Chapter 383 – The Team from the Depths of the Wilderness

Two days later,

On the territory map, four watchtower icons appeared one by one, dispersing the surrounding war fog and casting faint points of light across the vast wilderness.

Mu Yuan projected his vision downward over these small territories, surveying the surroundings from above.

He couldn’t see very far, after all, the territory range opened up by the watchtowers only spanned a few hundred meters in radius. This range wouldn’t expand as the territory’s rank increased.

However, after the watchtowers were established, the Heavenly Eye of the Scepter of Heavenly Authority could also be freely projected above them.

At the farthest outpost, a massive frost dragon was flying out from the high mountains, continuously spewing frost-blue dragon breath from its mouth, freezing the ground and shattering a monster horde attempting to capture the mine into disarray.

On the mountain, Rakshasa was exercising his authority as a Hero, marking defensive building locations one after another in suitable positions, then directing dozens of elite troops who had taken on the role of construction workers at the mine to start laboring away with grunts and groans.

But there were too few personnel.

With just a few dozen construction workers, it would take at least ten days to half a month to complete all the defensive buildings.

The elite troops still needed to patrol.

The mine had previously been occupied by a group of porcupine men. After Sario defeated the porcupine men and Rakshasa erected the watchtower, the outpost was attacked several times by monster hordes within just half a day.

Some of these included third-rank monsters.

“The existence of monster tribes can terrify surrounding monster groups, keeping them far away, but the presence of living factions, the existence of miracle territories, only attracts more ferocious attacks from nearby monsters.”

To monsters, living beings are like fine wine—an irresistible temptation.

Just like when Tianyuan Territory was first established, as time passed and the territory developed and grew, it would inevitably draw the attention of more and stronger monster groups.

Even with a dragon like Sario present at the mine, it couldn’t deter the vast majority of mindless monsters.

“The root of the manpower shortage is the lack of transportation tools.”

“The citizens of Tianyuan Territory cannot traverse thousands of kilometers to work at the Baosha Ridge, even with elite warriors as escorts.”

“For now, should we have a group of self-aware elite troops serve as miners? That seems too wasteful.”

Mu Yuan pondered.

He walked into the City Lord’s Mansion hall and found Isloria, “My universal… expert, I have a challenging task for you. Building a few large airships, or developing a mining alchemical puppet—which do you think is more suitable?”

Large vehicles could transport miners.

Alchemical puppets? That would be even more convenient.

Lifeless puppets could be stored in spatial equipment, and Dolai could transport all the mining puppets back and forth in one trip.

So, figure it out, Isloria.

Isloria frowned deeply, “Neither is suitable!”

She added, “Of course, it’s not that I don’t have the capability. Designing a mining puppet isn’t particularly difficult, but the entire process from design to subsequent production would take at least one to two months, and that’s assuming no unexpected issues arise.”

“Lord, you wouldn’t want two months’ worth of official documents piling up on your desk, would you?”

Mu Yuan: “…”

He really didn’t.He could wander around aimlessly… conducting strategic observations, gathering intelligence on Taixuan, and engaging in under-the-table deals with other lords—all because he had the diligent Isloria working tirelessly behind the scenes.

At first, she had complained about the heavy workload and lack of manpower, but gradually, she seemed to have grown accustomed to it.

Indeed, the power of habit is truly remarkable.

Isloria was well aware of the difficulties faced by various mining sites. After a moment of thought, she said, “Actually, it’s not without a solution. Didn’t we just receive a large sum of Alliance Contribution Points? We could use them to exchange for a few passenger-cargo airships similar to the X-Ⅱ model. Then, we can have Daisy and the others bring them back when they return from their trips.”

“That… does seem feasible.”

Vehicles capable of flying freely in the dangerous wilderness were typically of at least Advanced grade.

Moreover, being medium to large-sized vehicles, their prices were exorbitant—often several times or even dozens of times more expensive than Advanced equipment. Not only were they pricey, but they were also difficult to purchase.

—It was nearly impossible to buy them with Soul Crystals alone, but using Taixuan Contribution Points made it no longer an issue.

Mu Yuan had glanced at them a few times before.

He had previously considered exchanging for such large items. However, at the time, he had no Contribution Points to spare, and Tianyuan City was located in the Ten Directions Island Great Domain, isolated from the Alliance. Even if he could place an order, he had no way to receive the goods.

—Medium to large-sized vehicles… no, even small aircraft like the Mechanical Dragon could hardly fit into spatial storage equipment. Naturally, they couldn’t be transported or traded through the Secret Realm.

The highest-grade spatial equipment Mu Yuan had ever seen had less than one percent of the storage capacity of Dolai’s Dimensional Pocket.

Airships could only be delivered or picked up in person.

