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

Chapter 169 Dream Dust

The murmurs grew louder and louder. Erhu glanced around, but he couldn't stop them at the moment, since even he himself was having a headache.

But then a second illusion flew into the air, and the two strange witch illusions gradually overlapped. One of them suddenly disappeared, turning into a sky full of blue stardust that enveloped most of the territory's sky.

Sui An used the [Starry Sky] mode again. He hadn't used this mode in a long time, and its effects were as powerful as ever.

The Dream-Eating Butterflies, which were initially unmoved by the illusions, gradually revealed themselves under the influence of the starlight and the blood moon. They abandoned their concealment and began to rush towards the illusions, even extending their huge mouthparts hidden on their chests, looking like mosquitoes.

"It's done!"

"Is he fantasizing that he's already started eating?"

Erhu stared in disbelief as the swarm of creatures, resembling both butterflies and female mosquitoes, rapidly converged upon the illusion. Their dense wings completely obscured the illusion, and hundreds of dream-eating butterflies gathered together like a giant cocoon, layer upon layer, as if they were about to do something indescribable.

The Dream-Eating Butterflies, which had previously appeared harmless, now displayed a bloodthirsty nature. They held up their enormous mandibles, devoid of any elegance or eeriness, and engaged in a frenzied struggle.

Sui An didn't bother arguing with Erhu. The effect of the Starry Night effect only lasted 15 seconds, a very short time, and once the Dream Eater butterfly regained consciousness, it would...

The same methods will increase resistance.

The astral range of the Level 4 witch's illusion is estimated to be around 60-70 meters in radius, far exceeding the 50-meter attraction distance of Sui An's own illusion.

The illusion rapidly circled in a small area in mid-air, attracting as many of the Dream-Eating Butterflies that had been hit by the Star Specter as possible. Then it pulled the Dream-Eating Butterflies down a short distance and into the attack range of the Elemental Statue.

The elemental statues below had already been activated by Sui An, and the remaining star creatures didn't have much time left, so they could only hope to be cleared out in one round.

Fourteen enormous lightning crows launched successive attacks around the illusion, almost completely covering the dream-eating butterflies gathered around it. Countless bolts of lightning flashed in the air, just like the roar of summer thunder, and the blood-red night almost turned into day.

As Sui An had expected, countless dream-eating butterflies had their wings torn apart by lightning and fell to the ground like raindrops.

Even with their combined explosive effects, the combined power of the Thunder Raven is still far less than that of a level 4 purple cannon. However, the explosive power of a single Thunder Raven is enough to kill these fragile Dream Eaters.

Most of these dream-eating butterflies were left with relatively intact bodies, while some had their wings torn apart in the chaotic explosion and were unable to fly. Only a few escaped by chance.

Countless bright points of soul essence surged into the territory, disappearing silently upon encountering the barrier.

"Those with crossbows, go and clear out the ones that are still alive, don't let them fly away again!" Erhu didn't hesitate, pulling the guards along.

The team then began using crossbows to clear out those that were still moving.

Sui An casually added two "Enemy Breaker" flag effects to these people, amplifying the strength of their first ten attacks and increasing the power of these low-level white and green crossbows.

This cleanup operation likely killed over three hundred Dream Eaters. Fortunately, these creatures are small and clustered together; some were even completely encased in a giant cocoon, unable to flap their wings.

While the illusion still had time, Sui An summoned another illusion from the altar. The Starry Night's cooldown was 20 minutes, and these Dream-Eating Butterflies, guided by the Blood Moon, would not leave.

Even if the cracks disappear, Sui An can still clean them up slowly, as long as the effect is confirmed.

After waiting a minute or two, Sui An wanted to wait for the Dream-Eating Butterflies to gather more densely in the center.

This time, the number of Dream-Eating Butterflies caught by the illusion was significantly less, barely around two hundred.

