XMTL

The safe zone of Cloud City looked like a refugee camp. Aside from the shops surrounding the class change statues, rubble and ruins dominated the area. Countless tents were the only shelter for the thousands living in destitution here. Some civilians didn’t even have that; they were forced to sleep outside.

Without anything else to do, several hundred refugees could be seen doing nothing but staring at the sky. Motionlessly, they awaited their next meal while stewing in their despair.

Those people were the most pitiful people in the entire world; they no longer had the desire to live. An earthquake destroyed their whole world and monsters killed their loved ones. The only reason they hadn’t died out in the ruins was their fear of being eaten alive.

As the two slowly navigated through the crowds, a man rushed towards them and kowtowed. “Brave and mighty warriors, do you happen to be in need of a servant? This humble one is willing to serve you for the low cost of a full meal!”

“You…” Ma Tao tried to drive the man away but Cheng Yang stopped him.

The man was less than forty and seemed to be in good health when Cheng Yang took a quick look at him. Seeing that, Cheng Yang snorted. What a contemptible person. With his body, he could easily gather food from the ruins if he followed behind a group of soldiers. Instead, fearing for his life, this man had forsaken his dignity and begged him for help.

“Get out of our way. I don’t intend to hire a servant and even if I did, I wouldn’t hire a coward like you. Unless you want me to hurt you, walk away now.” Cheng Yang said coldly.

The man looked up at Cheng Yang and his mouth twitched. Even if he wanted to continue begging, Cheng Yang’s vicious gaze put fear in his heart. As the lowest caste in Cloud City, this man was clear that to people like Cheng Yang, he was like an ant. If a civilian were to offend one of the soldiers with some authority, it was likely they would be barred from collecting food that day.

As the man turned to leave, Cheng Yang could clearly see the resentment that flashed in his eyes. Even so, he didn’t pay any attention to the man after he left. This was a new world. Even if that man hated Cheng Yang, he was unable to get his revenge. Even if he hated Cheng Yang enough to seek him out when he performed a class change ceremony, that wouldn’t change. Not only was Cheng Yang a High-Grade Apprentice Cryomancer, but he was the Lord of Phoenix Village. An ordinary person stuck hiding inside a barrier was powerless before him.

“How could that man be willing to do that?” Ma Tao asked in shock.

“The world has already ended; in order to survive people will do all sorts of acts that would be unimaginable before. People with dignity will be hard to find and very few actions will be too taboo to take. Right now it’s just him but if we visit again in a month, every single civilian would fight for the chance to become our servants.” Cheng Yang said with a hint of melancholy.

Ma Tao wanted to refute Cheng Yang’s words but the scenes outside the city had clearly shown him that the era of peace and prosperity was long gone.

At present, there were eight thousand military personnel in the safe zone, of which about a thousand were Professionals. With about two hundred soldiers a day being added, and that rate increasing every day, it was a given that all eight thousand would be Professionals someday. As for the civilians, there were only about two hundred Professionals split into three militia groups. Moreover, the army selected less than twenty civilians each day to perform a class change ceremony.

For civilians, being able to perform a class change ceremony and gain the power needed to thrive was their biggest dream. However, since the army vetting process was incredibly strict, most people could only dream of joining one of the militias.

This made the three militia captains incredibly influential among the civilians. Almost more so than Yuan Jianzhe.

The captain of the Citizen’s Defense Militia was the former deputy mayor of Cloud City. With both the party committee secretary and the mayor dead, the deputy mayor had become the highest ranked person from the municipal government. His militia was composed entirely of individuals that held government positions in the past.

The former president of the local chamber of commerce was the acting captain of the Red Cloud Militia. Using the vast web of connections he had made as the chamber president, he was able to personally petition Yuan Jianzhe to make him a team captain. With the support of some previously influential individuals, he became the logical choice for the position.

The captain of the Bloodhound Militia Cheng Yang had pretended to be a part of was a person no one could have expected. An ordinary salesperson had become the last militia captain through skillful use of his eloquence to rally both the ordinary citizens and the wealthy businessmen that had been excluded by the captains of the other two groups. Together, they pressured the military into making him a militia captain.

The three militias needed to compete against each other for the few class change ceremonies permitted for civilians each day and needed to surrender all of the Experience Fragments they gathered to the military. In addition, the military provided a set number of activities they needed to complete each day that included resource gathering and rescue operation.

Even so, with their ability to select people to perform class change ceremonies, they became the most popular figures in the safe zone. The civilians were proud to see some of their own fighting back against monsters. Of course, if they were chosen to become a militia member, then it would be perfect.

In order to become a militia member, many civilians resorted to selling their bodies to current members, either as laborers or as prostitutes. With only so many spots open for class change ceremonies, the competition was a fierce race to the bottom. Even if you had to humiliate yourself ten thousand times, being able to join a militia was worth it.

The only alternative was to live in squalor.

The scent of decay swept through the city from outside the barrier and the stench of human excrement wafted up from the ground. Unless you were like Cheng Yang who had experienced such a horrid environment before, you would vomit from the stench, even if you were an experience soldier.

“My Lord, how are we going to find my family?” Ma Tao looked at the massive crowd of people and scrunched his brows.

“Don’t be anxious, let’s take a look at the situation first.” Cheng Yang said.

In reality, Cheng Yang already knew the exact situation of Cloud City safe zone. Having been lucky enough to become a founding member of the Bloodhound Militia in his past life, his true goal was to find people with rare Innate Abilities using the knowledge he gained as a member.

At this point, various groups should have recaptured all of the safe zones set up by god. As the number of Professionals increases, powerful Innate Abilities will be what separates the leaders from the followers.

Of course, Cheng Yang wasn’t looking for people with high rank Innate Abilities. In his last life there were four people with S-Rank Innate Abilities from Cloud City, which should still be the case. Of the four, one was Liu Hau, two were from the military and the last one was both a founding member and backbone of the Bloodhound Militia. He already had Liu Hau with him and it would be difficult to persuade any of the others to join him.

What Cheng Yang really wanted were people with Management Innate Abilities like Old Lee’s. Phoenix Village was a powerhouse when it came to powerful combat oriented Innate Abilities but only himself and Old Lee with non-combat ones. The only way he could easily find more was to rely on his past life.

The Cloud City safe zone currently housed nearly a hundred thousand people so finding a few from his memories would be hard. Still, it was a better option that picking people from his territory at random and hoping they had an Innate Ability he was looking for.

After two hours, Cheng Yang realized just how futile such a search really was.

“I have a better idea for finding your family.” Cheng Yang stopped and whispered to Ma Tao.

“Thank you, my Lord.” Ma Tao rejoiced. To be honest, after spending two hours wandering aimlessly he had grown anxious. If not for the respect he felt for Cheng Yang, Ma Tao would have already raised an objection to the current method he was using.

The duo soon entered the central area of the safe zone. At the center were the four class change statues and the six shops formed a ring about twenty meters away.

At present, the ruler of the safe zone, Yuan Jianzhe, fiercely guarded the class change statues. They represented power in this new world as well as the right to rule the safe zone. Only military personnel were able to approach the statues, anyone else was driven away.

As for the shops, why would Yuan Jianzhe waste his resources trying to guard them? Ordinary people would be thrown out if they entered and most Professionals would be too since the military confiscated the Experience Fragments they earned to buy food for the civilians.

This allowed Cheng Yang to slip into the Alchemy Tower with Ma Tao unnoticed.

The manage greeted Cheng Yang when he entered. “Welcome foreign Lord, how can I help your esteemed self?”

Cheng Yang wasn’t actually here to buy anything, why would he when he got the equivalent of a 5% discount in Phoenix Village? Besides, the selection of potions was just as sparse here. However, if he didn’t buy anything it would be hard to pull off his plan.

“I want to buy ten Low Grade Mana Regeneration Potions.” Cheng Yang said with a respectful smile, “I was also hoping you would let me stay here for a short time afterwards to take care of some business.”

Buying ten potions made Cheng Yang a rare big spender so the manager generously let Cheng Yang stay in the shop for as long as he wanted.

Cheng Yang knew that his big order wasn’t the only reason. He was also rich and a Lord. If anyone else had asked for the same treatment, the manager would have thrown them out with their purchases.

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With all of the shops available for a Standard Grade Village built, Cheng Yang decreed that every soldier needed to pick a Profession. Although every Profession was important for the territory, it was critical to have Professions that harvested raw materials. Cheng Yang hoped to collect a large reserve of stone before leveling up the village to prevent a shortage.

Along with the decree, Cheng Yang requested that Ma Tao come and find him. Today, they would visit the safe zone in Cloud City.

In his past life, there were several dozen civilian Professionals by this time and there would be now, too, if Yuan Jianzhe had made the same choices in this life. As long as Cheng Yang was careful, he and Ma Tao would be able to enter the safe zone without exposing their identities.

As Cheng Yang was leaving Phoenix Village, he heard Lau Hui call out to him. “My Lord, I heard you were going into the Cloud City safe zone today.”

“I am.” Cheng Yang said turning around to see Lau Hui and his girlfriend. “Why? Did you want to come?”

“Not me, I have my duties as a general to attend to. It was just that Pang Sun wanted to ask you for a favor.”

Seeing her chance, Pang Sun stepped up. “My Lord, since you’re going to the safe zone, I was hoping to have a chance to search for my friend. I know this is a bit excessive since most soldiers haven’t even found their families yet but my friend is very special to me. Since she was also a student of Yu Cheng University like we were, she’s close enough to the safe zone to have been saved by now. That’s why I’m hoping you’ll allow her to become a citizen of Phoenix Village if we find her.” Pang Sun rambled, ending with an apologetic smile.

