Why is my territory in a 2D anime art style?

Chapter 112 Testing the Ice Demon

"Is it a matter of distance, or is it because the barrier is blocking the ice mist?"

Fang thought for a moment, then took a few more steps toward the edge of the barrier, almost touching it.

This time, the ice mist outside the barrier suddenly fluctuated violently.

"roar!"

A thick, icy blue claw slammed into the barrier, and a somewhat frenzied roar echoed through it, causing Sui An to unconsciously take a half-step back.

Fang Si remained motionless. Although separated by a barrier, he could sense that this ice demon was only larger in size, but was still a low-level ice demon.

The shockwave from the barrier confirmed my suspicions.

Fang Si turned her head and shouted loudly into the courtyard, "What else do you want to test? Do you need me to leave the barrier?"

"No need, come back!" Sui An looked at the detection station and could roughly feel the influence of the furnace.

It's clear that even with the barrier and ice mist obscuring it, the Ice Demon is still sensitive to fluctuations in fire-attribute energy, and this sensing range is about seven or eight meters.

It should be noted that the fluctuations of this furnace are not even comparable to those of a level one fire attribute professional.

However, Sui An was not satisfied with this effect because the furnace could not be removed from the barrier; if it were removed, the barrier would be shattered in no time.

Therefore, using it to attract ice demons is not as effective as using illusions. Although illusions are expensive, money is not a major concern at this point.

Fang Si, separated by the barrier, drew his straight sword with one hand and slashed twice at the ice demon outside the barrier. One slash pierced its chest, and the other shattered its ice core, killing it with surprisingly fast efficiency.

He quietly appeared near the detection station, placed the stove aside, and looked at the pensive Sui An without saying a word. Instead, he found a stool and sat quietly beside him.

"Besides this furnace, do I have any other fire-attribute items that are significantly stronger?"

Sui An thought of his Sword Star Core material, which was a fire attribute material, but he couldn't produce a Territory Core at all; all the materials he obtained from card draws were like that.

"Are you thinking about more powerful fire-attribute items?"

Fang Si, who was waiting to the side, suddenly took the initiative to ask.

Sui An looked at Fang Si in surprise and found him still sitting next to her: "Yes, but besides this stove, I have nothing else."

"Then I'll go get something to try."

Fang Si turned and went back into her room. She quickly took out a metal box, and inside was an irregular stone about the size of a grapefruit, shining with a reddish light. Even from a distance, it felt somewhat scorching.

"This is a blue material that can be used to make intermediate-level source artifacts. It's called Fiery Gold Stone. I obtained it by chance. It's quite rare, so I haven't sold it yet. I'm thinking of finding a private trading market to barter with it later."

"Then I'll buy it? So it won't get broken if I'm not careful."

Sui An hesitated. The blue materials that could be used to make intermediate source artifacts were not cheap, costing anywhere from three or four hundred to seven or eight hundred yuan.

Fang Si shrugged indifferently: "Let's break it first. This thing is very hard, even if I were to break it, it would be a bit difficult."

"Okay, I'll pay you back if it breaks!"

Seeing that Fang Si herself didn't care, Sui An naturally didn't care either, and the two walked towards the edge of the barrier again.

Sure enough, as Fang Si opened the specially made metal box again, the fluctuations became even more pronounced. The icy mist outside the barrier roared continuously, clearly attracting many ice demons.

Sui An's face lit up with joy. This was quite a commotion. He quickly pointed to the edge of the barrier and said, "Put this material here."

Fang Si took the stone out and placed it on the ground. The withered yellow leaves nearby quietly began to turn black, as if they had been scorched by flames.

Meanwhile, Sui An controlled the core of the territory, summoning two barrier pillars that were planted on the ground to the left and right of the stone. Two small barriers, each one meter high, rose from the barrier pillars, forming two layers of barriers to protect the object.

Fang Si was stunned. It seemed like she had seen something new again. How come this guy's territory always seemed to have an endless supply of new things?

"Let's go, let's test the effect!" At this moment, the large barrier on the side was already undulating, and countless ice demons were attracted to it and were frantically attacking the barrier.

The two retreated into the courtyard, while Sui An closed the large barrier and adjusted the elemental statues to a position where they could reach the small barrier.

Sure enough, the elemental statues began to rumble automatically, and Sui Anshou looked at the projection on the detection platform. At this moment, there were at least twenty level one or two ice demons gathered around his small barrier.

