Mist Lord

Smash the Black Stone Altar to obtain 8 low-grade Black Crystals.

Although Murakami Sousuke is a rising star in the Yingzhou Alliance, he obviously doesn't have the same opportunities as Xia Yuan, who monopolized most of the spoils of the sweep operation. Expanding his territory to 8 square kilometers is already quite an achievement.

But this is only a small part of the spoils.

With the altar shattered, the entire territory entered "Crush" mode. The wooden walls, arrow towers, workshops, and other buildings that had already been constructed collapsed, turning back into piles of timber and stone.

Especially for buildings like arrow towers that are constructed using architectural blueprints, the blueprints can even be returned.

A huge profit!!!

In the Civilization Trial mode, conquered territories are wiped off the Misty Continent in the blink of an eye, leaving little trace of buildings, and will soon be reclaimed by the Misty Continent.

Apart from the broken altar, it was as if it had never existed at all.

Xia Yuan even suspected that for new lords like them, the so-called arrival in a new territory was nothing more than a fresh start after the gray fog randomly repaired an altar.

It is a cycle that repeats itself endlessly, a relentless pursuit that sends chills down one's spine.

What exactly is a lord? Is it a consumable, or just a toy in the eyes of higher-dimensional beings?

"Ew~~~"

Xia Yuan quickly banished this dangerous thought from his mind; it was too boring.

After the territory was shattered, everything became spoils of war. Basic resources such as timber, stone, food, and ore, as well as various prisoners of war including serfs and soldiers, were all taken away, even the tents were dismantled and packed up.

In the early stages of starting a business, not a single piece of wood or stone can be wasted.

[The target territory has been completely cleared. Overall trial rating: S+. Return?]

"return!"

We can take stock of the loot later; the key now is to return to our territory. Didn't you see that as the Blackrock Altar shattered, the outer mist was already quietly seeping into the ruins of our territory?

.........

With a flash of white light, Xia Yuan and his group returned to Mingguang Village with a massive amount of spoils.

Leaving aside the slaves, the ground was piled high with just the two basic building materials: wood and stone.

When have we fought such a rich war?

Of course, this battle was not without cost. The enemy's fierce counterattack, especially the charge of the heavily armored knights, caused great casualties to the sword-and-shield dogs.

Even with Xia Yuan using the healing scroll to save the day, eight soldiers and 17 wandering swordsmen still perished, making it the deadliest battle in the entire series.

Fortunately, after such a brutal war, another 15 wandering swordsmen and shieldmen advanced, and their overall strength was not significantly weakened.

With the breakthrough of the Blade & Shield No. 1, the Blade & Shield Dog is about to usher in a brand new Tier 3 era, which is still very much worth looking forward to.

Sure enough, as soon as they returned, Blade & Shield One led the injured Blade & Shield dogs, including those who had already taken Mist Sprout Crystals to improve their combat level, back to the training camp to heal. This showed great class.

"Satir!"

"Owner!"

"You are responsible for settling all these prisoners in slave camps."

Whether they were serfs or slaves, they should all be kept in internment camps to calm them down and further weaken their loyalty to their former masters. Later, we can consider whether to incorporate them into our own ranks or sell them to the Cloud Mist Pavilion.

"yes!"

Satir bowed in agreement.

"My lord, leave these skeleton warriors to me to train."

The usually taciturn Black Armor rarely spoke up, perhaps because he was too bored being alone in the graveyard and decided to practice on the skeleton warriors.

"Can!"

Xia Yuan readily agreed.

In this battle alone, as many as 18 skeleton warriors were captured, forming a considerable military force. With the black armor's ability to suppress the souls of these skeleton warriors, there was no fear of them causing any trouble.

With these eighteen skeleton heroes by his side, Black Armor wouldn't be playing with bone clubs in the western suburbs cemetery in the middle of the night; that sounds rather creepy.

It's a real shame that the burial ground for summoning skeleton warriors is a troop building and cannot be demolished and brought back.

Otherwise, it would feel even better.

.........

Back in the lord's cabin, Xia Yuan began to carefully tally up the gains from the battle.

The first item is the spoils of war from killing Lord Murakami Sousuke.

As one of the top newcomers in the Yingzhou Alliance this year, and the first lord to be promoted to a level 2 territory, Murakami Sousuke has quite a few good things, such as the wood beetle that has regressed into a larva.

