XMTL

“Farmer? A Profession like that exists?” Old Lee asked in surprise.

“Yep, as you can see from the crazy tree growth, the soil content has changed since the apocalypse. From now on, food will not grow naturally. That is why there is a Profession specialized in forcing the land to grow food. We haven’t unlocked the Profession yet, so I can’t give you many details.” Cheng Yang explained.

After finishing up his conversation with Old Lee, Cheng Yang left the village and sprinted to Huimin.

Huimin was close enough to Phoenix Village that a small piece of it overlapped with the village’s territory boundary. Although that overlap was small, it created a safe space to keep survivors and almost guaranteed that the path back to Phoenix Village would be safe. Larger groups of civilians could be taken back with a smaller amount of guards.

When Cheng Yang arrived at Huimin, he saw an exciting spectacle.

The few hundred meters surrounding the safe zone were being torn apart by the soldiers of Phoenix Village. They instantly killed any monsters that wandered over and worked together to dismantle ruins so that they could find survivors.

Whenever he walked past a group of soldiers, they would stop and respectfully greet Cheng Yang. Although he couldn’t guarantee that they truly respected him, he could feel their sincere gratitude. After all, Cheng Yang had saved them and gave them the power to control their fate.

After walking three hundred meters, he found that the atmosphere was entirely different. Since this was far away from the safe zone, large groups of monsters could be seen in several places. The soldiers from Phoenix Village only dared to travel in tight groups, constantly on edge lest they provoke a horde they couldn’t handle.

Fortunately, there were a lot of ruins they could hide behind, as long as they were careful they could avoid detection.

First Cheng Yang found Yu Kai’s team which was searching for supplies. Although killing monsters was the only way to quickly gain strength, most people found it too dangerous or couldn’t bring themselves to fight them. If it wasn’t in self defense, most people wouldn’t fight a single monster, much less a horde of them.

“Yoko, back so soon? How’s it going?” Yu Kai whispered when he spotted Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang had the same conversation with Yu Kai as he had with Old Lee.

“It’s definitely the right choice to clean up Huimin first. I talked to some of the locals and there were two wood processing plants here before the apocalypse! After the earthquake, they were buried and changed location a little bit. Some of the wood we’ve found was pre-processed so we should find the plants themselves soon. As long as we can clear out the monster hordes here, we’ll be able to loot both plants.” Yu Kai reported.

“That’s great. Spread the message that in an hour we’re going to make a united extermination team. The first horde we’ll target is the one with a hundred monsters, then we’ll wear down the biggest one.”

After Cheng Yang explained his plan for the battle, Yu Kai’s eyes lit up in excitement before going to alert the other groups.

In less than forty minutes, a hundred and thirty-four people had gathered around Cheng Yang. They had quickly adapted to the environment and kept their mouths shut, waiting for Cheng Yang to speak.

Three of the teams had come together for this operation, with each class evenly represented and three Priests present.

“Alright, everyone. I’ll now explain to you our battle plans.” Cheng Yang began to address the crowd, “We’ll set up our soldiers on various tall ruins. As usual, the Summoners will call out their wolves to defend the front line with the warriors behind them at the foot of the ruins. The ranged soldiers will position themselves on the ruins allowing them to easily target the monsters below. This will be a team battle, so I don’t want any heroics from you. If you cause the death of another soldier because you tried to act alone, I will personally execute you. It may sound cold, but I will not allow anyone to bring harm to Phoenix Village.”

The soldiers below him were silent but they nodded in unison.

“There are several small monster groups scattered around. Once we’ve eliminated them, we’ll have some breathing room to deal with the larger ones. Let’s begin.” Cheng Yang walked towards the soldiers.

As they began to march, Cheng Yang positioned himself in the center of the army. Although this greatly limited his effectiveness as a fighter, it was a better place to lead from.

The first horde they faced was a group of forty Lesser Mephits. When they saw the Phoenix Village army begin to set up their formation, they didn’t hesitate to charge over. They started to chant in their bestial language, hungry for human flesh.

“Attack.” Cheng Yang commanded firing off the first shot. His shot was followed by a dozens of arrows and Magic Missiles. When they made contact with the monster horde, they let out miserable screams.

Cheng Yang wasn’t worried that the screams of the Lesser Mephits would attract another monster horde since different types of monsters hated each other. Unless there was a treasure or powerful leader to control them, each group would ignore the other even if they called for help. Of course, if they heard the humans the other horde was fighting, they would rush over immediately.

Only two or three Lesser Mephits died in that wave of attacks. Even though most were injured to some extent, it didn’t affect their ability to fight.

Lesser Mephits were rather slow monsters so it would take them three or four seconds to cover the forty meters between them and the army. Cheng Yang and the other ranged Professionals launched volley after volley at them as they approached. By the time they clashed with the Summoner’s wolves at least twelve had died.

The defensive capabilities of the Warriors weren’t bad since they could block a monsters charge with their shields, but Summoners provided the ultimate meatshields. Their wolves would fight unscrupulous battles where both sides tore each other apart. Luckily, neither side was very smart, so neither had a distinct advantage.

With the Lesser Mephits tied up by the wolves and the Warriors, they quickly died.

The first of the monster hordes had been eliminated cleanly. After two minutes of Meditation, they chose another target.

They fought for nearly an hour, eradicating most of the monster hordes and reducing the total number of monsters by seventy percent. The last two hordes each had two hundred or more members, a number that the Warriors and wolves wouldn’t be able to fully defend against. Cheng Yang had no intention of letting his army try to defend against either of those hordes. Although it was normal to see the summoned wolves die, if any of his soldiers died, Cheng Yang would feel terrible. Although they weren’t strong by his standard, they were still the soldiers he had diligently raised and were much better than people who had just performed a class change ceremony.

Fortunately, since Huimin was almost devoid of monsters, Cheng Yang would be able to safely kite those large hordes. He wouldn’t have to worry about running into another horde and the ruins provided more than enough cover.

Cheng Yang copied the tactics he had used this morning, making the monsters run in circles and insta-killing a few every time they got near.

When the number of monsters in each horde dropped below eighty, he would lead it back to the army’s defensive line. Yu Kai would then direct the army in annihilating the remainder of the horde.

At around seven that evening, Huimin had been entirely cleared of monsters. Although a few would respawn occasionally, the guard teams would kill them within minutes.

Cheng Yang had undoubtedly gained the most from today’s activities. The number of Experience Fragments Cheng Yang obtained was about 20% of the total earned by the entire army. He had earned 300 Experience Fragments, whereas the average soldier had around fifteen. The reason Cheng Yang was able to earn that much because not only could he insta-kill Low-Grade monsters but he rarely missed. The soldiers in his army would need four or five hits to kill a monster and missed regularly.

Cheng Yang was no longer needed in Huimin since he could rely on the guard and cleanup teams to handle the situation. They would be able to collect the materials Phoenix Village needed, including the all-important wood.

After congratulating the army on their victory, Cheng Yang returned to Phoenix Village. After he left, Yu Kai and Lau Hui led the effort to distribute water to the survivors hiding in the ruins.

By the time Cheng Yang returned to the village, it had gotten dark. Cheng Yang went directly to the Territory Altar to begin new research since the one he had started in the morning, had finished some time ago. After paying all of the research costs, Phoenix Village still had 1300 Experience Fragments.

The reason why Experience Fragments were abundant in the territory was that the new collection range of Phoenix Village included Huimin. All of the monsters that had been hunted contributed to the number of Experience Fragments owned by the territory.

Cheng Yang estimated that this trend would continue for a few days while they got rid of all the large monsters hordes surrounding Phoenix Village.

Turning off the system pane, Cheng Yang discovered that Experience Values weren’t the only thing the village had gotten a lot of today. Cheng Yang didn’t know if god had done this on purpose, but several large logs from the Huimin lumber processing plants had been scattered around the city. Thus even though they hadn’t found the processing plants themselves, nearly 170 cubic meters of wood had been collected.

Together with the forty cubic meters, they had collected yesterday they had enough wood to build two of the new buildings.

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While Yuan Jianzhe was suffering from humiliation, Cheng Yang was massaging a persistent headache. He was watching the southern entrance to Cloud City while hiding in a tree and just seeing the number of monsters occupying the passage made his scalp go numb.

The horde seemed to have seven hundred monsters, maybe eight hundred? There was also no shortage of high-level monsters, both normal and Elite. There was almost definitely a High-Grade monster or two in there. Maybe even a Pinnacle Grade.

Although he had killed that High-Level wolf leader, that didn’t mean he was a match for all or even most High-Level monsters. When a high-level monster was hidden within a horde, they became a deadly threat even to humans a level higher than them.

If he were to provoke those monsters, what would happen?

Cheng Yang looked around and saw that aside from the area where the road used to be, there were dense forests with low lying bramble bushes. Escaping into those woods wouldn’t be hard if there was a group that cleared the bushes while the other’s fought, but since he was alone, the only safe way was to leave the way he came.

He had to consider the possibility that a monster horde would suddenly appear behind him, blocking the road. It was fairly likely too as most monster hordes would roam looking for food. It was just that they didn’t travel very fast until they detected a human.

This was also different from when he fought fifty monsters at once. Although it was possible to escape an encirclement when it was just fifty or even up to a hundred monsters, trying to break free from nearly a thousand was impossible. If you got caught in the middle of a horde with over a hundred monsters, you could only pray for a merciful death.

