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It cost Cheng Yang 17,000 Experience Fragments to hire all of the Imperial Guards bringing his total below 100,000.
Once the Imperial Guard had gathered in full, Cheng Yang announced that Xue Yu would be the captain of the guard. Once Cheng Yang put her in charge, Xue Yu separated the Imperial Guard into five patrols of six guards each. The captains of each patrol were the first guard hired from each class.
Stepping out, Cheng Yang returned to the Territory Altar. It was time. He activated Divine Grace.
A wisp of energy stretched out from the altar, then, flowed into Cheng Yang as a torrent.
After a few breaths worth of time, strange and robust energy filled Cheng Yang's body. He had reached a level he never had in his past life: Pinnacle-Grade Apprentice. Of the people on Earth, only Cheng Yang was worthy of being referred to as a master.
At the same time, all thirty members of the Imperial Guard also leveled up. With this, Phoenix Village had become un-conquerable for at least a few months.
More importantly, the Imperial Guard would now be able to clear all five runs of the Hard difficulty Blood-Soaked Cathedral every day! Even after the instance dungeon leveled up, they would still be able to do so.
He had so many powerful subordinates that it just felt capricious!
Moreover, if he brought the Elite Imperial Guards with him, Cheng Yang was confident he could clear the Nightmare difficulty! With their combined strength, it would be easy!
When he imagined what kind of loot would drop when he secured the first clear, Cheng Yang started salivating.
It would be a great source of Experience Fragment. Not just for Cheng Yang but Phoenix Village as well.
Cheng Yang did some careful calculations and concluded that after clearing the Blood-Soaked Cathedral one more time would level up the instance dungeon. When that happened, it's Experience Fragment output would increase to eight thousand a day minimum.
Thus, Cheng Yang immediately sent a team from the Imperial Guard into the instance dungeon.
Now that he had such competent subordinates, he naturally did not need to do something so trivial personally.
While he was waiting, Cheng Yang opened up the Territory Altar system pane. There he found that in addition to the usual options, there was now a panel dedicated to donations.
That panel presented Cheng Yang with the option to enable donations. Then, any citizen living in his territory would be able to donate Experience Fragments, equipment, or raw resources to the Territory Altar. In exchange, their Contribution Score would increase in a roughly one to one ratio with the value of the donated item in Experience Fragments.
After a territory reached the level of a High-Grade Village, the Lord would be allowed to restrict access to the territories facilities. The way to unlock those facilities was naturally a high Contribution Score. Right now, one of the only things Phoenix Village could restrict was the ability to use Meditation Halls. As the territory developed, however, having a high Contribution Score would be more important than having a lot of Experience Fragments.
This ability was by far the most powerful tool a Lord had for exerting their will a territory as a whole.
Cheng Yang then opened the pane that tracked citizen information and saw a new contribution value column on each one. The only people with positive values were those that had official positions.
At that time, the three members of the Imperial Guard exited the Blood-Soaked Cathedral. In less than twenty minutes, the three of them had cleanly cleared the instance.
Since dozens of people had confirmed this in his past life, Cheng Yang knew that it took fifty clears to level up an instance dungeon the first time. Thus, even though the shimmering entrance to the instance dungeon didn't change, Cheng Yang knew it had been upgraded.
They would now be able to run each ten instances per day at each difficulty. Once Cheng Yang confirmed that the instance dungeon had leveled up, he sent three more teams into the Hard difficulty.
As for the extra Normal difficulty runs, Cheng Yang wouldn't bother competing for them. After all, he had nothing to gain from them. However, for his soldiers, this was their only source of equipment.
The remaining members of the Imperial Guard didn't enter an instance since Cheng Yang needed them to patrol the walls and Outer Village. The reason so many of them needed to be on duty was that the Imperial Guard weren't robots. Although they didn't need to train, they did need to sleep, so only half of them could be doing something at any given time.
Afterward, Cheng Yang opened up buildings tab of the Territory Altar system pane and upgraded his Meditation Hall.
In an instant, the only Standard-Grade Meditation Hall in the territory was wreathed in light and became a High-Grade one.
A courtyard now surrounded the buildings with a low wooden fence. In addition, the upgrade added five rooms had to the interior, including a kitchen and bathing area.
Cheng Yang walked inside and entered one of the second-floor bedrooms.
Although Cheng Yang wanted to keep the whole house for himself, he knew that was too extravagant.
Luckily, each room was pretty good on its own since the decorations and furniture were all on the level of a high-class hotel. The area had been partitioned into a living area with a tea table and a bedroom for sleeping.
Cheng Yang flopped onto the bed and opened his system pane.
