Chapter 332: New Year And The Town-building Decree
Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, beginner meditation room.
Hou Fei looked at the inquiring Lin Qi. After a long silence, he finally gritted his teeth and spoke. “Master of the Pavilion, our branch of the Crystal Race and that branch of the Smiling Skull Crystal Race actually both come from the vanished First Domain City.”
As Hou Fei finished speaking, the entire room fell silent.
“Your branch all comes from the vanished First Domain City?” Lin Qi looked at Hou Fei, unable to believe it for a long time. He could not help but ask Hou Fei again, “What evidence is there to prove it?”
The First City!
As the first domain city in the world established to deal with monsters, at that time the monsters worldwide were not yet that powerful, and the various races’ technology and equipment were all at their peak, with no lost technology. The scope humans could explore back then far exceeded the present, and the ruins they had investigated were far more numerous than now.
Whether in terms of talent or genius, technology or martial arts, all of the world’s very best things were concentrated in the First Domain City.
It could be said that at that time, the First Domain City was the peak of the world.
If Hou Fei and the others’ lineage truly came from the vanished First Domain City, once this news got out, it would definitely shock the Four Regions and make the big figures of the Four Great Domain Cities rush over at once.
“We actually do have something.” Hou Fei hesitated. “But the thing that can prove it is not in my hands.”
“What thing? In whose hands?” Lin Qi asked curiously.
“It is a piece of energy ore refining and compression equipment from the First Domain City that can turn energy ore into energy crystals and energy blood essence. This equipment was brought out by our predecessors when they left the First Domain City. This device is something even now the Four Great Domain Cities have not been able to replicate. They only produced a degraded version that can compress energy crystals into energy blood essence.” Hou Fei explained. “And that thing has always been in the hands of Smiling Skull. In fact, whether in the City of Light Chasing or in the many cities of the Four Regions, a lot of the energy crystals come from this equipment. For example, some Crystal Race merchants go into the City of Light Chasing and buy huge amounts of energy ore actually to do business with Smiling Skull, exchanging them for energy crystals.”
“Using energy ore, it can be turned into energy crystals and also into energy blood essence?” Lin Qi was slightly surprised and suddenly understood somewhat. “No wonder Smiling Skull clearly does not have the financial power and resources of the Red Moon Merchant Guild and Earth Star Pharmaceuticals, and has been holed up in the Mountain of the Dead, yet can cultivate so many Bone Forging Realm and Blood Condensation Realm masters. So it is because of this equipment.”
This kind of technology was indeed something he had never even heard of. Its value could be said to far exceed the energy blood essence manufacturing technology mastered by the Four Great Domain Cities.
Energy crystals in an energy vein were extremely scarce. From a small energy vein, not many could be mined, let alone using energy crystals to produce energy blood essence.
But if energy blood essence could be made directly from energy ore, the output could undoubtedly be greatly unleashed. Not to mention that energy crystals were useful even to Bone Forging Realm martial artists. If energy ore could really be converted into large quantities of energy crystals, that would definitely reduce the cultivation difficulty below the Heavenly Human Realm by an entire level.
“This is also the reason Smiling Skull has always been in the forbidden zone of the Mountain of the Dead, searching for the First Domain City.” Hou Fei nodded with a sigh. “When our predecessors left the First Domain City, the devices they could take were merely obsolete equipment, and not many in number. If they could obtain a large amount of the most advanced devices from the First Domain City, in the future even the Four Great Domain Cities would probably have to submit beneath Smiling Skull’s feet.”
As a branch that had strayed from the First Domain City, his lineage came to the City of Light Chasing. Their original plan was to find in the City of Light Chasing a faction with decent strength but lacking in foundation to cooperate with. That way, the other side would provide energy ore, and they would provide energy crystals, supporting each other so both could develop in the City of Light Chasing.
But before he could even start cooperating with the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall rose like a rocket, rising so fast he could not even react. Now it had become the number one faction beneath the Four Great Domain Cities.
He felt that if he did not quickly make a deal with the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, the matter of the First Domain City might become useless.