When Cheng Yang heard the first sentence, he frowned. As Pang Sun said, many people hadn’t rescued their families but she wanted to save a friend. If this had come from anyone else, Cheng Yang would have scolded them. However, this request had come from his friends girlfriend so he couldn’t ignore it. There wasn’t really a difference between finding one person and finding two so Cheng Yang was ready to agree.

“What’s her name?” He asked.

“Liu Wei, were you ever in a class with her?”

“Liu Wei?” Cheng Yang asked in shock.

“Aha, I knew you would know her. She was the most beautiful girl in school so how could you have forgotten her?”

It was true; back when he was a student, Liu Wei’s had captured his heart. However, after experiencing the hardships of the apocalypse, Cheng Yang had a new definition of the word beauty.

“Beauty?” He asked with his head slightly tilted, “What use is beauty that is nice to look at? The most beautiful woman in this world isn’t a woman that is pretty but a woman that is strong. Regardless, if we find her I’ll bring her to Phoenix Village.”

Although it was a frivolous request, it gave Cheng Yang a bit of hope. If they were able to find Liu Wei maybe he could find some of his other old classmates? Although he had saved his closest friends, there were several people he had good relationships with at the university. If he was able to find them, he wanted to be able to give them a better life than they could get in Cloud City.

Cheng Yang would actively hunt monsters as he travelled on a normal day but, since the safe zone of Cloud City was over ten kilometers away, he couldn’t afford to slow down. If Cheng Yang were to run full speed towards the safe zone, he could reach it in just half an hour. Unfortunately, Ma Tao was far slower than Cheng Yang, so it took more than two hours for them to get there.

“My Lord, is that dome the safe zone?” Ma Tao asked when he saw the brightly glowing barrier at the center of Cloud City.

“Yes. That barrier prevents any monsters from entering the safe zone so, relatively speaking, its actually safer to live in there than in Phoenix Village even though we’re stronger than the citizens here.”

“Will we be able to set up a barrier like that for our village?” Ma Tao asked jealously.

Hearing him say “our village”, the corners of Cheng Yang’s mouth turned up. Even when tempted with absolute safety, Ma Tao was still willing to stay in Phoenix Village. Cheng Yang didn’t know it but nearly every soldier in Phoenix Village would have acted the same way. Although it had only been a week and a half since the world ended, the people living in Phoenix Village had started to consider it home.

“I’m not sure but I don’t think having a barrier will be necessary.” Cheng Yang replied firmly. “Living in a barrier just makes you lazy. The only way to be truly safe is to have the strength to protect yourself. One day, we’ll be strong enough to destroy any threat to Phoenix Village and grasp destiny in our hands.”

Ma Tao felt that Cheng Yang’s goals were too ambitious, but was it a bad thing to be optimistic?

“My Lord, rest assured, the soldiers of Phoenix Village will fight by your side for humanity’s future.”

“I’m glad. Now, let’s go check out the safe zone. Watch out for members of the military and don’t talk too much. Take this, use it to make sure no one will see your equipment.” Cheng Yang warned, handing Ma Tao a cloak.

The two hadn’t even walked a hundred meters before than ran into a military patrol.

The soldier’s from Ma Tao’s memories were an intimidating group wearing tactical body armor and armed with guns but the one’s in front of him looked like something out of a comedy sketch. The soldiers marched in orderly lines wielding stick and blades. Although he wanted to laugh, Ma Tao knew that he probably looked just as funny wearing his set of leather armor.

Once the soldiers noticed Cheng Yang and Ma Tao, one of the officers called out to them, “Halt! Identify yourselves. Why are you two operating alone?”

“Sir, we’re members of the Bloodhound Militia. The captain asked us to scout the area around the rest of the group.” Cheng Yang answered without batting an eye.

“Oh, so you were with the Bloodhounds? Led your leader know that he’ll get an extra new member today. The army has been really pleased with the Bloodhound’s dedication.” The officer laughed, “I’ve heard reports that a couple of small monster groups have broken through the perimeter so be careful. We’re still a kilometer away from the safe zone so it’s dangerous to be in such a small group. It would be a shame if you ended up in some monster’s gullet.”

“Thank you for the advice, sir. We’ll be careful.” Cheng Yang said respectfully as the patrol marched past them. Cheng Yang winked at Ma Tao and started to walk towards the safe zone.

“My Lord, how did you know one of the militia’s names?” Ma Tao whispered. “You’ve never been to the safe zone before.”

“I saw a vision of the future remember? I know quite a bit about the state of the safe zone actually.”

Ma Tao nodded with reverence, not doubting Cheng Yang in the slightest.

As they got closer to the barrier, they saw more and more humans. There were two distinct groups of people willing to leave the safety of the city, warriors and scavengers. The warriors either wore military uniforms or clean close fitting clothes. The scavengers were dirty and emancipated, wearing whatever they had on when the earthquake destroyed the city.

The warriors were obviously outside the city to kill the respawning monsters, the scavengers on the other hand were searching through the ruins for supplies. Although the army provided them with food, there was never enough. Not to mention other supplies such as medicine or sanitary items.

If the civilians wanted anything more than a thin bowl of soup two times a day, they needed to get it themselves from the ruins.

Whenever Cheng Yang and Ma Tao passed by a group of those refugees, their eyes would be filled with envy and fear.

Cheng Yang had become accustomed to receiving those glares a long time ago, but for Ma Tao this was a new and frightening experience. Although there were civilians in Phoenix Village, none of them needed to risk their lives scavenging for scraps.

Even now and then, Ma Tao would watch a monster spawn near a group of scavengers. Without being able to resist in the slightest, the monsters would devour the flesh of whatever person was unlucky enough to get caught. Although the warriors in the area would quickly slay the respawned monster, there was no way to bring back the dead.

Watching this, Ma Tao was on the verge of tears. His high expectations for the safe zone in Cloud City had been shattered.

“Do all the ordinary people in Cloud City need to live like this?” He asked Cheng Yang in a quiet voice.

Cheng Yang looked at Ma Tai with pity. “What else can they do? It’s impossible for the tens of thousands living here to all perform class change ceremonies in just a few days. Sadly, it will only get worse as a caste system begins to develop. Professionals will feel superior to normal people and, well, I’m sure you can guess the rest.”

“Are humans really so lowly that they’d act so selfishly in this kind of situation?” Ma Tao asked bitterly.

He didn’t need Cheng Yang to respond. The answer was all around him.

“You’ll be able to clearly see the plight of ordinary people in this new world when you enter the safe zone.” Cheng Yang said grimly.

Ma Tao became silent and just quietly walked behind Cheng Yang. What cruel fate had his family experience in the safe zone?

When they reached the barrier, Cheng Yang walked though without slowing down. Ma Tao on the other hand, hesitated in front of the brightly glowing screen of light. Clenching his teeth he charged through the barrier.

“I didn’t feel a thing?” Ma Tao whispered in confusion.

“Of course not.” Cheng Yang chuckled. “After all, the barrier only stops monsters.”

“Which is why the safe zones aren’t entirely safe,” Cheng Yang thought to himself. Since the barrier only blocked monsters from entering, Ascendants were able to enter the safe zones and wreak havoc. Ascendants had destroyed more than one safe zone in his past life.

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The most important factor that influenced Yuan Jianzhe decision was, that by his estimation, about a third of the population of Cloud City was still alive. If he refused to let civilian forces join the rescue operation, most survivors wouldn’t be able to hold on long enough to survive. As time passed, those trapped in the rubble would die off one by one. To Yuan Jianzhe, saving as many civilians as possible was more important than preserving the military hegemony.

People’s actions aren’t as complicated as you would think. Yuan Jianzhe had already made this decision once, perhaps countless times. In Cheng Yang past life, this decision had allowed the Zhang group to find the Imperial Guard House and become Yuan Jianzhe’s powerful rival.

Of course, this time, Yuan Jianzhe’s choice would have a different consequence. Cheng Yang’s reincarnation had jumbled the string of fate that governed this world. From this point forwards, who knew what would happen?

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When Cheng Yang returned to Phoenix Village after a night of hunting, he could be heard humming a joyful tune. Xue Yu had been waiting at the gate to brag about killing the Boss and he had earned back almost all of his losses from earlier on the day, three thousand Experience Fragments to be exact.

In the end, none of his fears and anxieties had come to pass.

Before he started training, Cheng Yang funded the research option that increased damage for each class change statue. Thanks to the efforts of the Imperial Guard members, not only did Phoenix Village have enough to pay for all that, there was even a decent number of Experience Fragments left over.

The next morning, Cheng Yang’s experience bar was three and a half percent more full than the night before. At this speed, he would be able to level up in just twenty days. At that point he would become a Pinnacle Grade Apprentice Mage, however, in far less than twenty days, Phoenix Village would also level up. So, Cheng Yang needed to make a choice, use Divine Grace before leveling up or use it after he leveling up.

If he waiting, Divine Grace would allow him to directly become a Low Grade Novice. This would represent Cheng Yang entering an entirely new realm of strength. Not only that but, he would be the same level as the strongest fighters in his previous life.

On the other hand, if he waited, there was always the chance that he would run into an opponent he wouldn’t be able to beat with just the strength of a High Grade Apprentice. Trying to maximize benefits always came with a risk, so the safer choice would be to use Divine Grace as soon as possible.

Carefully weigh the pros and cons, Cheng Yang made his decision.

Afterwards, he went to find all three members of the Imperial Guard so that they could run the Blood Soaked Cathedral at the same time as him. Since they had finished their instances yesterday before midnight, they were able to go again this morning.

