the Scepter of Heavenly Authority can absorb elemental particles from the surrounding heaven and earth to sustain its daily energy consumption.”

“②、The Scepter of Heavenly Authority possesses the ability to store and solidify spells, including large-scale spells, while also having the capability to quickly duplicate and create spell scrolls.”

“③、The Scepter of Heavenly Authority can upgrade spells stored within it, thereby enhancing the power of the stored magic.”

“④、The Scepter of Heavenly Authority can activate a ‘Reconnaissance Skyeye’ at a designated location. The cooldown time and maximum range of the Heavenly Eye depend on the rank of the Scepter of Heavenly Authority structure.”

“⑤、The Scepter of Heavenly Authority possesses ultra-long-range strike capability, allowing it to deploy large-scale spells within areas detected by the Heavenly Eye.”

“⑥、Additional functions await personal discovery.”

6K Major Chapter!

(End of Chapter)