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

Wang Zhen led the two men to the riverbank.

"Based on the situation in Sui'an's territory, at least 500 Shadow Lizards, ranging from low-level to level 2, have come out of here, and there is even a mutant species that is close to level 4."

"There must be a large cavity nearby, otherwise it would be difficult for such a large number of animals to escape from ordinary caves."

"Let's spread out and search the area, but don't stray too far!"

Zhao Feng didn't rush to leave. She turned to Wang Zhen and said, "Xiao Zhen, before you came you only told me there were many, but you didn't say this many~"

Upon hearing this, Erhu instinctively took two steps back: "You guys chat, I'll go look for it first."

Zhao Feng raised an eyebrow, but her tone didn't carry any blame; it was more of a question.

"So, Xiao An's three elemental statues are all offensive types. For him to withstand such a massive attack by himself, they must be at least blue-level, right?"

Yes~

Wang Zhen nodded, thought for a moment, and then explained part of the situation.

"It's lightning-type, capable of firing fist-sized elemental projectiles with enough power to instantly kill a level 1 source beast without scales."

Zhao Feng frowned even more deeply: "Did he tell you where it came from?"

"He didn't say it outright, but he hinted to me that it was left to him by his uncle and aunt." Wang Zhen didn't know what Zhao Feng wanted to know, but he still asked another question.

"Aunt Zhao, do you know what this is?"

"Bullshit!"

Zhao Feng grumbled irritably, "Xiao Yuan and the other guy have incredibly bad luck. Besides, they always went out on missions and adventures with me. How could I not know about these spoils?"

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Feng said with some concern, "This must be Xiao An's own good fortune, but it's unlikely that he would get such a trophy before he changes jobs."

"Has he found some kind of sponsor? Don't let him get scammed by some random person."

"Sponsor?" Wang Zhen was slightly taken aback. He hadn't thought of it that way, but he quickly shook his head.

"What's the point of him? There's no such thing as talent for the lord profession..."

"Yeah, what's in it for us?"

The two were puzzled when the erhu player upstream suddenly shouted, "Come this way! I found it!"

The three of them rushed over and found a huge hole, big enough for two or three people to pass through at the same time. The hole was on the side of a slope and could even prevent rainwater from getting in.

"There are many crawling marks on the ground, which is the way lizards walk."

Wang Zhen bent down and looked at the damp soil on the ground. There were many marks on it, indicating that many lizard-like creatures had indeed come and gone from this place.

Erhu turned to look at the two people behind him: "Want to go in?"

Zhao Feng looked around. The cave looked a bit deep, and she couldn't dig it open in a short time.

"The entrance to this cave is rather narrow, making it difficult to effectively use long weapons; it could be quite dangerous."

Wang Zhen stood up and raised his spear: "I'll go first; my spear isn't too restricted."

"My energy source is metal, and my defense is quite high, so it's safe for me to stand in front."

"Alright~" Erhu took a power spotlight out of his backpack and tossed it to Wang Zhen. "Then lead the way."

Wang Zhen took the energy spotlight, turned it on, and shone it inside. As expected, there were curves inside, and the bottom was not visible.

The three of them slowly walked in, leaving enough space for each other to prevent any accidents from happening.

However, to the three's surprise, this section of the passage was not dangerous at all, and they did not even see a single shadow lizard.

"Xiao An didn't kill all the animals here, did he?" Erhu muttered softly.

"It's hard to say," Wang Zhen shook his head, "but don't be careless, otherwise a bunch of them wouldn't be appearing every few days."

As the three of them walked a little further, about twenty or thirty meters, their eyes suddenly lit up.

Wang Zhen stood there stunned, making those behind him wonder what had happened.

"What's wrong?"

Zhao Feng cautiously poked Wang Zhen with her broadsword, looking somewhat puzzled.

Wang Zhen swallowed hard and stiffly turned his head to look at the team behind him.

"Aunt Zhao, come and take a look~"

Zhao Feng and Erhu walked forward in small steps, and their expressions were exactly the same as Wang Zhen's at first glance.

Zhao Feng also subconsciously swallowed.

At the end of the passage ahead was a peculiar door, about 1.7 or 1.8 meters high and 70 or 80 centimeters wide. It would be impossible for two people to pass through sideways at the same time.

The entire door frame appears to be made of some kind of rock, ornate and exquisite, yet it seems not to exist as a physical entity, but rather as a projection solidified to the extreme.