After collecting all of the loot, Cheng Yang left the instance. In just a few minutes, the Imperial Guard members left their instances as well.

After running the instance dungeon twice, each of them had put together nearly a full set of equipment. Even if it was just Green Bronze quality, it made them seem all the more intimidating.

Since all of the Experience Fragments the Imperial Guard gathered would go to Cheng Yang, he was now a very rich man. This allowed him to make another trip to the Imperial Guard Pavilion so that he could hire a Priest and Mage with SS-Rank Innate Abilities.

As for the rest of the Experience Fragments he had gained, they were given to his generals. This would allow even more soldiers to unlock faster training speeds. At this point, he had loaned out a total of fifteen thousand Experience Fragments.

The rest of the day was spent in Cloud City. At this point, all but ten of the original search and rescue locations had been checked. Although not everyone was able to find their families, with just the manpower of Phoenix Village it was impossible to do an exhaustive search of the city. Only hope remained for those soldiers with missing families.

When the group reached the last search and rescue location they were met with an odd situation. Although the soldier, Ma Tao, didn’t find his father, he did confirm that his family was alive.

The group of refugee’s explained that a group had arrived earlier in the morning with food and water. That group had later taken away all of the sick, old and injured after promising to come back for the others. Ma Tao’s father had been injured during the earthquake and thus wasn’t with the group anymore.

After listening to the refugee’s story, Cheng Yang frowned.

“My Lord, do you know who those people were?” Ma Tao asked anxiously, “Do you think they hurt my father?”

“I have a couple guesses but you don’t need to worry. Right now the military has absolute control of the city so even if those people had bad intentions they won’t be able to do anything. For at least a week or so, your father will be safe.” Cheng Yang replied.

“Would it be possible to go to the city center now my Lord?” Ma Tao asked, visibly more relaxed.

“No need to rush.” Cheng Yang said, “There probably aren’t too many civilian Professionals right now so if we visited the city center we would just draw unnecessary attention to ourselves. For now, we’ll return to Phoenix Village and draw up plans for tomorrow.”

Today, more than normal, as the group did they’re best to avoid being noticed by anyone from army as they returned to Phoenix Village.

As usual, when the group got back it was already dark. Cheng Yang let Old Lee handle integrating the newest batch of refugees as he built the last three shops the village was missing. Five hundred units of wood had been logged earlier that day, so Cheng Yang had some leftover wood to build houses with.

Cheng Yang ate a hurried dinner before going out into the forest alone. Early that morning he returned to start new research and then train. When he finished training he entered the Blood Soaked Cathedral. Busy day after busy day, Cheng Yang had eased himself into the life of a Lord.

Yesterday was the first day where the Imperial Guard members were the only ones patrolling the wall and they quickly proved their worth. Thanks to their ability to track invaders, the monsters surrounding the village were killed so fast that the respawn rate increased slightly to compensate. This resulted in a thirty percent increase in Experience Fragment collection.

However, even if the territory earned several thousand Experience Fragments each day, there were thousands in expenses as well. The Loggers needed to be payed around a thousand a day and the class change statues were a bottomless pit when it came to Experience Fragments. Even so, the territory had a positive economic balance.

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In addition, yesterday the last of the large hordes within six kilometers of the village were annihilated. Now all you could find were newly formed hordes of thirty or so. In this case, every squadron acting in unison was rather wasteful. Cheng Yang had advised his general that from now on, they would have to operate independently if they wanted to efficiently gain Experience Fragments.

Right now, Phoenix Village didn’t have enough soldiers to regularly clear more than the few hundred square kilometers that stretched from the walls to six kilometers away. As such, that area was divided into five sections. One for each of the squadrons to handle.

Since it was still possible to run into hordes exceeding one thousand in size at the border, Cheng Yang warned his generals to be careful in those areas.

As for the housing shortage, Cheng Yang planned to have every one of his soldiers living in a Standard Grade Meditation Hall before making houses for the civilians. This would mean he needed 142 buildings, requiring three thousand six hundred units of wood in total.

Cheng Yang was confident that this could be accomplished relatively quickly. Today was the day that most of the Loggers would level up to become Standard Grade Loggers. In addition, most of them had also payed off their loan and had started earning Experience Fragments for their work.

Just leveling up doubled the number of trees they could cut down each day and the financial incentives would drive them to spend more time searching for the biggest trees they could. At a going rate of three Experience Fragments for a unit of wood, a Logger could earn just under what a soldier could with a much safer work environment.

Unfortunately, more wood meant more expenses. The village would have no choice but to rely on the Blood Soaked Church now that it too was close to leveling up.

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Even the soldiers present were clapping. It was clear to them what Cheng Yang meant. With the Imperial Guard patrolling the walls, they wouldn’t have to waste time clearing the occasional monsters at the wall while everyone else earned Experience Fragments in the wilderness.

At first, no one had complained since it was necessary to keep the civilians safe and earn Experience Fragments for the village. Now that someone else had come to handle that burden, no one was willing to share it.

“I hope that everyone will treat these brave soldiers with the respect. they deserve,” Cheng Yang said with a smile. As the crowd began to disperse, Cheng Yang led the Imperial Guard to the entrance of the Blood Soaked Cathedral.

“Xue Yu, are members of the Imperial Guard allowed to enter instance dungeons?” Cheng Yang asked.

“My Lord this…! How can…Why is this here?” When Xue Yu saw the entrance to the Blood Soaked Cathedral, she was shocked, “My Lord, how can an instance dungeon be this deep inside the territory?”

Cheng Yang cocked his head to the side. “Is it that strange?”

“In my dimension instance dungeons would only be on the very outskirts of large territories. There was no way to bring them in purposefully, instead you needed to wait until the border of the territory naturally enveloped it. Even the-” Xue Yu flinched, “My point is I’ve never seen one just a few feet from the Territory Altar.”

“Your dimension?” Cheng Yang asked, What happened to it?”

“I’m sorry my Lord but that information isn’t something I’m allowed to share with you. Entering your dimension binds us to the will of god so we can’t give too much information to new-” Xue Yu flinched again.

“Don’t force yourself, I understand.” He’d heard rumors in his past life but now he had confirmed it. The store managers and the Imperial Guard members weren’t from this world. However, since prying further didn’t seem like it would work, Cheng Yang filed that information away for later. “So, can you use the instance dungeon or not?”

Xue Yu nodded. “As long as the instance dungeon is within the territory, we can enter.”

“Wonderful! Hayashi, Sumin. Both of you will enter a separate Hard Difficulty instance. Although the Boss in this difficulty level is an Elite Pinnacle Grade monster there’s an easy way to defeat it…”

Then Cheng Yang told them how to utilize the environment hack to beat the boss.

Even if they had just arrived in this world, Cheng Yang was certain the Imperial Guard members had even more combat experience than he did. As long as they used his special clearing method there wouldn’t be anything to worry about.

“My Lord, let me go in too!” Xue Yu exclaimed.

“Absolutely not, a Warrior isn’t capable of beating the Boss. A one on one fight is too dangerous so I won’t allow it.”

“My Lord, you don’t need to worry about me. If I couldn’t even beat a pathetically weak Pinnacle Grade Immature monster how could I dare to claim I can protect Phoenix Village? IF you can get me some equipment and potions I’ll be able to defeat it easily. Even if I wasn’t bestowed the power of an Elite by you I’d still be capable of completing this task.” Xue Yu insisted.

“Fine.” Cheng Yang couldn’t refuse the young woman who was staring at him so intensely, “I’ll allow you to try but don’t force it. If you can’t handle the Boss just climb up the tree and wait for the instance to time out.”

“Thank you for your trust my Lord.” Xue Yu said with a bow. Even though she hid her excited smile, Cheng Yang could tell she wasn’t taking his reminder seriously.

Cheng Yang sighed internally. Hopefully Xue Yu wouldn’t get herself killed.

Cheng Yang gave her a stipend to buy potions with before going to track down Liu Hau. He had made sure his best friends had the best warrior equipment on the village. Although Liu Hau’s set wasn’t as good as his, it was far better than anyone else in the village.

It just so happened that Liu Hau’s brigade was training at the moment so Cheng Yang was able to borrow his equipment to give to Xue Yu.

Once she had changed, Xue Yu immediately followed the other two members of the Imperial Guard into the Blood Soaked Cathedral. Having been given high quality equipment, she wasn’t able to hide her blood lust any longer.

With that taken care of, Cheng Yang checked the state of the territories resources. Although earned Experience Fragments for himself was important, the growth of the territory was what he really cared about.

When he check the system pane, Cheng Yang found that the territory only had a pitiful one thousand four hundred Experience Fragments. Now that all of the class change statues were level three, the daily expenses for the territory were enormous. If it wasn’t for the newly founded Imperial Guard being able to clear the Hard Difficulty of the Blood Soaked Cathedral, it would be impossible to keep up with the research costs. Once he hired another two members, the Imperial Guard would be the source of more almost two thirds of the Experience Fragments earned each day.

Even if he had a few hundred more soldiers, there wasn’t another way for Phoenix Village to earn even half of the Experience Fragments the Imperial Guard could.

Next, Cheng Yang personally appraised civilians in order to find people that made suitable Priests. Now that the Priest class change statue was high grade, Phoenix Village could employ more than fifty Priests. This would allow each brigade to have ten.

Finally, Cheng Yang had to decide what to build today. The first thing he did was build a private Standard Grade Meditation Hall for himself. Although he felt a little bad doing so while more than two thirds of his soldiers had to sleep outside, he knew that following Old Lee’s advice and distancing himself from his citizens was a good thing.

