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

Chapter 164 New Inspirational Effects (Seeking votes for next month at the end of the month)

Five days later, Erhu returned with a group of people.

This time, in addition to ten new level-three professionals, they also brought back two special individuals: a pair of twin brothers.

"Xiao An, these are the planters that Wang Zhen introduced. The two brothers are now both level three planters."

"The older brother's name is Ye Pingping, and the younger brother's name is Ye An'an."

The two brothers, upon closer inspection, both appeared to be around twenty-four or twenty-five years old, still somewhat childish, and not that old.

However, from a distance, they would probably look to be in their thirties or forties. Their skin condition is quite poor. Professionals are generally much stronger than ordinary people, so the fact that they are tanned like this speaks volumes about their condition.

Although they are twin brothers, they look about 70-80% alike, and can still be distinguished by some details.

The names of these two people fit the general impression of twin names.

Sui An quickly withdrew his scrutinizing gaze and joked, "Your family is so lucky! Both your twins have awakened, and they even have the same profession!"

The two brothers seemed somewhat used to the teasing from outsiders, simply standing silently to the side, waiting for Sui An's instructions.

This made Sui An somewhat emotional. He used to worry about not being able to find these kinds of jobs, but now he found them all in one go, which made him a little confused.

Sui An invited the two to sit down at the table and, without any delay, went straight to the point.

"Now that you're already Level 3 Planters, could you please tell me where you are and what you're doing?"

The older brother didn't speak, but looked at his younger brother.

The younger brother, Ye An'an, exchanged glances and answered Sui An somewhat hesitantly, "My brother and I work in the Yuanzhi Department under the Second City Lord of Jiangcheng, where we are responsible for taking care of the grain crops."

"The Second City Lord's Plantation Division!"

Sui An was very surprised. Although he didn't know much about this department, the name should say it all. Moreover, it was a subordinate force of the Second City Lord, so it must be no less powerful than Ping An Trading Company.

"This job must be great, why did you agree to let Erhu come and take a look at our place?"

Unexpectedly, Ye An'an suddenly showed an embarrassed expression. His slightly weathered face was somewhat bitter, and he sighed.

"Boss Sui may not understand the Source Planting Department. The Source Planting Departments of the three major lords in Jiangcheng accept all comers, but ordinary planters like us are just special farmers in the Source Planting Department."

"Growers don't need blueprints or formulas; they need planting guides. Planting guides are a type of knowledge that can be disseminated..."

Compared to consumables like blueprints and recipes, these are easier to master and don't have strict requirements; they're not only useful after being unlocked. Therefore, the skill gap between planters of the same level in the Plant Source Department is not significant.

"But the city lord's territory space and buildings are limited. In the end, only those with status and background can occupy the good places in the city, or those with great merit can enter various planting buildings. Ordinary people like us can only go to the wild to reclaim wasteland. Without territory energy and various effects, the planting effect is naturally very poor."

"Moreover, the safety is also slightly worse. The number of guard teams responsible for protecting the wild is ultimately limited. If we accidentally run into the path of a super-large rift beast tide, our achievements are easily destroyed. Although the city lord will not punish us if they are destroyed, our cultivation progress will be greatly reduced."

"Of course, the Second City Lord's Plantation Department is not without its advantages. It is relatively free, and its basic treatment is not low without special privileges."

"So that's how it is!"

Sui An understood. To put it simply, the skill level of a planter is not significantly different, and it is not easy for a monopoly to occur.

Therefore, when people have similar circumstances, they start to compete based on their background, achievements, or whether they have any special qualities.

"Could you explain why your progress in cultivation will be slowed down if your achievements are destroyed?"

Ye An'an was taken aback, but looking at Sui An's youthful face, she realized that he seemed to be quite young, and it was normal that he didn't know about these special professional details.

"Oh, this is a special feature of planters. When planters use their own source energy to drive plant growth, they receive professional feedback, which can improve them."

Ye An'an thought that Sui An might not understand easily, so she explained it in more detail.

"Furthermore, the more meticulous the care of the growers and the more times they stimulate growth, the closer the plants become to the growers. As they grow, the better the feedback the growers receive. Once they accumulate this feedback and reach a certain level, the growers can advance in their level."

"Anyway, it's very mysterious, even more bizarre than the alchemist's initial skills."

But Sui An understood it immediately, and even had a vague connection: "This sounds like a beast tamer from an online novel—"

"Are you commanding plant-type source beasts?!"

"What?"

Ye An'an didn't hear clearly and thought she had misheard.

"It's nothing—" Sui An shook his head, refocused his gaze on Ye An'an, and asked with a smile.

"As you can see, I am now a newly promoted level 4 territory. You also saw the large convoy outside; that was the harvest from my second Blood Moon Rift this month."

