Chapter 373 – Visitors from Taixuan

In reality, the contract conditions for the Hall of Heroic Souls were quite stringent, requiring military units that had “awakened complete self-awareness.” Merely having the budding of intelligence wasn’t enough.

Such military units were already at the commander level in other territories, and they were extremely rare.

For instance, among the hundred-plus elite troops Shen Linglong brought this time, only a few could speak.

But here in Tianyuan Territory, every elite soldier had awakened self-awareness. All of them could bind their souls within the Hall of Heroic Souls.

It’s just…

The total cost was a bit expensive!

To be fair, recording a military unit’s soul light in the Hall of Heroic Souls only required 10 Soul Crystal Coins, which wasn’t actually expensive. The truly costly part was the subsequent resurrection price. Resurrecting and reshaping the bodies of high-rank military units required a considerable amount of money.

However, Tianyuan Territory had a sufficiently large number of military units with awakened self-awareness!

Ten Soul Crystals per slot, and a thousand slots would amount to ten thousand big coins.

He couldn’t afford that.

The number of military units he could bind far exceeded a thousand.

“The biggest limitation of the Hall of Heroic Souls lies in the range of soul guidance, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of this building,” Mu Yuan thought somewhat discontentedly.

Even so, the resurrection ability could be considered a cheat-level power. If Tianyuan Territory had possessed the Hall of Heroic Souls earlier, there wouldn’t have been any elite casualties in this battle.

Despite its various limitations, the Hall of Heroic Souls could still be called a Divine-Grade building for defensive warfare.

“Speaking of which…”

Mu Yuan stroked his chin, “The undoubted top contributor to Tianyuan City’s defense was the epic building, the Scepter of Heavenly Authority. Now, we have another Divine-Grade defensive building… Does this mean I’m naturally skilled at defense?”

Although the Scepter of Heavenly Authority was actually an “offensive-type” building, most adept at super-long-range delivery of super spells, he had managed to use this strategic building as a defensive one.

It was all because Tianyuan Territory’s situation was too difficult.

…

The next day, Mu Yuan woke up quite late.

His soul was still fatigued, so upon the suggestion of Laney, the director of Tianyuan Hospital, he rested for a relatively long time. It wasn’t that he wanted to stay in bed.

Compared to the previous day, Tianyuan City had largely returned to normal today.

The corpses outside the city had long been cleared away, and most of the damaged sections of the City Walls and collapsed Miracle Buildings had been rebuilt. If not for the many large craters remaining outside the city, it would be hard to imagine that just yesterday, they had experienced a battle that nearly resulted in the city’s destruction.

“The total amount of Soul Crystal Coins obtained from yesterday’s battle is approximately 524.6. On one hand, some of the spoils were distributed to allies; on the other hand, the total number of monsters eliminated in yesterday’s battle wasn’t as high as in the Wolfhead Mountain defense battle.”

What they killed more of were high-rank monsters.

As a result, they obtained plenty of Materials and rare equipment. There were even some outstanding equipment.

Most of this equipment was damaged.

Even so, by melting them down and reforging, they could produce hundreds of rare-grade equipment pieces and at least twenty to thirty excellent equipment.

The few intact excellent equipment were mostly provided by Deadbone.

The weapons were basically intact, and some full-body armors only had thumb-sized holes, showing that Deadbone had consciously tried to preserve high-level equipment.

High-level equipment had always been in short supply in Tianyuan Territory, but after this battle, they became considerably more affluent.”War truly is the fastest way to riches.”

“Besides materials and equipment, there are also numerous remnant souls, which are not only valuable but even more important to me.”

As Mu Yuan stepped out of his room, he saw the report Isloria had left on the outside table.

Yesterday she had only provided preliminary estimates, but today, complete and detailed statistics were already compiled, demonstrating remarkable efficiency.

“We have 4,613 common-grade remnant souls, 426 rare-grade remnant souls, including 45 designated rare three-star remnant souls. Among these are high-value units like Silver Pegasi, Royal Griffins, Shadow Assassins, and Genies.”

“There are also six excellent-grade remnant souls, likely dropped from fallen Legendary Realm beings… Though on average, each monster legend drops less than one excellent remnant soul – quite stingy indeed.”

“Additionally, through the Sacrificial Black Coffin and Soul Shrine, we obtained over nine thousand common-grade remnant souls and a small number of rare-grade remnant souls.”

The combined value of these remnant souls, equipment, and materials exceeded ten thousand Soul Crystals, more than Isloria’s estimate yesterday.

This was probably due to contributions from high-level monsters.

Mu Yuan decided to use all the common-grade remnant souls himself – totaling over fourteen thousand, ranging from common one-star to common three-star, with the majority being random remnant souls.

More than half of these were rather useless types like ‘Random Remnant Souls’ and ‘Goblin Soul Fragments.’

But Mu Yuan didn’t mind.