Using the remaining wood, Cheng Yang built another six Low Grade Meditation Halls. This brought the total number of houses up to a measly sixty four.

Right now there wasn’t anything Cheng Yang could do to build houses any faster. Now that all of the nearby tree’s had been felled, wood production was falling. Alas, this was one of the barriers to progress every territory would have to deal with.

Unable to do anything else, Cheng Yang left Phoenix Village to go hunting.

As he fought, Cheng Yang couldn’t help but worry about his current state. Recruiting his Elite Imperial Guard members had totally cleared out his savings. If he wasn’t about to find enough monsters today, he might have to go back to eight times training speed. Although it wouldn’t be an enormous loss, it was critical that he maintain his advantage over others. If he wasn’t strong enough, how could he protect his friends and the civilians that depended on him?

Also, although the Imperial Guard didn’t need Experience Fragments to train, leveling up their skills was going to be difficult. Even with the added bonus of being able to use an instance dungeon, it would take days or even weeks for their skill levels to catch up with their experience.

Since Cheng Yang was a diligent and hardworking man, it was natural that he would be worried about Phoenix Village. He had taken up the heavy responsibility of being a Lord and now he needed to prove that he deserved it. Protecting Phoenix Village wasn’t just Cheng Yang’s duty, but something he wholly desired.

No matter what challenges he had to face, the important thing was to never back down.

---

Over the past few days, Cloud City had gradually stabilized.

The army, under the command of Yuan Jianzhe, had taken control of the city in just three days. During that time they were able to save almost fifty thousand civilians. Unlike the haphazard rescue operations of the Phoenix Village soldiers, the army used historical data to evacuate the most heavily populated areas first.

But as civilians fled to the safe zone, trouble followed.

First of all, with so many people there was no way to avoid food shortages. Several people almost died, but with the help of some brave soldiers, the army was able to discern which monsters were safe to eat. However, with so few soldiers able to focus on hunting, there was only so much meat they could gather in a day.

Secondly, some crafty refugees had begun to create cults using the events of the past few days as proof of their gods. The doctrines they had created spread like wildfire. It was all Yuan Jianzhe could do to stop his soldiers from being indoctrinated.

Finally, groups of refugees advocating fairness and freedom began to speak. They criticized Yuan Jianzhe and his control over the class change statues. They demanded that he let the public choose a class instead of hoarding it for his soldiers. Although it was obviously started by powerful groups looking to take advantage of the situation, the sentiment was quickly picked up by normal civilians as well.

These problems gave Yuan Jianzhe a headache but he couldn’t bring himself to use the army to silence dissent. He wasn’t willing to throw away old world values. Yet.

The food shortage was temporarily solved by looting supermarket warehouses and buying food from the Grocery. Even so, food was strictly rationed to the public. Most civilians would get just two bowls of soup a day.

In order to deal with the cults, Yuan Jianzhe enacted several measures to suppress their growth. Any person found trying to gather followers was banned from receiving food and those that created them were imprisoned. Although it helped somewhat, there was no way to stop an idea.

As for the final issue, Yuan Jianzhe caved and allowed civilians to use the class change statues.

Although it may have seemed like a rash decision, he needed to preserve the army’s strength. Over the last few days, casualties had been piling up. His soldiers didn’t have the combat experience or the numbers to win every fight.

It would allow other groups to gain power in the city but, they would be pressed into military service under the same restrictions as the soldiers. Those rallying against tyranny would be pleased, the army wouldn’t face as many casualties and there would be more people available to gather food.

Last Chapter| Index | Next Chapter

Hearing this, Cheng Yang couldn’t help but praise his foresight. Building the Imperial Guard Pavilion now was undoubtedly an amazing choice.

Right now, he would be able to monopolize all of the talented guards but he couldn’t guarantee that someone would build another Imperial Guard Pavilion soon. Normally it wouldn’t be possible to obtain a territory and get the blueprints needed within the first two months of the apocalypse but what if he wasn’t the only person who reincarnated?

He was had been reincarnated, so why couldn’t it happen to someone else? He couldn’t allow someone else to steal this opportunity!

Unfortunately, hiring a top-level guard was just too expensive. Even if he used all of the Experience Fragments, he had earned today and dipped into the village’s saving he could only afford to hire three SS-Rank Elite guards and a normal S-Rank guard or two.

Without hesitation, Cheng Yang hired the only SS-Rank Warrior available, instantly draining one thousand five hundred Experience Fragments from his account.

With a flash of light, a young woman wearing simple linen clothes appeared in front of Cheng Yang.

The Warrior immediately dropped down to one knee and bowed. “Xue Yu greets the Lord.”

Cheng Yang had expected this kind of behavior. After all, every NPC treated the Lord with great respect so wouldn’t his personal guard be even more courteous?

“Please rise Xue Yu. I have high hopes for you and leave the safety of Phoenix Village in your hands.” Cheng Yang said, helping the Warrior to her feet.

“It is a privilege to serve you my Lord.”

Using his authority as the Lord of Phoenix Village, Cheng Yang checked her system pane.

---

Xue Yu
Phoenix Village Imperial Guard
Class: Warrior
Level: High Grade Apprentice

Age	27	Life Span	200
HP	471.7	MP	37.8
Physical Attack	35.6	Magic Attack	4.2
Physical Defense	12	Magic Defense	4.2
Attack Speed	6	Movement Speed	12.6

Innate Abilities

• Receive 40% more stats in the Physical Attack attribute when you level up
• Receive 30% more stats in the Health attribute when you level up
• Movement Speed increased by 200%
• Imperial Guard Member (Special Ability): You are bound to the land you serve but in exchange can identify the location of all enemies within the territory boundaries. You cannot level up naturally or train skills.
• Elite (Special Ability): Increase all attributes by 5%

Skills

• Lacerate (Low Grade): Add magic to your blade making it easier to cut through enemies | Damage: 39.8 | Cost: 2 MP | Cast Time: 2.7 sec

Equipment

• Iron Sword: Status symbol of the warrior | Damage: 35.6
• Wooden Shield: A wooden shield | Can block physical attacks

---

As expected, her Innate Ability was even more powerful than his was. Additionally, it was perfect for a Warrior. If not for his skills and equipment, Cheng Yang probably wouldn’t be able to beat her in single combat.

When he saw her special Innate Ability, Cheng Yang had a wonderful idea. Since they could detect where monsters were, they would be far more efficient at killing the monsters attacking the village walls. If he let the Imperial Guard handle it, his normal soldiers would have more time to hunt outside the village.

Even better, couldn’t he send them to clear the Blood Soaked Cathedral? The monsters killed inside the instance dungeon were counted as being inside the territory boundaries so why wouldn’t the Imperial Guard be able to run it?

It was certainly worth a try. If it was possible for the Imperial Guard to use the instance dungeon then it would be far better than having his soldiers use it. After all, the Imperial Guard would be capable of clearing the Hard Difficulty. That meant the daily earning from the dungeon would increase greatly!

It was a pity that he couldn’t send Xu Wu to do that right now. Since she was a Warrior, there was no way for her to use the environment exploit to kill the boss.

However, even if she could, Cheng Yang wouldn’t send her in alone. Although the Imperial Guard were more easily replaced than high-level soldiers, there was no guarantee that he could hire another guard of the same quality.

That said, Cheng Yang planned to make his other two Elites a Ranger and a Summoner. He felt that an Elite Priest wouldn’t be that much better than a normal one and would feel uncomfortable if there was a Mage in the territory that was stronger than him.

Before hiring his other two Elite Imperial Guards, Cheng Yang greeted the other NPCs. He knew the importance of leaving them with a good impression and didn’t want to leave without saying anything.

In addition to the Dragon of War, the Imperial Guard Pavilion housed the Vermillion Archmage of Terror, the Divine Sky Caller, the Ten Thousand Beast Enigma and the Eagle Eyes Calamity

Even though he tried his best to be polite, he almost screamed when he heard those names. Every one of them had a cringy fantasy title!

Even though he nearly vomited, he was able to collect some valuable information. There was at least one SS-Rank individual in each class and between five and ten S-Rank individuals.

After talking to the NPC’s, Cheng Yang hired the SS-Rank Summoner and Ranger.

When he did, he checked their system panes.

---

Hayashi Airi
Phoenix Village Imperial Guard
Class: Ranger
Level: High Grade Apprentice

Age	22	Life Span	200
HP	151.2	MP	159.7
Physical Attack	35.6	Magic Attack	7.3
Physical Defense	6	Magic Defense	12.6
Attack Speed	6	Movement Speed	10.9

Innate Abilities

• Receive 40% more stats in the Physical Attack attribute when you level up
• Receive 30% more stats in the Movement Speed attribute when you level up
• Movement Speed increased by 200%
• Imperial Guard Member (Special Ability): You are bound to the land you serve but in exchange can identify the location of all enemies within the territory boundaries. You cannot level up naturally or train skills.
• Elite (Special Ability): Increase all attributes by 5%

Skills

• Reinforced Arrow (Low Grade): Imbue your arrow with magic power increasing damage | Damage: 42.9| Cost: 4 MP | Cast Time: 2.7 sec

Equipment

• Wooden Bow: Status symbol of the ranger | Damage: 35.6
• Quiver: A magic bag that can hold 60 arrows | Spawns one arrow every minute

---

Ahn Sumin
Phoenix Village Imperial Guard
Class: Summoner
Level: High Grade Apprentice

Age	26	Life Span	200
HP	181.4	MP	105.8
Physical Attack	35.6	Magic Attack	6
Physical Defense	6	Magic Defense	6
Attack Speed	4.2	Movement Speed	12.6

Innate Abilities

• Receive 40% more stats in the Physical Attack attribute when you level up
• Receive 30% more stats in the Magic Defense attribute when you level up
• Movement Speed increased by 200%
• Imperial Guard Member (Special Ability): You are bound to the land you serve but in exchange can identify the location of all enemies within the territory boundaries. You cannot level up naturally or train skills.
• Elite (Special Ability): Increase all attributes by 5%

Skills

• Summon Wolf (Low Grade): Summons a wolf with stats equal to the summoner | Duration: 10 min | Cost: 10 MP | Cast Time: 40.5 sec

Equipment

• Wooden Stave: Status symbol of the summoner | No bonuses

---

With the addition of these three High Grade Apprentices, Phoenix Village’s power reached a completely new level. Cheng Yang felt that even if the military tried to take over Phoenix Village they would be sent back to Cloud City crying.