“Alright, I understand.” Lin Qi looked at Hou Fei and said with a smile, “This information of yours is very valuable to the hall. I hope you can continue to keep it secret and not tell anyone else. As for the quota, I can give you two elite disciple quotas. Later just go directly to Qin Mu and tell him; he will arrange everything for you.”
Although what Hou Fei said could not be regarded as conclusive evidence, since it was only words and he had not seen that device, Hou Fei had already joined the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, and all he was asking for was an elevated position and treatment within the hall.
If what Hou Fei said was false, he could take those things back at any time. There was not much meaning in deceiving him. As for the forbidden zone deep in the Mountain of the Dead, that might require others to take huge risks, but for him, it was essentially nothing.
“Two elite disciple quotas?” Hou Fei was stunned for a moment when he heard this, then looked at Lin Qi excitedly. “Thank you, Master of the Pavilion.”
The disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall were divided into four levels: formal disciples, inner disciples, elite disciples, and core disciples. Elite disciples already counted as the second tier, and the welfare and treatment they enjoyed was far better than that of inner disciples.
Moreover, the biggest difference between elite disciples and inner disciples was that they no longer needed to go participate in work. Every month they could also obtain a large amount of points, allowing elite disciples to devote themselves fully to cultivation and improvement. They even had free rental time each month in the training rooms on the second floor of the cultivation tower, as well as the qualification to rent intermediate gravity rooms.
In addition, they only needed to complete the specified tasks each month to gain plenty of points and contribution. Those elite disciples who ranked high in monthly contribution could rent the legendary beginner meditation room for a whole day for free. For people whose comprehension was not high, this was absolutely a place for meteoric rise.
“Master of the Pavilion, there is one more thing.” Hou Fei suddenly remembered something and spoke very solemnly. “According to what my father’s generation said, when our predecessors walked out of the forbidden zone, it happened to be around the time of the New Year in January. As for those teams that left the First Domain City at other times, they never received any news about them after they left the forbidden zone. My father’s generation believed this timing is very important and might be the key to getting out of the forbidden zone.”
“The New Year?” Lin Qi nodded. “Alright, I will remember it.”
According to the intelligence provided by Azure Wing City, the forbidden zones were indeed very sensitive to timing. Not every time point was suitable for exploration. In fact, different regions’ forbidden zones all had different accessible time windows. If one went in outside safe timings, the danger would be like a simple difficulty suddenly turning into hell difficulty. This was information the major top-tier forces had paid for with their lives.
Hou Fei’s predecessors were undoubtedly very lucky to have walked out of the forbidden zone of the Mountain of the Dead during a safe period. Otherwise, their outcome would likely have been the same as those other teams that left the First Domain City.
After speaking, Hou Fei respectfully left the beginner meditation room and immediately went to find Qin Mu.
After Hou Fei left, Lin Qi opened the system panel and fixed his gaze on the advanced lounge, the hidden building from the system rewards.
“Looks like I have no choice but to use this.” Lin Qi looked at the introduction to the advanced lounge, feeling pained.
The advanced lounge could be said to be an evolved building from the resting place.
Normally, each ten thousand units of energy spent could transform a room into a resting place, drawing ten players in.
The advanced lounge was even stronger. One room could draw in five hundred players. The only drawback was that it used energy crystals, and one room required ten thousand energy crystals. It was essentially nobility among rooms, meant to fleece big spenders.
The only benefit was that it could save the hall a large amount of space, indirectly saving a lot of time otherwise spent on constructing rooms.
Just like now, the halls in the City of Light Chasing and Chiyue Town were still continuously expanding because too many resting places needed to be built. Especially with the tens of thousands of players brought in before, over a thousand rooms had instantly used up more than ninety percent of the rooms the hall had built during that period. As a result, even if they wanted to bring in a large number of new players in a short time, there simply were not enough rooms left to convert.
But now that he knew the news about the First City, he had no choice but to rapidly increase manpower. After all, the current players would struggle to support the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall in both developing trade routes and exploring forbidden zones at the same time.
Not to mention that many players would definitely be promoted to the Blood Condensation Realm later, and the energy blood essence required would only increase. The conversion devices in the First City were very important.
