Chapter 273: Chapter 273: Endless Stream of Creation Energy

The Divinity Card and such were only moderately appealing to him at the moment; what truly enticed him was half the area of the Divine Realm. Although Li Wenze’s Divine Realm was far smaller than his own, it was still quite sizable—tearing half of it away could directly create a new Divine Realm on par with six major subsidiary Divine Realms.

In addition to a plethora of Ancient Treasures, an Ancient Card, and the assortment of barracks and treasures previously mentioned, all these combined made it worth the risk.

When Hua Zhang received the message that someone had challenged him, he was quite taken aback, then his face turned serious.

Someone daring to challenge him at this juncture was either insane or very confident.

The likelihood of insanity was practically nonexistent, so…

Withdrawing his consciousness from the Divine Realm, he saw a somewhat familiar Hero initiating a challenge against him.

Upon seeing the vast elite troops behind the challenger, including a hundred Level 4 Swordsmen, he knew this was a Level 2 Hero; a First Level Hero wouldn’t have this many troops.

Hua Zhang pondered for a moment before swiftly sending a message to another teammate.

Seconds later, Lin Xiao received a message from Hua Zhang:

“Brother, we’ll give you a hundred thousand Gold Coins, two Gunman Barracks, and two First Level treasures. How about you stay out of this?”

Lin Xiao’s eyes lit up as he said:

“Add another hundred thousand Gold Coins!”

“Deal!”

Hua Zhang agreed instantly, and soon a contract came his way. Lin Xiao reviewed it to find no issues and swiftly signed it. Two hundred thousand Gold Coins, two Gunman Barracks, and two First Level treasures materialized in his hands the moment the contract was finalized. Then, ignoring Li Wenze’s angry questioning and unwilling roars, he turned his horse around and left.

If he could benefit without a fight, why risk his life?

Luckily, he hadn’t signed a contract with Li Wenze yet, otherwise…

“Wait a minute.”

Lin Xiao suddenly realized this.

He wondered if Li Wenze had momentarily lost his composure and wasn’t paying attention, or if…

As long as no contract had been signed, the other party could technically default.

Upon this realization, Lin Xiao felt no remorse vanishing into thin air, and he sped away even faster.

In the Myriad Images God Temple, a massive Chaos Fireball burned eternally as before.

Six colossal Tomb Guardians cloaked in inscrutable streams of divine light that pierced the heavens and earth sat quietly around the Chaos Fireball; in the unimaginably vast space of the Myriad Images God Temple were seated and hidden figures of unfathomable power or will, their gazes cast upon several screens before the six Tomb Guardians, silently observing the various performances of competitors within the Ruins of Myriad.

Suddenly, one of the Tomb Guardians extended a finger and lightly tapped, and a ring of clear light spread out, transforming into a new screen. Ripples cascaded outward, and slowly an image emerged — it was none other than Lin Xiao, who had just acquired the treasure and left the ruins.

Once the image became clear, Jin Sisi, who had been leaning back on a dark gold throne with her hand propping her forehead and eyes closed in rest, opened her eyes and looked into the void with a smile crossing her radiant and heroic visage.

In another part of the void, Xia Yu also lifted his face from a bundle of soft skinned embrace at the moment the image solidified, staring into the void for a while. He chuckled softly, “Not bad,” he said, and buried his head back into the ample bosom of his pretty maidservant, continuing to relish in the pleasure. Meanwhile, Lin Xiao, who had just left the Undead Relic, had no idea that he had entered the notice of certain beings. After leaving the relic, he did not return to the City of Strength but instead took the road southward directly.

It was no longer pleasant to stay near the City of Glory; his recent actions were tantamount to looting a burning house. Once Hua Zhang freed up his hands, there would definitely be repercussions. Additionally, having risen to Hero Level 2, he was now barely able to pose a threat to those players whose True Body had descended at Level 1. From every angle, they had reasons to suppress him, so it was not conducive to linger there for development; it was better to continue to venture out.

Now that his Hero Level had risen to Level 2, his strength had multiplied significantly. He could now explore further into more dangerous territories.

In this world, the finer the treasures, the further they were from the major camp cities. To acquire advanced soldier type barracks and treasures, one had to venture into perilous places.

This was why only Level 1 and Level 2 Heroes were commonly seen around the Sacred Gate, and higher than Level 3 Heroes were rare, even around the City of Strength which was at war with Barbaric City. The higher-level Heroes from both camps had all gone out to explore.

On the road, Lin Xiao counted his possessions, first spending fifty thousand Gold Coins and a hundred units each of wood and mineral to upgrade the Level 4 Swordsman Barracks from Level 1 to Level 2.

Immediately after the upgrade, he spent eighty thousand Gold Coins and two hundred units each of wood and minerals to upgrade the Swordsman Barracks to Level 3, with a weekly output of thirty.

Then, he spent one hundred thousand gold coins and three hundred units each of wood and ore to upgrade the Gryphon Archer Barracks to Level 4, where the production rate of the barracks was one hundred.

Next, the upgrade to the following level required an exorbitant three hundred thousand gold coins along with five hundred units each of wood and ore, which was more than he had.