Cheng Yang didn’t even consider trying to fight them in a battle of attrition and slowly retreated. His goal for today was only to scout out the monster horde, so his job was already done. As for how Phoenix Village would get past the horde? It would be a discussion left for later, after the construction of an Alchemy Tower and stocked up a sufficient number of potions.

On the way back, he took a different route so he could visit areas he hadn’t cleared. By the time he returned to Phoenix Village, it was already three in the afternoon.

Although he had been out for quite a while, it was worth it. He had over 1500 Experience Fragments, so even if the thousand he lent out were lost, he would still be able to use eight times training speed.

When Cheng Yang opened the gates to Phoenix Village, he found that Old Lee’s team was currently in the territory. They weren’t training but rather were guarding the walls.

Old Lee and his soldiers weren’t training right now since they had trained last night. They would need to wait another few hours before they would be allowed to train again.

Phoenix Village didn’t really need any guards right now. The territory limits were a kilometer away, so monsters didn’t wander all the way to the walls very often. The real reason they were standing guard on the walls was to keep an eye on the thousand or so normal people. Although Phoenix Village wasn’t in crisis right now, they weren’t safe either. With so many bored and anxious people in one area, it was inevitable that there would be some incidents.

Seeing Cheng Yang walk through the north gate, Old Lee immediately rushed over, “How was the situation my Lord? Will we be able to reach Cloud City?”

“I’m not going to lie, it looked pretty bad when I checked it out. The only way into the city is a hundred-meter wide bridge since there’s a nearly bottomless pit surrounding the rest of the city. Right now, almost a thousand monsters are gathered on that bridge. In order to get to Cloud City, we’ll need to kill those monsters, and their numbers will only grow.”

“Is that really the only way?” Old Lee asked miserably, “It’s already been four days, I just want to know if my family is dead or not…… God! Why are you so fucking cruel?! Why didn’t you just kill me!” He roared at the sky.

Cheng Yang sighed in his heart. He had seen several people have worse breakdowns than Old Lee’s, so he didn’t consider it weird, “Hey now, that’s not going to help your family. As long as we’re diligent, I think we’ll be able to enter the city in a few days.” Cheng Yang said comfortingly, “The military should have started to stabilize the city yesterday and the commander Yuan Jianzhe is a competent man, so he’ll definitely save everyone he can. Instead of being angry just work harder. Even if your family is in a bad situation, think of how happy they’ll be to see you again.”

“Phew…” Old Lee gradually calmed down, “You’re right Cheng Yang. If I were to die, my family definitely would have a hard time. As long as I’m alive, there’s hope.”

Cheng Yang patted him on the back before saying, “It seems like quite a few people were saved today. Ah, did the refugees in Huimin start to leave their hiding spots?”

“My Lord, since most people haven’t had anything to drink for several days, all the people hiding in the shadows were withered from dehydration. If they hadn’t emerged from hiding, they wouldn’t have needed to worry about the monsters anymore, since they’d be dead. Plus there aren’t many small monster groups left in Huimin since the large ones are spaced out by a hundred meters or so, many people felt like it wouldn’t be too dangerous. That’s why we were able to save over six hundred people today. More importantly, there are still hundreds left in the city too weak to keep up with the groups we were taking earlier. Right now, the other four teams are working hard to clear the remaining monster hordes so that we can bring everyone in the city back to the village.” Old Lee reported.

“How many people are still alive in Huimin?” Cheng Yang asked in surprise.

“Right now, we’ve got two thousand people who were too weak to move and we estimate that another two thousand should be in the other half of the city, based on how many we found in the first half. As for the rest of the population, they were either killed by monsters or died of dehydration.”

Cheng Yang did a rough head count of the one thousand three hundred people in Phoenix Village right now. If they could save the four thousand people left in Huimin, they could be considered a town instead of a village.

Although that was a good thing, feeding a town of five thousand would be a massive undertaking. It wasn’t like they could all eat monster meat every day. It would work in the short term, but if they had nothing else, most of the population would develop health problems.

It seemed like he would have to build a Grocery before any of the other buildings, otherwise, the lack of fruits and grains would create a huge problem.

In the early days of the apocalypse, everyone would have to eat the food sold by the Groceries in the safe zones. Although no one knew why they had an inexhaustible supply of nutritious food, everyone was grateful that they did.

“You mentioned that there were a few large monster hordes in Huimin. How many are in the biggest one?” Cheng Yang asked.

“Huimin town isn’t very big, so after killing most of the monsters, there are only fourteen hordes left, the smallest having sixty and the largest three hundred.”

“Fortunately, that’s not a big problem for us. I’ll go to Huimin this afternoon to lead the teams in cleaning up every one of those hordes. Although the monsters will just respawn, it will be easy for us to keep their numbers down and save the rest of the citizens.”

“My Lord, I suggest you build the Lumber Mill before you leave. If we have a large group of people cutting down trees, we’ll be able to build all the other buildings in a single day.”

Cheng Yang gave Old Lee a wan smile, “I’m sorry to say it, but our Lumber Mill will have nowhere near the output your’s did before the apocalypse. On a good day, a logger will only be able to harvest ten cubic meters of wood.”

“Ten cubic meters?! Why so few? Even if I just went right now with my sword, I should be able to gather more than that, how come they can only collect ten cubic meters?”

“Only trees cut down with the Logging skill can be used to build things for the village.”

“Why is that?”

“It’s just one of the new rules god made. I don’t know why they were put in place.”

“What about the wood you ordered before the apocalypse? Why were you able to use that?”

“When god transformed the world, that rule was only added to living trees so anything cut down before the apocalypse still counts.”

“What a pity, I have thousands of cubic meters of wood back at my lumber mill. Why didn’t you buy more?”

“Truth be told, I wouldn’t have been able to pay for the wood I asked you for. I could only barely afford the down payment. If the apocalypse hadn’t happened, I would have been seriously in debt.”

“It’s too bad I wouldn’t have believed you back then otherwise we wouldn’t need to be so worried over a small about of wood right now.”

“Who said I was worried? Once we build the Lumber Mill, a few dozen people will become Loggers and we’ll have a steady influx of wood.”

“Why not let most of each team become a Logger? Then we’d be able to gather hundreds of cubic meters a day and quickly fulfill the level up requirements for the village.”

“Simple, you can’t eat wood. People need to stay fed, so it’s inevitable that most people will become Farmers.”

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Watching the Magic Missile approach, the leader of the wolf pack’s eyes flashed with fear. It had the feeling that if it let that attack land, it would definitely be killed on the spot.

At that time it was filled with regret. If it had known this human was so strong, it would have run away immediately, even if it had to leave the treasure it found. Even if it meant not growing stronger as quickly, wasn’t that better than dying?

However, there was no medicine for regret in this world. Not for humans and certainly not for monsters.

In its last moments, it tried to backpedal and dodge but the attack was just to fast. Completely unable to defend itself, a mighty Elite High-Grade Immature monster died as its skull burst apart.

The leader of the wolf pack died just like that. It wasn’t the strongest monster in the world, it may not even have been the strongest monster near Cloud City, but without a doubt it was the first of its kind to die. The first Elite High-Grade monster killed in this lifetime.

Although Cheng Yang had killed the leader, he couldn’t avoid being swarmed by the dozens of wolves left. He was unable to defend in the slightest and was bitten several times.

His Physical Defense was well above what a Low-Grade Venom-Fanged Wolf could deal with, so every attack was incredibly weak. Even so, the minimum damage an attack could deal was one point. With so many wolves attacking him, Cheng Yang still lost almost forty percent of his health in just ten seconds.

Cheng Yang couldn’t afford to spend another second here! With just 53 Mana left, there was no way to defeat the wolf pack, and if he stayed still, they would eventually whittle his health to zero.

As soon as Cheng Yang managed to free himself from under the wolves, he immediately made a U-turn and ran away.

Cheng Yang’s speed was leagues beyond the Low-Grade wolves and within seconds, he had opened up a huge gap between them. A minute later, they weren’t even visible anymore. Once the pack was out of site, Cheng Yang sat down and used the Meditation skill. He wouldn’t have time to fully recharge his Mana, but every point counted.

Ten seconds later, the wolves were less than forty meters away from Cheng Yang. He hopped up and charged a Magic Missile. There were still thirty-two wolves left, so he didn’t dare to slack off.

He fired two Magic Missiles at the wolves in the front, promptly killing them. The ten Mana he had just regained were spent instantly. Not wanting to risk taking more damage, Cheng Yang started running again before they got within ten meters of him.

With only a single Standard-Level monster left, the horde wasn’t able to threaten Cheng Yang anymore. After all, in a battle of attrition, he would definitely win thanks to his speed.

It took Cheng Yang twenty-five minutes to mop up the rest of the wolf pack.

When the last wolf died, Cheng Yang flopped to the ground and lay on his back. He had been in a tight spot earlier as it was common knowledge in his past life that; even if you were strong, you shouldn’t fight even medium hordes alone. Unless you had enough magic potions, you were in for a long grind. The worst part about this encounter was that the hunting efficiency was just too low! After half an hour of stressful work, Cheng Yang had only gained 62 Experience Fragments! If he had focused on smaller hordes, his gains would have been much higher.

Cheng Yang quickly returned to the area he had originally encountered the wolves. It was time to collect the loot he had risked his life for.

Cheng Yang quickly rushed to pick up the stave allowing its status pane to open up.