"I do want to hire an experienced planter to help me care for some special energy plants. As for the planting guide for these special plants, I can provide it even if you don't have it, and I will also provide a dedicated planter in my territory."

"These buildings constitute the basic structure of my territory."

"I already know your basic information. So, what kind of treatment do you want? Why don't you tell me first?"

Seemingly upon hearing Sui An mention the plant-based architecture, Ye An'an's eyes brightened.

He thought for a moment, then quickly shook his head: "Your territory is already quite strong. With our brothers' resources, we don't have any right to make special requests. As long as our work area is not outside the territory, that's fine. It would be even better if the building could be continuously delivered to us for use."

"As for the treatment, just follow the unified situation in your territory."

Ye An'an seemed to lack confidence, perhaps because he had been thoroughly tested and refined by the Second City Lord, which made Sui An think his requirements were very low.

In Sui An's view, weren't the two points he mentioned just basic conditions?

Otherwise, why bother hiring a planter yourself? Are you just going to leave them outside the city as bait to lure in Source Beasts?

Sui An turned to look at his twin brother, only to find that he was in the same posture, even quieter than Ye An An, listening to his younger brother's conversation without saying a word.

This was the first time Sui An had ever experienced such a stance. He knew that when he had previously invited Cui Mingming, who was also at the third level, to join his alchemy workshop, he had been rejected cleanly and decisively.

Uncle Wang probably wouldn't have come if his whole family hadn't come.

In other words, Zheng Xifeng's feedback was somewhat unexpected, but in the end, Zheng Xifeng was willing to send the siblings over because the overall strength of the territory attracted him, and it certainly wasn't entirely because of the alchemy workshop.

But when I'm interviewing for a job, I always feel uneasy if the applicant doesn't mention any requirements or anything!

Aren't these two brothers a little too honest?

However, this was exactly what Sui An wanted. He originally didn't dare to hire a planter right away, thinking he would raise them first and see how they were doing. But this situation seemed to have exceeded his expectations.

He stroked his chin. Since you guys are so honest, he might as well take it a step further.

"Are there any other people in your family, you two brothers?"

"My parents are both alive, but they are ordinary people who live in the eastern part of Jiangcheng."

"Would you be interested in moving in with your whole family?"

"what?"

Ye Pingping and Ye An'an exchanged glances, unable to understand Sui An's intentions for a moment.

Sui An organized his thoughts and explained again, "It's like this, if you come here to work as a planter, I might offer you different levels of compensation."

"The simplest thing is that you help me grow some things, I'll pay you your regular salary, and you can choose to stay or leave at any time, I won't stop you."

"If you are willing to move your whole family here, I will provide you with better conditions and give you some very special seeds and buildings. These things may be attractive to other lords, so I need you to provide certain guarantees, and you cannot leave my place easily."

"Given the special circumstances of the two of you, what I'm saying is based on the premise that both of you agree simultaneously, not just one of you!"

"Do you understand?"

Ye An'an nodded in understanding. This was a well-known practice in Jiangcheng, which basically meant choosing whether or not to be tied to a territory.

He turned to look at his brother, and the two seemed somewhat interested. They exchanged a brief glance, and Ye An'an spoke again.

"Boss Sui, we need to discuss this!"

"Okay, I'll have Erhu show you around the territory."

Sui An was not surprised. The reason he mentioned this was because he did not need any exceptionally talented planters, but rather honest and hardworking ones, like Fang Nian.

Sensible and stubborn, what a perfect chosen working person!

He told Erhu to take the people out for a stroll. Sui An arrived outside the city. He had triggered the Blood Moon Rift again last night, and the intensity was not significantly different from the first time.

The number of level four source beasts continues to increase, this time there are a total of 45, ten more than last time.

However, there is still only one level-five source beast. I don't know how the source rift is controlled so well.

The team in the distance was still busy. Wang Zhen was writing something down in his notebook. When he looked up, he saw Sui An.

"How is he?"

Sui An, hands in his coat pockets, walked over with a smile: "You're asking about those two planters?"

"Yeah, what's there to ask about the guards? They're just on the perimeter. If that doesn't work, I'm even planning to post a job ad. If that doesn't work, we'll keep looking. We'll find someone suitable eventually."

Wang Zhen had visited these past two days, so he naturally knew what cards Sui An had up his sleeve. Therefore, the requirements for the candidates were naturally higher, and he asked these questions because he was worried that the candidates might not be suitable.

Sui An moved closer and said with a smile, "They seem a bit too honest, but I do need honest people. I asked them if they would be willing to move their whole family over, and they said they would need to discuss it."

"Aren't planters supposed to be honest? The more thoughts you have, the more you'll overthink. You have everything you need, so naturally you need someone reliable."

