Chapter 322 – Different Evolution Directions, Fate Star Weaver

It wasn’t that the Lord Power was ineffective, but rather his subordinates were simply too powerful.

While other lords were still figuring out how to increase their subordinates’ intimacy to maximize the effects of Lord Power, Mu Yuan’s subordinates possessed talent skills that had already surpassed the upper limit of what Lord Power could borrow.

This Lord Power deserved a negative review.

On Wolfhead Mountain, hundreds of self-aware Skeleton Generals, halberdiers, and other unit types were huffing and puffing as they mined black iron ore and Red Copper Ore, transporting them into nearby fourth-order warehouses.

Some units were also gathering materials locally, cutting down trees and quarrying ordinary stone. These non-tiered materials were also being sent in batches to storage warehouses.

Mu Yuan didn’t need to purchase any materials externally; he only needed to pay a small amount of Soul Sand to construct Arrow Tower after Arrow Tower.

“What a pity that Arrow Towers are single-target defensive structures. If only I had a permanent blueprint for an area-of-effect defensive building, that would be perfect. Even just an ordinary-grade cannon would be good enough.”

He had already scouted that Jackal Fang was gathering large forces.

Not only were they mobilizing armies from their various large subordinate Tribes, but they were also using special methods to summon batch after batch of wild monsters.

This Jackal Fang overlord was clearly strong, yet still extremely cautious!

They were fully leveraging their advantages, maximizing the numerical superiority of monster forces.

After all, Legendary Realm wasn’t invincible.

…

“But with Legendary Realm monsters plus countless Monster Tides, how can living forces possibly stop them?”

Within the Winged-People Kingdom, several Lao Yu sighed.

An old General who had dealt with monster forces for over a hundred years held an even more pessimistic view. “Even without Legendary Realm monsters leading them, such a massive-scale Monster Tide isn’t something our living forces can confront head-on.

“It’s not that this old man is too pessimistic, but put yourselves in their position. If our Winged-People Kingdom didn’t rely on Secret Realms and only had Wolfhead Mountain’s slight geographical advantages, could we withstand the Monster Tide?

“No, we couldn’t!”

The unspoken second half of his sentence was: even if the Queen intervened, it still wouldn’t be enough.

Even if the Queen could kill ten, twenty, or thirty fourth-order BOSS-level monsters, it still wouldn’t shake the Monster Tide.

How many monsters could the Queen possibly eliminate after exhausting all her power?

If there were no Legendary Realm monsters present, their Queen could come and go freely. But if they wanted to hold their position, even a Legendary Realm being would likely be worn down to death.

There were also proactive Winged-People present in the conference room.

They originally wanted to refute, but after looking at the intelligence coming from outside, their throats moved for a long while as they couldn’t find any grounds for rebuttal.

“The monsters… there are too many of them.”

“Is this what the real outside world is like?”

A young Winged-Person murmured.

They had seen the footage.

Monsters covered the mountains and fields, rumbling through the forests as they ran. Looking into the distance, one couldn’t see the end of the entire Monster Tide. Even the flying monsters formed dark, oppressive clouds in the sky, drifting toward the horizon.

These young Winged-People, only in their twenties, thirties, or forties, who had never left home before – when had they ever witnessed such a scene!

For a moment, they were all rendered speechless.The yearning for the outside world, the ambition to expand, and the wild dream of restoring their ancestors’ glory were all crushed bit by bit by this harsh reality.

“What about the human territories? Are they still preparing for war?”

“Yes, as allies, providing some intelligence to that human lord is the most we can do. But even with the information we’ve given, the human lord remains unmoved. It seems they truly intend to engage in a direct confrontation with the Monster Overlord in the Wolfhead Mountain region.”

“What are they thinking?!”

Back in the day, when their Winged-People Kingdom confronted Jackal Fang head-on, they only managed to ambush and eliminate key figures within the monster forces. Who in their right mind would actively meet a Monster Tide head-on? Were they courting death?

…

“The Winged-People Kingdom does have some hidden depths. There are several monster factions we haven’t yet uncovered.”

After all, the distance was vast, and the Wilderness stretched endlessly.

In the command center, Mu Yuan was devising tactics based on the intelligence provided by the Winged-People Kingdom.

While he indeed lacked area-of-effect defensive structures, that didn’t mean he had no means to counter the Monster Tide. In fact, every general in the Tianyuan Territory possessed extensive experience in resisting monster waves.

From the Lord Trials to the Crimson Mist disaster month, they had fought countless defensive battles.

Of course, this defensive battle would be somewhat different from previous ones.

“In terms of area attacks, many of our Tianyuan generals possess large-scale trump cards, and we also have defensive weapons like the Thunderflame Cannon.”

“Not only that…”

At the foot of the mountain, Tree Spirit Grandma was continuously awakening and creating Forest Guardians.

