Chapter 404 – The Six Legends of Tianyuan

Tianyuan Territory.

Sophia, Dolai, and the others had already returned, leaving only Gunpowder and five others to continue their training at Ironstone Mountain.

Indeed, the six were not of high rank; even the strongest among them, Gunpowder, had only just entered the Second-Order Elite Tier.

However, aside from Roy, no one else on the mountain knew that these six were Master Gunsmiths or firearms experts. They were simply regarded as apprentices who had come to learn the craft.

Currently, Gunpowder and his companions were not the only apprentices on Ironstone Mountain.

Upon hearing the news, several Lords had hurriedly sent over a few apprentices overnight. It was said that one Lord had even brought three hundred apprentices, only to be turned away by the Master Gunsmith Roy, who was visibly displeased.

“Thanks to Gunpowder and the others’ background, Master Gunsmith Roy seems to value them quite highly. They will likely learn a great deal of techniques, quickly making up for their shortcomings.”

“With Master Gunsmith Roy, a Legendary Realm expert, overseeing Ironstone Mountain, Gunpowder and the others should face no danger as long as they remain there.”

Though that was the case, if circumstances allowed, Mu Yuan would have stationed a Legendary Realm expert at Ironstone Mountain.

After all, the six were still too inexperienced.

They had developed self-awareness and could far surpass other apprentices in firearms studies, leaving them miles behind. However, when it came to adapting to unexpected situations, they were still quite green.

Old Father Mu was worried.

Yet, at present, Tianyuan Territory lacked the resources to station a Legendary Realm expert abroad long-term. He could only dispatch a few Fourth-Order Epic-tier officers to guard Ironstone Mountain and establish Tianyuan’s own outpost in the Shenluo Great Domain to liaise and coordinate with the Gem Principality.

He was still too weak.

Not long after returning from the Shenluo Great Domain, in the semi-Secret Realm of the Treant Forest east of Tianyuan City, the tides of heaven and earth surged abruptly. A dazzling brilliance of will shot into the clouds, causing the entire Treant Forest to sway and hum.

This was Tree Spirit Grandma undergoing a breakthrough.

The momentum of her breakthrough was even more exaggerated than that of Deadbone and Dolai.

Mu Yuan was not surprised.

When Dolai was at the Fourth-Order limit, it contained a hundred times the energy of a typical Fourth-Order limit. Yet, at this stage, Tree Spirit Grandma possessed even more energy than Dolai.

After all, Tree Spirit Grandma was rooted in the forest soil, with the vast surrounding woods becoming part of her reserves.

「Prompt: Your troop ‘Tree Spirit Grandma’ has stepped into the Legendary Realm and is undergoing transformation.」

In the core area of the Treant Forest, the massive Treant Lord’s body grew larger and larger, resembling an ancient tree reaching for the heavens, towering over the vast woods.

Moreover, Tree Spirit Grandma’s breakthrough even influenced the surrounding trees.

The tall trees around her, as well as the Treant Lords and War Treants guarding her, visibly grew taller by a noticeable margin.

The entire semi-Secret Realm of the Treant Forest showed a faint tendency to expand outward.

This, however, was not very obvious.

Even after stepping into the Legendary Realm, Tree Spirit Grandma’s scale still could not compare to the vast Treant Forest.

“My Tianyuan Territory has welcomed another Legendary Realm expert.”

Mu Yuan was quite pleased.

Other Lords might have thrown a grand Legendary promotion banquet at this point, inviting friends, family, business partners, and neighboring Lords to showcase their newly minted Legendary Realm expert.

This would also demonstrate their extraordinary strength.

For Mu Yuan, however, such extravagance was unnecessary. A small celebration with his own people would suffice.They have no need to flaunt their strength through Legendary Realm promotion banquets.

In fact, Mu Yuan would prefer to conceal as much as possible, so as to catch Monster Overlords off guard at critical moments. What if the Monster Overlords got scared and fled?

Dolai, Deadbone, Isloria, Mu Someone, Lu Liu, Tree Spirit Grandma.

Tianyuan Territory already boasts a full six Legendary Realm experts guarding it.

Such power could be considered quite respectable even among regional overlord forces, right?

Many famous Great Lords only have a handful of renowned Legendary Realm masters under their command.

“However, that’s just the surface count.”

“Just like our Tianyuan Territory, which only has Dolai and Lu Liu as the two publicly known Legendary Realm powerhouses.”

The ratio between surface and actual strength is one to three.

Mu Yuan finds this ratio quite reasonable. No, actually this ratio is still somewhat low—one to six or one to ten would be more appropriate.

The territory still isn’t strong enough and needs to continue striving.

…

With the birth of a new Legendary, they naturally must shoulder Legendary responsibilities.

Mu Yuan’s arrangements for Tree Spirit Grandma include: first, being responsible for territory defense—as a rooted-type unit, Treant Lords are inherently more skilled in local combat.

However, Tree Spirit Grandma’s responsibilities differ from Lu Liu’s.

Lu Liu is the publicly known commander of the defense forces, overseeing all territory defense matters.