---

Wolf King’s Sorrow
A stave crafted from the leg bones of the once mighty Wolf King, a Pinnacle-Grade Evolved monster that ruled a pack of millions. Shoddy construction has caused its power to diminish over time.

Grade: Black Iron
Class: Mage
Requirements: Standard-Grade Apprentice
Durability: 80/80
Effect: Increase Magic Attack by 4

---

It really was a Black Iron stave! Although Cheng Yang was able to guess that based on its appearance and the strength of the horde leader, it was only speculation. Now that he actually had his hands on such a good piece of equipment, he couldn’t help but shout with joy.

Although, a Black Iron piece of equipment that increased an Attack stat by 4 was fairly average. In his previous life, the most powerful weapon publicly known to humanity was a Purple Silver longbow named Garuda’s Clavicle. It boasted an insane nine point increase to Physical Attack. It allowed the wielder to fight monsters two levels higher than them.

Moreover, Black Iron equipment was only suitable to be used by Apprentices. Purple Silver equipment and grades above that were considered standard for higher levels. Cheng Yang had only heard rumors of such equipment in his past life, but never seen it.

Cheng Yang equipped the new stave but was left with a dilemma. If he wanted to take his old stave with him, it would only get in the way but he was reluctant to just toss it into the wilderness. Every single piece of equipment was a valuable treasure to Phoenix Village.

Cheng Yang found himself daydreaming about a certain ring that was sold in the Silversmithy. Spacial Rings! They were able to store items inside of them and reducing their weight to nothing! The item was a must have for anyone that wanted to make a long journey or run a far away instance dungeon. The only downside was that they were outrageously expensive, expensive to the point that hardly anyone could buy them. Even if Phoenix Village had a Silversmithy, Cheng Yang would only be able to gaze wistfully at the Spacial Ring section.

In the end, Cheng Yang tied his old stave to his back using the sinews of the wolves he killed.

As Cheng Yang continued his journey, he ran into a horde with a little over thirty monsters and entirely exterminated it with ease. His damage was so high that the Standard-Grade leader had directly keeled over in pain, unable to dodge the follow up that killed it. He was confident that if he were to face that wolf pack again, he definitely wouldn’t fall into such a dangerous situation.

Even if he encountered large hordes with several high level monsters, Cheng Yang was unafraid to kill the leaders because he would run before he was noticed. After recharging his Mana quickly, he would rush back and massacre the remaining mobs.

His only regret was that his luck had run out and he didn’t find anything else of value. On the upside, he didn’t run into anything stronger than Elite Standard-Grade.

After advancing another two kilometers, Cheng Yang had obtained 300 Experience Fragments. In addition to the ones he had earned earlier, his total was now over 1000 once again.

At this point, he was only about a kilometer from Cloud City so he started to act more conservatively. In his previous life, each of the roads leading out of Cloud City had been guarded by pretty big monster hordes. One of the reasons the army didn’t leave the city until late March was that they couldn’t defeat those wardens.

After the initial earthquake, a natural wonder was formed around every city. A pit was dug around the city, seventy meters wide, and seemingly endless. The only way in or out of each city were bridges at each of the cardinal directions 100 meters wide.

As for how many monsters who were currently guarding those passages, Cheng Yang had no clue. They were only discovered after two weeks in his previous life, so he didn’t know what they looked like in the first few days of the apocalypse.

When he first brought Old Lee out on the first night, he hadn’t told them this since they would only have thought he was trying to trick them into not going.

As he got closer, Cheng Yang couldn’t help but feel anxious. If he was lucky, the number of monsters in the horde would only be in the low hundreds, but if he wasn’t it, could be thousands.

---

At the same time that Cheng Yang left Phoenix Village, Yuan Jianzhe had just sent the latest batch of soldiers out of the safe zone.

It didn’t take long for him to realize just how much better Professionals were compared to guns. However, that revelation had only been a source of stress and anxiety for him. He was worried that if he couldn’t produce enough Professionals in time, the next horde would completely wipe them out.

In order to gain even the slightest advantage, he planned to visit the six buildings surrounding the statues. The first one he visited was a spindly building with a sign reading “Alchemy Tower”.

Right now, Yuan Jianzhe was just going in to take a look. When he had entered the safe zone, he was told that these buildings would sell certain items but never specified what items were sold. The only issue was that money from the old world wouldn’t work, they could only use Experience Values gained from killing monsters.

Since everyone’s Experience Values were being used to perform class change ceremonies, no one had used a shop yet. The reason he came in was to determine what items were good and to make future spending plans early.

However, when Yuan Jianzhe entered the Alchemy Tower, he was shocked.

Yuan Jianzhe had prepared himself before walking in, so that even if a dragon was inside he wouldn’t be surprised, but how could he not be surprised to see a human? A living, breathing human!

The middle aged man was casually standing there dressed in ancient clothes.

Who the hell was that man?

Yuan Jianzhe suddenly had a terrifying thought. What if that man was related to the god that had destroyed the world?

He took a few cautious step forward and then bowed to the man. “Your Excellency, may I ask who you are? How did you find yourself in this place?”

The man smiled brightly. “Welcome to the Alchemy Tower, we can fit all of your alchemical needs, what are you looking to purcha- … huh? You don’t even have a single Experience Fragment. What’s a bum like you doing in my store? Get the hell out and come back when you aren’t so poor!”

Yuan Jianzhe was flustered, to say the least. He hadn’t been spoken to so disrespectfully since before he became an executive in the military. Even so, he was a very calm person and didn’t show his true feelings. “Your Excellency, I just wanted to ask-“

“You annoying brat, if you want to ask questions, go to the Tavern! The only thing you can do here is to buy potions, and you’re too poor to even get a cheap salve!” When he finished berating Yuan Jianzhe, he waved his hand and Yuan Jianzhe was forcefully pushed out of the shop by an invisible barrier.

As he picked himself up from the ground, Yuan Jianzhe couldn’t help but fear the shopkeeper. If wasn’t just because of how powerful the man was, but that he couldn’t even tell what he had done.

He then visited the other stores, only to suffer a similar fate. It seemed that those shopkeepers wouldn’t even give you the time of day if you didn’t have money.

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It was a black stave jutting out of the dirt and from its unique appearance it should be of a better quality than his. Although Cheng Yang wasn’t using his starter equipment anymore his stave was very ordinary. It was just a Green Bronze piece of equipment, commonly called initial equipment in his past life. In Cheng Yang’s experience a guardian horde of just fifty was too few for the equipment to be above the Green Bronze level but since it was the beginning of the apocalypse maybe he would get lucky. Cheng Yang hoped he would be able to change his weapon soon.

Cheng Yang carefully observed the distant monsters. The horde was entirely composed of Venom-Fanged Gray Wolves and as expected there were a few elites as well. The leader seemed to be a bigger wolf curled up next to the stave. Based on the black inky patterns in it’s fur it might have even been able to reach High-Grade by using the stave’s magical fluctuations to speed up its growth.

If the leader was the same level as him, this would be pretty troublesome. If it was just the leader, Cheng Yang was confident he could win. He had an advantage in speed that would allow him to avoid damage and enough Mana to kill a High-Grade monster without needing to Meditate somewhere.

However, the leader wasn’t alone, and Cheng Yang didn’t have enough Mana to kill all fifty wolves.

His only option was to pull the wolves into a battle of attrition but jumping from tree to tree. Regardless, it would be best for him to kill the leader first.

The tree Cheng Yang was perched in had a trunk the size of a millstone but wouldn’t be able to resist so many attacks. He scanned the area until he spotted a tree thick enough that two people would be able to wrap their arms around it. Although it might not be able to resist the attacks of the leader for long, it should be able to stall the ordinary wolves. He didn’t need long to kill the leader.

Cheng Yang dropped to the ground and lightly ran over to the tree. It must have been a big tree even before the apocalypse and after a few days of accelerated growth had reached its current size. Without hesitation, Cheng Yang swiftly climbed up the tree.

The tree was more than forty meters away from the pack of wolves so Cheng Yang couldn’t reach it with his Magic Missile. Having been in similar situations before Cheng Yang had prepared a few fist-sized rocks. After a few deep breaths, Cheng Yang hurled the rock at the wolves.

POW The rock landed in the middle of the group of wolves causing them to jump up in alarm. They let out loud growls as the searched for the source of the noise.

The leader stood up and sniffed the air. After a few seconds, it looked towards Cheng Yang and let out a wild howl.

The rest of the horde followed the leader’s example, howling towards the sky before charging towards Cheng Yang.

“Ow…” The loud wolf howls resonated in Cheng Yang’s ears. When they reached him, they started to gnaw at the tree with their sharp fangs.

They created sawdust with their fangs, and their venom ate away at the rest.

“Shit! Isn’t that too cowardly!” Cheng Yang swore. The leader hadn’t taken the initiative but instead stayed out of range, letting the weaker wolves attack first. It was a despicable tactic for a monster to use.

Cheng Yang couldn’t just sit and watch the Venom-Fanged Wolves knock down the tree otherwise, he would die. All he could do was grit his teeth and fire Magic Missiles at the wolves below him.

Ptew Cheng Yang fired a Magic Missile into one of the Elite Standard-Grade wolves. It tore directly through its back, bursting open its chest. The damage was so great that even after a few seconds, the wolf was entirely unable to get up.

The next Magic Missile directly destroyed its head, killing it.

Cheng Yang clicked his tongue, “Why did there have to be some damn many of them.”

The death of an Elite caused the wolf pack to go into a frenzy.

