Chapter 122: Chapter 120: Second Stage of the Secret Realm (3K)_1
Translator: 549690339
The young lord:”!!!”
His pupils narrowed slightly, and his brows furrowed.
The giant roared in protest. He half-crouched and plunged his hand, wrapped in energy armor, into the ground. Laser-like focus, he tore out a boulder from the earth and hurled it into the air.
Duo Lai swiftly dodged the oncoming boulder with a mere side-step.
“From this moment on, I shall stand above all.”
It wanted to say this, but the Lord didn’t allow it to speak, so it resolved to sew its mouth shut.
Let’s talk with fists instead!
It reached out, a single finger pointing to the sky. A spark of fire erupted from its fingertip and rapidly expanded into a hot and searing fireball.
It didn’t throw it just yet. It dodged the giant’s flying rocks, continually channeling energy into the fireball.
300%!
500%!
The ends of his sky-blue hair started to glow a bright orange, as if aflame.
The fireball held aloft by Duo Lai, refined to utmost perfection, grew in size: five meters, ten meters, fifteen meters!
The huge fireball, with a diameter of over ten meters, hung in the sky like a miniature sun, radiating endless light and heat.
The female leader raised her hand to shield her eyes from the brilliance.
Like recalling something suddenly, she hastily backed away.
The young lord’s face changed slightly, and he retreated behind several soldiers.
In the meantime, the giant’s energy armor began to spread inch by inch from his arm, attaching itself to his armor. Before long, it was covering his entire body.
He roared and charged forward.
The fiery miniature sun dropped from the sky.
At this moment, everything in the world seemed to turn into light. Visible heatwaves dispersed, hitting the surrounding fog and dissipating it gradually.
After the light came fire.
After the fire came smoke.
Flames, smoke, and the echoing roars swept across the entire area. Rubble was scattered everywhere, and the ground was left with a deep pit.
Within the pit, amidst the dust, a massive form stood up once more, roaring and wafting away the thick smoke and dust.
The giant appeared disheveled, with most of his energy armor dissipated, and his worn-out armor was greatly damaged.
He panted, but he still stood.
He hasn’t lost!
The young lord was just about to voice this thought when he noticed the female mage in the sky raising her white, smooth finger again, as if she contained a horrifying power.
A spark of flame blossomed once more.
But my giant will not fall just like this!
The spark of flame transformed into an expanding fireball.
The young lord: “I concede!”
At the highest speed he could muster, he recalled his giant into the Lord’s Seal, fearing another fireball.
With a complex expression, he watched the female mage slowly descend from the sky.
No, this is certainly not a one-star Rare Level mage.
He could vaguely sense that the girl’s level had not yet broken into Elite-level, but she wielded a terrifying power strong enough to suppress the giant.
This was unmistakably a high-order troop.
Elemental Magician? Or Burning Flame Wizard? Or perhaps something else?
The young lord couldn’t figure it out.
But he could tell that not only was the girl of high-level, but her skills were also incredibly proficient. The simple use of an “Extra Large Fireball” demonstrated her exceptional underlying abilities.
He glanced at the Lord that was wrapped in black armor, acting like a greenhand. He could assert that this person was definitely not a greenhand!
This was definitely a Lord with more experience than him, and even more skilled at pretending to be a newbie.
Deep resentment.
The young Lord angrily brushed his sleeve and left.
The female leader glanced around, “Mr. Big Shot, should I leave too?”
Like a frightened little deer, she disappeared into the fog with her troops.
“Let’s get to work!”
After the battle, a still energetic Duo Lai flew to the top of the treasure tree and commenced harvesting.
However, its energy consumption was not slight.
Given Duo Lai’s current energy reserves, it could only release two and a half shots of ‘Full Power ■ Extra Large Fireball’. Plus the continuous fireball bombardment it had executed earlier, in actuality, it had only had the power for one more shot.
If Duo Lai had just entered the professional level, a single ‘Extra-Large Fireball’ might have entirely drained it, causing it to fall from the sky.
Even so, it managed to establish the fame of Duo Lai artillery.
Securing its position as the strongest artillery in Tianyuan Territory. Yes, the only artillery mage in Tianyuan Territory was Duo Lai.
Soon, the God Shine Crystal Edge was harvested.
As the hero of this battle and the second strongest in Tianyuan, Duo Lai naturally received the most allowance—5 pieces.
It picked up one, enthusiastically chewing it. Its eyes instantly narrowed, “Delicious!”
Is this a matter of taste?
Thump!
Duo Lai held its head, “I, I’ve gained a lot of experience and leveled up.”
Duo Lai’s previous level was Tier 1, Level 6. Leveling up required a significant amount of time and Soul Sand. Even with advanced methods, it would take at least a month to reach Tier 1, Level 7. And this was only with the help of the Skeleton Cemetery, and its high quality attribute.
Troops of a high quality level up faster. The further one progresses, the wider the gap with ordinary troops becomes.
Dead Bone was also absorbing the God Shine Crystal Edge, quickly converting it into combat power.
The growth wasn’t sufficient though.
Only after consuming three whole God Shine Crystal Edges did Dead Bone’s level increase to ‘LV18’. That being said, an increase in level also allowed it to greatly enhance its combat power.
Mu Yuan planned to leave three of the thirty-nine total treasures for the Tree Demon Granny, store some for future use, and distribute the remaining treasures among the generals on the spot.
And keep some for himself.
Mu Yuan briefly left the Secret Realm for a short rest and adjustment.