Apart from commanding a group of treants, Tree Spirit Grandma doesn’t direct other unit types. The area it’s responsible for defending is the territory’s shadow side… or rather, the territory’s underground.

Underground defense has always been a headache for Mu Yuan.

He has suffered losses in this area during battles like the Lord Trial War and the Crimson Mist Disaster Month defense battles.

He has already reinforced the land of Tianyuan Territory using earth-element units and the power of the epic unit Giant Rock Dragon Turtle.

However, these measures can only guard against minor threats, not true powerhouses.

Typically, only barriers possess comprehensive defensive capabilities.

After Tree Spirit Grandma advanced to Legendary Realm, the Treant Legion under its command can now spread their roots throughout the entire underground of Tianyuan City. Therefore, he assigned Tree Spirit Grandma a task—to construct an underground root defense network.

This way, whether enemies attempt infiltration or forced breakthrough, they will immediately encounter the root network.

And here, this becomes the absolute home ground of the Treant Legion, where they can exert even greater power than when deploying the Myriad Tree Realm outside Tianyuan City.

The second task is offense.

Defensive offensives targeting the western Bloodtree Forest.

Bloodtree Forest is too close to Tianyuan City. If we use the crimson trees as markers, the forest is only a few dozen kilometers from Tianyuan City.

Of course, these areas are the outskirts of Bloodtree Forest, similar to how Tianyuan Territory previously bordered the outskirts of Gloomy Forest.

But it’s still too close.

Back then he was a small fry and didn’t understand the terror of Gloomy Forest. Now he must take precautions early.

But venturing deep into Bloodtree Forest is too dangerous, so what should be done?

The answer is to use forest against forest.

Rooted-type powerhouses excel in home ground combat and possess the ability to extend their home territory.

So, let Tree Spirit Grandma turn the forest west of Tianyuan City into its own home ground.

This is its second task.

Tree Spirit Grandma possesses the Epic Skill ‘Seed of Trees’ after all.

According to its explanation, after advancing to Legendary Realm, the Seed of Trees Incarnation can maintain itself for extended periods as long as it remains rooted in the earth.In that case, it’s only reasonable for one tree to shoulder two major responsibilities, isn’t it?

Isloria handles thirteen different jobs all by herself.

Mu Yuan felt that Isloria’s spirit was truly worth emulating.

…

At the same time, deep within the Bloodtree Forest.

“Caw~ Caw~”

A black bird with a beak curved like a saber soared to an altitude of over a thousand meters, leveling its gaze at the towering crimson giant tree that pierced the clouds.

Blood-red mist coiled around the area, and countless bloodshot eyes opened along the trunk.

This was the true form of the Blood Tree King.

“Absolutely terrifying. If not for the Blood Tree King’s permission, this crow would never have been able to reach this place. Is he truly at the Legendary Heaven-Earth Realm?”

The black bird was inwardly horrified but maintained a calm exterior, its eyes gleaming darkly.

“Blood Tree King, have you made your decision? Human forces are growing stronger. You can no longer remain neutral. Cooperate with us, and together we can eradicate humanity. The entire Great Domain will become our hunting grounds. I can grant you one-third of the former Jackal Fang territory as a gift to the Bloodtree Forest.”

The Blood Tree King remained silent.

After a long pause, it spoke, “This king cares not for stepping beyond the Bloodtree Forest, nor for mere human blood sustenance.”

But if it truly didn’t care and had no desire to negotiate, he wouldn’t have been allowed into the core of the Bloodtree Forest.

The black bird inwardly scoffed.

It said nothing, merely retrieving a heart core shimmering with magnificent radiance from its Storage Ring.

“This is a Millennial Tree Heart, a treasure left behind after the fall of a Legendary Realm treant lifeform. Regardless of whether Your Excellency the Blood Tree King chooses to act, this Millennial Tree Heart is offered to you.”

“However, should Your Excellency be willing to intervene, our Black Crow Clan and the Great Serpent Clan are prepared to gift you three additional Millennial Tree Hearts after the deed is done.”

The Blood Tree King remained silent.

Thousands of eyes on its trunk stared fixedly at the enormous black bird.

After another long pause.

“This king… agrees.”

A blood-red vine descended, gently coiling around the resplendent Millennial Tree Heart and drawing it into the Blood Tree King’s grasp, where it merged with its arboreal form.

“What does this king need to do?”

“Human powerhouses are not easily dealt with, and their abilities somewhat counter this king’s own.”

“But this is an external operation, which is why human powerhouses can contend with Your Excellency. Within the Bloodtree Forest, with Your Excellency’s immense power, suppressing human powerhouses would surely be effortless.”

“Hmph, naturally.”

“In that case…”

The envoy of the Black Crow Clan proposed a grand strategy.

The strategy of Bloodtree Forest expansion.

What if the Bloodtree Forest continuously expanded, spreading all the way to the outskirts of Tianyuan City? How would the human powerhouses respond then?

If they entered the Bloodtree Forest, they would gain home-field advantage.

If they dared not enter, they could use this to continuously harass and deplete human resources.

