Full health is the kill threshold, no matter if you're a god or a demon!

Liu Nian weighed the seal in his hand.

It felt heavy in his hand, the dark gold metal gleaming with a calm luster. He turned the seal over and saw a line of small characters engraved on the bottom: "Greystone Fortress, Never to Fall".

Never fall.

Liu Nian's lips curled up slightly.

These four words now sound like an irony.

He looked up at the old butler in front of him, who was bent over at a ninety-degree angle and had gray hair hanging down, and smiled.

"Very good. You can continue to operate in this city from now on. If you'd like, I can arrange a position for you."

Alfred's body trembled slightly:

"Thank you, Lord City Lord!" The old steward's voice was hoarse as he bowed deeply once again.

Liu Nian didn't say anything more, turned around and walked to the core control panel, placing the City Lord's Seal on the crystal.

The moment the seal touched the crystal, a dark golden light burst forth between them, like a silent lightning bolt, illuminating the entire secret room.

[System notification: "Graystone Castle Lord's Seal" detected. Bind to become the owner of Graystone Castle?]

[Note: Binding requires a fee of 50000 Crystal Coins. Current city status: Damaged. Repair is expected to require an additional 500000 Crystal Coins.]

Liu Nian glanced at the message without even blinking.

This amount of money is nothing to him.

Liu Nian directly chose to pay 5 crystal coins.

In essence, this is simply paying a fee to the system to make it recognize you as the owner of Graystone Castle, thus preventing the official forces from easily taking action against you.

The crystal coins paid seemed to transform into a golden energy, flowing into the crystal. The crystal's light grew brighter and brighter, making the entire secret room almost blindingly bright.

[System Announcement: Graystone Fortress has been occupied by the Divine Dragon Guild. Current Lord: Liu Nian (Divine Dragon Guild).]

[City Status: City defenses are mostly intact, but the city interior is severely damaged and requires repair to restore its functionality (it is recommended to prioritize repairing the Chamber of Commerce to restore trade routes).]

The announcement caused another uproar on the main channel.

[Holy crap? Graystone Castle has changed hands again? This time it's the Divine Dragon Guild! How long has it been?!]

[My poop hasn't even cooled down yet and they've already changed people again?]

[Liu Nian is truly amazing! How long did it take to drive away the undead? Others fought a siege for a whole day, and he solved the problem in 10 minutes.]

Look at the Divine Dragon Guild! All you big guilds should learn from them! See how they fight, and how you fight!

The Divine Dragon Guild has its own city now! Too bad they're not recruiting!! I applied three times and was rejected every time, I'm so upset!

[Wait, didn't someone say the Shadow Hand was also involved in the siege? Did Liu Nian kill the Shadow Hand members as well? Doesn't that mean they're going to war with Night Owl?]

[What happened to the Shadow Hand? Glory Guild sent their congratulations! Reinhardt expressed his approval!]

At that moment, the voice of Devouring Sun came from the private chat channel—

"Liu Nian! It's all skeletons down there! We can't kill them all! We simply can't kill them all! This thing is like a fountain, the monsters are gushing out like a well! We don't have enough manpower!"

Liu Nian frowned.

The battle beneath Graystone Fortress had reached its climax. Devourer of the Sun led the Demon Bear Clan down a dry well in the backyard of the city lord's mansion, a well originally used to store rainwater, now serving as a passageway to the undead dungeon.

The dry well had transformed into a natural cave, connecting to the mountain below Graystone Fortress—the very place where Liu Nian had discovered the Pharaoh's ruins. The undead emerged from here, an endless stream, like an anthill being disturbed.

Those skeletal soldiers surged out of the ground, row upon row, column upon column, one after another, as if they could never be killed off.

"Can we break in?" Liu Nian asked.

"No!" Devourer's voice carried a hint of frustration. "This place is too cramped; our people can't spread out! And the monster density inside is too high—kill one batch, and two more swarms come out! We don't have enough manpower! Just blocking them isn't a solution; we need to solve the problem at its source!"

Liu Nian remained silent for a moment.

The NPC garrison of Graystone Fortress has been wiped out. Now, the entire city is only inhabited by the Demon Bear Clan and Abe Bee players he brought, plus the elite Demon Bear troops under Devourer of the Sun, totaling less than a few hundred people.

With such a small force, they can't even set up a decent defensive line, let alone occupy the city's key transportation routes.

He switched to Wang Mian's private chat.

"Wang Mian".

"Here." Wang Mian's voice rang out quickly, accompanied by a heavy breathing, indicating that the battle on the side of the Eternal Sleep Temple was also quite intense.

"How much longer until we reach the Temple of Eternal Slumber?"

"It's hard to say. There are more undead in the temple than expected. Wu Zhan calculated that it will take at least another half day." Wang Mian paused. "What about your side?"

"We've taken the city, but there's an undead lair underground. Shi Ri and his men are blocking it."

Liu Nian leaned against the window frame, his fingers tapping lightly on the Starbreaker gauntlets, producing a faint metallic sound.

He was thinking of a solution.

It seems we can't rely on the Temple of Eternal Slumber for the time being, so we'll have to deal with the Floating City.

Liu Nian no longer hesitated and contacted Miya'er directly.

"Miya, prepare to initiate the floating city jump procedure. Let the engine warm up first, and wait for my instructions."

"Roger that! The engine will take about five minutes to warm up."

Then Liu Nian contacted Kal'tsit.

"Kal'tsit, stop advancing in the temple for now. Go back to the floating city and bring a group of players to Graystone Castle to support me."

"Yes, President!"

Immediately afterwards, Liu Nian contacted Mosh, the Troll King.

"Mosh, organize a group of people to return to the floating city. Have Kal'tsit bring them to support me later."

"Yes, sir!"

After such a long period of adjustment, the trolls have basically integrated into the Divine Dragon Guild and are no longer excluded as before. The players of the Divine Dragon Guild are gradually accepting them—after all, they have fought together, drunk together, and shielded each other from harm on the battlefield. Any racial barriers can be bridged, and the trolls themselves have also undergone a change in mindset.

Inside the city lord's mansion, the old steward Alfred was directing several surviving NPC servants to clear the ruins.

There were only seven or eight of them, all quite old, their clothes worn and covered in dust. They were moving stones, sweeping up debris, and wiping away bloodstains.

Seeing Liu Nian come down the stairs, Alfred put down his broom and quickly walked over.

"My lord, the main structure of the city lord's mansion is intact, and the magic array and arrow towers have not suffered much damage. However, the interior decoration of the castle is severely damaged, most of the floor tiles in the hall are broken, there are several damaged sections of the first-floor walls, some wooden structures on the second floor need to be replaced, and—" The old steward counted on his fingers, reporting item by item, like a sophisticated accounting machine.

"Don't rush to repair the city lord's mansion," Liu Nian interrupted him, his gaze sweeping over the busy NPC servants. "How many survivors are left in the city?"