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

Across the river, a transport truck was parked at one end of the bridge. Five fully armed professionals stood on the riverbank, looking up in astonishment at the huge phantom that had suddenly appeared on the other side of the river, somewhat puzzled.

"What is this?"

"I've never seen one like it before. Could it be some kind of special source beast?"

"Where can I find such a Source Beast?"

"Huh, it's gone!"

The group looked around, but couldn't see a single other trace.

"Captain, are we still going to cross the river?"

One of the younger professionals asked in a low voice, while the other three also turned their gaze to a middle-aged man.

Fang Si stood in front of the group, lost in thought. This was the first time he had ever encountered such a situation; it was somewhat like a mirage.

I've never seen one myself; I've only heard that mirages can reveal all sorts of strange illusions. But isn't this a bit too bizarre?

"However, cracks appeared around here last night. I'm afraid Young Master He won't be able to sleep until we find out what's going on."

The young man was puzzled: "It's just a rift, isn't it? Young Master He has already fought against it himself, so why can't he sleep?"

"Yu Hai, you're still too young."

Fang Si patted the sidecar beside him, also feeling extremely emotional: "Last time, Young Master He's territory was almost flattened by the Rift Beast tide that I caused. I was even seriously injured and almost died in the mouth of a Source Beast. How could he not be afraid?"

"If someone near Young Master He's territory were to open a rift like him, and the beast tide were to rush towards his territory, wouldn't that be a huge disaster?"

After saying that, he pointed to the northeast, his tone carrying a strange undertone, it was hard to tell whether it was regret or mockery.

"Didn't that kid Zhang over there lose his level 1 territory just like that?"

"How could that newly opened territory across the river last month have caused a rift? And how did it survive both times?"

From a distance, the group could see the outline of a territory wall, and judging from its size, it should still be a level 1 territory.

"Let's go, let's get a closer look!"

On the crossbow watchtower, Wang Hu suddenly saw a group of figures coming from the other side of the bridge in the distance. They did not continue along Line 7 towards Jiangcheng, but instead walked along the river towards him, and only stopped slowly after two or three hundred meters.

"Xiao An, Xiao An, there's a group of people loitering around outside!"

Sui An had just been lying in the room when he was woken up by Wang Hu's shouts. He quickly got up and went out of the room, asking Wang Hu what was wrong.

"Are they coming this way?"

"No, it stopped near the riverbank and kept staring at us."

While keeping an eye on them, Wang Hu reported the situation in the territory to Sui An.

Sui An thought about it for a moment, feeling a little uneasy, so he climbed up as well.

There's a dirt road for Line 7 a few hundred meters away in the distance of my territory, so it's normal for people to pass by. But for someone to stop along the riverbank is a bit strange.

Luckily, the car was taken along with the erhu this morning, otherwise it would have been discovered.

Once atop the watchtower, Sui An carefully surveyed the area and noticed that they seemed quite concerned about the ground conditions to the north of his territory, especially the craters created yesterday.

"Could it be because the crack appeared yesterday that they came to check it out? They came from this direction. There used to be two territories, one belonging to He Chong and the other to Zhang Rui. Now that Zhang Rui is gone, it belongs to the He family?"

"I was worried because a crack appeared next to my house yesterday, so I came over to take a look?"

Looking at the actions of this group of people, Sui An guessed seven or eight parts of the story. After all, who would come to his godforsaken place unless there was a special reason?

Thinking of this, Sui An became even more annoyed with He Chong. He hadn't bothered He Chong when He Chong opened the rift, but now that Sui An had opened the rift, He Chong sent people to check it out. It was truly a case of "only the magistrate is allowed to set fires, while the common people are forbidden to light lamps!"

Although Sui An was somewhat annoyed and even wanted to control the sword star to launch an attack, he held back, mainly because his methods for dealing with intermediate-level professionals were too limited.

There might be a mid-level professional among that group; it would be interesting if we acted rashly and got caught out.

I also need to upgrade my basic buildings, otherwise the cooldown period will be enough for others to conquer my territory.