He only cared about quantity.

His current evolutionary power wasn’t picky anymore. As long as they were living units, they could contribute their own small but useful part to the descent of evolutionary miracles.

Common units weren’t valuable anyway, their worth having significantly decreased without the Blue Star platform.

That wasn’t entirely accurate.

To be precise, in the outer regions of the Taixuan Alliance, the price of common-grade remnant souls had plummeted, with one-star and two-star remnant souls even becoming hard to sell.

Yet in the inland regions and low-risk areas of the Taixuan Alliance, prices for common remnant souls had actually risen.

This didn’t concern Mu Yuan much – he couldn’t sell to inland regions, and even if he could, the transportation costs or border taxes would far exceed any potential profit.

These remnant souls would have just piled up in the warehouse, but by using them himself, he was allowing them to regain their value.

If these units had intelligence and self-awareness, they’d probably be very grateful… probably.

Rare-grade remnant souls were absolutely hard currency, commanding decent prices anywhere. Mu Yuan only kept some Silver Pegasi, Royal Griffins, Shadow Assassins, and Nun Remnant Souls, selling all the rest.

“My current total unit count is 50,000. After recruiting all these remnant souls, I’ll have 65,000 troops, producing about 26,000 Evolution Points daily. This would be enough to evolve five epic-level beings, or to evolve one epic three-star General would take three to four days of saving.”

“Even to evolve an entire thousand-strong Excellent One corps all to Excellent Three-Star grade would only take… well, about 24 days.”

Thinking about it that way, it seemed quite long.

His elite Undead Legion already had many elite forces that had reached Excellent Three-Star tier, but he still had multiple other legions, plus numerous rare units and Excellent One units that needed evolution.

The Evolution Point production was substantial, yet it never seemed enough for everything.With the imminent crisis now resolved, Tianyuan Territory could likely look forward to a period of relatively peaceful development, so Mu Yuan wasn’t in such a hurry anymore.

First, he needed to recruit the fourteen to fifteen thousand troops.

This was going to be a laborious task.

The recruiter had to stand before the Lord Altar, clicking the recruit button over and over and over again. Due to the limited space at the Lord Altar, a new batch of recruits could only be summoned after the previous batch had been moved away.

The entire recruitment process would probably take more than a full day and night.

Mu Yuan had already experienced this kind of recruitment process before and it just made his head ache. Wait, no—he was currently a patient. He hadn’t recovered yet, so of course he couldn’t undertake such a mentally and physically exhausting repetitive task.

“I need to find some strong help. The recruiter must have the status of a Hero.”

Mu Yuan walked out of his residence and immediately encountered a pink-haired young woman passing by.

He shook his head slightly. She wouldn’t do. Her work schedule was already full; it wasn’t a matter of just squeezing in some extra time.

Deadbone and Lu Liu were also very busy.

They were currently engaged in subjugating large monster tribes.

Dolai was busy too.

Outside the City Lord’s Mansion, the idle General Dolai was loitering, the tuft of hair on its head swaying in the wind.

It was far too leisurely.

But considering that Dolai would soon be heading out on an expedition, Mu Yuan shifted his gaze away from it and landed on Xiliu, who was standing beside Dolai, munching on a skewer of meat half a person’s height.

You’re the one.

“Xiliu, the organization has an arduous task for you. You need to recruit all the Remnant Souls collected yesterday. I’ll have the commanders of the various corps coordinate with you to relocate the new recruits.”

“This task… I’m afraid only you can accomplish it.”

Mu Yuan patted her shoulder as he entrusted her with the responsibility.

“Huh? Me?”

Xiliu’s mouth fell open as she looked at the Lord, then at Dolai.

Mu Yuan also looked at Dolai, appearing to ponder for a moment. “If it were Dolai…”

Dolai suddenly straightened up and said seriously, “The Lord is right, this task can only rely on you. Ah, I just remembered Dead Bone Boss is looking for me, I’d better be going now, see you later…”

Xiliu: “(⊙ｏ⊙)”

…

On this day, as Tianyuan City welcomed a bright morning, gloom hung over the Jackal Fang’s lair.

The Gnoll Legend who had survived the great battle, along with the core Fourth-Order Experts, had returned here one after another.

They were still shaken with fear.

They looked towards their Emperor.

The Jackal Emperor.

Two Snakemen Legends also looked towards the Jackal Emperor, for the Blood Serpent Emperor had already fallen at Tianyuan City. They weren’t sure how many Legends from their Blood Serpent Embrace, aside from the three in the Legendary Realm left guarding the lair, had actually survived.

They had been fleeing for their lives at the time, using everything they had to escape the range of the devastating thunder and fire, and had no capacity to pay attention to anything else.

Perhaps other wounded Legends were still on their way back.

Or perhaps, they were the only survivors left.

“Human weapons are too terrifying!”