Sixteen Magic Missiles were fired and sixteen wolves died. At this point, Cheng Yang was in a dire situation. He only had 78 Mana left and a third of the trunk was gone. All it would take to break the tree was a single strong hit.

Right before firing another magic missile, Cheng Yang spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. The leader had quietly started to charge at the tree, and its speed was slightly faster than Cheng Yang’s!

“Fuck! Why did it have to have a Movement Speed Innate Ability!” Cheng Yang lamented miserably.

Monsters, like humans, had all kinds of Innate Abilities. The leader of the wolf pack had a Movement Speed Innate Ability which synergized with the already high Movement Speed of the Venom-Fanged Wolves.

Seeing that the leader had entered his attack range, Cheng Yang forcibly changed targets and fired.

If it was anyone else, they would find it difficult to hit the leader under those conditions, but Cheng Yang’s past life wasn’t just for decoration.

Cheng Yang managed to hit the wolf’s flank causing it to let out a tragic howl. Instead of slowing down, it just got mad, its eyes turning red. It coldly stared at Cheng Yang, but even with its speed, it could only eat another Magic Missile before reaching the tree.

Even if it had a regular High-Grade monster’s 12 Physical Defense, it would still take a little over fifty points of damage. Cheng Yang only had to land four hits to kill it.

A few second’s later, Cheng Yang had finished casting magic missile and was ready to fire, but at the same time, the leader violently hit the trunk of the tree causing it to shake. Branches and leaves fell from above while the entire tree creaked.

Cheng Yang’s experience from his past life showed its true worth here. After losing his balance, Cheng Yang was able to grab a branch with his free hand while falling and flicking his stave towards the leader, sending a Magic Missile right towards it.

Ptew With a dull thud, the Magic Missile hit the leader on the nose.

The wolf pack leader whimpered in pain before smashing into the tree again.

Twrrrrrr The tree groaned under the weight of the wolf and started to tip backward, giving Cheng Yang a big shock. The leader was this strong? Just two hits and the tree was already falling?

Come on! Cheng Yang steadied his body and relied on his intuition to properly aim at the wolf.

This time the leader let out a tragic wail but hadn’t died as expected.

“Shit, I forgot it was an Elite.” Cheng Yang calculated in his head that it should have less than a single point of health left, how unlucky!

At this time the tree couldn’t hold on any longer and wide cracks spread on its trunk. It couldn’t resist the pull of gravity and fell towards the ground.

The wolf pack knew that their prey would soon be on the ground and had gathered together in the area where the tree would fall. Even the leader limped over with hatred in its eyes.

The leader of the Venom-Fanged Wolves was furious. It was born a ruler having the strength of a Standard-Grade monster since the day it spawned allowing it to easily gather a large horde underneath it. Just yesterday, it had found a magical treasure and successfully became its guardian, leveling up in the process.

Becoming a High-Grade monster made it feel like it was blessed by god to become a powerful beast emperor in the future, but now a human had caused it enormous pain and almost killed it! How could it possibly become the leader of a mighty horde if it couldn’t even kill a single human?

Cheng Yang watched the leader of the wolves draw closer with ecstasy. He didn’t care about the large number of monsters he would have to fight later, all he could do was praise the leader for being stupid enough to give him the chance to land a killing blow. With a smirk, Cheng Yang fired the final Magic Missile at the leader’s head.

Last Chapter| Index | Next Chapter

Performing a class change ceremony in a safe zone had a few advantages. First of all, the safe zones didn’t have limits on the number of Professionals they could produce. As long as you could make it to the safe zone, you could become a Professional. Secondly, each class change statue had a bank of one thousand Experience Fragments that people could borrow to pay for their class change ceremony. The new soldiers would be unable to enter any of the other buildings or buy new skills until they repaid their debt to the statue.

Yuan Jianzhe didn’t know that people could create villages and thought that the only way to become a Professional was in the safe zone that the gods had gifted to Cloud City. Of course, he didn’t believe that this was the only safe zone. He figured that most cities had one. After all, god didn’t mention Cloud City but spoke more generally about all mankind.

As the army entered the safe zone, Yuan Jianzhe arranged for the soldiers who had just experienced a tragic battle to perform class change ceremonies. Each soldier that did so breathed a little more life into Cloud City.

Four hundred Professionals were created in this first wave, and all of them were affiliated with the army.

After they depleted each statue’s stored Experience Fragments, Xiao Cheng spoke to Yuan Jianzhe, “Commander, I think we shouldn’t allow civilians to become Professionals for the time being. We only have around ten thousand soldiers while there are at least a hundred thousand civilians, maybe more. If they were to all riot, we wouldn’t be able to maintain control over the situation.”

“What do you mean?” Yuan Jianzhe asked, wrinkling his brow.

“I mean that we should secure these four statues and only let people in the army become Professionals. After everyone in the army is a Professional, then we can allow small groups of civilians to become Professionals on the condition that they join the army. In this way, we’ll be able to maintain control over the city.”

“I’ll leave it to you, but the Experience Fragments gained by the soldiers must be used collectively by the army. We need Experience Fragments to buy food from the Grocery to ensure the survival of the populace and to transfer more soldiers.”

Xiao Cheng immediately began to execute his plan. The soldiers who had just performed class change ceremonies left the safe zone to go hunt monsters, while those that didn’t stayed behind to ensure civilians couldn’t get close to the class change statues. Once the first wave of soldiers collected enough Experience Fragments to pay off their debt, the next wave immediately performed their class change ceremonies.

---

After all of the other’s left, Cheng Yang exited the village from the north gate.

Even after travelling a kilometer, Cheng Yang didn’t encounter any monsters. This was normal since this area was designated as inside the village. Although the second ring of walls hadn’t been built yet, it would encompass this area when it did.

More eerily, the forest that had occupied the area before was gone. All of the trees had completely disappeared as if they had never existed in the first place. The only thing left was a field of meter high grass.

Once he left the territory area of influence, things got more difficult.

It was the fourth day of the apocalypse and the trees that had sprouted on the first day were now four to five meters tall and growing directly out of the old road. People wouldn’t be able to easily traverse it, nor would they be able to see into the distance.

Fortunately, Cheng Yang’s hearing had reached a level where nothing normal within forty of fifty meters would be able to go unnoticed.

On the way, Cheng Yang rarely encountered monsters on their own. Cheng Yang wasn’t surprised because he knew that the rate at which monsters spawned randomly would decrease to zero by the end of the week. No one knew why god had arranged for this to happen. Some theorized that it was to give ordinary people a better chance to survive. Others thought that it was so that Professionals wouldn’t be able to get stronger on their own. After all, it was easy to kill a single monster on your own, but to kill a horde alone was quite difficult.

This didn’t mean that the actual spawn rate had decreased. It was just that monster would now spawn directly inside of hordes. This meant that hordes would grow much faster than in the first few days.

For example, Cheng Yang had just discovered a horde of monsters with no less than fifty individuals.

Cheng Yang had only come out to explore, so stopping to kill such a large horde would be troublesome. He would rather face five hundred monsters in twenty hordes than a single horde of fifty.

However, after catching a glimpse of the item laying on the ground in the center of the horde Cheng Yang was unwilling to leave.

Last Chapter| Index | Next Chapter

When Chéng Yáng exited the Instance Dungeon he ran into Liú Hào and Niú Bīng’s group.

“Tch, lucky as always.” Chéng Yáng clicked his tongue when he saw that they had five new pieces of equipment.

What can I say?” Liú Hào playfully shrugged, “Guess my luck from gacha games works here too. A shame I only got one piece of Black Iron Equipment, Lǐ Wànshān’s group got two.”

“Only one? I managed to pick up three.” Since Liú Hào was being so arrogant, Chéng Yáng felt the need to brag as well to put him in his place.

“Nice, nice, you got three…” Liú Hào casually answered before freezing in surprise. “Wait, three? And they’re all Black Iron? There weren’t even any runs left though…”

Chéng Yáng enjoyed watching Liú Hào freak out, it was one of the few interesting things that he could watch during the apocalypse and it reminded him of his peaceful life.

“It’s simple really, since I ran the Hard Difficulty the drops were better. It was also the first clear so I got something really good.”

After saying that, Chéng Yáng handed Liú Hào the Skill Inheritance Crystal. After Liú Hào read its system pane, he passed it to Niú Bīng, who then passed it to Páng Shān.

“Pretty nice Yángzǐ! This is why you’re the boss!” Liú Hào didn’t appreciate the value as much as Chéng Yáng had, but he wasn’t blind. He could tell that it was extremely valuable. “Have I ever said how thankful I am to have a man like you as my good friend?”

“Not nearly enough.” Chéng Yáng beamed while rubbing his nose.

“Ummm, how do I learn this?” Páng Shān didn’t know Chéng Yáng well and was quite hesitant to speak with him since he held a high status now.

“Ah, that’s right.” Chéng Yáng realized that he’d never explained the Skill system to them, “When you level up you’ll be able to learn a new skill. When that happens just go to the Class Statue and pay two hundred Soul Fragments and you’ll learn the Skill.”

“So much…” Páng Shān grimaced while thinking about the cost.

“Don’t worry about the cost babe, we’ll get the others in my team to pitch in. They’re the ones who will benefit after all.” Niú Bīng said.

“That’s a good idea.” Liú Hào nodded vigorously. “Actually maybe we should be stuffing our Clerics with Soul Fragments so they level up faster.”