Cheng Yang
Phoenix Village Lord
Class: Mage
Subclass: Cryomancer
Profession: Alchemist
Level: Pinnacle-Grade Apprentice (8.5%)
Age
19
Life Span
300
Health
276.5
Mana
483.8
Physical Attack
8
Magic Attack
108.8
Physical Defense
27.4
Magic Defense
17.3
Attack Speed
8
Movement Speed
25
Innate Abilities
Receive 40% more stats in the Magic Attack attribute when you level up
When Lord of a territory, all building effects are increased by 30%
Movement speed is increased by 200%
Perfect Medicinal Body: All potions effects are doubled and the side effects are halved
Frozen Flesh: Physical Defense is increased by 50%
Icy Mind: Mental Defense is increased by 50%
Skills
Meditation (Pinnacle-Grade): Meditate to absorb experience fragments and level up
Icicle Blast (High-Grade): Attack targets within thirty meters with a spike of magical ice | Damage: 130.6 | Cost: 5 MP | Cast Time: 1.3 sec | Effect: 30% chance to freeze target on hit | Proficiency: 45.3%
Petal Blizzard (Low-Grade): Conjure hundreds of razor sharp ice petals to dice your enemies | Damage: 54.4 | Cost: 20 MP | Cast Time: 1.3 sec | Effect Radius: 3 m | Proficiency: 12.2%
Hibernation Chill (Low-Grade): Freeze the air around an opponent greatly slowing them | Duration: 2 sec | Cost: 8 Mana | Cast Time: 0.8 sec | Proficiency: 31.4%
Sacrificial Blood Cloud (Low-Grade): Gift one of your attributes in full to five allies | Penalty: All attributes are halved | Duration: 10 minutes | Cast Time: 10.3 sec | Proficiency: 7.1%
Equipment
Wolf King's Sorrow (Black Iron): 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 | Increases Magic Attack by 4 | Durability: 69/80
Corrupted High Priest's Robes (Black Iron): The robes of the high priest of the St. Luantha cathedral corrupted by demonic magic | Increase Physical Defense by 2 and Mana by 10 | Durability: 48/60
Standard Battlemage Helmet (Black Iron): A helmet mass produced by the Nubines Citadel for its famed battlemage infantry | Increase Mana by 20 and Physical Defense by 1 | Durability: 67/80
Rotten Wooden Ring (Black Iron): Once a powerful artifact, this ring made from a holy tree has been nearly destroyed by demonic energy | Increases Magic Attack by 3 | Durability: 75/80
Crystal Ring (Green Bronze): A simple band ring composed of a single red crystal | Increase Magic Attack by 1 | Durability: 51/60
Sunbeam Necklace (Green Bronze): A necklace bearing a sun motif that was lightly blessed by a holy entity | Increases Magic Attack by 1 | Durability: 55/60
Dire Bear Bracelet (Green Bronze): Warm and fluffy this bracelet was made using the fur from one of nature's fiercest predator | Increases Physical Defense by 1 | Durability: 45/60
Adoril's Gauntlet (Black Iron): One of the last fragments of the mithril armor used by Holy Knight Adoril which is the perfect size to wear as a bracelet | Increases Mana by 10 and Physical Defense by 2 | Durability: 77/80
Iron Ant Boots (Green Bronze): Stylish and practical, these boots were made using hundred of iron ants as sequins | Increases Physical Defense by 1 and Movement Speed by 1 | Durability: 58/60
Cheng Yang had more or less reached the level of a Boss. Even if Cheng Yang stood still and let a Low-Grade soldier attack him, it wouldn't hurt him.
Right now, he could face an army of one thousand Low-Grade monsters without a hint of fear. With the combined might of his doubled Mana attribute and the Petal Blizzard skill, Cheng Yang would be able to massacre them all in minutes.
Since god's rules would transfer all of the Experience Fragments gathered by members of the Imperial Guard to Cheng Yang, he decided to rest for a while.
Over the next twenty minutes, Cheng Yang's Experience Fragment balance increased explosively, and he achieved his goal of obtaining one hundred thousand.
Cheng Yang then began training.
That night, Cheng Yang filled his experience bar by two point three percent. This outrageous progress was the combined result of his Innate Ability, the High-Grade Meditation Hall, and having unlocked the next level of increased training speed.
Of course, this kind of progress wasn't free. There was a reason no one was able to use thirty-two times training speed in his previous life consistently. Cheng Yang consumed a total of one thousand two hundred and eighty Experience Fragments.
When Cheng Yang got up to begin the day's activities, he found several people waiting in the courtyard outside the Meditation Hall. Except for Yu Kai, who was training at the moment, the other four generals were patiently drinking tea. It wasn't just them; there were four other uninvited guests: Pang Sun, Liu Wei, Zhou Jie, and Wang Lu.
Once he saw them, Cheng Yang realized he had forgotten about the people he had brought back yesterday. They were probably waiting for a verdict from him, but why were the others here?
"My Lord, you have a pretty nice house. Do you think we could each have one too?" Lau Hui asked with a smile.
"What do you mean? Just go choose one for the five of you." Cheng Yang dismissed the comment.
"This… my Lord, do you think I could have a house to myself?" Lau Hui asked with an embarrassed expression.
It was then that Cheng Yang noticed the deep red blush on Pang Sun's face. "Why don't you want to live with your buddies?" He asked with a mischievous smile.
"I… Well, it's not very convenient for the five of us to stay together." Lau Hui stuttered.
Cheng Yang snorted when he saw that reaction. "Alright, I won't make you say it. I know the real reason you want a house, and I'll make getting one easy for you. Buy the wood needed for it from the Loggers, and I'll use it to build a house for you. If you want to upgrade it, make sure to bring me more wood."