As for the deal with Tianhe Domain City, even if Tianhe Domain City were willing to sell devices that manufacture energy blood essence, each set cost as much as two million energy crystals and could only produce twelve units of energy blood essence per year.
Setting aside whether he had that many cities, a single set at two million energy crystals meant that with the few million energy crystals he had earned, he could not buy many sets. Moreover, accumulating energy blood essence took a lot of time, and the Four Regions clearly no longer had that much time.
Although he could also, through subsequent cooperation with Tianhe Domain City, continuously sell hall buildings to earn energy blood essence, this could not be achieved in the short term.
And even if it were achieved, the number of players it could supply would be very limited.
There were many Blood Condensation Realm cultivators being trained in the domain cities. Just maintaining the daily needs of Blood Condensation Realm martial artists required a lot of energy blood essence. What the domain cities could currently take out in bulk was only the accumulation of many years and could not last long.
For him to solve this once and for all, his only option was the First Domain City’s conversion equipment.
Smiling Skull had always entrenched itself in the Mountain of the Dead, so it was destined they could not have many cities or large strongholds. Yet Smiling Skull could, like the resource-rich Red Moon Merchant Guild and Earth Star Pharmaceuticals, support a large number of Blood Condensation Realm cultivators. This alone was enough to show that the First Domain City’s conversion equipment was highly efficient, and its output was simply incomparable to the devices of the Four Great Domain Cities.
If he could acquire a large number of these conversion devices, or even produce them himself, then in the future there would at least be no worries for players on the path of the Blood Condensation Realm. Then he would also have more confidence facing the major problem of the forbidden zones.
“However, given the hall’s current cultivation buildings are already extremely tight, we still cannot bring in too many players at once. There is still more than half a month left until the New Year. For now, bring in two thousand people a day, and once more cultivation buildings are ready, then increase the intake.”
Lin Qi made a plan, then spent one million energy crystals in one go to convert one hundred advanced lounges, so that other workers could put all their effort into building cultivation structures such as intermediate gravity rooms, advanced training rooms, beginner meditation rooms, martial arenas, and beginner cultivation towers, instead of wasting time building resting places.
The sudden surge in daily player slots made the many queued players overjoyed, praising that the game manufacturer was finally acting human. But players inside the game felt the competition pressure mounting.
Originally, as High Martial Arts Descend became more and more popular and drew the attention of more and more people, more game studios and guilds began focusing on High Martial Arts Descend. With more and more experts entering the game, the sudden explosion in game slots made the already intense competition for wilderness resources even more astonishing.
Normally, near Chiyue Town, advanced apprentice players could still hunt some beginner monsters. But within just a dozen days, advanced apprentices had to form teams early in the morning, drive transport vehicles hundreds of kilometers away, and hunt intermediate monsters.
The reason was simple. The monsters refreshing within a hundred kilometers of Chiyue Town and the City of Light Chasing were no longer enough to go around. They could only travel farther to hunt monsters for points and contribution. This rarely seen situation made Chiyue Town into a livable place in the eyes of vagrants in the Wushan Region. Even if a lord-level monster came within a hundred kilometers of Chiyue Town, it had to turn tail and run.
Mountain of the Dead.
As a thunderous roar from deep within the mountain range echoed and faded, Lu Fanchen, Li Tianxing, and Lin Xinyao, who had been traversing the mountains, could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
“If the three of us hadn’t all broken through to the Blood Condensation Realm and run fast enough, we really would have been wiped out by that monster in the underground vein.” Li Tianxing looked fearfully toward the distant mountains, wiping the blood from his forehead.
After all three of them had successfully advanced to the Blood Condensation Realm through golden blood, they thought they could quickly open a safe route through the Mountain of the Dead to Tianhe Domain. But after pushing into the depths of the Mountain of the Dead, they discovered a rare large energy vein and thought they had struck it rich.
Then, deep in that large energy vein, they found an earth dragon over six to seven hundred meters in length. With just a single strike, that earth dragon blasted the three of them straight out of the ground. If not for the heaven-defying recovery power of the body strengthening secret technique third level, allowing them to shake off their serious injuries and escape immediately, the three of them would surely have died there.