Wang Zhen shared the same thought as Sui An, not believing that honesty was a bad thing: "If we train and observe him properly, and he proves trustworthy, maybe we can let him in with us, which would be much more convenient."

"Alas, in the end, I still lack the strength. If I had the strength of a great city lord, who would dare to covet my things!"

Sui An shook his head; choosing an honest person was merely a choice made out of necessity.

Take your time!

Wang Zhen put away the notebook in his hand and stuffed it into his clothes. The convoy in front of him was almost finished loading the trucks.

"To be honest, you wouldn't believe it until you asked. You know, the profession of planter is much worse than other jobs in life."

Upon hearing Wang Zhen's words, Sui An immediately became curious: "How tragic was it?"

Wang Zhen organized his thoughts: "Let me put it this way, if you have any of the territorial advantages that alchemists can claim, then tomorrow a group of planters will charter a bus to come to your territory for interviews."

"Really?" Sui An was somewhat skeptical.

Wang Zhen nodded: "It's true. I found out that the three city lords all have a similar Source Plant Department, and more than half of the planters there are now cultivating land around Jiangcheng."

"The planting conditions inside and outside this territory are completely different. The space inside the territory is no longer enough for the city lords, so we can only expand outwards. However, the energy concentration outside is low, the danger is high, and the planting cycle is very long."

"These Ye brothers are cousins ​​of one of our squad leaders. As soon as they heard that I was looking for a planter, they told me not to send out any job postings and just sent them over. I didn't even mention anything about planting structures."

"That's him!" Wang Zhen pointed to a middle-aged man in the distance who looked to be in his thirties or forties, and who was quite burly.

Seemingly noticing Wang Zhen's gesture, he turned his head and looked over. When he saw Sui An there, his eyes lit up, and he quickly nodded in acknowledgment, but did not come over directly.

Sui An nodded in return, muttering to himself, "I was wondering why the delivery was so fast this time!"

"He's come with me every time, how could he not know the situation in your territory? He just believes you'll rise to power!"

Wang Zhen responded with a smile: "You're probably going to become famous again in a while, and then even Captain Zheng won't be able to stop you."

"Just because of this amount of Source Beasts shipped?"

"certainly!"

The two walked forward, and Wang Zhen said as they walked, "The situation during the full moon could be considered normal, but now you're preparing to continuously activate the Rift Beast Tide. The situation is obviously different from that of a normal intermediate territory. Once you reach an intermediate territory, you'll be considered upper-middle level on Line 7, and naturally everyone will start to recognize you."

"Why don't you slow down and try reducing the number of repetitions?"

"Isn't that throwing the baby out with the bathwater?" Sui An disagreed with this view, believing that only by forging ahead against the current could one find the right path in this world.

"So what if people are paying attention? I'll just keep my head down and work on the Rift. How could I possibly offend anyone?"

"It's hard to say, but with your current strength, you're not afraid of ordinary people causing you trouble."

"Ever since the He family disappeared, Crescent Moon City has inexplicably fallen silent, and I'm feeling a bit lonely!"

Wang Zhen suddenly stopped, looking at Sui An speechlessly: "What kind of crazy antics are you up to now!"

"Haha, just kidding!"

The convoy left.

This time, Sui Anjiping sold most of the source beast meat, because only 4 days had passed since the last rift opened, and the two alchemists hadn't even used up all the meat in their two cellars.

Sui An suddenly had the idea of ​​recruiting more alchemists, but when he thought that Zheng Xifeng also needed quotas, he realized that he might not be able to consume all the source beast meat internally.

"It's okay to earn less; consider it a bribe!"

Zheng Xifeng's communication with him is now much deeper, and he has become a new source of information for him.

After all, he held a relatively higher position and had powerful elders in his family, so he knew some things better than Wang Zhen.

For example, he mentioned the Zhao family.

He told himself that the Great City Lord had already sent people to Crescent City's territory on the day the Ice Fog Tide ended, but since no evidence was found, the matter was dropped, and he could only assume that Zhao Hong had made a mistake.

This left Sui Anren completely bewildered. Zhao Yuan had personally told him that the one who had kidnapped them was the eldest brother of the Crescent Moon City Lord.

Things seem to be getting more interesting.

There could be several possibilities. The first is that someone has the means to inform Crescent City in advance and move people there.

Secondly, the Zhao family members were kidnapped by the eldest brother of the Li family, but not given to the people of Crescent Moon City. As for who they were given to, that could only be the forces behind the eldest brother of the Li family.

To be honest, even if Crescent City is arrogant, it has no need to, and dares not, kidnap people from the Great City Lord.

This is quite different from the He family's situation, where they were coaxed and tricked into leaving voluntarily.

Zhao Heng was kidnapped.

Sui An was even more convinced that it was the second scenario. Within a radius of 100 kilometers, there were very few people who could stand behind the eldest son of the Li family.

