Mist Lord

Just after Xia Yuan threw the 12th black crystal into the black stone altar, gray mist text appeared.

The Blackrock Altar has reached its expansion limit. To continue upgrading, please upgrade your territory level first.

Both the size of the territory and the population have upper limits.

The territory size is relatively strict; each level corresponds to a certain upper limit, which can never be exceeded.

The population limit for a territory is relatively vague in the early stages. For example, in level 1 or 2 territories, serfs and soldiers purchased from outside can temporarily exceed the population limit. The cost is that once the limit is exceeded, troop buildings can no longer recruit more troops.

Once the territory reaches level 4 and refugee camps can be built, even purchased slaves will be included in the population management scope. Once this is achieved, troop buildings and refugee camps will become unrecruitable.

The goal is to force territories to continuously rise in rank, making it unprofitable and unnecessary to forcibly acquire slaves from great lords.

The great lord is not a great villain.

With the territory expansion completed and the slave camp finished today, Mingguang Village only needs to meet the population requirement to upgrade to a level 3 territory. As long as they are willing to spend money to purchase serfs from Yunyang City, they can all meet the requirement today.

Xia Yuan, however, did not intend to do so.

The large-scale purchase of serfs was too eye-catching.

Shang Ze, who was only a level 1 lord, was buying so many serfs. What was he doing there? Where did the money come from? He was easily targeted by those with ulterior motives.

More importantly, the monthly Civilization Trial for Level 1/2 territories is just around the corner.

Whether you choose to attack or defend, the trial will match you with opponents of similar strength. If you upgrade your territory to level 3 before the trial, your opponents will most likely also be level 3.

It's very likely we won't win.

Xia Yuan's situation is too unique; he's almost level 3 and still hasn't found a backer. If he's matched against an opponent from a level 3 territory, they'll most likely have a top-tier lord as their backer. How can he possibly fight like that?

Since there's still a population shortfall in the territory, it's better to wait until the Civilization Trial is over before upgrading to level 3.

.........

"It's gotten bigger again."

Looking at the newly expanded territory, Xia Yuan felt a great sense of accomplishment. The territory, which was originally only 4 square kilometers, suddenly expanded to 16 square kilometers, and immediately became much more spacious.

The core area, enclosed by the wooden city walls, became even smaller.

Before, once outside the wooden city walls, it wasn't far to the edge of the territory in the misty zone, which made me feel very unsafe. Now, the city walls are quite a distance from the mist, so I no longer have to worry about being raided by mist monsters in the middle of the night.

After the territory expanded outwards, the east and south sides were still endless plains, inhabited by various monsters such as gray mist rats, gray mist wolves, and gray mist spiders.

To the east, a swamp appeared, inhabited by a swarm of scorpion flies.

The northern forest has been enclosed by the territory, providing a stable source of timber. A timber processing plant could be built on the edge of the forest later. However, the original Mist Lighthouse, located on the northern edge, is now further away from the Mist Zone.

Fortunately, these basic buildings can be moved once each time they are upgraded. Once the territory reaches level 3, the Mist Lighthouse can be moved further north to continue monitoring the forest.

The combination of dense forest and mist makes it a natural gathering place of danger.

The territory extends almost to the foot of Misty Mountain in the west, with mountain streams flowing through it. The valley, including the riverbanks, is scattered with a large number of pebbles of various sizes, providing an ample source of stone.

At least for the current territory, there is enough stone.

Clearing out the fog monsters, logging, gathering stone, and building houses—the territory will be busy for the next few days, and no one will be able to escape the hustle and bustle. Fortunately, with Satir's assistance, Xia Yuan doesn't have to do everything himself, and he even took the time to visit Yunyang City.

.........

In Yunyang City, Xia Yuan did not hear any rumors that were detrimental to him.

However, after he revealed in the group yesterday that he had Chen Wei's confession, Li Mingyu urgently ordered the removal of all smears against Xia Yuan to avoid getting into trouble.

He looked utterly pathetic.

Having learned his lesson, Li Mingyu will undoubtedly be more covert and ruthless next time he strikes.

And there's still a fight going on.

There was no smear campaign, but Lei Hao, representing the Lieyang faction, publicly stated that anyone who took Xia Yuan under their wing would be his enemy. This statement was indeed true, effectively cutting off all of Xia Yuan's escape routes.