It also helped that Lu Fanchen had desperately erupted first, going up to block the attack and taking most of the force. Otherwise, they could not even imagine what would have happened.
“The monsters on this route are too strong. Let’s change routes. Right now, while we still have the advantage of the golden blood before other teams’ people advance to the Blood Condensation Realm, we must quickly open a safe route. If we wait until the other teams’ Blood Condensation Realm martial artists increase in number, we will not have much advantage left.” Lu Fanchen said.
“I really do not know how Luo Wu Shang and Ye Qinglu managed it. Without treasures like golden blood, they still broke through to the Blood Condensation Realm so fast.” Lin Xinyao nodded with a sigh.
The power of golden blood spoke for itself. Everyone’s rapid progress was thanks to golden blood. Yet Luo Wu Shang and Ye Qinglu could still break through so quickly, especially Ye Qinglu, who advanced to the Blood Condensation Realm on the fifth day after Luo Wu Shang, while the three of them only broke through one after another after the seventh day.
While Lu Fanchen and the others were resting, in the distance, on a C6-class large flying transport vehicle passing by, there was a team led by a Forest Race half-step heavenly human and composed of more than twenty Blood Condensation Realm martial artists, men and women alike, all wearing the mark of Mist Mountain Domain City.
When they discovered Lu Fanchen and the other disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, they all showed looks of surprise.
“Xie Feina, are these people from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall?” A four-winged woman of the Winged Tribe whose strength had reached the peak high-level Blood Condensation Realm looked at Lu Fanchen’s trio outside the window with a smile. “These people are even fiercer than the rumors. They actually dare come to this place. Do they not know this is where the earth dragon king is active?”
“How could they have come here?” Xie Feina, who had only recently advanced to the Blood Condensation Realm, also looked at Lu Fanchen and the others in surprise, not expecting people from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall to have penetrated this deep.
As one of the kings of the Mountain of the Dead, the earth dragon king was an existence that even domain cities dared not provoke. Forces from the Four Regions would detour around it, yet Lu Fanchen’s trio dared to get so close. It was simply courting death.
But before the people inside the vehicle could chat much more, the leader Mond gave a soft snort.
“Alright, quiet!” Mond glanced at everyone in the vehicle. “Soon we will rendezvous with the team from the forbidden zone of the Mountain of the Dead. The forbidden zone of the Mountain of the Dead is Smiling Skull’s home ground, where there is a Heavenly Human Grandmaster in charge. Our domain city’s current relationship with them is not good. Once inside, all of you must be careful. If you anger the grandmaster and get killed, your deaths will be for nothing. Also, beware of abnormals. Although we half-step heavenly humans will protect you and this time period is a safe phase, abnormals are impossible to guard against. You must be wary of sneak attacks from those around you. Understand?”
Hearing this, everyone in the vehicle became serious and stopped joking.
Abnormals were arguably the most troublesome entities in forbidden zones. You would not even know how companions around you got eroded and substituted. If an abnormal ambushed you, even a half-step heavenly human would find it hard to escape death.
Just after Mond finished speaking, Xie Feina’s gaze swept past Lu Fanchen’s trio outside the window, and she could not help but be stunned.
“Are the three of them going to the forbidden zone?”
Xie Feina watched as the three suddenly acted as if injected with chicken blood, charging straight toward the direction of the Mountain of the Dead forbidden zone, utterly astonished.
However, Xie Feina had no idea that Lu Fanchen and his companions had just received a system announcement.
The New Year limited-time event “City Beyond the Territory” in High Martial Arts Descend had opened. Within the forbidden zone on the Mountain of the Dead map, there was a city. Any martial hall core disciple could go to the forbidden zone of the Mountain of the Dead to search for this city. The more valuable items they brought back from this city, the more contribution and merit they would be rewarded with.
The top five players would receive energy blood essence rewards and, at the same time, one Town Building Order as a reward in the Mountain of the Dead.
With this system announcement released, both players currently online and those offline could no longer sit still.