"Alright, all that's left is to wait for it to cool down. Hopefully, the rift won't send me a bunch of low-level source beasts~"

Sui An patted the wall: "I reckon we won't make any big money tonight. If we don't make any money, it's a huge loss!"

"That's not necessarily true!" A female voice suddenly rang out from the side; it was Zheng Qiuyu.

Sui An's eyes lit up. Could there be some other explanation here? He quickly and shamelessly approached her, asking, "Sister Qiuyu, what does this mean?"

She smiled and pointed her long, slender finger to the sky: "If you could collect all that dream dust from the barrier, the profits in Jiang City would be no less than what you make selling level-three source beast meat!"

Sui An was stunned, somewhat incredulous: "Really? I can sell level three source beast meat for twenty or thirty thousand source stones at a time!" Zheng Qiuyu explained in detail: "That's about right. The dust scattered by the Dream-Eating Butterfly is called Dream Dust, a mid-grade blue-quality alchemy material. If you can get about a pound, you can probably sell it for twenty or thirty thousand source stones!"

"How many?"

"This stuff is so valuable!" Erhu exclaimed in surprise, clearly not expecting to find a mid-grade material that could be sold by weight for tens of thousands of source stones.

He turned to look at Ye Tengyang beside him and asked in a low voice.

"Uncle Ye, do you know?"

Ye Tengyang smiled awkwardly: "I don't know the price. I've only heard of this thing, but I've never encountered it. Even if someone does find it in the wild, it's usually just a few scattered ones. Even if you manage to scrape them off, there aren't many. You probably wouldn't even be able to collect a single coin."

Zheng Qiuyu rolled her eyes at the suspicious Erhu, then added, "But only if you can collect them!"

"You should have been able to scrape off quite a few wings from the ones you just killed, but those you blew up probably don't have many left. The only thing you can count on is what's accumulated on the barrier."

Upon hearing that everyone who had been killed in the explosion was gone, Sui An felt a pang of heartache: "Sister Qiuyu, why didn't you say so sooner?"

Zheng Qiuyu's face stiffened, and her voice instantly lost its previous confidence: "I just remembered that too—"

"But even if I told you, you probably wouldn't be able to preserve these source beasts intact, right?"

"Hard to say, but I might come up with some crooked ideas!"

Sui An looked up at the sky with a troubled expression, wondering how to collect the dream dust from the barrier.

Slowly shrinking the barrier should cause the dream dust to come down with it, but it might also slide down with the surrounding area.

Seeing Sui An deep in thought, Zheng Qiuyu quickly reminded him, "Just a heads up, this stuff can't be inhaled! A small amount of Dream Dust is enough to intoxicate a level four life profession like you, and even a level four combat profession would be in trouble if you inhaled a little more!"

If it only enters the body through breathing, that's not a difficult problem. Sui An didn't even turn his head: "A towel or mask covering the mouth and nose should be enough to block it, right?"

"It should be possible."

"Is there anything else we need to be careful about? For example, is this thing afraid of fire? Can it be ignited?"

"It actually has a very fine crystalline structure. Ordinary flames can't melt it, but it dissolves very easily in water. Moreover, it can recrystallize after being evaporated. As for other properties, it probably doesn't have any."

Sui An quickly came up with a new idea: "Will this thing be bewitched by my own Dream Dust?"

"No one has tried it, but it's unlikely to work. Although the Dream Dust will eventually settle to the ground due to its weight, it can easily be caught by the wind and take off again before it hits the ground. If it could be so easily stunned, it would have been doomed long ago!"

Zheng Qiuyu felt that Sui An's ideas had gone completely astray, and he actually wanted to use the other party's methods to subdue the other party.

Sui An racked his brains for a long time, but it seemed that apart from slowly scraping it up from the ground by hand, he couldn't think of any good solutions for the time being.

You might as well dig up a layer along with the soil, then dissolve it in water, filter it, boil it dry to crystallize it, and repeat the process of boiling salt.

