Chapter 386 – New Epic Series

“The Alliance will likely hold a military parade celebration in a few months?”

Mu Yuan pondered this and found it quite reasonable.

He didn’t have much feeling about Blue Star’s fusion, only that his territory was affected and transferred to the Ten Directions Island Region, which initially made him quite apprehensive.

Most Lords similar to him didn’t care too much.

Lords had long settled in the Eternal World, staying there far longer than on Blue Star. But ordinary people were different. For them, they first experienced an apocalypse-like catastrophe, then were forced to leave their homes. It was difficult for them to maintain hope and vitality for the future.

—Those who truly craved adventure and killing monsters to level up were ultimately few.

Or rather, there might have been many initially, but after being harshly beaten by cruel reality, most ordinary people would realize they weren’t cut out for it. Their only hope would vanish, and they’d have to worry constantly about disasters appearing.

Even just a few scattered monsters posed a deadly threat to ordinary people.

The parade could build public confidence.

Monsters might be terrifying, but the Taixuan legions were stronger.

The Alliance had absolute confidence in defending their territory.

With Blue Star’s fusion, the Taixuan Alliance officially turned a new page.

“This is probably also to show other major powers, displaying Taixuan’s strength and potential to gain more voice and benefits internationally.”

In this situation, as Taixuan’s most famous young Lord in recent years, he naturally had an unshirkable responsibility.

However, the parade timing wasn’t set yet.

It depended on when the frontline battles would end.

Therefore, only a very few people within the Alliance knew about this matter.

People like Liu Miumiu and Jiang Luoxing probably hadn’t heard about it.

Even they might be selected as representatives of young Lords to enter the parade grounds.

Mu Yuan wouldn’t refuse such an assignment.

Old Qin probably also knew he wouldn’t refuse, but still gave him some enrollment quotas for advanced studies institutes, which was quite comfortable.

“By then, there’ll also be a chance to see the legions of truly top-tier Lords. Thinking about it, it’s still something to look forward to.”

Thinking this, Mu Yuan continued burning the midnight oil.

He perused some battle reports obtained by the territory through the logistics department’s channels.

Of course, only relatively public information.

“Since the great victory at Dragon Spine Mountain, the other warzones have successively gained advantages. Moreover, it seems the southward Crimson Mist tide has reached its peak and begun to show signs of receding. The Pioneer Group judged that the conflict could end within a few months.”

“It’s not just Taixuan that suffered the Crimson Mist tide impact.”

“Neighboring powers like the Divine Radiance Empire, Seven Cities Federation, Eternal Star Empire, etc., also encountered the Crimson Mist tide. Clearly not during a disaster month, but the Filth in the Land of Red Mist seems more active than before?”

Mu Yuan flipped through intelligence from the past few years and over a decade.

Normally, the Crimson Mist tide wouldn’t be active right after a Red Mist disaster month ended.

He didn’t really understand the specifics.

“Forget it, if the sky falls, the tall will hold it up. It’s useless for me to think about these problems now.”

“I’m just a rookie first-year Lord, why worry needlessly?”

Mu Yuan paid special attention to the Divine Radiance Empire’s situation.

—Actually, only the Divine Radiance Empire’s situation was relatively detailed; the war situations of the other countries were only briefly mentioned.

The Great Domains where various countries’ territories were located all bordered some Land of Red Mist to varying degrees.

For example, the Taixuan Alliance’s territory spanned six Great Domains, plus several Medium Domains and Island Domains. But even the core domain where the Capital City was located still bordered the Land of Red Mist.

Old local forces like the Myriad Kingdoms Alliance, Star Luo Holy Temple, etc., also had parts of their spheres of influence directly facing the Land of Red Mist.

For instance, the Myriad Kingdoms Alliance had been expanding outward, increasing their territorial range. Naturally, newly expanded territories were closer to the Land of Red Mist.

Among all living being forces, only one power was located deep inland without directly bordering the Land of Red Mist.

Namely, the world hegemon, the Holy Griffin Empire.

“The Divine Radiance Empire, like our Taixuan, is a relatively young major power, bordering quite a few Lands of Red Mist.”

“Compared to our Taixuan, the frontline Pioneer Fortress battles in Divine Radiance are more stable, but…”

This was because Divine Radiance invested much less power domestically to settle their people.

Another point was that during the two-world fusion, the Starshine Federation’s citizens had already suffered significant losses. The Starshine Federation’s population was originally much smaller than the Xuan Nation’s, and by the catastrophe’s end, many small towns and cities had become ruins. After all, the Starshine Federation only defended major cities.