Since the Tianyuan trade caravan was already on a long journey, having them bring the airships back would kill two birds with one stone.

“Besides airships, we also need to purchase some ordinary vehicles. While we can produce this type of vehicle ourselves, it’s not cost-effective.”

As Isloria spoke, she added, “In addition, I also recommend purchasing these, these, and these…”

As if she had prepared in advance, she pulled out a list.

Mu Yuan took it and scanned it from top to bottom.

Why were more than half of the items instruments and equipment?

He activated his Lord’s Stare.

Isloria remained unfazed, her resistance effect doubling.

The two sides were at a stalemate, with neither yielding.

“Fine.”

Many of the instruments and equipment on the list were indeed useful. For instance, if Tianyuan City wanted to produce large-scale weapons independently, some of these devices would be indispensable. This was largely thanks to the assistance of Miracle Buildings.

Lord Mu approved the reimbursement for this batch.

After all, he had already seized two Soul Sand Mines and was not particularly short on ordinary funds.

Mu Yuan went to the Secret Realm and sought out the official person in charge to procure the goods.

He took the exchange catalog and flipped through it page by page.

This exchange catalog was itself a Rare-grade artifact, constantly updated with information on available Treasures. Many entries were marked with “Out of Stock,” “Out of Stock,” and yet again “Out of Stock.”

However, even for out-of-stock items, he could place an order, pay a premium for a reservation, and the waiting time wouldn’t be too long.

After all, this was a platform for the entire Alliance, and items below the Epic grade could generally be found.

「Legendary Breakthrough Package (Boulder City): 200,000 Contribution Points」

「Legendary Breakthrough Package (Nine Mysteries City): 250,000 Contribution Points」”Legendary Breakthrough Package (Capital City): 300,000 Contribution Points”

The prices weren’t uniform.

While the breakthrough packages used identical auxiliary materials like ‘potions’, their accompanying breakthrough venues, ritual arrangements, and Miracle Buildings differed. Clearly, the capital city’s ritual venue was the highest grade, hence the most expensive exchange price.

Mu Yuan glanced at his account balance of over a million Contribution Points. Even if he exchanged them all, he couldn’t get many sets.

He certainly wouldn’t exchange them this way.

He didn’t need complete breakthrough packages.

In fact, hardly any other Lords exchanged for complete sets either.

Because aside from the purchase and use of the ritual venue and the main Materials for breakthrough Treasures, all other materials in the breakthrough package could be bought with Soul Crystals.

He scrolled down to search.

“Legendary Breakthrough Main Materials (includes two potions and one Treasure): 35,000 Contribution Points”

Mu Yuan clicked rapidly, placing four consecutive orders.

Suddenly, a prompt popped up.

“Prompt: You have reached the current purchase limit. Further purchases will incur a 20% price premium, increasing with each additional purchase.”

“Prompt: Proceed with purchase?”

Mu Yuan stopped his shopping spree.

Legendary packages were rarely out of stock, seemingly easier to purchase compared to Professional Tier breakthrough packages.

But in reality, this was only because the former required precious and hard-to-obtain Contribution Points, and there were very few powerful individuals with the financial means, qualifications, and need to purchase Legendary breakthrough packages.

The latter, however, had countless Professional Tier individuals with purchasing needs just within a single city region.

The latter had higher production volumes, but even higher demand.

Mu Yuan had previously asked Liu Miumiu to order four sets using his own quota.

This certainly wasn’t standard procedure, but exceptions could be made for special cases – after all, he had some connections higher up.

This time, he could still order four more sets before hitting the limit, apparently related to his Pioneer Star Rank being raised to three stars. Otherwise, purchasing five sets would have triggered the limit.

The limit was probably to prevent certain wealthy Lords from having their subordinates attempt breakthroughs repeatedly, trying to increase success rates through multiple attempts.

This was considered wasteful behavior.

Mu Yuan stroked his chin, “This is somewhat troublesome. I’ll ask Isloria later if there are any alternative main materials available.”

“Relying entirely on purchases isn’t really practical, after all…”

His requirement wasn’t for just a few sets, or even dozens of sets, but hundreds of sets.

Thinking of this, Mu Yuan’s head started aching again.

…

Around the same time.

In the Raging Lands, the sky and earth nearly touched as hundred-meter-high energy waves crashed against the massive airship again and again.

The passenger airship looked like a small toy that could shatter at any moment.

Yet it remained as solid as a rock.

Upon closer inspection, one could see a enormous spatial capsule enveloping the entire airship. The spatial barrier was more solid than mountains, remaining completely unmoved no matter how the raging energy tides crashed against it.

A Blue-haired Girl rode atop a Slime, supporting the vast space with her hand, invincible in this domain.

“As expected of me!”

“It’s really effortless!”

