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

Chapter 141 Possible Remains and Bird Nests

Only Sui An remained relatively calm. This was the first time these three had climbed to such a mountaintop and looked down upon the world, bringing them an extremely awe-inspiring experience that only those who have climbed high mountains can understand.

The new generation in this world has almost no chance to dare to climb mountains. After all, the more mountainous and wild the area, the more source beasts gather. These places are far from human habitation, and even if the blood moon descends, it is difficult to lure them out of the mountains.

Over time, it will form a new era of secret places. Just as Fang Si once said, the huge mountain range that may exist thousands of kilometers away from Jiangcheng is no exaggeration to be a forbidden place in fantasy novels.

After so many years of invasion from the Origin Realm, who knows what kind of monsters and demons live inside? You should know that rifts don't just open near territories; they can also open in the wilderness, though the probability is even lower.

Sui An stretched and said, "It was pure luck. I just randomly picked a few second-generation rich kids, the kind who were just trying to coast along. They ended up finding the strange Shadow Lizard, and then they followed the trail and found their way here."

Fang Si asked curiously, "How strange is it?"

Sui An chuckled and replied, "During my first Blood Moon here, which marked my expansion into new territory, I was attacked by hundreds of Shadow Lizards all by myself. Isn't that strange?"

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"Then, during the next two Blood Moons, we encountered large numbers of Shadow Lizards, including some that were close to level four. It terrified me, and I had to call people over to explore."

"!!!"

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Fang Si was a little stunned. Does being a first-level lord mean you have to be this resilient?

With such a large and high-quality beast tide, how did you, a level one lord, survive?

If all the defenses are at this level, how can the other builders possibly survive?

You're the real second-generation professional, aren't you?!

Seeing Fang Si's gaze gradually sinking into a daze, Sui An's lips curled into a smirk. Suddenly remembering something, he spoke up again, "By the way, the level-five source beast you saw last time was also a Shadow Lizard."

"ah?"

This time, Fang Sizhen couldn't hold back. When he saw that level-five source beast last time, he just thought it was a mutant of some kind of source beast, but he didn't dare to think of it as a shadow lizard.

If a Shadow Lizard is a level one species, it's fine to call it a mutant at levels two or three, but it's a bit impolite to call it a Shadow Lizard after it breaks through to level four.

And a level 5 Shadow Lizard—can this thing even be called a Shadow Lizard?

After all, who would still think that professionals are the same as ordinary people? The difference in strength is too great.

As the two were chatting idly, Erhu suddenly turned around and called out to Sui An, "Sui An, where's your binoculars? Let me borrow them!"

"What did you find?" Sui An walked over curiously and handed over the binoculars in his hand.

Erhu took the binoculars, pointed eastward, and said loudly, "Look at that place where the forest meets the lake, it looks like some kind of palace to me."

Sui An was stunned: "Really? Could it just be a rocky mountain that you've mistaken for something else?"

"We'll see when we get there!" Erhu raised the binoculars and kept adjusting the focus, trying to get a general idea of ​​what was going on, but the distance was too far and it was almost impossible to see clearly.

"The more I look at it, the more it resembles a stone palace. You two should take a look too!"

Erhu handed the binoculars to Wang Zhen, who looked at them and frowned. After a while, he slowly spoke.

"It doesn't quite look like a natural creation, but it's hard to say whether it's a palace."

"Fang Si, take a look?"

Fang Si also took a look through the binoculars, but her opinion was almost identical to Wang Zhen's: "The shape is somewhat unique, but it's hard to say whether it's a palace or not. It could be some kind of ruin, after all, it's rumored that the secret realm is a fragment of another world."

"Should we find a chance to go and take a look?" Erhu's face was flushed, and he seemed a little excited. He was naturally curious about these adventurous cultures.

"I remember when you first came here, you saw a particularly large source beast on the grassland. I suggest you don't rush to think about places that far away."

Sui An interrupted, saying, "We dared to come up this mountain because the strongest Shadow Lizards living at the bottom are only level 5, and there are many of them, so we subconsciously assumed they were the overlords of this mountain. But before we came, no one expected there to be a level 6 giant bird on the summit, right?"

"Xiao An is right!" Wang Zhen patted Erhu on the shoulder, calming down his excited mood.

