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

Chapter 121 The Ice Fog Tide Ends

"Xiao An! The ice fog has receded!"

The dull knocking woke Sui An from his bed. He was still half asleep when he vaguely heard Wang Hu's excited shouts.

"Has the ice fog dissipated?"

Sui An was suddenly startled, subconsciously remembering his merit points, and jumped straight out of bed, wanting to check on his territory's core.

"Wait, didn't I already redeem them all last night?"

Stepping barefoot onto the white ground, which was somewhat cold, immediately brought Sui An back to his senses.

He let out a long sigh of relief before calling out towards the outside, "Okay, I understand."

Since the end of the full moon, the number of ice demons in the Ice Mist Tide has been declining. In four consecutive days, Sui An barely managed to get two thousand merit points, which is almost half of what he had earned in the previous days.

Just when Sui An thought he wouldn't be able to collect enough, the Blood Moon started again on the night of the ninth day.

The remaining ice demons gathered again within a few kilometers of the territory. After clearing them all out, Sui An quickly accumulated 4,800 target merit points and exchanged them for the remaining two sets of materials.

In fact, I gained over 300 more merit points, but these will all be reset to zero after the blueprint library expires on the tenth day.

"The limited-time blueprint library preview was pretty accurate~ It closed today, and the ice fog cleared up this morning."

I put on thick clothes, opened the door, and the long-lost bright light instantly poured in. The dark fog in front of me had actually disappeared without a trace.

If he hadn't been fighting the Ice Demon last night, one would have thought the Ice Mist Tide was a hoax.

For ten consecutive days, the sun was not seen, and the weather was extremely gloomy. Any normal person would feel somewhat listless.

At this moment, Sui An actually felt a sense of rebirth!

"Wow, what a beautiful sunny day!"

"The sun is so warm!" Wang Hu stood in the courtyard, stretching out his arms as if trying to embrace the sunlight.

Seeing the smile on Wang Hu's face, Sui An also breathed a sigh of relief.

These days, Tianwang Hu looked worried and troubled, which gave him a headache. He knew the reason: he was distressed that he was of no use in the face of a crisis in his territory, and didn't even have the qualifications to fight to the death.

This kind of thing is actually very common in any novel. If the protagonist moves too fast, even the most outstanding people around him will gradually be left behind. If someone has too much pride, they may show signs of becoming withdrawn.

But if this happened to Sui An, he would never experience it; he would be so happy to be carried along by someone else.

The main character must be so tired!

Hmm, I don't think I'm too tired, it's just that keeping accounts and calculating money is giving me a headache. I need to eat some brains to replenish my energy!

Sui An laughed, and suddenly called out to Wang Hu, "After we finish eating, let's go play cards in the yard. You don't need to exercise anymore, take a day off."

"OK!"

"Do you want five?"

"Pair of eight!"

"Yes, K!"

"Beep beep beep" At ten o'clock in the morning, two transport trucks drove up and honked their horns from a distance.

The large, finely cast iron gate of the courtyard opened automatically, and Erhu, without any hesitation, drove the car directly to the gate.

"Hey, playing cards!" Erhu smiled as he watched the four people sitting cross-legged on the stage in the courtyard.

"Looks like you guys have had a pretty good time during the ice fog tide these past few days."

"That's right, it's from eating too much hot pot that I got a sore throat~" Sui An pointed to the corner of his mouth, where there seemed to be a small blister, and then peeled off a few stubble patches from his face.

Seeing that her son was safe and sound, Zhao Feng's expression softened considerably, and she sat down next to Wang Hu in a few steps.

Wang Zhen came in alone as usual, while his teammates sat in the car, whispering amongst themselves.

Wang Zhen glanced around the courtyard and then said to Sui An with a smile, "I'm a bit busy today. If you need anything, please ask quickly. It's not good to wait here for too long."

Upon hearing this, Sui An immediately pulled over the erhu player who had just sat down and quickly handed over the cards in his hand.

"Erhu, come here, you take my turn to play cards. I need to replenish my supplies with Brother Zhen."

Erhu smiled and took the cards from Sui An's hand: "Are these cards any good? They're not junk, are they?"

Sui An waved his hand, then quickly ran into the house, took out his notebook, and pulled Wang Zhen aside to sit on a small stool.

"I need your help to find out a lot of things this time. I've written them down on a piece of paper, but I'll tell you about them first."