Dolai was actually only skilled at destruction – its Space Devour and Space-Tearing Seal were meant for annihilation, not protection. But nevertheless, as a Legendary-tier expert proficient in spatial power, when it wielded the Space Urn, it could effortlessly unleash power far surpassing what the Jackalwere king could manage.

The only drawback was that when hand-carrying such vast space, it couldn’t move very quickly.

The space was just too heavy.Hundreds of seconds later.

“O-out, we’re finally out.”

Dolai couldn’t help but pant, suddenly thinking that storing the airship in its dimensional pocket and escorting Daisy’s group through the Furious Gorge might have been easier?

How careless!

“Are you alright, Dolai?”

Sickle Moon and Xiliu, who were keeping watch outside, couldn’t help but ask.

Dolai instantly straightened up, its breathing steady. “O-of course! Such a small matter wouldn’t tire me out. I could make ten round trips without any problem!”

It escorted everyone all the way to the outskirts of the Furious Danger Zone.

The vast wilderness and stretching mountain ranges outside were now visible before their eyes.

Only then did it reluctantly bid farewell to Xiliu and the others.

It actually kind of wanted to go out on a grand adventure too, but Dolai clearly understood it couldn’t leave the territory right now. Being away for two days on this trip was already too long – it had to return.

“Bye bye, remember to contact me when you return.”

“Oh, and bring back some local specialties for me… for Lord, especially food. If you go to Boulder City, you can visit shop number 335 on Boulder Rock Street. Their Dragon Whisker Hotpot is delicious.”

Daisy waved her hand, also reluctant to part with such a great bodyguard.

The group returned to the airship.

“Now we should focus on our main business.”

Daisy took out a map.

The markings on it were extremely sparse.

She pointed to one area leaning toward the southeast, “This place is said to have a temporary pioneering camp.” It might be one thousand, two thousand kilometers from here, or possibly even farther.”

“Our first stop is here. We’ll earn our first bucket of gold at this camp and also determine our distance from Stone Ridge City.”

…

…

Two days later.

Deep within the Wilderness of the Twilight Great Domain.

In a certain lush, green valley where white mist drifted, Miracle Building Watchtowers stood tall, driving away the faint wisps of Crimson Mist drifting through the surrounding sky and earth.

There were three Watchtowers in total, jointly guarding this sizable camp.

All around, numerous Arrow Towers, Multi-Arrow Turrets, and Beam Towers stood erected.

Within the camp, large tents were pitched, with troops wearing different standardized equipment bearing various insignia stationed at the tent entrances. Powerful individuals and Lords wearing magnificent armor also moved through the camp.

“Two Fourth Order Mountain Giants spotted to the East. Our group can’t handle them alone. Any brothers want to join forces to subdue them?”

“We’re preparing to cleanse the Land of Filth to the West. Such dangerous grounds must be eradicated as soon as possible. However, this particular Land of Filth is quite large. After this cleansing operation, our Filth accumulation will probably Breakthrough the first threshold.”

“Buying purification potions, buying purification potions! Which group still has purification-type potions? We’re offering a 30% premium!”

“Get lost! You can’t even buy them at a 50% premium now!”

“When will the Logistics Department’s supplies arrive? If this continues, we won’t just be short on medicine, even food won’t be sufficient.”

“Everyone could actually return to Stone Ridge City or Flowing River City to purchase sufficient supplies before continuing exploration and pioneering.”

“We know that perfectly well, but how long does that round trip take? Besides, we’re a mercenary corps, we can’t transport that much cargo anyway.”

Supplies hadn’t reached a critically scarce level yet, but time was money, time was strength. No one wanted to waste precious time on meaningless back-and-forth travel.A group of lords and mercenary leaders exchanged glances, each secretly hoping someone would grow impatient and leave first.

The reason was simple: with fewer people in the camp, the supplies would last longer.

Was it really necessary to cram so many pioneering teams into this small camp?

“Wait, it seems another pioneering team has arrived?”

A certain lord froze in surprise.

He had received a message from his own scout outside the camp.

Then a second and third lord/leader received the same news.

Their expressions soured.

Suddenly, someone spoke up, “That’s odd. This doesn’t seem to be a pioneering team. They’re coming from the north, from the Deep Wilderness.”

Newly arriving pioneering teams naturally came from the south.

Those approaching from the north were usually exploration teams returning to rest.

The camp housed over twenty teams, large and small, and everyone was familiar with each other, at least by sight.

But this group emerging from the northern Wilderness depths was completely unfamiliar.

Unrecognizable at first glance.

After all,

A dragon girl soared through the sky with wings spread wide.

And behind her, a massive silver-white airship emerged from drifting clouds like a great white shark, descending upon this place.

(End of Chapter)