Even more significant is a treasure hidden within its spatial imprint.

[Military Blueprints]: A rare artifact that can only be used to copy military building blueprints. A maximum of ten copies of the same blueprint can be copied. The higher the blueprint's level, the longer the cooldown time, which is at least three days.

No wonder the opponent, with only a level 2 territory, built four simple arrow towers in one go.

It turns out it was all thanks to the Noble Phantasm.

Fortunately, this treasure, including four simple arrow tower construction blueprints, all ended up with Xia Yuan.

Blood earned!

Besides these two treasures, Murakami Sosuke's storage space contains 256 silver coins and 345 copper coins, which shows how much he is appreciated by the alliance leaders.

I wonder if the leaders of the Yingzhou Alliance will go berserk after Murakami Sousuke's defeat. I've heard there's an item that can track down and exact revenge, but they probably won't go to such lengths for a newcomer.

No matter how outstanding a newcomer is, if they haven't matured, they are ultimately just a pipe dream.

How many so-called new kings have fallen from grace each year across all races?

Aside from the silver coins, there weren't many mist bud crystals, only 54 in total. It's estimated that most of them were fed to the skeleton warriors, but in the end, they all benefited Xia Yuan.

What a kind person!

In addition to Murakami Sousuke's personal collection, there are also a chicken coop building blueprint, a sheep pen building blueprint, and a courtyard house building blueprint.

Unfortunately, these are all civilian blueprints and cannot be copied using the Tuobingyunjian method. Otherwise, there would be no need to worry about building houses in the future territories. As long as the materials are gathered, copying can be done continuously.

Xia Yuan didn't mind and used all three building blueprints to construct structures, further improving the facilities in the core area. Of the five arrow tower blueprints, he kept the original copy as a backup and started construction on the remaining four.

Anyway, there's plenty of building materials.

After conquering Murakami Sousuke's territory, Meiko Village's population not only met the target but even temporarily exceeded it. To avoid affecting the subsequent recruitment of sword-and-shield dogs, it's best to immediately initiate the territory upgrade.

Fortunately, things are different now. Even though Mingguang Village has just experienced a long expedition, it is still strong and well-equipped, and is not afraid of the beast tide caused by the territory upgrade.

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

[Advancement condition ②: Territory population reaches 160, satisfied]

[Promotion condition ③: The lord's rank reaches the third-class baron, which must be met]

[Advancement condition 4: Territory area reaches 16 square kilometers, satisfied]

[If all the above conditions are met, do you wish to begin the path to territory advancement? Once initiated, the territory will have one day to prepare and face the challenge of the beast tide from the Misty Zone…]

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

A day is enough time for the sword-and-shield dog to become lively and energetic again.

"Advanced!"

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

.........

While Xia Yuan was busy counting his spoils and starting the Level 3 territory upgrade trial, the trials of other new lords in the Yanxia Alliance were also coming to an end.

Some successfully withstood the orc army's attack and barely managed to preserve their territory. Others, however, followed in the footsteps of Murakami Sosuke and perished.

Of course, there are also outstanding newcomers like Song Jing who, with the huge advantage of third-tier troops and strong support from powerful backers, can relatively easily repel the invading enemy.

[The invading enemy has been successfully annihilated; overall trial rating: A+]

With the dust settled, Song Jing breathed a sigh of relief. Although he didn't achieve an S-level rating, based on past experience, an A+ was more than enough to make him stand out on the defensive end.

In order to annihilate the invading enemy, at the last moment, he ordered the heavy infantry to take the initiative to attack, which resulted in a perfect kill, but also caused the loss of three heavy infantrymen.

Song Jing also didn't believe that anyone among the newcomers in this year's league could surpass him.

Soon after, as the last new lord completed the trial, the Gray Mist also selected the trial champions for the month and announced them to all lords of the three factions.

[Samsung Trial Champion]: Xia Yuan (Attack, S+)

[Two-Star Trial Pioneers]: Sokgar (Attack, S), Magnum (Attack, S-)

[One-Star Trial Pioneer]: Song Jing (Defense, A+), Dranok (Offense, A), Kitano Kento (Defense, A-)

"How is this possible? How could Xia Yuan choose the offensive option and still get an S+ rating?"

Looking at the gleaming medal for first place, Song Jing felt his vision go black.