When Sui An saw a bundle of cotton and hemp rope hanging inside the city wall, his eyes lit up and he quickly asked.

"If it's easily soluble in water, then I can soak a cotton or linen rope in water, then use it to sweep across the area above the barrier, wouldn't that absorb most of the dream dust?"

Zheng Qiuyu looked up at the sky, where the area above the barrier appeared increasingly dark. She hesitated, "It should work, but do you have a rope that long?"

"No, but I have many more; just connect them!"

Sui An acted immediately, ordering people to retrieve ropes from the warehouse. These cotton and hemp ropes were about one or two centimeters thick and no more than thirty meters long. Sui An had originally bought them in bulk as one of his daily spare tools.

For example, it can be used to bind certain special source beasts, or to pull things, or even as a sling.

Besides these thick ropes, he also bought quite a few thin ones, but he really couldn't remember exactly how many.

How many are there in total?

"Ten thick ropes and ten thin ropes!" Several people dragged a large bundle of ropes to the bottom of the city wall.

"Ten 300-meter sections should be enough. Let's connect them together, and get me a few big buckets to soak them. We have to try, whether it works or not!"

Sui An had no choice but to try this method; otherwise, if he really had to dig up another layer of soil, he would never be able to shake off the title of "earthwork boss."

Erhu smiled as he watched the busy figures below: "Making money is really not easy these days. You even came up with this kind of crazy method!"

"Well, this stuff is valuable, so we have to try, even if it's just a couple of ounces. That's two thousand yuan, enough to pay your wages!"

Sui An rolled his eyes at Erhu. "You actually think this method is weird? Be careful, or I'll dock your pay!"

People below the city wall were running around busily, while those on the wall continued to observe the cracks to prevent any unusual activity.

But soon Zhao Feng's voice came from behind.

"The rift has closed!"

Sui An quickly turned around and saw that only a few stars remained in the distant crevice.

"It's only been a little over ten minutes, and it's already shut down. Is it because there are no more Source Beasts near the other side of the rift?"

Erhu chimed in from the side, "I reckon this is the shortest crack I've ever seen!"

"That's fine. Although the earnings are low, the expenses aren't high either. I figure I can still make a little bit. It just depends on how many are left in the sky!"

Sui An was somewhat disappointed. He had come to the Rift with the idea of ​​making a lot of money, but in such a short time, the number of Dream-Eating Butterflies coming over wouldn't be too many.

Putting aside how much the Dream Eater's corpse can be sold for, the amount of Originium that can be mined is probably far less than expected.

Even if they're all level four, these things are too small to weigh. I don't know how much these tattered corpses can sell for.

As the Illusion Altar cooled down, Sui An used the same trick again.

This time, however, he tried a different method: he placed a Golden Flower Cannon, which was stockpiled with ice bullets, on the other side of the city wall, so that the swarm of butterflies lured down by the illusion could be included in its attack range.

Ice-attribute crystal bullets, which are generally ineffective against Ice Source Crocodiles during the day, are now proving to be very effective.

The ice bullets slammed into the dense swarm of butterflies, scattering into a shower of frost. In the blink of an eye, a large group of dream-eating butterflies were frozen into all sorts of ice blocks, which were then smashed onto the ground outside.

The ice was much harder than Sui An had expected. Even when it fell from a height of more than 20 meters, it did not break into large pieces. Instead, it created one large crater after another on the ground.

Seeing the almost intact Dream Eater, everyone exclaimed in surprise. After all, they had all heard the discussion about this creature, which meant there would be even more income.

Although the weather is no longer as cold as it was at the beginning, the river surface has not yet thawed. Even if these large blocks of ice are left outside overnight, they probably won't melt at all.

Not to mention, this was frozen by ice-attribute energy, making it even harder to melt than ordinary ice.

Even in summer, the ice blocks won't completely melt until the ice-attribute source energy inside dissipates. Otherwise, it's difficult to melt them simply by raising the temperature. This is the special nature of the source energy attribute.