However, these ice demons are powerless against their own Thousand Winds Barrier and can only consume their own source energy. But the Thousand Winds Barrier is far more powerful than the source energy shield. Although it consumes a lot of energy to activate, it consumes less energy when it is hit.

"The impact of this fluctuation is really widespread!"

Sui An watched as the ice demon, a hundred meters away, suddenly changed its wandering posture and rushed towards the fire-attribute materials at lightning speed on the projection screen.

This effect has already surpassed its own illusion, but its drawback is that it can only affect one direction.

"Now you know why I told you to be careful when activating your great fire sword, right? Its energy fluctuations are much stronger than this."

Although Fang Si had some expectations about this item, he never imagined that a medium-grade blue-quality material would have such an effect.

In his opinion, this thing's fluctuations were not even comparable to those of a level three fire attribute professional.

"Indeed~" Sui An's gaze remained focused on the projection on the detection station, and he had roughly estimated the attraction distance of the stone to be about 150 meters.

This distance, plus the radius of one's own territory, exceeds the distance of the illusion, but it is still within the monitoring range of one's own detection station, making it much safer in comparison.

After about four or five minutes, the attack frequency of the elemental statues had dropped to a minimum, and all the ice demons that could be attracted in the vicinity had been wiped out.

Roughly estimated, this wave cleared out about sixty or seventy of them, all of which were newly added wandering ice demons after I had just finished clearing them out.

As this area was cleared, ice demons began to roam the edges, generally coming from the north and seemingly heading south.

Sui An asked curiously, "Fang Si, where do you think these ice demons are headed?"

"Nobody knows, at least nobody in Jiangcheng should know." Fang Si was clearly unsure as well, looking up at the gray fog in the distance.

"Given the speed at which the gray fog spreads, it can travel over a thousand kilometers a day. Judging from the time it has been in Jiangcheng, it could have traveled ten or twenty thousand kilometers. This distance is probably one that no one in Jiangcheng has ever been, and even if they have, no one has ever come back."

Sui An became even more curious: "Even those high-level professionals?"

It seemed that Sui An's question piqued Fang Si's interest. He turned around, his eyes shining: "Do you know what's south of Jiangcheng?"

Sui An guessed: "Other major cities?"

"There are indeed large cities to the south of Jiangcheng, but I once heard a rumor that thousands of kilometers south of Jiangcheng, there is a huge mountain range that stretches for thousands of miles and contains extremely primitive forests. Such a place has become a forbidden area for humans after the invasion of the Origin Realm."

There seemed to be a strange longing in Fang Si's eyes, and even her slightly magnetic voice became melodious.

There's an old saying: "Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles." So I once thought of wandering the world with a sword and seeing what this world is really like.

Sui An waited for a while, but Fang Si didn't continue speaking, so he asked in a low voice, "And then?"

Fang Si's composure crumbled instantly, his gazing up at the sky vanished, and he chuckled sheepishly.

"Then my car ran out of Originium —"

Before getting up on the third day of the Ice Mist Tide, Sui An checked his merit points as usual. He had 622 points, which was far from the blueprint worth 7200 merit points, let alone any enlightenment or anything like that.

As for Originium, I spent over 500 yesterday and night, but I still have some gains outside, so I don't think the consumption was too great.

Summoning the territory projection, the lonely little barrier remains unharmed.

In the kitchen, Fang Nian was cooking breakfast, while Wang Hu and Fang Si were already sitting at the long table.

Good morning, everyone. Did you sleep well last night?

Sui An stepped into the kitchen and greeted everyone as usual.

The elemental stone statue made a sound every now and then last night; if you don't sleep well, you might even be woken up.

"The new house is very soundproof, I fell asleep quickly~" Fang Nian turned her head and reached out to twirl the hair around her cheek, her complexion was rosy.

"I can always sleep well~" Wang Hu's statement left Sui An speechless. The enviable quality of sleep was something he had always envied the most.

"How was the harvest last night?" Fang Si didn't answer, but instead asked about Sui An's results.

"I checked this morning, and I think I killed about two or three hundred of them. Let's clean up the battlefield together after lunch. This stuff consumes a lot of resources. Even though I have a lot of Originium reserves, I still don't want to run out too much."

Sui An sat down next to Wang Hu, and also leaned his elbows on the table, waiting with the two of them for Fang Nian's noodles.

Sui An's words calmed Fang Si down. It seemed that what Sui An said was useful to him. It wasn't just his speculation. He even had a rough number of kills. Could it be some special achievement condition of the territory?

Just like the requirements for upgrading~

"The beef noodles are ready, help yourself~" Her sister's voice interrupted Fang Si's daydreams.

