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

The shadowy figures to the west were sparse; apart from the first wave of armored rhinoceroses, there were hardly any subsequent source beasts crossing the shallows to rush over.

But something seems amiss with the rift within the Song family in the north.

Wang Hu slowly put his crossbow aside, pointed north, and shouted to Sui An.

"Xiao An, what kind of source beast is that? Your illusion doesn't seem to be working on them anymore?"

Sui An turned around and looked to the north. It turned out that a group of black-bodied source beasts had passed straight past his illusion without pausing for a moment and rushed towards his wall.

Fortunately, the territory's walls were of decent quality. These black source beasts weren't as large as the armored rhinoceroses; they just pounded on the walls, making a thud, but they weren't destroyed immediately.

"What kind of source beast is this? Does it have such a strong will?"

Without bothering to check the encyclopedia, Sui An directly turned the first-level sword star in the sky, locked onto the group of black source beasts below, and activated the sword rain to condense flaming swords that shot down.

Seemingly sensing the threat from the sky, this group of source beasts, which looked like some kind of giant mantis, all raised their heads, their protruding scarlet eyeballs rolling back, appearing particularly terrifying under the blood moon.

They raised their sharp, scythe-like forelimbs, their movements perfectly coordinated, and swung them at the flaming swords that were coming from the flying serpents. Enveloped in black source energy, they were completely silent, without even making a sound as they pierced the air.

"Sizzle~ Sizzle~ Sizzle~!"

The Flame Sword and the Shadow Scythe collided, and the intense flames instantly devoured the dark source energy. The scythe was extremely fragile under the sword's edge and was instantly melted by the sword. The sword felt no resistance and pierced through the source beast's body below.

"What's going on? Why is it so weak?"

Sui An's gaze was somewhat dazed. He had originally thought that a Source Beast that could be completely unaffected by illusions must be at least level 3, or even an elite level 3 Source Beast, the kind with a naturally powerful soul.

But how could such a source beast be so easily annihilated by a level one sword star?

"No, they're not dead!"

Wang Hu suddenly exclaimed. He was also paying attention to these source beasts. These insect-type source beasts, which looked like giant mantises, had been pierced by the Flame Sword. Their waists were almost cut open, with only a small section of flesh sticking the two halves of their bodies together.

But now, the upper bodies of these source beasts are still moving, their huge heads swaying, and they are even trying to raise their broken forelimbs to attack Xiao An's wall.

Such a bizarre scene sent chills down not only Wang Hu's spine but also Sui An's spine.

"Boom!"

Wang Hu instinctively fired an arrow, the thick crossbow bolt easily piercing through the still-moving half of the body and embedding itself heavily in the ground.

"Wait a minute, why is this source beast so fragile?"

"Have we stumbled upon some kind of strange source beast?"

Sui An stared intently down below. At this moment, he shot another arrow and struck the enormous head. Even though the head was pinned to the ground by the arrow, it was still trembling.

"What the hell is this beast? Even in this state, it can still move?"

Sui An's eyes narrowed, a chill ran down his spine, and in his terror, he immediately summoned an elemental stone statue and unleashed a lightning magic bullet at the group of mantis source beasts. Intense lightning flashed across the ground, and the powerful explosive force tore the source beasts to shreds as expected.

In the blink of an eye, long, thin lines were blasted out of the shockwave. They twisted on the ground and then remained still. Once they stopped moving, the two realized that it looked like a white worm about the thickness of a little finger and a foot long.

"Holy crap, is that a parasite?"

"What a huge bug!"

Sui An and Wang Hu exclaimed in surprise, as this scene was indeed unexpected for them.

But after a moment's thought, Sui An understood what was going on.

These mantis-like creatures are controlled by some kind of peculiar parasite, allowing them to ignore their own illusions and temptations.

Although he couldn't fathom the mechanism behind the hallucinations, he figured that while those long worms were not immune to the Blood Moon's fury when they hid inside the brains of these source beasts, they were immune to his own hallucinations.

"Xiao An, your hallucination has disappeared!"

Wang Hu's shout interrupted Sui An's thoughts. It turned out that five minutes had passed without him realizing it, but the three cracks were still shimmering with starlight.

The Zhao family has not yet received any source beasts, the He family only has a few scattered source beasts, and only the Song family has a steady stream of them.

"It's alright, I still have an illusion altar!"

A projection appeared in front of Sui An, and an even larger illusion appeared directly in the territory, passing through the walls and reappearing on the battlefield.

The remaining source beasts that had just regained consciousness were enraged once more, and they began charging towards the illusion again, unleashing source energy attacks.

Wang Hu's eyes flickered, and after staring at the illusion for a couple of seconds, he forcibly looked away.

Everyone else assumed that Sui An's blueprints came from someone else, or from the spoils of war. Only he knew that there had never been any merchants other than Wang Zhen in the territory, and these blueprints had never appeared among the spoils of the source beasts.

But my mother repeatedly told me not to ask or inquire.

But every time he sees these buildings with such powerful effects and such an incongruous style, he can't help but have some wild thoughts.

Sui An ignored Wang Hu's gaze, instead looking around the north side to see if there were any more of these parasitized source beasts.

This relates to a problem he had considered long ago.

Every fully formed Source Beast will have Source Stones inside its body, and the shape of the Source Stones is fixed. Whether you are a snake or an elephant, as long as you are level 1, the shape of the Source Stones will be the same.

Therefore, he has always had a question: is it possible for insects like mosquitoes to become source beasts?

But he hasn't encountered it in all these years.

Right now, there are more than a dozen strange parasites in front of me, capable of controlling level 1 source beasts. If they are just ordinary insects, wouldn't that be a bit too bizarre?

The idea of ​​an insect without source energy controlling a source beast with source energy sounds a bit far-fetched.

But if it is a true source beast, then where should the source stones grow on its long and narrow body?

"There aren't any more source beasts like that; it seems like this is the only wave..."

Wang Hu was also helping with the inspection, but after Sui An released this larger illusionary phantom, almost no source beast could escape the illusion's attraction, and they all turned into the illusion on their way to the territory.

Then, thanks to the small-scale attacks from the three elemental statues and the accidental damage from the source beasts themselves, the cleanup was completed quickly.

The territory was extremely peaceful for a time, and not a single source beast was able to come to Sui An's walls to attack.

Tiger picked up his crossbow again and started picking up scraps, but he didn't have much energy left, and he couldn't keep up with the level 3 crossbow for long.

"Xiao An~ How long will it take for this illusory image to recover?"

"Cooling down takes about 20 minutes, lasting for five minutes."

Sui An did not conceal any basic information and answered directly.

Upon hearing Sui An's reply, Wang Hu paused for a while before speaking again.

"If only we could build two more of these altars, we could cycle through them in 20-minute cooldowns."

"It's tough!" Sui An shook his head, his tone slightly raised.

"The hallucinogenic effect of this thing is too dependent on level. It's not very useful at level 1. It's only effective if it's up to the level of the territory."

"If I wanted four cars of the same class, I'd need to have really good parents!"

"Ha~ha~"