Soon, soul essence flew out of the ice block, and the number of light spots projected on the detection station gradually decreased.

It was clear that the Dream-Eating Butterfly could not survive in the ice; it was unclear whether it froze to death or suffocated.

"Look, do I have a lot of crooked ideas?" Sui An glanced at Zheng Qiuyu beside him and couldn't help but make a sarcastic remark.

One sentence immediately made the young woman's pretty face turn red. She clenched her fists, hesitated to speak, but finally couldn't hold back and retorted.

"I just remembered!"

"I should have kept quiet. I'd make you regret it after you finished!"

Sui An's expression stiffened, and he coughed lightly to change the subject.

"I don't know if there are any more up here. We'll try again later. The barrier can't be canceled tonight, or who knows how many more are outside."

He caught about 500 more in these two rounds, which made him feel a little better. In total, he had caught about a thousand, but compared with his previous two earnings, it was obviously not enough.

A thousand level 4 Originium stones can only be exchanged for a maximum of ten thousand level 1 Originium stones. In the previous two times I mined Originium stones, I mined more than twenty thousand stones each time. The difference is still quite large.

Now we need to look around the sky and see how many unseen figures are still converging into our territory after we've cleared our way.

"Why does it seem like your territory is always plagued by these strange and unusual source beasts? It feels like we brutes are completely useless!"

Erhu leaned against the battlement, bored out of his mind. Most of the other people on the city wall had left, with only a few intermediate professionals and Sui An still guarding the place.

Even the Zheng siblings left, since there were no more cannons to play with here.

Sui An got a chair, sat down, crossed his legs, and said with a smile, "Nonsense, you're good at mining and digging, how can you be useless!"

The erhu player didn't deny it: "That's about all it's good for!"

Sui An looked at Zhao Feng and Ye Tengyang: "Is the dark crystal iron ore over there almost finished being mined?"

Zhao Feng nodded: "It's almost gone. Unless we try to dig deeper, but I think it would be better to dig out your Yinghua Stone instead of digging downwards to speed up your territory's development."

"Furthermore, we discussed it and decided that after the Dark Crystal Iron is mined out, we shouldn't calculate the profits from the subsequent minerals in the same way as before."

Sui An was somewhat surprised: "Um, how do you plan to calculate this?"

Zhao Feng's expression was serious, and her tone was quite firm: "From now on, the secret realm is your private property. We are territory members, and you just need to pay us the corresponding wages according to our job duties!"

"We're already satisfied with finishing all this dark crystal iron ore; Wang Zhen feels the same way!"

Sui An frowned and looked at Erhu and Fang Si: "Why did you suddenly bring this up? Is this what you all mean?"

Erhu became unusually serious: "Yes, we all agree! If we don't decide in advance, as your territory grows stronger and your population increases, this matter will become increasingly difficult to resolve."

"In terms of individual combat strength, we combined are no match for your spirit; as for ownership of the secret realm, you were the one who noticed the problem, and it's currently in your territory. Logically and morally, we can't keep demanding it indefinitely. Taking all the ore should be enough!"

Fang Si and Ye Tengyang nodded as well. They had joined the company halfway through, and they would feel even more embarrassed if they were asked to receive the same dividends as the original shareholders.

Regardless of how the rewards are distributed later, as Sui An's direct subordinates, participating in the exploration of the secret realm will not be a loss for them; in fact, they will not suffer any loss.

Erhu walked over with a smile and put his arm around Sui An's shoulder: "Of course, if you feel indebted, I'd be happy to give you some extra money!"

Sui An fell silent. The decision they made had actually exceeded his expectations. He raised his head and replied sincerely.

"This is my territory. I can make these decisions myself. You don't need to worry about the impact of any subsequent visitors."

"You should know how much wealth the ores in the secret realm are. The dark crystal iron you mined is probably just a drop in the ocean."

