At the same time, a tiny point of light merged into Yeluoâs body.
"You donât need to tell me either. With this Prohibition in place, he wonât be able to give rise to any treacherous thoughts. If anything happens, you can personally step in to punish him."
Yeluo was very happy, while Catastrophe felt bitter inside, but being able to survive was already the greatest stroke of luck; he no longer dared to ask for anything more.
With this matter more or less wrapped up, Zhang Xiaomanâs trip to the Plague Relics could be said to have yielded two unexpected gains: Yeluo and Catastrophe, these two Extraordinary Level beings. Especially the latterâhis Strength was even close to the Middle Transcendent Level. And now he had been taken in as a little underling, permanently confined in the Original Realm.
Unfortunately, Zhang Xiaoman absolutely did not dare to let such a super hitter out. Yeluo was still fine; after all, they had signed a Contract, and their relationship was quite harmonious. If they really ran into an emergency, letting her out to deal with things for a bit shouldnât be too much of a problem.
But Catastrophe was obviously impossible. If this guy were released, whether or not he could be taken back was a real question; if things went wrong, Zhang Xiaoman might even suffer backlash.
After arranging everything in the Original Realm, Zhang Xiaoman returned once more to the Plague Relics space. He still had a lot of resources here that he hadnât collected yet.
With Catastrophe, the master of this relic space, present, Zhang Xiaoman easily obtained detailed information on this place. It was as if he had unlocked the full mapâhe could clearly see where each treasure was.
There were only about five months left before the space closed. The time here was naturally measured using the Star Alliance Calendar standard. The reason he called it five months was because Zhang Xiaoman had converted it into Water Blue Star dates for convenience.
Estimating the time, he figured a lot of people should already have started their journey back, and many might even have left the Plague Relics by now and returned to the Purple Charm Gate.
Although the allotted exploration period hadnât fully run out yet, the two-year limit was just the absolute maximum. Once that limit was exceeded, the spaceâs entrance could no longer be maintained, and anyone still inside would be trapped here, doomed to die. So almost no one cut it that close; they all left early.
To avoid exposing his Ability, Zhang Xiaoman didnât just pop up in front of himself, but obediently left through the relicâs exit like everyone else.
By now, the Lan Family was already completely wiped out. Aside from him and the few people heâd saved, there shouldnât be any other survivors.
He wondered what kind of reaction the Lan Family members outside would have once they learned this news. In any case, a clash with the Rothschild family was pretty much guaranteed.
Because he had set a news waymark near the relic exit, Zhang Xiaoman wasnât in a hurry to rush back. He only needed to Teleport over shortly before the exit closed.
He first made a trip back to the Olharast Vein and collected some evidence of the Rothschild familyâs actions. The battlefield here hadnât been cleaned up; many traces of the fighting remained, so finding evidence wasnât difficult.
Then he summoned 5,000 Star Guardians to serve as mining labor to help him gather ore here.
The reason he could summon so many Guardians was that he had now Upgraded the Skill to orange level.
As mentioned before, Zhang Xiaoman had originally planned to wait until the Holy Spirit Heart went up one more Level, then use it to summon a Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, Yeluo had used it up, so now he could only accumulate Upgrade Points again.
However, although he couldnât summon Holy Spirits, the other mechanisms unlocked by the Skill Upgrade could still be used.
The Star Guardian Skill, once Upgraded to orange level, had undergone a qualitative transformation. Not only could he now summon up to 10,000 Guardians at the same time, but all summoned units had their Strength further enhanced. He could even summon three Holy Light Dragon Riders at once. Now the Star Allianceâs Dragon Knights numbered three. The Holy Light Giant Dragon Little Light had also gained two new companions: Giant Dragon Little Saint and Little Roar of the Dragon. And of course, Dragon Knights were indispensableâXing Han now had peers; they were granted the names Star Light and Xing Lan.
Moreover, these three Holy Light Dragon Rider sisters had a Special Ability: with Zhang Xiaomanâs permission, they could independently use the Star Guardian summoning Ability to summon warriors below their own Level. Seeing this, Zhang Xiaoman simply bestowed them certain permissions and had them form a new legion called the Star Guardian Army. Since they wielded Holy Attribute Strength, they were specifically used to deal with the Demon Clan, with remarkable effect.
Just now, Zhang Xiaoman needed manpower to help mine ore, so he directly deployed half the legion to this space, saving himself a lot of effort.
However, the process of mining the Olharast Vein was complex and meticulous. The strength structure of raw ore was nowhere near that of Olharast Steel after forging. So even though Zhang Xiaoman had mastered Earth Element Divine Skills, he still couldnât carry out large-scale, rapid mining.
Fortunately, these Star Guardians worked with meticulous care. With the increase in Skill Level and the substantial rise in Zhang Xiaomanâs spiritual power, their Strength and Spiritual nature were greater than ever. As long as he laid out clear targets and mining procedures, they could carry out the job perfectly.
The key was that these Star Guardians werenât truly living beings; they didnât need rest. Each one possessed Enlightenment Level Strength, and by working day and night, they could soon finish mining all the ore.
Zhang Xiaoman was very pleased. Besides this vein, there were plenty of other resources in this space. He could go and collect them one by one later.
After sorting out the mine, he searched the relic again and set up several new Teleport points. By then, it was about time to leave.
Zhang Xiaoman used Unlimited Teleportation to return to the area near the relic exit. Just as he was preparing to leave, he hadnât expected to find several people waiting there for him.
"People from the Rothschild family? They still havenât left and are actually waiting here for me..."
Seeing Almanâs familiar figure, Zhang Xiaoman felt somewhat helpless.
After the battle at the Plague Temple, their familyâs elite had been almost completely wiped out. A large number of Control Level juniors had died in battle, and several elders had fallen as well. Fewer than ten people had managed to survive.
They were already in such a miserable state, yet these people still refused to let go and stood guard here. That stubbornness was almost admirable.
Alman and the others still didnât know they had been discovered and were still suppressing their auras, hiding in a dark corner.
Unfortunately, after their previous encounter, Zhang Xiaoman had already memorized his aura. Using that aura, he could easily locate him via the Tracking Technique. Coupled with the Lord of Light passive Ability, their concealment methods became completely ineffectiveâtheyâd long since been exposed.
By contrast, on Zhang Xiaomanâs side, the Shadow Lord passive allowed his own concealment to go undetected, so the roles of light and dark were instantly reversed.
In that case, he naturally wouldnât be polite to this group. Since these guys wanted to ambush him, they couldnât blame him for returning the favor in kind.
Hiding in the shadows, Alman and the others still didnât realize they had been exposedâand in an extremely theatrical way. A poisonous cloud drifting across the sky happened, by sheer coincidence, to condense into a downward-pointing arrow. The tip of the arrow pointed straight at the top of Almanâs head, as if reminding every passerby: thereâs an ambush here!