“Of course, why didn’t I think of that?” Niú Bīng seemed excited at the prospect of using his position as team leader to spoil his girlfriend. “We could also do the Soul Fragment sharing strategy that Yángzǐ told us about.”

“Actually I wanted to talk to you guys about that.” Chéng Yáng cut in, “Yesterday I was able to unlock eight times cultivation speed and I want to share it with you. How many Soul Fragments can you collect in a day?”

“Uhhh, fifty? Maybe sixty?” Niú Bīng replied. “If you count the Instance Dungeon we can get close to eighty.”

Chéng Yáng nodded. This was within his expectations.

BLOCKER – rewrite so that it fits with updated leveling timelines

“I have a proposal.” Cheng Yang said. “Right now we’re at an advantage because we were able to become Professionals so quickly, but Phoenix Village has a fatal flaw. There are just too few Professionals. If we don’t want to be destroyed by outside forces in the future, we need to make sure we keep our current advantage. Right now, I have over one thousand Experience Fragments, and as long as you have that many, you can unlock eight times training speed. I plan to use eight times training speed every day, but there is a way for you to do that as well. I can lend you my thousand Experience Fragments after finishing my four hours of training for the day. After finishing your training, you can pass the Experience Fragments to another team Captain and then finally return them to me. In this way, you’ll be able to level up in just ten days. Of course, it will require you to consume three hundred and twenty Experience Fragments every day, but if you can clear the instance dungeon once a day, it should be fine.”

Yu Kai and the others were all smiles. They had all tried out four times training speed and were excited to see just how good eight times training speed would be.

“Yoko, that is a really good idea, especially since Experience Fragments are best used for training. If we used them to buy things instead, it would be quite wasteful. After all, no amount of items would be better than leveling up. It’s just that… this won’t negatively affect your training will it?” Liu Hau asked.

“Don’t worry, it won’t affect me in the slightest because when you gift Experience Fragments, you don’t lose any and it will come back to me every night anyway. This method for increasing people’s strength will be widely used in the future. The only downside of using this method is that if someone refuses to gift the Experience Fragments to the next, there is no way of getting them back. Even if you were to kill them, their Experience Fragments would just disappear.”

Although they didn’t say anything, all of them understood that by doing this, Cheng Yang was demonstrating his absolute trust in them.

BLOCKER – content from next chapter

When they finished talking, Chéng Yáng talked his friends with letting Yú Kǎi know about the new plan and went to find Lǐ Wànshān.

Cheng Yang immediately explained his plan to Old Lee, who was naturally grateful. He understood that he was different from Yu Kai and the others since Cheng Yang hadn’t known him long. Cheng Yang’s act of trust moved Old Lee greatly.

Cheng Yang glanced at his Experience Fragments and found that he had over one thousand six hundred. After finishing his training last night, he only had 1,100 points but clearing the Hard Difficulty Blood Soaked Church alone actually had such great results!

After that Cheng Yang traded one thousand Experience Fragments to Lau Hui since he was the only one of the five team Captains that hadn’t finished training for the day.

After the trade, Cheng Yang went over to the five class change statues to start some new research. When they had performed several class change ceremonies this morning, they had nearly bottomed out the territory’s Experience Fragment reserves. After hunting outside and clearing the instance dungeon three times 1300 Experience Fragments were collected, of which, 60 were funneled into the salaries of his officials.

Cheng Yang selected the research option for each statue that increased Mana. When the research finished, all of the primary classes would gain a Mana boost of 24%. Mana would always be the limiting factor for people of how big of a monster horde a group could fight. This was especially true for Phoenix Village which didn’t have an Alchemy Tower yet.

Standard Grade research would take ten hours to complete, which meant it would be dark before the new research would be finished. Now Phoenix Village was close to broke again, now that 900 Experience Fragments had been used for research.

When he finished, Cheng Yang looked at the sky and estimated that it was around 10:00. With Lau Hui’s team training in the Meditation Halls, that only left four teams of soldiers under his command.

Cheng Yang felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see Old Lee. He hesitated for a moment before asking, “Lord, do you think we have enough power to reach Cloud City yet?”

Cheng Yang could understand how Old Lee felt and thought about the issue for a while. “I think it’s possible, yes, if we were willing to make sacrifices. Of course, there would be no guarantee that we would find your family before having to turn back. I think that today we should continue our operations in Huimin. They are people we can save, and once we collect enough wood, we can build the Alchemy Tower and unlock the ability to buy potions. Once we have potions supplementing our Priests, we should be able to reach Cloud City safely. Of course, that only my guess. I’ll go alone to scout of the path to Cloud City to see if we can go any earlier.”

Old Lee nodded. He couldn’t find any way he could argue with Cheng Yang’s plan. He was well aware that he couldn’t risk his team’s lives for his selfish desires.

Later, Cheng Yang pulled Liu Hau to the side and handed him the boots he had found. Liu Hau was very satisfied with the gift since it would further increase his speed advantage.

The Normal Difficulty for the Blood Soaked Cathedral could still be used one more time today, but Cheng Yang had no intention to let anyone in. If he sent in an inexperienced team, they would just die, and he needed Yu Kai to go to Huimin. The only other team Captain that could enter the instance dungeon was Lau Hui, but he was in the middle of training. They had already cleared the instance dungeon three times today, so there wasn’t a huge loss anyway.

According to Cheng Yang’s arrangement, both his and Yu Kai’s team would go to Huimin with the primary goal of rescuing people and gathering wood as a secondary goal. Since Cheng Yang was going to be doing something else today, Zhao Chuan would be leading his team, which is why he needed Yu Kai to be present.

The remaining two teams would be sent to the peripheries of the territory to find and exterminate large monster hordes. This was an unquestionably vital job since the monster hordes would combine over time growing larger and large like a snowball rolling down a hill until they were big enough to decimate Phoenix Village.

Cheng Yang clearly remembered that in his past life, there was a territory destroyed right before he died. They hadn’t been able to prevent the formation of large hordes when the village was created and after half a year a horde, which numbered in the millions, completely devoured the territory. Although millions of monsters are scary, the truly dangerous aspect of large hordes was their ability to nurture elite monsters. The leader of the horde that destroyed the territory was an Elite Pinnacle-Grade Mature monster. If not for that monster, they may have been able to survive.

In Cheng Yang’s past life, even after half a year, humanity hadn’t been able to fully understand the mechanics of monster evolution, however, they were able to figure out a few key points. Monsters, like humans, would be very weak when they first spawned. As time passed, monsters would grow stronger at a pace somewhere in between a human at two times and four times training speed. Also, once twenty or so monster gathered together, one of them would be designated as the leader of the group. The leader of a group would have a boost in their growth speed and gain the Elite title. When beast hordes combined, both leaders would keep their current growth rates, but one would be designated as the true leader and have an even higher growth rate. As hordes grew bigger, more and more Elites would appear in their ranks and the leader would be of an even higher level. Humanity didn’t know whether strong monsters encouraged hordes merging or if they only appeared after a merge but regardless when a large horde was encountered, it would always be dangerous.

Cheng Yang didn’t care why this phenomenon happened but was determined not to let a large horde form near the station. The incident in his previous served as a strong reminder of what would happen if one did.

Last Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

“Commander, this isn’t going to work! In a few minutes at most, those monsters will be able to advance to the point that they reach us. When they do, they’ll rip our soldiers apart!” A staff officer in a military uniform pleaded.

BLOCKER – stuff from the last chapter to be sorted. I like the tone shift of jumping right into it

At the same time, the fighting in Cloud City had reached its climax.

The military had rested in the city overnight, and when they noticed the glimmer of light in the center of the city, they were able to learn about the safe zone from some of the rescued citizens.

At the beginning of the apocalypse, everyone in the military had heard the announcement from that so-called god, but no one had understood it. After learning about the safe zone, the garrison executive had a suspicion that the secrets of evolution were hidden there.

Right now the safe zone was surrounded by over ten thousand monsters. The light curtain covered several square kilometers, and monsters were irresistibly drawn to it. Monsters would gather from kilometers around, even ignoring humans as they rushed towards the safe zone, which is why so many were now surrounding it.

The army’s troops assembled about a kilometer from the safe zone, watching the massive horde of monsters in horror. No one knew how scary monsters were better than them. A healthy monster could survive even a direct hit from an RPG. If they wanted to kill all the monsters around the safe zone, it would take nearly all of their remaining ammunition.

Unfortunately, there was no way to avoid this fight. They needed to reach that safe zone in order to survive.

At nine in the morning on the third day of the apocalypse, Military Garrison Commander Yuan Jianzhe sent out the official order to attack the monster horde. The sounds of war echoed throughout the entirety of Cloud City. Even the people staying in Phoenix Village thirty kilometers away could faintly hear explosions in the distance. This was partly because no other noises were concealing it, but also highlighted just how fierce the fighting was.

The army took the initiative to launch a massive barrage of explosive weaponry at the monster before conducting a charge towards the safe zone. Under the intense gunfire, hundreds of monsters were mown down. As long as they could make it inside the light curtain, they could kill the monsters from the other side.

The monsters were determined not to let the humans through. Even when the monsters in front were turned into meat paste, the ones behind them immediately rushed forwards, not leaving a single gap. Unlike humans who would collapse after a single shot, monsters would keep charging even after being hit by a dozen.

BLOCKER

Commander Yuan Jianzhe scrunched his brow. This was the most difficult battle he had ever experienced. There were just too many monsters, and their guns couldn’t effectively stop their charge.

