Chapter 418: Chapter 295: Mysterious Merchant (4K)

Dawn’s first light, bit by bit, tore open the gloomy night sky.

Orange light streamed through the treetops, casting shadows on the earth while specks of dust fluttered in the beams.

Mu Yuan stood under the shade of trees within the City Lord’s Mansion, his gaze fixed upon the heavens as his mind roamed over the vast lands.

To the south of his territory, a distance impossible to gauge.

Hum—

Transformed into Mu Yuan, Dead Bone, Duo Lai, and Xi Liu, the four placed their hands on a section of dark red tree root, deep crimson in color. It took them a full six to seven minutes to purify this segment of the Root of Corruption.

“Notification: You have obtained ‘Purest Crystal’ (Superior Grade).”

“Notification: You have obtained ‘Miracle Blueprints · Guiding Landmark (Rare).’.”

“Notification: …”

“As expected of an aged root, it’s even burst out Superior Grade materials.”

This was merely an ordinary Land of Filth, with only a single segment of the Root of Corruption within its domain.

Yet, purifying this Root of Corruption took as much time as purifying a whole Nest of Filth. It was deeply crimson, thoroughly fused with the land itself.

Of course, tackling this Land of Filth was nowhere near as troublesome as a Nest of Filth. They had only encountered two four-order Bosses devoid of intelligence… and that was it!

“Easy peasy, roar!”

Sario intended to howl up at the sky, but suddenly remembered the Boss had told them to be quiet, so it could only symbolically growl softly.

It flew within the region where the red mist had not yet fully dissipated, patrolling in all directions, hunting down occasional monsters, and exhibiting an invincible posture.

As long as it wasn’t fighting ‘internal ranking battles’ with the territory’s generals, Sario himself was invincible.

Xi Liu, guided by her Hunter’s Instinct, picked off the ones Sario overlooked during patrol, and dispatched them.

She spotted one that was a Spider-class monster and, feeling slightly disgusted, she tossed it aside.

Then she picked up another prey.

“No good, this one can’t be eaten either. Never mind, the monsters around here are heavily contaminated anyway. Even if there are suitable species, they aren’t fit for consumption. Finding high-order ingredients would only make it more painful, better not to find them at all.”

If there had been a Bipedal Flying Dragon here, its meat would have been tainted with filth and inedible… just thinking about it made her feel regretful.

With this in mind, she stopped searching further.

She just couldn’t help but smack her lips.

Not far away, Sario patrolling low in the sky, shuddered for no apparent reason. It glanced at Xi Liu and, after a thought, decided to fly a little further away.

‘It’s weird, even though Sario the Great never flinched in the fight against the Red Dragon, why does my heart keep feeling uneasy?’

While the elites patrolled, Mu Yuan packed away the treasures from purifying the Root of Corruption and continued to gaze into the Azure Sky.

Along the way, even though they avoided monsters when possible, their gains were still significant.

On the way, Duo Lai even keenly discovered a Soul Sand vein.

After a brief exploration, Mu Yuan was almost entirely certain—he could confidently say, nine times out of ten—that it was a small-scale Soul Sand mine. Not to underestimate the term ‘small-scale,’ as up to this point, all the vein discoveries he heard about from contemporary Lords were limited to micro-scale veins.

“A micro-scale Soul Sand vein, once fully mined, can yield thousands of Soul Crystals in total.”

“The total reserves of a small-scale Soul Sand vein are said to be between ten thousand and a hundred thousand. Of course, it’s not easy to mine out the entire crystal vein, as it’s both laborious and time-consuming.”

It could take a short year, or many years, even decades.

Nevertheless, discovering a small-scale Soul Sand vein near his territory was like a turn of fortune, emerging from obscurity—still in an unexplored area, mine deposits were far from commonplace.

Finding one in close proximity to his territory was even less common.

He, Lord Tianyuan, could suddenly rid himself of the identity of a poor man and become a local tycoon with a mine in his backyard.

It was a cause for joy, but Mu Yuan couldn’t allow himself to be too happy. Compared to the mine deposit, the location of his territory was what he urgently needed to clarify.

He had traveled southward in search of clues and traces.

It could be a landmark terrain feature or ancient ruins—he had mentioned the black giant mountain, but in the vast Eternal World, towering peaks reaching into the clouds were not so unique.

What Mu Yuan most wanted to find and was most likely to find were some special traces.

—Traces left behind by Tai Xuan pioneers who camped deep in the wilderness.

Should he find such traces, pinpointing the location would become hopeful.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t found a single one.

“I need to change the strategy, focusing on defense and concealment of the territory.”

He thought.

His view returned to the Town of Tianyuan within the territory.

Sunlight spilled across the land, making the town, nestled amid the lush woods, particularly noticeable.

Mu Yuan entered the Staff of Divine Right.

“How is it?”

He asked Isloa.

Isloa obviously hadn’t slept all night, but that was routine for her, a young Epic Life who wouldn’t waste precious time on sleep.

She solemnly replied, “Soon.”

Within the Nine-turn Furnace area, a Large-scale Magic was in the process of upgrading.

The progress bar was at 99.8%.

And shortly,

“Ding!”

“Notification: Large-scale Magic ‘Night Curtain’ has been upgraded to ‘Night Illusory Curtain.’ For details, please check for yourself.”

This was the technique Mu Yuan hastily fused with the Power of Sophia Raven the night before.

It nearly drained him completely.

It almost caused Isloa to tear her hair out in frustration.

After all, the Lord’s requirements were somewhat demanding. The technique needed to ‘envelop the entire territory, have a long duration, eliminate the scent of life, and conceal the region’ among other capabilities.

And she had to present a plan before the end of the watch.