However, he had just spent four thousand five hundred Experience Fragments. Although he could afford another S-Rank guard Cheng Yang decided to wait a day or two.

Satisfied with his purchase, Cheng Yang left the Imperial Guard Pavilion. When the civilians outside the gate saw Cheng Yang exit, they took a step backwards in fear. Hadn’t Cheng Yang entered alone? Who were those other three people?

Despite their curiosity, no one approached Cheng Yang to ask him about it.

Cheng Yang chuckled when he saw the reaction of the civilians

“Everyone listen up. From now on, these three people are the leaders of my Imperial Guard. They’ll patrol the walls and ensure the safety of the village’s citizens. As long as there are here none of you will be in danger!” Cheng Yang declared.

The civilians burst into applause. To them it didn’t matter where those people came from as long as they were willing to protect the village.

Last Chapter| Index | Next Chapter

Once he got to the Territory Altar, Cheng Yang placed the unfurled scroll at the base. A few seconds later the scroll spontaneously combusted and the Imperial Guard Pavilion appeared on the Territory Altar system pane.

---

• Imperial Guard Pavilion (Standard Grade): Allows the Lord to create an Imperial Guard | Cost: 500 units of wood

---

For such a powerful building, the construction cost of the Imperial Guard Pavilion was actually fairly low. Right now Phoenix Village had just over five hundred units of wood. This could either be used to build the remaining shops the village needed or the Imperial Guard Pavilion. Since no one would be able to effectively utilize shops right now, making a decision was trivial.

Without hesitation, Cheng Yang built the Imperial Guard Pavilion.

Immediately, a curtain of multi-color light descended not far from the center of the village. When it finally dissipated, a five pointed two-story pavilion stood in its place. Surrounded by a five-pointed stone wall, the building was magnificent.

The residents of the Inner Village stared on in wonder but compared to the light show yesterday when the walls were built, it was somewhat lacking.

Cheng Yang strode through the gate and entered the pavilion. As soon as he entered, the gate slammed shut, blocking the civilians from entering. This was the resting place of the Imperial Guard, thus only the Lord could gain entry.

Inside the walls was a variety of training materials. There were archery targets, training dummies and even an altar. The entire area was empty except for five people in strange clothing.

Each one stood at a point of the pavilion, dressed in a manner that made it seem like they had stepped right out of a fantasy novel. More importantly, every item on their body was a piece of equipment with extraordinary quality!

“My Lord, welcome to the Imperial Guard Pavilion! Is there any way in which we may make ourselves of use to you?” A woman covered from head to toe in armor called out to Cheng Yang. Considering what she was wearing, the woman was probably a Warrior.

“Greeting respected warrior.” Cheng Yang replied, hoping to satisfy his curiosity. “What is your name?”

“I am known as the Dragon of War.” She replied with a bow.

Cheng Yang nodded to acknowledge her. “I’ve come today in order to create my own Imperial Guard. What do I need to do?”

“My Lord, the process is very simple. You only need to pay a small fee and you will be able to hire skilled personnel to become your Imperial Guard. I can provide a list of the finest Warriors available. The others here can provide candidates that are Mages, Summoners, Rangers and Priests. If you wish to hire individuals with a different class than those five, I request that you built the corresponding class change statue.”

What an amazing opportunity! If he hired twenty High Grade Priests, wouldn’t he be invincible?

Suddenly, Cheng Yang thought of a question. “Is there a limit to the number of people from each class I can hire?”

“I am afraid there is my Lord.” the Warrior replied, “That limit is one tenth the limit the corresponding class change statue has.”

Although it was disappointing, it made sense. What special class wasn’t overpowered compared to the normal ones? At the very least, he could get a few powerful Priests.

“What do I need to do after hiring people to join the Imperial Guard?” Cheng Yang asked.

“The Imperial Guard doesn’t require payment but all of their needs must be met by you, my Lord. Their equipment will be supplied by you and the Experience Fragments needed to learn skill must be provided by you.” The Dragon of War replied.

Cheng Yang was startled. “Wait, will I need to give them the Experience Fragments needed for training too?!”

“Don’t worry my Lord. That would be unnecessary. Your Imperial Guard will grow with you. Every time you level up, so too will every member of the Imperial Guard.”

Hearing this Cheng Yang was overjoyed. The Experience Fragments they would need to learn skill was negligible and they just take any leftover equipment.

No wonder the military backed Phoenix Village from his past life wasn’t able to conquer the territory that had built the Imperial Guard Pavilion. These soldiers were just too useful!

“When I hire people to serve in the Imperial Guard they’ll be the same level as me, right?” Cheng Yang asked.

“My Lord that’s not entirely correct. Since you are the first Lord to build the Imperial Guard Pavilion god has allowed you to designate three members of the Imperial Guards as Elites with strength greater than that of the ordinary members.”

Although that was certainly good news, Cheng Yang thought it was just icing on the cake. After all, if in the future the Imperial Guard had hundreds of members, what would three Elites mean?

“In that case, does that mean the hiring cost is different for Elites and regular soldiers?”

“How perceptive my Lord. That is indeed the case. The cost of hiring members of the Imperial Guard is tied to their strength. The lowest quality Warrior you can hire from me costs four hundred Experience Fragments. This price will increase every time you level up.”

Luckily, he had built the Imperial Guard Pavilion now. If he had waited until leveling up the village who knows how much it would have cost him. Although, there would be no way to avoid the increased price when he expanded the Imperial Guard later.

“In that case, can I see the list of Warriors for hire?”

The Dragon of War nodded and a system pane appeared in front of Cheng Yang. On it a list of names was presented along with a small amount of information and a photo.

There were at least a hundred people listed and this just the first page of a thousand. That is to say, there were 100,000 people to choose from just for the Warriors!

Randomly jumping from page to page, Cheng Yang saw that each Warrior cost four hundred Experience Fragments. The only small difference between them was whether their Innate Ability increased Health or Physical Attack by 10%.

“Respected warrior, do you have any recommendations for who to hire?” Cheng Yang asked, unable to make a choice.

“I would recommend that you sort the available Warriors by hiring price my Lord.” The Dragon of War advised. “This will show you the higher quality Warriors first. Also, if you wish to make any of your hires Elites, just select that option and the price will be increased by fifty percent.”

After sorting, Cheng Yang finally saw some variation in the Warrior prices. The highest price was one thousand Experience Fragments and even the one at the bottom of the page cost six hundred Experience Fragments.

“Why are these prices so high?” Cheng Yang muttered.

“How could a Warrior with an SS-Rank Innate Ability be cheap?” The Dragon of War asked with a laugh. “Even A-Rank Innate Abilities are rare and expensive so the few SS-Rank and S-Rank Warriors available for hire have incredibly high prices.”

“What is the highest rank Innate Ability that I can hire?” Cheng Yang immediately asked.

“The individuals available for hire cannot have an Innate Ability that is better than the most talented person here on Earth. As for what level your people can reach, I cannot say.” The Dragon of War replied casually.

Cheng Yang suddenly felt quite small. The Dragon of War made it sound like his own unheard of SS-Rank Innate Ability was barely passable. It seemed he knew very little about this new world.

“I understand.” Cheng Yang said after a moment, “I just didn’t want to hire anyone now if people with better Innate Abilities were going to appear.”

“A wise decision my Lord.” The Dragon of War said respectfully. “The list I have provided will change from day to day. Every day at least one S-Rank Warrior will be added to the list and at least once a month an SS-Rank Warrior will appear. However, be warned. This is not a list exclusive to you. Every Lord that has constructed an Imperial Guard Pavilion will be have access. That is to say, if you aren’t quick, all the talented Warriors will be hired before you get any.”

Last Chapter| Index | Next Chapter

Cheng Yang was thrown more than ten meters away by the Imperator Sarcosucus’ attack. With a thud Cheng Yang hit the pavement. His whole body ached from the strong impact of the attack. Had he been an ordinary person every bone in his body would have shattered. With just that one attack he had lost a significant portion of his health.

However, that didn’t matter in the slightest, escaping possible encirclement had turned the tide of battle.

Cheng Yang chuckled. Even after creating so many opening, the commanders were unable to kill him.

With a flash, Cheng Yang shot an Icicle Blast towards the commander that had attacked him. With such a large body, how could it possible avoid his attack.

As it screamed in pain, the other Imperator Sarcosuci poured out of the alleyways, covering the road in a sea of black scales.

Now that he had confirmed that the commanders trap had been broken Cheng Yang ran backwards at a slow pace. Hitting the commander with a second Icicle Blast, Cheng Yang began to kite the horde.

Watching the commanders charge towards him Cheng Yang sneered. These two were doomed the moment their trap failed. After being hit by a third Icicle Blast, the commander that had attacked Cheng Yang fell to the ground, never to move again.