“Just keep shooting.” the Commander said calmly, “Don’t try and save bullets, just shoot. We need to enter that safe zone. I have a feeling that humanity’s salvation is right inside that curtain.” Lit by explosions and gun flares, the forty-year-old man’s face showed a profound dignity that didn’t fit in such a brutal battle.

“This… in that case…” The staff officer hesitated to pass down the command.

“Why are you hesitating? From the start of the earthquake until now, our supplies have been cut in half, if we don’t win this battle now I’m afraid we will never live with dignity again. Without weapons, do you think we have the qualifications to fight those monsters?” The Commander turned away from his subordinate to face the monster hoard.

“I understand.” The staff officer sighed. “I’ll pass down the command.”

A few moments after the staff officer left the command center, the already loud gunfire became more intense.

The advantage of the mounted machine guns was obvious in this fight. Where they aimed, not a single monster survived.

After half an hour the majority of the monsters were dead, their corpses outlining their slow progress towards the army. If Cheng Yang were to see this, he would be filled with dismay. Monsters killed by normal people didn’t drop Experience Fragments. All of these resources were totally wasted!

However, at this time, Commander Yuan Jianzhe and the other high ranking officers didn’t seem very cheerful, rather they had a more somber look. They could see a group of lanky monsters with elongated arms tipped with sharp blades standing near the back of the horde. Although their numbers were only two hundred or so, they were crafty and didn’t mindlessly charge at the soldiers.

Yuan Jianzhe had been observing those monsters carefully throughout the battle. Those monsters, the Adze, were more powerful than ordinary monsters and were too fast for the soldiers to properly aim at. What was most troublesome was their ability to dart through gaps in their defensive line and kill soldiers before escaping.

“Gather a few groups of snipers to deal with the fast ones. Each group of ten snipers will focus on a single one of those monsters. They won’t be able to dodge every bullet.” Yuan Jianzhe issued an order.

The army quickly organized thirty of their best snipers into three teams. Situated on some of the taller ruins, these teams would even be capable of killing Standard Grade monsters.

After years of training, these snipers were completely in sync. They all fired at nearly the same time and used armor-piercing bullets capable of causing significant damage. Ten people firing at once created a cage that the Adze were unable to escape from.

After thirty seconds, there were seven or eight Adze as they tried to run past the defensive line. Seeing this, the other Adze entered a rage. After a burst of shrill howling the remaining Adze all charged at once.

To the Adze, a distance of two hundred meters only took ten seconds to cover, which gave the army a lot of pressure.

“Block them off with a wall of bullets!” Yuan Jianzhe roared pulling out his own rifle to add to the barrage.

The army found that their attacks were trivial, even if they managed to hit one of the Adze, they wouldn’t slow down for even an instant.

The Adze at the very front were killed by the snipers, but there were just too few of them so they couldn’t play a big role.

Watching the Adze draw closer, the mounted machine gun teams switched targets. Even though it was nearly impossible for a single mounted machine gun to hit an Adze, the interwoven streams of bullets made it impossible for them to avoid getting hit. The majority of the Adze that were killed during their charge fell to a mounted machine gun.

When the Adze reached the armies defensive line, they started a slaughter in their frenzied state.

Blood flowed like water and severed limbs flew through the air like leaves.

The soldiers had never felt so weak as they did now. Their resistance against the Adze was negligible.

In a short amount of time, the rampaging Adze had killed hundreds of soldiers, including some military officials. Soon after the remainder of the monster horde broke through the defensive line as well.

Commander Yuan Jianzhe, under the guard of several soldiers, quickly evacuated the area. Watching the scene of the soldiers being massacred, he wore a cold frown. “Destroy those monsters at all costs. Do whatever it takes.”

The other executives could hear Yuan Jianzhe’s voice trembling. They could guess how reluctant he was to give that order. It was inevitable they would kill hundreds of their own soldiers in fulfilling it, something no general would want to see.

They didn’t have any other options. If the commander had hesitated to make that decision, then the only outcome would be the total destruction of the army and the residents of Cloud City dying with them.

Grenades exploded at the feet of monsters, killing the humans next to them. Soldiers fired into the mass of bodies with tears in their eyes, unable to know if their bullets hit a monster or a comrade they had trained with for years.

The snipers were able to play a crucial role now. With the Adze entangled with the army and the monster horde, it only took three of them to land a lethal hit. If any other monster entered their sights, they would quickly fire a shot, killing them instantly.

When the last monster fell to the ground, the battlefield was too horrible to look at.

Of the original twenty thousand soldiers, less than ten thousand remained. They had paid a heavy price in this battle. Not only that but they were left with only a third of their supplied left, a sixth of what they had on the first day. If there was another large battle, the army would be totally annihilated.

Yuan Jianzhe stoically stared at the bodies for half a minute. He then raised his right hand into a sharp military salute. “Comrades, you can rest in peace now. We will protect Cloud City in your stead.”

Having said that, Yuan Jianzhe walked towards the curtain of light.

The rest of the soldiers began to clean up the battlefield. They didn’t want to leave their comrades’ corpses to rot among the ruins. After all, they had no way of knowing when they would meet a similar fate.

When Yuan Jianzhe entered the curtain of light, a surge of information entered his mind. In an instant, he understood the use of everything within the safe zone.

He nearly fell over from the shock, such a drastic change was difficult for a person who was almost fifty to accept.

“What kind of world is this?” He muttered, looking up into the sky with dazed eyes.

“Commander, it seems like this is going to be our world now.” A staff officer that had entered at the same time said. “This catastrophe is probably happening all around the world. In the face of this disaster, mankind will either be reborn or be turned to ash.”

“You’re right, Xiao Chen.” Yuan Jianzhe said, his previous calm and dignified aura returning. “As long as this disaster doesn’t destroy us, we will be reborn even greater than before.”

“I will gladly follow you, Commander, as you help the entirety of Cloud City be reborn.”

“Good. We did all we could in such a fucked up world. Right now we can’t worry about the rest of the country, we can only try our best to save the rest of Cloud City. I only hope we aren’t too late.”

Saying this, Yuan Jianzhe walked over to the Warrior class change statue and placed his palm on the foot. His body was then enveloped in a ray of light.

Last Chapter | Index | Next Chapter

The requirements to unlock the next level of Difficulty after Normal for a Beginner Instance Dungeon was to clear Normal Difficulty five times, and have cleared all three runs on the same day. Chéng Yáng had already completed the former the day before, so all that was left, was a single successful run.

He put together three groups, using most of the same people as yesterday, except that this time, Zhào Chuān would lead a group, and act as the boss slayer for it. He also made sure that the extra Knights and Rangers from yesterday’s groups were replaced. That way, one he unlocked extra runs, someone would be able to complete them.

Chéng Yáng sent the three groups into the Blood Soaked Cathedral, then waited.

Once the first group, Yú Kǎi’s, exited the Instance Dungeon, Chéng Yáng walked over to portal and walked a full circle around it. When he did, the portal changed colors, becoming red. This indicated that he’d selected the Hard Difficulty. Chéng Yáng walked through, and found himself staring down the usual gate guardsmen: two Low-Grade Lesser Mephits

The Blood Soaked Cathedral, like most Instance Dungeons, was separated into four Difficulty levels: Normal, Hard, Nightmare, and Hell.

The difference between Normal and Hard was pretty small. The mini-bosses were promoted to the Elite Low-Grade level and the boss became Standard-Grade. The number of monsters would also increase by about half and there would be a few more mini-bosses. For an Instance Dungeon like the Blood Soaked Cathedral where a strategy to cheese the boss existed, this was almost the same as no change at all. The only real issue was that the boss had 8 Movement Speed, so it was too dangerous for a Low-Grade Apprentice to attempt.

Nightmare Difficulty was much the same in that it simply increased the number of monsters and their level. The normal mobs would become Standard-Grade, the mini-bosses were Elite Standard-Grades, and the boss would be a High-Grade. The major difference between Hard and Nightmare Difficulty was that you could bring ten people into the latter. As such, in his previous life, it wasn’t particularly difficult for large factions to beat Nightmare Difficulty Beginner Instance Dungeons in the month leading up to his death.

He had never heard of someone beating a Beginner Instance Dungeon on Hell Difficulty. Even though you were allowed to bring in twenty five Players. Hell Difficulty represented a qualitative change to the Instance Dungeon. The mini-boss’s would replace the mobs and were themselves replaced by the boss. This would mean having to face an Elite version of the boss from the Nightmare Difficulty, all while being swarmed by hundreds of High-Grade mini-bosses. No one had even seen one of the bosses on Hell Difficulty, but everyone knew it had to be a truly fearsome existence.

The benefits for clearing the Hard Difficulty Blood Soaked Cathedral were ample. Not only would the number of Normal Difficulty runs increase to five, bringing the benefits of more equipment and Soul Fragments, there would be a reward on par with the Cleric Idol for obtaining the first clear!

Since the danger wouldn’t increase much compared to Normal Difficulty, Chéng Yáng planned to run the Hard Difficulty on his own. As a High-Grade Apprentice, what did he have to fear?

As expected, Chéng Yáng was able to leisurely claim the first clear. Even though the mini-bosses were slightly stronger, Chéng Yáng was still faster than them by a significant margin. The boss was even easier since it couldn’t display its increase in strength in the slightest.

Chéng Yáng dropped down from the tree and pocketed the ring that the boss dropped, without checking its properties then rushed over to the end chest. When he opened it, he found a large crystal the size of two fists put together: Skill Inheritance Crystal!

