85

On the way back, Cheng Yang's claims were verified. With the horde gather around the Joyous River Territory Altar destroyed, monsters should have started spawning again. However, no matter how long he spent on the road, nothing attacked him.

When he reached the point where the Xiang River intersected the road, to his surprise, Cheng Yang found a bridge.

The single-arch stone bridge stretched right across the kilometer wide river. It could be considered a miracle. With humanity's current technology level, it was absolutely impossible to make a bridge like that out of stone, but it seemed that the laws of physics didn't restrict the gods.

Cheng Yang didn't like to worry about things like that, so he crossed the bridge and continued on his journey.

Compared to the rough forest he had traveled through earlier, Cheng Yang moved much faster across the smoothly paved cobblestone. He was able to run back to Phoenix Village in just a few minutes.

It was about five in the afternoon when Cheng Yang returned. Just in time for a group of soldiers to finish their training and leave the safety of the village gates. It was likely that they were going out to hunt monsters.

Seeing Cheng Yang arrive, Lau Hui ran over to him.

"My Lord, why are you back so soon? Where are the others?" Since Cheng Yang usually didn't come back until after dark, Lau Hui was concerned.

"We found another Territory Altar and occupied it. Right now, the others are defending the new village until I can bring back wood and human resources. They need to build a fence before they can come back."

Lau Hui pointed to the road behind Cheng Yang, "Then does that path lead to the new village? We were wondering what that was and assumed the gods created it, but it turns out our Lord was the one to build it." Lau Hui was overjoyed.

Cheng Yan ignored the question and said: "Don't go out to farm monsters yet. I need all of the Warriors and Summoners to be wood porters. Try and get some from the other teams too so we can complete the task in one trip."

Lau Hui nodded and sent some soldiers to fetch the wood. Since there weren't any materials warehouses in Phoenix Village, the Loggers piled up all the logs next to the Territory Altar.

After the soldiers left, Cheng Yang went to the Outer Village. He needed to find eighty normal people to go with him to Joyous River Village. Since the class change statues in the new village hadn't been used yet, Cheng Yang was eager to expand the number of forces under his command.

The selection process wasn't very complicated. Cheng Yang gave priority to young people. Although a person's age wouldn't affect their stats after becoming Professionals, experience from his past life proved that the youth was a factor in receiving a good Innate Ability.

Cheng Yang decided not to let the other two people he brought back from Cloud City perform a class change ceremony today. He was going to wait until they could become soldiers for Phoenix Village. Zhou Jie would be a valuable asset, so Cheng Yang wouldn't allow her to perform a class change ceremony anywhere else. As for Liu Wei, since she was Pang Sun's best friend, naturally, she would want to stay in Phoenix Village.

Once Cheng Yang gathered eighty civilians, he walked over to the East Gate and found Lau Hui waiting there with a crowd of people. There were at least three hundred soldiers, with every two people carrying a log. The total amount of wood was easily four hundred units — more than enough for Joyous River Village's early development.

With a shout from Cheng Yang, the procession set off.

Along the way, the soldiers were shocked by the lack of monsters. In their minds, the world outside the walls was a wasteland filled with monsters and danger. Aside from Cheng Yang, no one dares to walk around outside the walls alone. After all, even when they were in large teams, they still needed to be careful.

Right now, though, there wasn't even a shadow of a monster to be found. It was all very unusual.

Even if they were curious, the soldiers kept their questions to themselves, except for Lau Hui. He didn't hold back and asked Cheng Yang directly.

After Cheng Yang finished his explanation, Lau Hui was able to understand.

Suddenly, Lau Hui gasped. "My Lord, if we paved the entire world, wouldn't we defeat the monsters once and for all!"

Cheng Yang glanced over at his friend. His imagination was praiseworthy, but unfortunately, his assumption was wrong. Regardless of whether the gods would allow that to happen after the Professionals realized the benefits of killing monsters, there wouldn't be a single person willing to eliminate them.

It took the group nearly an hour to reach Joyous River Village.

When they arrived, Liu Hau and the other soldiers Cheng Yang left behind were scattered around the area, killing monsters. With more than thirty experience soldiers defending the village, anything that spawned was immediately ganged up on and slain.

Cheng Yang ordered the soldiers following him to set the wood on the ground next to the Territory Altar. Then, Liu Hau built the village wall.