The door had no doors, and the scene behind it was no longer a cave, but a new, enormous underground cavern.

Although both are underground scenes, the area in front of and behind the doors is extremely distinct, as if they were two different worlds.

Zhao Feng said softly, "This is a dimensional secret realm!"

Wang Zhen, playing the erhu, immediately whispered, "Is this the legendary dimensional realm formed from fragments of a world that fell from the Origin Realm?"

They had only heard of it, but had never actually seen it.

Zhao Feng nodded, her eyes shining: "No wonder there were so many Shadow Lizards, and they weren't all lured out at once by the Blood Moon."

"I just don't know how big this place is, or how many Shadow Lizards and resources are inside."

"You'll know once you go in and take a look!"

Erhu, being bold, curiously reached out and passed through the dimensional portal.

Seeing that there was no danger, he leaned over and turned his head to look at the world behind the door.

"The area around this door is mostly empty underground cavities; there are no shadow lizards there."

Wang Zhen and Zhao Feng looked at Erhu with extremely conflicted expressions. This kid really wasn't afraid of death at all.

Erhu stepped through the doorway and turned to look. He saw that the dimensional gate stood alone in the center of the cave, with nothing else around it, which looked extremely eerie.

This underground cavity is five or six meters high, with many stalactites on it, and is extremely spacious and flat on all sides, about fifty or sixty meters in diameter.

The walls, floor, and ceiling of the mine are covered with many stones that shimmer with blue and white light, making the cave exceptionally bright.

On the cave wall in the distance, there is a large opening, which is likely the origin of the underground cave.

After inquiring around, Erhu went out the door again and was still acting normally.

"Let's go in. It's very spacious there, with only one entrance. Even if there's an attack, it'll be enough for us to escape."

After Erhu had finished his investigation, the three of them stepped through the dimensional gate one by one.

"Such a rich aura of source energy..." Wang Zhen found it strange that there was such a strong aura of source energy on both sides of the door.

"Can this dimensional gate block source energy in the air?"

"Generally speaking, that's why it's called a secret realm, but the source beasts can escape."

Zhao Feng looked up and surveyed the area, her face immediately lighting up with delight: "So many special ores!"

"Putting everything else aside, just these ores alone could make a fortune!"

Wang Zhen pointed to the cave entrance in the distance: "Aunt Zhao, why don't we go check the cave entrance first? There are no shadow lizards here, but this place doesn't look like a shadow lizard's nest."

"We should take a look first," Zhao Feng nodded. "Secret realms vary in size; I wonder how big this one is."

The three of them walked towards the cave entrance again. This time, the cave entrance opened upwards and was spacious inside. After walking about ten meters, the light in front of them flashed, and they found themselves on the ground.

In the distance lies a lush plain, the sun hangs high in the sky, and in the far distance, the figures of tall source beasts can be vaguely seen wandering on the plain.

When Wang Zhen turned around, he found that the cave entrance was located at the foot of a small hill.

"This secret realm is so vast!" Zhao Feng looked up at the rolling hills in the distance, where shimmering waves reflected a rainbow of colors. Although it was the sky, it had the texture of an energy barrier.

"Look, that's where the boundary of this secret realm lies!"

The two looked in the direction Zhao Feng pointed, and Wang Zhen gestured with his finger.

"If that's the boundary, then this secret realm is at least ten kilometers in size, not even including the back of the small mountain behind us."

Zhao Feng casually plucked an unknown wild grass from beside her, crushed it with her fingers, and sensed it.

"This place is extremely rich in source energy. As long as we thoroughly clean out the source beasts inside, we will find countless source energy plants and mineral materials."

"That kid Sui An really has some luck!"

Wang Zhen shook his head, however, with a different opinion: "This thing is good, but I'm afraid we can't protect it..."

Erhu also agreed: "If it were just a small secret realm, we could still protect it. But such a large secret realm would be coveted even by the city lord. If word gets out, we'll all be in trouble."

"Old Wang, you were absolutely right not to call your five subordinates. With such huge profits at stake, it's hard to guarantee they won't have ulterior motives."

Wang Zhen was also quite relieved. He had initially thought that this was a private matter and that it was inappropriate to bring his team members along, otherwise he would have made a wasted trip and someone would inevitably complain.

After all, these five subordinates were not his personal slaves.