106

Suddenly, Old Lee realized what Cheng Yang was implying. "My Lord, you don't mean to say there's a Boss on the other side of the Western bridge, do you?!"

"I'm not sure, but my intuition says there is." Cheng Yang replied.

"This is…" Old Lee groaned. Cheng Yang hadn't been wrong yet, so if he said there was a Boss, there probably was. "Does this mean it's impossible to clear the western bridge?

"No, it would just be risky. Of course, if all we wanted to do was kill most of the monsters there, we could do it."

Old Lee sighed. Even if they killed the monsters on the bridge, they'd at most get a piece of decent loot, something with a value that was incomparable to a Territory Altar.

"What are we going to do next then, my Lord? The development of Phoenix Village is on track, and with their current trajectory, Silkworm Mountain and Joyous River Village will level up in less than a month."

"Let's wait until we have a surplus of Standard-Grade soldiers before making any big moves. Our development is on track, but we can't allow any mistakes right now." Cheng Yang replied. "We could try and secure another Territory Altar, but we'd have to travel to another city."

"What about checking the area around Yanghe City, my Lord. It's only eighty kilometers away, so it shouldn't be hard to reach?"

"Even if its only eighty miles away, it will be hard to find. The terrain has changed since the earthquake, so we'll probably get lost. Although difficulties are inevitable, getting separated from the village is a death sentence in the wilderness. If it were just me, it might be fine, but…" Cheng Yang paused. "Nevermind that, how are the civilians doing?"

"Not bad, our soldiers bring a lot of food to the village every day, so no one is going hungry. We've been storing any grains or rice we find and serving roasted monsters as food. It's a little bland after a while, and we try to use any seasoning we find, but…"

"But what?"

"We just have too many people." Old Lee sighed. "Our total population is close to fifty thousand, so the amount of resources we consume in a day is staggering. Most of what we scavenge is non-renewable, so before long, we're going to run out of old-world products."

"Just that?" Cheng Yang laughed. "Don't worry about it. As long as we're surviving, it doesn't matter if we're comfortable. Eventually, we'll be able to produce some of those things on our own, but until then, we'll have to tough it out."

Cheng Yang didn't know the specifics, but he knew that eventually, there would be several Professions available to normal people. One example was the Farmer.

Thus civilians would become the primary source of food in this world and would likely gain access to other Professions that produced necessities.

Old Lee's worries were put to rest when Cheng Yang assured him that they would be solved in the future.

After some more chit chat, the two parted ways. Before they did, Cheng Yang transferred the Experience Fragments needed to train new soldiers to Old Lee.

Cheng Yang then returned to his Meditation Hall and, after retrieving his Experience Fragments from Liu Wei, began training.

When Cheng Yang finished, he visited the Territory Altar. By this time, the Priest class change statue had leveled up.

Cheng Yang nervously opened the Preist statue system pane with his eyes shut. He cracked one eye open and then sighed in relief. The statue lifting stone's bonus was multiplicative!

Although it was just a drop in the bucket compared to the healing needs of Phoenix Village, having proven that the bonus wasn't additive was incredible. From now on, Phoenix Village would have an enormous number of healers!

When fighting a group without Priests, Phoenix Village would be nearly undefeatable, and even if the enemy did have Priests, Phoenix Village would still have the advantage. Also, the Priests from Phoenix Village would know Angelic Inspiration, further sharpening the village's edge.

Even without being inspired, Cheng Yang could handle most monsters with ease, but what if he added Liu Wei into the equation? With her acting as his support, he would be able to face Boss type monsters with ease. She would take care of the high-level mobs, and he would wipe out the low-level ones. Then, together, they would annihilate the Boss. It was a beautiful scene that combined two extraordinary people into one.

Cheng Yang couldn't wait!

Shaking his head to clear those thoughts, Cheng Yang started the process of upgrading the Priest statue again. Since Phoenix Village's statue had an extra research option, it would take a total of 12,000 Experience Fragments and 18 days to level up.

As for the other statues, their current research was still ongoing. They wouldn't finish until some time tomorrow.

Then, Cheng Yang summoned his Imperial Guard and cleared the Blood-Soaked Cathedral. In the process, Cheng Yang obtained a Purple-Silver robe. It was an incredibly useful item which increased his Mana by 60 points but didn't have a defense bonus.

Although this piece of equipment had a smaller defense bonus than his old one, Cheng Yang didn't care. Mana was more important to him, and there was only a two-point difference.

After all, increasing his Mana meant Cheng Yang's hunting efficiency would increase.

Before Cheng Yang could savor his gains, he saw Yu Kai walked towards him.

"Yu Kai? What are you doing here?" Cheng Yang asked. "Actually, it doesn't matter. I've been wanting to hold a conference with the generals, so this is a lucky coincidence."

Yu Kai grimaced. "You might have to delay that conference. I have bad news. I ran into a group from the Cloud City safe zone. It wasn't some small band of mercenaries either. There were nearly a thousand people, so it had to have been the military."

Cheng Yang frowned. "And then what happened? Did they find you?"

"I was searching for refugees and didn't notice them until it was too late. They chased after us, and since the soldiers from my village don't have any Movement Speed buffs, so it was challenging to lose them.

"Where did you first encounter them, and where did you last see them?"

"We were about a kilometer from the Northern bridge, and we were chased all across the city. We only threw them off a kilometer or so from the Southern bridge."

"That close!" Cheng Yang sighed. "It's way too early for the military to try and leave the city, so whats going on?"

"I thought it was strange as well. They weren't a routine patrol or hunting party since they would avoid conflict with monsters. I think they were searching for something. Moreover, even after they stopped chasing us, we ran into two other teams of the same size. Luckily, we were on guard by then, so we weren't discovered."

"They were looking for something?" Cheng Yang murmured. It probably wasn't a person they were looking for since they would want to remove threats during a search and rescue. Since it wasn't a person, what was their goal?