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

Chapter 91 Advancement Path of Level 3 Territories

"Do you have so many purple building core materials?" Wang Zhen hesitated for a moment, but still asked the question. To him, it was almost terrifying.

Purple materials are extremely rare in the outside world; an ordinary professional might not be able to obtain even one piece in their entire life. How come you have them as plentiful as beans?

Moreover, he discovered that in just one day, there were already three greatsword totems, and the lovely witch's altar had also become three.

Perhaps another barrier pillar, hidden somewhere, has already been added.

Thinking back to the cracks that appeared a few days ago, Wang Zhen even wondered if this kid could just buy the blueprints and materials as long as he had money.

But he quickly dismissed the idea because it was too outrageous. Compared to this absurd idea, he thought of another possibility.

"Now that things have come to this, I have to ask a question! Xiao An, the buildings in your territory are really too extravagant. They're bound to attract attention in the future. I'd like to ask, did you obtain the Architect's Source Realm Treasure?"

Sui An was stunned. How could Wang Zhen have imagined that he had obtained the Origin Realm's secret treasure?

Is it because I have so many purple materials?

Yes, if it weren't for the Origin Realm's secret treasure, how would I explain the origin of so many purple blueprints and materials?

Sui An's silence caused Wang Zhen and Erhu to exchange a tense glance, both feeling somewhat worried.

Erhu quickly interjected, "Xiao Anzi, Wang Zhen's concerns are not unfounded. The allure of the Origin Realm's secret treasures to those professions is no less than that of the secret realm. If you don't have a reasonable explanation for its origin, people from the outside world will eventually start thinking in that direction."

The sound of the erhu made Sui An even more silent. He had never seen the Origin Realm Treasure, but he had heard of it.

Legend has it that the Origin Realm Treasures are special existences within the Origin Realm. Some may be dimensional spaces the size of spoils of war, while others may be underground ruins. These things inexplicably came to this world.

Professionals can always obtain rare blueprints, recipes, and energy techniques from it, as well as various rare materials. In short, it is a treasure trove, big or small.

Therefore, Wang Zhen and Erhu's thoughts are quite normal. When outsiders suspect that you have a secret treasure in the Origin Realm, they will subconsciously think that you haven't used up all the things inside.

You said you've spent all your money?

Okay, show it to us!

Or I'll hit you!

These are the rules after the post-apocalyptic reconstruction, but Sui An has no secrets, and he has no way to prove anything if others have doubts.

But Sui An wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater; he had a golden touch that he wouldn't use.

"My two brothers, you are my family. I don't want to lie to you. I don't have the Origin Realm's secret treasure, but I do have my own source of the blueprints. I can't explain this to you. If outsiders misunderstand, then just consider it the Origin Realm's secret treasure."

"As for the various threats that arise from this, they will no longer be threats as long as I grow fast enough!"

The blood moon descended, and the second rift opened again.

Intermediate professionals remain highly regarded in the eyes of the Origin Realm. Erhu stayed here for four days, during which time two blood moons descended, and he opened two rifts.

The rift that opened this time was much smaller than the ones from a few days ago, probably because it was nearing the end of the month.

One theory suggests that the fuller the moon, the stronger the blood moon's power, making it easier for rifts to open, and the larger the scale of these rifts.

Therefore, even if many mid- to high-level territories do not specifically adjust their personnel, rifts will inexplicably open in the middle of the month.

"The source beasts that came from this rift are too mixed up~" Erhu still guarded the city wall. At this moment, all kinds of messy source energy were gathering near the illusion in the distance.

"Isn't this a good thing? As long as it's not a black-armored beast, I can clear out my elemental statues quickly, and I can save money too—"

More."

This time, Sui An didn't stand on the watchtower. Instead, he took a chair and sat near the detection station. The detection map provided by the station was more effective than Sui An's own observation.

At this moment, among the dense white dots on the projection, there are a few green dots and a few orange dots.

"Xiao An, did any level 4 source beasts appear this time?" Wang Hu's voice came from the watchtower.

"I haven't seen any yet. If I did, I would clean them up immediately."

Sui An glanced at the projection. In fact, he didn't need to keep an eye on the level 4 source beasts. Once they appeared in the detection range, a warning would appear.

"You and He Chong are really like sworn enemies. You used to be the one riding on his Rift Beast Tide, but this time it's his turn to ride on yours."