A moment later, the village was surrounded by a thick, solid wall that gave everyone a strong sense of security. This was especially true for normal people. The uneasiness they felt during the journey to the village went away.

With that, Cheng Yang finished his job. Chen Chao would be able to take care of the rest as long as Cheng Yang left her in charge of the eighty civilians he brought.

Cheng Yang didn't ask for much from Chen Chao. He left the Vice Governor with a thousand Experience Fragments and the duty to both protect the territory and perform class change ceremonies for the eighty normal people Cheng Yang brought.

Cheng Yang even explicitly forbid Chen Chao from further developing the village since there were bound to be large hordes in the surrounding area. If a horde in the thousands attacked the village right now, the monsters would raze it.

By the time Cheng Yang returned to Phoenix Village, it was already dark. So, he left the soldiers to their own devices and went to alchemize potions on the courtyard in his house. With the help of his new furnace, he was able to concoct thirty-five potions.

He then packed the potions into a bag and sold them to the Alchemy Tower manager at the agreed price, earning 1440 Experience Fragments.

All in all, Cheng Yang's harvests for today were rich. Without even mentioning the new village or his Purple Silver equipment, he'd earned nearly ten thousand Experience Fragments. It was normal for someone who waged so many wars in one day to be rewarded. Especially the one he waged to captured Joyous River Village, he felt so badass.

Although Cheng Yang had a total of 110,000 Experience Fragments, it didn't satisfy his greed. As soon as he finished selling the potions, he left Phoenix Village.

Cheng Yang moved with purpose and only fought hordes with five hundred monsters or more. Those hordes didn't present much of a challenge to Cheng Yang, but the story would be different if a group of ordinary soldiers ran into one. Only after Cheng Yang cleared out the large hordes like this one would the soldiers of Phoenix Village be able to level up safely.

That night, Cheng Yang killed over three thousand monsters. In exchange, he consumed tens of potions. But compared to the number of Experience Fragments he earned, the cost was negligible.

In fact, if Cheng Yang were to distribute his Experience Fragments to others in the territory, it would be enough for ten people to unlock sixteen times training speed. Unfortunately, there weren't ten people that could afford to pay for sixteen times training speed even if they could use it. Unless Cheng Yang were willing to subsidize their costs, it would be meaningless.

Would Cheng Yang be willing to subsidize anyone? Obviously not. Although Cheng Yang wanted to help people, he would only do so if it wasn't a detriment to his interests. As it was now, it would be impossible for him to pay for everyone's training fees even if he used all of the Experience Fragments he had.

Thus, after careful consideration, Cheng Yang decided to splurge a little and spend ten thousand Experience Fragments to buy a Spacial Ring.

The utility of a Spacial Ring went without saying, not having to carry things physically would allow an individual to fight without being weighed down. Not to mention the fact that they would also be able to take far more with them.

Cheng Yang immediately went inside the Grocery, the first time he had done so since he was reborn.

Compared to the other shops in the village, the Grocery was by far the loneliest. Not because the items inside were useless, but instead, they were too good. Except for the food, none of the things inside was something regular soldiers could afford.

"My Lord, what do you need to buy? My humble store has a wide variety of goods, so I'm confident that I can meet your needs." When the manager saw Cheng Yang walk in, a warm smile filled his face.

"I need a Spacial Ring."

When the manager heard that, his grin grew wider. "How big of a Spacial Ring do you need my Lord? My store supplies rings with a space as small as a cubic meter and as vast as a hundred cubic meters."

"Just give me the smallest one."

For a moment, there was a gleam of disappointment in the manager's eyes. "My Lord, surely a single cubic meter of space is too little for you. May I recommend you purchase the ten cubic meter version? It's only a hundred thousand Experience Fragments. Besides, if you buy a smaller ring now, won't it just go to waste when you get a bigger one in the future?"

Cheng Yang scoffed. "Don't worry about that. I already know that you can pay to have an existing ring's space extended instead of buying a new one. So, not only is the smallest one, not a waste, there's no reason for me to buy a bigger one at the moment. Bring it to me quickly."

He met someone knowledgeable! Even though the manager's heart mourned the loss, he still promptly brought out Cheng Yang's ring. After all, ten thousand Experience Fragments was still something.