When the time came for the actual assault on the city, they could leverage the Bloodtree Forest’s environment to neutralize the humans’ geographical advantages.

Perfect.

The Jackal Fang had failed due to arrogance and insufficient understanding of humanity.

But now, they were gradually uncovering each and every reliance of the human forces.

The Jackal Fang had already stumbled through every pitfall.

All that remained was to seize the opportune moment to strike.

They would emerge victorious.

…

Naturally, Mu Yuan had no way of knowing about the developments within the Bloodtree Forest.

The entire forest was a forbidden land.

Neither living powerhouses nor monster powerhouses could easily set foot within it.The birth of a new Legendary Realm within Tianyuan Territory was also a matter known to very few, with only a handful of high-ranking officials in Tianyuan Territory aware of it.

However,

In the past two days, news of a new Legendary Realm’s emergence had instantly swept through the entire circle of beings in the Ten Directions Island Region.

There was no attempt to conceal it.

The newly ascended Legendary Realm hailed from Nature’s Garden.

To celebrate this Legendary Realm’s breakthrough, Nature’s Garden hosted a highly prestigious Legendary Ascension Banquet, inviting distinguished guests such as City Lord Mu Yuan, Battle Armor General, the Giant Legend Frost King, and others. The cat-people, fire lions, multi-armed tribes, and winged tribes, who had now ventured into the outside world, were naturally also on the invitation list.

Nature’s Garden held the ascension banquet with great grandeur.

After all, before the emergence of this Legendary Realm, Nature’s Garden had only Mirena as its sole Legendary Realm, and she had to shoulder all responsibilities alone, sometimes not daring to linger long even during visits to Tianyuan City.

Now, with a second Legendary Realm, Nature’s Garden gained much more strategic flexibility.

“Nature’s Garden has passed its dangerous phase, while I still have to struggle and bear the burden alone. When I return, I must make our Boulder Mountain Ridge youngsters train harder, much harder.”

The Giant Legend Frost King sighed.

Beside him, two younger Giant powerhouses, who might one day qualify to attempt the Legendary Realm breakthrough, couldn’t help but shiver.

That would be deadly.

Fortunately, no fourth-order prodigy in Tianyuan Territory had broken through yet, otherwise…

Boulder Mountain Ridge naturally had its own Legendary seed candidate and had long been preparing for the Legendary Realm breakthrough. However, this Legendary seed was still adjusting their condition and didn’t yet have sufficient confidence to begin the breakthrough attempt.

“This is all thanks to City Lord Tianyuan’s favor; otherwise, our Boulder Mountain Ridge wouldn’t have enough materials for the breakthrough ceremony either.”

“Now, everything is starting to look up.”

Frost King envisioned a bright future.

With this development, Boulder Mountain Ridge had great hopes of producing a second, third, fourth, and even fifth Legendary Realm.

But all of this came with a precondition.

It must proceed smoothly and stably.

Could they really develop without obstacles? The surrounding Monster Overlords seemed to be plotting something.

Frost King felt concerned.

He opened his mouth but ultimately refrained from speaking ill-omened words on such a joyous occasion.

…

Nature’s Garden’s ascension banquet was grand but didn’t last long.

This elven faction had preserved ancient traditions while developing their own efficient and decisive style.

The Ten Directions Island Region still couldn’t be considered peaceful and tranquil.

A banquet? It was fine to celebrate briefly.

Afterwards, everyone should return to their duties—it was far from time to relax.

It was around this time that Daisy and her group, who had gone to the Twilight Plains Great Domain for trade, returned.

When they set out, the team had only one X-II Airship.

Upon their return? The airship fleet consisted of four vessels.

「Dragonfish II Airship (Excellent)」

This was a vehicle Mu Yuan had exchanged for using Contribution Points on the Taixuan Covenant Platform.

These were large items that couldn’t be transported through Secret Realm transfers and had to be picked up personally or entrusted to delivery services. However, since Tianyuan City was located in the Ten Directions Island Region, delivery services like Divine Bird Express or Netherworld Express couldn’t reach it at all.

Personal pickup was more appropriate.

The Dragonfish II Airship was a self-developed Taixuan airship with performance similar to the X-II Airship, which Mu Yuan found quite satisfactory.”Four airships—two for trade runs, leaving two for daily personnel transport.”

Mu Yuan pondered.

Daisy proceeded to report the details of this trade expedition.

The primary objective of this journey was to establish routes and build connections with various territories and cities.

Thus, they visited many places.

They traveled southward along a series of pioneer camps, passing through Stone Ridge City and other towns and territories, with Boulder City as their final destination.

Even so, the income from this trade run was substantial.

Most importantly, they had opened up channels.

For instance, without going in person to acquire it, he wouldn’t have been able to obtain the Dragon Fish Airship.

“And then there’s this treasure,” Daisy said. “The Domain Jammer blueprint you ordered, Boss, is temporarily out of stock. It will take about one or two months to be available. But based on your requirements, we purchased this set treasure—the Barrier Stele.”

(End of Chapter)