"This secret realm is no ordinary place. There may be even stronger source beasts here. After all, even the Shadow Lizard, whose race is only at level one, can mutate to level five. It must have eaten a lot of good food."

"And don't you guys think this giant bird looks familiar?"

Upon hearing Wang Zhen's statement, everyone immediately turned their attention to the giant bird's corpse below the platform. Fang Si suddenly raised an eyebrow, clearly having thought of something.

"You mean this is a blue-feathered eagle? The feather patterns and body shape are somewhat similar, except it's almost twice the size."

Erhu chimed in, "What you're saying does seem a bit similar. However, the Azure Feathered Eagle is a level 4 racial source beast, so breaking through to level 6 isn't that rare. The Shadow Lizard, on the other hand, is indeed a bit abnormal."

"By the way, did you guys see the nest of that giant bird?"

Sui An looked around curiously, but saw no trace of the Source Beasts. The Source Beasts were real creatures, not the automatically refreshed data monsters in the game. They had their own living space and their own way of life.

Since we encountered it on the mountaintop, there must be its nest nearby.

Erhu shook his head: "The source beast's nest may not have anything good, so there's not much point in looking for it."

"Even if you find its bird egg and successfully hatch it, you still can't tame it. Once the Blood Moon is activated, the originally docile source beast will still turn against you."

Sui An continued searching downwards along the rocky platform: "We finally made it up here, let's take a look, I'm quite curious."

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"Didn't those old novels also say that the lair of these powerful beings might contain some rare and precious treasures, the kind that can make you stronger if you eat them?"

Erhu shrugged, indicating that you're happy as long as you're happy.

Since Sui An is the lord, he has already secured a core position by leveraging the strength of his territory.

After searching the platform, the group found the Azure Feathered Eagle's nest on the western edge of the platform; it was a huge cave.

There were obvious traces of giant claws on the soil outside the cave entrance. Only the Qingyu Eagle, which had already been killed, could have left such traces.

Moreover, only a cave of this size could accommodate the nest of such a giant bird. The group climbed in along the edge and immediately smelled a strong, fishy stench.

The smell seemed to be the stench of too many corpses or rotting blood, rather than the smell of giant bird droppings.

"Why does it smell so fishy and foul? It's even stronger than the smell in Sui An's planting base."

"The flavor is a bit too strong."

"Could there really be something fishy going on?"

Several people instinctively held their breath.

It is likely because it frequently brought food back to the cave, causing the rocky ground to turn brownish-red.

Fortunately, everyone was a seasoned veteran, so the stench did not deter them. Even Sui An had long been accustomed to the foul-smelling soil outside the territory, soaked in the blood of the source beasts.

The cave is not deep, only about ten meters deep, but the light is a bit dim.

But as soon as they entered, before they had a chance to observe much, they discovered something unusual: a peculiar vine climbing along the inner wall of the cave, with a dozen or so red fruits the size of quail eggs hanging on it.

Even in this foul-smelling cave, the fruit's delicate fragrance was hard to conceal, and it even emitted a strong energy fluctuation.

"Wow, there really is something good!" Erhu's eyes lit up. He didn't expect that just by casually coming over to take a look, he would not see bird eggs, but instead discover a special source energy fruit.

"Isn't this a blood crystal bodhi seed?"

"It's a blood crystal bodhi seed!"

Fang Si and Wang Zhen spoke almost in unison, clearly surprised to find such a treasure. Their eyes practically lit up in the dim cave.

Only Sui An asked curiously, "What is a Blood Crystal Bodhi?"

Wang Zhen let out a long breath, suppressing his excitement, before slowly explaining to Sui An.

"Based on material quality, it's a mid-grade source energy fruit of blue quality. Its main function is to temper the body. It contains a very unique medicinal power that can give level four, five, and even six combat professionals a visible tempering effect!"

"Don't be fooled by its small size. If a level one or two combat professional were to ingest it, the burst of medicinal power in a short period of time would be enough to tear the blood vessels in their body, causing them to explode and die."

"That's definitely good stuff!"

Sui An belatedly realized that, although he was not a combat professional, the biggest problem blocking their path was not their soul essence, but rather their physical tempering.

Soul essence is relatively easy to obtain as long as they dare to fight and kill, since the amount of soul essence they need is incomparable to the exaggerated amount required by builders.

