Chapter 487: 446: A Bit Inflated

Chapter 487: Chapter 446: A Bit Inflated

Yong’an Sanctuary, Municipal Office Building.

Cui Xinseng paced back and forth, occasionally leaning against the window, smoking a cigarette, and blowing clouds of smoke.

The anomaly of “White Tree High Ground” had become a thorn in his side. These days, he had already amassed a considerable military force at the outpost closest to White Tree High Ground. However, due to a lack of understanding concerning the mysterious enemies from Sakura Country and his reluctance to suffer losses, he found himself at an impasse.

All he could do was wait for the results of the mercenaries’ investigation.

Knock, knock, knock—

The sound of urgent knocking reverberated. Cui Xinseng returned to his seat and rubbed his face, restoring his composure and dignity.

“Enter,” he said indifferently.

The door opened, and his personal male secretary walked in excitedly, “The mercenaries tasked with ‘scouting the enemy at White Tree High Ground’ have returned!”

“Oh?” Cui Xinseng suppressed his eagerness and inquired slowly, “What were the results of the investigation? The enemy’s numbers, strength, and origins… If the information isn’t sufficient, we’ll have to withhold some of the reward.”

The “adventurer guild” had a complete task posting procedure.

Rewards were provided by the client, but the difficulty level of the task must be evaluated by the “adventurer guild.” The higher the difficulty, the more the client was required to pay in rewards.

For a three-star task, the reward had to be at least equivalent to five hundred units of Source Crystals, with no upper limit… meaning the client had to offer at least five hundred Source Crystals but could raise the payment to attract more powerful adventurers to take on the task.

The most crucial merit of the “adventurer guild” was also based on the value of the task reward—three hundred Source Crystals could earn one Merit Point, five hundred could earn two, and so on… The higher the task difficulty, the more Merit Points awarded.

For high-star level tasks, clients had to provide rare items besides Source Crystals. These items, often valued in Source Crystals, were given to the adventurers as rewards—the guild easily obtained rare materials that weren’t much use to adventurers, while adventurers could exchange Merit Points and Source Crystals for their most coveted equipment, items, and potions.

For the White Tree High Ground mission, Cui Xinseng had spared no expense, providing materials and Source Crystals worth at least hundreds of thousands of Source Crystals combined. Materials like high-purity Source Crystals were particularly invaluable.

It was precisely because of this that the task had been snapped up as soon as it was posted.

However, Cui Xinseng had little expectation that the few dozen unofficial Awakeners could completely achieve the task objectives… At the least, it would require multiple investigations, and more Awakeners would need to fill the gaps left by casualties.

When the time was right, and the enemy’s strength had been ascertained, he could call upon the Ancestor Dragon Army to completely annihilate the Sakura Country Awakeners.

Thinking this, Cui Xinseng looked at his secretary with a smile, knowing that no matter what the results he heard, he wouldn’t be surprised.

Infected by their director’s mood, the male secretary also gradually calmed down. After a pause, he began, “The results are extraordinary! According to their report, the number of Awakeners left at White Tree High Ground should be at least a thousand, with one-third of them being Sixth Layer Awakeners and above, and their Ninth Layer Experts exceeding thirty names. They also suspect that among them, there are those who have broken through the bottleneck and reached the Tenth Layer peak strongman.

Not only that, but the adventurers speculate that the number of Sakura Country Awakeners should be even greater. They likely didn’t form their organization after being stranded in Daxia Country but are most likely from beyond the seas, from the Four Sakura Islands.”

Cui Xinseng was a little stunned.

He collected his thoughts. With the enemy so strong, how did you few dozen unofficial Awakeners manage to escape? He had heard that less than one-third had perished.

Then he saw his secretary hesitate before continuing, “Also, they said… they claimed to have eliminated at least three hundred Sakura Country Awakeners. They not only completed the ‘scouting enemy’ mission but also exceeded the ‘enemy annihilation’ mission and requested… requested additional rewards.”

The office fell into a deathly silence.

The secretary waited a long while before finally lifting his head, only to see Cui Xinseng with his mouth slightly agape, looking utterly constipated.

Green Shadow.

Return City Point Number One.

A magnificent ten-meter-high boulder stood in the center of the Return City Point, and at intervals, accompanied by a flash of white light, Awakeners would appear out of thin air.

The Return City Scroll had already appeared on the “adventurer guild’s” exchange list. Although still expensive, it was accessible to Five and Six-Star adventurers.

Such life-saving items were, to most people, worth trading all their wealth for, as long as they could afford it.

Some even dared to venture deep into Forbidden Lands with the assistance of the Return City Scroll, seeking Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and rapidly increasing their strength.

The light before the magnificent boulder flashed, and the pitiful figures of Xiao Qingsheng and Liu Tianming appeared.

“We’re back… that scared the hell out of me!”

Using the Return City Scroll for the first time had left them uneasy. Now, seeing the surrounding landscape change and the relentless enemies disappear, replaced by rows of black Arrow Towers, fiery red giant cannons, and white Mage Towers enclosing the Return City Point, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Taking steps forward, they headed towards the first hospital in Green Shadow to seek treatment… which was cheaper than relying on potions.

Half an hour later,

The two emerged from the hospital. Apart from their combat uniforms stained with blood and looking disheveled, there were no wounds on their bodies, only a slight paleness due to their weakness.

“…Those huge Tower Ships must be what the Sakura Country Awakeners rely on to cross the oceans, right?”