With a smaller population, naturally they didn’t need to exert as much effort.

This was the Starshine Federation’s, i.e., the Divine Radiance Empire’s, strategy.

But compared to citizens of small countries who were transferred by rule power to various Wilderness locations during fusion, the Starshine Federation people were relatively luckier.

“Regardless, only strength can dominate destiny.”

…

Taixuan Alliance, Star Gazing Association.

The President stood before a massive celestial observation instrument.

This was a top-tier Epic-grade Miracle Building, one of the Star Gazing Association’s foundational assets.

Standing here, the President felt as if he were amidst the vast starry sky.

He gazed at the celestial observation instrument, seemingly piercing through the cosmos. Starlight swirled in his eyes, and subtle, profound, mysterious nuances surged around him.

After a while,

The brilliant starlight around the President completely vanished, and the humming celestial observation instrument also dimmed.

“President, you…”

A green-haired woman approached from the side, hurriedly handing over several potions and pulling tissues from her pocket, looking somewhat worried.

“It’s nothing serious.”

The President’s voice was hoarse, like someone who hadn’t drunk water for days in the desert. “The intelligence is more important. This time, we finally gained some insights.”

“Insights?”

“This Crimson Mist tide will recede at the latest in four months, but…”

The President paused, “I saw crimson spreading, Filth extending its claws. The true catastrophe might arrive again in just a few years. At that time…”

He didn’t continue.

Taixuan hadn’t experienced a catastrophe of this level.

Or rather, they were summoned by the world only at the catastrophe’s end.

Over sixty years ago, over a hundred and thirty years ago, two hundred years ago, three hundred years ago—each time, a great Filth catastrophe swept the entire world.

Under such a world-level disaster, even major powers and faction-level forces faced… the danger of destruction.

The catastrophe over sixty years ago saw a major power, not inferior to Taixuan, sink into the Filth.

“The Eternal World can never be peaceful.”

“Or rather, even powerful countries like our Taixuan are far, far from possessing the strength to truly fear no storms.”

“We must wield our sabers against the storm.”

“Using a tiny saber’s edge to sever, to shatter that towering giant wave.”

“Can we do it?”

The President looked at the green-haired woman.

Without waiting for her answer, he muttered to himself, “We definitely can do it!”

…

The morning in Tianyuan City was calm, peaceful, and sunny.

This was the tranquility they had just obtained by repelling and crushing the Monster Overlord.

Temporary tranquility.

Early in the morning, Mu Yuan went to the northern city barracks.

This barracks mainly stationed Human Race legions. The Undead, Snow Maidens, and Treant legions were stationed in their respective Unit Building Secret Realms.

Because the Human Race legions lacked their own Unit Buildings, the average Rank of their elites was actually much lower than the Undead and Treants.

Many low-level Halberdiers and Divine Archers also had to expend Soul Sand for cultivation.

East of the barracks, a new area had been designated a few days ago, called the ‘Special Unit Station Camp’.

This camp stationed some experimental units Mu Yuan was attempting to evolve.

For many units, especially high-tier ones, available data and intelligence were limited. He didn’t know what a unit would become after evolution, or what skills it would possess.

Mu Yuan’s goal in trying to evolve new units wasn’t combat power.

The Tianyuan Legion currently had no obvious weaknesses.

Even if there were, combat power couldn’t be rapidly increased short-term. Only legions composed of the same unit type, forming Military Soul Legions, could exert immense power. One or two new Epic-grade units alone couldn’t form effective combat strength.

Unless he could recruit a very special, exceptionally talented new individual.

Mu Yuan wanted functionality.

He entered the camp.

Facing him, he saw two massive giant turtles, each like a two-story factory building.

「Giant Rock Dragon Turtle」

「Grade: Epic One-Star」

「Skills: Earth’s Sanctuary (Epic), …」

This was evolved by Mu Yuan after analyzing vast amounts of data, from a certain Excellent One-Star unit—a stockpiled Remnant Soul unit, spoils from the previous defense battle. He couldn’t bear to spend money and time buying Excellent Remnant Souls.

The current Giant Rock Dragon Turtles looked only about six or seven meters tall, seemingly not large enough, just younger siblings before Sario. But this was because the Giant Rock Dragon Turtles were only First Order Professional Tier.

They were still two babies.

Mu Yuan had checked the data; a Fourth Order Giant Rock Dragon Turtle could be like a large ship.

According to unreliable records, someone had seen an immensely huge giant turtle with a city standing on its back, rumored to be a complete Legendary lifeform.