Wang Zhen curiously took the page and glanced at it casually, only to find that it was covered with a lot of writing.

"So much stuff?"

"I have two very important materials here. The first is that I need you to find out about the Void Crystal Source Stone for me privately."

"Void Crystal Source Stone?" Wang Zhen frowned, seemingly having never heard of this material before.

Sui An explained, "It's probably a purple material!"

"Purple material, good!" Wang Zhen gave Sui An a meaningful look. This wasn't the first time Sui An had asked him about purple material.

He had previously inquired about some materials with unusual names, such as Burning Wish Agate and East Wind Feather, but no one had ever heard of these materials. This made him doubt whether these materials really existed, as the names sounded incredibly fantastical.

However, the blue material, lightning-accumulating stone, that Sui An had inquired about with him a long time ago, does indeed exist.

Wang Zhen had guessed that this might be the core material of the lightning-attribute elemental statue, but this material was extremely rare on the market. After asking about it last time, Sui An wanted to buy it again, but it was already sold out.

I reckon no one has this formula yet, and the original stock was probably found in the loot orbs.

Since then, Sui An has basically stopped asking me about the materials.

The fact that he was suddenly inquiring about a new purple material made him think, and he asked in a low voice.

"You've gotten your hands on purple blueprints again."

"I guess so, but I estimate it will be very difficult to find the core materials."

Sui An did not explain the effect of the blueprint, nor did he explain its origin.

"You'd better be careful when you inquire about this material, so that no one misunderstands and it doesn't cause you any trouble."

Wang Zhen nodded: "I understand, I'll be careful. Is there anything else you'd like to discuss privately?"

Sui An pointed to the second item on the page: "Yes!"

"There's another blue material called Yinghua Stone Crystal. It's probably a material refined or synthesized from Yinghua Stone. It shouldn't be hard to find, but I need a large quantity. Could you check if I have the formula? If so, I can buy the formula directly."

"How big is it?" Wang Zhen asked curiously.

This time, Sui An did not hide it from Wang Zhen, but directly summoned the secondary core and retrieved the blueprint information for the transportation infrastructure.

"I'm afraid I'll be using high-grade stuff, so the quantity will be quite large."

"What a find!" Wang Zhen exclaimed, turning to look at Sui An.

"I remember there's always been a bounty on those blue-quality matching module blueprints in the trading company, but after all these years, I haven't seen many people take the hits."

"Even in Jiangcheng, most of the municipal facilities are still renovated remnants from the old era. If the city lord saw your blueprints, he would be envious."

"Lord of the city, perhaps he just didn't work on it. How could he not have such blueprints?"

Sui An shook his head, clearly not believing that the city lord would lack such blueprints. He owned a third of the shares in Ping An Trading Company, and he certainly had information about the things handled there. With so many years of accumulation, it was definitely not something that someone like him could surpass so easily.

"Maybe it wasn't effective, so they didn't do it, but yours is different~"

Wang Zhen pointed to one of the descriptions: "The more modules there are, the stronger the energy gathering effect. When the energy concentration of the territory is increased to a certain level, the effect on the professionals inside will be greatly enhanced."

"I remember when you went from level two to level three, you chose the one with abundant source energy, right? With this, your territory will be almost the same as a small secret realm, saving a huge amount of resources in many places."

"I know~"

Sui An nodded and said with a smile, "That's why I want to make a blueprint so I can source the raw materials myself. Otherwise, how much profit will the middlemen take from me?"

"That's true, I'll keep an eye on it. But the blue material recipe is probably hard to come by. Unless this material has limited uses, it will be difficult to compete with those alchemists for the recipe."

Wang Zhen wasn't optimistic about finding the recipe. Even a recipe for a low-level blue material, which wasn't a particularly popular material, was enough to make a low-level alchemist stand out.

Sui An shrugged: "Just do your best. I don't need that much in the early stages, so it's not a big problem."

After saying that, he took out two large bags from the house, which contained a dozen or so trophy orbs.

"These 6 white orbs and 4 green ones are materials. Sell them for me, and the proceeds will be used to buy other items. I checked these materials against the basic material guide you gave me, and they are all considered best-selling."

"The other bag contains energy bars refined by Fang Nian. We don't need such a large quantity, so please use them up for me first."

As he spoke, Sui An took out a blue orb from his pocket and handed it to Wang Zhen.

