Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Crawling up from the ground with difficulty, Zhang Yang unexpectedly didn’t recruit soldiers right away. On the contrary, he ordered the remaining few soldiers to recover some usable weapons and leather armor. Afterward, they quietly left the bloody battlefield and found a huge stone after walking a few hundred meters. He sat down and activated the Level 1 Concealment.
This feature was safe to a certain extent. But the problem was that it was extremely costly, requiring one energy point per minute. He couldn’t afford to activate it for too long.
But now, he needed it because he needed to buy some time and a safe environment for him to relax in. After all, even though he had a powerful C+ soul, he had a tough time engaging in battles one after another.
This really wasn’t a game.
It took a full five minutes before Zhang Yang recovered his strength to a certain extent.
I wonder if my current situation is the same as the former 981 village chiefs. Or am I already running towards the path to my ultimate demise?
Showing a self-deprecating smile, Zhang Yang began to inspect the harvest of the last battle.
How much is a level 5 Perfect Red Eagle Demon Soul worth?
This thought cropped up in his mind, and the familiar golden scale appeared with one end occupied by the Red Eagle Demon Soul, and the other a full 500 energy points. Both of them could fulfill his requirements to build a village.
However, his gaze didn’t linger for long as he looked downward.
[Use the demon’s perfect soul to raise a powerful soldier. Currently you have only 1 x Perfect Level 5 Red Eagle Demon Soul. You can use it to raise 5 x elite spearman/bowman/shield soldier.
Note: The soldier type who personally killed the red eagle will receive a 30 percent boost in training efficiency.
Note: A Perfect Red Eagle Demon Soul will increase the chance of cultivation by 20 percent.
Note: A level 5 Red Eagle Demon Soul will have a 100 percent chance to strengthen the weapons of elite soldiers.
Note: Using a higher level and more perfect demon soul will result in a chance of reinforcing soldiers of the same type—causing a battle mark to appear on a part of their body.
Raising five elite soldiers requires 50 energy points, 50 units of Red Eagle Demon Blood, and 50 Red Eagle Feathers. The base success rate is 60 percent. Every increase of 5 energy points will increase the chance of success by 10 percent.
Using a perfect demon soul can improve the strength of the holder of the Village Building Order. There is currently 1 x Level 5 Red Eagle Demon Soul in possession. After using it, randomly improve a certain attribute by one level and randomly obtain a Red Eagle Demon Talent. There is also a certain chance that a battle mark will be obtained.
Requires 50 energy points, 50 units of Red Eagle Demon Blood, and 50 Red Eagle Feathers. The success rate is 100 percent.]
So what should I choose?
Zhang Yang hesitated for a moment. Owning five elite spearman/bowmen/shield soldiers was indeed a great deal to him. If he had five elites, he could completely crush the Green Wolf Demon, fight the Black Bear Demon head-on, and take out the Red Eagle Demon.
However, if he were to just level up one of his attributes, even with the addition of a random talent and a certain chance of a battle mark, this translated into a combat power equivalent to a few ordinary soldiers.
… Which didn’t seem worthy.
However, only perfect demon souls could advance the holder of the Village Building Order. There was no such option for imperfect demon souls, which was why Zhang Yang had to consider the drop rate of perfect demon souls.
In addition, if he chose the former, he would have to consume 100 energy points before and after. If he chose the latter, he only had to use up 50 energy points.
These thoughts quickly flowed through his mind. However, he didn’t make a decision. Instead, he spoke to himself: “There were 981 village chiefs before me. Some of them must have experienced a situation similar to mine, so it doesn’t matter which I choose. I have to find out what they chose and the reason that they failed.
“Besides, judging from the three battles I experienced earlier, the level of the demon encountered in each battle becomes higher—is this a coincidence? I obviously had an elite spearman who could fight and kill a green wolf head-on, only to have a level 2 black bear jump out and kill him.
“If the elite spearman survived earlier, my elite bowman wouldn’t need to be sacrificed when I encountered the level 5 red eagle.
“And the result now is that I have apparently fought and killed three demons, including a level 5 red eagle. I should have benefited a lot from the battles, but my power hasn’t seen any growth at all. Perhaps the extra energy I gained has to all be depleted again in the next encounter with demons, thus forming a vicious circle.
“The above is a hypothesis because my next encounter may just be a level 1 green wolf demon. But things don’t work like this. I’m pretty sure some of the former 981 village chiefs were smarter than me. Honestly, I don’t see myself as necessarily having more intelligence. My thoughts and choices are just like that of ordinary people’s, which also means that there is a high probability that I will die as the 982nd village chief.
“If I want to live, I have to escape this vicious circle. Be it a coincidence or some interference from supernatural power, my next choice is crucial. It may determine my life or death.”
Zhang Yang closed his eyes and opened them after a long time, muttering to himself: “If I don’t consider these factors and don’t think about the dead 981 village chiefs, I will definitely choose the second option—the priority to strengthen myself. This is a temptation that nobody can get around, especially since there is still a long time before dark with so many demons lurking in the forest. I can easily recruit a large number of ordinary soldiers to fight and kill the demons, while a perfect demon soul that can enhance my power is rare to find.
“But I can’t represent everyone. Perhaps many village chiefs had chosen the first option, but why did they all still end up dead? The answer may be that even if they had 5 or more elite soldiers, the demons that appeared became more powerful. No matter how hard they tried and strengthened themselves, they failed to keep up with the power of these powerful demons. As a result, they were back to square one. Damn this fantasy world.”
Letting out a bitter laugh, Zhang Yang’s gaze gradually became determined. Those were just his assumptions and not necessarily correct. However, they gave him another way of thinking and at least for now, he made a choice and knew what to do next.