“Flame Mage” Liu Tianming furrowed his brow, “The number of Sakura Country Warriors is large, and that last person who appeared is very powerful… It seems almost of no use delivering the intelligence we’ve gathered.”

Beneath the tower ship, they saw many more Awakeners from Sakura Country from afar. With the strength of the Yong’an Sanctuary, they might not be able to handle this trouble… On the other hand, the giant tower ship was obviously a treasure. This was a great discovery, and even if they submitted it as the result of the mission and received an extra reward, they would still feel at a loss.

“Perhaps…”

“Perhaps…”

The two looked at each other and spoke simultaneously, “Directly inform the headquarters, after all, the intelligence isn’t within the commissioned range of White Tree High Ground. Considering the generosity of the Sanctuary, the reward they give will surely be much higher, and who knows, it might even leave a good impression on the higher-ups.”

“Moreover, we have returned to Green Shadow, this is the choice of fate—”

…

In the castle,

The plants in front of the garden seemed more spirited; Tang Yu saw the tender green bud with a touch of pink floating up like a hot air balloon, then burbling back down.

“I wonder if it could give birth to a Wood Series Elf…”

He then shook his head; the birth of an elf counted centuries as units, and even if the castle’s garden was nurtured by Source Qi and symbolized the convergence of thousands of beliefs at the core of the territory, the possibility of birthing an elf was high, but in a hundred years…

Tang Yu was confident that he would still be handsome, but by then, his great-grandchildren could be getting soy sauce, and the elves he owned might even form a soccer team.

He shook his head to extinguish the unrealistic thought.

“Using the mountain behind the castle as the carrier, ‘Zhen’ has been successfully… transferred over. According to it, the speed of its power recovery is much faster than when it was on Kong’an Mountain.”

Tang Yu pondered; the mountains behind the castle stretched out but were not very big and didn’t even have a name… In terms of historical heritage, they couldn’t compare to Kong’an Mountain, but they were more suitable to be an elf’s carrier. The only possibility was due to the territory.

Most of the mountain behind was covered by the territory’s range, it must be this reason that caused some kind of change in the land that I am unaware of.

The territory was now full of talent.

Recently, with the collective efforts of many linguists, most of the information found from the “station” had been deciphered—some texts could be compared with rune language, so the difficulty of translation wasn’t high, and experts quickly speculated on the history of the Third Epoch from a textual perspective.

Among the spoils of war that Tang Yu had found, some formulas written in the common language of the Third Epoch could finally be understood.

He picked and chose from a pile of materials.

Nowadays, Tang Yu looked down on formulas that couldn’t work on Transcendent beings, and very few made it to the table, only two.

— “Giant Dragon’s Grip” and “Swift Teeth.”

Their effects were very simple, increasing the user’s strength and speed for a short period, but for beings at the life level of Transcendent, any minor improvement was genuinely arduous, let alone that the potency increase from the two Potions was not insignificant and could be quite effective in battle.

From the deciphered information, Tang Yu learned about many medicinal herbs and minerals he had never even heard of.

“Void Grass”: Swallowing it directly could increase affinity with space attributes, and it could also be used to make corresponding Potions… It’s just a pity he didn’t find the formula.

“Mutated Plant Wood Core”: It could greatly enhance bodily vitality, increase physical strength, and even regenerate severed limbs… Only mutated plants over five hundred years old could possibly condense it.

“Moonlight Flower”: Significantly enhances spiritual power and can treat most symptoms related to the spirit.

Tang Yu drooled over all these treasures.

However, he had never heard of them!

He could only guess that Earth was only at the stage of Source Qi revival, and these magical medicinal herbs had not yet grown!

“Perhaps they exist in Mirage Mountain Range, but Nightmare can’t use ‘Insight Eye’, and even if I memorize the shapes of these herbs, it will be hard to find them, unless I go to Mirage Mountain Range myself…”

After thinking it over, Tang Yu decided to follow the desires of his heart and not go.

If he were to go, he would wait until he became a Transcendent, when he had more confidence.

…

He organized the information obtained from the “station” and categorized it into the castle’s library.

Some of the older books, Tang Yu also had them remade, and he himself entered all of these into the research institute’s database to prevent any loss.

Tang Yu returned to his daily routine, cultivating from dawn. This time, he cultivated for a full ten hours, only stopping when he felt the Source Qi he absorbed had reached saturation and the cultivation efficiency dropped significantly.

“Insight Eye” glanced at his cultivation progress, Thirteenth Tier 43.93%, approaching halfway, getting closer and closer to Transcendent.

Inside his body, the huge cyclone began to liquify, dripping down like rain, forming shallow pools.

Once the cyclone was fully liquefied and formed the Qi Sea, it would be Great Perfection, and he could start the breakthrough to Transcendent.

Liquefied Source Power was even more advanced; when Source Power condensed to a point, calling upon it would fill his meridians and limbs with a tremendous force, as if one punch could collapse half a castle.

It was a time of rapid strength increase, the gap between just entering Thirteenth Layer and Thirteenth Layer Perfection was vast, and even more so the gap between Tenth Layer to Thirteenth Layer was not less.

In plain terms, Tang Yu was feeling pumped up.

It took great effort to contain his destructive urges.

Especially since in the garden, some small, intelligent lives had been conceived, he could only take a trip to Spirit Space, activate “Endless Mode”, and wildly bomb away until he was submerged by endless waves of Demonized Beasts, which was when Tang Yu cooled down from his inflated state.

His strength was still not enough!

PS: I have to undergo surgery tomorrow, so the author has chosen to sleep early, that’s why…ಠ╭╮ಠ (sad.jpg)