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Angelic Inspiration
After killing the Demon Duke Bathin, Arch Priest Roswald Ashton was infected with demonic energy and on the brink of death. After watching a Throne deal a fatal blow to Bathin, he created a skill in a fit of inspiration. Using the last of his life force, he sealed that skill in crystal so that it could be passed on to future generations.
—————————————————————————————
Class Requirements: Cleric
Learning Cost: 200 Soul Fragments
Effect: Fill a person with divine inspiration for ten minutes, increasing their Attack Damage and Ability Power by 10%

Duration: 10 min	Cost: 20 Mana
Targets: ⌊Ability Power / 5⌋	Cooldown: 60 sec

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“Ahahahaha!” Chéng Yáng laughed wildly after checking the system pane, ” It’s really Angelic Inspiration!”

Chéng Yáng couldn’t hide his excitement. Angelic Inspiration was an Advanced Skill! How many groups in his previous life had access to such a thing? It wasn’t many, and now he had one! Moreover, it was an Advanced Skill for a Hidden Class! It’s usefulness was obvious! The Angelic Inspiration skill was powerful enough to put Priests that had learned it in an entirely different class from those that hadn’t.

Only three groups were known to have possessed this kill in Chéng Yáng’s past life. The first was a Settlement in the vicinity of the New York Safe Zone, who had gotten it as the first clear reward just like he had. The other two had only obtained it after clearing the Blood Soaked Cathedral dozens of times. Chéng Yáng smirked, those Yankees would cry if they learned they such a treasure stolen by him.

Of course, there were simpler ways to obtain the Angelic Inspiration skill. The Skill Scroll would drop from from the Normal Difficulty end chest of the Blood Soaked Cathedral and was a fairly common drop in the Hard Difficulty, at least compared to the Skill Inheritance Crystal.

Chéng Yáng didn’t know what the first clear reward was for Nightmare Difficulty, but he yearned for the day he would be able to obtain it. The unlock conditions for Nightmare difficulty were five Hard Difficulty clears and clearing it three times in one day, and fifty Normal Difficulty clears. It wouldn’t be too difficult to fulfill those conditions once some of the Phoenix Village Citizens reached the Standard-Grade Apprentice level, but until, Chéng Yáng himself reached the Pinnacle-Grade Apprentice level, he didn’t dare to try his luck.

General information about high level Difficulties and strategy guides for low level ones were easy to find, but strategy guides for Nightmare Difficulty clears were kept strictly confidential. As such, Chéng Yáng wasn’t sure if the cheesing strategy for the boss would still work.

After confirming that the Hard Difficulty first clear reward was the same, Chéng Yáng checked the three pieces of equipment he had found. His luck had remained pretty bad, so despite there being six mini-bosses this time instead of four, he only got three pieces of equipment. Thankfully, they were all Black Iron quality.

---

Guibert’s Boots (Boots)
A pair of boots weaved from the feathers of an Oodra for a cowardly merchant.
—————————————————————————————
Class Requirements: None
Effects: +4 Movement Speed

Durability: 50

Standard Battlemage Helmet (Hat)
A helmet mass produced by the Nubines Citadel for its famed battlemage infantry.
—————————————————————————————
Class Requirements: Mage
Effects: +20 Mana, +1 Attack Resistance, +1 Magic Resistance

Durability: 50

Rotten Band (Ring)
Once a powerful artifact, this ring made from a holy tree has been nearly destroyed by demonic energy.
—————————————————————————————
Class Requirements: None
Effects: +1 Attack Damage, +1 Ability Power, +1 Attack Speed, +1 Movement Speed

Durability: 50

---

Although one of the pieces overlapped with his existing equipment, overall he’d gained a total of ten Attribute points. Compared to the Green Bronze set he’d used in his previous life, his current equipment was far superior.

The best item was the ring. Unlike other items, jewelry like rings, necklaces, bracelets, and various facial jewelry like earrings had no limits on the number that can be equipped. The ring he’d picked up today could be used for the rest of his life, unless he’d gotten so many Purple Silver rings that he physically couldn’t fit more on his fingers.

The leaders of large factions often ended up looking like rappers or punk rock enthusiasts since they were covered in piercings and gaudy jewelry. Unfortunately, jewelry was incredibly rare compared to other types of equipment.

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Chéng Yáng opened the Management tab so that he could fill the empty Manager positions.

Naturally, the Player Resources Manager position went to Lǐ Wànshān. His Innate Ability significantly increased the number of Players that could be registered as Citizens, from two hundred to two hundred sixty six. To put anyone else in that position was moronic.

As long as he trusted them, it didn’t matter who he put in the other two Manager positions, so Chéng Yáng just gave them to his friends. Liú Hào became the Border Security Manager and Yú Kǎi became the Municipal Planning Manager.

There was only on thing left to do, activate Divine Grace!

When Chéng Yáng activated Divine Grace, power once again flowed unstoppable into his body. He could feel his body changing. Getting stronger. Faster.

---

Chéng Yáng

Phoenix Village Lord
Class: Mage
Level: High-Grade Apprentice (5.12%)

Age	19	Life Span	150
Health	50	Mana	270
Attack Damage	4	Ability Power	40
Attack Resistance	8	Magic Resistance	6
Attack Speed	7	Movement Speed	7.2

Innate Abilities

• Ability Power is increased by 30%
• Increase the effects of Cultivation Chambers in your Settlement by 30%
• Movement speed is increased by 20%

Skills

Meditation (Core Skill)
Sit cross legged and focus your mind to recover and advance.

Magic Missile (Standard-Grade)
Gather Mana into a condensed sphere, then fire it.

Damage: 48	Cost: 6 Mana
Range: 30 m	Cooldown: 2.72 sec

Equipment

Ebony Stave (One-Handed)
A casting focus made from high quality wood and engraved to allow for higher damage and faster casting.
—————————————————————————————
Effects: +1 Ability Power, +1 Attack Speed

Damage: 3	Cooldown: 1.36 sec
Range: 1 m	Durability: 50

Corrupted High Priest’s Robes (Cloak)
The robes of the high priest of the St. Luantha cathedral that have been corrupted by demonic magic.
—————————————————————————————
Effects: +2 Attack Resistance, +10 Mana, +10 Health

Durability: 50

Corrupted Priest’s Biretta (Hat)
The biretta of a priest from the St. Luantha cathedral that has been corrupted by demonic magic.
—————————————————————————————
Effects: +20 Mana

Durability: 25

---

With his stats, Chéng Yáng was capable of one-shotting most Low-Grade Immature monsters. He couldn’t be happier with his Attributes. They were rather average for a High-Grade Apprentice, but considering almost every monster around was still at the Low-Grade Immature level, he was basically invincible.

The concerning thing was that he had nowhere to learn new Skills. Normally, as you leveled up, you gained the right to learn additional Skills. As a High-Grade Apprentice, he had the right to learn up to four Skills. However, there was nowhere for him to learn them.

There were only two ways to learn a Skill. The first was to use a Skill Scroll as loot from an Instance Dungeon. These were only slightly less rare than special drops like the Cleric Idol so very few people could use this method. The second was the pay to learn a Skill from a Class Statue.

Until they reached the High-Grade level, Class Statues in Settlements didn’t have the ability to provide additional Skills. The Class Statues in the Safe Zones, on the other hand, had every Basic Skill available from day one. Unfortunately, after registering with a Settlement, a Player could no longer use the Class Statues in the Safe Zones.

For the foreseeable future, the Citizens of Phoenix Village would have rather static attack patterns. Of course, this small loss of versatility was more than worth the benefits becoming a Settlement’s Citizen provided. Moreover, if a Settlement got their hands on a Skill Inheritance Crystal for an Intermediate or Advanced Skill, they could sacrifice it at the Territory Altar, allowing any registered Player of the corresponding class to learn that Skill.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Since the rush to collect Soul Fragments was over, Chéng Yáng finally got around to establishing a proper guard rotation for the Players. Each of the five teams needed to spend five hours a day guarding the walls, except for Niú Bīng’s team which only had to do so for four hours since they had the overnight shift from 2:00 AM to 6:00 AM. Each team also got one of the five shifts off in order to cultivate.

With the major expense of upgrading the Settlement out of the way, Chéng Yáng tasked Lǐ Wànshān with filling the remaining Citizen slots such that each team had an equal number of each Class. Standard-Grade Villages could accept donations from Players, so instead of having new Players pay back the funds used on them to Chéng Yáng, they paid them back directly to the Territory Altar creating a virtuous cycle that made filling all of the slots trivial.

At 11:00 PM Chéng Yáng prepared for his daily cultivation. When he had used Divine Grace this morning, although his experience had rolled over, the progress had been halved. Even though he could rely on Divine Grace again when the Settlement reached the High-Grade Village level, it was important to maintain good habits and cultivate whenever one could.

His cultivation resulted in a roughly 3.2% increase in his experience bar. At this speed he would reach the Pinnacle-Grade Apprentice level in a month. Assuming, of course, that he could maintain the expenditure from eight times cultivation speed. Chéng Yáng didn’t even dare to think about sixteen times cultivation speed. He barely had amassed the Soul Fragments necessary for eight times cultivation speed, but his entire fortune was worth only a single hour of sixteen times cultivation speed.

The next day, when he woke up, Chéng Yáng saw Liú Hào and Yú Kǎi idling around his Cultivation Chamber’s courtyard. He shared his residence with his team leaders since there wasn’t enough housing to go around. It also made for a discreet location when he needed to discuss something without the hundreds of normal people listening in.