On the contrary, his physique is not easy to keep up. Even though Wang Hu can still use ordinary physical training methods to temper his physique, his physique is still not up to par, which has prevented him from advancing to the third level.

Not to mention intermediate combat professionals for whom ordinary physical training methods are almost useless; they can only rely on their own source energy or source energy potions to temper their physique.

Fang Si had already composed himself. After observing the fruit for a while, he realized that it was not yet time to pick it, and he couldn't help but sigh.

"Unfortunately, it's not fully mature yet. A fully mature blood crystal bodhi seed will have its surface completely covered with purple veins, just like blood vessels."

"If they all ripen, these seventeen fruits, even if we four level-four professionals divide them, each of us will have four. I estimate that they can provide the equivalent of more than half a year's worth of hard training results."

Fang Si didn't mention the three people, since he knew that the secret realm was first discovered by three other people. Today, Zhao Feng just didn't come. Even if he didn't say anything, the other three would most likely have reserved some.

Erhu poked his head under the vine, looking at it eagerly: "The fruit's veins have already started to develop, it shouldn't be long before it ripens."

"If it were really cooked, it wouldn't be our turn to come; the Azure Feathered Eagle would have already finished eating."

Sui An added insult to injury: "This thing is of such high quality that it can't be moved into my planting base in a short time. It looks like we can only leave it here and wait. I just don't know if any source beasts will come after the Azure Feather Eagle dies."

"How about we take turns watching over it?"

Erhu reluctantly turned his head to look at Wang Zhen and the other person behind him.

"The Azure Feathered Eagles and Shadow Lizard Kings on this mountain have been cleared out. Although the mountain is very large, there shouldn't be any powerful source beasts within a few kilometers. Otherwise, their hunting ranges would overlap, and they would have started fighting long ago."

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"I'm willing to take the gamble!"

Fang Si and Wang Zhen exchanged a glance, and Fang Si nodded decisively: "Me too!"

He would fight tooth and nail for such an opportunity, not to mention in a secret realm, even in the wild. A mid-level body-tempering fruit with naturally blue quality is no ordinary fruit; such a blue quality fruit can even be used as a material for purple potions, surpassing the required level.

Professionals are inherently in need of competing for resources; the wilderness is a constant battleground, far more dangerous than any territory.

Wang Zhen hesitated, however. After all, he was leading a convoy and it would be difficult for him to leave for an extended period of time, otherwise he would be kicked out of the transport team.

The transport team isn't a place anyone can just join. He was only able to get in because of Zheng Xifeng. Team Leader Zheng admired his fighting skills, which is why he recruited him.

But before he could make a decision, the erhu had already started playing.

"Wang Zhen, I'll take over your time, but you need to find out how long it takes for this thing to mature. Then bring Sui An to keep watch."

"As for your Blood Moon Rift, Sui An, perhaps you should take your time and observe it; after all, this thing is extremely rare!"

Wang Zhen looked at the erhu, hesitant to speak, but nodded nonetheless. They were truly good brothers, and there was no need for him to be too formal.

Sui An looked at the fruit and thought about it for a while. In the end, he did not stop the two of them, but instead directly expressed his opinion.

"Since you both want to take the risk, why don't you two stay here and keep watch? It's always safer with two people. I'll leave the compass here, and later I'll have Tiger bring over some energy bars and drinking water. One of you can come down and get them."

"As for the cracks, it's fine if they come later; a few days won't make a difference."

Seeing that Sui An agreed, Erhu subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. Fang Si did not object either. Sui An's words were not wrong; two people were safer than one.

"Alright, then we'll guard it together!"

"There's one more thing." Sui An pointed to the roots beneath the vine. There seemed to be some brown marks on the soil there, something Sui An was very familiar with.

"I think this thing might need the blood of the source beast to grow. You can take this opportunity to kill some shadow lizards and see. I've always felt that the smell of blood in this cave is too strong. Now I think it might be that the Azure Feathered Eagle was subconsciously using the source beast as fertilizer."

Erhu's eyes lit up. He squatted down and reached out to touch the soil at the base of the vines. Sure enough, traces of blood remained.

"Hey, you're so observant. I told you there wasn't even a fecal smell, so why is it so foul-smelling?!"