"This is a level 3 blue-grade artifact, a Source-Tracing Compass. It can detect source energy life forms within a 100-meter radius of the user. Do you want it?"

Wang Zhen's expression changed, and he quickly reached out to take it and examine it carefully before saying softly, "Aren't you going to keep this? The people in our territory will need it for exploration in the future, but someone like me with a sports car won't need it."

"Will it be useful in the secret realm? If it is, I'll keep it and you can take it with you when you go down to the secret realm."

"That will definitely come in handy!"

"Then I'll keep it~" Sui An took it from Wang Zhen's hand, and suddenly he thought of something and pointed to the paper again.

"Remember to prepare three more sets of the electro-optical-magnetic crystals needed for this detection station; I might need them later."

"You already have this detection station; a detection range of 300 meters should be enough, right?"

Wang Zhen was a little curious. The detection range of this detection station was sufficient for use up to level three or four, so why did it now require materials? This wasn't a weapon or equipment that could only be placed within the territory.

Sui An didn't explain that this thing was a blue material, and it was usually easy to buy in the market, but it might be sold out at a crucial moment.

"Let's prepare them first, you never know when we might need them, just in case we run out of materials."

"Alright," Wang Zhen said, putting the page into his pocket before asking in a low voice, "With so many spoils, wasn't the Ice Mist a bit dangerous this time?"

Sui An smiled and nodded: "It's alright, there was some danger, but it's all been resolved."

Seeing that Sui An was truly alright, Wang Zhen prepared to leave, but suddenly turned back and said, "I forgot to tell you something, it's about your neighbor, the Zhao family."

Wang Zhen recounted everything he had heard in Jiangcheng to Sui An, causing Sui An to furrow his brow in dismay.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Hong had a hidden trick up his sleeve. Could it be that Zhao Yuan was unaware of it, which is why he sent him a voice message for help?

Or perhaps the two brothers wanted to prepare for both possibilities.

However, Sui An still didn't want to get involved in this matter. Crescent City was too powerful, and even if he leveled up to level 4, he didn't really want to provoke them.

With two level-seven older brothers, if they wanted to cause trouble, he wouldn't be able to withstand it, and Wang Zhen and the others would also suffer.

If someone can carry a mid-level blacksmith away from Jiangcheng, wouldn't it be difficult for them to assassinate Wang Zhen and Erhu?

Hopefully, the Zhao brothers won't cause any more trouble. They've already been arrested, so they should just behave themselves as subordinates of Crescent City.

With this blueprint, Zhao Heng will definitely be fine. What difference does it make who you work for? Crescent City has developed to its current state, and it certainly didn't rely entirely on force to subdue people. Its core team must have been won over through normal means. If they can work for Crescent City, why can't you?

It's important to understand that Zhao Heng's advantages are extremely strong!

He didn't quite agree with Zhao Hong's approach. If you hadn't fallen into the hands of Crescent Moon City, you might have been able to live a better life by joining the city lord.

But now that the die is cast, will your treatment as father and son necessarily be better if you drag the city lord into it?

What if Crescent City acts desperately?

Sui An had no intention of revealing what happened that night in the Zhao family's territory; he hadn't said anything before, and there was no need to now.

"The Crescent Moon City is incredibly audacious; they even dare to steal talent from the Great City Lord's territory!"

Wang Zhen simply shook his head; his opinion was somewhat different.

"This is the downside of the city's establishment. After the city was opened up, there were too many freelancers. Even the city lord didn't know who had something good in their hands. Although Zhao Heng lived in the western part of the city lord's territory, he didn't show it off. Who would know that he had such resources?"

"That being said, once this matter is exposed, will the city lord intervene?"

Sui An was somewhat curious. Today the ice fog had dissipated, which should have been the best time for the city lord to make his move. There was no need to worry that Crescent Moon City would get the news in advance and hide the person.

Wang Zhen picked up the bag from the ground: "How could people like us know about this kind of thing? News will probably come out in the next few days."

Having said that, he didn't linger in Sui An's territory any longer, turning to Zhao Feng beside him: "Aunt Zhao, are you coming with us?"

Zhao Feng glanced at Sui An, stood up, walked to Wang Zhen's side, and said softly, "No need. Our hunting team will be passing by later, and they will take me away then."

Wang Zhen glanced at Zhao Feng with surprise, then simply nodded: "Okay, you guys have fun, I'm leaving now~"

"Okay, be careful!"

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