Sui An had just woken up and was not quite clear-headed, so he didn't notice anything unusual about Fang Si.

After the four finished breakfast, they went outside the courtyard to collect loot. There were noticeably more ice demons today, and even at this hour in the morning, the elemental statues hadn't completely stopped moving.

Fortunately, Sui An activated a barrier, keeping the ice demons outside, and the elemental statues quieted down.

1级源石125颗、2级源石100颗、3级源石42颗。

Wang Hu handed over the green orb in his hand: "Xiao An, I have a green trophy here!"

"Hey, what an unexpected bonus!"

Sui An reached out and took it, but upon looking at it, he discovered that it was a green synthesis recipe called [Azure Steel].

Sui An looked at Wang Hu, who was grinning foolishly to the side, and instantly laughed in exasperation: "You little rascal, there's something wrong with you~"

He casually tossed it to Fang Nian, who was standing nearby: "Alchemy synthesis formula, do you want it? I'll sell it to you at half price, consider it an employee benefit~"

Fang Nian, standing to the side, was somewhat surprised. She hurriedly caught the trophy orb and glanced at it.

"A low-grade, green synthetic formula!"

Fang Si leaned closer and asked softly, "What kind of material is it?"

"Blue-veined steel!"

"I think I've heard of it before~" Fang Si fell into deep thought, trying to remember where he had seen it before. Suddenly, he clapped his hands.

"I remember now, it's the main steel used in small transport vehicles. It has a good balance of toughness and hardness, making it a very practical material!"

"This is definitely a best-selling green blueprint!"

"Boss, this—" Fang Nian's expression immediately became conflicted upon hearing this. Such blueprints would naturally sell well and fetch a high price. Would it be too much of a loss for him to sell them at half price?

"It's a 50% discount for employees, don't even think about getting it for free~" Sui An waved his hand and began to lead everyone back to the courtyard. In just a short while, at least seven or eight ice demons had gathered outside the great barrier.

"Thank you, boss!" Fang Nian said sweetly, her smile as bright as a flower. Wang Hu, who was standing to the side, was stunned. It was only when Sui An pulled her away that she remembered to leave.

Wang Hu probably never had this feeling growing up. Is this what youth is all about?

It's not surprising that Wang Hu couldn't help but be captivated by Fang Nian. She wasn't exactly stunningly beautiful, but she had a dignified face and delicate features. In particular, her pure and innocent demeanor would have made her the white moonlight of countless online friends in his previous life.

Sui An smiled helplessly to himself. "I know you like him, but you can't just stare at him like that. Do you think his older brother is dead?"

"Tiger, you need to hurry up and cultivate to break through, otherwise your days ahead might not be so easy."

"Huh? I'll speed things up!" Wang Hu was stunned. He didn't seem to understand the meaning behind Sui An's words, and just thought that Sui An was annoyed by his slow progress.

Seeing Wang Hu's nervous expression, Sui An was afraid that he would misunderstand, so he thought for a moment and still added a sentence.

"Don't be so nervous, just stay calm and keep working hard."

"I know~" Wang Hu nodded.

C

,

Sui An felt something was wrong. It was as if he was raising a son. Was he taking advantage of Aunt Zhao?

Thinking of Aunt Zhao's horse-slaying sword, Sui An shook his head repeatedly.

The great barrier was canceled again, and the surrounding ice mist poured back in, and thunder roared once more.

Sui An was still a little anxious, because with this material alone, he couldn't unlock the blueprint at all.

Even if this item might appear in your subsequent "Exchange" section, you still have to unlock it yourself first.

For the next period of time, Sui An would hold a book and guard the vicinity of the detection station. When more ice demons were wandering around, he would use illusions to circle around twice to attract them, and then use the small-area explosion effect of the elemental statues to focus fire and eliminate them, minimizing extra consumption.

Moreover, Sui An also discovered during this long battle that the Ice Demon is not immortal as long as its ice core remains intact. Its source energy is limited, and it can only recover two or three times at most before its source energy is depleted.

The number of Ice Demons today is significantly higher than yesterday. A single rotation of the illusion can pull back about thirty Ice Demons. However, after each pull, you have to wait for the surrounding Ice Demons to fill the gap, which can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour.

With the added attraction of the fiery metal, the harvest increased significantly.

By evening, Sui An's merits had finally surpassed a thousand.

However, soon a strange change occurred outside the territory. The already dark and gloomy ice mist became somewhat brighter, except that the ice crystals mixed in with the thick fog reflected a scarlet light.