Half a day later, Lin Xiao stopped at a crossroads between the main road connecting the Cathedral and the Swamp Camp. According to the map, to the north was the City of Glory belonging to the Cathedral, to the south was the Swamp Camp, and to the west led into an unknown canyon, marked on the map from the Sacred Gate as Black Fog Valley.

To the east and several kilometers forward was the coast, where there was a neutral port city; one could purchase large warships there to take the troops out to sea.

Both the Black Fog Valley and the sea were extremely dangerous places. The Black Fog Valley, situated among multiple camps, was marked as high difficulty on the map, and one could encounter heroes of Level 2 and above from any camp, including evil camps like Hell and Undead, as well as Elemental and other Neutral Camps.

The ocean to the east was called the Sea of Tranquility, resembling an inland sea like the Bohai Sea. Leaving the Sea of Tranquility would lead to the Endless Ocean, a place beyond the main cities of the major camps, with dangers unmarked on the map. However, this did not mean it was safe, for the danger of the sea increased with distance from the continent; the farther away from the land, the more dangerous it became.

After some consideration, Lin Xiao chose to set sail.

The reason was simple: the resources in the sea were relatively richer.

Resources in the sea were usually concentrated on densely scattered islands. Since sea travel was inconvenient, many islands went long periods without hero visits, easily accumulating a wealth of chests or wild monsters. With enough courage, good luck, and some strength, it was easy to become rich overnight.

Following a branching road to the east for several kilometers, Lin Xiao saw a huge city rising near the coast; from afar, its large harbor was filled with many ships.

Entering the city with his subordinates, he saw few player heroes in this neutral city; most were native heroes, including humans and other races, all of which were at least at Level 2.

Directed by a guard, he arrived at a market dedicated to the sale of ships. There was a wide variety of ships available for purchase, including common galleys and sailboats, rare tower ships and other types of vessels, and even the massive Ironclad Ships, but their prices were… well, out of his current budget of one hundred and seventy thousand gold coins.

He did not need to buy anything too fancy anyway, as he was only a Level 2 hero with not so many troops to transport.

After some selection, he chose a sixty-meter-long three-masted sailing ship and paid a full ten thousand gold coins for it.

All troops boarded the ship, and with sails unfurled, it slowly left the harbor and entered the Sea of Tranquility.

Standing at the bow, Lin Xiao felt the sea breeze playing with his hair as he stretched his hand out to touch it. White seagulls flew across the sky, the sea was as tranquil as its name suggested, and occasionally he could see some sailboats or fleets passing by—those belonged to ordinary native merchants, who would salute upon seeing Lin Xiao and his guards aboard the ship.

Standing behind Lin Xiao was an archer clad in exquisitely crafted light armor and carrying a bow of elegant design with flowing radiance. This was his first subordinate hero, whom he had named Wei Ya.

As a newly promoted hero, Wei Ya’s combat power had reached Sixth Level. His hero level started at the First Level, and he came with the Archer Talent—when commanding Cathedral faction archer troops, range +20% and damage +20%, with an additional 10% increase per hero level gained—extremely powerful indeed.

The Gryphon Archer was an advancement of the archer, also included among archers.

As a subordinate hero personally trained by him, Wei Ya’s command cap could be stacked with Lin Xiao’s, and their Hero Talents could also be stacked, so he entrusted all archers to Wei Ya’s command, freeing up a portion of his command limit.

It was unfortunate that strategic attributes could not be stacked unless he let Wei Ya command troops independently; within the same team, only talents and command cap could be stacked.

At this stage, there was no need for him to lead troops independently; as a Level 1 hero, his strength was a bit weak. He would let him lead independently once he was cultivated to Level 2 or 3.

Inside the Sea of Tranquility, trade was flourishing, and hero or native fleets frequented the waters. If any resources respawned, they were quickly discovered. Lin Xiao didn’t waste any time and directly headed for the inlet to the outer sea, and four days later, he left the inland sea and entered the outer sea.

A week later, a downpour descended, and Lin Xiao took shelter inside the cabin, barbecuing meat while listening to the sound of the rain pounding on the ship’s hull.

The sea was vast, boundless, and after a week they had not encountered a single island or encountered any sea monsters, which made him wonder if he had gone the wrong way.

As he contemplated whether to change course, suddenly there was a knock on the door. A swordsman, soaked through, entered, bringing with him a cold damp chill and also some good news.

An island of no small size had been spotted ahead.

Lin Xiao immediately perked up and ordered the ship to approach the island.

Braving the rain, he dashed out of the cabin to see a vast black shadow lying across the sea in the distance, hidden in the storm—an island that seemed like a gigantic sea beast lurking upon the surface of the ocean.

The storm was too fierce to discern the situation on the island clearly, and the strong winds churning up layers of three to four-meter-high waves made it difficult to approach.

He had the warship stop about a kilometer away from the island to wait for the storm to pass.

And so they waited nearly an entire day until the storm finally ceased the next morning.

Once the sky fully cleared, he went up on deck and saw the ship swiftly nearing an island, not a kilometer away after rounding a bend—an island covered by lush vegetation, with a large translucent column of light faintly visible, erupting from the center.

“There’s something good there.”

Lin Xiao was elated and ordered the warship to quickly close in. Rounding another bend, they saw two closely situated circles of light by the beach, inside which figures flitted in and out of visibility. From too far away, it was hard to make out exactly what creatures lay within.