On the banks of the nameless river, Fang Si and his group were extremely shocked to see that they were already about 200 meters from the outer edge of the territory.

Fang Si looked at the large pits on the ground, surrounded by brown scorched earth, his expression strangely unusual.

"Was that a meteorite that hit the ground?"

"Captain, there's some very strange wreckage over here!"

Yu Hai was bold and had already approached the scorched earth. At this moment, he found some charred limbs of the source beast and some strange stones on the ground.

Seeing that Yu Hai was alright, everyone mustered their courage and stepped forward. The five of them squeezed into the outermost pit and began searching for clues.

Someone pointed to a row of huge footprints on the soil behind: "There are rows of monster footprints here, which disappear near the river. The fact that they are so concentrated should be the location where the rift opens."

Fang Si nodded, and he raised a thick, long stone arm not far away.

"I can't tell from the charred flesh, but this half-stone arm looks very familiar to me. It should be a rock golem."

"Yesterday's attack actually melted the rock golem's body! That must have been an incredible amount of fire-elemental energy!"

"Could it be that a level 5 or 6 fire-type professional was here yesterday, causing a rift to open in the territory?"

Yu Hai stood up from the edge of the crater, agreeing with his captain's point: "Captain, I think you're right. That wide-area damage looks ridiculous. Can your ultimate skill even do that?"

"Me?" Fang Si glanced at him, thought for a moment, then drew the straight sword in her hand. Her white-gold source energy surged and slowly condensed on the blade, transforming into a huge light sword nearly 2 meters long.

Once the blade had fully solidified, he swung it down towards the ground right before everyone's eyes.

"boom!"

The massive energy blade cleaved through the solid loess, transforming into blade energy that impacted the ground, carving out a huge trench three or four meters long, with the deepest part exceeding one meter.

"Phew~"

The source energy on Fang Sizhi's sword dissipated completely, and his face turned slightly pale. This attack seemed to have consumed a lot of energy.

He inserted the blade into its sheath before slowly speaking.

"My Void Slash is a rare blue-energy technique with extremely high explosive power! But its destructive range is only about the same as the pit in the middle. However, the scorched earth around the pit is far superior."

"If such a large area of ​​scorched earth were created by humans, it would require a level 6 or even higher fire-type professional with a large-scale source energy technique to create it."

"If it wasn't caused by humans, then it must be a lord's city-attacking building, which could cause such a large area."

"Hiss~ Hiss~ Hiss~"

Upon hearing the explanation, everyone gasped, finding it utterly outrageous.

Normally, level 4 combat professionals are already considered quite formidable by them, and cutting down level 3 source beasts is not just a piece of cake for them.

Now even the captain says he can't do it; only a highly skilled professional could do it. This really tests everyone's imagination.

Only the youngest, Yu Hai, suddenly asked, "Captain, what are structures that attack the city?"

The paleness on Fang Si's face slowly faded. He turned to look at Sui An's territory and slowly explained.

"City-attacking buildings are a special type of building known for their long range and large attack area, much like the catapults of ancient times. We call them city-attacking buildings."

"These types of buildings have extremely high single-hit power and can cause large-area damage that is difficult for professionals to inflict. They are very destructive to territorial cities, so we call them anti-city attack buildings."

Yu Hai frowned and turned to look at Sui An's territory, only to find that the wall was an eyesore, preventing him from seeing what was inside.

But he still didn't quite believe Fang Si's judgment: "That's unlikely, isn't it? Didn't we investigate the surrounding lords for Young Master He? Isn't this family's background even weaker than Zhang Rui's?"

Fang Si chuckled slightly. He noticed that someone on the watchtower in the distant territory was watching them, but he didn't care.

Upon hearing Yu Hai's words, his brows furrowed slightly before quickly relaxing, and he turned to look at Yu Hai meaningfully.

"A territory built in just one month, surviving two rifts, and you think it's inferior to Zhang Rui's?"

"I have a feeling that something extraordinary might be going on in this territory!"