Chapter 333 – Secret Realm Upgrade, Military Soul Changes

Leading troops northward while searching for clues along the way required Shen Linglong to expend considerable extra energy and time.

She didn’t need to go through this trouble at all.

Earlier, she had already asked her friends in the Pioneer Group if anyone had seen a black colossus mountain similar to ‘[image.jpg]’.

This was already helping.

“Ahaha, it’s nothing, really. Since I’ve already stepped into the Legendary Realm, it doesn’t matter where I go to pioneer. Heading north from Stone Ridge Town and uncovering some clues along the way—isn’t that killing two birds with one stone?”

“No need to be moved. Just remember me when you strike it rich in the future.”

She waved her hand, indicating it was no big deal.

Her words made it sound like searching for clues was merely incidental. The main reason was that after her promotion to Legendary, she had gained the qualification to explore dangerous areas deep in the wilderness, which was why she was preparing to set out.

However, Mu Yuan was already quite familiar with the Legendary Realm.

For newly advanced Legends, the veil over the world began to lift. They could already glimpse some truths and mysteries, often gaining new insights into their own abilities. At this stage, Legends were in a period of rapid improvement and typically wouldn’t travel far, instead focusing on enhancing their own strength as quickly as possible.

Mu Yuan couldn’t refuse Shen Linglong’s offer.

Having a Legendary Lord searching for clues outside would indeed be highly efficient—far more so than a single Legend or a few Fourth-Order Experts.

He could only accept the favor and repay it in the future.

Shen Linglong stared at the map and muttered, “I heard a legendary monster once appeared near Stone Ridge Town. Heading north from here, I should be able to find some legendary monsters too, hehehehe. My big saber is already thirsting for action. Let me think, how many Legendary Realm beings do I need to kill to make it onto this year’s Legendary Lord Kill Ranking?”

“Work hard, heave-ho! Let my name resound throughout Taixuan and the wilderness!”

“Hehehehehe—”

Mu Yuan: “…”

Could it be that he was overthinking things?

…

Before leaving the secret realm, Mu Yuan sold Shen Linglong a Remnant Soul of an Outstanding Two-Star strength-type troop at a friendly price—meaning he didn’t exchange it for high-tier treasures, but sold it cheaply for Soul Crystals or basic materials.

Shen Linglong was a wealthy Great Lord with mines at home.

Though she was considered ‘poor’ among Great Lords, she was still a Great Lord, and the wealth she possessed far surpassed that of Mu Someone.

The rate at which a lord’s high-end combat power grew might vary greatly, but wealth accumulation required a gradual process.

The longer the time, the higher the territory rank, and the more special products—the faster wealth accumulated.

And the key to all this was time.

If we set aside epic buildings, high-tier buildings, and various high-tier treasures, and only considered Soul Crystals and ordinary item values, Mu Yuan was even poorer than many veteran lords.

Currently, since the Soul Sand Mine south of Tianyuan Territory was too close to the territory’s main base, mining it risked exposing the main base, so Mu Yuan wasn’t planning to activate it yet.

His daily sales of various high-tier treasures and Remnant Souls provided enough Soul Sand and Soul Crystals for his needs.

Of course, he still needed to purchase and stockpile various war supplies, construction materials, materials for nurturing troop soul embryos, cultivation materials, treasures to assist with Legendary breakthroughs, and so on.His daily expenses were also enormous, and he always felt his cash flow was insufficient.

Exiting the secret realm, Mu Yuan looked toward another wide-open Secret Realm Gate.

「Prompt: The Black Wasteland has fully absorbed the Secret Realm Upgrade Stone. Its current Rank has increased from LV1 to LV4.」

Perhaps because the Black Wasteland’s Rank was too low, a single Upgrade Stone caused earth-shaking changes in this secret realm.

“The output of the Black Wasteland before the upgrade was indeed somewhat low.”

The Black Wasteland was a resource-producing secret realm, previously yielding about 10,000g of Soul Sand daily, equivalent to 10 Soul Crystals.

This output couldn’t be considered low—it matched the daily production of a non-violent extraction from a micro Soul Sand mine. Compared to Soul Sand mines, secret realms had the advantages of being close to home and never depleting.

In comparison, it was far superior to micro Soul Sand mines.

It’s just that Tianyuan Territory had high expenditures and didn’t rely much on income from operations or farming. This model wasn’t very healthy; once the balance was disrupted, it would significantly impact the territory’s economy. Mu Yuan still hoped to soon achieve the true Lord lifestyle where he could do nothing, lie back, earn money, and enjoy life.

He had seen some veteran Lords with dozens of maids in their mansions, living a life where food was served to their mouths and clothes were handed to them—why didn’t he have that?

Probably because his moral standards were too high.