Other treants were gathering earth energy from all directions, preparing for the upcoming battle.

On the mountain, four Winter Snow fortresses were arranged in an arc along the gentle slope facing Wolfhead Mountain. On these fortresses, amplification cores and defensive weapons were being constructed one after another.

The Winter Snow Maidens excelled at large-scale destruction, ranking among the top-tier magical units.

Now, his Snow Maiden corps had gradually matured into the backbone of the territory.

The greatest advantage of Tianyuan Territory lay in its extraordinary generals.

While many Fourth-Order Experts had limited effectiveness against Monster Tides, Tianyuan generals were different.

The Undaunted Mountain Divine Venerable of the epic junior general ‘Fearless Warchief’ could directly confront and even destroy the enemy’s large war machines.

The epic junior general ‘Treant Lord’ could sustain combat by feeding on the enemy, creating a temporary perpetual motion mode that feared no energy consumption.

Whether facing groups or individuals, Tianyuan Territory’s core forces were more than sufficient.

Naturally, these alone weren’t enough to handle the Monster Tide. Lord Mu had prepared several additional trump cards to deploy as needed.

He also had the garrison General Dolai.

Could the Legendary Realm not stop such a Monster Tide? But this certainly didn’t apply to Dolai. Did they not understand the significance of Dolai creating suns with its bare hands?

However, unless absolutely necessary, Mu Yuan wouldn’t have Dolai intervene too early.

If Dolai had to deal with ordinary monsters, it would mean they were at a disadvantage, giving Legendary Realm enemies more opportunities to exploit.

Doling with and eliminating Legendary Realm monsters was Dolai’s true mission.

Mu Yuan pondered.

He also had to consider how to respond if the worst-case scenario occurred.The super-standard Legendary powerhouse Dolai was not his ultimate trump card here.

His trump card remained the Scepter of Heavenly Authority.

“Last time, the Nine-Headed Roaring Thunderflame Dragon managed to kill a Legend with a single strike. Regardless of whether that Gnoll Legend was careless or unprepared, the power of this large-scale offensive spell is already commendable.”

The foundation of the Nine-Headed Roaring Thunderflame Dragon spell originated from Dolai.

After Dolai advanced to Legendary Rank, Mu Yuan and Isloria immediately began updating this spell. They spent a full eight days to create the first large-scale Legendary spell with Dolai as its power source.

Its power would surpass the previous version by hundreds or even thousands of times!

Of course, the time and energy required to create such a spell had also increased by hundreds of times.

After Dolai created the first spell, the Scepter of Heavenly Authority could use it as a basis for replication. However, the entire manufacturing process still took three days and three nights, and the energy consumed exceeded the daily output limit of the Energy Well.

All of this was worth it.

Watching the roaring golden-purple Thunderflame Dragon inside the Nine-Cycle Furnace, Mu Yuan showed a relieved smile.

…

“The enemy is still marching and gathering. It will probably take another two to four days before they reach the foot of our Wolfhead Mountain.”

For Jackal Fang, a few days earlier or later made no difference.

But for Tianyuan Territory, every extra day gave them more confidence.

Mu Yuan found Isloria, who was diligently working.

“Evolution? For me?”

“Shouldn’t we prioritize evolution baptisms for combat personnel at this time?”

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to evolve, but after witnessing how talented Tianyuan Territory was and no longer pursuing the position of Tianyuan’s strongest, she wasn’t as urgent about evolution as before.

She was just a clerical worker, after all.

Of course she still desired power – who wouldn’t want to evolve?

“Many combat personnel who should evolve have already done so. Besides…”

First, Isloria’s contributions to the territory ranked among the top three, even top two. It wouldn’t be appropriate to prioritize others over her for evolution.

Second, many elites weren’t at high enough Ranks. Even if they received evolution baptism now, they couldn’t unleash particularly strong power.

Third, while Tianyuan Territory had many combat personnel and peerless generals, functional powerhouses were quite rare.

And Isloria happened to be a remarkably versatile all-round talent.

Her Epic Two-Star Awakening ‘Starry Sky Eye’ possessed abilities like tracking, long-distance observation, and insight. If Isloria evolved again, what divine skills might she Awaken?

Mu Yuan felt it was worth taking a chance.

Many of Isloria’s abilities had unique auxiliary effects, and she was the third Legendary seed. Enhancing her strength was definitely the right move.

“It’s not that I don’t want to evolve…”

But she hadn’t completed the next phase of her human modification plan yet!

She had been too busy recently to work on personal projects at all.

She never expected the Lord to offer her an evolution baptism so quickly… Normally, the higher one’s life grade, the more difficult it should be to improve, but… she felt the intervals between her baptisms hadn’t lengthened at all.

In the blink of an eye, she was about to reach Epic Three-Star.