However, this news remained just a rumor, without even pictures.

“Giant Rock Dragon Turtles possess extraordinary protective abilities. Their shells, slightly modified, could even have some buildings constructed on them, perfect for transportation work. The only drawback is that the turtles aren’t fast.”

But once the Giant Rock Dragon Turtles reach Fourth Order, even if slow, they’d be slow among Fourth Order.

Mu Yuan considered that he might not be able to buy suitable transport vehicles, so why not use the turtles as substitutes?

Although in terms of value, one such turtle was far more precious than an Excellent-grade vehicle.

Mu Yuan patted the large, hard heads of the two Giant Rock Dragon Turtles.

The two turtles made “woof woof” sounds that weren’t very intelligent.

Indeed, not very smart.

After all, they were ‘force-grown’, having just awakened self-awareness, yet already burdened with huge Contribution Points debts.

The camp was quite empty. Besides the two giant turtles and an elite squad stationed there, it was just barren.

But,

He had evolved another type of Epic unit.

Where did it go?

Mu Yuan searched left and right, and soon found a few green leaves on a lonely patch of empty ground in the distance.

Tender green leaves swayed slightly, yet there wasn’t the slightest vegetation within tens of meters around them.

Could it be any more obvious?

“Good aura concealment, probably related to racial talent. But the choice of hiding spot… indeed not very smart. Would eating its byproducts affect intelligence?”

Mu Yuan walked over, grabbed the leaves above, and pulled out whatever was buried in the soil like pulling a radish.

Immediately,

A shriek that could pierce the sky was about to erupt.

Suddenly, the radish-like but legged lifeform widened its eyes, and its wide-open mouth about to scream abruptly stopped.

“O-oh, it’s the Lord! L-little Ginseng g-greets the Lord!”

Indeed, still not very smart.

But in a way, smarter than the two turtles next door.

「Ginseng King · Coco」

「Grade: Epic One-Star」

「Skills/Talents: Ginseng King’s Gift (Epic), Vegetation Essence, Soul Shriek, Earth Escape, Earth Absorption, Energy Fruit, …」

There were three Ginseng Kings, evolved from the rare Three-Star unit ‘Ginseng Baby’.

Coco was the smartest one.

Its number of skills was noticeably more than the other two ginsengs.

The name Coco was chosen by itself. Simply because it liked eating coconut meat and drinking coconut juice.

Who knew why a ginseng would have such a preference.

Like the two turtles, the Ginseng Kings were born with large debts. But unlike the turtles next door, the Ginseng Kings could work to earn money while still young.

They were treasures head to toe!

They could continuously produce rare medicinal materials. Ginseng fibers had significant effects on strengthening the body, enhancing spirit, and tempering the physique.

This was the Ginseng King!

It seemed somewhat cruel that they had to work to pay off debts at such a young age, but they were units. Thinking that way made everything quite reasonable.

Deadbone and Dolai had to risk their lives fighting monsters when they were young.

The Ginseng Kings could pay off debts without leaving home. What joy!

Ginseng King Coco drooped its head in despair.

For the new series of functional units, Mu Yuan had only evolved two for now.

He didn’t attempt randomly, of course.

He analyzed various data before recruiting the units and evolving them.

After evolution, he conducted skill sampling and analysis for a while before finally deciding whether to evolve to Epic.

Evolution Points were quite precious; he needed to accumulate them slowly for Legendary evolution needs.

He couldn’t issue too many Epic loans either.

Moreover,

He had to take full responsibility for any unit he recruited or evolved himself.

Now, among the Nature-type units, there were two major specialty series: ‘Ginseng King’ and ‘Nature Spirit’.

Among them, the veterans ‘Flower Spirit’ and ‘Wood Spirit’ from the Nature Spirits had recently evolved to Epic Two-Star lifeforms and awakened the Epic Skill ‘Life Dewdrop’.

—

「Life Dewdrop」

「Description: Flower Spirits can spread, gather, birth, and disseminate life energy, condensing into the Excellent-grade Treasure ‘Life Dewdrop’. Life Dewdrop has the effect of rapidly healing injuries and replenishing energy consumption.」

「Simultaneously, if a Flower Spirit spends considerable time and its own energy, there’s a small probability of condensing the Epic-grade Treasure ‘Life Droplet’. Life Droplet possesses conceptual-level recovery ability, capable of eradicating all injuries in an extremely short time, restoring the user to peak condition.」

「Note: Condensing Life Droplet requires a relatively long time. Forcibly condensing it will damage the Nature Spirit’s own Origin.」

(End of Chapter)