I wonder if the Zhao brothers would be horrified if they saw who was behind the scenes.

They probably wouldn't expect me to inform on them anymore.

The two planters also left. They didn't agree immediately, as their parents were involved, and they needed to think about it.

With the newly acquired Originium in hand, Sui An was too lazy to even consider anyone else.

Last time, he received a total of 5500 pieces of level 4 and 5 source beast meat. With the additional 50,000 pieces he received today, Sui An's pure source stone savings have once again reached around 78,000 pieces.

"With a solid foundation, the money really came too fast; I didn't even realize it."

"I haven't even had a chance to experience the architecture yet, and the Enlightenment building is already almost fully open!"

Sui An still planned to pour his resources into the purple blueprint library, directly selecting over 4 Originium and 540 draws to unlock all the Enlightenment effects.

[Intermediate Source Material *512]

[6 Solid Topaz] [7 Flame Tetrahedrons] [8 Grown Jadeite]

[The Forest Ranger's Botanical Paradise *2] [The Gilded Stone Statue of the Fiery Lion *2] [The Golden Flower Salute of the Rose Society *2]

【Starlight*1440】

"I'm having a lucky day!"

Sui An's luck seems to have improved today; he got three extra sets of purple materials in 540 draws, and even an extra blueprint.

At this point, all three of his new purple buildings were missing the fully unlocked Inspiration effect from the gilded statues.

Moreover, it just so happens that it has gathered the materials needed to upgrade three of each type of building to the maximum level.

He achieved the target that he had barely managed to reach in a month with just two cracks.

Looking at the lonely gilded lion statue and then at the more than 3 source stones he still had, Sui An decided to try his luck with another small guaranteed drop.

[Intermediate Source Material *86]

[Grown Jadeite*1] [Durable Topaz*1] [Flame Tetrahedron*1]

【Gilded Stone Statue of the Fiery Lion *1】

"Wow, everything's going so well today! It was all done so easily!"

Exiting the cheat interface, Sui An casually clicked on a new effect.

The gilded stone statue of the Fiery Lion

[Inspiration (3/3)]

[Lion's Body: When this mode is activated, the Molten Gold Body will be transformed into Molten Gold Body, greatly reducing the damage received and greatly increasing the user's resistance to knockback, but the Flame Resonance effect will not be available.]

Child of Flame: When this mode is activated, marked targets will no longer gain the Molten Body status, but the radius of the Purifying Blade Prison will be increased by 25%, and marked targets will deal greater damage when Flame Resonance is triggered.

【Infernal Hell: When this mode is activated, targets cannot be marked, but hellfire will rise within the Blazing Sword Prison, slowly eroding all source energy life within the prison. All life regeneration effects gained by eroded targets will be greatly suppressed until the target's life force completely dissipates】

Sui An did not choose to use this building last night because it required the professionals within the territory to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

Its functionality is similar to that of a banner, and it is only applicable to some special scenarios. For example, it can be used in general rift battles, but its effect is not significant.

In such a chaotic battle scene, even if there are illusions to guide the source beasts, those who rashly rush into the vicinity of the illusions are still easily injured by the enemy.

The chaotic and varied source energy attacks launched by those source beasts were no joke.

Furthermore, Sui An also wanted to keep some trump cards up his sleeve. He had already shown most of his methods to the ten new people who had come to the territory. If some of them had really infiltrated with ulterior motives, then having some trump cards up his sleeve would naturally come in handy.

The new enlightenment effect caught Sui An's eye. The first one enhanced damage reduction and knockback resistance, which was obviously suitable for small-scale team battles and should be very useful against professional invasions or lone large-sized source beasts.

The second one, the Son of Flame, reminded Sui An of his own banners. Perhaps by expanding the range, he could cover both his city walls and the battlefield outside.

That way, the turrets controlled within one's own territory might also be useful.

As for the third fiery hell, this completely changed the statue's purpose, turning it from an auxiliary to an offensive one, an attack that doesn't distinguish between friend and foe, making it truly suitable for its own rift defense.

However, it is noted above that it is a slow erosion, so the speed may not be very fast. However, the effect of inhibiting life recovery may be useful in special scenarios.

For Sui An at this stage, it had no shortage of defense, firepower, and recovery capabilities, making it quite well-rounded.

What he needs are these kinds of special effects, such as the Sin Flame of the Sword Star. As long as this thing can keep igniting the source energy of source beasts, and if it can also ignite the source energy of high-level source beasts, then it will not be completely eliminated.

Or perhaps it's the effect of the regional flames, similar to the "grievous wounds" effect in the game. Anyone who has played the game knows that you have to inflict grievous wounds first when fighting the Sword Demon.

Perhaps one day, I will encounter a source beast with such a strange regenerative ability.

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