“That must have been humanity’s trump card, a killing move with only a single use. The human city was already on the verge of collapse then. If we hadn’t fled, we might have breached the human city by now.”

“Even if the human’s killing move only had one use, would you dare go and test it again?”

The surrounding monster Legends fell silent.

They looked towards the Jackal Emperor, wanting this, the strongest among them present, to make a decision.The Jackal Emperor could see the panic among his people. He said, “Do not panic. Our lair is well-hidden and we have many defensive measures. That human force would never dare to attack us. At the very least, we are safe for the time being.”

“The problem we face now is how to deal with this human force in the future, and… how to respond to Dragon’s Slumber Valley.”

They couldn’t simply report their crushing defeat.

Being defeated by a mere city-level human force, with even their envoy falling in battle—if they reported this, their reinforcements would certainly be denied, and they would likely face punishment from Dragon’s Slumber Valley.

They needed to add a little artistic embellishment to the battle report.

“Your Majesty, what should we do?”

All eyes turned to him.

The Jackal Emperor’s headache grew worse. “I’m thinking, I’m thinking! But the most urgent matter is to search for any survivors among the Legendary Realm experts sent by Dragon’s Slumber Valley.”

As for reporting to Dragon’s Slumber Valley? Until they could fabricate… come up with a suitable excuse, they could only stall for time.

…

Deep in the Wilderness of Twilight Plains.

“Screech—”

A giant bird with a wingspan exceeding forty meters rode on azure hurricanes, sweeping across the sky with a roaring sound.

The faint aura it emitted sent intelligent flying monsters scattering in panic.

If Mu Yuan were here, he would find the giant bird’s appearance somewhat familiar, resembling a mature version of Asun.

This was a Wind King’s Wings.

A Legendary Realm Wind King’s Wings.

On its broad back sat several figures.

“I heard that Tianyuan Territory was displaced to another Great Domain during the Great Fusion, and the entrance is somewhere in this area?”

“Indeed.”

The master of the Wind King’s Wings, the Legendary powerhouse Qin Guohua, said, “Tianyuan Territory is also facing threats from local Monster Overlords. We need to find the passage as quickly as possible, otherwise…”

Qin Guohua was an official powerhouse from the Pioneer Department, primarily responsible for logistics and transportation.

He had heard about the young man from Tianyuan’s predicament from the Mount Luofu Master and voluntarily took on this mission.

On the back of the Wind King’s Wings were two Pioneer Lords who had accepted the mission to assist.

One of them, ‘Crushed Rock Lord,’ said, “But we Pioneer Lords aren’t babysitters. We can protect Tianyuan Territory temporarily, but not forever. Besides… isn’t facing disaster crises commonplace for us Miracle Lords? How can a Lord who can’t withstand crises grow stronger? Not to mention, this is the most talented young Lord in our Taixuan Alliance. Such a reputation would be undeserved otherwise.”

He acknowledged that Tianyuan Lord had achieved unprecedented feats at the Festival Grounds, but defending one’s territory was a Lord’s fundamental duty.

A Lord who couldn’t even protect their territory certainly couldn’t be a powerful Lord.

Minister Qin said, “You’re not entirely wrong, but the Eternal World is full of unexpected circumstances. Isn’t the purpose of establishing our Taixuan Alliance to protect our homeland and provide shelter for those who haven’t yet grown strong?”

“Think about it—when our normal frontier territories face disasters, official cities stand at the forefront. But Tianyuan has no such protection. Not only that, but he has also fallen into a more dangerous region. A Lord’s growth requires experiencing crises, but what Tianyuan faces has clearly far exceeded reasonable limits. This is no longer training—it’s a force majeure disaster.”Even so, Tianyuan still hadn’t exercised his right to emergency assistance.

Should one say Tianyuan was too stubborn, or that such geniuses tended to be particularly proud?

Crushed Rock Lord fell silent.

Upon careful reflection, he realized the truth in this.

He himself had never requested reinforcements—this was his pride. He looked down upon those self-proclaimed genius lords who couldn’t defend their territories and had to seek help.

But putting himself in Tianyuan’s position, he considered: if during a disaster, no official territory had drawn away massive enemy forces; if when monster forces attacked, they hadn’t feared the Taixuan Alliance behind him; if…

There were many such “ifs,” and when all these conditions aligned, they described Tianyuan Territory’s current predicament.

Under such circumstances, could Crushed Rock still confidently claim he wouldn’t seek any reinforcements, that he could repel enemies beyond the city gates and keep his territory secure?

He dared not.

Leaving aside Tianyuan’s abilities for now, his luck might indeed be… just a tiny bit poor.

It would truly be a pity if someone like him were to perish in some unforeseen circumstance.

If Tianyuan was truly as formidable as the rumors suggested, Crushed Rock wanted to see how far this young man hailed as the most talented could go.

“Look, isn’t that the dangerous place Linglong Lord mentioned?”

(End of Chapter)