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But Zhao Feng insisted, "There's no need. Rather than continuing to muddle through, it's better to decide on the ownership as soon as possible, be open and honest, and avoid giving people unnecessary ideas!"

"I can't eat your food, drink your water, take things from your resources, and then take them as my own without a second thought!"

"This was your opportunity from the very beginning! If you were powerless to protect it, that would be another matter. Now it's yours. Even if you continue to share the spoils, it's still your prize and a favor to you. You can't mix them up."

Zhao Feng's tone was extremely decisive, and Sui An could only nod: "Alright, I understand, but I won't agree to your ideas right now. I'll try to find a way to coordinate!"

He understood Zhao Feng's meaning: while the secret realm was still in the wild, he, Zhao Feng, and Erhu Wang Zhen were still shareholders.

But now he has completely incorporated the secret realm into his territory and has a stronger power to protect it, so this thing is no longer something that the four of them share.

If the four people were completely unrelated, they would have already been fighting tooth and nail by now. It is precisely because they are not that they need to make an open and honest agreement to avoid any potential conflicts later on.

In Sui An's opinion, it wasn't really necessary. If he cared so much about these things, he wouldn't have refused the gift from the Gale Hunting Group back then.

Perhaps it was the subsequent addition of Fang Si, Ye Tengyang, and others that changed their minds.

Everyone on the city wall remained silent, and a moment of silence ensued.

Sui An waited for the illusion altar to cool down, and when the time was up, he began the third cleaning.

These dream-eating butterflies weren't tireless; this time, when Sui An revealed them, many of them actually perched on top of the barrier, which was quite absurd.

I don't know how they managed to do it. So many of them were just standing on the barrier, yet we could still see the blood moon in the sky through it. Did they make themselves transparent?

Sui An was filled with questions, but he didn't hesitate at all. After two more rounds of clearing, another huge pile of ice appeared outside the city wall.

I reckon the number is much smaller this time, not five hundred, but only around four hundred.

After this cleanup, I wonder if there are any left circling in the sky; perhaps they're tired and resting on the ground.

As time went by, it wasn't until Sui An's fifth cleanup that only about ten of them were brought out, confirming that there probably weren't many left.

"I cleared out about two thousand in total, so it seems my losses weren't too great."

"That's about it, we should try our old, brute-force method!"

"Let's see if we can make some money back!"

Sui An controlled the barrier to shrink slightly, while simultaneously raising the energy shield. The energy shield did not have the special characteristics of the Thousand Winds Barrier; it was completely illusory when expanding, unlike the Thousand Winds Barrier, which could resist the attacks of the source beasts when expanding.

Expanding the energy shield outside the barrier, the gloom on the Thousand Winds Barrier did not dissipate, indicating that the crystals were still accumulating on the barrier.

The guard team split into two groups, standing inside the energy shield and outside the barrier. They picked up the soaked cotton and linen ropes and started pulling them up from one side of the city wall. Once the ropes were taut against the barrier, they began to slowly move in the opposite direction.

The cotton and linen ropes, soaked in water, were quite heavy, but fortunately, the guards were all strongmen, and the two teams were enough to pull the ropes along the barrier, making them look like a rag.

After being pulled by the rope, the barrier did become brighter, but there were still a lot of water stains left on it, flowing downwards along the barrier.

None of the methods Sui An could think of could completely collect all of the Dream Dust. He could only hope to use relatively safe methods and take as much as he could.

After the ropes that had been dragged across the barrier were untied, they were stuffed into wooden barrels and eventually sent down to be steamed little by little in a large, previously unused pot.

"What a strange night~" After arranging all these things, Sui An scratched his head, feeling somewhat disappointed that the commotion tonight was too quiet.

More than two hours have passed since the blood moon descended, and nothing unexpected has happened in the direction of Pinghu. It seems that, just as Fang Si and the others said, the distance is too far and there should be no impact.

"I hope nothing's really wrong!"

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