「Black Wasteland」

「Description: This secret realm captures a segment of historical projection, mapped into existence. Monsters inside the secret realm will respawn at intervals. Killing monsters does not yield Remnant Souls but will produce a certain amount of Soul Sand.」

Passing through the spatial veil, Mu Yuan stepped inside.

The sky here was gloomy, the earth showing a reddish-brown hue, dry and dilapidated, with a desolate and eerie atmosphere pervading everywhere.

Lord Mu scanned the area, then clasped his hands behind his back and ascended into the sky.

Before the upgrade, the Black Wasteland was small—standing at the entrance, one could see the hazy edges of the secret realm. After the upgrade, it had clearly expanded several times over.

Its area was far larger than the neighboring ‘Elf Secret Realm.’ Of course, the two secret realms were of different categories and couldn’t be compared by area alone. The Elf Secret Realm belonged to the Cold Moon City Lord, and its Rank was certainly far beyond Level 4.

“The fallen demon monsters in the secret realm were previously only at the Apprentice Tier, but now they start at the first-tier Professional Tier, with occasional second-tier Elites.”

“It seems that if a Lord’s controlled forces are too weak, even resource secret realms might be impossible to harvest… However, given the difficulty of obtaining and upgrading secret realms, such a predicament probably doesn’t exist.”

To this day, he had only obtained this one secret realm.

Lightning flickered at Mu Yuan’s fingertips as he casually obliterated the monster in front of him and flew into the distance.

Earlier, before the secret realm was upgraded, a corner of a dilapidated church was faintly visible at the boundary…

Only a corner, and nothing more.

But now, this dilapidated church appeared completely intact before Mu Yuan’s eyes.

He descended and landed.

Inside the church were another type of monster—humanoid creatures resembling sludge.

「Sludge Monster · Lustful Monk」

「Sludge Monster · Headless Nun」

「Sludge Monster · Red-robed Bishop」

The bishop was also composed of sludge, its features indistinct, but it wore a striking red robe and held a staff.

Perhaps because this secret realm was under Mu Yuan’s control, his gaze naturally identified all the information about these monsters before him.Among them, four monks and nuns had stepped into the Third Order.

As for the Red-robed Bishop, he was at the Fourth Order limit, comparable to a ‘Leader-level BOSS’ like the chieftain of a large monster tribe!

He unleashed a terrifying, horrifying aura.

He died.

The church turned into ruins, while Mu Yuan held a crimson sun in his hand.

“A formidable BOSS.”

“Retracting my previous words—if the Lord’s strength isn’t sufficient, it truly wouldn’t be possible to harvest leeks of this level.”

But the danger wasn’t particularly high.

After all, this was his own Secret Realm, not the wilderness.

He had already received a prompt: unlike other monsters, BOSSes like the ‘Red-robed Bishop’ and elite monsters like the ‘Desire Monk’ don’t respawn once a day.

These major monsters only revive after a long interval and do not leave their designated activity areas.

Namely, the ruined church.

If the Lord can’t defeat them, a strategic retreat is all that’s needed—this type of BOSS won’t pursue.

Proportional to the difficulty of harvesting is the monster loot.

With a casual wave, he sliced open a half-meter-long spatial rift. The rift gaped like a large mouth, sucking forcefully, devouring the surrounding flames and storms like a Whale Swallow, leaving only the dissipating leek monsters turning into particles of light.

Clusters of Soul Sand appeared where the monsters vanished.

In addition, there were a few scattered Treasures emitting green and blue glows.

「Prompt: Obtained Rare-grade Materials ×5.」

「Prompt: Obtained Excellent-grade Materials ×2.」

「Prompt: Obtained Excellent-grade Equipment Blank.」

“This means that at intervals, this Secret Realm can yield a batch of rare, high-grade materials.”

“As for the ordinary Soul Sand income…”

Mu Yuan organized a group of elites and swiftly cleared the area.

The final tally was—a daily income of 60!

Ten days would be 600 Soul Crystals, and a year would net a clean income of 21,900!

“The benefits of the Secret Realm aren’t limited to these surface gains. The Featherman Race transformed a Secret Realm into a hidden homeland capable of growing crops, sustaining life, and forming a self-sufficient cycle.”

“As for our Black Wasteland here, uh…”

A desolate, dilapidated atmosphere assailed them.

“This place isn’t suitable for building a settlement, but it’s a decent training ground. Once it expands a bit more, we might even be able to test ‘nuclear-level spells’ here.”

…

On Wolfhead Mountain, their first formal exchanges with Nature’s Garden and Boulder Mountain Ridge had concluded.

The elves and giants departed one after another.

Apart from sharing intelligence and agreeing on some bulk trade, the main focus of the three parties’ discussion was how to deal with Jackal Fang.

Elf Mirena and Giant Asoro both felt that Tianyuan Territory was acting too hastily.