“Yángzǐ, good morning! It’s so odd sharing a living space with the Lord. You really should consider building a private Cultivation Chamber to establish your prestige!” Yú Kǎi buttered up his friend with a devious smile.

“You’re just saying that so you can also have your own home someday.” Chéng Yáng rolled his eyes, “A rich kid like you is probably used to living alone, huh?”

“Well, since you brought it up, team leaders should probably also have their own Cultivation Chambers” Yú Kǎi laughed, “Forget it, forget it. With so many people sleeping on the ground there’s no need to rush things.”

Chéng Yáng sighed.

“It will be hard to remedy that in the near future, the wood you found yesterday wasn’t even enough to build a Cultivation Chamber, but less anything else. Thankfully Old Lǐ should have finished filling the remaining Citizen slots during the night. With over two hundred and fifty Players we won’t have to worry about monsters when moving around in Huìmín.”

“Does that mean we’ll get more Clerics?” Liú Hào piped up, “Just one is too few, even just one or two more would be enough. I’m not asking for much.”

“If you want more then work harder at farming monsters.” Chéng Yáng sighed, “Cleric is a Hidden Class so there are a lot of restrictions on the number of people who can become one. The only way to get more is to upgrade the Class Statue, and to do that we need buckets of Soul Fragments.”

The trio chatted for a while, then left the Cultivation Chamber to start the day. As expected, Old Lǐ had faithfully fulfilled his duties and filled every Citizen slot.

The quality of the new soldiers had dropped again compared to the previous group. Not a single person had an S-Rank Innate Ability and the ration of A-Rank and B-Rank Innate Abilities had flipped. That said, not a single C-Rank Innate Ability had appeared. This large batch of Players would likely make up the bulk of Phoenix Village’s elite forces in the future.

Since the quality of Innate Abilities was dropping fast, Chéng Yáng ordered Old Lǐ to spend 400 Soul Fragments each day assessing people’s talent. Although he hadn’t definitively proven his theory that contact with magic halted the decline of an Innate Ability, he was willing to bet a small amount of funds on it. If this venture worked out, there would be one more batch of talented Players in Phoenix Village’s future.

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Chéng Yáng spent his time anxiously awaiting the moment when he could be able to level up the Settlement. Every fifteen minutes he would take a break from hunting to go check the Soul Fragment count. Even though he knew it would be slightly more efficient to just spend the entire time farming, he couldn’t help but check it obsessively.

At 6:45 PM, when checked the Settlement’s system pane, there was a new button at the bottom of the Overview tab labelled “Upgrade”. When he saw that, Chéng Yáng’s heart filled with pride. He’d never heard of a group that had upgraded a Settlement to the Standard-Grade Village level in under forty-eight hours. His hard work had payed off, and it felt like he was truly making the most of his regression. After using Divine Grace, he would reach a height that in his previous life he’d only gotten to right before he died, and he would do it far in advance of anyone else.

Chéng Yáng didn’t hesitate to press the button. At that moment a message popped onto his system pane:

〈Congratulations, your Village has been elevated to Standard-Grade.〉
〈Please take the time to review the details of your Settlement.〉

Compared to when Chéng Yáng had claimed the Territory Altar, the theatrics were rather disappointing. There weren’t any bursts of light or automatic construction like back then.

Chéng Yáng immediately checked the updated information.

---

Phoenix Village

Level: Standard-Grade Village
Soul Fragments: 34

Unique Buildings

Knight Class Statue (Standard-Grade)
Knights are durable front-line fighters with decent burst damage.

Mage Class Statue (Standard-Grade)
Mages are all-rounders that excel in protracted battles.

Ranger Class Statue (Standard-Grade)
Rangers are highly lethal ranged combatants with strong support capabilities.

Druid Class Statue (Standard-Grade)
Druids are fast and versatile summoners with a wide array of tricks.

Cleric Class Statue (Low-Grade)
Clerics are divine spell casters with a focus on healing and buffing.

Wall Segment (Low-Grade)
Ten meter long segment of a kilometer long circular wall centered on the Territory Altar with four gates and a watchtower every fifty meters.

Durability: 1000

Armor: 5

Available Buildings

Wall Segment (Standard-Grade)
Ten meter long segment of a five kilometer long circular wall centered on the Territory Altar with eight gates and a watchtower every fifty meters. Completing the wall will upgrade interior walls to match.

Durability: 2000	Armor: 10
Cost: 2 Wood

Cultivation Chamber (Low-Grade)
A single story building with furnished bedrooms and a central courtyard. The efficacy of Core Skills is increased by 13% when performed inside.

Durability: 500	Armor: 3
Cost: 10 Wood	Occupancy: 5

Cultivation Chamber (Standard-Grade)
A single story building with furnished bedrooms and a central courtyard. The efficacy of Core Skills is increased by 26% when performed inside. Cost is reduced by 50% when upgrading from a Low-Grade Cultivation Chamber.

Durability: 800	Armor: 5
Cost: 20 Wood	Occupancy: 8

Apothecary (Low-Grade)
A building with the facilities and supplies needed to brew potions, salves, and other alchemical goods, and learn the Alchemist and Botanist Professions. Has an attached shop that buys and sells potions. Potions up to the Inferior level are sold.

Durability: 800	Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood

Artisanery (Low-Grade)
A building with the facilities and supplies needed to carve and process wood, and learn the Woodworker and Logger Professions. Has an attached shop that wooden equipment and arrows. Equipment up to the Green-Bronze level is sold.

Durability: 800	Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood

Boutique (Low-Grade)
A building with the facilities and supplies needed to work with leather and cloth, and learn the skills for the Tailor and Tanner Professions. Has an attached shop that buys and sells cloth and leather equipment. Equipment up to the Green-Bronze level is sold.

Durability: 800	Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood

Grocery (Low-Grade)
A store where various cheap life necessities can be bought and sold.

Durability: 800	Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood

Silversmithy (Low-Grade)
A building with the facilities and supplies needed for the fine manipulation of valuable metals, and learn the Silversmith and Jeweler Professions. Has an attached shop that buys and sells jewelry equipment. Equipment up to the Green-Bronze level is sold.

Durability: 800	Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood

Smithy (Low-Grade)
A building with the facilities and supplies needed to forge metal and learn the Blacksmith and Miner Professions. Has an attached shop that buys and sells metal equipment. Equipment up to the Green-Bronze level is sold.

Durability: 800	Armor: 5
Cost: 100 Wood

Attributes

Lord’s Innate Ability
Cultivation Chamber effects increased by 30%

Fast Soldiers
Grants an Innate Ability to registered Players that increases Movement Speed by 20%

Upgrade Conditions

• 400 Registered Players
• 4 High-Grade Class Statues
• Construct the Apothecary, Artisanery, Boutique, Grocery, Silversmithy, and Smithy
• 10,000 Soul Fragments

---

After upgrading, Phoenix Village gained access to a large variety of buildings. In addition to upgraded versions of the Wall Segments and Cultivation Chambers, the various stores were now available as well. Unfortunately, he could only look at them, not buy.

Until his subordinates collected enough wood from Huìmín, it would be difficult for him to gather the wood needed for all the new buildings. His only other option would be to buy Wood from the Artisanery in the Xiāngyáng Safe Zone.

The six stores were the main benefit of reaching the Standard-Grade Village level. Their construction marked the beginnings of an economy in the Settlement. The various good they sold would help the Citizens thrive and in the future almost everyone would have a dozen pieces o Green Bronze equipment.

Unfortunately the upgrade conditions for the stores were rather complex and difficult to achieve. Even if his Settlement reached the Pinnacle-Grade Village level there was no guarantee that any of the stores would reach Standard-Grade.

Thus, if you needed equipment with specific stats, or of a higher level, you either needed to try your luck in an Instance Dungeon, or hire a Professional to craft it for you.

Unlike the stores in the Safe Zones, those in a Settlement doubled as workshops where Players could learn Professions. The Attribute bonuses of equipment created by Players could be freely controlled and although it was time-consuming, reaching the level of creating Black Iron equipment wasn’t too difficult. Equipment created by a skilled Player could also exceed the normal limits of its grade. For example, Green Bronze equipment could provide three Attribute points instead of two.

In Chéng Yáng’s last life, anyone capable of crafting Purple Silver equipment was treated like a national treasure. Aside from Lord’s, they didn’t have to hold anyone else in their eyes and everyone would do their best to curry their favor.

That said, it wasn’t easy to raise the level of a Profession. It took an enormous amount of materials, time, and patience. Not everyone was capable of succeeding.

The only other change in the Settlement’s system pane was the addition of a new tab labelled “Management”. Here he could set a tax of up to 5% on all transactions conducted within the Settlement. He could also appoint Managers who had the power to control various aspects of the Settlement.

A Standard-Grade Village had three manager positions: a Player Resources Manager that controlled the Class Statues, Border Security Manager that controlled the wall and gates, and a Municipal Planning Manager that controlled any other buildings. Each one could be granted a wage of up to 100 Soul Fragments a day that were drawn from the Settlement’s reserves.

Upgrading the Settlement to the High-Grade Village level wouldn’t be easy. The Soul Fragments needed far exceeded everything that he had gathered over the last two days, not even to mention that there was a severe Wood shortage. Regardless, Chéng Yáng was very satisfied with the current Phoenix Village.

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