The Imperator Sarcosucus tanking abilities were truly impressive. Most High Grade Monsters would be killed in just two shots.

At this point, the Imperator Sarcosuci in the alley had completely devoured the Grave Seekers. Even though they were the same level, the Grave Seekers were unable to deal enough damage to be a challenging opponent.

Once he resolved his grudge, Cheng Yang began targeting the other commander. As for the other Imperator Sarcosuci, they were over a hundred meters away now. After being suppressed for so long, Cheng Yang’s speed advantage finally showed itself.

Not too long later, the second commander died.

Since he had the opportunity, Cheng Yang decided to farm Experience Fragments off of the remaining low level monsters. This time he made sure to properly survey the area for other hordes as he searched for a place to cast Petal Blizzard from.

Cheng Yang considered calling Liu Hau and the other soldiers over to help but ultimately decided against it. Not only would they be useless except for the five he buffed with Sacrificial Blood cloud, they should be somewhere else collecting the treasure these monsters guarded.

Finally, he spotted a wonderful hiding spot, a building that had collapsed in such a way that there was a gradual slope leading into the basement. What made it amazing was that three perfectly intact concrete slabs had landed on top of the entrance to the basement. Without a High Grade monster, the Imperator Sarcosucus wouldn’t be able to break in and they were too big to fit normally.

Since both commanders were dead, with enough time he would be able to massacre the entire horde.

Cheng Yang quickly rushed in side to confirm that there was at least one other exit. When he saw that there was one, he prepared to face the horde.

“Icicle Blast!” Cheng Yang shouted. Although a few of the Imperator Sarcosucus had followed him over, it was necessary to stir them into a frenzy in order to maximize the effectiveness of Petal Blizzard.

In just a dozen seconds, the entrance to the basement was swarming with mouths.

Like clockwork, Cheng Yang cast Petal Blizzard. Nothing was more pleasant than mindlessly increasing the number of Experience Fragments he had.

There was a decent number of Standard Grade monsters left in the horde but Cheng Yang didn’t even notice. After all, they would just survive the Petal Blizzard one more time than the others.

Ten minutes later, few tens of Imperator Sarcosucus were still alive.

It was at this point that Liu Hau and the other soldiers entered the battle. With their strength, clearing out the remaining monsters was trivial.

“Hey, where were you when I was in danger?” Cheng Yang called out to the soldiers, “Don’t think I didn’t notice you waiting to mooch off my hard work.” He scolded.

“My Lord, how could we dare to mooch from you? We simply saw you fight and were inspired to come help!” Liu Hau said with bravado. “Besides, with the amount you have whats a couple dozen lost Experience Fragments.”

“What a smooth talker you are. Did you grab what they were guarding?”

“Not yet. We saw that the monsters were trying to surround you and were worried so we wanted to stay nearby in case we had to get you out of there.”

Cheng Yang was touched. With their strength Liu Hau and the others would only have plunged to their deaths if they really tried to help him. Even though he knew most of them wouldn’t have actually tried to help it was still nice to hear. After all, in the apocalypse it was far more common to find people who wanted to back stab you.

“In that case lets go find it. I bet your pretty interest right?” Cheng Yang grinned.

After a short walk through the site of Cheng Yang’s battle, the group reached the area the monsters had been guarding. Bathed in a soft glow, Cheng Yang found a scroll stuck in between two pieces of concrete. He had found two similar items before but each one was a skill scroll. He knew, from his past life, that what he had really wanted all this time was right in front of him. An architectural blueprint

Aside from the safe zone in the center of the city and the first clear of the Forgotten Grave, this was the most valuable object in the entire city!

---

Imperial Guard Pavilion Blueprints
Allows for the creation of the Imperial Guard Pavilion.

This building allows the Lord to create an Imperial Guard.

---

In his past life, the Imperial Guard Pavilion was obtained by one of the other territories surrounding Cloud City but the effects were well known in the area.

Each of the guards hired would be the same level as the Lord of the territory but there was a very strict limit on the number that could be hired. A Low Grade village could only hire ten guards and at least until it reach High Grade, that number would increase by ten every level.

The role of these NPC guards couldn’t be underestimated. They were willing to die in the line of duty and were completely loyal to the Lord. So long as they were alive, a territory’s safety could be assured.

Due to god’s rules it was almost a guarantee that the Lord of a territory would also be the strongest fighter. This meant that every single guard would be a level higher than the normal soldiers of a territory. How powerful would a whole team of them be?!

Once the Imperial Guard Pavilion was built Cheng Yang would obtain a loyal soldier that were just as powerful as he was. More importantly, he would have twenty of them!

The only restriction being that these Imperial Guards were incapable of leaving the territory. Those overpowered soldiers could never be used offensively but in exchange they would become his territories unbreakable shield!

“What is that thing? A skill?” Liu Hau asked, looking over Cheng Yang’s shoulder. After getting a powerful skill yesterday, he couldn’t wait to get another.

“Nope. This is an architectural blueprint. With this we’ll be able to secure a spot in this world for Phoenix Village!” Cheng Yang declared.

“Is it really that powerful?”

“It really is!” Cheng Yang then explained the power held by the Imperial Guard to his soldier.

“Those damn Imperial Guards are so lucky! We have to work hard everyday to achieve anything where as they, without even trying, can reach the same level as you? This is so unfair.” Liu Hau pouted.

“Are you saying you’d prefer to never set foot outside the village again?” Cheng Yang teased.

“Well… no.” Liu Hau admitted. For him, being cooped up in a single place was a fate worse than death.

---

Today’s main goal had been accomplished so all that was left was to search a few more rescue points before five. In the end, only one soldier’s family was rescued.

By the time the group returned to Phoenix Village, it was already dark.

The today number of refugees saved today had decreased slightly, but Cheng Yang was satisfied with the current population growth trajectory.

When he got back, Cheng Yang rushed over to the Territory Altar.

Last Chapter| Index | Next Chapter

“Always know where your enemies are before and after a fight!” How could Cheng Yang have forgotten the golden rule of the apocalypse he had been taught in his past life?

Most monsters would ignore another horde even if there were humans, but Grave Seekers were notorious scavengers known for their cunning. With them blocking the exit, the sturdy walls that had acted as Cheng Yang’s shield had become his shackles.

The walls were too tall to climb so he needed to make a choice. Break through the Grave Seekers at the back or try to force his way through the Imperator Sarcosuci.

The latter was obviously a bad choice. Not only were there hundreds of Imperator Sarcosuci but the Elite High Grade commanders were lurking somewhere in the horde.

The only real choice was to use the exit he had planned to originally. He just had to hope that there weren’t too many Graveseekers.

Cheng Yang wasn’t worried about dying at the hands of a Grave Seeker. He had enough Health Recovery potions to forcibly kill at least three hundred Low Grade monsters if need be. He was more worried about getting tied down and being caught in the iron grip of an Imperator Sarcosucus’ jaws. If that happened, his potions would only delay an inevitable death.

After making a decision, Cheng Yang gave up on killing any more Imperator Sarcosuci and sprinted towards the Grave Seekers. Seeing him approach, the Grave Seekers readied their pitchforks to strike at him.

Cheng Yang, who didn’t want to get caught in between the two monster hordes, took a running jump. His momentum carried him forward as he sailed over the Grave Seekers below.

The monsters were dumbfounded. Although they’re smarter than most beasts, Cheng Yang’s actions took them completely by surprise. Cheng Yang landed right behind the horde, cleanly dodging their initial attacks.

Cheng Yang hit the ground and rolled. The moment he landed, The Grave Seekers in the back thrust their pitchforks into his body. At the same time, a mass of icy petals burst into existence

The petals tore apart the monsters, leaving them with a pitiful amount of Health. Cheng Yang, on the other hand, only took three damage, about the same amount that most of the Grave Seekers now had. Such weak attacks merely tickled.

Although having weapons gave the Grave Seekers one of the highest damage values as Low Grade monsters, they were useless in front of Cheng Yang’s Physical Defense unless they had the Armour Piercing attribute

Cheng Yang did his best to dodge every attack. Although he wasn’t always successful, nor was he afraid that the Grave Seekers would kill him, he had remembered the cost of letting his guard down. Thankfully, this lesson hadn’t taken his life.

As the apocalypse progressed, monsters would evolve to the point that even normal attacks would have the power of a skill. Their attacks would gain attributes such as Armor Piercing. However, there was one attribute that could instantly end a person’s life: Vorpal. Under normal circumstances, if an attack would dismember or decapitate a target, god’s rules would only allow it to deal damage. However, if the attack had the Vorpal attribute the limb would be cleanly separated. Liu Hau had lost an arm to exactly that attribute in Cheng Yang’s previous life; if Cheng Yang wasn’t careful, he might lose his head in this one. No matter how much Health you had, being decapitated by a Vorpal attack was game over.

Since monsters could add special attributes to their attacks, it was a given that humans could do the same. Right now all that mattered was hitting the opponent but, whether by using a skill or finding a weapon that had one, the addition of these special attributes would completely transform how humanity approached combat.

Being able to effectively use special attack attributes required a good amount of experience and honed combat sense. Few people were able to adjust to this shift in time; those that didn’t ended up in a shallow grave.

This mass culling of Professionals was what allowed Cheng Yang to become one in his past life. As the second generation of soldiers, he was given the chance to adapt to the new style of combat without becoming complacent when it was easy. However, he almost fell into that same trap after reincarnating. Had this not been the early days of the apocalypse, he very well could have died today.

Once the second Petal Blizzard was unleashed, the monsters surrounding Cheng Yang were cut down like wheat.

Cheng Yang did not hesitate to take a few steps forward, then jumped again and fell to the front. Then he tossed out another ice thorn.