I want to sell that Red Eagle Heart.
Zhang Yang thought and instantly, the golden scale surfaced with the Red Eagle Heart at one end and a scant 50 energy points at the other.
This was quite unexpected, but Zhang Yang chose to sell the Red Eagle Heart without any hesitation. In the current situation, except for his soul and demon souls that couldn’t be sold, he could sell everything else.
Unfortunately, there were no other items shown on the golden scale. He guessed that the demon bloods, meats, feathers, wolf teeth, bear teeth or whatever might not be of sufficient quality.
At that moment, Zhang Yang had 195 energy points. He used them to recruit a shield soldier, spearman, and chose the three bowmen who survived from the previous battle.
They were the soldiers that he wanted to cultivate and strengthen into elites. The reason why he chose three bowmen was because he felt that the Red Eagle Demon Soul should be more compatible with a soldier type like the bowman.
According to the strengthening requirements, he made the five soldiers stand separately and carry their respective weapons. Then, he selected the option of demon soul strengthening.
In an instant, 100 energy points were deducted, and five white beams of light erupted from the Village Building Order, enveloping the five soldiers. But at the next moment, something surprising happened. Three more faint red radiance also shone, enfolding the three bowmen. It was apparent that the potential condition for strengthening had been triggered.
Zhang Yang was overjoyed with this increase in firepower on his side. Perhaps he would be able to easily win the next fierce battle.
Soon after, five minutes passed. The cultivation of the five elite soldiers was completed.
The elite shield soldier and elite spearman didn’t seem out of the ordinary. On the other hand, the three elite bowmen each had an additional faint red eagle feather battle mark on their bodies.
In terms of attributes, the elite bowman whose battle mark appeared between his eyes gained the effect of increased accuracy.
The elite bowman whose battle mark appeared on his hands gained increased power in arrow shots.
The last elite bowman whose red eagle feather battle mark appeared on his feet received a boost in agility.
The exact value of these increases wasn’t shown on the Village Building Order, so Zhang Yang didn’t care too much about them. After checking out their reinforced weapons, he closed the Level 1 Concealment and activated the Level 1 Vision.
In this 10-second vision, he saw eight yellow dots—representing danger—in an area one kilometer in diameter. There were no red dots, which represented extreme danger, nor green dots.
“Head this direction!”
Zhang Yang pointed at the yellow dot that was closest to them. He was going to take the initiative to attack.
The combat power of five elite soldiers was enough to rival a hundred ordinary soldiers. Meanwhile, their smaller number also allowed them to be concealed more easily.
After every hundred meters, Zhang Yang activated the Level 1 Concealment, followed by the Level 1 Vision, in order to accurately detect the dynamics of the surrounding dangers.
This was the most worthy way using those precious energy points, rather than spending them on recruiting ordinary soldiers.
Not only would the ordinary soldiers not be of much use, but the huge number of them would also attract attacks from airborne demons.
Zhang Yang walked and stopped throughout the journey. This time, he was very cautious. He wanted to reduce the chance of making mistakes.
Finally, about 10 minutes later and after correcting his route four times, he led the five elite soldiers and got ready to ambush one of their targets by hiding in its path. At that moment, he had already consumed 45 energy points just to turn on Level 1 Concealment and Level 1 Vision.
But it was all worth it for him.
Half a minute later, a black demon that resembled a leopard but was three times the normal size showed up 100 meters away from him. Due to the Level 1 Concealment, the demon didn’t detect him. However, it stayed vigilant and continued to jump lithely across tree to tree.
At that moment, Zhang Yang felt a little apprehensive because he had no way of predicting the strength of this demon. Upon seeing that the demon had jumped to the tree more than 50 meters away and was about to head in another direction, he gnashed his teeth and gave the order to attack.
In an instant, the three elite bowmen raised their reinforced longbows, drew their bowstrings to form a full moon with the longbow, and fired.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Nine feather arrows flew ahead, chasing the wind and leaving wind trails in the air.
This was precisely the skill that only elite bowmen mastered, Wind-chasing Triple-arrow Shot.
In the blink of an eye, all nine arrows struck the demon and penetrated at least 10 centimeters into its flesh. This time, the demon didn’t fake its injury like the green wolf. It wailed in agony, leapt up more than 10 meters onto a higher tree, and lunged toward them like a flash of black lightning.
It was so quick that Zhang Yang couldn’t even see. He only knew that things were about to turn bad because the speed of the demon was too fast. Moreover, the damage of the elite bowmen’s Wind-chasing Triple-arrow Shot was still too weak and they weren’t enough to hurt the demon in a flash.
Without any delay, he activated the Level 1 Protection. A white brilliance flashed and the demon had already closed in from 50 meters away.
Bam!
The demon slammed into the energy shield, causing it to violently tremble. It seemed to be on the verge of shattering.
However, it managed to save the lives of Zhang Yang and the others.
In an instant, the elite spearman snarled and stabbed out the reinforced spear at the demon’s throat, taking advantage of the moment the demon recoiled.
At the same time, the elite shield soldier also took a step forward with his shield to protect the side of the elite spearman.
At the next instant, the demon launched its final attack, sweeping its razor-sharp claw before it died.
The reinforced shield shattered, and the recoil pushed the elite shield soldier back a few steps.
Fortunately, he survived.
The whole battle ended in just a few moments. Zhang Yang was bewildered for a long time before finally returning to his senses. It was only at that moment when he realized that his body was once again drenched in cold sweat.
That was so close!
There were only five of them, no, six of them including himself. If there were a slightest problem in teamwork, it would have been them who were slaughtered.
And facing such a demon with terrifying speed, even if a hundred soldiers were recruited, they would still be utterly useless.