The only consolation was that Xia Yuan also heard a rumor related to the Pei Ye and Pei Shuang sisters.

As the only woman among the three giants of the alliance, the vice leader Pei Ye, who is said to be very elegant, is a natural topic of conversation. Coincidentally, her younger sister Pei Shuang also arrived in the Misty Continent two years ago.

Yunyang City is never short of gossip about these two sisters.

In order to cultivate Pei Shuang, Pei Ye, her older sister, not only personally took Pei Shuang as a subordinate lord, but also carefully planned everything for her, including the selection of a subordinate lord.

Pei Shuang, now a level 5 lord, has three subordinate lords, all of whom were outstanding figures in their time.

Because she had just been promoted to level 5 not long ago, Pei Shuang had gained another subordinate lord position, which made the lower-level lords of the alliance clamor for it.

It is said that even a level 3 lord like Zhao Wu had volunteered, only to be cruelly rejected.

This shows how high the requirements are.

Recently, rumors have circulated that they are preparing to select one person from this year's newcomers, which has once again sparked heated discussions.

Among this year's newcomers, Song Jing, Xiao Xiong, Wu Qianqian, Zhou Kui, Zhao Zihao, and Liu Qingyan, who ranked in the top ten, have already chosen their respective sect leaders. Chen Wei is dead.

Besides Xia Yuan, only Xiang Yu and Lü Quan remain.

"Is this rumor... aimed at me?"

This isn't Xia Yuan being arrogant. Wu Qianqian already belongs to the Suiye faction, and Pei Ye didn't even fancy Wu Qianqian, so he probably wouldn't fancy Xiang Yu and Lü Quan either, who are newcomers who only start as Tier 1 units.

After eliminating others, it seems that only he meets the requirements.

If that's the case, why not send someone to contact him?

Is it still under investigation, or is this just a smokescreen deliberately released by Li Mingyu?

Unaware of the situation, Xia Yuan traded another batch of supplies at the Cloud Mist Pavilion before hurriedly returning to his territory. Regardless, the initiative wasn't in his hands, so he could only wait and see.

"Since it's not dazzling enough, let's have another round of debate in the next Civilization Trial!"

.........

The next two days were relatively calm.

The only major event that occurred during this period was that Song Jing successfully advanced to Level 2 Lord and was promoted to group administrator. Administrators have limited operations such as muting users and modifying group announcements, which are incomparable to the group owner's privileges.

As for the rising stars like Xiao Xiong and Wu Qianqian, it's unclear whether they haven't collected enough Black Crystals or are trying to prepare for the upcoming Civilization Trials, but they're still stuck at the Level 1 Lord stage.

In just two days, Mingguang Village has undergone many new changes.

Inside the wooden city walls, leather workshops, mushroom houses, slave camps, granaries and other buildings have sprung up one after another, and a newly built mill by the small river in the western suburbs has also been put into trial operation.

The three serf households that were bought last time have all found a place to settle down.

The leather craftsman Pi Laogen and his family of six were put up in the leather workshop. From now on, they would no longer need to take the various monster pelts they collected to Yunyang City for sale, and they could be self-sufficient.

The Liu family, veteran farmers, were assigned to run the mill.

The remaining A-Gu family stood out in the mushroom trial planting and training. They were not only efficient and hardworking, but also meticulous and quick to learn, making them the most suitable to run the Mushroom House.

The slave camps are temporarily empty.

The granary was only filled in a small corner; they would have to continue buying grain. Fortunately, with the introduction of the mill, they no longer needed to buy expensive rice but could instead purchase paddy rice directly.

Not only is it affordable and easy to store, but the bran produced can also be used as pig feed, and even humans can eat it.

With the blacksmith shops and carpentry workshops already built, Mingguang Village's various handicrafts are gradually being improved, and it is beginning to break free from its dependence on Yunyang City.

Just when everything was about to get back on track, on June 25th, the gray fog text reappeared.

[The monthly Civilization Trial for Level 1/2 Lords will begin in three days. This time, the battle will be a three-way conflict between the Yanxia Alliance, the Yingzhou Alliance, and the Orcs. Matchmaking in progress…]

[Initial match complete, please select]

1. Attacking side (click for details)

2. Defenders (Click for details)