Having created an opening, Cheng Yang used the opportunity to perform another long jump.

At this time Cheng Yang was twenty meters away from the exit. Grave Seekers continuously poured into the alley while the Imperator Sarcosuci charged forwards from the other side. Even if he had made a few mistakes, Cheng Yang wasn’t an idiot. By jumping over the Grave Seekers at the front, he had drafted them into becoming his meat shields.

Cheng Yang desperately scrabbled forwards, jumping when he could. Even though the damage was negligible, every time Cheng Yang was hit by a pitchfork, his heart wept. For a Mage, being trapped in a monster horde was a tragic fate.

Fortunately, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The last Grave Seeker in the horde had just entered the alley so as long as he could escape to the road, he would be free!

Cheng Yang excitedly jumped towards the exit, letting his guard down once again…

“Fuck!” Cheng Yang couldn’t help but swear. His momentum had carried him directly into a pitchfork.

A Standard Grade Graveseeker had hidden itself among the lower level fodder. Cheng Yang hadn’t thought about it but why wouldn’t this horde have a leader? With a cold fury, Cheng Yang placed the end of his stave on the leader’s head.

With a pop, the leader’s head was blown off. Cheng Yang’s Icicle Blast skill dealt sixty six points of damage so only the most powerful Standard Grade monsters would be able to avoid dying in one shot.

At the same time, the two monster hordes finally clashed. Using their numbers and size, the Imperator Sarcosuci turned the alley into a meat grinder. Although it was true that monsters would start fights with each other, how could one horde ignore another trying to steal their prey?

With frightening speed, Cheng Yang meat shields were turned into puddles of blood.

Seeing this, Cheng Yang became anxious. He needed to quickly kill the Grave Seekers in front of him and escape!

After a few seconds, Cheng Yang was able to reach the end of the alley. When he did, he saw something horrifying. The remaining Imperator Sarcosuci had moved to block off the end alley’s exit themselves!

“Fuck! Which bastard said that bestial monsters weren’t smart?!” Before reincarnating, Cheng Yang had only been a better than average soldier, so his mistakes were understandable. After all, he had already died from them once. If the elites from his past life could see this, they could only regret that they hadn’t been given this chance instead of Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang broke out into a cold sweat. If not for those Grave Seekers trying to take advantage of the situation, he would have been forced to fight his way through the entire horde of Imperator Sarcosuci.

Without hesitation Cheng Yang sprinted in the opposite direction. There was no way he was going to give those monsters a chance to trap him. He’s already made enough mistakes today.

As he ran, Cheng Yang downed a Health Recovery Potion. Watching his Health climb back to full helped Cheng Yang calm down.

Any so called champion sprinters from before the apocalypse would be forced to eat his dust but, Cheng Yang still felt it wasn’t fast enough. The horde commander had proven to be incredibly crafty, forcing Cheng Yang to stay on guard.

“So that’s how it is.” With a whoosh two massive bodies ran in front of Cheng Yang to block his path.

Bigger than an ordinary Imperator Sarcosucus, the two Elite High Grade commanders were able to entirely block of the street with just their bodies. Even compared to the Standard Grade Imperator Sarcosucus he had killed before, these monsters were gigantic.

Having calmed down, Cheng Yang was able to address this problem with a level head. Would he be able to fight both of them at once? If he was able to kite them, victory would be trivial but they probably wouldn’t let him. It was possible they intended to stall him so that the other monsters could encircle him. What trick had these monsters planned?

Cheng Yang let out a self deprecating laugh. “Why are you thinking so much, all you need to do is fight them.”

With a firm resolve, Cheng Yang charged towards the wall of scales.At the same time his stave lit up with a frosty light. With a burst of cold air, Cheng Yang fired an icicle into the head of one commander.

Cheng Yang truly was a lucky bastard. On the first hit, Icicle Blast’s freezing effect was activated. Even if it was huge, it couldn’t escape god’s rules, cold icy tendrils wrapped around its joints.

“I won’t be dying today!” Cheng Yang roared. He climbed over the nearly immobile monster and lept past it.

The other commander wasn’t going to let its prey escape so easily. Its huge tail swept towards Cheng Yang like a train. Even if the air current it created was frightening, it wouldn’t be enough to instantly kill Cheng Yang. Although he was in the air, Cheng Yang’s rich combat experience allowed him to use the attack as a springboard.

With an earsplitting boom, the commander’s attack sent Cheng Yang flying into the distance.

Even if he hadn’t been an elite, he had still survived for a year in this damnable world!

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The groups traveled quickly. Cheng Yang let his soldiers take care of the scattered monsters that appeared and stepped in to use Petal Blizzard against larger groups. After several days, their coordination had improved by leaps and bounds, allowing them to defeat any horde they encountered with ease.

When they arrived outside the Forgotten Grave, the group started another run. Since they were able to clear the instance in less than half an hour, the hunting efficiency inside couldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath as hunting normally.

When they left the instance, the group had almost a dozen pieces of equipment they didn’t have when they entered. Even so, the quality of the loot was much lower this time. There weren’t any special treasures and only two pieces of Black Iron equipment.

The soldiers were disappointed but Cheng Yang didn’t care. He knew that if you wanted good loot, you needed to clear Hard Difficulty instance dungeons at minimum.

After wards, the group set off for the last marked location on Cheng Yang’s map that wasn’t a bridge nor in the city center.

Along the way, the group searched several search and rescue locations.

Unless a horde had long range attack capabilities they were helpless in front of Cheng Yang and his soldiers no matter how big they were.

After three and a half hours the group arrived at the marked location.

In between the gaps of the crumbling buildings a massive horde could be see. Cheng Yang estimated that there were at least one thousand five hundred monsters here, more here than there were guarding the bridges. Worse than that, if Cheng Yang’s memories from his past life were still accurate there would be two Elite High Grade monsters in this horde.

Monsters hordes would only gather in one spot when something useful to humanity was nearby. These hordes were assigned as guards and the size of this particular group rivaled that of the guardian horde for a Territory Altar. Relatively speaking, the value a Territory provided to humanity was far greater than any mere treasure but since it was seen as a necessity, god was merciful and reduced the perceived value to monsters.

Even so, this treasure was deemed just as valuable as a territory in the eyes of the monsters present. This was especially obvious when you realized that not even his unique skill warranted the creation of two Elite High Grade guards.

You can only imagine how powerful the treasure they guarded was.

Cheng Yang, however, did not. He knew exactly what was hidden in the depths of that horde and was desperate to obtain it before the day after tomorrow. On that day, the tenth day after the apocalypse, the first Mass Monster Evolution would occur. Five percent of all Low Grade monsters would spontaneously level up to Standard Grade, creating a second crisis for humanity.

At that time this horde would have seventy five new Standard Grade monsters or more. Although Cheng Yang was confident he and his soldiers could still exterminate it, he couldn’t guarantee that there wouldn’t be heavy losses.

“Koko, take the others and find somewhere to lie low nearby. I’m going to kite them for a little bit and try to lure out the commanders. If I don’t manage to do that I can at least cull a few of them.” Cheng Yang said.

“My Lord, you don’t need to shoulder all of the danger by yourself. Let’s find an intact building to use for protection, then you can use Sacrificial Blood Cloud and we’ll face the horde directly.”

“Hiding in a building ins’t a safe thing to do. Take that one for instance, although we could stand on the second floor and the normal monsters wouldn’t be able to do anything the commanders would just demolish the building directly.” Cheng Yang said, “It’s actually safer for me to go alone. I’m faster than the monsters so I wont get surrounded by those below High Grade. If they follow me away that’s even better. You can come out of hiding and grab the treasure while they’re gone.”

Liu Hau was persuaded so he took the group of soldiers to hide some distance away.

As they were leaving, Cheng Yang carefully surveyed the surrounding terrain. He was able to see quite a few spots he could use.

He chose to fight in a narrow passage that used to be an alley. Although the buildings had collapsed, the concrete walls were still intact enough to block monsters from going through them.

Bestial monsters were usually quite stupid and the horde in front of him was no exception. As long as there was an unblocked path towards their enemy, those monsters wouldn’t bother to create their own. They would continue to pour down the alley until it was choked with corpses.

After making sure that the walls wouldn’t randomly collapse Cheng Yang rushed out to confront the horde.

There was only a single type of monsters in this horde since it was a naturally forming one. The Imperator Sarcosucus were massive crocodiles with a length of eleven meters and a height of two. Despite it’s intimidating appearance these horrors were still just Low Grade monsters.

Of course, they were still among the most powerful and dangerous of all Low Grade monsters.

In addition to their massive size these monsters had forty health, three Physical Defense and two Magic Defense. In exchange, their speed was a measly point five. They were textbook meatshields.

Gods new rules allowed these creatures to live outside of the water indefinitely. The fact that god was merciful enough not to allow sharks to swim through the air caused several people to begin serious worship in Cheng Yang’s past life.

When he appeared, Cheng Yang immediately attracted the attention of those vicious creatures. Their massive jaws opened with the expectation of fresh meat but their little legs constantly waddling ruined the image.

Cheng Yang rushed into range and ran back immediately after casting Icicle Blast. A shard the size of a lance shot forwards and penetrated the skull of a Standard Grade Imperator Sarcosucus. The enemies movements slowed to a snails pace as its entire body was covered in a layer of ice. The magnificent ice sculpture was shattered to pieces as the other crocodiles trampled over it to reach Cheng Yang.

Every now and then when Cheng Yang turned a Low Grade monster into a corpse its body froze and was stomped to pieces.