The sound of the erhu came from the wall. He looked at the starlight through the cracks across the river. Through the starlight, he could see that a small number of source beasts had split off, and the direction they were heading was naturally He Chong's territory.

"Now, that hot-tempered second-generation rich kid is probably going to explode—"

"Let him bomb if he wants. If my territory didn't lack long-range attacks, I would definitely give him a good thrashing. What kind of person is he? He's allowed to harm me, but I'm not allowed to stand up for him."

When He Chong was mentioned, Sui An couldn't hold back his temper.

If it weren't for the fact that this lousy architect was stuck in place like a tortoise, he would have already found a way to cause trouble for the other party.

Upon hearing Sui An's resentful tone, Erhu could only shake his head helplessly, and the words of comfort he had intended to say stopped in his tracks.

But this world is just so messed up.

He himself has no powerful background. Outsiders only think he is lucky to have risen to level 4 so quickly, but who knows how much suffering he has endured?

In his view, someone who had been through it all, only when Sui An suffered a great loss would he know the pain.

Unlike people, whose territory can be moved to escape retaliation, territory is lost once you move. Are you willing to give up these expensive buildings and leave this place?

The three of them remained silent. For a moment, the only sounds in the territory were the booming of thunder and the furious roars of countless source beasts.

"Beep~ Beep~ Beep~"

The detector suddenly went off, and the three of them immediately turned their attention to it. They saw a red dot of light rushing in from the west side of the projection, and it was moving very fast.

Erhu stood up from the wall, squinted, and in the blood-red moonlight, saw an incredibly strong wolf-shaped source beast appear in the distance.

But before the erhu could even begin to explain, streaks of fiery sword light had already pierced the sky.

The snow-white giant wolf seemed to sense danger. It suddenly stopped and exhaled a deep blue frost breath. The icy water-attribute energy surged into the sky and collided with the incoming fiery sword light.

Countless water droplets exploded along with the collision of source energy. The power of this frost breath seemed extremely strong, and it also had the ability to suppress fire.

But sword lights in the sky, one after another, forcibly shattered the surging frost breath in the blink of an eye, and the violent explosions blasted the wolf-like beasts away, smashing them to the side.

As a result, the remaining few fiery swords also grazed the giant wolf's body and shot into the ground.

Sword Rain can lock onto enemies, but not completely. If you are fast enough, you can forcefully dodge when it gets close. Its speed prevents it from turning too much in such a situation, so it may miss.

"It must be the Ice Breath Giant Wolf King. It dodged the last few sword strikes, but was injured."

Erhu stood on the wall, tightening his grip on the silver longsword in his hand, and reported the battle results to Sui An.

Sui An nodded. Although he had the high-altitude vision of the Sword Star Totem, his observation was not as clear as Erhu's at this moment.

"Don't make a move yet, I'll try again!"

"Okay, it's good that you're willing to spend money. The individual strength of a level 4 source beast that breaks through from a low-level race is actually very strong. I'm not sure I can kill it without taking any damage."

Erhu shrugged. One sword strike cost 24 source stones, two strikes cost 48. However, if he could kill the enemy and preserve the corpse intact, he wouldn't lose money, but how much he would earn was hard to say.

The flesh of this level 4 wolf king is only used for making leather armor, and the tailor will want it. However, wolf skin itself is not very strong in defense. It is only because it is a breakthrough body of a level 4 Ice Breath Wolf. Due to the mutation of its physique, it is generally stronger than the skin of ordinary level 4 source beasts.

The rest are just normal meat prices. Although the wolf king is much larger, it is not very heavy, weighing at most a thousand kilograms.

Seemingly due to the injury, the second sword strike was noticeably weaker in both movement and energy.

The ice claws and breath only managed to stop about ten of the fire swords before the remaining five or six swords forcibly broke through their defenses, impaling them on the ground.

A brighter stream of soul essence rose from the ground, and Erhu finally loosened his grip on the long sword, but almost gripped it again the next second.

"That's enough!"

Sui An suddenly shouted, nearly scaring Erhu off the wall.

Erhu grumbled, "What's enough? You scared me to death!"

Suddenly his eyes lit up with surprise: "Is there enough soul essence?"

Sui An nodded. After 36 days, he had once again accumulated enough soul essence. Sure enough, he could overtake on the curves, and very quickly at that!

He glanced at the remaining time of the second illusion, confirmed that it could last for another 5 minutes, and then impatiently activated his territory's secondary core.

