Mist Lord

When Xia Yuan and his group returned victorious, Wang Er and his wife had already prepared barbecue.

"My sword and shield!"

The sword-and-shield dogs immediately swarmed forward and feasted, as they needed to replenish their energy after the great battle.

"..."

Knife and Shield No. 1, abandoned halfway, lay on a stretcher, his face twitching.

"Woof woof~~~"

The knife-and-shield dog was fast, but the simpleton was even faster. It jumped off Xia Yuan's back and rushed to the front in a flash. It grabbed two skewers of roasted meat, took short strides, and trotted back to Xia Yuan's side.

"You eat, you little dog, I'm not hungry."

Seeing the simpleton offering him a skewer of grilled meat that he had in his mouth, Xia Yuan's face twitched, his mouth was covered in saliva.

Turning around, he went to the Black Stone Altar and threw three black crystals into the altar's fire pit.

"Buzz!!!"

The next instant, the flames suddenly surged, transforming into a crimson light that shot into the sky. The surrounding mist melted away at a visible speed under the scorching heat of the heavenly fire. In the blink of an eye, the mist had expanded outward by a full three square kilometers.

There really was a forest to the north. On the first day, Xia Yuan led his sword-and-shield dogs there to cut down trees, but they had clearly only seen the tip of the iceberg. With this small forest, the territory wouldn't be short of wood for a while.

The terrain to the south is relatively open, consisting of a vast wilderness.

Previously, when using the Mist Demon Grass, including when heading south to exterminate the goblin tribe, we passed through this area.

To the east was also a wilderness, with piles of scattered rocks.

The most surprising sight was to the west, where a small mountain could be seen in the distance, disappearing into the mist. At its foot, a stream meandered and vanished into the distance.

"Finally, we've found a water source."

Wells can meet the needs of domestic water use, but they are ultimately too weak to support irrigation.

"Satir!"

"Owner!"

Satir was very happy to see her territory grow stronger little by little.

"Take the uninjured sword-and-shield hound and patrol the newly opened territory, clearing out any mist monsters that might be hiding. Afterward, collect as much wood and stone as possible for future construction."

"Yes, sir!"

Satir immediately mustered her swords, shields, and dogs, and charged out of the village gate once again.

After the territory expanded, the original wooden fence remained in the same location, and it went from being located at the edge of the territory to only enclosing the core area of ​​the territory.

There's no need to change it.

Even a core area of ​​one square kilometer is difficult to defend. Blindly expanding outwards without sufficient military support is essentially useless; it's better to just hold onto the core area.

The surrounding area can be planned as an agricultural production zone, raw material processing zone, etc.

All the inhabitants live within the fenced area of ​​the core district.

Just as the territory expanded, a gray mist text prompt appeared before Xia Yuan's eyes again.

[Advancement condition ① Complete all basic construction, and meet the requirements]

[Advancement condition ②: Territory population reaches 40, satisfied]

[Promotion Condition 3: Reach the rank of Lord, and be satisfied]

[Advancement condition 4: Territory area reaches 4 square kilometers, satisfied]

[If all the above conditions are met, do you wish to begin the territory advancement path? Once initiated, the territory will have three hours to prepare and face the beast tide from the Misty Zone...]

[If you fail to advance for the first time, there will be a three-day cooldown period. Please make your choice carefully.]

"Three hours? That's enough!"

"Advanced!"

Considering that we need to build the Hall of Heroes as soon as possible after advancing, there is no time to waste.

The only option is an immediate cold start.

[Advancement request confirmed. A beast tide will arrive in three hours. Please prepare for battle in advance...]

Xia Yuan dared not delay.

First, they took out the newly acquired seeds of ground thorn grass and planted them densely around the outside of the fence.

They also fed the ground spike grass all the goblin corpses they brought back from the goblin camp, including the goblin corpses and scorpion fly corpses left on the battlefield when they used the mist fairy grass in the previous battle.

"Sizzle~~Sizzle~~~"

Under the onslaught of a large amount of blood and flesh, the seeds of the ground thorn grass sprouted from the soil at a visible speed, and the grass blades pierced into the corpses like sharp swords, frantically absorbing the nutrients from the blood and flesh to accelerate their growth.

As the leaves grew longer and more numerous, they soon sprouted sharp thorns like nails.

It won't be long.

These wild thorns can form a safety barrier around the fence.

.........

After planting the ground thorn grass and giving Satir a few brief instructions, Xia Yuan immediately set off for Yunyang City for the second time to purchase war supplies.

Loot obtained from goblin camps should be converted into war potential as soon as possible.