However, they agreed with the proposal to jointly resist and snipe Jackal Fang’s minions.

With these two factions joining, Tianyuan Territory’s pressure was significantly reduced, allowing him to recall some elites for rest, recovery, and cultivation. After all, prolonged combat in the wild severely hampered the elites’ development.

For the elves and giants, with the deaths of many high-order monsters under Jackal Fang’s control, this Monster Overlord’s grip on the surrounding regions had greatly weakened.

They could now venture into the outside world more boldly to gather resources.

They had considered letting Tianyuan Territory bear the pressure, but since they were all in the same boat, foolish short-sightedness was absolutely unacceptable.

Nature’s Garden.This is a secluded and exquisitely beautiful paradise, hidden from the outside world.

The architecture here consists mainly of treehouses with distinct elven styles. However, if a Miracle Lord were present, they would notice several structures imbued with obvious miracle power standing within this paradise.

Lord Altar!

Watchtower! Arrow Tower! Wood Elf Training Camp!

Although the elves of Nature’s Garden are descendants of the ancient empire, they naturally have opportunities to obtain the Lord’s Heart and receive blessings from heaven and earth.

Inside the Secret Realm, at the court.

Mirena’s three-dimensional projection appeared as she communicated with another Legendary being.

“By the way, Your Majesty, it seems the humans have no intention of occupying the other two major mining sites (formerly monster tribes). Should we pay some price to acquire these mining sites from the humans and mine them ourselves? After all, we’re also quite short on these basic resources.”

“…That wouldn’t be appropriate.”

“Occupying mining sites would mean we need to station Legendary Realm experts there. Otherwise, we could be suddenly attacked by Jackal Fang’s Legendary Realm experts at any time, suffering heavy casualties. But once we deploy our Legendary experts, they would face even greater danger…”

She didn’t want to admit it.

But that human Legendary was probably the most powerful among their mortal races.

That Legendary could single-handedly contend with several Gnoll Legends simultaneously. Their elves couldn’t do that.

While Jackal Fang couldn’t currently deal with Wolfhead Mountain Fortress, if they followed the humans’ example and occupied mines to extract resources… wouldn’t Jackal Fang be able to handle them then?

They needed to continue lying low until they could crush Jackal Fang’s main forces.

…

Jackal Fang headquarters.

The Jackal Emperor, draped in a grand cloak, sat imposingly on his throne in a regal manner. Propping his chin with his hand, he looked down upon his countless jackal subjects.

“This Emperor is aware.”

“Humans, elves, giants…”

They indeed possessed considerable strength, and even the Jackal Emperor felt some apprehension.

If these three mortal forces were to go all out and launch a total assault against them, he would be greatly troubled. In that scenario, Jackal Fang would likely suffer significant losses, and the fortress beneath the Great Mountain might not hold.

“But mortals are mortals, always plagued by weaknesses like fear of death. They can never make the most decisive and correct choices. Perhaps their reason has already made the right judgment, but cowardice, hesitation, and doubt influence their thoughts.”

This is the nature of mortals!

Weak and ignorant.

They, the children of the Crimson Mist, are the most perfect lifeforms.

Seeing that the mortals only intended to wage a “war of attrition” and “guerrilla warfare” against them, the Jackal Emperor grew even less concerned.

His expression relaxed, confident of victory.

“This Emperor awaits reinforcements from Heavenly Aberration Eternal Life. But you insignificant, isolated mortals – what are you waiting for? Waiting for death?”

…

“Deadbone will need about one or two more months to refine himself to the limit and achieve his breakthrough, but…”

Skeleton Lord +1+1+1+1.

At this stage, Deadbone could hardly achieve significant improvements in combat power. All he could do was: expand the Well of Death, enlarge the Undead Holy Mountain, nurture the undead of the Holy Mountain, study and research how to break through the storage limit of desolate power, develop advanced applications of the King’s Authority, perfect the Corpse Giants, and several dozen other minor tasks.

What he could accomplish was quite limited.

This was constrained by the rules of heaven and earth.However, as the number of Skeleton Lords increased and the established Skeleton powerhouses expanded their own ‘Undead Territories’, the upper limit of power Deadbone could unleash continued to rise steadily.

At this point, slaying a goblin legend probably wouldn’t be much of a challenge.

Not only that—

“Huff~ Huff~”

Inside the Secret Realm where monsters had been cleared, amidst swirling black mist and howling sinister winds, an Undead Legion clad in black armor and black garments ascended step by step through the fog.

They swung their swords.

They charged forward.

The embryonic form of their military spirit—resembling a ‘Greatsword piercing a burial mound’—had grown increasingly condensed and tangible above them.

Mu Yuan opened his panel.

「Undead Legion (999/1000)」

(End of Chapter)