[Soul essence has been detected to meet the requirements; your territory core has been granted advancement privileges.]

Please select the advancement direction for your territory; different directions require different materials.

[Enhancement ①: Increases the final energy recovery speed of your territory core by 10%]

[Enhancement ②: Increases the final defense of your territory's energy shield by 10%]

[Enhancement 3: Reduces the cost of crafting/upgrading buildings in your territory by 10%]

[Enhancement 4: You choose to randomly acquire a trait, which may become stronger or weaker.]

"Huh, there are only four options now. The option to reduce building costs is gone. Did I already select it?"

Sui An frowned. He originally wanted to continue choosing that option. If he could keep upgrading, the consumption of his high-quality buildings would be greatly reduced, saving him a lot of money.

Erhu glanced at the courtyard from the outside, looked at the control panel in front of Sui An, and said softly.

"I inquired about it before out of curiosity, and it was said that apart from major milestones like advancing to level 4, levels 1 and 2 share the same enhancement items, and the same goes for levels 5 and 6."

"I see~"

Sui An was not surprised at all that Erhu knew these strange things.

Compared to Wang Zhen, who joined the transport team early on, Erhu was an adventurer who did all sorts of things, traveled to many places, and made many friends.

Moreover, Erhu has always been interested in the profession of architect, even though he is not one; this is probably a childhood obsession.

Looking at the four options in front of him, Sui An suddenly didn't want to choose the first three anymore. The core of ① and ③ is source stones, which is money. Money is very important, but there are many ways to obtain it.

As for ②, it is currently far inferior to the Thousand Winds Barrier and has little significance.

Thinking of this, Sui An looked up at Erhu and asked, "Erhu, do you know anything about that random enhancement?"

"Random enhancement, I've heard of it before." Erhu touched his short, thin instrument, looked up and thought for a moment before continuing.

"I remember that other initial options would be randomly selected, and the values ​​would fluctuate, but not too much."

"Besides these, there will also be some special effects that can be randomly generated, such as increasing the growth rate of plants in the territory or reducing the consumption of alchemists in the territory. Anyway, they are all targeted at professionals, and the values ​​are not stable."

"However, these are not very useful for low-level territories. It's not like the early years of the Origin Realm invasion anymore. Which support profession wouldn't stay in Jiangcheng? How many support professions would be willing to come to a low-level territory, where it's neither safe nor has enough resources?"

At this point, Erhu asked with a smile, "Would you like to give it a try?"

Sui An nodded subconsciously: "I want to try!"

[You have gained a special enhancement (Abundant Energy): The energy concentration within your territory is 15% higher than the external environment]

"Wow, I actually got a high-stat special enhancement!"

Erhu has sharp eyes; even standing on the wall, he spotted Sui An's control interface.

"This works well and is very versatile; it's like having an energy-concentrating device."

Sui An was also very satisfied. The concentration of source energy in this world was very low, while the concentration in the secret realm that Erhu and the others went to was very high, and not just a little high.

The increased source energy within the territory will positively impact everything from professional cultivation to production and planting, although the effects may not be as pronounced or uniform.

But this effect can't be obtained by spending a few source stones. In a sense, Sui An won the gamble.

With the enhancement effect confirmed, a new message popped up on the control panel.

[Promotion requirements have been unlocked based on your career path]

【晋升条件1：除初始建筑以外，已建设建筑种类（10/7）、已建设建筑数量（39/20）】

【晋升条件2：聚源石心（0/1）、矿髓灵精（0/3）、基础源质材料（604/30）、3级源石（108/10）】

"Gathering Essence Stone Heart, Mineral Marrow Spirit Essence?"

Sui An scratched his head. He had never even heard of these two materials before. It seemed he would have to find expert Wang Zhen to interpret them.

"It's still difficult to cut off Zhen Ge's caravan route. It seems that it's better to wait a while before recruiting Zhen Ge. Otherwise, we might not even be able to get the materials for territory promotion."

Putting those aside, Sui An looked at the projection on the detection platform. At this moment, the source beasts on it were already sparse, and although the elemental statues were still roaring, they were indeed almost cleared out.

"Has the crack disappeared?"

"It's already flashing, it should be here soon~" Erhu turned his head and waved to the back. Wang Hu immediately understood what Erhu meant, and jumped down with his big knife on his shoulder.

"Keep an eye on things, I'm taking Tiger out for some more practice!"

"Okay, go ahead~"