He then entered ‘Duo Lai Mode’. He held a God Shine Crystal Edge up to his mouth, hesitated, then bit down into it, like biting into a thin, crispy chip. Immediately, pure energy flooded into his body, flowing through his limbs and deep into his soul.
“Ah~”
“I leveled up!”
His level was approximately Tier 1, Level 1, not high. After absorbing the God Shine Crystal Edge, energy flowed in his body as though he’d received a generous gift from heaven. He felt himself getting stronger and stronger, and the feeling was so satisfying.
In a few moments, the surging river of energy in his body began to calm down.
“I’ve increased my energy limit by about 20%, not just that…”
His body’s muscles were invigorated under the blessings of energy, becoming stronger.
In an instant, wisps of energy wrapped around his fingertips.
Activating, controlling, and stabilizing all saw significant improvements.
What if he would upgrade to professional-level peak or even the elite-level?
He was curious to see the landscape of elite-level.
Yet, it would take time.
If he didn’t cheat, without special treasures like the God Shine Crystal Edge and without the baptism of heaven and earth, it would take the Lord Shepherd at least two or three months to upgrade from level one to Great Perfection.
That premise was based on his usage of the Duo Lai template.
With the standard troop templates, it would probably take forever.
“Alert: Your creature, Ancient Treeman – Tree Demon Granny’ has broken through to the professional level.”
Boom!
The Treeman forest slightly trembled, a robust tree near the archway of a building grown at a visible speed.
In the blink of an eye, it had grown to the height of about five floors, approximately ten or more meters high.
The branches and roots sprung from the ground, wandering like an earth dragon.
An old and wrinkled face emerged from the trunk.
“Lord, I greet you,” it said.
Mu Yuan looked up, his admiration unending.
The giant he had faced in battle earlier was enormous, but it still looked like a toddler next to the Tree Demon Granny. That’s the advantage of a larger size!
Bigger is stronger.
Generally speaking, the one with a bigger body also has a more abundant reserve of energy.
At most, they might just move slower.
A minor issue.
After a brief rest, the Great Lord Shepard continued to explore the Resource Secret Realm.
This time, he brought fewer types of troops in his team.
Lu Liu, Dead Bone, and Duo Lai guarded him from all sides.
Seventeen and a dozen skeleton warriors trailed closely behind him.
After the initial stage, indeed, the chances of finding treasures greatly diminished.
After three consecutive times, the treasures Mu Yuan found were already claimed. Three hours passed and all he gathered were three Wind Rain Fruits and one Rare level Remnantsoul.
So, he increased his exploration speed a little while remaining cautious.
The next day,
The third day,
The fourth day,
As time went by, fewer and fewer places with treasures remained. He also encountered elite-level creatures guarding the territorial treasures, and swiftly secured the treasures after killing them.
He had seen the powerful elite-level creature die outside the treasure spot, the entire body completely wrecked.
Naturally, he also ran into other armies of lords. Both would catch sight of each other in the distant, vast fog, not attempting to get nearer and would just silently walk off in different directions.
This encounter had happened six times during the previous days.
One of the encounters was with a female leader he had met before, who scurried away just at the sight of him.
Mu Yuan was silent.
During this period, he had fought for the ownership of a batch of Soul Crystals, once.
The opponent was an old lord whose control over power was nothing compared to the Lord Giant. His champion was only a professional level peak Halberd Guard who dueled with Lu Liu for dozens of rounds before eventually being defeated on the wasteland.
“Now that it’s getting harder to find rare treasures, I can focus on other things.”
There were vast skies and lands waiting for him outside, and he shouldn’t be too hung up on a single Secret Realm.
Coincidentally, during his exploration of the Secret Realm these days, he managed to obtain a rather nice treasure, the Guide Compass.
‘Type: Special items’
‘Description: Using the location at the time of use as a starting point, the compass pointer will always point towards the nearest special architecture, guiding the user to arrive. Current remaining uses (3/3).’
The value of this item, in his eyes, was higher than that of ten rare materials.
The Blessing Temple located twenty kilometers away from Tianyuan Territory was a ‘special building’.
Uh, if he used this compass, it wouldn’t direct him towards the Blessing Temple, would it? Probably not.
He planned to leave Dead Bone out of the Secret Realm, leading a team to find special buildings.
Suddenly,
Mu Yuan blinked around, the dense fog that had filled the Secret Realm and hindered sight thinned.
Thinner and thinner!
Half an hour later, the war fog that used to fill the entire realm almost completely disappeared, with traces of it left dispersed between heaven and earth.
The barren land with scattered weeds and the green forest in the distance, along with the treasure trees, were all within sight.
And…
In the far sight, a faint column of light shot up into the sky as if treasures were beckoning at the lords.
“It’s treasure! It must be treasure!”
Duo Lai tugged at his arm.
Mu Yuan was also interested, after all, this is a Resource Secret Realm where valuable resources tend to show up.
So,
He quickly exited the Secret Realm, summoned more Hurricane War Hawks that were on standby in his territory, then stepped back into the Secret Realm.
The Hurricane War Hawks took to the sky.
They sharply watched over the distance where the yellow light column was. It sheltered one treasure after another glowing faintly.
An old lord walked up to the light column gently touching it.
“Finally it’s here, the legendary wing, when all the treasures in the Resource Secret Realm are taken away, the core column will radiate light, and rarer treasures will come forth!”
The lord mumbled.
He was becoming breathless when his eyes fell upon one of the treasures.
“The Hero’s Proof!”
“It actually appeared in a level one Secret Realm?!”
“I must seize it.. This could be the only opportunity in my life!”