Emerging from the teleportation array, Xia Yuan was not questioned by soldiers this time. However, the observant Xia Yuan noticed that someone was secretly watching the teleportation array, keeping a watchful eye on whether any unfamiliar lords would appear.

"Is it loose on the outside but tight on the inside?"

The large-scale investigation on the first day was not only an opportunity to collect information on the new lord, but also an attempt to create an atmosphere of overwhelming pressure on Xia Yuan.

The next day, the investigation was moved into the shadows, just waiting for Xia Yuan to take the bait.

Li Mingyu's scheme was undeniably shrewd, but he never imagined that Xia Yuan would obtain the human skin mask from Li Aoyu and easily evade investigation.

But this feud is definitely now in the making.

Returning to Cloud Pavilion, I disposed of all the unwanted junk, earning a total of 45 silver coins and 125 copper coins. Adding to the 75 silver coins and 405 copper coins I scavenged from the camp, my pockets were bulging again.

Turn around and head back to the blind box section.

"Sir, would you like to buy blind boxes?"

The female shop assistant had a great memory and recognized Xia Yuan immediately as the guy who bought two blind boxes yesterday. She was incredibly enthusiastic about him.

"If you won't buy, I'll sell!"

Xia Yuan took out the wooden treasure chest dropped by the goblin leader. "How much for it?"

"If you want to recycle them, they'll cost 8 silver coins each."

That's so dark!!!

They bought it for 8 silver coins and resold it for 15 silver coins.

Of course, considering the cost of stockpiling inventory, not everyone has the capital to do this kind of blind box business, so it's no wonder that Yunwu Pavilion makes money from it.

"Hey, kid, you've finally figured it out! You got ripped off buying blind boxes yesterday, didn't you?"

The lords watching the commotion immediately understood what was going on, and they were all amused. They figured they had all suffered the same loss when they were newcomers, and now they felt better.

"..."

Xia Yuan ignored the old men's teasing and tentatively asked, "Do you sell bronze treasure chests?"

Wooden treasure chests are mostly junk; it's hard to find anything of value.

"No one consigns bronze treasure chests for sale."

The lord who finds the bronze treasure chest is probably not short of money, and will definitely gamble with his luck, as it is basically not available on the market.

"There's practically no one selling them, but are there still some left?"

"I was lucky; I just received a bronze treasure chest yesterday. It's priced at 150 silver coins. Would you like it, sir?"

The female shop assistant thought Xia Yuan had changed his ways, but it turned out he wanted to fall into an even bigger trap.

In theory, bronze treasure chests have a certain chance of yielding excellent-grade items, but this chance is about the same as that of wooden treasure chests. Most of the items obtained are only rare-grade items, which are far from worth the price.

"What a talent!"

The surrounding lords all secretly gave him a thumbs up; they had never seen anyone so stubborn.

"Can I take a look first?"

Xia Yuan's face darkened instantly. He had just thought he was rich, but it turned out he was still a penniless wretch.

"OK."

Having finally encountered such a formidable foe, the female shop assistant was naturally not going to let him go easily and immediately retrieved the treasure chest.

[Bronze Treasure Chest]: Opening it gives you a chance to obtain an excellent item (a fine iron dagger).

"Forget it, today's not a good day to open the box, let's do it another day!"

Xia Yuan turned and left.

Sure enough, when it comes to finding bargains, you can't always stumble upon something good. I'm not some kind of destined protagonist.

"????"

The female shop assistant was stunned and felt like she had been tricked.

"Tch, boring!"

The onlookers were also greatly disappointed, as they had hoped to find some entertainment.

They've made themselves look like clowns.

.........

Xia Yuan didn't care what others thought and, as usual, purchased a large quantity of military supplies, including arrows, bowstrings, bandages, wound medicine, and medicine specifically for treating scorpion-tailed fly venom.

They also purchased some grain, cloth, seeds, farm tools, and other common items.

They also spent money to buy some chickens, ducks, and geese.

As for large livestock such as oxen, goats, and mules, they are not needed for the time being, so there is no rush to buy them.

Even if you buy it, no one will take care of it.

If we get targeted by the mist monsters and a few of them get bitten to death, we'll probably be heartbroken.

Finally, we arrived at the slave trading area.

He planned to buy a blacksmith slave this time, so that once the basic blacksmith shop was built, he wouldn't have to waste money buying consumables like arrows anymore.

After looking around, I took a liking to Zhang Tie's family.

Zhang Tie himself was a mid-level blacksmith, his wife was a tailor, his eldest and second sons were already blacksmith apprentices, and they also had a young daughter.

The family of five was paid for a total of 22 silver coins. It was a bit expensive, but it was worth the money.