Thinking of this, Isloria felt somewhat dazed.

She had only been at Tianyuan Territory for a few months.When she first applied to the Tianyuan Territory, she never imagined such a dreamlike day would come.

…

After all, Mu Yuan had evolved two Epic Three-Star units and dozens of Epic-tier generals, making him quite familiar with the Dao of Evolution.

Material preparation, ritual site arrangement, activation of the Iceheart Lotus Platform, activation of the Domain Jammer…

The streamlined process was swiftly initiated.

Soon, it reached the final step.

A surge of immense evolutionary power poured out, enveloping Isloria as she rapidly transformed into light.

Mu Yuan adjusted the recording equipment while calmly waiting for the system prompt.

「Prompt: Your Hero ‘Isloria’ is bathed in the radiance of a miracle and is evolving…」

As expected, within a few hundred seconds, he would hear the prompt signaling the completion of evolution and the awakening of new abilities.

But, just a moment later…

「Please select the evolution path for Hero ‘Isloria’.」

「① Apostle of Stars;」

「② Fate Star Weaver;」

Isloria’s previous Epic One-Star and Epic Two-Star classes were both ‘Guardian of Stars,’ while at Elite Three-Star, her class was ‘Daughter of Stars.’

Mu Yuan had assumed her Epic-tier class would remain unchanged, but not only had it changed—it now presented different evolution paths to choose from.

“What’s going on here?”

He had presided over thousands, if not tens of thousands, of evolution rituals, yet he had never encountered such a situation.

Characters like Rakshasa, Red Robe, or even the original Dolai had evolved directly into hidden classes without any choices appearing.

Could it be… that both evolution paths for Isloria held similar potential?

“Apostle of Stars, Fate Star Weaver.”

Mu Yuan murmured.

He couldn’t obtain more information but vaguely understood that he needed to make a quick decision—otherwise, delaying would cause the evolutionary energy to dissipate.

Which one should he choose?

Apostle… Weaver…

Mu Yuan stared at Isloria, who had transformed into light, and faintly saw the river of evolutionary energy flowing gently before his eyes.

After a long pause,

“Fate Star Weaver!”

A dazzling pillar of light shot into the sky.

Though it was still daytime, the sky above Tianyuan Territory had turned into night, with countless stars shimmering brilliantly and tracing arcs of light.

They seemed like the arcs of fate.

After a long while,

No further surprises occurred.

The brilliant radiance enveloping Isloria gradually faded.

「Prompt: Your Hero ‘Isloria’ has bathed in the miracle of evolution and transformed into an Epic Three-Star lifeform, ‘Fate Star Weaver,’ awakening the talent ‘Fate Star Weaving.’」

——

「Fate Star Weaving: Isloria can observe celestial phenomena to discern changes in fate and fortune. When using astral spells or techniques, she can obtain more accurate answers.」

「When actively activated, Isloria can interfere with fate stars to influence the destiny of a target or group. The strength of the effect is inversely proportional to the target’s Rank and willpower.」

Isloria also awakened several Advanced skills during this evolution.

Mu Yuan skimmed over them briefly—the most important was still the Fate Star Weaving talent. The description was profound and elusive, and since Isloria was still immersed in her enlightenment and hadn’t awakened, Mu Yuan decided to try it out himself.

Activating his Lord Power, he entered freeloader mode.

Fate Star Weaving, activate!Mu Yuan experienced this talent before Isloria, though what he could freeload was merely a youth edition.

As soon as the talent was loaded, an inexplicably profound aura enveloped him.

After a long while,

he attained enlightenment.

Isloria opened her eyes.

Under the same skill and frequency, Mu Yuan faintly glimpsed threads connecting to the fate stars in the sky.

Simultaneously, in the northwest region of Tianyuan Territory, approximately a hundred kilometers away.

A Fourth-Order Gnoll expert skilled in stealth and reconnaissance was moving through the dense mountain forests.

Unlike other scouts, he hailed from the Jackal Fang headquarters.

His grade reached as high as Outstanding Three Stars, and he possessed multiple high-Rank concealment and stealth skills.

He seemed to have discovered some clues and stealthily advanced in a certain direction. The Grey Bird flying in the sky, the evil spirits hidden in the mountains, and the patrolling undead squads all failed to detect his presence.

If he continued in this direction and managed to evade all patrol squads, he might very well uncover the true location of Tianyuan Territory.

Suddenly,

the Gnoll expert crouched down, touching the ground.

He found another clue, “Wrong, wrong, I need to track this way instead.”

He turned around and dashed toward the southwest.

Perhaps eager to claim the first merit, or perhaps frustrated by the lack of new clues despite his long journey, he gradually grew restless and lost his usual caution.

Until he stumbled dizzily into the encirclement of a powerful patrol squad.

Bone Two: “So this is the gift of nature?”

(End of Chapter)