Cheng Yang was only able to kill a dozen monsters before reaching the alley. When he did, Cheng Yang stopped attacking and rushed inside. No matter how strong you were, being surrounded by over a thousand monster meant certain death.

The alley was only able to accommodate three of the massive beasts as it was only two meters across. Despite that the monster were climbing over each other to fit as many into the alley as they could.

Cheng Yang smirked, how could he allow such a good opportunity to pass? Suddenly hundreds of razor sharp petals appeared out of nowhere, dicing at the monsters flesh. Since the Imperator Sarcosucus were densely packed into the entrance of the alley Cheng Yang was able to hit eight of them with his AOE skill.

When ever an Imperator Sarcosucus managed to break free from the group to bite Cheng Yang, he would send an icicle down it’s throat, killing it. These monsters were simply too slow, they would never be able to catch Cheng Yang in their jaws. Maintaining a constant distance of seven meters Cheng Yang calmly fought.

Even as the monsters in front died, those in the back pushed forwards like a writhing mass of snakes. Whenever he had the chance Cheng Yang would use the Petal Blizzard skill to creating a large pile of corpses.

This alley had turned into a mass grave. Every three or four meters a large pile of dead Imperator Sarcosucus could be seen. The alley was two hundred and fifty meters long so by the end, the strength of the horde would have be greatly diminished.

Even so, the number of Imperator Sarcosucus was just too high. Even if ten were killed another ten would squeeze their way into the alley.

As Cheng Yang neared the end of the alley he estimated that he must have killed at least four hundred monsters. Before he could celebrate s scratching noise behind him wiped the smile off of his face.

The end of the alley had been blocked off by a horde of monsters! Behind him, twenty Graveseekers had rushed down the other end of the alley.

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Cheng Yang’s defense before and after becoming a Cryomancer werer incomparable. The unique subclass had given him two new Innate Abilities that boosted his natural Physical and Mental Defense by three points each.

This was the power of a unique subclass. Frozen Flesh and Icy Mind were the exclusive Innate abilities of a Cryomancer. In addition, he now had one enhanced original Innate ability. These two powerful buffs were what separated a unique subclass from the common ones.

Every time he leveled up, Cheng Yang’s Magic Attack would increase by 40%. This gave him an Innate Ability above S-Rank, which was something that had never happened in his past life.

Although more than a dozen people had obtained a unique subclass, none of them had S-Rank Innate Abilities. After all, there were few people with unique sub-classes; the number of people with S-Rank Innate Abilities was even smaller. A person having both was a miracle.

This wasn’t a bug, right? Perhaps God didn’t consider the possibility that someone could get an Innate Ability higher than S-Rank since it was the limit in Cheng Yang’s past life.

In addition, the attributes of Cheng Yang’s skills changed. Magic Missile and Wind Bondage were replaced with ice themed variants.

The biggest change was that both skills gained the ability to slow a creature. Magic Missile changed to Icicle Blast, gaining a thirty percent chance to apply a frozen debuff. Although it wouldn’t matter when facing ordinary enemies, stronger monsters would become easier to deal with. Wind Bondage became Hibernation Chill; in exchange for being weakened, it’s biggest disadvantage had been removed. The cast time less than the effect duration so he could infinitely chain the skill.

Although slowing a monster won’t be as useful in certain situations as completely restraining a monster, removing the cast time limiter made Hibernation Chill better.

Wind Bondage was only suitable to use when in a team or trying to escape due to the long cooldown. By the time you finished casting another skill, the target would already be free.

The limitation reduced the practicality of Wind Bondage to Cheng Yang since he preferred go solo. Besides, if he needed access to the skill, he could always make one of the soldiers use it for him.

Although these skills were powerful, they weren’t actually Cryomancer skills. When performing a class change ceremony for a subclass, previously learned skills were turned into a fusion between the two classes.

However, Cheng Yang didn’t understand the Cyromancers skills. So he opened the panel of the Cyromancer to figure it out.

Cheng Yang had opened it to take a peek, but he found a learning skill, which made him happy.

Regardless of the high practicality of this skill, it’s good to have one more skill in the early stage.

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Cryomancer Skills

• Petal Blizzard (Low-Grade): Conjure hundreds of razor sharp ice petals to dice your enemies | Damage: 27.4 | Cost: 20 MP | Cast Time: 1.5 sec | Effect Radius: 3 m | Level Needed: High Grade Apprentice | Price: 200 Experience Fragments

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Cheng Yang widened his eyes. How cool was this? It turned out to be an area of effect skill!

The excitement in Cheng Yang’s heart couldn’t be expressed with words. The only person to become a Cryomancer in Cheng Yang’s previous life had learned this skill, but he was already a Low Grade Scholar at the time. At that level, all Mages were able to learn area of effect skills so it wasn’t seen as being special or overpowered.

However, Cheng Yang was only a High Grade Apprentice and everyone else was a Low Grade Apprentice. Having an area of effect attack this earlier would be overpowered!

How big was a three meter radius? Enough to fit seven or eight monsters. If the monsters were grouped up like the skeletons in the Forgotten Grave hitting ten would be easy. Cheng Yang would only need to use Petal Blizzard twice to kill ten monsters! Compared to using Icicle Blast, it was far more efficient. As he leveled up the skill, its efficacy would only increase.

Without hesitation, Cheng Yang purchased Petal Blizzard. For now, as long as he could kill eight monsters every two times he used the skill it would be worth the Mana cost.

Next, Cheng Yang instructed his generals to collect all of the Experience Fragment he had loaned by the time he got back from hunting.

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Cheng Yang began hunting only after he had traveled four kilometers from the outer wall. Although monsters would constantly spawn in the areas he had cleared on previous nights, only large hordes could meet his needs. Besides, if he cleared out all of the small fry, what would his soldiers hunt?

His harvest for the night was two thousand Experience Fragments. However, these types of gains didn’t come without danger. Due to a moment of carelessness Cheng Yang had been surrounded by a monster horde six hundred strong. Unable to kite them like he normally would, Cheng Yang was drawn into an intense, bloody battle.

Three factors contributed to his victory tonight: the Petal Blizzard skill, his overpowered potions and his natural Physical Defense increase. The first two ensured he had an amazing efficiency when it came to monster killing while the last allowed him to face the attacks of Low Grade monsters without fear.

Normally there was no way to totally negate damage other than a Shield’s Damage Reduction attribute however, this was only in regards to equipment. As long as your natural Physical Defense was higher than the initial damage adjusted for Damage Reduction, there was a chance to ignore damage entirely.

Previously, Cheng Yang’s chance to ignore damage was less than 8% but now he had a nearly 30% chance to ignore damage. This made it much easier to face large hordes of monsters.

After returning to Phoenix Village, Cheng Yang collected the four thousand Experience Fragments he had loaned out for training from Yu Kai.

He then went into his house to Meditate. When he woke up the next morning, his experience bar had been filled a mind boggling three and a half percent! For a High Grade Apprentice, such a fast rate of progress was scary.

Suddenly the smile on Cheng Yang’s face disappeared. According to the calculations and data derived in his past life, that number was wrong. Considering the training speed of the High Grade Meditation skill multiplied by sixteen, the various bonuses from the Meditation Hall and his Innate Ability, his experience bar should have only increased by three point two percent. Why did it increase by point three percent more than it should have?

Although Cheng Yang had been calculating his training efficiency everyday and noticed tiny discrepancies, he figured it was due to algebra errors. But no matter how many time he recalculated the figure, there was no way to write off the difference.

The numbers for the Meditation Halls and sixteen times training speed had been confirmed in his past life, so the source of the error must lie with his Innate Ability!

Cheng Yang pondered over the issue for quite some time but couldn’t come up with a reasonable solution. The best one he had was that his Innate Ability was affecting some hidden stat for the Meditation Hall.

It took Cheng Yang a while to calm down but in the end, no matter the reason, the increase was a good thing. He was sure that, with enough time, Phoenix Village would stand at the top of the world. By then it wouldn’t be Phoenix Village but Phoenix City!

Once he calmed down, Cheng Yang walked outside. As for the seven hundred and twenty Experience Fragments he used for training today? He had already forgotten about them.

Today was the ninth day of the apocalypse and Cheng Yang was starting to feel the pressure. All of the weakest and most cowardly survivors were already dead and even the others would soon follow them without intervention.

Fortunately Cheng Yang had already rescued people from most of the outer city while the military should have covered the entire inner city. Without either of those groups acting, the number of casualties would have grown exponentially.

Cheng Yang tried not to think too hard about it since every life he saved was one fated to die in his previous life. All he wanted to do was take advantage of the time he had left to save as many people as he could. At the same time, he could collect Experience Fragments and strengthen the territory

Before leaving for Cloud City Cheng Yang quickly cleared the Blood Soaked Cathedral, earning back double what he lost that night. Afterwards he gave all of his Experience Fragments to Yu Kai.

This was so that Yu Kai could pick ten people in his Brigade to grant sixteen times training speed. From now on, all ten thousand would be passed from team to team when they trained. First up would be Yu Kai’s Brigade followed by Lau Hui’s.

Old Lee had worked through the night to tightly micromanage the territories Experience Fragments reserves, allowing him to finish performing class change ceremonies for all of the new soldiers a short time after Cheng Yang cleared the instance dungeon. As such, he was no longer needed in the village so Cheng Yang brought him to Cloud City.

It seemed that for at least a while longer, Phoenix Village would remain nearly broke.

As the group advanced to Cloud City Cheng Yang purposefully took a route they hadn’t gone through yet. Tons of monsters assaulted them along the way, but their only role was to feed Cheng Yang and his soldiers more Experience Fragments.

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